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Regeneration: Free Will v Sovereignty (PhD Edit)
Both free will and sovereignty perspectives accept the Biblical idea of the culminated Kingdom, but free will places much more emphasis on the individual freely deciding that this is for him/her, rather than being determined in any way to do so. Free will advocates will understand the process as God making an offer and over time convincing persons to believe it. A devotion to God can only be a good thing when persons freely accept it.
Sovereignty perspectives reason that God alone makes the choice to begin a regeneration process that leads to salvation in a human being. F.F. Bruce (1996) explains that because of the universal fact of human sin, there is no way to be accepted by God by human means. This divinely guided change in a person must occur in order for salvation to ever take place within a human being with a corrupted nature.
This is not to presume that all Christians will develop character in a similar mature fashion. I admit that, in some cases, Christians may live relatively disobedient lives, but I am confident in finalized regeneration through the resurrection.
October 7, 2017
A person cannot predestine self in Jesus Christ as in Ephesians 1, Romans 8. A person cannot make one self, born again as in John 3. Rather these can be embraced as secondary human causes. It is not by libertarian free will as in incompatibilism and it is not by divine force or coercion, that is hard determinism. It is by soft determinism/compatibilism.
PhD, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, 2010: Theodicy and Practical Theology.
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