REFUTING FALSE DOCTRINES!
Calvinists assume that the unregenerated yet cannot do something because of Total Depravity, which is actually Total Inability for them.
Someone who “cannot” do something”
- John 8:43 “Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.” - John 14:17 “Even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,” - Romans 8:8 “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Question 1: Who does John 8:43 refer to?
“ye cannot hear my word.”
Answer: Not all mankind, but unbelieving Jews. They could not hear Christ’s word. Why?
- not because they were unregenerate (Acts 26:18),
- not because they were of their father the devil (John 8:43);
- not because they were “not of God” (John 8:47), BUT
- because they did the lusts of their father (John 8:44), and
- because they did not believe Christ when he told them the truth (John 8:45,46).
Their inability was not foreordained, but conditional on believing that Jesus was I AM.
(John 8:24).
Question 2: In John 14:17 what does the phrase mean, “whom the world cannot receive”?
Answer: The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit’s enlightening, not because they are non-elect or have total inability, but because “it seeth him not, nor knows him,” meaning because they judge by their physical senses. They walk by sight, not by faith. What they cannot see, hear, taste or feel, makes no impression on them. Because they cannot see the Holy Spirit operating, they conclude that His influence is delusive. Hence they cannot receive Him.
Question 3: In Romans 8:7,8 what does the phrase mean “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…They that are in the flesh cannot please God.”.
Calvinists say that “enmity against God” is total depravity, and “cannot please God” is total inability.
Answer: This means that unsaved man cannot do anything good enough to please God to merit or earn his own salvation. The flesh cannot be reformed, improved, trained or changed unless God changes it. The passage is not saying that because of this “inability,” a person cannot receive Christ. God is pleased when sinners receive the Gospel:
“it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:21.
