total inability Archives - Page 2 of 5

OK, so it’s not that much of a secret, but there still are some things about Total Depravity that Calvinists will often not say when they are first presenting their views to others. To really get at the ideas below, you have to know what questions to ask.

Total depravity sounds biblical until you start to dig around in it and see all the secret logic that goes with it.

So next time you hear a Calvinist talk about Total Depravity, ask some of the hard questions, and see what they say!

The secret logic behind Total Depravity is as follows:

1. People Cannot Do Anything Good for God

First, as sinful, unregenerate human beings, people can do nothing good for God, nothing to earn or merit eternal life, and nothing which might put them in God’s good graces.

Frankly, I agree with this, as do most Christians. It is because Calvinists use this widely-accepted Christian idea that their system of beliefs gains acceptance as well. Usually, once a Calvinist is able to gain assent to this first idea of their doctrine, they quickly move on to the second main point of Calvinism, that of Unconditional Election. We will look at this point in later posts, but for now, we need to slow down and consider several steps within the Calvinistic logic which occasionally go unmentioned.

2. Faith is a Good Work

Based on the idea that a person cannot do anything good to please or appease God or to earn eternal life, the Calvinist, if pressed, will say that this includes faith. They would argue that “believing in Jesus” is a good thing, and since we cannot do anything good, we cannot even believe in Jesus.

In this way, they are saying that faith is a good work, or that faith is meritorious. In an earlier post we looked at several Calvinistic quotes which stated this very thing.

But of course, this is exactly where the discussion of Total Depravity begins to get off course. Faith is not a work, and is not meritorious. We will see why later in this series on Calvinism, but for now, let us continue to follow the Calvinistic logic.

3. Faith is a Gift from God

Following on the idea that faith is meritorious, and therefore impossible for an unregenerate person to do, Calvinists nevertheless recognize that there are scores of passages all over the New Testament which call unbelievers to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

So they say that since God requires people to believe in Jesus for eternal life, but knows that they cannot, God Himself gives the “gift of faith” to people so that they can then believe in Jesus. They have a couple texts they use to defend this idea, one of which is Ephesians 2:8-9, which will be considered tomorrow.

4. Regeneration Precedes Faith

Some people object, of course, to the idea of God giving the gift of faith to unregenerate people, for if unregenerate people can do nothing good—not even believe—then the gift of faith to unregenerate people is worthless, for the unregenerate person would be able to do nothing with it.

In other words, if unregenerate people can do nothing good, then they cannot believe even if God gives them the gift of faith. So to solve this problem, the Calvinist says that “regeneration precedes faith.” In other words, God regenerates a person before they believe, in order that they can use the gift of faith which He gives to them.

Again, there are numerous quotes in the post called “Regeneration Precedes Faith” which allows Calvinists to explain this idea in their own words.

No matter how it is explained, however, this idea is more blatantly wrong than any of the other logical steps leading up to it. Scripture everywhere states that people are given life (or regenerated) in response to their faith; not as a precondition to it. In Colossians 2:12, for example, Paul states that we were raised with Christ (that is regenerated, or “made alive,” 2:13), through faith (cf. John 3:16-17; Acts 5:32; 15:7-9; 16:30; 1 Pet 1:22). People are regenerated by God because they believe; not so that they can believe.

One of the key texts to support his idea is Ephesians 2:5, which we will look at tomorrow.

Was Any of this a Secret to You?

If you have done much reading on Calvinism, none of this was probably new to you. But if you haven’t read much about Calvinism, was any of this new? Had you heard any of this before? What are your initial thoughts? Let me know in the comment section!

What does it mean to be dead in sin? Ephesians 2:1-3

By Jeremy Myers

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The passage that is used most frequently to defend the idea of Total Depravity is Ephesians 2:1-3 where Paul writes about people being dead in sin.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).

How Calvinists Understand “Dead in Sin” (Ephesians 2:1)

Due to the popularity of this passage among Calvinists, it would be possible to produce scores of quotes from various authors and writers who quote this text as proof for their doctrine of Total Depravity and total inability. I have already listed several of these quotes in an earlier post about how Calvinists understand the phrase “dead in sin,” so let me provide just a few additional quotations here which are fairly typical of how Ephesians 2:1-3 is understood.

The Calvinist often equates Paul’s image of being dead in sins for total inability (Palmer, Five Points of Calvinism, 16-19; Spencer, TULIP, 35).

To be dead in sin is to be in a state of moral and spiritual bondage. By nature we are slaves to sin (Sproul, Grace Unknown, 130).

Now it will surely be admitted that to be dead, and to be dead in sin, is clear and positive evidence that there is neither aptitude nor power remaining for the performance of any spiritual action (Boettner, Predestination, 65-66).

Boice writes approvingly of John Gerstner’s idea that unregenerate humans are like zombies:

John Gerstner … compared Paul’s description of our sinful state to what horror stories call a zombie. A zombie is a person who has died but who is still up on his feet walking around. It is a gruesome concept, which is why it appears in horror stories. But it gets worse. This upright, walking human corpse is putrefying. It is rotting away, which is probably the most disgusting thing most people can imagine. But this is a fair description of what Paul is saying about human nature in its lost condition. Apart from Jesus Christ, these sinning human corpses are “the living dead” (Boice, Doctrines of Grace, 74).

The basic approach to explaining Ephesians 2:1-3 is to focus on the phrase “dead in trespasses and sins” and then draw an analogy from this that just as physically dead people cannot do anything, so also, those who are “dead in sin” cannot do anything spiritually.

Those who are dead in sin are incapable of doing anything good, of comprehending the things of God, or of believing in Jesus for eternal life. In order to do these things, the Calvinist contends that the person who is dead in sin must first be regenerated by God, and only then can they believe in Jesus or obey God in any way.

Since Calvinists focus on the word “dead” in their quotes, the best way to approach Ephesians 2:1-3 is to similarly focus on this word to see what it means. Rather than make this post too long, I refer you to yesterday’s post where we looked at the word “dead” in the Bible, and saw that the best definition and synonym for the word “dead” is “separated.”

What is Paul Saying in Ephesians 2:1-3?

This helps us better understand what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:1-3. In Ephesians 2:1, where Paul says that as non-Christians, we were “dead in trespasses and sins,” he is not saying that we are unable to believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life, or that the capacity for faith is non-existent.

Rather, Paul is simply (and clearly) saying in Ephesians 2:1 that as non-Christians we were separated spiritually from God. As we saw in the discussion on Romans 7:15-20, those who are spiritually dead are separated from God and cannot interact with Him as they were meant to. But this says nothing about their ability or lack of ability to do anything good, let alone their ability or lack of ability to believe in Jesus for eternal life.

Quite to the contrary, in the immediately following verses, Paul writes that when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive in Jesus Christ.

How did this happen?

It was not by regenerating us prior to us believing in Jesus for eternal life, but the other way around.

After stating that God made us alive in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5), Paul explains that this life is given to those who believe (Ephesians 2:8).

Yes, the offer of eternal life by grace through faith originated with God (we will look at the so-called “gift of faith” of Ephesians 2:8-9 in the next post), but the fact remains that the way to be transferred from death to life is not by waiting for God to regenerate us, but rather by believing in Jesus for eternal life.

Rise Up, You Dead People!

We know that is what Paul means because he later calls on people to wake up and rise from the dead so that Christ may give them light (Ephesians 5:14).

If Paul really meant that the dead cannot wake from their sleep, cannot see the truth, and cannot hear the Gospel, how then could he call on the dead to wake up and respond to the offer of eternal life in Jesus Christ? He could not logically do so.

For Paul, those are dead in trespasses and sins can remedy their situation by responding to the call of the Gospel and believing in Jesus for eternal life. When this happens, God sends light and life into their heart and mind, so that they can respond further, and live in the way God desires for them.

Dead in Trespasses and Sins

So the one who is “dead in trespasses and sins,” is not unable to respond to the Gospel or believe in Jesus, for “dead” does not mean “non-existent” or “unable,” but refers instead to the separation from God that the unregenerate person experiences.

Paul himself described their condition earlier, when he said they were “strangers … without God … far off … alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 2:12-19; 4:18). These sorts of synonyms reveal that being “dead in sins” is not inability but separation. Nor is their situation is hopeless, for Paul invites those who are dead to awake, arise, and believe (Ephesians 5:14; 2:8-9).

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

7 Uses of the word “Dead” in the New Testament

By Jeremy Myers

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In the New Testament, the word “dead” (Gk., nekros) means “lifeless, useless, or separated.” Never does it mean “nonexistent” (Vance, Other Side of Calvinism, 220).

Very rarely does it refer to something that is completely unable to act.

Examples of “Dead” in Scripture

So, for example, the prodigal son was “dead” to his father while he was separated from him (Luke 15:24, 32). While the prodigal son was in the far country, he certainly existed and was certainly active, but was not functioning properly in his role as a son.

In James 2, faith is described as “useless” and “unprofitable” when it is separated from works. Dead faith is not a nonexistent faith, but a separated or useless faith. This means that even Christians can have dead faith.

This idea is brought out by the Apostle John as well in the last book of the Bible, when he records the Letters to the Seven Churches. In Revelation 3, even living Christians can be described as “dead.” In the Letter to the Church of Sardis, the Christians are described as having life, but being dead, because there was a problem with their works (Rev 3:2-3).

In all these examples, the word “dead” can be best understood as “separated,” or “ineffective and useless at its intended purpose.”

7 Different Kinds of Death in the Bible

Once we begin to see that this is the definition of “dead” in Scripture, we can discern at least seven different kinds of death (or separations) in the Bible.

There is spiritual death, where the spirit is separated or cut off from God, and so is ineffective or useless in helping the person connect with God and live as they should (cf. Gen 2:17).
There is physical death, which is where the body is separated from the soul and the spirit (Heb 9:27; John 11:11-17). It is physical death that most people think of when they refer to “death.”
Thirdly, there is eternal death, which is when a person is separated eternally from God (Rev 20:14; Matt 25:46).
There is positional death, which occurs when believers die to sin as a result of undergoing death and resurrection through Jesus Christ (Rom 6:3-6; Gal 2:2).
There is relational death, which occurs when we are separated from friendships and relationships as a result of sin (Luke 15:24; 1 Tim 5:6; Rev 3:2-3).
Sixth, there is an operational death, which is when we are unable to function and operate for our intended purposes because we rely upon works of the flesh or refuse to act upon what we believe (Jas 2:14-26; Heb 6:1; 9:14).
Finally, there is sexual death, which occurs when a person’s sexual organs are no longer able to function as they were intended (Rom 4:17-19).

“Dead” Means “Separated”

As can be seen, in every single case, good synonyms for “death” might be “separation” or “uselessness.”

Spiritual death is separation from God, or uselessness for God.
Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, and when this happens, the body become useless.
Eternal death is separation of the body, soul and spirit from God forever.
Positional death is separation of the believer from what he used to be in the old man, so that in our new man, are no longer useful for sin, death, and the devil.
Relational death is the separation of fellowship from friends, family members, and even from God.
Operational death is separation from right living, and a right testimony toward others.
Finally, sexual death is a separation from the ability to physically reproduce.

Dead Does not Mean “Total Inability”

Obviously, none of these uses of the word “dead” in Scripture imply “total inability.”

Quite to the contrary, we often find that after people are described as being “dead” in one of the ways listed above, they are then invited in the following context to turn from death and practice life.

So in passages like James 2:14-26 and Revelation 3:1-6, people are called to reverse their state of death by energizing their faith or repenting and returning to the way they used to live.

At the same time, when Paul writes that in Christ we are “dead to sin” (Rom 6:3-6; Gal 2:2) this does not mean that Christians have a “total inability” to sin, or that there is no sin in the Christian’s life. Far from it! We all sin every day. What Paul means is that the Christian is separated from sin. We are no longer ruled by sin. We are no longer in bondage to sin. But we do still sin, as every Christian knows.

I included this study here today because tomorrow we are going to look at Ephesians 2:1-3, which is a popular Calvinistic proof text for total depravity and total inability, and I wanted to get the definition of “dead” out of the way now. What are your thoughts on the word “dead”? When you read this word in Scripture, how do you understand it?

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

Removing the Veil from the Gospel – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

By Jeremy Myers

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It is common among Calvinistic teachers and authors to say that the reason unbelievers cannot believe the gospel is because their minds have been darkened by the god of this age.

The primary proof text for this idea is 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

Calvinists focus in the statement about the minds of the perishing being blinded by the god of this age, and from this, teach that unregenerate people need the divine gift of regeneration before they can believe the gospel. Here is one such explanation from John Piper:

Since men are blind to the worth of Christ, a miracle is needed in order for them to come to see and believe. Paul compares this miracle with the first day of creation when God said, “Let there be light” (Piper, Five Points, 34).

But if this is not what Paul is teaching in 2 Corinthians 4:4, what is he saying?

The Veil on the Gospel

First, as with all the other passages which Calvinists quote, it is critical to understand the surrounding context. In the immediately preceding passage, Paul is explaining that the new covenant in the Spirit has replaced the old covenant of the law (2 Corinthians 3:6). He goes on to say that even though the new covenant is exceedingly more glorious than the old covenant, the Jewish people do not accept it because their minds have been veiled (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).

In fact, Paul even says that their minds are veiled regarding the proper way to read the Old Testament as well (2 Corinthians 3:14). The only way to read the Old Testament, he says, is through Jesus Christ. If someone does not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the veil remains.

The Gospel is Veiled to those who are Perishing (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

This helps us understand what Paul is referring to when he says in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 that the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, and their minds are blinded. While Paul could be referring primarily to the Jewish people who are still unable to properly read and understand the Old Testament because they do not read it through the lens of Jesus Christ, it seems more natural to read Paul’s statement in light of his ministry to the Gentiles. “The ‘veil’ doesn’t just apply to Jewish people … it applies to people of all sorts” (Wright, 2 Corinthians, 42).

Paul, as the apostle to the Gentiles, undoubtedly ran up against this blindness on numerous occasions, and he is providing a brief explanation here for why some people do not respond to the gospel when it is proclaimed to them.

How to Remove the Veil on the Gospel

Paul, however, does not say that these people can never believe and will never believe. Quite to the contrary, Paul has clearly stated how the veil is removed, thereby implying that it can be removed. How is this? Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:16 that “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” While initially it might seem that Paul is referring to the initial act of faith in Jesus Christ by which people receive eternal life, the following verse shows that this is not at all what Paul is referring to.

In 2 Corinthians 3:17, Paul clarifies that “the Lord” he has just mentioned in 2 Corinthians 3:16 is not Jesus, but the Holy Spirit. He says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (N. T. Wright argues that the Spirit of the Lord is active in the fellowship of the saints, and this is where and how the veil is removed. See Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, II:726).

What this means is that when Paul talks about blindness and the veil in 2 Corinthians 3–4, he is not talking primarily about how a person receives eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ, but about all the other truths of the gospel which are contained in the rest of Scripture, and which are centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The “gospel,” remember, is not simply the message that eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it. This truth is central to the gospel, but it is not the entirety of the gospel. The biblical gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ and the ramifications of these truths for our lives as His followers.

With all of this in mind, what Paul is saying is that nobody can understand the gospel unless they turn to the Holy Spirit for illumination and guidance. Once we do this, He not only removes the veil from our minds, but also helps us live out the truths of the gospel so that we are transformed “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul is saying that people who do not want to see the glorious truth of the gospel will remain darkened in their mind because the god of this age is certainly not going to reveal it to them. If they want to understand the gospel, all they need to do is turn to the Spirit of God for understanding, and he will remove the veil from their hearts and the blindness from their eyes so that they might be understand and obey the gospel of God. “Paul knew that … the gospel could and did pierce the veil” (Wright, 2 Corinthians, 42).

2 Corinthians 4:4 and the Light of the Gospel

That this is the proper way to read 2 Corinthians 4:4 is supported by the verse itself. Paul writes that those who are perishing “do not believe, lest the light of the gospel … should shine upon them.” Paul does not write that they do not believe because they cannot believe, or because the god of this age is preventing them from doing so.

No, Paul says they do not believe, because they do not want the light of the gospel to shine into their lives, thereby calling them to submit to Jesus Christ and Lord and follow Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Paul is not the only one to make this sort of statement in Scripture. The Apostle John writes similarly in his Gospel, where he explains that although Jesus came unto His own people, they did not accept Him (John 1:1-8). And why did they not accept Him.

John explains why later. He says that they did not accept Him because their deeds were evil and they loved darkness rather than light (John 3:18-21). They did not want the light to shine in their lives, because they knew that if it did, they would have to change their beliefs and their behaviors, and so they chose to remain in darkness. Nevertheless, such a condition is not permanent. Jesus himself says that veil of darkness can be removed when the gospel is preached (John 6:45).

All of this is exactly what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3–4.

So does 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 teach the total inability of humanity? No, it teaches the necessity of the Holy Spirit to understand and live the Gospel.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

Can the Unbeliever Understand the Things of God? (1 Corinthians 2:14)

By Jeremy Myers

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1 Corinthians 2:14 seems to be the perfect passage to defend the Calvinistic teaching of total inability, for it seems to say that the natural man cannot accept or understand the things of God.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

How Calvinists Explain 1 Corinthians 2:14

Regarding this verse, Calvinists are not shy in stating their beliefs about what it teaches.

This does not mean that a person cannot have a rational understanding of Christianity or of what the Bible teaches apart from the illumination of his or her mind by the Spirit. In one sense, a scholar can understand and even teach theology as well as any other branch of human knowledge. … [But] if they are asked their personal opinion of what they present, they say that it is all nonsense. It is in this sense that they, not being “spiritual,” are unable to understand Christianity (Boice and Ryken, Doctrines of Grace, 78).

Man cannot see or know the things that relate to the kingdom of God, without being regenerated first by the Holy Spirit. A dead spirit perceives only the things of man and Satan (Spencer, TULIP, 34).

The reason that the brilliant minds do not accept Christianity is that all minds are blind, unless they are regenerated. … Without the Holy Spirit one is not able to understand the things of God (Palmer, Five Points, 16).

As can be seen from these quotes, Calvinists use 1 Corinthians 2:14 to support the idea that unbelievers cannot grasp or understand the things of God. For this, they first need to be regenerated.

Calvinists have also been known to use this verse against other Christians who disagree with the Calvinistic teachings and doctrines. If a brother or sister in Christ takes a stand against Calvinistic theology, there are some Calvinists who will accuse this dissenter of having their minds darkened, of living without the Holy Spirit, and of being unable to spiritually discern the truth of Calvinism. I myself have had this charge leveled against me by Calvinists. The implication, of course, is that only Calvinists are truly Christians.

Sadly, such divisiveness within the Body of Christ is caused by a grave misunderstanding of Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 2:14.

The Situation in Corinth

In Corinth there was much divisiveness as well, and one of the purposes of Paul’s letter was to correct the issues that led to this divisiveness. Paul knew that sometimes, correcting those who err is what leads to healing and unity. The faction in Corinth which was causing the problems believed in a hyper-spiritual form of Christianity. These “spiritual elites” are referred to throughout Paul’s letters as “the spiritual [ones]” (Gk., pneumatikoi).

They believed they had special knowledge and wisdom from God, special gifts from the Holy Spirit, and special insights into death and resurrection. This sort of hyper-spirituality led them to make a dualistic division between the physical realm and the spiritual realm, so that anything they did in the flesh did not affect their spirit, and vice versa. Such a belief had devastating consequences on the behaviors of the Corinthian believers, so that one of their leaders was even having sexual relations with his mother-in-law, and they were all proud about it (1 Corinthians 5:1-2).

The Context of 1 Corinthians 2:14

It is within this context that 1 Corinthians 2 must be read. Paul is trying to show them where true wisdom comes from, and how people learn about the things of God. Within the immediate context of 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul talks about three types of people: the natural–soulish (Gk., psuchicos) man (1 Corinthians 2:14), the spiritual (Gk., pneumatikos) man (1 Corinthians 2:15), and the carnal–fleshly (Gk., sarkinois) man (1 Corinthians 3:1).

These three types of people reflect the three part of a person which we looked at in the discussion of Romans 7. But one should not read into these three divisions some sort of classification about whether or not people have eternal life. After all, though many identify the spiritual man with those who have eternal life, and the fleshly man with those who do not, what then are we to do with the soulish man? Instead, it seems best to see that Paul is talking about how all people learn spiritual things, whether they are regenerate or not. And how is that? People learn spiritual things through their spirit. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned.

This is why, Paul goes on to say, he could not teach the Corinthians very much when he was with them previously. When he was there, they were operating out of their flesh, and so he could only provide them with milk teaching, not solid food for the mature (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). And indeed, though they now believe they are super-spiritual, Paul says they are still carnal, for they exhibit all the signs of operating through the flesh.

Again, all of this goes back to an understanding of how a person functions. The soul is the animating principle of a person, and it can operate through the spirit or the body. Since the soul is the seat of the imagination, memory, reason, and emotions, when a soul functions through the spirit, we can talk of a person being spiritually minded. But when a person operates through their flesh, they are carnally minded. Paul is saying that the Corinthian believers, though they have the Spirit of God, are carnally minded (1 Corinthians 3:1-17).

The Natural Man Cannot Receive the Things of God

This then brings us back to 1 Corinthians 2:14. When Paul says that the “soulish” man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, he is simply saying that the soul of a person, by itself, with only imagination, memory, reason, and emotions to guide it, cannot grasp spiritual truth. Spiritual truth is learned through the spirit. Spiritual truth is not learned through the soul, nor through the flesh, but only through the spirit. Of course, as we saw in the discussion of Romans 7, the unregenerate person is spiritually dead, which means their spirit is separated from God and thus, they cannot properly receive spiritual truth from God until they receive a new Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit.

So in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul is simply saying that spiritual truth is not a product of reason, imagination, or emotions. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. That is all Paul is saying. Speaking to the Corinthian believers as he was, Paul is inviting them to not seek to learn about God by their reason and emotions alone, but through the Spirit of God which was in them. Of course, this does not set aside reason and emotions either, for these can operate through the spirit to discern spiritual truth.

The bottom line is that Paul is giving a warning to believers in 1 Corinthians 2:14 to not depend solely on their imagination, reason, or emotions to learn about God. In this way, though implications for unbelievers could be drawn from 1 Corinthians 2:14, this verse is not primarily about unbelievers at all.

The NIV Translation of 1 Corinthians 2:14 is Tragic

This is partly why the NIV translation of 1 Corinthians 2:14 is so tragic. I indicated earlier that the NIV translation of the Bible leans heavily toward Calvinistic thinking and theology, and 1 Corinthians 2:14 is an example of one such place. Where most Bible translations accurately translate the Greek as saying something along the lines of “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,” the NIV reads Calvinistic theology into this verse, and assumes that the natural man does not even have the Spirit, and so translated the verse this way: “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God.”

But as pointed out earlier, the “natural man” might be better translated as “soulish man” and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether this “man” has the Spirit of God or not. The soulish man is simply contrasted with the spiritual man and the carnal man of the following verses, showing the three realms within which a person can dwell.

Other Evidence for the Meaning of 1 Corinthians 2:14

William Barclay sums up the message of 1 Corinthians 2:14 quite well:

So in verse 14 Paul speaks of the man who is psuchikos. He is the man who lives as if there was nothing beyond physical life and there were no needs other than material needs, whose values are all physical and material. A man like that cannot understand spiritual things. A man who thinks that nothing is more important than the satisfaction of the sex urge cannot understand the meaning of chastity; a man who ranks the amassing of material things as the supreme end of life cannot understand generosity; and a man who has never a thought beyond this world cannot understand the things of God. To him they look mere foolishness (Barclay, Letters to Corinthians, 1975, 28).

The natural man, or soulish man, then, is not the man without the Spirit, or even the carnal man. The natural, soulish, man is simply referring to the person who relates to life solely through his intellect, emotions, and will, without regard to spiritual truth. While this may describe many people who are unregenerate, it by no means describes them all, and in fact, accurately describes quite a few Christians as well. A person who has the Spirit of God can be a soulish man just as much as one who does not have the indwelling Spirit.

Numerous other lines of evidence could also be drawn out from this verse to show that Paul is saying nothing whatsoever about the unregenerate person’s inability to understand or believe the gospel. For example, it could be argued that the “things of the Spirit” that Paul is referring to are about the deeper truths and mysteries of the gospel that Paul has been referring to previously in 1 Corinthians 2:9-15 (See Vance, The Other Side of Calvinism, 231). This would then have nothing to do with whether or not the unregenerate person could understand the offer of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, and believe in Him as a result.

Furthermore, it could also be argued that when Paul says the natural man “does not” receive the things of the Spirit of God, “nor can he know them,” he is not referring to an inherent inability to do so, but rather to an antagonistic mindset that refuses to seek the truth and understand these things.

Why would a person refuse to seek the truth and understand the gospel? Because men love darkness rather than light (John 3:19). As Paul writes elsewhere, the mind that is set on the flesh (rather than the Spirit) is hostile and antagonistic toward God (Rom 8:7). People know that seeking the truth, believing in God, and following Jesus will require them to change their lives, and most are unwilling to do so. Paul’s “soulish man” is simply the person who does not obey the truths of the gospel because they are unwilling to learn the truths of the gospel.

Most dangerous of all was a mindset that was prevalent within the Corinthian church, which is also quite prevalent in various forms of the modern church, especially among those sorts of groups (like Calvinists and Charismatics) that require some sort of special knowledge, experience, gifting, or insight into the “deep things” of God in order to truly grasp the gospel and be used by God. This sort of teaching was part of the Gnostic heresy in the early church, but has worked its way through numerous forms of the modern church as well. On this subject, Philip J. Lee writes this:

Americans in the two opposing strains of Protestantism, the evangelical and liberal, along with many adherents of Pentecostal and holiness cults, would agree that religious knowledge is special knowledge that cannot be taught or learned by ordinary means (Philip J. Lee, Against the Protestant Gnostics, 113).

Can unbelievers understand the Scriptures?

Of course they can.

We are not Gnostics, and the Bible is not a book of mysterious magic and arcane knowledge which can only be grasped by initiates who have the sacred decoder ring. No, while understanding the Scriptures certainly takes serious effort and years of study, it can be understood and grasped by anyone who seeks to do so. To say that only the “elect” or only a special class of gifted Christians can understand the Scriptures is to fall into the ancient error of Gnosticism. Paul does not fall into this error, but instead says that if one is to understand spiritual truth, it must be spiritually discerned, which means that it must be studied through the use of the spirit.

So in the end, 1 Corinthians 2:14 is not about an unbeliever’s inability to understand the things of God, but about the incapacity of reason and emotions to understand the things of God on their own. When properly paired with the Spirit, the soul, or mind, of a person can grasp and understand spiritual truth.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

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Can unbelievers understand the Scriptures?

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