THE DEPRAVED THINKING OF THE DEPRAVITES

By HERB EVANS, Ltt.D.

157 PATTIES PLACE

PORTERSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA 16051

E-Mail: herbevans@juno.com

And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart . . . They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind . . . And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. - Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35

The Calvinist system is fraught with many scriptural holes, and centuries of Calvinists have not been able to plug up these holes. Calvinism is not a Bible doctrine; it is the humanistic philosophy of fatalism that cannot coexist with believers.

To cover up its obvious flaws, some Calvinists have evolved from their original system to a view that gets the elect lost folks regenerated or born again before they repent or believe.

This is a Calvinist "after thought" doctrine that attempts to cover up their false and erroneous theory that repentance and faith for salvation and regeneration constitutes works for the salvation (something that not even Calvin taught).

Blind Calvinists, unable to defend their theory, are very uncomfortable and reluctant to debate the issue, due to their lack of scripture. Moreover, their quickness to end such debates leaves us zero point Calvinists with a clear and wide open field to pummel their errors unchallenged, something with which we are quite satisfied in doing.

The only significant resistance we have encountered from Calvinists to our CLEAR, un-refuted, scripturally loaded arguments, on this issue, is a Calvinist grammatical argument that is inconsistent with the rest of the word of God in regard to the scriptural order of regeneration and salvation.

Regeneration before repentance and faith is a totally depraved view of salvation and/or regeneration and is a Calvinist interpolation, without any clear scriptural foundation but rather is arrived at by depraved, philosophical reasoning instead.

One other Calvinist doctrine has recently surfaced that is equally as depraved in that God is supposed to even have decreed sin and iniquity, and some Calvinists even say that God actually ordained and/or authored such sin and iniquity. Nevertheless, God neither commanded such things, spake them, nor came they into His heart or mind.

The Agency That Is

Involved in Salvation

Of his own will BEGAT he us with the WORD OF TRUTH, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. - James 1:18

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ENGRAFTED WORD, which is able to SAVE YOUR SOULS- James 1:21

The LAW of the LORD is perfect, CONVERTING the soul: -- Psa. 19:7

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt DELIVER his SOUL from hell. - Pro. 23:14

For with the HEART man BELEIVETH unto righteousness . . . So then FAITH COMETH BY HEARING, and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. - Rom. 10:10, 17

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a LIVING SOUL; the last Adam was made a QUICKENING spirit. - 1 Cor. 15:45

For the WORD OF GOD is QUICK, and powerful . . . piercing even to the dividing asunder of SOUL and SPIRIT, and of the joints and marrow . . . a discerner of the . . . thoughts and intents of the heart. - Heb 4:12

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that BELIEVE to the SAVING of the SOUL. - Heb. 10:39

While the Calvinist is messing around with regeneration to quicken a man before he repents and believes, the lost man is getting salvation by being enabled by the quickening POWERS that do the job, namely, the Word of God, the gospel, and the Last Adam, who died and  initiated such faith IN TIME and not eternity.

We have long insisted that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and that a lost man is enabled by the Gospel invitation to be saved and that regeneration does not produces repentance and faith but vice versa.

The Holy Spirit is also involved in salvation to the extent of reproving the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment prior to a lost man's repentance and faith and the Holy Spirit's subsequent regeneration after faith and repentance.

Salvation, we are told, by Calvinists, must be according to God's will and not our own will. Very well, here we find that it is God's will that BEGETS" us by HIS word of truth, something that must happen BEFORE the new birth and salvation take place.

Moreover, we are told that it is the engrafted word which is ABLE TO SAVE men's souls. God's invitation, the Bible, the gospel, a gospel witness, the Holy Spirit, and even parental chastisement are instrumental agencies in the salvation and deliverance of a lost soul from hell, but it is never regeneration before repentance/belief that is said to do that. Salvation and regeneration or the new birth occur AFTER one repents and believes.

How Dead is a Lost Man? Totally Dead?

. . . Whosoever he is . . . that goeth unto the holy things . . . having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be CUT OFF from my presence: I am the LORD. - Lev. 22:3

But your INIQUITIES have SEPARATED between you and your God, and your SINS have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. - Isa. 59:2

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him HALF DEAD. - Luke 10:30

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of WRATH, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: - Eph. 2:1-6

The key Calvinist argument to all this is that a dead man can do nothing to save himself and is totally depraved or totally dead. Quickly, they turn to the death of Lazarus to point out that Jesus had to call Lazarus from the grave for Lazarus' body to live again (as if lost men were physically dead like Lazarus).

Well, we won't be outdone with such a Calvinist illustration. We submit that it was the "Good Samaritan," who rescued and took care of a fellow that was only HALF DEAD. Our Good Samaritan rescued us to life by the Gospel.

If Lazarus' dead body could hear, surely those of us who were only half dead can also hear. Does a lost man need his soul, spirit, quickened and ultimately his body at the resurrection (2:1)? Absolutely! Is the lost man spiritually dead? Of course, the WHOLE of the lost man is spiritually dead! But how "IS" the lost man said to be "DEAD" in Scripture?

The lost human soul and spirit are, indeed, lost, blind, and dead spiritually in "trespasses and sins" and need to be spiritually quickened. Still, you cannot find anywhere in scripture that the spiritual death of a lost man is the equivalent to spirit and/or soul annihilation, extinction, unawareness, non-functionality, or inactivity (un- less you are a Jehovah's Witness, who believe in spirit and soul annihilation, purportedly because the dead know not anything).

The lost man is physically and functionally active and aware in his body, soul, spirit, will, heart, and mind. He is, indeed, lost and blind, but you must be somewhat alive in order to be lost and blind. The lost person is "dead in trespasses and sins," per the scrip- tures.

Well, what does that kind of death mean? Death is always a separation, in the scriptures, whether spiritual death or physical death. A lost man is dead spiritually only in one sense, in the sense that his whole man is separated from God, because his sins and iniquities have separated him and cut him off from God and His presence.

The Bible, indeed, tells us that a lost man is "DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS," so his soul, spirit, and body are only dead in that sense. Spiritual death, in the lost man, involves the Devil's spirit that worketh IN the children of disobedience (2:2).

Spiritual death also involves a lost man walking according to the course of this world (2:2), and it also involves his conversation or behavior that is according to his flesh and his unregenerate mind (2:3). Also, involved in the lost man's spiritual death, is the fact that the lost man is a CHILD OF WRATH that is on his way to hell, UNTIL he repents and believes.

"BUT GOD" is who our text says, LOVED US sinful "children of wrath" (2:3, 4), EVEN WHEN DEAD IN SINS (2:5). God QUICKENS or regenerates man's spiritually dead soul/spirit after man repents and believes, thus making the child of wrath into a child of God.

Notice that God quickened us TOGETHER WITH CHRIST (2:5). A lost unregenerate man is not quickened together WITH Christ until he repents and believes. A lost man is not raised together IN Christ Jesus (2:6) until he repents and believes. Until a lost man repents and believes, he is still an unregenerate CHILD OF WRATH (2:3) (whether supposedly elect or not).

The Inner Man, The Old

Man, And The New Man

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts . . . - Pro. 20:27

That he would grant you . . . to be strengthened . . . by his Spirit in the inner man; -- Eph. 3:16

. . . though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. - 2 Cor. 4:16

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. -- 1 Cor. 15:44

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: -- Rom. 6:6-8

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: -- Rom. 7:22

The eyes of your understanding being ENLIGHTENED . . . - Eph. 1:18

For we are his workmanship, created IN Christ Jesus unto good works . . . - Eph. 2:10

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and are renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is CREATED in righteousness and true holiness. - Eph 4:22-24

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: --Col. 3:9, 10

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made PARTAKERS of the Holy Ghost? - Heb. 6:4

But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible . . . - 1 Pet. 3:4

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be PARTAKERS of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. -- 2 Pet. 1:4

The spirit of man is what God uses to search the old man and the new man in his inward parts. By definition, the usage of the word "soul" can apply to the physical "life," to a person, or to the INNER LIFE or INWARD MAN or INNER MAN that departs at physical death.

A lost man starts out as a natural or soul body but ends up a new man and as a quickened spiritual body at the resurrection, after he dies, if he is saved. According to Job, our soul is WITHIN us. This soul cannot be killed, according to Jesus, but it can be lost and go into hell fire. The lost human soul is very much alive; it grieves, lusts, loves, hates, knows, desires, saddens, joys, fears, believes, is sorry, and repents, and much more per the scriptures.

The lost man also starts out as the old man or the natural man. Yet when the lost man gets saved, he is "renewed" in knowledge by the indwelling Holy Spirit and a new man or a new nature or creature is created.

While the old man is still hanging around, the believer is to put off the old man and his deeds and to kill the old man and put on the new man who was created IN Christ Jesus and IN righteousness and IN TRUE HOLINESS and is partakers of the divine nature.

If a Calvinist is prepared to say that when he was regenerated, BEFORE his repentance and faith, that he was IN Christ Jesus and was not IN ADAM and was righteous and holy and partaker of the Holy Ghost and His divine nature, let him be my guest, buckle his seat belt, and take whatever goes with that kind of depraved thinking.

Is The Spirit Of A Lost

Man Totally Dead?

But there is a spirit IN man: and the INSPIRATION of the Almighty GIVETH them UNDERSTANDING. - Job 32:8

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? - Ecc. 3:21

The burden of the word of the LORD . . . formeth the spirit of man WITHIN him. - Zech 12:1

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God . . . But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God . . . neither can he know them . . . they are spiritually discerned. - 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 14

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. - James 2:26

God forms every man's spirit "within" him, and although man's spirit is "dead in trespasses and sins," man still retains his awareness and mental activity. Man's spirit is functionally alive, whether lost or saved, but his spirit, like his soul and body, are "dead in trespasses and sins."

If man's spirit were not alive, his body would immediately die physically. Yes, it is man's spirit awareness that allows man to know the things of man by the spirit of man that is in him. Total unawareness or inactivity or non functionality in the human spirit or soul is a Calvinist stretch, to be sure.

In the sense of spiritual awareness and the deep things of God, the lost man's soul and spirit are spiritually unaware but with one exception. Man, unlike animals, inherently knows that there is a God, because there is no speech or language where God's voice is not heard.

Unlike animals, the scripture tells us that the law of God and fear of God are written in man's heart. Man sins and has a conscience which proves that his soul, spirit, and body are very much functionally alive. Still, man can harden his heart and sear his conscience and dispel that God knowledge from his mind and heart by not wanting to retain God in his knowledge.

Of course, the natural or soul-ish man, indeed, does not know or receive or discern the things of the spirit of God (a favorite verse among Calvinists), and neither can he know them, under normal circumstances, in his natural, lost estate until God intervenes. But how does God intervene? That is the question.

Did Man's Soul Die?

Can It Die?

. . . in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. - Gen. 2:17

. . . the soul that sinneth, it shall die. -- Ezek. 18:4 (also Ezek. 18:20)

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord . . . - Luke 1:46

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods . . . - Luke 12:19

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: -- Rom. 5:12

A lost man's soul is alive enough to be able to rationalize within himself. You may ask, "Does not the Bible tell us that the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Yes! "And is not a lost man dead spiritually?" Yes! "Then how do you resolve these comments of yours?" Well, for a soul to sin, a soul must be alive and functional and aware.

Yes, physical death passed upon all men but that death was not instantaneous with us or with Adam and Eve. We must decide what the words "die" or "death" mean. In one sense, when man sinned, the soul became lost and "dead in trespasses and sins" along with the body and the spirit. Death is separation in all three cases.

When man sinned, he became separated from God. Adam and Eve were told that they would die in the day that they ate the forbidden fruit. Why did they continue to live functionally and physically in body, soul, and spirit in the day that they sinned and thereafter? Is it not because they died spiritually in "trespasses and sins," in the day that they sinned? Moreover, did they not also begin to die physically, as well, in the day that they sinned?

Is The Soul Of A Lost

Man Totally Dead?

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. -- Gen 2:7 (also 1 Cor. 15:45)

Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth . . . 1 Sam. 25:26

. . . the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. - Sam. 25:29

And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my . . . 2 Sam. 14:19

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul WITHIN him shall mourn. - Job 14:22

. . . their soul delighteth in their abominations. - Isa. 66:3

And fear not them which kill the body, but are NOT ABLE to kill the soul . . . - Matt. 10:28

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? - Matt. 16:26

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; -- Rom. 2:9

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your WHOLE spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. --1 Thess. 5:23

. . . dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow . . . - Heb 4:12

Man is a tripartite being, having a functional living soul, a spirit, and body, whether lost or saved. Man is body, soul, and spirit, whether he is saved or lost. Man's soul is functionally alive, whether lost or saved, but his soul is dead in "trespasses and sins," when it is lost.

Christ said to let the "DEAD" bury their dead. Man's soul cannot be killed, but it can be lost forever. None of this means that either the body, soul, or spirit are born inactive or are unaware of things that go on, while they are living on this earth, or that either are "totally" dead.

Obviously, the word "soul" has an expanded usage to include humans and animals and even sea creatures in the scriptures in the sense of lives or persons or breathing creatures.  Yet there is a distinction between the spirit of man and the spirit of beasts. The spirits of animals go downward and are annihilated, when animals die. The human spirit goes upward and does not become extinct or is annihilated, when man leaves this earth to be put into heaven or hell by God. *

*Note 1: Animals and sea creatures have souls and spirits in a sense:

In whose hand is the SOUL OF EVERY LIVING THING, and the breath of all mankind. - Job 12:10

. . . The spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? - Ecc. 3:21

. . . the creatures which were in the sea, and had life [soul], died . . . - Rev. 8:9

Note 2: Even God and Jesus Have a Soul (Ps. 11:5; Isa. 1:14; 53:10, 11; Jer. 5:29; Matt. 12:18.

Note 3: Man's soul, is within him, and departs at death's separation, and has even returned to the body (Gen, 35:18; 1 Kings 17:21, 22).

God's Invitation Is To The Functionally Alive But Lost Soul And Spirit

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. - Deut. 4:29

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. - Isa. 55:3

He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. - Job 33:18

He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. -- Job 33:28

To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living. - Job 33:30

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. - Pro. 11:30

Now, if the things of God "cannot" be known by man, in his lost estate, except by the Spirit of God's intervention, the big question is how does God intervene and quicken the lost man?

The invitation of God is towards the functionally living soul and spirit's awareness, and that invitation appeals to the soul's fears and sense of self preservation.

God's invitation to lost sinners is genuine and sincere. God's invitation is but hollow and insincere and empty rhetoric, if man is not enabled to respond.

The Lord Jesus came to seek and to save sinners, the lost, and not merely to save only the foreordained elect or those previously regenerated.

When a lost man is given the gospel invitation and is convicted and reproved of the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment, the lost man is enabled by the gospel and word of God to make a choice to repent and believe and receive Christ.

If a lost man hears and comes to Christ, his soul shall live, thus proving that his soul was not yet spiritually alive prior to his hearing, repenting, believing and coming.

The soul, like the spirit and the body of the lost man, is not entirely dead and may be reached, en- lightened with the light of the living, and won to Christ by saints empowered with God's gospel invitation, even though the lost man's soul is lost and "dead in trespasses and sins."

However, the Calvinist does not believe that a lost man can seek the Lord, and the Calvinist is partially correct in that a lost man cannot just decide, one day, to be saved.

Still, a lost man's soul can find the Lord, if his lost soul seeks Him as a result of hearing the gospel or the word of God and the Holy Spirit's conviction. Man's functionally living soul/spirit can be delivered and saved from hell, for FAITH cometh by hearing and hearing BY THE WORD OF GOD!

 

Can You Or Should You Do Something To Be Saved?

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed . . . Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. - John 6:27, 29

And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. - Luke 7:50

Then he . . . came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I DO to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. -- Acts 16:29-32

In whom ye also trusted, AFTER that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also AFTER that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise . . . -- Eph. 1:13

For ye are ALL the children of God BY FAITH in Christ Jesus. - Gal 3:26

Jesus told a group of folks to perform the act of labour for spiritual food that endureth to everlasting life and equated that labour with believing on whom God had sent for everlasting life. No belief - no everlasting life!

It was the woman's faith that saved her and not regeneration. Calvinists believe that for a lost man to "DO" something to be saved, such as repenting and believing constitutes works FOR salvation.

By adopting such a depraved "Totally Dead" and fatalistic philosophy, Calvinists become "gospel-less," for there is no gospel of regeneration except in believing and repenting, which are the conditional acts for regeneration, salvation, everlasting life, and for becoming a child of God. Is the Calvinist prepared to say that he discerned the things of the Spirit of God, even the deep things of God, and possessed everlasting life BEFORE he repented and believed, without being indwelt by the Spirit of God? Without being a child of God?

In Acts 16:29-32, we find a terrified and helpless man that asked what he must "DO" to be saved and was told by Paul -- not that you must wait until you are regenerated or to find out if you were elected or predestinated to be saved.

Paul's answer to the poor man was that he must "DO" what the scriptures say that one must "DO" to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved! Repentance and faith are not outward works for salvation; they are inward, conditional ACTS that the scripture demands must be DONE, before one can be saved or regenerated.

The poor confused Calvinist cannot find any conditions for regeneration or salvation in scripture, but non-Calvinists can and do find them. To the Calvinist, regeneration is the arbitrary act of God without any conditions.

Calvinists would like to eliminate these conditional acts that lost folks are commanded to "DO" by God, by forcing these acts to become WORKS for salvation and do all that they can do to force that view into the scriptures.

If a man does not repent and believe, the man goes to hell, does not pass "GO," and does not collect two hundred dollars.

Whether a man is elected before the foundation of the world, whether predestinated, or whether enlightened or illuminated or not, if he has not repented or believed, the man is still a lost child of wrath that is on his way to hell.

Man is not IN CHRIST or SEALED by the Holy Spirit UNTIL AFTER man believes. The gospel of your salvation is not in any preexisting regeneration before re- pentance and faith; it is in one's trust of Jesus Christ AFTER that one has heard the word of truth.

We cease to be children of WRATH and become children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and receive an immediate new birth upon that faith.

Yes, Calvinism is a philosophy and not a Bible doctrine. Believers cannot and must not try to coexist with that wicked and depraved doctrine. V