The NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - Calvinism, Arminianism, Unregenerate Children, & Covenant Succession

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00:00:29.440 and descriptive definitions of total depravity comes to us, not by John Calvin,

00:00:39.540 but Jacobus Arminius. He would never have dreamed of denying the doctrine of total depravity

00:00:47.800 because it's basic Christian orthodox orthodoxy he knew people were totally depraved the only

00:00:55.300 difference with Jacobus Arminius that's where we get Arminians is not that he denied total depravity

00:00:59.920 that he thought that people were somehow born in a moral neutral state he knows that that's

00:01:05.880 completely antithetical to everything the bible teaches Jacobus Arminius all he thought was that

00:01:11.680 people are born totally depraved, but that there's such a thing as prevenient grace. And that

00:01:18.400 prevenient grace was something that would come to a person before saving faith actually occurred.

00:01:25.360 And it would be kind of a window of opportunity unto salvation, a window of grace. And that under

00:01:31.860 prevenient grace, which often would come through the preaching of the gospel, perhaps in an old

00:01:36.620 timey, you know, revival meeting, that the Holy Spirit would work sovereignly this prevenient

00:01:42.280 grace and that it would bring the individual person to a temporary state of neutrality.

00:01:47.540 Not that they were born with moral neutrality. They were born, even according to the father of

00:01:53.200 Arminianism, totally depraved. But in some kind of moment, a window of grace with a prevenient 0.75

00:02:00.860 grace, it would bring someone who's totally depraved to all the way up. It would temporarily

00:02:05.540 rarely suspend their spiritual blindness. So like the man who Jesus prays for, and he says,

00:02:11.060 can you see now? He says, well, I see people walking around, but they look like trees.

00:02:15.520 That would be kind of a good illustration for the doctrine of pervenient grace. 0.96

00:02:20.040 That the person is not a Christian yet. They have not placed saving faith in Jesus yet, 0.57

00:02:23.900 but faith is actually a work of man in this scheme, not a work of God, which for the record,

00:02:29.040 that's wrong. And the person is able to place faith in Jesus because a totally depraved person

00:02:34.540 never would, but somebody who's neutral would and prevenient grace brings them from total depravity

00:02:39.460 and hostility against God to this temporary place of neutrality. It brings them not the perfect

00:02:46.100 spiritual sight, but the momentary temporary suspending of spiritual blindness where they

00:02:52.280 all of a sudden can see for a little while and they can see a little bit. And with this spiritual

00:02:58.480 sight, seeing men walking around like trees, in that moment, in this gracious window, momentary

00:03:04.820 window, prevenient grace, they then, in hearing the gospel, must choose, as a work of man, conjuring

00:03:11.680 it up on their own, choose to make the right choice, choose to make the decision, right? This

00:03:17.460 is where you get guys like Charles Finney. He's the father of the modern altar call, right? Because

00:03:24.320 that the idea was in a decisionism, revivalism, Arminianism kind of church history, somewhat

00:03:33.000 recent church history in our nation, think second, not first, but second great awakening.

00:03:38.080 The idea was right now under the preaching of the gospel, come down to the anxious bench,

00:03:43.140 right? That was your original altar call. Come down to the anxious bench and I'm going to preach

00:03:48.160 just to you for the next 45 minutes. And people would come trembling. The whole idea was,

00:03:54.320 Decide. Decide. Decide. Make a decision. Now's the moment. Now's your opportunity.

00:04:02.140 The window of grace is opened and it could close in the next 30 seconds. Who knows?

00:04:08.040 You've been brought to this place of a temporary suspended hostility against God

00:04:13.640 and all of a sudden you have a moment of neutrality where you can choose to fall back

00:04:18.680 into your depravity, harden your heart against God or believe. And if you believe,

00:04:23.820 then you'll be regenerated. This is the Arminian scheme. I'm saying scheme just means theological

00:04:30.840 framework, not necessarily a malicious scheme, although I think it is. Here's the point.

00:04:38.320 Faith does not gain regeneration, but rather regeneration precedes faith. A person is born

00:04:45.660 again as an act of God's sovereign grace alone, and then responds with this new heart, being born

00:04:52.420 again, being made alive, spiritually alive, a new creature in Christ Jesus, that person then places

00:04:57.880 faith in Jesus. That's when they place faith in Jesus. But again, this whole idea of, of

00:05:06.580 prevenient grace, these kinds of things that you're brought to this temporary suspend, suspension,

00:05:11.560 partial suspension of spiritual blindness, that's not the picture of a human child when they're

00:05:17.520 physically born into the world. And there are many people who teach this still to this day.

00:05:22.420 There are many parenting books that ultimately affirm this.

00:05:26.240 They believe that children are blank slates, that they could go either way.

00:05:31.780 They teach moral neutrality when it comes to a child.

00:05:35.820 And that's why it would be taught that you could train a child in the same way you train an animal.

00:05:39.760 Because an animal actually is neutral.

00:05:43.460 That's not part of the curse of sin.

00:05:45.240 The part of the curse of sin is not that dogs have hostility towards Jesus in their hearts.

00:05:50.700 no it's that man has hostility towards jesus in their heart in iniquity i was brought forth

00:05:58.700 and in sin did my mother conceive me from the beginning of my life that is a human being made

00:06:05.300 in the image god their life from the beginning of life i'm starting off with a hostility towards

00:06:11.140 god romans chapter 8 says that the mind of the sinful man the unregenerate man the non-christian

00:06:16.800 is neutral, indifferent, uninterested? No. Hostile towards God's law, he does not submit to it, nor

00:06:24.480 can he. He is unable and unwilling. Why? Because his nature will not allow for that choice.

00:06:33.520 In the same way that the nature of a herbivore doesn't allow for them to eat meat.

00:06:40.720 they won't do it they won't do it why because it's not the way they're made it's not their design

00:06:50.360 it's not who they are the whole idea of the gospel is that we become new creatures the whole idea of

00:07:00.120 christian faith of salvation is that we gain by god's grace alone a new nature the reason why

00:07:07.800 the Christian can say, as the Apostle Paul does in Romans chapter 7, in my inward being, I delight

00:07:13.460 in the law of God. I love it. The reason he can say that in my inner being, I delight in the law

00:07:19.080 of God, is because he now has a new inner being. He has a new heart. This is Ezekiel chapter 36,

00:07:27.180 that the heart of stone is removed and replaced with a heart of flesh. Faith follows the new

00:07:33.240 nature. Faith follows regeneration. And all this is the sovereign work of God and the sovereign

00:07:40.800 work of God alone. God does this and he must do it for all of us. He must do it for each of our

00:07:48.660 children. And I believe for the record in covenant succession, even as a Baptist. And so I believe

00:07:54.460 not as a 100% guarantee, but as an ordinary principle that we should eagerly expect that

00:08:00.040 God will do it for our children. That he will. That he will save each one of our children. But

00:08:06.400 listen, your children do need saving. That's the point. I believe he will save them.

00:08:13.040 But they do need saving. You cannot train up a child from the womb in the way that you would 0.99

00:08:18.800 train up an animal. Because the animal doesn't have a hostile nature against the law of God,

00:08:25.060 but your child does. And to deny that is to deny Christian orthodoxy. It's not up for debate. 0.82

00:08:33.320 Jacobus Arminian is. The father of Arminianism would agree with me and not you.

00:08:40.960 The idea that total depravity is not a thing. The only question is, is prevenient grace a thing?

00:08:48.280 And would it overcome total depravity so that faith could precede regeneration? Or is there

00:08:53.720 no provenient grace, only sovereign grace, salvific grace, where regeneration precedes

00:08:58.280 faith. That's the debate that's an in-house debate, a debate among Christians. Now somebody's

00:09:03.740 right, somebody's wrong, but you can have either side and still be within the bounds of orthodoxy.

00:09:09.020 To debate total depravity at all, that your child isn't totally depraved, that people are not born,

00:09:14.760 that's not a debate that's in-house. That's a debate with Christians and heretics. 0.97

00:09:19.000 period 0.99

00:09:21.420 there's no question about that

00:09:26.540 it's not up for debate

The NXR Podcast - October 13, 2023

DAILY TRUTH - Calvinism, Arminianism, Unregenerate Children, & Covenant Succession

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