WHY 1 COR. 2:14 DOESN’T TEACH “TOTAL INABILITY.”

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With this in mind, let’s focus on the key passage of this debate: 1 Corinthians 2:14 reads as follows:

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Simply put, this can be taken in one of two ways:

Calvinistic Meaning: “Fallen humanity, if not irresistibly regenerated by the Spirit, cannot want to accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for God has unchangeably decreed that revealed truth (the apostle’s teaching, scripture) will only be seen as foolish to them.” (God is ultimately responsible for man’s unbelief)

Traditionalist Meaning: “The man who freely chooses not to accept the things that come from the Spirit of God (apostles teaching, scripture, etc), but freely deem them as foolish, cannot understand spiritual truth, because those are the means of spiritual revelation.” (Man is responsible for his own unbelief)

The understanding of 1 Cor. 2:14 becomes very simple when we answer the first question posed by this verse, “Why won’t the natural man accept the things that come from the Spirit of God?”

Possible Answer #1: Because God so determined it by divine decree as a punishment for the sin of Adam.

OR

Possible Answer #2: Because the man freely chose the wisdom of the world over the wisdom being revealed by spiritually wrought means (apostles, scriptures, etc).

We believe Paul is saying that the “natural man” is one who will not accept the wisdom from the Spirit of God, because he himself considers these things to be foolish by HIS OWN FREE CHOICE, NOT GOD’S DETERMINATION. Therefore, he is incapable of ever understanding spiritual things unless and until he turns from human wisdom and accepts the wisdom being revealed by the Spirit through His chosen means (apostles, scriptures, etc).

Soteriology101