There are many doctrines of this world, many of which, or more accurately, the majority of which, divorce you completely from God. Now there are many people who claim certain dogma is from the one true God, the most Holy Trinity. But if we look into these doctrines, they are in no relation to Him.

The Heresy of Total Depravity and Inherited Guilt.

Total depravity, which is the Calvinist doctrine invented only in 1541 A.D., 1,500 years after the Church was founded, states that man has an inherent evil nature that is so depraved that he cannot even seek God on his own, but rather, only by the grace of God is he predestined before time to be a part of the “elect” whom God preordained. Now, like the based St. John Chrysostom stated in his 10th homily on Romans:

“For that one man should be punished on account of another does not seem to be much in accordance with reason…”

I am going to stress again—that this was written in 386 A.D., 1,100 years before Calvin—and thus the claim of a ‘reformation’ of the original Church immediately gets shot down. Because God said through the holy prophet Ezekiel that:

“But the soul that sins shall die: and the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the transgressor shall be upon him.” -Ezekiel 18:20 LXX

One might object that this contradicts Exodus chapter 20, but this actually proves the point of the holy fathers that predate Calvin's perversion of the truth significantly:

“Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them; for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God, recompensing the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, to them that hate me, 6 and bestowing mercy on them that love me to thousands of them, and on them that keep my commandments.”

This is ancestral sin, not inherent guilt. God, through Ezekiel, destroyed your pagan belief of inherent guilt; he states that we DO NOT bear the iniquity of our fathers. Here in Exodus, it states that one may suffer the earthly consequences of a parent's actions, such as a mother drinking or smoking while pregnant. We are not spiritually guilty or liable for those actions before God. We inherit the consequences of Adam, like a child who again inherits the biological consequences of the mother who drinks while pregnant, or if the child’s parents are siblings.

Why Did the Fall Occur and Why Did the New Adam Come?

Why doesn’t God just reverse this? The answer is that he did. Christ is the new Adam who “took away the sins of this world.” Jesus Christ came down to earth to free us from this ancestral curse; he defeated “death by death,” so this ancestral curse is now reversed if you accept Him. He went down to the pits of Hell and took Adam, Eve, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, David, etc. into the new kingdom that he, in his goodness, gifted us if we accept Him. We CAN, and we DO, via our free will, choose to accept this gift of reversal. To state that we bear the guilt of Adam, then God punishes the son for the sins of the father—and thus, this God is not good because he is a liar, or Ezekiel received prophecies from demons. Even if Ezekiel was demon possessed (of which he wasn’t), God is unjust either way. Because he is like the parent who beats the eldest sibling for the sins of the younger. If we worship an unjust God, then we worship a God whose nature is not good; if this is so, look for another god, maybe among the heathens whose ‘gods’ are perceived to be more righteous. God is good, so good that he gave us the blessing of free will. He blessed us also with a divine nature, who ruled over every creature God has created; this was God’s will for us. As St. Gregory of Nyssa says in On Making Man:

“For this reason man was brought into the world last after the creation, not being rejected to the last as worthless, but as one whom it behooved to be king over his subjects at his very birth. And as a good host does not bring his to his house before the preparation of his feast…” -Chapter 2, paragraph 2.

But by the free will of Adam and Eve—they sinned against God and thus became like the animals we were meant to rule over. Look at the apes, especially the chimpanzee, and their barbaric nature; they’re quick to war, rape, infanticide, cannibalism, etc., just like the godless. The godless people of this world are very much the same; they advocate for the murder of children, partaking of the Acharist and reveling in the blood of infants. They are devoid of self-control, just like the apes, because they do not wish to live naturally as God intended:

“I mean, when I see you living an irrational life, how am I to call you a human being and not an ox? When I see you robbing others, how am I to call you a human being and not a wolf? When I see you committing fornication, how am I to call you a human being and not a swine? When I see you being fraudulent, how am I to call you a human being and not a serpent? When I see you with venom, how am I to call you a human being and not a snake? When I see you being a fool, how am I to call you a human being and not an ass? When I see you committing adultery, how am I to call you a human being and not a lusty stallion? When I see you disobedient and forward, how am I to call you a human being and not a stone?” -St. John Chrysostom,

“As, then, the natural man is higher than the carnal, by the same measure also the spiritual man rises above the natural.” -St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man, chapter 8, paragraph 6.

But even though we chose to be like beasts over our true nature, God never abandoned us. Even though every unspeakable, every unimaginable, every inconceivable thing has been done by humanity, his plan was always to “redeem Israel out of all his iniquities.” (Psa 130:8 / LXX 129:8) In Christ he did, and if you are truly in his Church, which is the true Israel, you can receive the spiritual medicine which was given by the grace of the most Holy Trinity for your inherent sickness. Your nature is good, as God cannot make what is against his nature. Just like that one strawman of omnipotence: “If God is all powerful can he create a rock he cannot lift?” No, because a logical impossibility, something that cannot ever actually be done in logic, is not a thing within itself. Just like how it is a logical impossibility for God to make what is contrary to his good nature, because you were made in his image. He is not a dualist as the Gnostics believe; he is not both good and evil. He cannot create what is evil, and he never once did because the Genesis account itself affirms that you were made inherently good, not only good, but “very good”:

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them…God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” (Gen 1:27-31).

Conclusion.

So what happened to us? The way I describe it is that our nature is like iron: it is forged—and it is made good. But since we inherit the sin of Adam, this iron is left out to the elements, and when the rain comes, the winds blow, our nature gets layered with rust, and our nature is corroded with sin and death. But Christ, who is the blacksmith of our lives, restores us back to what he intended. He allows us to be put through the fire, so that we can be made pure, and he polishes us so that he can see his reflection in us.

But the ‘pious’ Calvinist, with his studies, his intellect, and all his work to be a scholastic, still cannot uncover the mysteries of God. Because by their heresy they are blinded by their submission to the worldly doctrines of total depravity, inherited guilt, predestination, election, etc. I used to believe in these doctrines; this is why I am so critical of it. It completely took me away from God, because I used to blame God for every bad thing that happened in my life. Because I used to believe every action was preordained, prewritten “in the stars.” I used to believe that my nature was innately evil, and this took me far from God. But it was only when I saw through the lies of the demons, and started studying the history, uncovering the manipulations of Protestantism, being baptized in the name of the most good, most Holy Trinity—the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—was I able to defeat the passions of the flesh. Though I am not perfect, I know the way of salvation, which is the divine ladder. I am not once saved, always saved, or a saint that is pre chosen before time to persevere. I am not preordained, but it is by my free will I choose to achieve, by the grace of the most good God, Theosis. I work to become pure through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that I may join the great cloud of witnesses who freely chose to be holy and pure. Christ is in our midst! Amen."