On his website, Arminian Perspectives, Ben Henshaw has a questions page at which he answers questions about Arminianism and Calvinism that visitors to his site pose in the comment section of the page. Here is a question from a woman named Sally followed by Ben’s answer and some comments from another commenter (“Arminian”):
Question from Sally: I was interested in the recent thread about regeneration as it relates to faith, and would like to comment on it based on a book I am reading by John Piper called Finally Alive. His view is actually that faith and regeneration are simultaneous – one does not precede the other. In John 3:3 Jesus says “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” and in John 3:36 he says “whoever believes in the son has eternal life.” Piper points out that these two sayings of Jesus should not be separated, because what happens in regeneration is the creation of life in union with Christ and part of how God does that is by the creation of faith, which is how we experience union with Christ. Spiritual birth and faith in Jesus come into being together. The new life makes the faith possible and there is no life without faith in Jesus.
Answer from Ben: Faith and regeneration are only simultaneous with respect to time (temporally, they are simultaneous). But there has to be a logical order, and it is the logical order that we are discussing. One must precede the other in logical order. Here is an easy way to look at it.
Calvinism: The moment we are regenerated, we believe
Arminianism: The moment we believe we are regenerated
See the difference? In both we could say that faith and regeneration happen “simultaneously”, but there is still a big difference in logical order. Your last comment puts the logical priority on regeneration; it “makes faith possible.” If it makes faith possible, it must come logically first. However, the last part of your sentence is confusing. It can only comport with the first part of your sentence if you ignore logical order and are speaking temporally. Otherwise, your sentences is plainly contradictory, and false.
Piper plainly puts regeneration logically prior to faith and sees it as what causes faith: “The most immediate and decisive work of God in the new birth is that the new life he creates sees the superior value of Jesus over all else. And with no lapse of time at all, this spiritual sight of the superior value of Jesus results in receiving Jesus [by faith] as the Treasure that he is.” (Brackets mine)
That quote comes from a sermon called, “Regeneration, Faith, Love: In That Order.” That says it all.
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/regeneration-faith-love-in-that-order
BTW, Both of those quotes by Piper (from John) actually put faith logically prior to regeneration.
And John 1:12-13 settles the matter:
Additional comment from “Arminian”: Ben has already responded with showing that Piper does actually teach that regeneration logically precedes faith though they are temporally simultaneous. Ben did so from outside Piper’s Finally Alive, but Piper teaches the same thing in that book. Hopefully you see why his teaching is in error on this point. He’s right that faith and regeneration are temporally simultaneous, but wrong that regeneration is logically prior. Scripture is clear that it is the other way around — faith logically precedes regeneration, as Ben argues compellingly on this site.
