John 3:3, 5-8
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Do these verses say that all men are unable to believe? Nope, not one word to that effect.
John 6:44. 65
44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
65. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
Do these verses say that all men are unable to believe? Nope.
John 14:16, 17
16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Do these verses say all men are unable to believe? No again.
Romans 8:5-8
5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Do these verses say all men are unable to believe? Yes and no. While a man is carnally minded, and minds the things of the flesh they cannot believe. That does not mean necessarily that a man cannot mind the things of the Spirit and believe.
You should have gone ONE VERSE MORE;
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Now, I don't know if you simply overlooked this verse, or intentionally failed to include it, but this verse is key to understanding when a person is born again and regenerated. No man is born again until he has the INDWELLING Holy Spirit. Until the Spirit is IN YOU, you are none of Christ's.
So, when do the scriptures show a man receives the indwelling Holy Spirit? AFTER HE BELIEVES.
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith?
Paul's question demands the answer that these Galatians did not receive the indwelling Holy Spirit until after they first heard the gospel and believed. Therefore they were unregenerate when they heard and believed. This proves that the natural man can believe.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
This verse is very plain and clearly says that no man receives the Spirit until after he has believed. This proves the natural man can believe.
Acts 19:2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
This verse clearly shows Paul did not believe a person receives the indwelling Holy Spirit until after they believe. Again, this proves the natural man has the ability to believe.
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this,
they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
This passage shows several things; First it shows that natural men can understand some spiritual matters. These men clearly understood Peter's preaching that they had crucified Jesus, and that Jesus was the Christ. They were deeply convicted. They also realized the great peril they were in and asked Peter what they could do to escape such a great judgment against them.
Then Peter clearly tells them they must both repent and believe on Jesus for the remission or forgiveness of their sins, and if they do they will receive the indwelling Holy Spirit. These verses prove the natural man can clearly understand simple spiritual truths, and that they can both repent of their sins and believe.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
And I just showed you several verses that all show your Calvinistic interpretation of this verse is error. The natural man can both hear and understand the simple gospel, and he can believe if he so chooses to do so. If he believes, he then is given the indwelling Holy Spirit and is now able to understand the "deep things" of the Spirit. This is also shown in Proverbs.
Pro 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will
pour out my spirit unto you, I will
make known my words unto you.
Please note the order in this verse, it agrees with everything I have presented you in this post. First, a man turns or repents and comes to God in faith. After turning, God says he will pour out his Spirit to that man. And lastly, God says he will make his words known to that man.
I expect Winman that you will not believe a word the above Scripture teaches but you are wrong. You make the incorrect assumption that believing the above Scripture removes the role of Faith in Salvation. It is through faith that the New Birthed man is converted. It was the reformers who, at least in fairly recent Church history, promulgated the Doctrines of Grace but also insisted that Justification was by Faith alone.
You have Salvation wrapped up in a neat little package: Believe and you are saved. Salvation includes faith but Salvation is much more than that!
I believe every single word of scripture, I doubt many here at BB post scripture as often as I. I do not depend upon the creeds and teachings of men, I rely upon the scriptures. I completely disagree with the part of your statement that I bolded. A man is New Birthed THROUGH FAITH, not the oppoosite as you have argued. Romans 8:9 clearly says that no man is a spiritual man until the Holy Spirit dwells IN HIM, and I have shown you multiple verses that show a man does not receive the indwelling Spirit until AFTER he first believes.
So your Reformed view that a man must be regenerated to have the ability to believe is error, and easily refuted by much scripture. The natural man can comprehend the basics, the simple gospel. The natural man can repent, and he can believe the gospel. Only after believing does he receive the indwelling Holy Spirit and is now "in the Spirit".
Jhn 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Again, the scriptures are clear. Only to those men who receive Jesus Christ and believe on his name, does God give the power to be born again, to become the sons of God.
I have answered every one of your scriptures you posted, so don't come back two days from now and claim I have never responded to you. I get a little tired of this tactic, there are several here that repeatedly ask the same questions over and over (Yeshua1 comes to mind) as if they have never been answered.
I do not know why you failed to post Romans 8:9, but that is the verse where your view unravels. Whether intentional or not, it was very clever to exclude it, but not clever enough.