Here is what the Westminster Confession of Faith says on this in part: “By this sin they fell from their original righteousness, and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body…From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says virtually the same thing. The Westminster Larger Catechism, in the answer to Question 25, says this: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisteth in the guilty of Adam’s first sin, the want [lack] of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called Original Sin, and from which do proceed all actual transgressions.”
The Synod of Dordt put it this way: “Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regeneration Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.” The Heidelberg Catechism, question 8, has the same story: “8Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil? A. Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.”
James Ussher (1581-1656) wrote a Body of Divinity. In it he asks what is original sin: “A. It is a Sin, wherewith all that naturally descend from Adam are defiled, even from their first Conception; Infecting all the Powers of their Souls and Bodies, and thereby making them Drudges and Slaves of Sin. Q. Can Man in this Estate do no good thing to please God, to deserve at least something of his Favor? A. We have lost by this Sin and all the Righteousness we had in our Creation: So as now if God should say to us, Think but a good through of thy self, and thou shalt be saved; we cannot; But our nature is as a stinking Puddle, which in it self is loathsome, and being moved is worse.”
In the Minutes of the Kehukee Baptist Association of 1955 it shows that they have kept the beliefs of their forefathers of the Philadephia Confession: “We believe that it is utterly out of the power of men, as fallen creatures, to keep the Law of God perfectly, repent of their sins truly, or belief in Jesus Christ, except they be drawn by the Holy Ghost.” The Sandy Creek Association, organized by Shubael Stearns in 1758, had this as one of their Articles: “That human nature is corrupt, and that man, of his own free will and ability, is impotent to regain the state in which he was primarily placed.”
We can see that both Paedobaptists and Baptists alike have held to this basic teaching throughout the centuries. This is not to say that all have held it, but this is to get out the idea that what Hodge has given us in short form is an accurate representation of what those who have been Reformed through the centuries have said. If our theology is wrong at this point, we will be wrong in terms of the Gospel as well. If we are wrong at this point, then we have misunderstood the character of God and of the great evil of sin. But to restate an issue that was brought up in the last blog, it does little good to have a creed that says these things about depravity if we will not examine our own hearts and be broken from our own pride. It is far easier to give lip service to a teaching than it is to see how true it is of ourselves. It is also easier to teach these things in an intellectual way than it is to teach this to people in the church and to practice evangelism with this truth. No matter what we hold to in terms of our creed, if this truth is not deep in our souls and we do not live, teach, and evangelize according to it, then we do not hold to it in truth. If human beings are so depraved that they have no ability (cannot) to do one thing spiritual or to dispose themselves to do something spiritual, then we are grossly misleading them to teach or to evangelize in a contrary way. If we live as if we have the power in ourselves to do spiritual things, we deceive ourselves as well. This is important.
God Loves... Himself 
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