Josheb
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We are not discussing to whom God "speaks." We are discussing proper, sound exegesis.
This op asks one very specific question: What does an unregenerate heart lack that keeps a person from coming to faith? This op does not ask, "Is there a sense that God speaking to Reprobates means the Bible is about them?" That's fodder for a different op. If you set up that op I will gladly post a reply. This op, however, starts of with a very specific, explicitly asked inquiry (which has been answered) and asks several others. Personally, I found the AA analogy very shortsighted and misguided for several reasons (chief among them being no one drags the addict to an AA meeting and addictions/dependencies are a symptom of sin, not an equivalence of sin.
- The Gentiles were grafted in to provoke the Jews to jealousy. That doesn't sound like the perfect spiritual motive, does it? Sounds perfect to me. It also sounds like a red herring because jealousy is not soteriologically salvific, Paul rhetorically insinuated he could save God's people, Israel. The use of Rom. 10:14 is an example of misused scripture common in synergistic apologetics. Whatever else verse 14 is made to say it cannot be made to contradict 1 Corinthians 1:23 (which would be something Paul taught much earlier to God's people).
- What does an unregenerate heart lack that keeps a person from coming to faith? Life
- Can a person come to Jesus genuinely wanting, but not yet genuinely loving, and have that considered a genuine faith? Not according to scripture. That is never explicitly asserted in scripture and there are no explicit reports of anyone ever doing that absent the contexts I have cited in all these threads.
- If yes, can a person produce that faith without an unregenerate heart? Not only is there no such supporting scripture and no precedent for such a position but the unregenerate heart is dead. It's called a hear to stone for a reason. Stones have no life.
- What is enough faith? What makes a faith genuine? Both those questions are red herring because no matter what that amount might be, it is gifted to the sinner by God, not something ever attributed to the faculties of the sinful flesh.
- Sounds like Paul is saying that in his flesh there is a desire to do what is right, but he is unable to do it. Right? That is exactly correct. In his flesh Paul COULD NOT do what was right. Soteriologically speaking, he could not hear correctly, he could not understand correctly, he could not correctly believe, and the faith of his sinful flesh possessed absolutely no soteriological agency, power, or efficacy whatsoever. It is, therefore, contradictory and self-refuting to say faith precedes regeneration AND sinful flesh is unable to do any salvific right.
- Why does God need to put up a road block for the construction of a road that only He Himself can build? Another red herring. God does not "need" to do anything, and regardless of why God did what He did, He did it. Scripture explicitly states Him doing so and there is a recurring set of examples from Genesis 3 all the way to the end of the Bible of God doing similarly. In some cases, God proactively prevents a person from change.
According to the op, "This will not be the run of the mill Calvinism-Arminianism thread," but imo it is very much like every other Cal v Arm thread because the synergist handling of scripture is always selective, always fails to correctly identify the applicable audience, and always fails to apply the contexts of scripture. In these regards this op is absolutely no different than hundreds of other threads on the subject. As far as the posts in this thread go, no one on the Cal side of this conversation has been challenged in the slightest. Every monergist here has fielded the questions, comments, and arguments posted without hindrance and asked many very astute, valid, and germane questions in return and observed equally astute, germane, and valid comments as well.
At this point in the thread, I would simply like to know @Dave's answer to one question.
Is it appropriate
to take verses written about the already saved and already regenerate believer,
the saint,
and apply them to unsaved, unregenerate non-believers?
to take verses written about the already saved and already regenerate believer,
the saint,
and apply them to unsaved, unregenerate non-believers?
You've asked some questions, and I have provided some answers, that should aid in correctly answering that question. Thanks
