Total Depravity

FRI., JAN. 13, 1984, 5:14 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is an interesting theological term that you have been considering this week. Doesn’t it seem appropriate that I should have something to say about this concept… and… the position you seem to be taking in regard to it? Yes, o son, I can function as a theologian… and shall, on this day.

Your judgment is that total depravity makes Me, as God the Creator, seem ineffective and inefficient, the maker of an eternally faulty “product” – the human individual. In either/or thinking, this seems to be true. And even as you are aware of, and generally eschew this mode of thinking, you still “have” this as a basic way that your mind functions. So let’s just accept this judgment as true – that God creates humans who quickly become totally depraved, however many billions of individuals there may be.

But now add an element: you (and any human) can be totally depraved, a developing spirit, and a child of Mine all “at the same time”. Consider your own children… there was not a perfect one among them, and each exhibited, at some times, behavior that was just plain unacceptable. Peter, for example, drunkenly smashed up your truck and then fled the scene. Yet at another time Peter gave Lenore a memorable little Mother’s Day present, reflecting a spirit in tune with Mine. Each was Peter… and you realize this, and therefore rankle at the notion of TOTAL depravity, for it would seem to negate these aspects of self which are reflections of Me.

Just let them be together. I can be God and totally good… and still allow harm to come to people, even as it was done to Job. I can be Jesus and be without sin, yet I can break commandments and exhibit behavior that seems apart from sinlessness. Remember the concept of “the last shall be first”. This is My irrational yet spiritual way of keeping a heavenly balance. He who is totally depraved is last. He who is the most lost is found. She who has stopped struggling is rescued. This is not a concept of a “Golden Mean” but one of contrasts.

Total depravity accents My capacity and willingness to atone, to offer grace and sainthood. The contrast between abject sinfulness and utter salvation is an exciting one. The contrast between a terribly dark night and an amazingly bright and shining day is evident, yet each has value. There are “stars in the sky” all through the day, but they only can be seen and appreciated in the dark of night.

You prefer not to think in these contrast terms. Should you? Must you? No, not necessarily. Just know that My capacity for thought is infinite. There is not a way of thinking that is not totally Mine. And… servants of Mine are allowed to think in many different ways about thee and Me, even to making Me seem inefficient and ineffective. For even those who seem to have Me losing, eternally, to Satan, to the powers of sin and darkness, also see Me as the capable, compassionate rescuer. Their focus is simply on the contrast, and there is something quite exhilarating about such a view.