LaGrange, your explanation raises six issues that need to be answered from Scripture.
1. Is faith an effect of regeneration or hearing the Word?
Both hearing and regeneration matter, but they are not competing causes. God uses His Word, while the Spirit gives life (Rom. 10:17; John 6:63; Eph. 2:1, 5). Hearing does not establish that the spiritually dead sinner independently produces saving faith.
My Comment: Is Hearing the Word the instrumental cause? Is regeneration the efficient cause? I ask because you said regeneration and Hearing the word are not competing causes. We would say Hearing the Word as in Rom 10:17, [which Protestantism would interpret as Hearing (preaching affecting the heart) or reading scripture], is out of place. When you say “the Spirit gives life”, I think you are saying regeneration causes Faith which would be correct. Faith comes out of grace. Faith is not the first grace. Really, to is, Faith is an effect and not a cause of justification at all. So when you receive this Faith, what are you supposed to do with it? If we are saved by grace, why do we need Faith?
2. Does Acts 13:48 teach your preparation process?
Luke says, “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” The perfect passive participle tetagmenoi describes them as appointed to eternal life. The grammar alone does not prove every detail of regeneration’s timing, but the verse never mentions a resistible preparatory period, baptismal regeneration, or cooperative grace as the explanation for their believing.
My Comment: Preparation continues after Full Regeneration (born again) in the sanctification period. This is Preparation for Glorification. After we are born again, we are born into the family of God and receive our inheritance = eternal life (Rom 6:23, Gal 6:8). Eternal life, as in Acts 13:48. We must continue to prepare the rest of our lives for glorification because, although we will always be a member of the family once we are born again, through sin, we can lose our inheritance . We are called to holiness or sanctity.
3. Are all calls identical?
No. The Gospel is proclaimed outwardly, but Romans 8:30 connects God’s saving call with justification and glorification. Christ says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me” (John 6:37). You cannot erase the distinction between an invitation that may be rejected and God’s saving work by simply calling both “the same call.”
My Comment: John 6:37 All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me, I will not cast out.
The idea is that you have to keep coming. Think about the last part of the verse. Election is conditional. It’s conditional to God’s preparation of us. If we do not resist, God will complete His preparation in us. Once we are prepared, He elects us to justification (Baptism). Here’s how to interpret John 6:37:
1. God the Father calls all men (election to initial calling for preparation) (external grace and internal - sufficient grace)
2. Gods the Father calls all men that He prepared to believe (election to justification)(internal grace - efficacious grace)
3. God the Father calls all men that are justified to persevere [glorification - sanctification (live a holy life) - part of the election to justification] (internal grace - sufficient and efficacious grace]
So it’s the same thing here as in Acts 13:48. The message is that God continues calling which means He continues preparing us.
4. Does God continue calling believers?
Yes. God continues to instruct, correct, and exhort His people. But ongoing calls to obedience do not establish that the initial saving call is merely an opportunity awaiting an independently supplied response. God works in believers “both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13).
My Comment: Rather than God waiting on us during the initial Calling period before justification (full regeneration), God is doing the preparing. We’re doing either the obeying (hearing) or resisting. In Calvinism, why does God wait so long to give the effectual call?
Phil 2:13 comes in at the point of full regeneration and continues during the sanctification period, but not before the effectual call. You’re saying that rather than working with us, God is doing it alone. Let me say this: at the point of the effectual call, if God is doing it all by Himself (work of God), then God is believing and trusting in Himself. God is converting Himself. Of course, this is incorrect. Something has to originate in man. Man has to move himself.
Here’s an analogy to picture this: think of a moving walkway at the airport. The moving walkway is God’s Grace designed to move us. The end we are moving towards is God Himself and the starting point is sin. The analogy is not perfect so you have to also imagine that you have to walk too. The walkway is designed for you to walk. You get where you are going faster that way. So God is moving you while you are moving yourself.This is cooperative grace. You are moving towards God and away from sin.
Phil 2:12-13 says “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as
YOU have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only but much more now in my absence)
with fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is
God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will.”
Our interpretation of Phil 2:13 is that this shows cooperative grace. It occurs during and after justification (full regeneration). Phil 2:13 is talking about the sanctification period so this is about perseverance. Notice: in Phil 2:12 Paul says “YOU….obeyed”. This means YOU are doing something and not just God. This YOU is working and God is working. God’s Grace inables us to work [Faith that worketh through Charity (Gal 5:6)]. We receive Hope and Charity at the effectual call too. Also it says “with fear and trembling work out YOUR salvation”. YOUR salvation, not God’s salvation. THEN it says “For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish….” Paul is encouraging the Philippians to persevere and is comforting them by telling them that God is working with and in them.
5. Is grace present during sanctification?
Absolutely. The question is whether grace merely assists an independently decisive human contribution or produces the believer’s willing response. Scripture says God “granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). The sinner genuinely believes and repents, but those responses do not complete Christ’s unfinished work.
My Comment: If the sinner genuinely believes and repents, is he doing that apart from God’s Grace? Christ’s finished work enables the sinner to believe and repent but the sinner is the one who has to DO the believing and repenting and he can’t do that if the whole process is the work of God alone. Something has to originate in man.
6. Does 1 Samuel 7:3 prove prevenient grace and baptismal regeneration?
No. “Prepare your hearts unto the LORD” is a command, not an explanation of how regeneration occurs. A command establishes what people ought to do; it does not prove that fallen sinners possess independent spiritual ability or that baptism causes regeneration.
My Comment: Aquinas says Grace precedes the Law. I know you don’t think so but it does. Basically you are saying you don’t have to keep the law. We say you do. We are saying you are able to keep the law with God’s Grace (by the way, this doesn’t mean you never sin). Grace is the key here. The Jews were saying all you had to do was keep the law and you didn’t have to have faith (grace). Paul was saying you had to have faith and keep the law (Rom 3:31). Aquinas calls the gospel the “law of the gospel”. He probably said that when he was commenting on Rom 7 and other places.
