II Timothy 1

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^{1 2} Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,

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to Timothy, my dear child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

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I am grateful to God, whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, ³ as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

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⁴ I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears, so that I may be filled with joy,

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as I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and that I am confident lives also in you.

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For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God ⁵ that you have through the imposition of my hands.

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For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.

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So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, ⁶ nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.

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⁷ He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,

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but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

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⁸ for which I was appointed preacher and apostle and teacher.

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⁹ On this account I am suffering these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know him in whom I have believed and am confident that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.

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Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

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Guard this rich trust with the help of the holy Spirit that dwells within us.

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¹⁰ You know that everyone in Asia deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

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¹¹ May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because he often gave me new heart and was not ashamed of my chains.

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But when he came to Rome, he promptly searched for me and found me.

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May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord ¹² on that day. And you know very well the services he rendered in Ephesus.

Æneid - Vergil

Dedication

The First Book of the Æneis

The Second Book of the Æneis

The Third Book of the Æneis

The Fourth Book of the Æneis

The Fifth Book of the Æneis

The Sixth Book of the Æneis

The Seventh Book of the Æneis

The Eighth Book of the Æneis

The Ninth Book of the Æneis

The Tenth Book of the Æneis

The Eleventh Book of the Æneis

The Twelfth Book of the Æneis

Postscript to the Reader

History

It seems that I have enjoyed the presumptuous life. I have heard many arduous conclusions called forth in strength of so called factual ardor having complacently absorbed many conclusions I should have questioned. Who was Helen Keller? What was the Plague that claimed the life of 90% of New Englanders in 1617? Pilgrim was a termed coined in the nineteenth century?
History calls forth the reality of events and happenings that once occurred in a particular manner for a particular reason through particular agents. Yet, maybe by the force of my textbooks, I have listened to the settling niceties and well refurbished stories that retell historical actions according to a different prerogative. These stories heroify villains and demean giants all for a kind of monumental leveling that covers controversy.
As I survey my own grasp of history, I am ashamed to think I have once celebrated the lives of men and women I now see as wicked. I have supported institutions I now see as corrupt. The ideas and individuals I thought were virtuous, I now have good reason to question or despise. While textbooks tone down wars odiousness, and the enduring travesty of mans insatiable desire for conquest, the reality of on-going horrors are neglected.
Today, evangelicals are no better. Many among us would rather hear feel good messages filled with half-truths than hear the truth of the matter of the fact. While the Gospel's historical reality entails the suffering, bleeding, wounding, stripes and cruxifiction of God, so called "evangelicals" would rather rent the good news of the Jack-in-the-box Jesus because he comes out after a few cranks. We are so easily beguiled from the true nature of actual events and seemingly disinterested in the truth.

Human Depravity
by R.C. Sproul

As we said in the previous chapter, a common point of debate among theologians focuses on the question, are human beings basically good or basically evil? The hinge upon which the argument turns is the word "basically." It is a virtual universal consensus that nobody is perfect. We accept the maxim: "To err is human."

The Bible says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Despite this verdict on human shortcomings, the idea persists in our humanistically dominated culture that sin is something peripheral or tangential to our nature. Indeed, we are flawed by sin. Our moral records exhibit blemishes. But somehow we think that our evil deeds reside at the rim or edge of our character and never penetrate to the core. Basically, it is assumed, people are inherently good.

After being rescued from captivity in Iraq and experiencing firsthand the corrupt methods of Saddam Hussein, one American hostage remarked, "Despite all that I endured I never lost my confidence in the basic goodness of people." Perhaps this view rests in part on a sliding scale of the relative goodness or wickedness of people. Obviously some people are far more wicked than others. Next to Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler the ordinary run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint. But if we lift our gaze to the ultimate standard of goodness - the holy character of God - we realize that what appears to be a basic goodness on an earthly level is corrupt to the core..

The Bible teaches the total depravity of the human race. Total depravity means radical corruption. We must be careful to note the difference between total depravity and "utter" depravity. To be utterly depraved is to be as wicked as one could possibly be. Hitler was extremely depraved, but he could have been worse than he was. I am sinner. Yet I could sin more often and more severely than I actually do. I am not utterly depraved, but I am totally depraved. For total depravity means that I and everyone else are
depraved or corrupt in the totality of our being. There is no part of us that is left untouched by sin. Our minds, our wills, and our bodies are affected by evil. We speak sinful words, do sinful deeds, have impure thoughts. Our very bodies suffer from the ravages of sin.

Perhaps "radical corruption" is a better term to describe our fallen condition than "total depravity." I am using the word "radical" not so much to mean "extreme," but to lean more heavily on its original meaning. "Radical" comes from the Latin word for "root" or "core." Our problem with sin is that it is rooted in the core of our being. It permeates our hearts. It is because sin is at our core and not merely at the exterior of our lives that the Bible says: "There is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one." Romans 3:10-12

It is because of this condition that the verdict of Scripture is heard: we are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1); we are "sold under sin" (Romans 7:14); we are in "captivity to the law of sin" (Romans 7:23); and "by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Only by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit may we be brought out of this state of spiritual death. It is God who makes us alive as we become His craftsmanship (Ephesians 2:1-10).

Summary:

1. Humanism sees sin at the edge or periphery of human life. It considers
human beings to be basically good.

2. Biblical Christianity teaches that sin permeates the core of our life.

3. Total depravity is not utter depravity. We are not as wicked as we
possibly could be.

4. Radical corruption points to the core sinfulness of our hearts.

Biblical passages for reflection:
Jeremiah 17:9
Romans 8:1-11
Ephesians 2:1-3
Ephesians 4:17-19
1 John 1:8-10

Excerpt from Essential Truths Of The Christian Faith by R. C. Sproul © pages 147-149 (Tyndale 1992)