This is White Horse Sin, a weekly roundtable discussion about theology and culture. In this particular program, we are continuing our series on over-corrections. A lot of times when we go to extremes, they are in reaction to things actually that are their own extreme on the other end. And in this program, we're going to be focusing on sin and total depravity.
Many churches preach that your biggest problem is that you’re not living your best life now. Rather than calling people to repentance, they call them to “try harder, do better” so that they can be fulfilled, healthy, and happy. Reformed theology provides a doctrine to help counter this wrong diagnosis of our true problem: total depravity. But sometimes, this doctrine sounds much more like “utter depravity,” leaving nothing good or redeemable about humanity. In this episode of White Horse Inn, hosts Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, and Bob Hiller consider how we hold total depravity in tension with the goodness of humanity.