Regeneration Before Repentance and Faith????

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is
as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord
endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. 1 Pet. 1:23 - 25

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. --James 1:17-18

Every once in a while, we run across a TULIP (Calvinist), who
believes that a person is born again before he repents or believes
(something that even Calvin cannot be quoted as believing). The TULIP's
contention is that a dead man cannot repent or believe, so he therefore
must be regenerated before he can do so.

Of course, this is merely damage control to fill a hole in TULIP's
unbiblical philosophy. The poor Calvinist must find a way to make a
difference between the so called elect and non-elect prior to the so
called elect's salvation. The TULIP's contention is that if repentance
and faith precede the new birth, it is therefore salvation by works. We
would agree and also contend that salvation is per God's will and is a
free gift of God and not of ourselves. We would contend that the lost
are begotten WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH and that the word of truth, the
gospel, is also a free gift per God's will.

This all boils down to what God's will really is and not what a
TULIP's will is and what God's plan is to save sinners. Now, we await
the TULIP explanation as to how the so called elect are regenerated with
or without the word of truth or Gospel and born again preceding it. God's
will is that the lost are begotten with the word of truth rather than
with some unwritten decree in eternity?

article by -- Herb Evans