Those Calvinists who diverged from Calvin and the older Calvinists and began to restrict what is involved in being regenerated or born again have done much harm, although they thought that they were improving or refining Calvinism. I also showed in the previous chapters that the first ablest apologists for Calvinism (also known as "the doctrines of grace") believed that regeneration was by faith, resulting from a faith union with Christ. Before I begin to address the several problems that arose from Calvinists who divorced evangelical conversion via faith from regeneration I want to take a look at what a couple of the leading apologists for the born again before faith view (men such as the late Dr. R.C. Sproul and Dr. James White, a man who is well known for his hundreds of debates), said about the views of the first Calvinists of the Reformation as well as Augustine and Aquinas.
In an article titled "Regeneration Precedes Faith" by the late Dr. R.C. Sproul, a champion of the view that regeneration precedes faith (available to read here), Sproul wrote the following (emphasis mine):
"When I began to wrestle with the Professor's argument, I was surprised to learn that his strange-sounding teaching was not novel. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield - even the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas taught this doctrine...Aquinas insisted that regenerating grace is operative grace, not cooperative grace. Aquinas spoke of prevenient grace, but he spoke of a grace that comes before faith, which is regeneration."
This is a common, yet baseless, claim by Calvinists who espouse the born again before faith view. The Calvinists Sproul mentions, with the exceptions of Thomas Aquinas the Catholic, and Luther the Lutheran, did not believe that a person was born again before faith, and neither did Aquinas or Luther. I have already cited from Luther who said that sinners are born again by faith, which is also what John Calvin said. Neither did Augustine teach it. I cited from Augustine in the previous chapter and showed that he did not believe sinners were born again before faith. Augustine even believed that believers were born again in water baptism. Neither did Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield teach the born again before faith view. Sproul makes such statements and gives no evidence to support his claim. He is deceiving people about the history of this view among Reformation Calvinists or Predestinarians. Sproul then wrote:
"These giants of Christian history derived their view from Holy Scripture. The key phrase in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians is this: "...even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have you been saved)" (Eph. 2:5). Here Paul locates the time when regeneration occurs. It takes place 'when we were dead.' With one thunderbolt of apostolic revelation all attempts to give the initiative in regeneration to man are smashed. Again, dead men do not cooperate with grace. Unless regeneration takes place first, there is no possibility of faith."
Why did Sproul not cite from the above "giants" where they said what Sproul said? Further, Ephesians 2: 5 that speaks of being made alive spiritually does not exclude faith preceding salvation from spiritual death. In verse eight Paul says - "for by grace are you saved through faith." That salvation is the salvation of verse one and five which is salvation from spiritual death. Sproul is not getting his argumentation from scripture when he says "dead men do not cooperate with grace." He is reading his ideas about what it means to be spiritually dead into the text and not deriving them from the text. It is this view of things that led the born again before faith Calvinists to deny that the word of God is a means in regeneration, the view which is stated in the oldest Calvinist confessions. Because of their erroneous ideas about spiritual death they say that God must first give spiritual life apart from his word or gospel in order for anyone to hear and believe the word or gospel. That is what the Hardshell Hyper Calvinists teach.
Further, as a Calvinist who believes as Calvin, Beza, Luther, et al., that sinners are born again by a God given and created faith, and union with Christ thereby, I dislike Sproul's choice of the word "cooperate" when he says "dead men to not cooperate with grace." I rather prefer other words, such as "actively respond to grace." The dry dead bones in Ezekiel being used by God to raise them to life shows that the dead bones responded to the prophesying of Ezekiel but I would not call that cooperating. Perhaps it would be better to say that dead sinners are active in their coming to life and not merely passive. It is interesting that this is so in the case of the raising to life of dead Lazarus.
"And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." (John 11: 43, 44)
"Came forth" is from the Greek word "exēlthen" (from ek and erchomai) and is third person second aorist indicative active. Why is this in the active voice? Is not being resurrected supposed to be all passive? The "coming forth" was 1) a command addressed to Lazarus's spirit, which was conscious in the realm of the dead, to leave that realm and to enter his body, and 2) for his reunited spirit and body to exit the tomb. In my series on sinners being both passive and active in being raised to spiritual life I address this issue. The Calvinists of the born again before faith view went to extremes when they said that in the whole of regeneration a sinner is completely passive but becomes active in conversion after his regeneration.
"Came forth" is from the Greek word "exēlthen" (from ek and erchomai) and is third person second aorist indicative active. Why is this in the active voice? Is not being resurrected supposed to be all passive? The "coming forth" was 1) a command addressed to Lazarus's spirit, which was conscious in the realm of the dead, to leave that realm and to enter his body, and 2) for his reunited spirit and body to exit the tomb. In my series on sinners being both passive and active in being raised to spiritual life I address this issue. The Calvinists of the born again before faith view went to extremes when they said that in the whole of regeneration a sinner is completely passive but becomes active in conversion after his regeneration.
I also reject Sproul's idea that dead sinners receive no grace prior to salvation (or regeneration). I know he believes in "common grace" which is enjoyed by unregenerate sinners. I also know that he rejects "prevenient grace," although common grace is a case of prevenient grace. See my ongoing series "Prevenient Grace." Many Calvinists believe that some grace is given prior to being saved.
Sproul and others of his ilk will not allow that sinners experience any grace leading to salvation prior to obtaining regenerating grace. That is not the view of the older Reformation Calvinists, or of the Puritan Calvinists. They taught that there were common operations of the Spirit which preceded salvation (and in the case of the elect these operations were effectual graces), such as being "awakened" to see one's lost condition and need of salvation, of being convicted of sin by the law or by the gospel, etc. They also rightly saw how hearing the gospel of salvation was a being given divine grace. See my series "Awakened Sinners."
Stephen Charnock (1628-1680) wrote the following in "Efficient of Regeneration" (read here):
"The soul must be beaten down by conviction before it be raised up by regeneration; There must be some apprehensions of the necessity of it. Yet sometimes the work of regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these precious preparations, that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and the same hand. Paul on the sudden was struck down. and in a moment there is both an acknowledgement of the authority of Christ, and a submission to his will, when he said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Acts ix. 6. The preparation of the subject is necessary, but this preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the divine nature: as a warm seal may both prepare the hard wax, and convey the image to it, by one and the same touch."
"The soul must be beaten down by conviction before it be raised up by regeneration; There must be some apprehensions of the necessity of it. Yet sometimes the work of regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these precious preparations, that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and the same hand. Paul on the sudden was struck down. and in a moment there is both an acknowledgement of the authority of Christ, and a submission to his will, when he said, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Acts ix. 6. The preparation of the subject is necessary, but this preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the divine nature: as a warm seal may both prepare the hard wax, and convey the image to it, by one and the same touch."
Conviction of sin and recognition of one's need of salvation through Christ is certainly a grace that precedes regeneration. The error of Sproul and his ilk is that they have regeneration occurring "too soon" in the things leading to regeneration. Some of them, like the Hardshell "Primitive Baptists," push it so far back that they say that anyone who is convicted of sin is already regenerated even before he ever believes in Christ. Charnock speaks of "preparations" for regeneration as did the Puritan Calvinists and as did Jonathan Edwards. See my series "Prevenient Grace."
Said George Whitefield in agreement:
"Conviction will always precede spiritual conversion. You may be convicted without being converted, but you cannot be converted without being convicted." ("Repentance and Conversion" - SEE HERE)
Wrote Thomas Boston in agreement (emphasis mine):
"Some have sharp convictions for a while: but these go off, and they become as careless about their salvation, and as profane as ever, and usually worse than ever; "their last state is worse than their first," Matt. 12:45. They get awakening grace—but not converting grace; and that goes off by degrees, as the light of the declining day, until it issues in midnight darkness." (here)
John Owen (1616-1683) addresses the subject in the third volume of his Works in a section entitled, "Works of the Holy Spirit Preparatory Unto Regeneration." Owen writes:
"Ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works, or workings in and upon the souls of men, that are antecedent and dispositive unto it [i.e. regeneration]. But yet regeneration doth not consist in them, nor can it be educed out of them."
"Ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works, or workings in and upon the souls of men, that are antecedent and dispositive unto it [i.e. regeneration]. But yet regeneration doth not consist in them, nor can it be educed out of them."
What grace is given to sinners before their regeneration? First, as stated, those who hear the gospel and the gracious invitations of Christ to sinners to come to him for salvation are receiving grace, and some will not be saved by having that grace, while others, the elect, will see that the grace of the gospel will bring them to the grace of salvation. Paul often called the gospel a grace of God, even saying "the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." (Titus 2: 11) All men enjoy some degree of "the goodness of God" and this is an instance of grace that God desires that it leads them to repentance. (Rom. 2: 4) All who were blessed to hear the Son of God preach "marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth." (Luke 4: 22) To experience "godly sorrow" is a result of grace, especially when it "brings that repentance that leads to salvation." (II Cor. 7: 10)
Jesus taught that spiritual life and salvation are the result of coming to him. He also taught that prior to this coming God the Father taught the dead sinner and drew him to Christ. (John 6: 44-45) So, we cannot say that the first receiving of grace is regeneration as Sproul and the born again before faith Calvinists want us to believe.
In an Internet article titled "Union with Christ Is at the Heart of Reformation Theology" by Matthew Bingham (See here at Crossway.org), Bingham rightly shows, as have others, such as Richard Muller, how Calvin and the first Calvinists put union with Christ by faith first in their ordo salutis. He wrote (emphasis mine):
"And Bunyan was not alone in this thinking. Whether we examine pioneering sixteenth-century Reformed theologians such as John Calvin and Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562), post-Reformation thinkers such as Jerome Zanchi (1516–1590) and Theodore Beza (1519–1605), or English divines such as William Perkins (1558–1602) and William Ames, the conclusion is the same: union with Christ is the controlling idea from which flows the entirety of our redemption.2 Union played a central role in the theology of the English Puritans, for whom it has been described by one historian as “the existential nerve” of their piety.3 Likewise, among twentieth-century and contemporary Reformed theologians, union with Christ continues to function as the key to rightly aligning justification, sanctification, and the very idea of an authentically Christian spiritual life: “Union with Christ is really the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation not only in its application but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished work of Christ.”4"
I have been an ardent defender of the views of these "giants" of Calvinism because they rightly stuck with the scriptures and saw that 1) union with Christ must take precedence to all aspects of salvation, and 2) that union with Christ is by faith. The Calvinism of Sproul and those Calvinists who say regeneration precedes faith does not follow this order. They rather say that union with Christ precedes faith, that it is effected in regeneration apart from faith. Thus, they deny that union is by faith. I used to believe that regeneration precedes faith when I was a Hardshell Baptist Hyper Calvinist. However, I am happy that I came to see the truth about union with Christ by faith. I therefore have come to agree with Calvin and the older Calvinists in believing in this logical order:
1. God given and created faith in Christ
2. Justification, reconciliation, imputation, forgiveness
3. Regeneration, renewal, rebirth, new creation, transformation, sanctification
Bingham wrote further:
"Why has this doctrine been so important for Reformed theologians? Surely in large part it emerged organically, for as the Reformers pursued a theology driven by the principle of sola Scriptura, they couldn’t have helped but notice the centrality of union in the biblical texts themselves: “Once you have had your eyes opened to this concept of union with Christ, you will find it almost everywhere in the New Testament.”5"
Sproul, in the citation above, says that he believes that regeneration precedes faith because this is what is taught in scripture. However, Calvin and the older Calvinists did not agree with this, nor do I. Rather, the scriptures clearly teach that union with Christ by faith is first in order.
Bingham wrote further:
"But perhaps above all, union takes a central place in Reformed theology because of the way it effectively solves the puzzle of precisely how justification and sanctification relate to each other. Both blessings are necessarily present in the life of every believer because both blessings flow from the same source: Christ himself and our Spirit-wrought union with him. In a classic passage from his Institutes, John Calvin explains this as the believer’s “double grace” (duplex gratia):
Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life.8"
I have repeatedly shown how the later Calvinism of Sproul and his ilk created a huge theological problem when they said things happen in this logical/chronological order: 1) regeneration, 2) faith, 3) justification, 4) sanctification. You see by this order that they deny that regeneration is a sanctifying experience and since it is such, they then put sanctification before justification, a thing the first Calvinists rightly opposed, but which was the teaching of the Catholic church.
Bingham's sources:
1. John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Glasgow: Porteous and Hislop, 1863), 90–92.
2. Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 202–43.
3. R. Tudur Jones, “Union with Christ: The Existential Nerve of Puritan Piety,” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (1990): 186–208, https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30522
4. John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1955), 161. See also Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007); Richard Gaffin, “The Work of Christ Applied,” in Christian Dogmatics: Reformed Theology for the Church Catholic, ed. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016).
5. Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), 64.
6. Elsie Anne McKee, “Reformed Worship in the Sixteenth Century,” in Christian Worship in Reformed Churches Past and Present, ed. Lukas Vischer (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 7.
7. Ulrich Zwingli, Selected Works, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972), 2:217.
Sproul states that Jonathan Edwards of the eighteenth century taught that regeneration preceded faith. Yet this also is not true, at least for adults. In this post (here) I cited Edwards who plainly said that union with Christ is by faith and that all the aspects of salvation followed from that union. Here are some excerpts:
"So remission of sin, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, are mentioned together as what are jointly obtained by faith in Christ, Acts xxvi. 18. “That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, through faith that is in me.” Both these are without doubt implied in that passing from death to life, which Christ speaks of as the fruit of faith, and which he opposes to condemnation, John v. 24. “Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”"
"This relation or union to Christ, whereby Christians are said to be in Christ, (whatever it be,) is the ground of their right to his benefits. This needs no proof; the reason of the thing, at first blush, demonstrates it. It is exceeding evident also by Scripture, 1 John v.12. “He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life.” 1 Cor. i.30. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us–righteousness.” First we must be in him, and then he will be made righteousness or justification to us. Eph. i.6. “Who hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Our being in him is the ground or our being accepted. So it is in those unions to which the Holy Ghost has thought fit to compare this. The union of the members of the body with the head, is the ground of their partaking of the life of the head; it is the union of the branches to the stock, which is the ground of their partaking of the sap and life of the stock; it is the relation of the wife to the husband, that is the ground of her joint interest in his estate; they are looked upon, in several respects, as one in law."
"And thus it is that faith is the qualification in any person that renders it meet in the sight of God that he should be looked upon as having Christ’s satisfaction and righteousness belonging to him, viz. because it is that in him which, on his part, makes up this union between him and Christ. By what has been just now observed, it is a person’s being, according to scripture phrase, in Christ, that is the ground of having his satisfaction and merits belong to him, and a right to the benefits procured thereby. The reason of it is plain; it is easy to see how our having Christ’s merits and benefits belonging to us, following from our having (if I may so speak) Christ himself belonging to us, or our being united to him. And if so, it must also be easy to see how, or in what manner, that in a person, which on his part makes up the union between his soul and Christ, should be the thing on the account of which God looks on it as meet that he should have Christ’s merits belonging to him."
Professor Richard A. Muller is an American historian of theology and professor emeritus at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He wrote a book titled "Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation." He shows that the first Calvinists of the Reformation put union with Christ by faith first in the order of salvation. There is an excellent short video on YouTube titled "Did the Ordo Salutis Replace Union with Christ?" which addressed what Muller said in Chapter 7 "of Calvin and the Reformed Tradition." (Listen to it here)
So, when you hear Calvinists of the "born again before faith" stripe say that "the Reformers" of the 16th century believed that regeneration precedes faith, don't let them get away with saying that without challenging them to prove it. Did Sproul not know better? Was he giving a false narrative?
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