Who can respond?

Below is a link to an article at Lou Martuneac's Blog, "In defense Of The Gospel". The article is written by Dr. Charlie Bing of grace Life ministries. I have responded to several comments in Bing's article.

http://indefenseofthegospel.blogspot.com/2010/02/can-unregenerate-person-believe-gospel.html

Dr.Bing,
The issue of total depravity
Total depravity is a theological term used by some to describe the sinfulness of man. The term itself is not in the Bible
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Neither is the term "free will". That is a theological construct derived from ones interpretation of scripture.

Dr. Bing,
Those who insist that God must regenerate a person before that person can believe define total depravity as man’s total inability to respond positively to God. They believe that an unregenerate person cannot even understand and believe the gospel. This view is held by Reformed theology and strong versions of Calvinism.

The doctrine of depravity is this: man is totally unable to contribute to his own salvation in any way, because he is dead in his sins. For example, the resurrection of Lazarus was not a joint effort between Christ and Lazarus. Lazarus came forth because he was raised, not in order to be raised.

Dr. Bing,
They believe that an unregenerate person cannot even understand and believe the gospel.

Well what does scripture say?
1 Cor. 2:14-the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he understand them because they are spiritually appraised.
2 Cor. 4:3-4, 1Cor. 1:18,21-24, Deuteronomy 29:2-4, Matthew 11:27 just to site a few.
True enough man can respond, but only in rebellion.

Dr. Bing,
Though sin’s corruption extends to every man and all of his being, man retains the capacity to respond to God’s initiative. Even after Adam sinned and died spiritually, he was able to talk with God immediately

Scripture states that man has not the capacity to respond to God's initiative on his own. Unregenerate man is "enslaved" to sin. See verses above as well as: John 8:34, 2 Peter 2:19, Titus 3:3, Galatians 4:8-9, Romans 66, 16, 17, 19-20, Romans 7:14, 2 Timothy 2:25-26, When God came to Adam after the fall God sought Adam and he hid himself, so it goes for man today. Genesis 3:8-9. Again unregenerate man's response is only rebellion to the things of God.

Dr. Bing,
After Adam’s fall in Genesis 3, man is considered “dead in trespasses and sins” as described in Ephesians 2:1 (see also Rom. 3:10-18; 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22). How one understands this spiritual death determines how one relates faith to regeneration.

Bing is right man is "dead". He even admits that man is spiritually dead. So, then what can a "dead" man do? Nothing! He is unable to respond to anything spiritual.

So the condition of man before regeneration is best described in biblical description, such as Ezek. 37:3-5 when the Lord showed the prophet Ezekiel the valley of dry bones, He said,
Son of Man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know. Again He said to me, Prophesy over these bones, hear the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life
Before regeneration we are nothing but dry bones. Unregenerate man is not sick or ailing he is "dead". Not because I say so but scripture says so. Now to say that he is dead in this respect does not suggest that one is physically dead, or dead in every aspect of his being. It simply means as Bing states he is dead spiritually. He has no ability within himself to link up with the Holy Spirit, which can only come as a gift of God. because he is dead he must be born again. John 3:5-7 Even further, he cannot submit to his laws (Rom 8:7-8). The natural man is incapable of understanding spiritual things, and since the gospel is in the front rank of spiritual things which require spiritual understanding, this means the natural man has no ability to comprehend the gospel (1 Cor. 2:14). This means that a Biblical evangelist is preaching in a graveyard!

Dr. Bing,
Self-determination, even if used to reject God, is essential to humanness and person hood.

Bings use of the phrase "self determination" is a poor choice of words to describe man's decision making process. The more biblical terminology to describe what lies at the root of mans decision making is the "heart and mind".

Titus 1:15-16 to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled
Proverbs 10:20
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is more deceitful above all else and is desperately sick, who can understand it

Dr. Bing,
Without self-determination man would be nothing more than a robot with every decision and action determined and controlled by God.

Scripture is replete with instances of God exerting his divine power, restricting man's freedom, and preventing him from doing that which he would have otherwise done. All without destroying mans responsibility.
Genesis 20:6- Then God said to him in a dream, "yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against me; therefore I did not let you touch her.
Jeremiah 18:4-6, Proverbs 21:1, Isaiah 45:9,
As A.W. Pink rightly states: The reply that someone says, God could not without interfering with man's freedom thus reducing him to a machine. But the case of Abimelech proves conclusively that such a reply is untenable and erroneous- we might add wicked and blasphemous, for who are we to limit the Most High!! How dare any finite creature take it upon himself to say what the All mighty can and cannot do!

Dr. Bing,
God would not be just or fair if He condemned people who could not believe because He did not regenerate them

What does this say about the severely retarded individual who cannot respond to the Gospel?

Dr. Bing,
That would actually make God the author of evil.

What does Bing mean by author? Plainly it was God's will/plan for sin and evil to enter into the world or it would not have entered. Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign decree's
. Lamentations 3:37- "Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it"
Job 42:2, Psalm 115:3, Isaiah 14:27, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 46:10, Daniel 4:35 all these verses show that it is God who is in control not man.

Dr. Bing,
God’s invitation to be saved through the gospel is a sincere and legitimate offer only if any and every person can believe it

The fact that a mentally incapable person cannot respond does that make the Gospel illegitimate? See earlier post on this issue. Not a very well thought out statement.

Dr. Bing,
the gospel is for all (John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:19-20; 1 Tim. 2:3-6; 1 John 2:2). Just as Paul preached everywhere with the assumption that anyone could respond to the gospel (Acts 20:21), we also should share the gospel with everyone (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8) because it is a genuine offer to everyone.
Finally, something we can agree on!

I think these statements by Doug Wilson helps show the remainder of the errors in Bing's article.

What Denial Involves
The denial of man's total inability will ultimately undermine our faith in the necessity of the new birth and the evangelical proclamation. How so?
Scripture teaches us that faith is pleasing to God. It also teaches us that we are to live our Christian lives the same way we began our Christian lives (Gal. 3:1-6; Col. 2:6). Now if unregenerate men, on their own, are capable of saving faith, without having been regenerated by the Spirit of God, then they should be able to continue to exercise that same kind of faith, after they are saved, without any help from the Spirit of God.

If a man can become a believer on his own, then he can continue to believe on his own. And if he can continue to believe on his own, then what did regeneration accomplish? The Bible teaches us that the Christian life begins with faith, continues in faith, and concludes in faith (Romans 1:17). The foundation of all godliness is faith, and a denial of man's total inability means that unbelievers are capable of laying that foundation for all godliness on their own. Even if one argues that the Holy Spirit regenerates a man after he believes, such a regeneration is superfluous. What is it for? What does it do? In this view, it most certainly does not enable the man to believe or trust God. It hardly does honor to the resurrecting Spirit to say that His job is to tag along.

The apostle Paul rebuked the Galatians when they forgot that they began by hearing with faith and then sought to finish the job by human effort. In considering his response to that error, I doubt he would have thought much of the confusion that reverses the order -- beginning by human effort and then finishing by the Spirit.

Put bluntly, it amounts to this: If I am saved, sanctified, and glorified through faith (which the Bible teaches), and faith is possible apart from regeneration (which a denial of total inability asserts), then salvation, sanctification, and glorification are possible without regeneration. And that reasoning undermines the necessity of the everlasting and eternal gospel.

Carts and Horses
God gives eyes, and then we see. God gives life, and then we live. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (II Cor. 4:6).
Contrast this Biblical way of thinking with the alternative. I saw, and so God gave me eyes. I came alive, and so God gave me a resurrection. Light came forth from my heart, so God said, "Let there be light." This is obviously incorrect; it is God, Paul says, who commanded light to come out of darkness. It is God who commanded that it shine in our hearts.

Notice the comparison in this passage between the gift of new life and the creation of the material universe. It bears mentioning that the material creation was ex nihilo -- from nothing. Paul asserts the same about the new creation; it too is from nothing.

The creation does not help the Creator out in the work of creation; the Creator acts unilaterally. The dilemma for evangelicals who want to deny total inability is this: either God must begin the resurrecting work of salvation because unsaved men are dead, or unsaved men are capable of beginning the process of their salvation on their own by means of saving faith. If the former, then we say welcome and shake hands. If the latter, then it follows that unsaved men can finish what they began, and we are confronted with a false gospel. In other words, there is no consistent stopping place between Reformed theology on the one hand, and a Pelagian theology on the other. Of course, plenty of evangelicals do not wind up in one camp or the other, but that is to be considered a triumph of inconsistency.

Conclusion
The Bible does not permit us to boast in our salvation at all: "You are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God -- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption -- that, as it is written, `He who glories, let him glory in the Lord'" (I Corinthians 1:30-31).
If a man has been raised from the dead, there is much cause for rejoicing; there is is no land in sight.
No cause for pride. And when all human boasting is removed, what remains? Nothing of ours, but there is an infinite ocean of grace.