Total Depravity?
Total depravity (aka total inability) is the Calvinist doctrine that asserts that because of the Fall, every part of man—mind, will, emotions, and body—has been so tainted by sin that he is born unable to do good/obey God unless God first regenerates[1] him.
But is that really what Scripture teaches? King David didn’t seem to think so:
“But You [God] are He who took me out of the womb…From my mother’s womb You have been my God” (Ps. 22:9-10)
“For You [God] formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Ps. 139:13-14).
King David clearly did not believe he was born totally depraved. The writer of Ecclesiastes concurred:
“Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Eccl. 7:29).
Neither of these men believed people are born totally depraved. God, himself, called babies “innocent.” After condemning the Judahites for burning their children in the fire as offerings to the pagan god Baal, God said:
“They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent” (Jer. 19:4).
Jesus, too, pointed to children as examples of innocence:
“So whoever will humble himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…See that you do not look down on one of these little ones; for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven…So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish” (Matt. 18:4-14).
As these passages show, people are not born totally depraved! Are people born with sinful inclinations? Yes—but that’s a far cry from being born totally depraved, unable to obey God.
GOD DOES NOT COMMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE
In fact, God specifically said his commands are doable:
“For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you could say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us, and proclaim it to us, so that we may follow it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you could say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and proclaim it to us, so that we may follow it?’ On the contrary, the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may follow it.…I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days” (Duet. 30:11-14; 19-20)
God clearly didn’t think his laws were impossible to keep. The apostle Paul, likewise, believed that people are quite capable of obeying God:
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
These passages all show that the prophets and apostles did not believe in total depravity/total inability.
God would be a contemptable tyrant if he commanded people to do what they were unable to do and then punished them for not doing it. It would be like the Egyptian Pharoah requiring the Hebrews to make a certain number of bricks without providing enough straw…and then punishing them for not doing it. The Bible portrays that as wicked (see Exodus 5)!
The doctrine of total depravity is clearly unbiblical.
For explanations of the passages Calvinists frequently cite to “prove” total depravity, please see Answering Calvinism’s “Total Depravity” category page. Let me just say in passing that none of those verses—taken in context—support total depravity.
By Alex Polyak, Answering Calvinism, 4/27/26.
[1] Regeneration is the process whereby God makes a spiritually dead person “alive in Christ.” This is the “born again” experience mentioned in John 3:7.