PROOF-TEXT CASE STUDY

I try to stay positive here, but this is low.

The top Google result for "bible passages about total depravity" is a list of verses from a guy named Travis Carden and its best use is to illustrate why the discerning believer should put little trust in arguments based on proof-texts.

For example:

Under the heading of What is man’s relationship to God?

The first entry reads as follows: Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb.

Immediately, we see that the presuppositions of Calvinism are being read into the Scriptures.

How so?

Well, the heading implies the verses to follow are all about mankind's relationship to God. That is, Mankind in General.

Since the Calvinist is already convinced that mankind is wicked, "wicked" in Psalm 58:3 is an obvious synonym for "mankind in general" - to the Calvinist. 

But the only question that matters is whether or not Scripture means "wicked" to be synonymous with "all mankind". 

Read the entire psalm and it clearly does not:

3 Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.

4 Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears.

In the next several verses the psalmist wishes calamity on these people. Then come verses 10 and 11 which should give the Calvinist some pause:

10 The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

Sure looks like the wicked aren't the entire population of the planet. Looks like the population is divided into "the wicked" and "the righteous". And God's response toward the wicked is quite different from his response toward the righteous. 

I would like to ask Mr. Carden if he is being intentionally misleading in his list of proof-texts or if he is simply too brainwashed to see what is right in front of his eyes. 

I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but look at the first two entries for another of his headings:

Can man then do anything to please God?

• Proverbs 15:8 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord 
• Proverbs 15:9 - The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord

The clear implied answer, then, to Carden's question as to whether "man" can do anything to please God is NO. 

But again he has read "the wicked" as "all mankind".

Care to read the second half of each of those verses which Carden is citing to prove man can do nothing to please God? 

8 The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.

9 The Lord detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.

Why leave out the second half of those verses, Mr. Carden?

The only way he is not a sleazy, lying false teacher is if he is simply a lazy, ignorant copy-and-paster unquestioningly dependent on some other sleazy, lying false teacher.