Understanding Spiritual Truths
1 Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” This one verse has spurred an entire doctrine, which states that people cannot understand spiritual truths in their natural state. It fails for three reasons.
1) “Natural man” does not mean a regular person.
There are three types of people in scripture: The carnally minded (Rom 8:7), the average person (Rom 2:14), and God-fearing Christians (Rom 4). To be carnally minded is to live after your own passions, indulging constantly in the lusts of the fleshs and living to be pleased. The average person is must less extreme than this, and in some way keeps themselves in check. They certainly may live ungodly, but they are not so far gone that all rationality and reason has left them.
In the passage mentioned, “natural man” is the term used, which is “ψυχικὸς” (psychikos) in the Greek. ψυχικὸς is the natural man, which means someone who is living after their pleasures and desires. Strong’s Greek Concordanance describes it as, “the principal of animal life,” and “the sensuous nature with its subjection to appetite and passion.” It is a term used for people who are living after their flesh, who have traded in rationality and reason for pleasure. The scripture says it is these kinds of people that cannot understand spiritual truths, which should be no surprise—how can a man understand God’s grace and crucifixion if he doesn’t understand simple self-control? There is no indication that the person described in this passage is the second category.
2) People Understand Spiritual Truths
From atheism to polytheism, there have been people in history who have understood and rejected Christianity. I would urge you to ask any non-Christian about Christianity and if they understand aspects of it. If so, the interpretation ought to be forgotten. A single atheist understanding that Christians believe Jesus died for our sins rebukes the strange doctrine.
3) The Undercutting Defeater
An Undercutting Defeater is a belief incompatible with another belief. Instead of directly attacking the conclusion, it attacks the reasoning behind the conclusion. By calling into question the rationality of it’s foundation, an Undercutting Defeater will undermine if this belief can truly be held.
Total Depravity’s claim is that our mind and intellect is so corrupt we cannot understand spiritual things—however, this in itself is a spiritual thing. If we believe scripture reveals that we cannot under scripture, how do we know this? We’re processing the bible through our corrupted intellect, which means we likely have it wrong (assuming this is true). Any experience we’ve had of faith, repentance, understanding or rationality must be processed through our intellect. But if we cannot understand nor trust this, we cannot know if any of this is true. If this is true, we must look to non-spiritual sources to understand this spiritual truth. Other people can claim to know this is true, but they are in the same dilemma, are they not? The advocates for Total Depravity cannot know if Total Depravity is true, as that is a spiritual truth to understand. If Total Depravity is true, it may or may not be true. That’s the reasoning of this belief.