TheThirdandReformedAdam
Puritan Board Freshman
The majority of my ministry friends believe that faith precedes regeneration. I have talked with them about this several times, showing them the impossibility of such a scenario considering the depravity of man. However, it seems that they struggle with the idea of regeneration preceding faith because they struggle with distinguishing between regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit. In other words, they see how the New Testament speaks of our changed behavior as being the result of the indwelling of the Spirit and the regenerated heart, and thus conclude the two descriptions to be referring to the same reality. What would be the best way of talking to them about this? Again, they seem to sympathize with the depravity of man and (to me) it seems they really want to say that man is morally incapable of coming to faith. However, they simply can't distinguish between regeneration and the indwelling of the Spirit.