Re: > Re: Defining GOG & EOG

Jan de Koning (dekoning@idirect.com)
Sat, 20 Dec 1997 12:26:40 -0500

At 10:12 AM 19/12/97 -0600, you wrote:
>The term "total depravity", like many other terms we use or don't use daily,
>does not mean the same in common usage as in theological usage.
>Theologically, the reformation refers to "total depravity" as the human
>condition before regeneration which characterizes mankind - unregenerate
>mankind that can not even start obeying the first of the 10 commandments.
>Humans are DEAD, in enmity with God and are objects of God's wrath. The
>solution to this hopeless condition is Christ.
>
I do not know your theological background, but you define the calvinist
doctrine of "total depravity" in a strange way. For us it means, read the
Heidelberger Cath., that even our best works are stained with sin and are
thus imperfect. See for example Q.and A. 114, Lord's Day 44: . . ."In this
life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. . . ."
That is even so after "regeneration."

Jan de Koning
Willowdale, Ont.