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Examined Doctrine

Justin Peters on Original sin & the human will

LIVING · REFORMED BAPTIST / DISPENSATIONAL
READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°
STANCE

Will in bondage; needs sovereign grace to be freed

Sinners are totally depraved, meaning that, left to his own fallen nature, man has no inherent ability to save himself or even to seek after God.
Statement of Faith, Salvation ↗

THE POSITION

Total depravity in the full sense: Adam's fallen state is transmitted to all, and fallen man has no inherent ability either to save himself or to seek God. Depravity is stated as the reason salvation must be monergistic, so it is load-bearing rather than decorative — the inability comes first and grace alone follows from it.

SCRIPTURE
ROMANS 3:10-11 · BSB

10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

17 OTHERS HOLD THIS

AugustineVoddie BauchamCalvinJonathan EdwardsThe Church of Eleven22 Statement of FaithM. HeiserJosh HowertonTim KellerSecond London Baptist ConfessionLutherJohn MacArthurJohn OwenJohn 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

Discernment evangelist whose Clouds Without Water seminar — grown from his Th.M. thesis on Benny Hinn — is the best-known evangelical critique of the Word of Faith movement, and since 2026 senior pastor of a church plant outside Billings, Montana.

12 OF 18 POSITIONS QUOTED
Everything Justin Peters holds →
Cite this page

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

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