Kuyper's Regeneration

Wrote Abraham Kuyper:

"God's work of grace runs through these three successive stages:

1st. Regeneration in its first stage, when the Lord plants the new life in the dead heart.

2d. Regeneration in its second stage, when the new-born man comes to conversion.

3d. Regeneration in its third stage, when conversion merges into sanctification.

Describing it still more closely, we say that in the first stage of regeneration, that of quickening, God works without means; in the second stage, that of conversion, He employs means, viz., the preaching of the Word; and in the third stage, that of sanctification, He uses means in addition to ourselves, whom He uses as means.

Condensing the foregoing, there is one great act of God which re-creates the corrupt sinner into a new man, viz., the comprehensive
act of regeneration, which contains three parts--quickening, conversion, and sanctification.

For the ministry of the Word it is preferable to consider only the last two, conversion and sanctification, since this is the appointed means to effect them.

It is more exhaustive, with reference to regeneration, to speak of three stages--quickening, conversion, and sanctification; altho it is customary and more practical to speak only of the last two."

See here

Kuyper is nothing but a Hyper Calvinist and a father of Hardshellism. His three stage birth model of "regeneration" is finding new adherents today and really, is the view (practically and essentially) of today's neo "Reformed" apologists, men like James White, John Piper, John MacArther, etc. If they were honest and consistent, they would come right out and say - "we agree that no means are used in the first stage of regeneration"! Then, when we say that these apologists deny means in "regeneration," we will not be accused of being false in our charges.

Let White and the above people tell us how the gospel can be a means in the first stage of regeneration. How one can be regenerated by the gospel without believing it!

More to come on this "three stage model" of the new birth. More on Kuyper, Boyce, and others on this topic. Also, a look at James 1:18 and the question of whether this "begetting" or "birthing" is a reference to a specific "second stage" of "regeneration."