No didn't see that link.
It's pretty easy to see that faith is a gift of God. The question of why does one person believe and another one doesn't? God works in their lives to bring about a humble and contrite heart that is good soil for the Seed to grow into faith in Jesus finished work alone.
Perhaps in some people the process of regeneration equals new birth and automatic faith in the gospel.
I always believed that the point a person is born again is when they receive the Holy Spirit and that only happens AFTER the confession of faith in Jesus from the heart by the mouth. Its a work of God to get a person to that point,but I don't believe a person can be truly called Christian without the Confession of faith and seal of the Holy Spirit. Before that point, I believe they can fall away because they don't acknowledge having a personal intimate relationship with God. The worries of the world or temptation of riches, or Satan can steal all thoughts of God and their need for a Savior from their mind.
I still have a hard time accepting that regeneration means rebirth or to be born again.
I see it as when God restore the natural state of Adam before the fall to mankind. That God freed everyone from the curse of Adam's sin, and gave them the Law. However like Adam, we all fail in keeping it fully. Therefore it's not Adam's sin that condemns us, but our own,
By God's grace He gives us a Savior, if we but believe He can wash us clean.
God gives us the faith by His grace to believe and I don't believe He gives this faith to everyone. He gives the gospel to everyone but only those who have good soil will grow faith that causes confession that causes the Holy Spirit to come and make people born again children of God. God makes the good soil by showing us the rocks and thorns in our hearts and mind through the Law and our inability to keep it and our life circumstances.
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So the concept that people are born again before confessing faith in Jesus seems to me to be at odds with scripture.
I will have to go back and re-read them.
It's pretty easy to see that faith is a gift of God. The question of why does one person believe and another one doesn't? God works in their lives to bring about a humble and contrite heart that is good soil for the Seed to grow into faith in Jesus finished work alone.
Perhaps in some people the process of regeneration equals new birth and automatic faith in the gospel.
I always believed that the point a person is born again is when they receive the Holy Spirit and that only happens AFTER the confession of faith in Jesus from the heart by the mouth. Its a work of God to get a person to that point,but I don't believe a person can be truly called Christian without the Confession of faith and seal of the Holy Spirit. Before that point, I believe they can fall away because they don't acknowledge having a personal intimate relationship with God. The worries of the world or temptation of riches, or Satan can steal all thoughts of God and their need for a Savior from their mind.
I still have a hard time accepting that regeneration means rebirth or to be born again.
I see it as when God restore the natural state of Adam before the fall to mankind. That God freed everyone from the curse of Adam's sin, and gave them the Law. However like Adam, we all fail in keeping it fully. Therefore it's not Adam's sin that condemns us, but our own,
By God's grace He gives us a Savior, if we but believe He can wash us clean.
God gives us the faith by His grace to believe and I don't believe He gives this faith to everyone. He gives the gospel to everyone but only those who have good soil will grow faith that causes confession that causes the Holy Spirit to come and make people born again children of God. God makes the good soil by showing us the rocks and thorns in our hearts and mind through the Law and our inability to keep it and our life circumstances.
****
So the concept that people are born again before confessing faith in Jesus seems to me to be at odds with scripture.
I will have to go back and re-read them.
Which is kind of the reason we don't entirely get it.
It seems to us that we are brought slowly to regeneration or re-birth, the state of being born again. But I think the only thing slow about it is our recognition or understanding of what has happened inside of us.
Galatians 5:22-23
[FONT="]22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,[/FONT]
[FONT="]23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
One of the fruits of the spirit is Faith. We think this faith comes from ourselves and we are the cause of our profession of Christ and coming to Him to be reborn.
But when we study and put all the scripture together we find out that it is the Lord who has led us all along.
We didn't start out with anything that gave us an advantage over anyone else. We weren't smarter. We weren't more righteous. We didn't have more faith. We were given a Gift. And we learned that this gift is comprised of many blessings. I don't think we have learned what all of those blessings are yet.
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