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Examined Doctrine

Josh Howerton on Original sin & the human will

LIVING · EVANGELICAL / BAPTIST-ADJACENT
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed

THE POSITION

Compatibilist: God is sovereign over all things including suffering, while human choices remain genuinely responsible. Open theism is named and rejected.

WHY THERE IS NO QUOTATIONTwo sources of unequal strength. Eleven doctrinally dense episodes of the Live Free podcast — 989,088 characters of auto-caption transcript — carry all thirteen positions; Howerton hosts that show with Carlos Erazo and Paul Cunningham, captions do not label speakers, and those transcripts were not retained, so a claim is attributed to him personally only where the surrounding text made the speaker unmistakable, and no quotation from them can be reopened. Positions drawn from the show rather than from him by name are the show's. Against that, one solo sermon has been transcribed and retained with its video id and timestamps — 4 Ways to KILL the Spirit of Fear, 16 Aug 2026 — and the two positions it bears on now carry a quotation any reader can open at the second it was said. Eleven positions still carry none, which is the unrepaired half of this figure and not a principle: the remaining 164 sermons are unread. Automatic captioning mangles proper nouns and technical theological terms throughout; corrections are bracketed.

SCRIPTURE
ROMANS 8:28 · BSB

28 And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

17 OTHERS HOLD THIS

AugustineVoddie BauchamCalvinJonathan EdwardsThe Church of Eleven22 Statement of FaithM. HeiserTim KellerSecond London Baptist ConfessionLutherJohn MacArthurJohn OwenJustin PetersJohn PiperR.C. SproulCharles Haddon SpurgeonWestminster ConfessionZwingli
Nature wounded but not destroyed; grace perfects itAQUINAS · ATHANASIUS · EPHESUS
Depraved, but prevenient grace restores ability to respondJACOBUS ARMINIUS · PHILIP MELANCHTHON · WESLEY
Free will substantially intact; God and man cooperateBASIL THE GREAT · CHRYSOSTOM · IRENAEUS
See all 27 figures on original sin & the human will →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Senior pastor of Lakepointe Church, Dallas–Fort Worth, and host of the Live Free podcast. Researched from primary-source transcripts — see the Live Free Podcast folder.

2 OF 13 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Josh Howerton holds →
Cite this page

"Josh Howerton on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/howerton/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/howerton/original-sin).

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