Regeneration Precedes Faith

[Alex Guggenheim] So let’s take a ramble down parable road and go to the address of Luke 8:4-15.

Remember, the seed is the gospel. It is thrown to the ground and the varying places it is thrown on the earth, we later learn are conditions of the heart. In other words, the earth represents the human heart.

Agree.

The question that must first be asked though is what caused the ground to be different? There is ground that cannot receive the seed in order for that seed to bear fruit. Did the good ground that received the seed cause itself to be receptive? No, obviously not. Prior to the sower coming with the seed, that ground had to be prepared to receive the seed, while the other ground was not prepared to receive seed that would produce fruit. The prior preparation would be illustrative of regeneration.

[Alex] It is quite clear here that the absence of life is from not believing, not due to a lack of election or failing to come to life so that one might believe which is exactly backwards in the parable’s order.

The absence of fruit is ultimately because the ground is not prepared, as the absence of spiritual life is because God has not regenerated the heart. The reason unregenerate man does not believe is because he is incapable of doing so, without the Holy Spirit first tilling the ground (regeneration).

[Alex] The gospel is sown into the ground and from that ground something springs up. Here we have a definite order, gospel sown into the grown and from it life comes. The seed generates and the plant life arises and in our case the gospel regenerates our spirit. There is no mistaking the order. Gospel sown and life results from gospel reception.

A better order: ground prepared, Gospel sown, life results from Gospel reception. God first brings the spiritual dead to spiritual life so that they can receive the Gospel.

[Alex] Why didn’t our Lord make it clear that it wasn’t the gospel that gave life but life was given that the gospel might…give life? I mean if you believe in regeneration before faith this is what you are left in describing or interpreting this parable, that life was given so that the gospel could be received so it in turn would give life which makes no sense at all. The absence of some kind of generation or regeneration before the gospel is sown in the construct of our Lord is a rather lethal blow.

Again, it is the Gospel that is the MEANS by which God gives life.

Your view, that natural man is capable of making a spiritual decision, is in conflict with many passages of Scripture, not least John 3:6

[John 3:6 NKJV] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit

Flesh can only produce flesh type of life, only the Spirit can produce spiritual life.

[AlexG]…introduced into the parable an element not even present with the attempt to insert the soil’s preparation being that of regeneration which is not ever even remotely mentioned by our Lord,

You are correct in that Jesus does not include anything in the parable about the soils preparation. I think that is because it is evident that the good soil is good BECAUSE it has been prepared by the sower.

I’m not a farmer (never even played one on TV) but I did work for a few weeks on a farm when I was a teenager, and I have never observed a farmer planting in a ground that has not been plowed. The point is that the soil does not prepare itself to be good, that is done by the farmer choosing which portion of the land he will plant his crop in and preparing that portion of ground for planting. The preparation, in a sense, is imposed on the soil, in opposition to the idea that the soil determines which of the 4 types it will be. As I mentioned in post 168, that illustrates the monergistic view of regeneration because regeneration is not something the recipient does, but is rather something that is done to him.

In post 69 you referenced your blog article, http://thepedestrianchristian.blogspot.com/2011/02/natural-man-and-unde… The Natural Man and Understanding the Gospel .

Glenn, who blogs at http://wisdomknowledge.wordpress.com] Wisdom and Knowlege , in responding to your post, passed along a definition of Common Grace by R.B. Thieme. Prior to presenting this definition, he noted that Theme…

[Glenn] used many of the same terms and doctrines that Calvinists do but he redefined them.

[Glenn quoting Thieme] Common Grace is grace that the entire human race receives when God the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel message, which is a spiritual language, understandable to the spiritually dead unbeliever in order that they can make a decision to believe in Christ or reject Him for salvation. Common Grace is given to everyone in the human race.

Here is the non-redefined definition of Common Grace:

http://www.gotquestions.org/common-grace.html Got Questions :

The doctrine of common grace pertains to the sovereign grace of God bestowed upon all of mankind regardless of their election. In other words, God has always bestowed His graciousness on all people in all parts of the earth at all time.

http://www.theopedia.com/Common_grace] Theopedia :

It is “common” because its benefits are experienced by the whole human race without distinction between one person and another, believers or unbelievers.

Both Calvinists and Arminians generally accept the concept of common grace in the sense of undeserved blessings which God may extend to all mankind. However, the Arminian sees this common grace including what has been termed “common sufficient grace” or the Wesleyan “universal prevenient grace” whereby the effects of the fall are offset such that all persons now have free will and the moral ability to understand spiritual things and turn to God in Christ for salvation. The Calvinist maintains that God’s common grace does not improve man’s depraved unregenerate nature, is exclusive of changing a person’s heart, and separate from his salvific purposes.

Here is the definition of Prevenient Grace from those websites:

http://www.gotquestions.org/prevenient-grace.html Got Questions :

…prevenient grace is the grace of God given to individuals that releases them from their bondage to sin and enables them to come to Christ in faith but does not guarantee that the sinner will actually do so. Thus, the efficacy of the enabling grace of God is determined not by God but by man.

http://www.theopedia.com/Universal_prevenient_grace] Theopedia :

Resistible prevenient grace is a doctrine concerning a type of grace that offsets the noetic effects of the Fall, restores man’s free will, and thus enables every person to choose to come to Christ or not.

Clearly Thieme has redefined Prevenient Grace as Common Grace.

So let’s take this common/prevenient grace and see if it fits the parable.

The first problem we encounter is the fact that Jesus notes that there are 4 types of soil. But in Thiemes view there can only be a single soil type, as the sower has prepared all the soil identically. It is left up to the soil alone to determine whether it will be the good, or one of the other 3, soils.

[AlexG] You have denied the passage’s prima facie context, simply ignored the meaning of the fact our Lord clearly identified only 1 of 4 as not believing and being saved, ignored that the remaining 3 are identically described as receiving the Word and coming to life (phuo),

You are correct that both the Luke 8:4-15 and the Mark 4:3-20 passage identify 3 of the soil types as having life. The synergist assumes that the life is of the same kind in all 3. The problem is that if one affirms that idea, one also has to affirm that spiritual life can be lost, as 2 of the 3 soil types did not produce lasting fruit. If one insists that spiritual life is permanent and cannot be lost (the Calvinistic Perseverance of the Saints) then the life of 2 of the soil types is significantly different from the life of the other.

An interesting aspect of the sowing is that the farmer is indiscriminate in his task. He broadcasts the seed everywhere, so that some lands in soil that will not produce a harvest. That’s an encouragement to evangelism, as we (the sowers) broadcast the word, since we have no knowledge of which hearer’s heart has been “tilled.” We do know that the ground (the heart) that has been prepared to receive the seed, will bring forth fruit.