What About Asia?
Sailing vessel of the coast of Turkey (Asia Minor).
QUESTIONS
"Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them." (Acts 16:6-7)
If what the Primitive Baptists are saying is true, then what occurred in the first century with the preaching of the gospel is that the men of Asia were are able to be saved but not able to be converted, right? Now the Primitive Baptists do typically teach that all who are regenerated will also believe the gospel. So apparently the Holy Spirit would not regenerate anyone in Asia since He was not permitting them to be converted. The Primitive Baptist teaching of regeneration apart from the gospel is designed to show that the Holy Spirit is not bound by the reach of the gospel for Him to work regeneration in men. They say that those who teach a connection between regeneration and faith in the gospel are improperly seeking to tie the hands of the Holy Spirit. But apparently in the case of the men in Asia, He was not so free to regenerate just anyone. He restricted Himself, just as He does in regenerating men only in places where He sends the gospel.
ANSWER
Let’s break this statement down for further examination:
If what the Primitive Baptists are saying is true, then what occurred in the first century with the preaching of the gospel is that the men of Asia were are able to be saved but not able to be converted, right?
This assumption is poorly reasoned and unwarranted for numerous reasons. First of all, God has a timing for things and his timing is often different from ours. During the Lord’s ministry, He taught, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:5-6) Does this prove that Samaritans could not be converted? No. The Lord himself converted some Samaritans during his ministry (John 4). The Lord’s command to avoid ministering to Gentiles at a particular time does not prove that Gentiles could never be converted. It demonstrates that God’s timing is not our timing. That the Lord had a purpose for not preaching in Asia at that time is evident, but this command was not a permanent moratorium on conversion in Asia. The gospel was later preached in Asia, men were converted, and this fact destroys the premise of the objection. Simply put, Acts 16:6-7 does not prove that men of Asia were unable to be converted, though it prevented gospel conversion for a season.
Where the regenerate but unconverted are concerned, it is an indisputable bible fact that none of the OT saints were ever “converted” in an explicit NT gospel sense. They never heard the explicit message of I Corinthians 15:3-4 or II Corinthians 5:21. To be offended that there are eternally saved, regenerated men who never receive explicit NT gospel conversion is nothing other than being offended by scripture – clearly this is the case for MANY of God’s people by God’s own design as revealed to us in the OT. We must keep in mind that God’s people are eternally saved by what God did, not by some requisite degree of gospel revelation they encounter, understand, or embrace in conversion during their natural lives. That point is not debatable among those who believe in monergistic eternal salvation by sovereign grace, but it does deserve more consideration by many who name the name of Christ.
Now the Primitive Baptists do typically teach that all who are regenerated will also believe the gospel.
No. We don’t. This statement is not very familiar with what we believe. In my experience, Primitive Baptists plainly state that ALL of God’s covenant people are regenerated between conception and death (i.e., eternally saved) but that not all of them hear and believe the gospel during their natural lives.
So apparently the Holy Spirit would not regenerate anyone in Asia since He was not permitting them to be converted.
That is an unnecessary conclusion based on both poor reason and a poor presupposition about what Primitive Baptists believe. The position stated here is akin to Lorraine Boettner’s Calvinism that claims – Those who never hear the gospel are evidently not of God’s elect (paraphrasing). Since there is no distinction in that theology between regeneration and conversion, and since the gospel is presupposed as the instrumental means of regeneration, it follows that where there is no gospel there is also no presence of the elect, from their point of view. In my experience, Primitive Baptists reject this notion in no uncertain terms, and if any can be found playing around with this idea, they are straying off into Calvinism.
Stated plainly, we do not believe that all of the elect are gospel-converted during their natural lives. We submit the Old Testament as an indisputable monument to this truth. Additionally, we would point to the salvation of the infant and the imbecile as further proof. Moreover, I submit that those die with an Arminian profession of faith are likewise not gospel converted during their natural lives, though I do not doubt that they were regenerate. Many such people are God-fearing lovers of God – albeit with an understanding of their salvation that has been distorted by tradition and ignorance.
The Primitive Baptist teaching of regeneration apart from the gospel is designed to show that the Holy Spirit is not bound by the reach of the gospel for Him to work regeneration in men.
That is not true. Our position is not “designed” to do anything. What we believe is our sincere understanding of the following biblical precepts that all of God’s people should embrace:
Man’s abject depravity and inability to receive spiritual truth in such a state (I Corinthians 2:14).
The Lord’s own testimony that a man must be born again in order to have the spiritual perception required to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3)
The Lord’s statement that one must be “of God” in order to hear the Lord’s words, such as gospel truth. (John 8:47)
The fact that the gospel domain is too small to account for the OT saints in the bible (Hebrews 11).
That there is ONE mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:5) and if the gospel is instrumental in imparting eternal life to God’s people then there are TWO mediators between God in men where eternal life is concerned, because ALL gospel preaching is mediation. ... and many other such observations.
They say that those who teach a connection between regeneration and faith in the gospel are improperly seeking to tie the hands of the Holy Spirit.
I’ve never heard that said, though I don’t think it is necessarily inconsistent with PB beliefs. We believe that God has the power to impart spiritual life to men directly even as he imparted natural life unto Adam without any human mediation whatsoever. Moreover, we assert that the gospel never plays ANY role in this impartation of life, but that God himself does the speaking directly. It is a fiat call from death unto life, not a gospel call unto an understanding of the mechanics of eternal salvation. The former brings vitality, the latter vital benefit. A glass of water is beneficial but it assumes a living subject as its partaker. Apart from being made thirsty via the new birth, gospel water will find no takers.
But apparently in the case of the men in Asia, He was not so free to regenerate just anyone.
That is a totally unwarranted assumption erected upon addled reasoning and an incorrect representation of our beliefs. God can and does regenerate those he covenanted to regenerate irrespective of gospel distribution. He could choose to send them the explicit NT gospel as he did to the church at Corinth, or not as in the case of Job or Abijah. The domain of gospel distribution has NOTHING to do with the domain of the elect on this earth, nothing whatsoever. Neither does it exert any influential force upon God’s freedom to regenerate those he purposed to regenerate.
He restricted Himself, just as He does in regenerating men only in places where He sends the gospel.
We would not deny that “restrictions” are a part of God’s saving plan. Indeed, limited atonement restricts the atoning work of Christ to the elect. We believe it is evident from any sober reading of the bible that the domain of gospel distribution is smaller than the domain of God’s elect and that the Old Testament is an irrefutable monument to this fact (Hebrews 11).
- Elder Daniel Samons