Depravity is an act that violates the natural rights that one human has with another human or the Creator.
The term “depravity” is not so common these days as it may have been a century or two ago. Common vernacular tends to change even if the franca lingua is still a particular language such as English is today—although, modern English has varieties of expression peculiar to a given country or even a region or different regions within a country. Nevertheless, understanding depravity is necessary if we are to grasp that state of affairs that pervades global morality.
Corruption is a word many understand as being acts people ought to be ashamed of having committed because they are directly or indirectly defrauding others of rights in one way or another. For some people the term “corruption” conjures up underhanded political maneuvers that come with bags of money being left behind on park bench seats or buses or taxis or restaurant tables and toilets. Others immediately think of organized crime facilitated by the Mafioso or Triads, which as it happens requires the bribing of politicians or executives in large corporations.
Kickback is a term that is used for many business deals that involve corrupt business practices. Without kickbacks many businesses would not survive because the competition would slaughter them and people would have to be more productive in order to break into new markets or stay in the industry or remain commercially viable. This applies to every sector: professional (law, medical, health), financial (banks, insurance, stocks, etc.) retail, wholesale, manufacturing (light, heavy), primary (farming, forestry, mining, etc.) military, government, etc.
Essentially, there are seven areas where depraved acts occur that embrace everything to do with corruption. The root of all corruption begins with the seed of sin, distraction, and overlooking that God the Creator sees everything. When a righteous person becomes distracted from doing what is good, right and true, unless the distraction is immediately discarded, the seed of sin can sprout its shoot. Once the shoot goes out, it will constantly niggle the person until it sprouts.
James
The book of James describes what happens this way:
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 13-15)
At the heart of everything is desire. Desire is the first cause. We either desire to have relationships that are not only good, but also true, because this is only right action to do.
Any claim that we have a natural propensity to sin may appear correct superficially, but when we look a little deeper we will see that this is not exactly the case. The process described by James gives us a better understanding of how we violate the rights of another, and commit sin by doing so.
What are our natural rights? Everybody knows that this is to love one another. Unfortunately, when we are growing as children, we perform acts that do not express love towards our brothers and sisters at times. These may even be done unwittingly. Likewise we may do the same to our parents. In the event that we do not violate the rights of our immediate family members, we still cannot ignore our Creator God. Our Creator has a natural right to participate in our lives and is worthy of our devotion. For what puppet says to its creator, “Don’t pull my strings?” Or to the ventriloquist, “Don’t use me as your prop?”
Clay
The idea that we are nothing but clay molded into whatever form our Creator determines is used in Scripture to remind the nation Israel that they exist only because they were chosen because of a promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that the God Himself would be born into that nation to right the wrongs, fulfill His purpose and bring peace to mankind. However, because the nation is made up of individuals, each individual born into the nation ought to think of themselves as clay. They have no choice except to do what their Creator desires or be destroyed.
Grasping the concept that Israel was a nation created by God for His purpose to bring salvation and peace to the world through a person, who does not perform one act of depravity, is difficult for many people to do for some reason. The Scriptures always seem to treat Israel as the chosen nation of God.
What expositors tend to overlook is that a nation consists of people, who are given the right of exercising freewill. The people can do whatever they like, even though the wise would never commit a depraved act. The wise are fully aware that to do so may not necessarily infringe upon another person, but could certainly violate the right of God to be recognized as Creator, and therefore absolute sovereign.
The Old Testament Scriptures are very clear about what rights Israel as a nation has, and points out that this nation exists as a corporate body where everyone can have their say. However, when anyone decides to violate his or her relationship with God, by not respecting Him for Who He Is, then they will not be part of the plan and purpose of the Creator. That person has elected to opt out.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God declared:
Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? (Isaiah 45.9 ESV)
The prophet Jeremiah brought the same message:
And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. (Jeremiah 18:4-10 ESV)
What is clear, individual freewill is a part of the process, and collectively individuals form a nation. Righteous nations are formed from families that have members who look after the interests of each other and don’t violate each other’s rights for the good of all living in the house. In this case, the house of Israel is whom God is concerned with and while He is speaking in terms of nations and kingdoms, He is also speaking about the individuals who collectively make up the nation or kingdom. Moreover, through Jeremiah, God says what He will do, in the event the people disregard His plans for the nations. Any nation that “comes the bounce”, and of which the people think they can totally disregard their Creator, He will destroy. What applies to the nation also applies to the individual.
Depravity therefore is the violation of the rights of another. A person can give God the finger and think that nothing will happen when he or she dies—but, Can you really imagine yourself not existing?
Dorothy Murdock
Dorothy Murdock was a writer who vehemently despised our Creator. She wrote a book on Moses (who was given the plan and purpose of God) being a myth, and made false claims about her research and about her abilities. For instance, it was pointed out to her by this author that evidence of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea exists and what was described in the book of Exodus has been verified (the bitter waters of Marah, the seven springs of Elim, the rock from which water flowed, the cattle ramps to the altar of sacrifice below Mt Sinai, which has evidence of scorching fire having burned the rock at its peak, the cave in Mt Horeb, the inscriptions on the nearby rocks). Instead of investigating what she was told, she went to Wikipedia, which at the time disparaged the documenting of these finds, then claimed she had researched the matter and the evidence that exists is fake. That was October, 2014. She then contracted cancer and battled it for the following year, decrying Lord Jesus Christ as a myth. Tragically, and coincidentally, she died on December 25, 2015.
Now this woman claimed that she was a good woman. She believed that she was a moral and upright person irrespective of her attitude or how she treated other people. This is depravity. A certain class of theologians calls this “total depravity” as do Calvinists and many claiming to be evangelicals.
When thinking of depravity, a depraved, disheveled, obnoxious, hideous-looking person with rotten teeth, and frothing at the mouth with rabies, may come to mind. Otherwise, depravity for most of us would not mean much. We are depraved anyway, so what about it? Totally depraved according to many, and there is nothing we can do about it.
Adam's Choice
We all make our choices. Adam made his choice. He chose to disobey his Creator because he saw Eve eat of the prohibited fruit and, obviously, didn’t want to miss out. Had Adam chose to not violate his relationship with his Creator, Eve would have been replaced.
Anyhow, analogically speaking, a bottle full of soda has broken on the kitchen floor. The sticky mess needs to be cleaned. The ants are swarming. There is no point in arguing over what could have been.
The result of Adam’s violation has meant that all humanity has been taken capture by the Ancient Serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9). This capture of humanity, meant that the rights that were given to Adam to rule over the Earth were handed over to the Ancient Serpent.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so (Genesis 1:28-30 ESV)
Adam had rebelled against his Creator by what many today would seem a minor matter, disobeying the voice of his Creator. While this may seem like a trivial matter for us in some respects, and all Adam had to do was say, sorry, the Lord God did not see it in the same way. Clearly there was something else afoot that is not so conspicuous. Unless it is revealed to us, we will not know what it is. This act of disobedience by Adam actually "stuffed up" the original plan for humanity. Instead, a new plan had to be devised. The Apostle John informs us that sin originated from the Devil, and the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil’s works (1 John 3:8).
Apostle Paul's Argument
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Jews in Rome, lays out his argument as to why the Son of God appeared. Unfortunately, it is because people misinterpret or willfully eschew certain aspects of Paul’s exposition, as to why the Son of God had to appear in the flesh if people were to be saved, the concept of Total Depravity derived from the idea of Original Sin affecting everybody came into existence. To quote the Apostle Paul:
12 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned— 13 sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:12-21 RSV)
Reading the text, what is clear, that while one man committed sin, and as a consequence of this, all men were condemned to physical death, not all were necessarily going to sin, even though death spread to all men because they sinned. Paul’s argument is that unless there is a law, how can people know what is sin and what is not. Nevertheless, while many (not all) are made sinners as a consequence of one man’s actions and will suffer for what they do, many (unfortunately not all) will not find eternal respite from suffering, through the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ.
Newborn children, for instance, may die and have never sinned. No charge of sin can be brought against them. Then there are the accounts of Enoch and Elijah. Neither of these individuals died. The idea that all (as in every single person who is born) are condemned to sin and death is clearly false. What is not false, all who are not miscarried, aborted, or stillborn are condemned to being born into a world ruled by the Evil One, who happens to gain access to individuals thinking and then trap them, with the aim of self-destruction, if not the destruction of others.
What Constitutes Sin?
Once a person violates another’s right, then an act of sin has been committed. This can be done unintentionally, if not intentionally. When unintentionally done, the Evil One has not the same claim on a person as he does when a violation of a person’s right is done purposely. These rights are laid out in the Ten Commandments, which have five that are a violation against God and five where there is no mention of God, but disregarding them is nevertheless an offense against our Heavenly Father. The Evil One is able to take control of our will once we intentionally violate any one of the commandments, for to do so is to commit sin (2 Timothy 2:26). Once our will not to sin is weakened, we will find ourselves habitually sinning.
Not everybody commits the same sins. There are fewer murderers than there are adulterers, thieves and liars; but this depends on whether we ever harden our hearts towards another person, for to hate another person for any reason is the same as murder according to the Apostle John, who states "whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). When speaking of hate, there is no mention of time, just the act.
Disobeying and dishonoring our parents in any manner, hating someone for a moment, longing for anyone other the one person whom we marry, taking anything without permission, stating anything that we know is untrue, and coveting what does not belong to us, will cause anyone of us to enter the state of depravity. Having done any of these knowingly, we will find that doing so the second time is easier than the first, and the Evil One has access to our will; that is, our volition, our ability to discern right from wrong. The more we make a practice of violating the prohibitions of disobeying our parents, hating others, committing adultery, stealing, lying, and coveting, the easier it is for our conscience to be seared and become hardened.
Total depravity would suggest being given over to doing evil in every aspect of our lives, regardless of with whom we interact. If we have a debased mind, we find ourselves committing evil. Individuals, who have a habit of doing this, tend to die unexpectedly. The majority of the world’s population would hardly be as debauched as the people of Pompeii had become. The uncovered ruins testify of how debased they were, and like the promise given to Abraham regarding the sin of the Canaanites not having fully matured, so, too, the sin of the people of Pompeii may very well have become more outrageous with each succeeding generation. The fact, that it was a prosperous city and people were doing what was needed to ensure a high standard of living, does not deter debased thinking, nor does it not mean that Mt Vesuvius erupting and burying the city and its inhabitants was not the means by which God executed judgment upon them.
Some people are so debased that even if a person is excreting diarrhea they will not cease the act of sodomy. Yet we are told that homosexuality and sodomy is natural, animals do it. Bestiality is not as uncommon as we may think. What follow these behaviors are cover-ups, false witness and denial. The innocent and gullible believe what they are told.
Living in a state of depravity is not difficult to do. Many of us will claim that we did nothing wrong really, even though we will not admit the truth about what we have done or thought because we are ashamed to do so. Others simply couldn’t care. Youth talk about masturbation and pornography, using abusive language, as they exhibit their disrespect for each other; yet their parents will call them good kids.
Prince Of The Power Of The Air
Depravity then is a state that pervades the society in which we live. The Apostle Paul points this out to those who have escaped from being captured by the Devil to do his will, stating:
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:2-3 KJV)
This is not say the actual air (which consists of hydrogen, oxygen, etc.) that we breathe is the Prince of the Power of the Air, but rather that as we cannot see the elements that we breathe, neither can we see the spirit of the Prince that has the power to reign over us all, if we allow him to further entice our desires to do evil, before we can change our minds to do what is right. We become by nature children of wrath, when we follow the ways of the world, which are wrapped up in the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes and the pride of life—self-preservation leading to self-first and a sense of superiority.
An apple becomes spoiled with a spot of rot. The rot can be cut out and the rest of the apple can be eaten. If the rot is left in the apple, it’s not long before the apple is terrible to the taste. Nobody eats rotten apples. Worse still, one rotten apple is sufficient to cause a whole barrel of apples to become rotten. The fungus spreads or sends signals to the other apples to begin decomposing. Each apple doesn’t rot at the same time as the first apple, some can be saved, but much depends on the terrain, the conditions in which they are being stored.
Likewise, not all people are corrupted in the same way as others may be. The variations of moral corruption are such that, depending upon the environment, evil finds itself only able to flourish under conditions that bring death and destruction sporadically. All too often, people recognize that doing evil to everyone is unwise, and if any evil is to be done, certain types of evil actions are more advantageous than others, at least in the short term. The saying that evil flourishes when good men do nothing, may be true, but righteousness is not necessarily what people are calling good; for a righteous person ceases to be good if he or she permits evil to happen. Yet when we call a person good, we are not saying that the person is righteous. However, it is only righteousness that is really good. Anything less than being one hundred per cent righteous is corruption. This means being morally depraved.
The argument that "all are morally depraved in some way, therefore, total depravation exists throughout the world," would make sense if this were the case for children who had not sinned. Just as an apple can be thrown into a barrel of rotten apples and taken out before the rot gets it, so too can children be kept from the ways of the world and not have to sin. Many children are protected from the evils of this world. Unfortunately, as soon as a child is distracted and focuses on desiring something belonging to another, depravity lurks in the shadows.
Strong Willed
Essentially, then we are not born depraved, nor are necessarily born into a depraved household, but we are born into a world governed by depravity, even if every individual is not totally depraved and utterly given over to the Devil. Besides, many individuals have strong wills. This is none too evident in the feats demonstrated by eastern monks, who practice martial arts, or the “Buddha boy”, who went for more than six months without drinking or eating, while meditating under a tree.
Difficult to believe but 15 year old Ram Bahadur Bomjon of Nepal spent ten months from 16th May, 2005, meditating in the same pose under a tree, without eating or drinking for ten months. A Discovery Channel film crew visited in 2006 and filmed him continuously for 96 hours sitting and meditating under the tree without movement or receiving any sustenance.
Prahlad Jani of Ahmedabad, India, in 2010, claimed that he had not eaten or drank anything for 70 years. He was placed in a hospital room on his own and research scientists from Indian Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences observed him continuously for 15 days, not once did he eat or drink or pass urine or defecate. He would just meditate.
A third individual, who doesn't eat, has also been observed in hospital for 411 days under strict supervision. He claims that he gets his source of energy by looking at the sun.
At the time of the reports of the three individuals mentioned above appear to show no signs of lusting after the flesh, worldly belongings or desire for power, but have a strong will and can take pride in their personal feat. These three individuals are not only considered holy and adored by the people, but they are also worshipped. The question becomes: Do they feel any need to seek the Creator God?
Ram Bahadur Bomion in fact has gone to prove the point about how the Evil One claims people who violate the rights of others. According to reports, a decade after his attempt of enlightenment, Ram Bahadur Bomion claimed he was the reincarnated Buddha and there have been accusations of kidnapping, torture, sexual assault and even murder made against him. His mother went to the police for fear that he would commit incest with his younger sister. The acts of depravity unfortunately have not been fully investigated by the local authorities. They think he is some kind of divine being, due to his original superhuman feat of sitting motionless without eating or drinking under a peepal tree for ten months.
There are innocent and self-sacrificing people in this world that are not caught up in the evil desires found in the wanton, the bribed and those who enjoy exercising the power of the bribe and blackmail over their peers. However, the Bible informs us that the Lord God Creator of the Heavens and Earth has rights that are violated when we ignore Him. To ignore our Creator is an act of depravity. It just so happens, depravity is the place where corruption is found. Where corruption is found, unless it is immediately removed, depravity will reign.
The good news is that while we were weak, at the right time, the appointed Lord Jesus Christ died for us all (Romans 5:6). This weakness spoken of by the Apostle Paul is what has happened to every person who has succumbed to the desire to violate rights. Once we fracture our relationship with God and some other person by doing what we know is evil, our ability to resist continuing to do this becomes weakened, and all the more so each time the violation is committed.
Who Should Suffer?
The eighteenth century preacher John Wesley claimed that this weakness was because we had "a want of original righteousness" that put us under Total Depravity. We can show that even though this may be the case for Adam, after he violated his relationship with his Creator, his violation and those of our parents are of no account to us, because each person is held accountable for his or her own sin.
The prophet Ezekiel made no bones about this issue of who is responsible for sin. A whole chapter, and more, is devoted to this very subject of each person being accountable for each one's own actions, with the sins of the fathers having no bearing upon the matter. That the power to exercise our own will and turn from sin is clear, for we read:
Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. (Ezekiel 19:19 ESV)
Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. (Ezekiel 18:27 ESV)
No person inherits the sins, the violations of righteousness, of his or her parents. Since no violation is passed down from parent to child, no person is born totally depraved or even partially depraved. In fact every person is born righteous. However, every person is born into a world governed by the originator of sin, the Devil. His desire is to deceive people and weaken their will so they will find it difficult to repent from the sins that they commit.
Not everyone has the same inclination towards the various forms of depravity that exist. Even the strong-willed can find themselves violating God’s right to provide for them and acknowledging this. Their sense of self-attainment and what it means for them can be the very stumbling block that enables the Evil One to weaken their will and make the wrong decision in relation to having an everlasting relationship with their Creator.
The state of depravity in which we live does not mean that we cannot make our own decisions, nor does it mean that we are powerless to contemplate having a relationship with our Creator, as many claim. The state of depravity exists and we are born into it; but, like being an apple placed inside a barrel with rotten apples, we have to actually become part of the world before it can become part of us. This truth only becomes evident once we have come to the realization that we have freewill and God invites us to reason with Him (Isaiah 1:18). For nobody asked to be born to die. Nobody asked to be born into a world where sin, suffering and death amount to all that existence ultimately entails.
KJV (King James Version)
RSV (Revised Standard Version of the Bible) copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 Used by permission.
MSG The Message Bible Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission.
ESV (English Standard Version) ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, Used by permission.
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