Total Depravity Explained: Humanity's Devolution

Some skeptics today speak about “evolving” from a primitive condition, but the Bible (Romans 1:18-32) sadly portrays a descent rather than an ascent. The result has been given the theological term “total depravity.” This expression of the human condition after the Fall has been widely misunderstood, with the result that the Christian position regarding the sinful nature has sometimes been unjustly caricatured.

Simply stated the doctrine of depravity was never intended to convey the meaning that man is as bad as he possibly can be and that every trace of moral rectitude…