Does Regeneration Precede Faith?

Calvinism says regeneration (spiritual rebirth) precedes faith. The dogma says that men are conceived and born so morally depraved that they are incapable of faith until the Holy Spirit first works a miracle on the heart, regenerating it. Well-known, Calvinist, R.C. Sproul, affirms this in his book, What is Reformed Theology?, saying,

[U]nless we first receive the grace of regeneration, we will not and cannot respond to the gospel in a positive way. Regeneration must occur first before there can be any positive response of faith”…“Unless God changes the disposition of my sinful heart, I will never choose to cooperate with grace or embrace Christ in faith (p. 186 & 188, emphasis mine - AKR).

This is proof, as if we needed it, that a tradition often trumps the clearest of biblical texts and logic. The truth is that one gets life through faith. John says, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30). Thus faith comes from learning God’s word (also see Romans 10:17), and believing brings life.

Also, in Colossians 2:12, being “raised up” occurs “through faith.” "Through" is the key word here. In order to be given new life through faith, faith must occur logically prior to new life just as saying money comes through hard work is saying hard work precedes the money. One cannot communicate through an interpreter unless the interpreter is already there. Backwards has it Calvinism.

Additionally, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Belief then life.

In Acts 11, after the apostles and Jewish Christians of the church heard that the gentiles had believed the gospel, they glorified God because He “granted the gentiles repentance to life” (v. 18). Repentance comes from faith and life is the result of this; not the other way around. The biblical order is always the same. Always. It’s that simple.

Let’s consider two arguments that Calvinists have commonly used for regeneration preceding faith:

1. DEAD MEN DON’T CHOOSE TO RISE

In an article titled Regeneration Precedes Faith, Dr. Sproul says,

“The reason we do not cooperate with regenerating grace before it acts upon us and in us is because we can - not [sic]. We cannot because we are spiritually dead. We can no more assist the Holy Spirit in the quickening of our souls to spiritual life than Lazarus could help Jesus raise him from the dead” (emphasis mine-AKR).

The supposed idea is that a lifeless body has no capability to respond to help, and since we are “dead” in sin (Ephesians 2:5), we, just as a cadaver, are entirely unable to respond to God in faith; hence, the Holy Spirit must regenerate the lifeless soul and enable faith. The problem is that the Bible nowhere compares the sinner’s ability to believe the gospel with a corpse. The whole argument is built on a comparison never made. It is not enough to say lost sinners are “dead,” with which we all agree, but it must be demonstrated that the sinners-are-dead passages are comparing a sinner’s choosing-abilities to that of a dead body. Calvinists cannot do this.

Not only that, but if Calvinists are going to stick with this analogy, they have to accept the absurdity of guilt and responsibility to be consistent. Imagine Jesus calling out to Lazarus to come out of the tomb but not giving him life and then getting angry and punishing him for defiantly staying dead! This is exactly what Calvinists believe Jesus does with “non-elect” Lazaruses. He calls sinners to repent, doesn't give them the ability to do so, and then condemns them. The very idea is ridiculous. Ultimately, Calvinism has pressed a meaning into “spiritual death” that the Bible does not afford.

The Bible actually teaches that to be “dead in trespasses” is to be separated from God by having sinned against Him (Isa. 59:1-2), and thus to be saved is to be “made alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5-6), having those sins forgiven. This same thought is repeated in Colossians 2:13. Spiritual death is disunion with God due to the condemnation of sin. The dead-man argument of Calvinism is dead on arrival.

2. LYDIA’S OPEN HEART OPERATION

The Acts 16:14 account of Lydia’s conversion to Christianity allegedly is a prooftext for regeneration preceding faith. Edwin H. Palmer, in The Five Points of Calvinism, says,

"Not only is man unable to do the good by himself, he is not even able to understand the good. He is as blind as Cyclops with his one eye burned out. Lydia, for example, heard Paul preach Christ at the riverside of Philippi. Only after the Lord opened her heart was she able to give heed to what was said by Paul (Acts 16:14). Until then, her understanding was darkened, to use Paul’s description of the Ephesian Gentiles (Eph. 4:18)." (Emphasis mine—AKR, p. 15)

To prove Calvinism, we need the story to tell us that Lydia was an unregenerate lost sinner still in her depravity when God regenerated her so she could have faith. But that's not the story. Instead, Lydia was a “worshiper of God” according to the text, meaning she was already a sincere follower of the God of Israel. We are then told, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” It was what she had learned about God from the Old Testament scriptures that prepared her to believe the Gospel. Her heart was not opened by some mysterious supernatural work of the Spirit, but rather the Spirit was working through the influence of the word of God that she had learned previously and this was in conjunction with the gospel she heard from Paul. Persuasion of the Spirit; not force (after all, Calvinists call it irresistible grace).

Consider that in 1 Kings 11:4  we read that Solomon’s wives “turned away his heart after other gods.” Was Solomon’s heart good at one moment and then miraculously corrupted by his wives the next? Or did they “turn away” his heart through their influence? Direct or indirect? Through miracle or influence? Obviously it was their influence that led Solomon into idolatry, but ultimately the decision was his and his alone—he never lost the freedom of will.

Paul writes elsewhere that the gospel is God’s call: “It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians. 2:14). Remember that Paul was sent to the gentiles to “open their eyes” (Acts 26:18). Was Paul to miraculously enlighten them by a direct operation? Or was he to do it through a means—the gospel? We read that Paul was in the synagogue, “reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8), and again, “[H]e was explaining to them by solemnly bearing witness about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets” (Acts 28:23). No doubt, Paul was opening blind eyes by proclaiming the gospel. Lydia, believing in the God of Israel, was already prepared by God to hear the gospel and thus God "opened her heart." 

Summary Points

• In the Bible, life follows faith

• The faith-then-life order is consistently presented

• The Bible never uses the sinners-are-dead analogy to speak about a sinner’s choosing abilities

• To be consistent with their use of the “death” analogy, they must accept the absurdity of guilt and condemnation

• Lydia was not a dead sinner still depraved; she was already a “worshiper”

• Lydia’s heart was opened having been prepared by God’s previous teaching