Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1 


act that accomplished every aspect of conversion instantaneously, and without the sinner’s conscious in- volvement. The person was passive, until on ‘waking’ from the divine operation, he felt the need to repent and exercise faith. The more common, traditional Calvinistic view, as we shall show, does not make regeneration, illumina- tion, conviction, newness of life, and spiritual communion – the complete bestowal of salvation – an instantane- ous matter, leaving repentance and faith as an end-fruit.


Effect on the preacher


Think about how this modern, lim- iting view of regeneration affects the preacher. He can no longer say to his hearers, ‘If you repent and put your trust in Christ, you will be saved and come to know him.’ He cannot prom- ise any further experience, because if people repent it shows that they have been entirely, fully converted. What, then, can the preacher say? He can no longer urge people to yield to Christ, or say that repentance and faith will lead to spiritual experience, for they are the ‘end’ response of an entirely accomplished salvation, im- parted in an instant to the darkened heart.


When is the moment of the entry of life into the soul? The Continental divines said that it occurred at the be- ginning of the process. Regeneration begins everything, but conversion is not entirely enclosed within it. The Puritans were different. For them, conversion began with prepa- ration of heart and understanding, mixed with struggles, before the


page 12


moment of regeneration came. This altogether enlivened the process, but often led to further conscious strug- gles as the sinner came through con- viction to repentance and faith. Only then was spiritual life and commun- ion fully revealed. What Continentals and Puritans had in common was that in both cases salvation involved a conscious process, not being en- tirely instantaneous and secret. There was a vital place for persuasion, and there was room for the struggles of the anxious seeker.


Both the Continentals and the


English Puritans had a process, not a hidden, inner ‘zap’ conversion. And it was a process in which the preacher had instrumentality, because while he could not bring conversion about, he was God’s mouthpiece for providing the arguments and the persuasions which the Holy Spirit would apply to the regenerated mind. He mattered. He had to convey the love of Christ, and the case for the Gospel. He was charged with a momentous task. He really was a fellow worker with God. An older systematic theology like that of Louis Berkhof reflects all this, for it is the old orthodoxy, express- ing the essence of the Reformers, the Continental dogmaticians, Puritans, and those who followed them down the centuries. These matters are ex- pressed with great care and balance. Regeneration is effectively divided into two related parts. There is the ‘begetting again’ (first part) and then there is ‘the new birth’ (second part). Theologians like Berkhof would say that ‘regeneration issues in conver- sion’. It was like a comet and its tail. They are never really separated,


Regeneration and Gospel Persuasion


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44