Comments from Mike Krall
“.. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ…” 2 Th 2:13-14.
“..For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved..” Rom 10:13
“.. And many more believed because of His own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world..” Jn 4:41-42..”
Arminians generally believe that this verse encompasses the opinion that every individual of the human race can be “saved” (delivered from spiritual death) by their (voluntary) calling upon the name of the Lord when they may or might hear the word of God preached (either by audible, written or other means). Though some who are not Arminians, also hold to the doctrine of gospel regeneration, and believe that one must actually hear a sermon preached, or have read a sermon in order to be amenable to spiritual regeneration - while at the same time some of these believe that the reading of the Scriptures (or written word of God) does not qualify as having heard the Gospel actually preached, seemingly to think that there is something “magical” in the preaching of the Gospel as it is done from the hands and mouths of professing human ministers! By these statements I do not mean to demean the office of gospel ministers, as they are yet and undoubtedly the primary instruments that Christ uses to spiritually instruct His children; but I mean to support the scriptural injunction that even ministers should not think more highly of themselves than they ought, but to think soberly as God has ministered gifts to each and all - Not as ministers or instruments TO GIVE OR IMPART SPIRITUAL LIFE, but to bring LIFE AND IMMORTALITY (that already or presently dwells in every regenerated son) TO LIGHT - (and to MANIFEST these as regenerated sons) through the everlasting gospel of Christ as ministered by His Spirit through them, and working that which is well-pleasing in His sight and to His Own declarative glory.
But is the doctrine of Gospel regeneration the truth that the Apostle intends to convey here?
My sense of Romans 10 is that Paul shows the spiritual effectiveness of the glorious Gospel when preached under the provisions of (The Holy Spirit) during the New Testament Dispensation as compared with that of the Law Covenant.
Paul’s whole slant on this is to illustrate and magnify the truth that there was very little Gospel preached to God’s children until Christ-Jesus, the Son of God came into the world and finished His work of redemption for His people. And this Gospel or good news he compares with the “gospel” of the light of nature as it is revealed to the natural mind of man while yet destitute of the Spirit - which condition the majority of the Jewish nation was always in during former times, and continued in during the days of the Apostles.
Why is it that some are given to spiritually believe the Gospel in truth as it is in Christ Jesus, when others are oblivious, and indifferent to its spiritual meaning of salvation by the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ - while some seriously pervert it by adding many conditions and requirements to it - or openly reject it, still others even go so far as to abhor its teaching as being inconsistent with a righteous and just God? One would think that the Jews who “were given (and preserved) the oracles of God,” would be the first to believe the “good news” of Christ’s coming - rather than those who in general rejected Him along with the Gospel He preached Himself, and later committed unto His Apostles. Is there not an obvious reason for this, and which the Scriptures also plainly reveal to an enlightened mind?
It is obvious from nature, and as stated in the Scriptures, that God speaks to His creation (including man) in many different ways. For example as clearly stated in Romans 1, the 19th Psalm. And Hebrews 1, and which Paul had already commented on in Romans 1- and in these present verses where he brings up the 19th Psalm and also Isaiah 53:1.
Romans 10:17 is quoted by many of those who say that the condition to be met by the sinner in order for regeneration to take place in them is the hearing of the gospel preached, as when they refer to this verse, “So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” We who hold to the doctrine of unconditional election and effectual calling believe that regeneration by the operation of the Spirit always precedes saving faith, and that the dead alien sinner is completely passive in this operation. Those of the contrary view say that this verse means that one must (naturally) hear the word of God in order to receive (saving) faith, (while at the same time many inconsistently maintain that all people have a “spark” of faith from the Adamic nature that is sufficient for the job (of hearing), and further (but inconsistently) proving that the hearing of the word (preached) may cause (or provide an opportunity for) regeneration - and the effect of this “hearing” (of the gospel) may (or may not, depending upon the hearer’s response) produce a saving faith in the hearer.
Others have thought that the true Gospel is revealed in the natural creation, and that one can spiritually know and commune with God thereby with this knowledge alone. But does this idea support Paul’s comments upon the subject here where he brings in the pertinent passages from the above scriptures? I rather think the opposite is true.
I think the key to all this is HOW one is given to HEAR the Gospel, and the CONDITION of the HEARER at the time. There is a difference of ETERNAL life and SPIRITUAL life dwelling in the hearer. Eternal life is eternally in Christ, as the saints were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world; and this Life is imparted or rather infused at some time after the reception of natural life. Although I refrain from going into metaphysics when writing and speaking on the Scriptures, this could be done at any time after natural conception as was evinced during the gestation period of Elisabeth while pregnant with John the Baptist, and when John leaped for joy in her womb at the voice of salutation of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Infants and severely retarded persons (as far as we know) cannot hear the preached Gospel in an intellectual way; But most all suppose that they may hear it after a truly spiritual manner. The heart can believe where the mind may not. Spiritual things are made known only by and through the Spirit; The natural eye has not seen, nor the natural ear has not heard, neither has entered into the natural heart of man what God has prepared for them who love and wait for Him; but God has revealed it unto them by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, even the deep things of God; and this knowledge of the Gospel under consideration is certainly one of the deepest things of God. The Apostles though having long been conversant with God manifested in the flesh (Jesus) - yet must be made to really know Him as Spirit only by the revelation of the Spirit: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” And the Word that He spoke unto them was Spirit, and it was Life. And upon this rock (or principle of SPIRITUAL REVELATION to His people) has Christ built His spiritual Kingdom or called-out assembly of saints - And not upon the Pope as the natural human successor of St. Peter as the Rock of the church, as they teach and practice! Because Christ Himself is the only Rock and Foundation of His Own body, and His members are built upon the foundation of His Life and the work which He Himself did and upon the ministerial work and witness which was conveyed to the Apostles as the ministerial foundations for all faith and practice throughout the Gospel age.
1. “God has not given us two ways of salvation: one for those with rational faculties and another for those without. If hearing the Gospel is absolutely necessary for one to be regenerate and that the hearing must be understood then that leaves out those two groups just mentioned. But if the hearing of the Gospel is merely the means whereby God manifests what He has already done (and it is this way), bringing life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1:10) rather than into being, then we have a biblical warrant not to write off either those dying in infancy nor the mentally incapable. There is no getting around this conclusion without being inconsistent with the position that regeneration comes only under the Gospel. The Arminians know this and that is why they have conjured up this unbiblical idea of an age of accountability, something not taught in the written Word.”
“2. Here is a hypothetical scenario. One has a grandfather that he hopes and prays would believe on Christ. So he takes his grandfather to hear the Gospel and he sits under the preaching and hears the gospel clearly preached with his natural ear and he fully understands it with his natural ear but goes away never believing on Christ as the Savior of sinners (God’s elect). This person even witnesses over and over again to him but to no avail. Then some time later the grandfather is stricken with a stroke, he has lost his hearing and is in intensive care in the hospital. (We have never known of anyone that had an unsaved loved one in such a condition that did not ask for prayer for that person.) BUT WHY? If he is now incapable of hearing or reading the Gospel how can the Spirit all of a sudden work independently of the Word? “Ah, but he heard the word at one time”, some will say. But are we to say that there is something magical about the dead letter that gives God the permission now to do his work of regeneration. Does God now have permission (liberty) to regenerate someone even if the word was heard 85 years earlier as was the case with Luke Short who heard Puritan John Flavel preach when he was 15 and supposedly got converted at age 100? Mr. Short said that it was what he heard at 15 that never left his memory and when the Spirit quickened him he then embraced the Christ that he had heard of at age 15. “
“This sounds like a good testimony (and it is a good testimony from and going to a natural mind) for the idea of the Spirit needing the Word to regenerate, but we believe it is just the opposite. Yes, the preached word was used to bring the truth to the mind, but prior to the preached word being delivered to a child of God, the Holy Spirit had already been there and worked an effectual work of Grace within/upon the child of God by implanting within them the new birth. God sent the Spirit sovereignly to do the work as He sees fit. To limit God to the work of men, in preaching and witnessing, to impart Spiritual life to a sinner is to try and put God in a box, the same way the Arminians have tried to do. The inconsistency of those embracing this view is proof that they cannot take their view to its logical conclusion, to be proven by a “thus sayeth the Lord. “Mike Krall
OAB