WEBVTT 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:23.620 On June 12, 2025, Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:27.820 787 Dreamliner headed from India to London, crashed 00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:30.440 just 32 seconds after takeoff into the campus 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:35.219 of BJ Medical College. 241 people on board were 00:00:35.219 --> 00:00:38.000 killed. 19 people on the ground were killed. 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:41.640 Investigators later reported that moments after 00:00:41.640 --> 00:00:44.460 liftoff, both engine fuel control switches were 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:47.539 moved into the cutoff position. starving the 00:00:47.539 --> 00:00:51.119 engines of fuel. Why that happened remains unclear. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:56.520 One passenger survived. She missed the flight 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:58.520 because she was delayed in traffic and arrived 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:01.740 too late to board. When she later learned the 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.480 plane had crashed, she said, This is totally 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.420 a miracle for me. And that response makes sense. 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:13.439 It feels like a miracle. But 241 families lost 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:17.250 someone that day. Nineteen more died on the ground. 00:01:18.609 --> 00:01:21.430 If we call one miracle, what do we call the other? 00:01:22.549 --> 00:01:24.909 That tension may go all the way back to Genesis. 00:01:25.569 --> 00:01:28.230 If you've been tracking with parts 1 and 2, you 00:01:28.230 --> 00:01:30.650 know the direction we're moving. In part 1, we 00:01:30.650 --> 00:01:32.989 asked whether Genesis actually calls Adam perfect, 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:37.310 or whether it calls creation very good. In part 00:01:37.310 --> 00:01:39.349 2, we explored how that distinction shapes how 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:43.030 we understand the fall. If Adam began fully mature, 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:45.840 fully ordered, fully complete, then the fall 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:49.680 becomes total collapse. If Adam began good, but 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.219 immature, with growth ahead of him, then the 00:01:53.219 --> 00:01:56.079 fall becomes distortion, interruption, corruption, 00:01:56.299 --> 00:02:01.459 not annihilation. Now in part three, we follow 00:02:01.459 --> 00:02:04.500 that distinction forward. Because one imagination 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:06.900 of the beginning leads logically to one view 00:02:06.900 --> 00:02:10.379 of depravity, one view of grace, one view of 00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:13.000 sovereignty, and even one view of the cross. 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:16.840 If you walk into an average evangelical church 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:19.840 and ask, does everything happen for a reason? 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:24.900 Many people will say yes. If you ask, was this 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:28.719 tragedy part of God's plan? Many will say yes. 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:35.379 Maybe softly, maybe carefully, but yes. If you 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:38.460 ask, could things have been otherwise? That question 00:02:38.460 --> 00:02:43.990 makes people uneasy. Why? Because many modern 00:02:43.990 --> 00:02:48.409 evangelicals inhabit what I call an inevitability 00:02:48.409 --> 00:02:52.789 instinct. History feels scripted. Events feel 00:02:52.789 --> 00:02:57.449 ordained. Outcomes feel fixed. They may reject 00:02:57.449 --> 00:03:00.530 formal predestination. They may call themselves 00:03:00.530 --> 00:03:03.530 Arminian. They may distance themselves from Calvinism. 00:03:04.210 --> 00:03:07.569 But culturally, they often breathe air shaped 00:03:07.569 --> 00:03:12.430 by Reformation anthropology. And that anthropology 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:16.629 depends on how you imagine the fall. And that 00:03:16.629 --> 00:03:20.810 imagination may hinge on one word. Not very good, 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:26.250 but perfect. There was a time when I believed 00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:29.689 the logic of Lorraine Bettner was airtight. Bettner's 00:03:29.689 --> 00:03:32.289 The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination became 00:03:32.289 --> 00:03:35.189 one of the clearest systematic defenses of Calvinism 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.770 in modern America. What struck me was not tone. 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:41.460 It was structure. He began with total depravity. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.139 If humanity is spiritually dead and capable of 00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:47.460 initiating anything toward God, then salvation 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:50.960 must be entirely God's work. If salvation is 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.639 entirely God's work, then election cannot be 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:57.379 conditioned on human response. It must be unconditional. 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:03.599 If election is unconditional, atonement cannot 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:07.550 merely make salvation possible. It must actually 00:04:07.550 --> 00:04:12.210 accomplish redemption for those elected. If grace 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:15.930 accomplishes what it intends, it cannot ultimately 00:04:15.930 --> 00:04:22.389 fail. It must be irresistible. And if God secures 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:25.029 salvation through sovereign grace, perseverance, 00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:30.910 or once saved, always saved, must follow. Tulip 00:04:30.910 --> 00:04:34.810 is not five disconnected doctrines. It is a chain. 00:04:37.259 --> 00:04:40.360 Break total depravity, and the rest loosens. 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.819 Grant total depravity, the inability to will 00:04:44.819 --> 00:04:49.000 salvific good, to will rightly toward salvation, 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:52.439 and the rest follows. If humanity cannot will 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.920 toward God, grace must override. If grace overrides, 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:59.120 sovereignty must be meticulous. If sovereignty 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.939 is meticulous, history unfolds according to decree. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.389 The system works. I never questioned whether 00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:08.470 Calvinism was logical. It is. My question became 00:05:08.470 --> 00:05:12.250 whether its starting premise is correct. Because 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:15.329 if the first premise shifts, everything downstream 00:05:15.329 --> 00:05:17.769 shifts, and that premise rests on an assumption 00:05:17.769 --> 00:05:21.790 about Genesis. Before I go further, I want to 00:05:21.790 --> 00:05:24.410 say something clearly. Despite these differences, 00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:27.730 I call evangelicals my brothers. I call Catholics 00:05:27.730 --> 00:05:30.529 my brothers. This is not abstract for me. My 00:05:30.529 --> 00:05:32.709 children attend an evangelical private school. 00:05:33.389 --> 00:05:36.750 My grandfather was a Methodist pastor. My grandmother 00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:39.370 and grandfather are among the most genuine Christians 00:05:39.370 --> 00:05:43.569 I've ever known. My father attended a fundamentalist 00:05:43.569 --> 00:05:46.389 Bible college. Some of my closest friends are 00:05:46.389 --> 00:05:50.129 Reformed. This is not an outsider critique. This 00:05:50.129 --> 00:05:52.750 is family. I am grateful for their love for Jesus 00:05:52.750 --> 00:05:55.250 Christ, for their confession of the Trinity, 00:05:55.449 --> 00:05:58.410 for their dedication to Scripture, for their 00:05:58.410 --> 00:06:01.810 missionary zeal, for their evangelistic urgency. 00:06:02.589 --> 00:06:05.870 for apologetic courage, for serious academic 00:06:05.870 --> 00:06:09.750 labor. Even for music, they've developed songs 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:12.069 that have shaped worship for millions. This episode 00:06:12.069 --> 00:06:14.750 is not about tearing that down. It is about examining 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:17.449 assumptions. Because brothers can reason together, 00:06:17.709 --> 00:06:20.310 the issue is not whether evangelicals love Christ. 00:06:20.470 --> 00:06:23.029 The issue is how we imagine the fall and what 00:06:23.029 --> 00:06:27.310 logically follows from that imagination. Most 00:06:27.310 --> 00:06:31.089 of us assume Genesis says perfect. In the book 00:06:31.089 --> 00:06:36.399 of Genesis, 1 .31 Creation is called Tov Me 'od. 00:06:37.220 --> 00:06:41.079 Very good. Not metaphysically complete. Not fully 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:44.300 actualized. Again, Genesis reads like a beginning, 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:47.959 not a final state. Because Adam's given a vocation. 00:06:48.220 --> 00:06:51.899 Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue 00:06:51.899 --> 00:06:55.839 it. He names animals. There's a growth in knowledge. 00:06:56.860 --> 00:07:00.199 He must eat from the tree of life. He must ongoingly 00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:02.660 depend. on the source of life God has given him, 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:06.839 which sustains him. Before the fall, God says 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:10.199 it is not good that man should be alone. There 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:13.319 is development built into the text. Very good 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:16.300 is not perfect. To understand how perfect became 00:07:16.300 --> 00:07:18.920 instinctive, let's look at a few confessional 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.740 documents that shaped Western Christianity. The 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:25.360 39 articles were drafted during the English Reformation 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:28.620 under Elizabeth I to define the doctrine of the 00:07:28.620 --> 00:07:31.769 Church of England. They were meant to stabilize 00:07:31.769 --> 00:07:34.310 English Christianity after decades of doctrinal 00:07:34.310 --> 00:07:40.069 upheaval. Article 9 states, Original sin standeth 00:07:40.069 --> 00:07:43.689 not in the following of Adam, as the Pelagians 00:07:43.689 --> 00:07:48.470 do vainly talk, but it is the fault and corruption 00:07:48.470 --> 00:07:52.870 of the nature of every man that naturally is 00:07:52.870 --> 00:07:55.250 engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby 00:07:55.250 --> 00:07:58.129 man is very far gone from original righteousness. 00:07:58.889 --> 00:08:03.410 and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so 00:08:03.410 --> 00:08:07.889 that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the 00:08:07.889 --> 00:08:12.970 Spirit. So the language, very far gone, inclined 00:08:12.970 --> 00:08:17.589 to evil, the flesh is always in opposition to 00:08:17.589 --> 00:08:20.129 the Spirit. The Westminster Confession of Faith 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:24.910 intensifies it. Man, by his fall into a state 00:08:24.910 --> 00:08:28.500 of sin, hath wholly lost... all ability of will 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:31.680 to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. 00:08:33.399 --> 00:08:38.519 Holy lost all ability. The 1689 London Baptist 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:42.139 Confession of Faith says the exact same. This 00:08:42.139 --> 00:08:46.679 is not weakness. It is inability to will anything 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:50.539 good towards your salvation. Now, many assume 00:08:50.539 --> 00:08:53.159 Armenians soften this, but listen carefully. 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:57.590 John Wesley writes, By nature every man is dead 00:08:57.590 --> 00:09:01.850 in sin, wholly corrupt, that in his flesh dwelleth 00:09:01.850 --> 00:09:05.870 no good thing, that he is void of all power to 00:09:05.870 --> 00:09:09.309 do good, and that he has no free will unless 00:09:09.309 --> 00:09:12.850 it be to do evil. And hence he can do no good 00:09:12.850 --> 00:09:16.090 work, no, not even think a good thought, till 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:20.029 the grace of God prevents him. That's strong 00:09:20.029 --> 00:09:24.200 language. Jacob Arminius writes, In his lapsed 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:27.299 and sinful state, man is not capable, of and 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:31.440 by himself, either to think, to will, or to do 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.340 that which is really good. But it is necessary 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:36.919 for him to be regenerated and renewed in his 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:40.159 intellect, affections, or will, and in all his 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:43.539 powers, by God and Christ, through the Holy Spirit, 00:09:43.740 --> 00:09:47.000 that he may be qualified rightly to understand, 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:51.059 esteem, consider, will, and perform that which 00:09:51.059 --> 00:09:56.039 is truly good. Notice, not capable, to think, 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:00.539 to will, to do that which is really good. The 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:02.879 difference between Calvinism and Arminianism 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:06.419 was not whether the collapse was real. It was 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:09.159 how grace operates. Both retain the collapse. 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:12.299 And to quote someone more modern, Chuck Smith, 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:15.980 the founder of Calvary Chapel Churches, Man in 00:10:15.980 --> 00:10:19.139 his natural state is spiritually dead. He cannot 00:10:19.139 --> 00:10:22.330 respond to God. He cannot understand the things 00:10:22.330 --> 00:10:25.250 of the Spirit of God. He is incapable of coming 00:10:25.250 --> 00:10:27.370 to God apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:10:28.509 --> 00:10:33.389 The language persists. Collapse, inability, deadness. 00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:36.190 Calvinists and Arminians debated the mechanics, 00:10:36.269 --> 00:10:39.789 but the anthropology remained. This is why even 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:42.789 mainstream evangelicalism, outside confessional 00:10:42.789 --> 00:10:47.509 Calvinism, retained perseverance language. Assurance 00:10:47.509 --> 00:10:50.789 grounded in a moment of regeneration. Age of 00:10:50.789 --> 00:10:53.529 accountability debates which presume inherited 00:10:53.529 --> 00:10:58.029 guilt, inherited incapacity, or inherited condemnation. 00:10:59.690 --> 00:11:04.190 A sharp dualism between soul and body. A framework 00:11:04.190 --> 00:11:06.909 where salvation is transferred from eternal torment 00:11:06.909 --> 00:11:11.889 to eternal bliss at a decisive moment. These 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:15.330 instincts assume something. They assume depravity 00:11:15.330 --> 00:11:18.309 means inability to will towards your salvation. 00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:24.340 And once that is granted, the rest follows. One 00:11:24.340 --> 00:11:27.759 imagination leads to another. Orthodoxy does 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:31.200 not deny corruption. Athanasius of Alexandria 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:35.320 writes in On the Incarnation, For having turned 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.419 from things eternal to things corruptible, they 00:11:38.419 --> 00:11:42.320 became themselves corruptible and were held fast 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:49.720 by the law of death. Held fast by death. Not 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:54.600 erased. Not metaphysically annihilated. Held. 00:11:56.919 --> 00:12:01.620 Maximus the Confessor goes deeper. Maximus distinguishes 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:04.820 between the natural will, what your will would 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:08.259 naturally do, functioning as God intended, the 00:12:08.259 --> 00:12:10.759 faculty itself, and the fallen mode of willing, 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:15.610 sometimes called the gnomic mode. The faculty 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:18.570 of will remains intact because it belongs to 00:12:18.570 --> 00:12:25.309 human nature. If the will were destroyed or rendered 00:12:25.309 --> 00:12:28.870 non -functional, humanity would cease to be human. 00:12:30.549 --> 00:12:34.330 But the mode of willing becomes distorted by 00:12:34.330 --> 00:12:39.570 death, ignorance, and fear. In Western anthropology, 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:43.490 inability means the will cannot will. salvific 00:12:43.490 --> 00:12:47.070 good until regenerated. In orthodox thought, 00:12:47.269 --> 00:12:51.750 inability is more like this. Imagine a compass 00:12:51.750 --> 00:12:57.090 placed near a strong magnet. The needle still 00:12:57.090 --> 00:13:01.269 exists. It still points. But it is pulled off 00:13:01.269 --> 00:13:06.750 course. The faculty remains. The direction is 00:13:06.750 --> 00:13:12.799 distorted. Because death exerts force. Fear exerts 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:19.779 force. Satan exploits our mortality. The will 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:24.240 is not erased. It is enslaved. This is why Paul 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:28.360 can say, those who are in the flesh cannot please 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:35.259 God. And yet, also command, if, by the Spirit, 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:38.940 you put to death the deeds of the body, you will 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:45.500 live. The will is darkened, not annihilated. 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:51.919 The inability is bondage under death, not ontological 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:56.220 erasure. Someone living as though death is the 00:13:56.220 --> 00:14:00.379 ultimate cannot please the God of life. That 00:14:00.379 --> 00:14:03.860 is serious. That is not light. That is slavery. 00:14:04.299 --> 00:14:07.820 If Adam was perfect, and the fall produced infinite 00:14:07.820 --> 00:14:11.330 guilt against an infinite God, then punishment 00:14:11.330 --> 00:14:15.269 must be infinite. And Christ must absorb infinite 00:14:15.269 --> 00:14:20.110 wrath. That system coheres. But if the fall introduced 00:14:20.110 --> 00:14:24.570 mortality, corruption, and fear, then the cross 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.210 confronts death. Christ enters death. He destroys 00:14:28.210 --> 00:14:32.830 death. He offers himself voluntarily. He secures 00:14:32.830 --> 00:14:36.809 forgiveness. He restores communion. One imagination 00:14:36.809 --> 00:14:40.440 leads to one atonement logic. Another imagination 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:44.440 leads to another. Death enslaves the human race. 00:14:44.980 --> 00:14:48.639 Fear of death drives violence, greed, pride, 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:52.500 lust, control, envy, domination, and Satan holds 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:57.440 humanity in bondage through that fear. Corruption 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:00.220 spreads to every faculty of the human person. 00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:04.620 That is not a light diagnosis. That is cosmic 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:08.779 slavery. In the epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 00:15:08.779 --> 00:15:12.840 2, verses 14 and 15. For as much then as the 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:16.200 children are partakers of flesh and blood, that's 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:23.240 us. We partake of this body. He also himself 00:15:23.240 --> 00:15:27.419 likewise took part of the same, that through 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:31.720 death he might destroy him that had the power 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:36.240 of death, that is, the devil. and deliver them 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.039 who through fear of death were all their lifetime 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:45.120 subject to bondage. All their lifetime subject 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.919 to bondage. The question is not whether sin is 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:52.259 serious. The question is what makes it serious, 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:58.940 how it destroys, and why. Very good is a long 00:15:58.940 --> 00:16:01.960 way from perfect, and we have not yet exhausted 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:05.629 what that means. Next time, we will look more 00:16:05.629 --> 00:16:07.990 closely at fear of death and how it becomes the 00:16:07.990 --> 00:16:09.730 engine of sins of every kind.