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发帖数: 3781 | 1 Born Again Before Salvation?
Explaining Calvinism carefully, Palmer reiterates that no man can understand
the gospel and that this "lack of understanding is also a part of man's dep
ravity ... all minds are blind, unless they are regenerated." 17 The thoroug
hly Calvinistic London Baptist Confession of 1689 stated, "As a consequence
of his fall into a state of sin, man ... is not able, by any strength of his
own, to turn himself to God, or even to prepare himself to turn to God." 18
According to the Bible, however, and according to Christ himself, man's prob
lem is not inability. Men fail to come to Christ not because they cannot, bu
t because they will not: "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have lif
e" (John 5:40).
James White devotes an entire chapter to "The Inabilities of Man." He recite
s a long list of man's sins, of his evil, of his depravity and explains that
he is a "fallen creature, a slave to sin, spiritually dead, incapable of do
ing what is pleasing to God." He cites many scriptures concerning man's estr
angement from God and the deceitfulness of his heart, that he can no more ch
ange his heart than the leopard can change his spots, that his mind is hosti
le toward God, that no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him, an
d so forth. White declares, "The Reformed assertion is that man cannot under
stand and embrace the gospel nor respond in faith and repentance toward Chri
st without God first freeing him from sin and giving him spiritual life (reg
eneration). 19
Nowhere, however, does he cite a scripture that declares man's inability to
believe the gospel or to receive the free gift of eternal life which God off
ers to all. |
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