Grace Evangelical Society

P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202
  • About
    • Home
    • Beliefs
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Resources
    • Grace in Focus Blog
    • Grace in Focus International Blogs
    • Grace in Focus Radio
    • Grace in Focus Magazine
    • Free eBooks
    • Journal of the GES
    • Book Reviews
    • Partners in Grace Newsletter
    • Audio Messages
    • Videos
    • Email Subscription
    • Bookstore
    • Online Tracts
  • Store
    • Main Page
    • On Sale
    • Return Policy
    • Your Cart
    • Your Account
  • Events
  • Connect
    • Contact Us
    • Free Grace Church and Bible Study Tracker
    • Free Grace Jobs
    • Ministry Links
  • Donate
    • One Time Donation
    • Monthly Donation
    • Your Account
  • Search
Home
→
Blog
→
If People Are Born Unable to Believe: Six Options

If People Are Born Unable to Believe: Six Options

July 25, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog - Arminianism, Calvinism, Faith, inner light, Quaker, Total depravity, Wesleyanism

Are people born unable to believe? If so, how does anyone come to faith?

As I work through these issues for an upcoming book examining “total depravity,” it might help to conceptualize the different answers given to explain how people who are born unable to believe can ever come to faith. Here are six options.

“People are born unable to believe, therefore…”

  1. Patristic: you need infant baptismal regeneration.
  2. Calvinist: regeneration precedes faith.
  3. Arminian: partial regeneration precedes faith.
  4. Wesleyan: gracious enablement precedes faith.
  5. Thiemer: the Holy Spirit acts as a substitute for the human spirit in the presentation of the gospel, enabling faith.
  6. Quaker: the Inner Light enlightens every man coming into the world, enabling them to believe.

Those are six possible answers. None of the answers are Biblically obvious to me, although I can see kernels of truth in #4 and #6, provided you explain them in a certain way (cf. John 1:9).

However, the deeper question is: what is the Biblical evidence for thinking that people are born unable to believe? That’s the big question I don’t see very many theologians asking. Instead, they seem to be working with old theological categories that stem from debates between Augustine and Pelagius. Theologians, even Evangelical ones, assume a debate between two Catholic monks should be normative for what Bible students should believe from Scripture.

As a staunch Biblicist, that’s something I’m simply unable to believe!

Subscribe by Email

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
Shawn_L

by Shawn Lazar

Shawn Lazar (BTh, McGill; MA, VU Amsterdam) was the Editor of Grace in Focus magazine and Director of Publications for Grace Evangelical Society from May 2012 through June 2022. He and his wife Abby have three children. He has written several books including: Beyond Doubt: How to Be Sure of Your Salvation and Chosen to Serve: Why Divine Election Is to Service, Not to Eternal Life.

If you wish to ask a question about a given blog, email us your question at ges@faithalone.org.

Cart

Recently Added

January 31, 2023

Romans–Part 02–Theme

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today, Kathryn Wright, and Ken Yates continue their short introductory study of Romans. What is the theme and the...
January 31, 2023

What Does the Bible Say about Doctrine? 

I remember the DTS chapel service. A Professor from Liberty University (then Liberty Baptist College) spoke. He was discussing how doctrine can divide. “If you...
January 30, 2023

Romans–Part 01–Introduction

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today and all this week, Ken Yates and Kathryn Wright are looking at the New Testament book of Romans....

Grace in Focus Radio

All Episodes

Listen to Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

Grace In Focus Magazine

Grace In Focus is sent to subscribers in the United States free of charge.

Subscribe for Free

The primary source of Grace Evangelical Society's funding is through charitable contributions. GES uses all contributions and proceeds from the sales of our resources to further the gospel of grace in the United States and abroad.

Donate

Bookstore Specials

  • Grudem Against Grace: A Defense of Free Grace Theology $15.00 $10.00
  • Confident in Christ, 2nd Edition $22.00 $5.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Hardcover) $13.95 $5.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Paperback) $6.95 $3.00
  • The Journey of Faith $15.00 $9.00
Grace Evangelical Society

(940) 270-8827 / ges@faithalone.org

4851 S I-35E Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210
P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube