The Bible Teaches Total Depravity

Righty-O. I looked at your profile and saw you were a Christian, and I was like...."Ok..." Thank you for taking this debate. I'll address the topic as you had intended in this round then. I guess the best place to start is the start. In Genesis, man was created perfectly. Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." So, man was a being created in the image of the Almighty, to reflect and worship Him. And, G-d viewed them as being "very good". Both of these establish man's existence as a being very much separated from "total depravity". Man was actually something good, who mirrored the Almighty Himself. Of course, we all know what happened next - man fell. The Fall came about in the Garden of Eden, and made all of mankind 'slaves to sin'. I think this is where my opponent would try to come in. However, I'd like to point out the nature of slavery - it does not change the enslaved being. In the 18th and 19th Centuries in America, many African Americans were enslaved. However, this absolutely does *not* mean that they were any less human beings - only that they were in a condition of bondage. Similarly, after the Fall of man, we became bound by sin. But, like the African slaves, our nature, the "image of G-d" was not destroyed, but rather covered up by the bondage of slavery. We were not corrupted to the core; who humans were did not change because of sin. For many hundreds of years, this cycle continued unbroken. Then, Jesus came about. His sacrifice on the cross came and cleaned us of sin. Romans 3:23-25 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood" If humans were so totally depraved, if there was *nothing* in them that was good, then could G-d, who according to Habakkuk 1:13 cannot even LOOK upon sin, bring us all into heaven, to live with Him in eternal paradise? How could G-d - without completely and wholly altering the nature of what man was (which renders the entire process pointless) - have brought these beings into heaven? G-d took man, and saw him for who he truly was - a good being covered in a bad shell. Jesus' sacrifice 'washed away' the coating of sin upon man, to reveal by grace the true nature of man: The Image of G-d Himself! We hear the phrase, "washed away" in connection with Jesus' sacrifice. We don't hear, "Completely transmuted" or "Scrapped the lot of them and started over." If man were rotten to the core, what is left over to bring redeemed to heaven after the "washing away"? Nothing. To conclude, man began in G-d's image, but his true nature was covered by sin. He was covered in it. But because of the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, the covering was removed, and who man really was all along came about. That is why we can enter the kingdom of God - we have been redeemed. Not recreated. Redeemed. Thank you. And thanks to my opponent for this debate. I love theology, and needed something to do. :)