‘Calvinists insist that new life comes prior to believing, but that is simply not what the bible ever teaches. Let’s observe what the whole counsel of God teaches on this:
Ezekiel 18:30-32
“Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”
The order clearly laid out is as follows:
- “Repent, cast away…Rid yourselves…”
- “…make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.”
Verse 32 makes it even more simple:
- “Repent and…”
- “…live!”
Life comes from repentance, not the other way around.
John 5:40
“yet you refuse to COME TO ME TO HAVE LIFE.”
Now, if Calvinism’s ordo salutis is correct, shouldn’t this read, “I refused you LIFE so that you could not come to me.”
The order is clear:
- “Come to me…” (through faith)
- “…to have life.”
Acts 15:9
“He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”
Look at the order:
- It is “…by faith” that
- “He purified their hearts…”
It does not say He purified their hearts by regeneration so as to make them have faith. Clearly a purified heart is a fruit of faith, not the other way around.
2 Corinthians 3:16
“… whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
The order clearly laid out is as follows:
- “…anyone turns to the Lord…” (by faith)
- “…the veil is taken away.”’
source: Leighton Flowers, “The Purpose and the Power of the Gospel in Enabling the Lost” (soteriology101)
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