total depravity

Warning - The Following is Not Approved For Arminians.

So the word total in "total depravity" refers to the extent of our sinfulness, not the degree to which we manifest it. It means evil has contaminated every aspect of our being—our wills, our intellect, our emotions, our conscience, our personality, and our desires.

This is from Phil Johnson's recent post In What Sense Is Depravity Total? I agree with his analysis. The difficulty I have is the extent Johnson goes through to clarify the phrase total depravity rather. I prefer RC Sproul's approach (in Chosen by God) which is to say radical corruption. If you don't want to read Sproul, David Wayne provides a good summary.

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