Calvin - Total Depravity

As we have already seen in the teachings of the Gnostics and the belief that Material Man “must of necessity perish, inasmuch as it is incapable of receiving any afflatus of incorruption” and now we will see this carried on with the teachings of Calvin. Throughout the history of the church the free will of man and his ability to hear the gospel and believe and trust in God has been clearly taught through the scriptures and the early church fathers.

 

See The Early Church Fathers - Free Will

 

 

Hebrews 11:1-3
1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

 

Now we can compare biblical faith to that of Calvin.

 

Calvin’s Total Depravity

8. But lest the thing itself of which we speak be unknown or doubtful, it will be proper to define original sin. I have no intention, however, to discuss all the definitions which different writers have adopted, but only to adduce the on which seems to me most accordant with truth. Original sin, then, may be defined a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul, which first makes us obnoxious to the wrath of God, and then produces in us works which in Scripture are termed works of the flesh. This corruption is repeatedly designated by Paul by the term sin [145] (Gal. 5:19); while the works which proceed from it, such as adultery, fornication, theft, hatred, murder, revellings, he terms, in the same way, the fruits of sin, though in various passages of Scripture, and even by Paul himself, they are also termed sins. The two things, therefore, are to be distinctly observed--viz. that being thus perverted and corrupted in all the parts of our nature, we are, merely on account of such corruption, deservedly condemned by God, to whom nothing is acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity.

 

So faith according to Calvin is KNOWLEDGE of the divine favor toward us, and a full persuasion of its truth. This sounds more like the Mormon concept of the "Burning in the Bosom" than that of biblical faith, and we can see that Calvin even explains the difference with " though akin to faith differs much from it".

 

He closes with "but I deny that the reprobate ever advance so far as to penetrate to that secret revelation which Scripture reserves for the elect only".

 

Secret Revelation? This is nothing less than Gnosticism and is totally unbiblical.