The second letter of Paul's was written to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia. If they are members of the church and saints, they have already been regenerated. All of the inspired letters of the writers of the scriptures are directed to God's elect children. The first letter of Peter's was written, verse 2, to God's elect. God's children are to reconcile themselves back to God by turning away from their old sinful ways to trying to be obedient to God's word and by doing so, Phil 2:12, which was written to all the saints in Christ Jesus wich are at Philipi, they are working out their own salvation. This is called conversion, not regeneration because they were already regenerated. 1 John, Many of God's elect children that have already been regenerated do not have fellowship with God. 1 John is a plea for fellowship with God and not a plea for being eternally saved. Acts 4:12, Peter stated it plain and simple, that there is no other way by which man can be saved except by the redemptive power of Jesus upon the cross for all those that God gave him. Eternal salvation was accomplished for all those that God gave to Christ and Christ said he would not lose one of them, but raise them up at the last day, John 6:37-41. Regeneration before spiritual faith is very definantly taught in the scriptures.
Regeneration before faith is ridiculous.
All life begins with the word of God, it is not within us, it is in the word of our God through Jesus Christ which we are His messenger.
I think it is a carnal thing to have life before the word, it is not taught in scripture, you have to force in it by human reasoning.
We are born again through the word of God, not already born again. If you do not have the words of life, you have no life in you, you are born again through the enduring word of God. You can't have it any plainer than that.
If the word of God through Jesus Christ was never spoken to Saul, he would be dead today with no life in him. We would have never heard from Paul.
The elect are taught by the Father which some emphasize on no one can come to Jesus until they are drawn by the Father, but they can't be drawn without the word of life, to be taught by God.
Jesus tells us His words are Spirit and life and that His words are not His own but the Father who sent Him.
The truth and the answer is not in human reasoning about who are the ones drawn to Jesus by the Father it is in this scripture.
John 6:
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is even for the ones who were waiting for the one who will come and crush the serpents head. Who were not hoping on what they can do, but on the one who will come will do. We are hoping on the one who has already come.
1 Peter 1:
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
"His fruit was sweet to my taste." --Song of Solomon 2:3
"Faith, in the Scripture, is spoken of under the emblem of all the senses. It is sight: "Look unto me and be ye saved." It is hearing: "Hear, and your soul shall live." Faith is smelling: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia"; "thy name is as ointment poured forth." Faith is spiritual touch. By this faith the woman came behind and touched the hem of Christ's garment, and by this we handle the things of the good word of life. Faith is equally the spirit's taste. "How sweet are Thy words to my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my lips." "Except a man eat my flesh," saith Christ, "and drink my blood, there is no life in him."
This "taste" is faith in one of its highest operations. One of the first performances of faith is hearing. We hear the voice of God, not with the outward ear alone, but with the inward ear; we hear it as God's Word, and we believe it to be so; that is the "hearing" of faith. Then our mind looketh upon the truth as it is presented to us; that is to say, we understand it, we perceive its meaning; that is the "seeing" of faith. Next we discover its preciousness; we begin to admire it, and find how fragrant it is; that is faith in its "smell." Then we appropriate the mercies which are prepared for us in Christ; that is faith in its "touch." Hence follow the enjoyments, peace, delight, communion; which are faith in its "taste." Any one of these acts of faith is saving. To hear Christ's voice as the sure voice of God in the soul will save us; but that which gives true enjoyment is the aspect of faith wherein Christ, by holy taste, is received into us, and made, by inward and spiritual apprehension of His sweetness and preciousness, to be the food of our souls. It is then we sit "under His shadow with great delight," and find His fruit sweet to our taste. "
C.H Spurgeon