But Calvinists don't believe God's initiative in salvation is coercive. He doesn't say, "I'm going to make you a Christian against your will." Rather, He grants the sinner new, spiritual life, without which that sinner cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ:
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph 2:1-3 NKJV)
Saying that God "grants the sinner new, spiritual life" is word-play, as far as I can see. By "grants" do you mean God allows the sinner genuine freedom to choose, or not to choose, their spiritual-regeneration? Or do you actually mean that God unilaterally determines that the sinner will be spiritually-regenerated so that they can then respond positively to the Gospel? In my experience with Calvinists, it's usually the latter, not the former.
I understand that Calvinists want to construe "dead" (in trespasses and sins) as meaning "utterly without the capacity to respond," or something like this, but I don't think this is what Paul meant by "dead" in
Ephesians 2:1. Men in whom the Holy Spirit did not dwell in a post-Calvary, spiritually-regenerative way (e.g Job, Moses, Noah, Daniel, Cornelius) are given high praise in Scripture, called "perfect and upright," and "a just man and perfect in his generation," and "a devout man and one who feared God." Far from being presented as utterly incapable of a positive response to God - dead - in their sins, these men, sans spiritual regeneration (i.e. the indwelling Holy Spirit), lived exemplary, God-ward lives.
Paul often used "dead" to mean "separation from," or "self-sacrifice," rather than "utterly without the ability to respond." Read
Romans 6:6-11; 7:4; Colossians 3:3,
2 Timothy 2:11, etc. I think this is the sense in which he meant "dead" in
Ephesians 2:1. As you know, I'm sure, from the Fall in Eden until Christ's Resurrection, Man was spiritually
separated from God - "dead" - but this state-of-affairs has been rectified through Christ, as Paul described in
Ephesians 2:4-10 (and in
Colossians 2:9-13, Romans 6:1-11, Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, etc.). But as the biblical characters already mentioned (Job, Noah, Cornelius, etc.) demonstrate, this separation did not mean a profound, incorrigible disinterest in God, an utter "deadness" in mind and heart, toward Him.
Anyway, this thread isn't about the Calvinist
ordo salutis, or prevenient grace, but spiritual revival, so I'm won't say any more about Calvinist doctrine.
