Sword & Trowel 2015: Issue 1 LRBS ONLINE SEMINARY
• 395 is the current total enrolment on the online course of the London Reformed Baptist Seminary
• 293 have enrolled directly on the on-line course • 102 men have transferred from the ‘live’ part-time course • The 395 men come from over 50 different countries • The overwhelming majority of seminarians are serving preachers
Since the online course began, over 800 assignments have been sub- mitted online through the LRBS website, with assessment and feedback advice given by the assignments tutor, Pastor Roger Brazier.
About 50 members of the course are from Spanish-speaking countries. They mostly follow the course as auditors, and do not submit assign- ments. There has been an increase in the number of Spanish-speaking applicants since October 2014 when Spanish interpretation of lectures commenced. For further details, please see the Tabernacle website.
because regeneration inevitably leads into complete conversion. Berkhof says there is an initial
process, followed by a birthing pro- cess (these are his terms) in which a person is brought to repentance, faith and then to ‘visible’ birth. Regenera- tion is up front, giving rise to the full process. Regeneration, says Berkhof, is initially subconscious and invisible, leading to conviction, need and repentance, when ‘new life is brought forth out of its secret depths’. He does not have the instantaneous, unconscious, all-embracing regenera- tion that is gaining ground today. True regeneration does not eliminate the mental, moral, spiritual crisis of conversion, but it certainly makes the outcome inevitable. John Owen said that regeneration
produced the will for conversion. He held to a prolonged process. People
say, how prolonged? Weeks, months, years? More likely a very short time. The question comes up – ‘Sup- posing someone is regenerated, but dies before conversion is complete?’ We can only reply with the words of Philippians 1.6: ‘he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it…’ God is the architect of conversion, and he surely would not regener- ate someone and leave them to die before the work was accomplished.
Conscious conversion process
Puritan Thomas Goodwin em- phasised the gentleness of the whole conscious conversion process in these words: ‘God does not always come with a predominant power, but sweetly insinuates himself, and gently slides into a man’s heart, and min- gles his power and Spirit with theirs, in compliance with the pace of the natural motions of their hearts.’ This
Regeneration and Gospel Persuasion page 13
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