Complete rubbish! I do not believe that "total inability" is anywhere found in the Word of God, otherwise the offer of the Gospel to the entire human race would be no more than a farce! In fact, since the Gospel is the Good News that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, it is only sincere when it follows that His death was not only "sufficient" for the sins of the whole human race, but also "available" for each and every sinner. Without this, the whole Gospel offer is insincere, which is impossible for God! I am fully convinced that this doctrine in itself, the universal offer of the Gospel, does by itself destroy any "limit" on the death/blood of Jesus Christ, and removes any notion that He died for the "elect" only. John 16 states that the Holy Spirit "convicts the world of sin...because they do not believe" in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is personal responsibility. Yes, God had made sure that every human has the "inbuilt" ability to "accept" or "reject" the Gospel. Jesus says this much in John 5:39-40, where the Greek says "you WILL NOT come to Me", which cannot be taken to mean, "you CANNOT come", as some hold!
You might need to look at this to resolve some misconceptions about total depravity. The support of Scripture is used throughout.
“While often misunderstood, the doctrine of total depravity is an acknowledgement that the Bible teaches that as a result of the fall of man (
Genesis 3:6) every part of man—his mind, will, emotions and flesh—have been corrupted by sin. In other words, sin affects all areas of our being including who we are and what we do. It penetrates to the very core of our being so that everything is tainted by sin and “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” before a holy God (
Isaiah 64:6). It acknowledges that the Bible teaches that we sin because we are sinners by nature. Or, as Jesus says, “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” (
Matthew 7:17-18).
The total depravity of man is seen throughout the Bible. Man’s heart is “deceitful and desperately wicked” (
Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible also teaches us that man is born dead in transgression and sin (
Psalm 51:5,
Psalm 58:3,
Ephesians 2:1-5). The Bible teaches that because unregenerate man is “dead in transgressions” (
Ephesians 2:5), he is held captive by a love for sin (
John 3:19;
John 8:34) so that he will not seek God (
Romans 3:10-11) because he loves the darkness (
John 3:19) and does not understand the things of God (
1 Corinthians 2:14). Therefore, men suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness (
Romans 1:18) and continue to willfully live in sin. Because they are totally depraved, this sinful lifestyle seems right to men (
Proverbs 14:12) so they reject the gospel of Christ as foolishness (
1 Corinthians 1:18) and their mind is “hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is unable to do so” (
Romans 8:7).
The Apostle Paul summarizes the total depravity of man in
Romans 3:9-18. He begins this passage by saying that “both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” Simply put, this means that man is under the control of sin or is controlled by his sin nature (his natural tendency to sin). The fact that unregenerate people are controlled by their selfish, sinful tendencies should not come as a surprise to any parent. What parent has to teach his or her child to be selfish, to covet what someone else has or to lie? Those actions come naturally from the child’s sin nature. Instead, the parent must devote much time to teaching the child the importance of telling the truth, of sharing instead of being selfish, of obeying instead of rebelling, etc.
Then in the rest of this passage Paul quotes extensively from the Old Testament in explaining how sinful man really is. For example, we see that 1—no one is without sin, 2—no one seeks after God, 3—there is no one who is good, 4—their speech is corrupted by sin, 5—their actions are corrupted by sin, and 6—above all, they have no fear of God. So, when one considers even these few verses, it becomes abundantly clear the Bible does indeed teach that fallen man is “totally depraved,” because sin affects all of him including his mind, will and emotions so that “there is none who does good, no not one” (
Romans 3:12).
There is a common misconception regarding total depravity. Total depravity does not mean that man is as wicked or sinful as he could be, nor does it mean that man is without a conscience or any sense of right or wrong. Neither does it mean that man does not or cannot do things that seem to be good when viewed from a human perspective or measured against a human standard. It does not even mean that man cannot do things that seem to conform outwardly to the law of God. What the Bible does teach and what total depravity does recognize is that even the “good” things man does are tainted by sin because they are not done for the glory of God and out of faith in Him (
Romans 14:23;
Hebrews 11:6). While man looks upon the outward acts and judges them to be good, God looks upon not only the outward acts but also the inward motives that lie behind them, and because they proceed from a heart that is in rebellion against Him and they are not done for His glory, even these good deeds are like “filthy rags” in His sight. In other words, fallen man’s good deeds are motivated not by a desire to please God but by our own self-interest and are thus corrupted to the point where God declares that there is “no one who does good, no not one!”
(Taken from,
Total depravity - is it biblical?).
