R.C. Sproul's view "Regeneration Precedes Faith"

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Steve7150,

Sorry, my mistake. I read your post after a long hard day. It is clear to me now.

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I hadn’t thought that matter through very carefully. Nor had I listened carefully to Jesus’ words to Nicodemus.

Maybe if he had thought the matter through in any kind of careful manner, went to God in prayer, and searched the scriptures thoroughly, he would have been established and grounded in the truth about this biblical topic. Jesus' words to Nicodemus doesn't support Calvinism anyways, so listening carefully to to Jesus words here doesn't help him (Sproul).

Steve Gregg said the following on this verse in a past dialogue:
John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot SEE the kingdom of God." (NASB

On the matter of Nicodemus not "seeing" the kingdom without being regenerated, it is necessary not to misunderstand the idiom of "seeing" as John uses it. You have interpreted the word "see" to mean "understand, comprehend, BELIEVE." This is not the likely sense in which the term is used in this context.

At the end of the same chapter, John says, "He that does not believe shall not SEE life" (John 3:36).

Jesus, later said, "if anyone keeps my word, he will never SEE death" (John 8:51). His adversaries understood the idiom and rephrased it "shall never TASTE death"(v.52).

It is clear that "SEE" is being used in these cases as synonymous with the idea of "experience." Thus the statement that, without rebirth, Nicodemus cannot "see" the kingdom, means exactly the same thing as the statement two verses later which uses the phrase "enter the kingdom." The expressions are interchangeable.

Calvinists and non-Calvinsts alike believe that one must be born again in order to experience the kingdom, but the non-Calvinist asks, "What must one do in order to be born again?" Nicodemus asked the same question, when he said, "How can these things be?"

The answer of Jesus was that which is everywhere affirmed in scripture: "Whosoever believes...shall have everlasting life [that is, “shall be regenerated,” apparently as a consequence of believing]."

Jesus did not say, "Whosoever has everlasting life shall believe." This idea is never found in scripture, and would be a helpful thing for one of the writers to have informed us about, since the concept is otherwise so counterintuitive. It is, perhaps, the absence of any such statement in scripture that kept the church from ever believing such things until Augustine, by mixing Greek philosophy, introduced the strange concept.

You are right in observing that Jesus expressed surprise that Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel did not grasp such things. This astonishment resembles Jesus’ marveling at the lack of faith of the people of Nazareth (Mark 6:6). If people are naturally incapable of perception and faith, what is there to marvel at?

Jesus' astonishment indicates that He would have expected this man (though as yet unregenerated) to be capable of grasping this truth when it was told to him. In this, as in many other points, Jesus did not act as one who holds Calvinistic convictions about the universal dullness of the unregenerate. That a religious leader should be so obtuse is surprising (even to Jesus), but not unprecedented nor without modern parallels.

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R.C. Sproul said:

I assumed that even though I was a sinner, a person born of the flesh and living in the flesh, I still had a little island of righteousness, a tiny deposit of spiritual power left within my soul to enable me to respond to the Gospel on my own.

This assumption, (though in his mind he later perceived this to be incorrect) is partially correct and biblical! Let me explain. From my understanding of the Word of God, these things do not originate within a lost unregenerate person. They come from God. Yet they do enter into the life of a lost soul before being made alive by God. See the relevant Scriptures:

(Ecc 8:4) Where the word of a king is, there is power;
(Ps 119:11) Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
(John 18:37) Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king.

Notice that Jesus is a King, and where His word is, there is power. In the book of Psalms, we read that David hid His word in his heart, that he might not sin against God. So from this line of thinking, God's Word gave David the ability to resist the power of sin. So if God's word gave David who was a believer the ability to not sin, then it can also give an unbeliever the power to choose to exercise faith in Christ from the heart.

(1 Pet 1:23) ...having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.

(Rom. 1:16); "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek"

We read Paul saying that there is one who plants (the Word of God which is likened unto seed), one who waters, and it is God who gives the increase. (1 Cor. 3:6-7) So it is certain that these two things, the implantation of the Word of God and the watering happen before a person is born again. These things here enables one to respond to the gospel.

Thank D. FISK HARRIS for the following which is from his book CALVINISM: CONTRARY TO GOD'S WORD AND MAN'S MORAL NATURE

Faith is so much a personal choice that it is said to belong to the individual by whom it is exercised:

"But Jesus turned him about; and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, he of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole" (Matt. 9:22). "And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way" (Mark 10:52). To the woman who was a sinner, and yet who "loved much," the Master said, "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace" (Luke 10:50). Of the ten lepers who were healed, only one returned to the Saviour to give thanks, to whom he said, "Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole" (17:19 ). "For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Rom. 6:3). What was counted unto Abraham for righteousness? Faith. Whose faith? His own.

God's work is advanced or hindered in the exact proportion as Faith is or is not exercised:

Jesus marvelled at the faith of the centurion, and said, "Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee" (Matt. 8:13). To the two blind men the Master puts the searching question "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" Receiving an affirmative answer, he said, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29). To Jairus, Christ said, "Be not afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). To the father who had a son with a dumb spirit, and who was bordering on unbelief, Jesus said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). True, these passages refer to physical healing; but if a moral state or attitude of the mind is required to heal a physical malady, shall anything less be required for the disease of the soul? Moreover, let us not forget that in all the gracious works of Jesus he sought to impress the mind that he who could heal the body, could, and if he were allowed, would heal the soul. To the disciples all things were conditioned on the exercise of faith. "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24). (5) Unbelief, the great sin, and that which absolutely deters God from saving. This is susceptible of several presentations; viz., (a) The disciples are mildly rebuked for not having faith. Peter's unbelief while walking on the water is reproved by the Master, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matt. 14:31). The father of the lunatic son must have been surprised at the failure of the disciples to cast out the evil spirit. When Jesus heard of it he said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:17,19,20). The foolish fears of the disciples while in the storm on the Sea of Galilee, are kindly rebuked by the Master, who "said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith" (Mark 4:40)? While Jesus is teaching the nature of human forgiveness, the apostles exclaimed, "Lord increase our faith." Doubtless this was a very sincere and laudable desire: but so far from the Master granting it in any positive sense--he proceeds to show them that it is their duty to have faith (Luke 18:3-10). Thomas was called "faithless" because he would not believe without seeing and feeling the nail-prints: nor was he as blessed as they who had not seen, and yet had believed. (John 20:25, 27, 29.) (b) We are warned against unbelief. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Heb. 3:12; 4:1,11). (c) God's Ancient People lost through unbelief. "Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed test he also spare not thee" ( Rom. 11: 19-21). "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:17-19). "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." "Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief" (4:2,6). "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him" (2:1-3). (d) The same condemnation rested on the Jews in the time of Christ. "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18 ). "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (8:24). Speaking of the Holy Spirit the Master said, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Why of sin? "Because they believe not on me" (16:8,9). The dying Stephen justly said, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51). (e) The Saviour was deterred by unbelief. "And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief" (Mark 6:5, 6). The only escape possible to the Calvinist is to assert that when men do not believe, God never intended they should. But as we have seen in a previous chapter this is not tenable; not only because the language of the Bible unequivocally condemns it, but also because it irresistibly leads to the charge of insincerity on the part of God. Salvation is conditional. Faith in the divine promises is the condition which man must fulfill before God can save.

In this connection the reader may profitably notice the eleventh chapter of Hebrews which is devoted to the triumphs of faith. While it is true that the writer had no intention of unduly magnifying the individual so as to allow any room for boasting, yet beyond all controversy, each person's faith is designated as his own; moreover because faith is a moral quality--a right attitude of the souls--those who are here enumerated are deservedly praised. Such is our moral nature, that when we do right a sense of approval--of complacency spontaneously arises. So far forth this intrinsically belongs to the person whose conscience says, You have done right. Hence "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh" (v. 5). Gregory the Great, cited by Delitzsch, says, "All that is given to God, is weighed according to the disposition of its giver: whence it is written, 'God had regard to Abel, and to his gifts, but had no regard to Cain and his gifts. The Scripture does not say, 'He regarded the gifts of Abel, and did not regard the gifts of Cain,' but first says, that 'He regarded Abel,' and then adds, 'and his gifts.' So we see that it was not the gifts which made Abel to be acceptable, but Abel who made the gifts to be so."