Is This Possible?

[gmm4j]

Was this possible? Was this within the ability of fallen unregenerate men?

Isaiah 14:1
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

Did foreigners have the ability to freely unite themselves with the house of Jacob?


How about this...

Leviticus 4:27-31
"'If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, he is guilty. 28 When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. 29 He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. 30 Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 31 He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

Was this possible? Could sinful, guilty men actually respond to God's sacrificial provision and be forgiven of their sins? Did people have to be regenerated in order to be able to do this?

How about this...

Numbers 21:9
So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Was this within the scope of man's ability? Could they freely look upon God's provision for healing and be healed, or did they each have to be regenerated in order to be able to look upon God's provision?

Of course they had the ability to look!!!

And, it's the same with Jesus...

John 3:14-15
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Man has the ability to believe in God's sacrificial provision for eternal life and the forgiveness of sins - Jesus Christ!!!

 

[gmm4j]

Did Naaman have to be regenerated in order to receive the word of God through the prophet to dip in the Jordan and receive the provision of healing?

 

[gmm4j]

Was this possible with no mention of regeneration?

Matthew 12:39-41
He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

Jonah 3:3-9
Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city-a visit required three days. 4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." 5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."

Was this possible for unregenerate evil sinful Ninevites to do? Could they do this without first being regenerated? If not, why is there no mention of God first having to change / make alive their hearts in order for this very pivotal turn to take place? In fact, in the next verse, Scripture reveals that God did not directly cause their hearts to change as Calvinism states. Instead, God observed the change. He did not directly make their hearts change.

Jonah 3:10
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

God sent a revelation through the prophet Jonah, not regeneration, in order to change their hearts. Fallen mankind retains the God-given ability to positively respond to God’s revelation, or not, without first having to be regenerated.