Category: Regeneration

Spurgeon on Regeneration and Faith

~ fundyreformed

I am sure that some of my readers disagree with my Calvinism. In my debates and discussions concerning Calvinism, I have found that many particularly object to the idea that regeneration precedes faith (I defend this belief here). Some people go so far as to suggest that this belief represents an extreme form of Calvinism. Others suggest that this belief is a relatively new development in Calvinism. And inevitably, Charles H. Spurgeon gets dragged into the affair. Yes, some people go so far as to state that Spurgeon was against the belief that regeneration precedes faith.

Well, I stumbled onto a blogpost which does an excellent job explaining Spurgeon’s true position. Yes, he affirmed that regeneration preceedes faith. Of course, we shouldn’t have to look any further than his sermon entitled “Faith and Regeneration”. Michael Riley explains in his post (entitled “Spurgeon on the priority of regeneration to faith”) just what is so confusing about Spurgeon that could potentially lead people to misunderstand him, while offering a compelling case that Spurgeon believed regeneration was the cause of faith. His post is worth the short read, and he offers further documentation for those who desire to dig deeper.

(HT: Sharper Iron)

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Regeneration, Reception, and Faith

~ fundyreformed ~ 47 Comments

Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike agree that unregenerate man is dead in his sins. He is lost and blind–even captive. In short, he needs help! And Christ provides the help. So far, so good, yet a fork in the road lies just ahead. One group (Calvinists) insists such a man needs regeneration before he can receive the word and believe. The other group sees the desperate sinner as hopeless apart from the gospel. Yet with the gospel’s proclamation, this dead man can receive the truth of the gospel and believe. Arguments over the interpretation of the death metaphor aside, a few Scriptural passages seem to plainly contradict the second view.

Both sides affirm that sinful man needs regeneration. Rom. 8:8 states, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Both sides also agree that faith and regeneration are intimately connected. Either faith immediately results in regeneration, or regeneration is seen as producing faith (and most would say this happens almost immediately after regeneration).

Now, I ask, how can non-Calvinists affirm that unregenerate men cannot please God, and also affirm that unregenerate men can become regenerated by believing in God–thereby pleasing Him (Heb. 11:6)? Can they just decide to believe and please God? Remember, they are in the flesh when they are unsaved. Not being in the flesh would indicate that they had been born again–regenerated. So just prior to their exercising faith (which pleases God), they are actually still “in the flesh”, and thus they cannot please God!

A solution is offered by some. Since God regenerates us with the Word of Truth (James 1:18), and since “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17), then with the preached word the sinful, unregenerate man is enabled to accept or reject the gospel message. The Spirit imparts life through the Word (John 6:63), so the argument goes, and thus the dead sinner becomes able to receive the gospel and believe.

Taking a step back, that last sentence sounds an awful lot like the Calvinist view which argues that the Spirit regenerates us, using the Word of Truth, before we are enabled to believe. And there is much in the non-Calvinist view which might attract people to its position. It offers a harmonization of passages which seem to imply unsaved man can respond to God’s message with those that teach he cannot. God is seen as extremely nice–giving all a supposedly equal chance. It saves face for mankind by proving that he is not a mere puppet.

Yet this view–that men are enabled to receive the gospel and believe through the preaching of the gospel and the interaction of the Spiritual Word upon their hearts–flies in the face of several key passages. 1 Cor. 2:14 seems very decisive: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” So this verse says that when the Word of God and the preaching of the gospel message interact with the unregenerate, these lost people do not accept the gospel because they think it foolish and further, they cannot understand it, since it is spiritually discerned! Far from enabling them, the preached word is trampled under foot like pearls given to swine. Paul explains this further in 2 Cor. 4:3-6: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Here the lost are said to be blind to the message of the Gospel. Further, there appears to be no in-between-stage half way from sight and blindness. There is no period where the lost is enabled to believe, considers the message of the Gospel for a while, and later makes his verdict. Rather, they cannot see or even understand the message as an unregenerated person–but in a moment God shines in their hearts giving them the light of the Gospel of the glory of God in Christ. (Keep in mind that God’s word is describing what actually happens inside a person–we cannot use our experience to correct the word. It may appear to us that some are in an in-between-stage, yet Scripture interprets that experience differently.)

Now, I have encountered several people who claim to reject Calvinism yet affirm that repentance and faith are gifts of God. They claim God gives them to those who begin to respond to the Gospel, having been enabled by the life-giving words of the Spirit. I have yet to understand how this idea can fit in with verses like 2 Tim. 2:24-26: “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” Here repentance is God’s gift to those who are captured by the devil. Notice, that God “may perhaps grant”. Now how exactly is repentance a gift? If all who hear the Gospel are enabled to repent and receive/believe, then the gift of repentance is not merely the opportunity to repent. And if before you have the gift you are captured by the devil and possess no repentance, it seems to me that when you receive the gift of repentance, you are set free and enabled to repent for the first time. One moment you have no repentance, the next moment you have it–as a gift of God!

More could be said, for sure! But this is to say that regeneration, reception, and belief happen in this specific sequential order. Regeneration happens internally resulting in a heart that receives the word and then believes in Christ. All of this is a gift of grace from a merciful and loving God to a totally undeserving criminal of a sinner.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

"Whosoever Will" and Calvinism

~ fundyreformed ~ 15 Comments

Recently in a forum I read, this question was posed:

QUESTION:
Acts 10:13 states For whosover shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Rev. 22:17 whosover will let him take the water of life freely
Acts 2:21 states whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be savedThe Bible states several times that it is a whosoever will salvation. How can calvinism be true without updating the definition of the word whosoever?

If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. The only two conditions are belief and confession. There is no you must be elected first. It is whosoever will May Come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I posted a response which I felt I should share here too. This is a common objection, and perhaps some of my readers will be benefited by my brief and I think helpful response.

RESPONSE:
Good question. This is a real argument in many people’s minds. Let me try to explain.

The above verses along with John 3:16 and others use the term “whosoever”. Do Calvinists have to redefine that term in order for their position to be true? Not at all. First let us notice what these verses say, and then look at what Calvinism says.

These verses say who so ever calls (Acts 10:13 and 2:21), wills (Rev. 22:17), or believes (John 3:16) will be saved/drink of water of life freely/receive everlasting life. In other words they say who ever wants to be saved may do so, or who ever believes/repents/chooses to receive salvation can. In fact Jesus said in John 6:37b “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” So these verses are affirming that anyone who comes to Jesus, anyone who truly wants to come to Jesus will be received and thus will be saved.

Calvinists have absolutely no problem with that at all. What Calvinism addresses is the “behind the scenes” root cause in all of this. In other words, Calvinism seeks to answer this question, “why do some people want to come or want to believe and others do not?” The only reason Calvinism is interested in that question, actually, is because many passages of Scripture speak to that very issue. For instance John 6:37 (a & b) says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” The Calvinist sees this verse as teaching that anyone who comes to Jesus was first given to Jesus by the Father. They also were first drawn by the Father (Jn. 6:44). And further they were enabled to come by the Father (Jn. 6:65).

This is why Calvinism does not at all have to squelch evangelism. In fact, historically, many of the great revivals and great evangelistic endeavors of the Church have been initiated by diehard Calvinists. Calvinists see no incongruity between “whosoever will may come” and “all who come were chosen before the foundation of the world”. Calvinists simply preach the gospel to everyone, since God’s word assures us that people will come to salvation from every people group (Rev. 5). They preach and when people respond, Calvinists see those people as evidencing the fact that they were first elect and then given a new heart by God’s Holy Spirit. Calvinists see that while all are invited to come, no one will come (or even want to come) apart from the work of God (see Rom. 3:10-12; Rom. 8:7-8; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; 2 Cor. 4:1-6; etc.). But Calvinists are greatly convinced that God is at work in the world and thus can have confidence in His Sovereign ability to give increase to the seed of the gospel in every situation where we are called to labor (1 Cor. 3:5-7). This actually gives added strength for ministry endeavors in hard areas where fruit is not quickly evident. (For instance, a Calvinist, Adoniram Judson, labored for seven years in Burma before seeing his first convert.)

So I affirm that Calvinism in no way needs to redefine “whosoever” in order for its claims to be true.

If you are interested in following the discussion (if one develops), you can see the thread here. Update: the same question was posed as the beginning of another thread which has had some discussion–you can see that here.

A Synergistic Defense of Monergism

~ fundyreformed

Okay! Pardon my puns. This post will point you to a defense of monergism that is written by a beliver indewelt by the Spirit (hence it is a “synergistic” defense).

What is “monergism”?

John Hendryx who heads up Monergism.com (perhaps the best online resource for all things Calvinism–or for theology period, really) gives the following brief description of “monergism” (accessible from this webpage):

Monergism simply means that it is God who gives ears to hear and eyes to see. It is God alone who gives illumination and understanding of His word that we might believe; It is God who raises us from the dead, who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears; It is God alone who can give us a new sense that we may, at last, have the moral capacity to behold His beauty and unsurpassed excellency. “In theology, [monergism is] the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in regeneration [the new birth] – that the human will possesses no inclination to holiness until regenerated [born again], and therefore cannot cooperate in regeneration.”

So to put it simply, while synergism says man contributes or cooperates in regeneration, monergism says only God is active in the regeneration process. (For further explanation of this concept, again I refer you to the webpage where I got this quote from.)

Now on to the synergistic defense. Hendryx’s fellow blog partner, John Samson, had posted a brief post showing that 1 John 5:1 supports monergistic regeneration (regeneration preceeding faith) over on their blog, Reformation Theology Blog. One of the comments in response to that article really drew John Hendryx’s ire. He responded with a great and brief defense of monergistic regeneration. I want to point you to his post here, as it is especially helpful. He really makes a strong case for 1 John 5:1 proving monergism, and he also shows how John 6:63-65 does the same.

To whet your appetite for this post here is a brief excerpt:

Those who believe faith precedes regeneration believe we have the ability to see spiritual things before we are spiritual, that we have the ability to hear spiritual things before we have spiritual ears. That we can desire Christ and believe the gospel when we are by nature hostile to God.What does it mean when we are a certain thing by nature? A cat has whiskers by nature and no amount of willing can change that. Likewise we are naturally in bondage to a corruption of nature, slaves to sin and thus cannot be otherwise unless God intervenes to change who we are. Only God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. To believe that our faith is the cause of (or precedes) regeneration is to believe unregenerate, unspiritual man to be spiritual, an impossibly contradictory supposition. It is a rejection of the necessity of the Holy Spirit to change our naturally hostile nature to one that sees the beauty and excellency of Christ.

[Be sure to read the whole article!]

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7