t seems your verse shows you have it backwards. Death is a result of sin, not the other way around. But yes, as a result of the Fall, all are DEAD. D.E.A.D. Dead people can't do much.... cetrainly not give self life, raise self from the death, render Jesus irrelevant.
The RCC and "first-wave" Protestantism is largely in agreement on original sin. However, the RCC at Trent retreated a bit into semi-Pelagianism (necessary to support its synergism in Justification), but both Luther and Calvin retained the theology of original sin. The concept is simple: Our nature is fallen.... in our spiritual (not biological) "DNA" is a spiritual disease that is rebellious and not in line with God's heart. The Bible often refers to this nature by the term "sin" or "sinful" (in the singular) This disease may often has symptoms (which the Bible often refers to by "sins" in the plural) - sins of commission and omission, sins of thoughts and words and deeds. Say I have a cold (I don't, but run with me here).... THEREFORE, I may have a runny nose and sore throat... I may be caughing and sneeezing (although I may not at even given moment).... the "problem" is the disease, that's the reason for the symptoms, that's the cause of the symptoms (not the other way around). Now.... to an extent.... we MAY be able to reduce the symptoms (I "cover" my cold with a handful of pills - reducing the symptoms but doing nothing for the disease) but that doesn't mean we don't have the disease. This is a view Lutherans and Calvinists accept and teach.
Trent is correct that this is RELATED to but not identical to the theology of monergism, the veiw that Jesus is the Savior (and not self for self). But this is where the RCC retreated back into Pelagianism. The condemned heretic Pelagius taught that the "fall" hurt man but only a bit..... man CAN (theoretically anyway) live a righteous life and CAN participate in his own salvation - so that he doesn't actually need salvation but rather help: He needs a good moral example (and has it in Jesus), he needs good inspiration (and has it in Jesus), and while he CAN get it all done himself, he benefits enormously from divine help (and has that in the Holy Spirit). Where the RCC is only SEMI-Pelagian is that it holds that this divine example, inspiration and help is necessary not simply beneficial) so that at Trent the RCC retreated only partly into the heresy it condemned a thousand years earlier: Jesus is ESSENTIAL but not as our SAVIOR but as the "door opener", the possibility-maker, the model/teacher, the inspiration, the Helper. "God helps those who help themselves" as my Catholic teachers taught regarding Justification. The Fall harmed man but that's all.....
Luther and Calvin retained the Council of Orange and the doctrine of Original Sin and the condemnation of Pelagianism (including the refined form of it the RCC embraced). Calvin called this "total depravity". It does NOT say that fallen man is incapable of doing good in the eyes of MAN ("civil righteousness" this is called in classical, orthodox theology) - my Buddhist friend can help little old ladies across the street as well as I can - but this is not beneficial to him in terms of Justification (or even Sanctification since the Buddhist lacks faith and without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God; it earns nothing).
Total Depravity is simply the Calvinists way of underlining monergism - a view Calvinists learned from Lutherans (as well as Augustine, the Council of Orange, etc.). As a result of the fall, ALL are DEAD the Bible insists.....as the Reformers affirmed. And dead people don't do much. Zombies can walk and bite but they cannot heal themselves, they cannot save themselves, they cannot be what they are not.
- Josiah
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