Our natural prejudgment of reality is against God. To receive the truth of God requires that our “anti” bias be changed. The key work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is not giving new knowledge to the brain but changing the disposition of the heart. Before the Spirit turns that heart of stone into a [...]
Regeneration
Regeneration: a supernatural renovation of the dispositions which determine the moral purpose, and of the understanding in the apprehension of moral and spiritual truth, the whole resulting in a permanent and fundamental conversion in the actings of the whole man as to sin and holiness: the flesh and God. To such a change the human will is utterly inadequate and irrelevant, because the change goes back of the will. It is therefore a divine and almighty work of the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit, as Their Agent...the free agent chooses according to his moral nature, because his own moral nature decides how he shall view inducements. This character is, in the sinner, carnal. To make the conduct spiritual, the character must be renewed. - R.L. Dabney
A Practical View of Regeneration – Part I by Archibald Alexander
That human nature has lost that moral purity and perfection with which it was originally endued, is a truth which lies at the heart of the Christian religion. Indeed, we see not how it can be denied by the deist, without casting a gross reflection on the character of God. It is only from the [...]
A Practical View of Regeneration – Part II by Archibald Alexander
The question is sometimes asked, whether is regeneration an instantaneous or a gradual work? This is not a merely speculative question. If this is a gradual work, the soul may for some time, yea, for years, be hanging between life and death, and be in neither one state or nor the other, which is impossible. [...]
A Practical View of Regeneration – Part III by Archibald Alexander
From what has been said we may deduce the following summary. 1. Regeneration is the commencement of spiritual life in a soul before dead in sin, by the omnipotent agency of God; and the exercises of this life are specifically different from all the exercises of an unregenerate heart. 2. The strength of the principle [...]
The Evidences of Regeneration by C.R. Vaughan
“Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” — John in his Epistles. THE discussion of regeneration will be made sufficiently complete for the purposes of this little treatise by an exposition of its evidences. The reality of the change cannot be disputed, [...]
Regeneration: from Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology by John H. Gerstner
Effectual calling, conversion, repentance, and regeneration were approximately synonymous terms for Edwards. An important statement in Original sin shows the identity of the last three terms. I put repentance and conversion together, as the Scripture puts them together, Acts iii. 19, and because they plainly signify much the same thing. The word metanoia (repentance) signifies [...]
Regeneration or The New Birth by Arthur W. Pink
Two things are absolutely essential in order to salvation: deliverance from the guilt and penalty of sin, and deliverance from the power and presence of sin. The one is secured by the mediatorial work of Christ, the other is accomplished by the effectual operations of the Holy Spirit. The one is the blessed result of [...]
Regeneration by A. A. Hodge (Revised by B. B. Warfield)
The following short essay was originally published in Johnson’s Cyclopaedia, 1896. Regeneration (from Lat. re-, again + generare, beget) is a theological term used to express the initial stage of the change experienced by one who enters upon the Christian life. It is derived from the New Testament, where the ‘new birth’ (1 Pet. i. [...]
Regeneration by Asahel Nettleton
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: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God — John 1:12-13. The important and simple doctrine [...]
The New Birth by Brian Schwertley
The term “born again” is known to most Americans. There has even been a president who claimed to be born again. Most evangelicals and fundamentalists like to refer to themselves as “born again” Christians. Yet these words have little or no meaning to many people. Even among professing Christians there is wide disagreement over just [...]
