Yes, gladly; I respectfully apologize for the delay.
OrthodoxPresbyetrian, This is a honest question regarding the Calvinist view of Total Depravity. If man is totally sinful and never wants to know Christ, is he then totally evil, vile, corrupt (insert really bad adjectives here) - then does that put unregenerated man on the level with Satan and his minions?
No.
Let me repeat that: NO.
There is a Calvinist Doctrine termed Utter Depravity. It refers to the Depravity of demons and the demon-possesed, that sort of thing.
It refers to a free moral agent behaving as badly as he can possibly behave. 100% full-bore satanic behavior.
This is distinct from Total Depravity, which states that the ALL the free actions of Man will be IN SOME RESPECT Depraved. Not "always as unholy as they can possibly be", but rather, "always unholy according to God's standard of righteousness".
The Natural Man is capable of acting in both actively malicious and humanely benevolent manners. One who acts in a humanely benevolent manner is NOT Utterly depraved. He is not seeking to be "as bad as he can possibly be", he is just seeking to be "Good" according to his own humanly-constructed, self-righteous conception of "good".
That sort of "good" can be highly benevolent by fallen human standards.
But not by God's standards. God regards even the self-"righteousness" of Man as a form of blasphemous, self-worshipping idolatry -- as "filthy rags".
Gosh, that is one of Man's problems. It is as plain as day that most men are not (yet) Utterly Depraved. But idolatrous man will take this self-righteousness, this humanly-constructed standard of "good", and will dare to offer these fig leaves up to God, saying, "do you not respect my self-constructed idolatry as 'goodness'"?
To which God replies that Man, though he may not be a demon, is still acting like a wicked idolater. Our filthy fig-leaves of human benevolence count for nothing -- He will unilaterally kill and prepare a sacrifice, and of His Own Choice will unilaterally place that covering upon us (Genesis 3:21), or else we are not covered in His sight AT ALL.
If not, why not, and If so, could they be redeemed, even if we "know" they won't? This isn't a set up. I have no snappy retort (or unsnappy retort for that matter), but if we retain none of the image of God, and no ability to choose other than evil, would this then put us on that level?
I don't think you are trying to "bait" me. I respect your honest questions. I believe that I have answered them. But feel free to fire away with any other questions which may occur.
Best,
OP
You guys sure do spend a lot of time talking about depravity. :-)
Thanks for the answer.
That is funny, because when I stated that man could do relative good one of the Calvinist brethren stated that everything unregenerate man did was a sin and evil. I hope he caught your post.