The Princess Bride and Total Depravity

Rich had an excellent post on this blog a while back on total depravity: 911. Along those lines, I came across this at Andy Naselli's blog:


Mostly Dead vs. All Dead

This two-minute clip from The Princess Bride is my favorite light-hearted illustration of the Arminian view of human depravity (an issue integrally related to prevenient grace):



This is the notable part of the exchange:

“Well it just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. . . . Now mostly dead is slightly alive. All dead—well, with all dead, there’s only usually one thing that you can do.

“What’s that?”

“Go through his clothes and look for loose change.”

Recommended resources:

1. William W. Combs, “Does the Bible Teach Prevenient Grace?” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 10 (2005): 3–18.


2. John Piper, “Total Depravity,” in “TULIP” (a nine-part seminar available in audio and video), 2008.



3. Thomas R. Schreiner, “Does Scripture Teach Prevenient Grace in the Wesleyan Sense?” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace (ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 229–46.