What I Believe: Total Depravity

So this is the first post in the new series "What I Believe," where we will be going over some of the key doctrines of Calvinism and Creationism.  We're starting off by diving into Calvinism, and today's post is on Total Depravity: the letter "T" in the acronym "TULIP," and the first of the five points of Calvinism.

First of all, I would like to point out that I am not an expert.  I don't claim to have any special theological knowledge, and I certainly don't have any credentials.  I'm just a normal guy who's done some research and read some stuff.  Also, this is not an exhaustive study.  There's a ton more information surrounding the subject than what I give in this post.  All that to say: I can't do justice to the subject.  Look into this yourself, do some of your own research, and be a Berean.  Don't just take my word for it on the subject.

With that said, let's get on with the post.  So here's what we're going to do.  We're going to look into:

1. What Total Depravity means
2. Where the idea of Total Depravity comes from
3. How Total Depravity applies to us.
4. Common arguments against Total Depravity (refuted!)

Let's get started!

Announcing a New Series: What I Believe

I am happy to announce that I'll being doing a series of posts about what I believe.  This will be fun!  The main purpose of the series will be to help you guys know where I stand, but it will also serve to indirectly finish the "Statement of Faith" page (which, as you can see, is still not finished).  It will also kind of help me, because there are a few issues that I myself am not completely cleared up on as to what exactly I believe.  So hopefully, it will be a beneficial experience for everyone.  The purpose of this post is to introduce the series and give you an idea of what to expect.

Obviously, I can't go into every little detail about every single thing that I believe, so I'm going to have to whittle things down to a few (hundred) major issues.  I'm pretty sure you know what a Christian is already, so I'm mainly going to be focusing on Calvinism and Creationism.

So here's how it's gonna go down. We'll start off by diving into Calvinism, by going over TULIP and the Five Solas.  Each post will be divided into four points:

1. What the Sola/point means
2. Where it comes from
3. How it applies to us
4. Common arguments against it (refuted!)

I'm really looking forward to this.  It should be fun!  I'm thinking we'll do TULIP first, and then the Five Solas after that.

I can't wait to get started!  Expect the first post in the series soon.  We'll be looking at the doctrine of Total Depravity; the "T" in TULIP, the first of the five points of Calvinism.  Stay tuned!