Total Inability within T of TULIP leads to Regeneration Preceding the Gift of Faith

 

The Secret Logic Behind Total Depravity

By Jeremy Myers

OK, so it’s not that much of a secret, but there still are some things about Total Depravity that Calvinists will often not say when they are first presenting their views to others. To really get at the ideas below, you have to know what questions to ask.

Total depravity sounds biblical until you start to dig around in it and see all the secret logic that goes with it.

So next time you hear a Calvinist talk about Total Depravity, ask some of the hard questions, and see what they say!

https://redeeminggod.com/secret-logic-total-depravity/

Total Inability Overstated

Dan Smedra 

Historically Christendom, to its ruin, has largely minimized the sin consequences of the Fall.  However in reaction, the Reformed/Calvinists have also developed and teach an inaccurate theory for the biblical truth of mankind's spiritual death--the death inherited from the first man, Adam.  The Calvinistic emphasis often portrays our post-Fall, pre-New Birth condition (Total Depravity) as a state of total unconsciousness and passivity (similar to physical death: Lazarus is frequently cited as an example.) rather than a conscious rebellion and alienation from God.  Later, we'll examine this area of confusion in more detail.      

Many Reformed/Calvinists portray humanity's post-Fall, pre-New Birth condition (Total Depravity) as a state of total unconsciousness and passivity rather than separation from God.  This erroneous emphasis is reactive in both its nature and origin, and largely a carryover from their century-old battle with Roman Catholic and Arminian heresies.  Consequently, it creates serious problems relative to: a) the true condition of lost sinners and the preaching of the Gospel, b) differences between the effectual calling, the New Birth, and the role of faith, and c) the believer's relationship to his indwelling nature of sin (flesh).   

In Ephesians 2:1, the Apostle Paul tells us, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."   How is it that the words "dead," "live," and "disobedient" can be used in the same sentence to simultaneously describe our prior lost condition, if the meaning of dead carries the idea of being unconscious or passive?   More to the point, Miles Stanford remarks:

Their [Reformed/Calvinist] illustration of this total inability [depravity] is a man physically dead, who cannot see, hear, speak or move.

However, "Although the sinner is dead in sins, he is not an unresponsive corpse, he is not annihilated; rather, he is separated from God.  He is certainly alive enough to adamantly reject the Saviour.   

Chafer, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 227, 224.

(T)he reason our Calvinist brothers overstate their case in this theological realm is due to the manipulative way their (and our) humanistic adversaries have argued in favor of "free will" and their loyalty to defend the biblical truth of the "grace of God."  However, this emphasis has proven to progressively cause an imbalance, which over time undermines the Scriptural truth of both volition and volitional responsibility.  Further, their deficient view of sin opens the door to religious self-righteousness and pride and also closes the door to considering possible error on their part. 

https://withchrist.org/covtheo.htm#7

Calvinists Believe that Regeneration Precedes Faith

By Jeremy Myers

According to the Calvinistic teaching of Total Depravity (and total inability), the unregenerate person cannot do anything good—they cannot even have faith in Jesus.

Therefore, even if God graciously gave faith to an unregenerate person, it would not matter because the person—as an unregenerate—would not be able to believe! God’s gift of faith to the person would be ineffectual.

To get around this, Calvinists often teach that regeneration precedes faith. That is, before God gives a person the gift of faith so that they can believe in Jesus for eternal life, God knows that He must first remove the problem of “total inability.” So God sovereignly regenerates the person before He gives them the gift of faith so that they are now able to believe when God gives them faith.  

https://redeeminggod.com/calvinists-believe-that-regeneration-precedes-faith/

Regeneration Follows Faith

By Jeremy Myers

The final theological ramification of Total Depravity is the idea that regeneration precedes faith.

As stated in earlier posts, the idea that regeneration precedes faith is the necessary result of the logic of Total Depravity. If people are totally depraved, dead in sin, and have no free will to believe in Jesus for eternal life, then God must give them the faith so that they can believe.

But this gift of faith could not be received by someone unless they were first regenerated by God. So the Calvinist argues that regeneration precedes faith.

And while we cannot disagree that this is the logical result of consistent Calvinism, it is exactly this logical result which shows one and for all that Total Depravity is not taught in Scripture.

Total Depravity leads to the belief that people are regenerated by God before they believe in Jesus; but the Bible repeatedly says that faith results in regeneration (John 1:11-13; 20:31; Gal 3:26; 1 Pet 1:23-25).

When forced to choose between the logical result of a theological position or the clear teaching of Scripture, we must choose Scripture every time.

And of course, if faith precedes regeneration, as Scripture states, then this also calls into question the theological premises which led up to this idea, namely, that people are unable to believe and so God must give them the gift of faith.

https://redeeminggod.com/regeneration-follows-faith/

Total Depravity, Faith in Christ, and Regeneration

Thinking on Scripture with Dr. Steven R. Cook

Total depravity is the biblical doctrine that sin permeates all aspects of our being—mind, will, and sensibilities. For Strict-Calvinists, total depravity means total inability. That is, lost sinners cannot respond to God at all, as they are spiritually unable (dead) to respond apart from God’s granting life and ability to believe. This leads them to conclude two things. First, God sovereignly acts by Himself to regenerate the spiritually dead and make them spiritually alive (monergism). Second, God gives the newly regenerate a special kind of faith whereby they can and will trust in Christ as Savior. 

However, the Biblicist takes a different view. He understands that total depravity means total unworthiness, not total inability to respond in faith to God’s offer of salvation. He sees regeneration as entirely the work of God in saving lost sinners who cannot save themselves (Rom 5:6-10). The sinner brings nothing of worth to salvation, but receives all that God has to offer by grace. Regeneration follows faith in Christ. 

https://thinkingonscripture.com/tag/faith-precedes-regeneration/



Faith and Regeneration Take Place Simultaneously

It's impossible to be saved and not be regenerated.  It's impossible to be regenerated and not be saved.  Every born again person is saved. It is a Biblical absurdity to suggest that a person is saved and regenerated and at some later point of time becomes a believer in Christ.  Faith and regeneration take place simultaneously.  They both take place at the same instant of time.  One is the response of a lost, sinful man to the gospel; the other is the supernatural work of God.

Today there are those of a Reformed persuasion who teach that regeneration precedes faith. They would say that a person must be born again before he believes. They would say that a person must have God’s LIFE before he can believe on Christ. C. D. Cole states it this way: "The Calvinist says that life must precede faith, and is logically the cause of faith. Faith did not cause the new birth, the new birth caused faith." [From a tract entitled Which Comes First In Conversion--Life or Faith? By C.D.Cole, published by Chapel Library, Venice, Florida].

Why do such men teach this? "Extreme Calvinists put the new birth before faith, since they believe that spiritually dead humans cannot exercise faith and, therefore, need to be born again before they can believe" [C. Gordon Olson, Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism, p. 39]. The doctrine of man’s total depravity has been carried to the extreme by some Calvinists resulting in a wrong understanding of man’s inability. They believe that the sinner is dead in sin and therefore he is like a corpse, totally unable to do anything. They believe he first must be regenerated and have life and only then will he be able to believe the gospel.  But the Scripture teaches that he must believe in order to have life (John 20:31).

The common Calvinist argument is this:  "The depraved sinner is said to be DEAD (Eph. 2:1). Since he is dead it is impossible for him to believe. A dead corpse cannot do anything."   But Paul in Ephesians 2:1 is speaking of spiritual death and to compare spiritual death with physical death is problematic.  A person who is physically dead cannot speak, cannot breathe, cannot laugh, cannot walk, etc.  But a spiritually dead person can do all of these things.  It's wrong to say that a spiritually dead person can do nothing.  Even the Calvinist would have to admit that he can reject Jesus Christ, he can pray, he can read the Bible, he can sin and he can even do good works in a vain effort to try to earn his salvation.  He has ability to do all of these things. 

https://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/reformed/regenera.htm