Violating Depravity

Gospel regeneration is a violation of total depravity. In my experience, this observation is very hard for Calvinists to accept, given their penchant for “Tiptoeing through the TULIPs.” Ironically, the biggest opponent of Calvinism’s gospel means doctrine of regeneration is found lurking within Calvinism itself in the form of total depravity.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY and GOSPEL REGENERATION CANNOT CO-EXIST

Biblical truth is systematic and doctrines have unavoidable ramifications. If total depravity is true then you cannot simply choose to ignore it when it comes to formulating one’s doctrine of regeneration. A natural man’s inability to receive gospel truth is a function of total depravity. So, when Paul says they can’t receive truth, they can’t. Period. End of story. (I Corinthians 2:14)

“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” (Psalm 10:4)

“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:11-12)

Since the unregenerate have no reception of spiritual truth it follows that applying gospel truth cannot alter that fact. Adding more of what admittedly doesn’t work still doesn’t work. When pressed on the matter, many Calvinists seek refuge in statements like, “Well, it’s not the gospel that regenerates, but the Spirit.” In so doing, they take a step in the right direction, but as long as they insist that the gospel must be instrumentally involved, they likewise are insisting that natural or human means are involved. In so doing, they end up suggesting that the flesh profiteth something, rather than nothing (John 6:63). Gospel preaching is the mediation of truth. If it is in the critical path for eternal salvation, then Christ is not the “one mediator” in eternal salvation as the bible claims.

”For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (I Timothy 2:5)

If gospel regeneration is true, then the mediatorial work of the gospel preacher is just as critical to eternal salvation as the death of Christ. Without the gospel preacher, Christ’s work accomplishes absolutely nothing. That is an obnoxious and blasphemous idea that should cause any gospel regenerationist to reconsider their understanding of regeneration and the utility of the gospel.

IHSR is Essential to a Proper Understanding of Salvation by Grace

As one pursues the dilemma created by trying to embrace both gospel regeneration and total depravity, one discovers why immediate Holy Spirit regeneration (IHSR) is the teaching of the word of God. The well grounded, biblical doctrine of total depravity is impossible to jettison. As a result it is gospel means that must be rejected. The explanatory power of IHRS in understanding one’s own spiritual journey cannot be underestimated. It is absolutely essential to a proper understanding of monergistic, eternal salvation by sovereign grace and is the foundation for understanding conditional time salvation in discipleship.

- Elder Daniel Samons