Decisional Regeneration vs. Divine Regeneration

by James E. Adams

"Being or becoming religious is not the same as being regenerate. That applies whatever the religion; even one that describes itself as 'evangelical.' As surely as everyone has to be born to live on earth, so everyone must be reborn to have heavenly eternal life; and no one can do either for himself. All life comes from God, and by way of gift. James Adams explains all this so clearly in these pages and also how the good news should be both preached and received." - Hywel Jones, Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Seminary California

Genres: Evangelism

Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

James E. Adams (DMin, Westminster Seminary California) has been the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Mesa, Arizona, for more than thirty-five years. He has taught theology for Reformed Baptist Seminary and in Latin America and is the author of Decisional Regeneration and Liberacin: El Evangelio de Dios.

Reviews

[Joel Gass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, concise guide to the downfalls of decisional regeneration. I am thankful for this book and the help it provides.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The discussion of free will and God's sovereignty always got muddy for me until I considered some of the repercussions of God being a respondent to man instead of man to God. For instance, if my decision to come to Christ is precipitated on my intellectual assent to the Christ's claims, this makes salvation exclusive for those who are intellectually capable of coming to those conclusions. Additionally, this kicks the can down the road because we Christians affirm that our abilities are divinely instilled by the hand of God and this includes the intellect or lack thereof. As each domino falls, you must look at the one before it that caused the other to fall. Eventually you come to the uncaused cause, which is of course Christ.

Decisional regeneration wants to give man the deciding vote, but it deprives him of all meaningful choice as a result. Not only this, but it handcuffs God because he is now in reactionary mode to man's choices. Divine regeneration sees that we must first start with God and then move on to man. The coming to Christ begins and ends with Christ's actions on behalf of man. We love him, not because of some grand intellectual epiphany or convincing argument, but rather because he first loved us.

This short book does a quick and easy job at delineating the views while maintaining balance at best possible.

[Michael Schmid · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important, short little book, showing that regeneration is a work of God, not a work of man, highlighting unbiblical practices in evangelistic methods and calling for a more biblical way of evangelism.

[Sheldon Waithe]

The bible alone

Good book on how easy it is for a church to stray away from God's word ,either with good intention, and still fall straight off the wagon.

[Jay T. Doskis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

It’s time I learned what it means to come to Christ and be re-born. I loved this article a must read

[GERALD GENTRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read.

[Chris Armer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from the author. It aims to address the plaque of false conversions in American evangelicalism. Although it aims to point out errors in the common method of pushing for decisions, he uses some strawman argumentation to prove his point.