What precedes what - faith regeneration

Pinkman

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John Calvin tells us

"We call predestination God's eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others".


Ie we were alway born for salvation or damnation.
 
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Pinkman

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If we are to have saving faith, regeneration must first take place. This sinful body of flesh cannot and will not have faith unless there is first a "circumcision of the heart" so to speak. It is then that we are given the gift of faith.

God bless

Exactly - Before the foundation of the world.
 
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Skala

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I think it's interesting that the KJV translation of the text is a bit different than the version that you quoted.



This translation doesn't seem to present the idea as if it were strictly past-tense. I'm not fluent enough in Greek to confirm this, but I wonder if it could be like saying: "whenever it is dark outside, the sun does rise in the East".

IOW, it could be stated as a matter of fact that is free from temporal context.

What ultimately matters is what John actually wrote, not what English translators said he wrote while doing the best they could to translate from one language to another.

If John actually wrote the phrase "is born of God" as a perfect tense phrase, that settles the issue :thumbsup:
 
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