Can the unregenerate believe the gospel ? 

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;   Col 2:13

The historic, orthodox, reformed doctrine of man's depravity due to his sin is well known to most of us. The key is given in our reference verse; man, because of his sin, is said to be 'dead'.  Of course this cannot refer to his physical makeup for obvious reasons.  The deadness that the Bible ascribes to men of this world is spoken of those who yet walk around breathing, eating, talking and engaging in all other various activities that depict physical life as we know it; oftentimes accompanied by much vim, vigor & vitality!  Consequently the theologians rightly point out to us that the deadness spoken of is one of a spiritual nature.  Man,  they say, comes into this world very much alive in his physical body, but very much dead with respect to his spirit. This is true and no doubt there are many who are not familiar with the Biblical teaching on this matter who would take great issue with such a notion as spiritual death.  This is due to two reasons;
1. Multitudes of both professing Christians and those who blatantly reject Biblical Christianity, or religion in any form, readily confess that they 'believe in God'  in some form or another. Many even claim they are 'searching for God'. This is enough for them to disprove any notion of spiritual deadness.
2. Multitudes who fool with the occult are convinced not only of the reality of the spiritual realm but of their own experiences with what is popularly known as spiritualism.  Those of us who are God's children know that this is very real indeed but it is not only a dangerous practice to fool with the spiritual realm apart from the protection & direction of the true God, it is a great & wicked abomination in His sight as well & He will sorely judge people who persist in such practice. Fooling with the occult by engaging in seances & witchcraft is nothing but Satan worship.  Be that as it may the point here is that these activities are indeed very much a part of reality and folks who participate in them have a very real sense of being spiritually alive, not dead.  Yet the Bible teaches us that man in his natural condition is spiritually dead!

In considering these facts then it is our goal to arrive at a proper understanding of what the Bible means when it says that men are dead. This might seem anticlimactic in the light of several hundred years of theological progress achieved by some of the greats God has raised up in the past.  As I stated at the beginning the historic, orthodox, reformed view on this issue is well known. The doctrine of Total Depravity can probably be considered a 'staple' of most folks' theology; even among the ranks of those who might reject the reformed view... they are still very much aware of it. So then the question might be asked...  Why am I writing a paper on this subject?  After all, whoever heard of James Jay anyway?  What could I possibly have to say that has not already been said by much better men than I & in a much better way? I guess the only way to find out the answers is to read the rest of this paper! What I am not saying, or rather not doing, is denying the Biblical doctrine of Total Depravity. I need to say this here because there are people who
hate the truth who, when they read this article, attempt to accuse me of denying the Biblical doctrine of man's natural depravity. I deny no such thing. I fully affirm and believe that natural born men are fully and completely depraved from the womb and in such a condition they have absolutely no ability to do anything considered ~good~ in the sight of God and that includes believing the gospel unto salvation.

Without going into great detail let it be said that the Biblical doctrine of depravity  is a delineation of human sin.  But not just sin in the abstract or in a vacuum, but rather sin as it directly affects man's relationship to God. God is said to be a Holy God and so we find such descriptions of Him as... God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.  This can be said to depict, among other things, God's complete & total separation from what is designated as evil. Man, as a sinful creature is essentially and by nature evil and as such he is completely & fully repulsive in every way shape & form to a Holy God.  This is basically what it means to be 'totally depraved'. It means that man in his natural condition, as he comes forth from the womb, is complete enmity against his Creator.  But we must go just one step further in our description of sin in order to arrive at a better understanding of just what it means to be 'totally depraved'. It is important to note that sin has affected man in two ways;  First sin affects man in his very nature; that is, man, by nature is a wicked rebel against the God that made him. This describes what man is. And second, sin affects man's activity in life.  That is, all that man does, says or even thinks is nothing but sinful & wicked with respect to God. This depicts how man functions. We see then that man, by description, is a sinner by nature, and by action all and everything he does is sin with respect to his relationship to God.  There is nothing in man, in terms of what he is, nor is there anything about man in terms of how he functions, that would move or impel a Holy God to any affinity towards him. Because of human sin God has no other option than to regard man in his natural condition with perfect & holy hatred & repulsion. This is depicted quite well for us in the Canons of Dort;

CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 3. Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto; and without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, or to dispose themselves to reformation.

Sin then encompasses the totality of man's being, infecting both his character; what he is; and his conduct; what he does.  And so theologians have given us the phrase... 'Total Depravity'  as a means of defining the doctrine, with which I am in full agreement! Upon this short sketch of the nature of man according to Scripture we may now proceed to discover what it means when the Bible says man is 'dead'.

Traditionally and historically it has been held that when the Bible says man is dead it means so in a spiritual sense. In order to convey the idea of spiritual deadness it has often been compared to physical deadness. A typical illustration might be given of holding a piping hot slice of pizza under the nose of a cadaver in a casket in an attempt to entice it to rise up & eat.  Naturally such activity is absolutely impossible according to the nature of things as we know them,  for once the spirit has departed from the person, life as we know it in the physical realm has come to a dramatic end.  There is no more response on the part of the departed person to any known  stimuli we might conjure up.  The cadaver, as it were, is lifeless and as such it has no ability, in an absolute sense, to relate or respond to anything in the physical realm that requires physical life. This notion is then transferred over to the spiritual realm and superimposed on natural man in an attempt to show that,  just as man is completely dead in the coffin, so too, he is 'completely dead' with reference to anything that might convey the truth of the God of Scripture.  Man, they say, in his natural state is so spiritually dead,  because he is totally depraved, that just as it is impossible for a physically dead man to respond to or even know anything that goes on in the physical realm, so too it is just as impossible for him to either respond to or even know the things of the spiritual realm as they are given to us in the Bible. One could very well use a phrase I heard in a sermon to describe such people;  they are said to be 'graveyard dead'!  Spiritually, it might be said, men are 'graveyard dead' in that they are completely & totally unable to know anything of the truth of God or the gospel in the exact same fashion that those in the graveyard have no ability to know the things of this life. You could drive over the cemetery grounds with a bulldozer & it would not arouse the slightest reaction from those six feet under!  And so... it is said that we could run over these spiritually dead folks with the bulldozer of the gospel but they will never be moved in any way because, spiritually, they are graveyard dead. They have no ability to hear, understand or believe the gospel until God... it is said... comes to them by way of sovereign power and imparts spiritual life to them.  Then and only then will they be able to know the things of God. According to this view man is no different, spiritually, than a rock! And we all know that a rock has no ability to think, breathe or walk around.
Such passages of Scripture as  Rom 8:7;  1Cor 2:14;  &  Eph 2:1-3 are offered in support of such a view and they are indeed quite graphic in their description of natural man engulfed in his sin.

I should like to demonstrate in this paper that this understanding of the doctrine of total depravity, depicting man in his natural condition as 'graveyard dead' spiritually, is not Biblically accurate. I should like to suggest that, on the basis of the Biblical evidence I shall herewith present, we must readjust & redefine, or fine tune if you like, our view of the doctrine of total depravity that it might align more fully to the Biblical information God has given with respect to the nature of man. Again in so doing I am in no way denying the Biblical doctrine of man's depravity!

If it is true... that spiritually speaking man is graveyard dead and is akin to a rock with regard to the gospel then what becomes of the Biblical truth of man's Responsibility?
What difference would there be in commanding all men everywhere to repent from commanding all rocks to do so?   If man is no better than a rock then we must either expect that rocks have some uncanny ability to engage in some activity that will make them accountable for their actions... or we must go the other way and say that man, just like the rock, is not responsible!

Dear Mr. Jay sir!!!  wait just a minute... you forgot that man's condition is man's own fault did you not? The fact that man in his natural state is completely unable to do anything at all that is pleasing to God... is man's own fault. The fact that he has no ability to be subject to the law of God... or to come to Christ and believe the gospel unto salvation is again, a result of his own doing, which resulted in his own undoing!  Have you taken leave of your theological senses Jay?

No sir. Though it is true that man's condition is his own fault; and though it is true that in his natural state he is completely unable to do anything at all that is pleasing to God; and though it is true that he has no ability to be subject to the law of God... or to come to Christ and believe the gospel unto salvation...  it is not true that his condition has nullified his accountability to God. Though sin has  completely eradicated any ability in man of doing anything that is pleasing to God, it has not eradicated his responsibility. The truth that man has no ability to please God in no way discounts the truth that he is still responsible to Him! Ability and responsibility, though closely related to each other, are not the same. Man is both responsible to please God while being completely unable to do so at one and the same time and that's Biblical.  But who in his right mind would want to ascribe either ability or responsibility to a rock? Or a cadaver? Yet that is exactly what we are doing when we say men are graveyard dead. If one were to command a corpse to rise up & vacate a burning funeral parlor who would hold it responsible for not obeying that command and allowing his body to be burned up in the fire?  I say... anybody in that kind of a condition is released from any & all responsibility!  Yet the Bible is crystal clear that all men without exception will face God in judgment and judgment entails responsibility. Every passage I know that speaks of the judgment does so upon the basis of what men do in this life.  Men will be judged according to their works.  That means that whatever view of depravity we hold to, if it in any way destroys man's responsibility then we must question it.  It is true that man's inability is his own fault as a result of his sin.  And it is also true that there are many who hold to the erroneous ... and damning notion that, unless God comes and 'zaps' me... there's absolutely nothing I can do to respond to the gospel because I am 'totally depraved';  which means I am graveyard dead... a spiritual corpse. I have no ability to come to God for salvation! You can preach to me til you are blue in the face but your words are falling on deaf, dead ears!

It is by this subtle & unbiblical notion, based on an erroneous view of the doctrine of man's depravity that folks exonerate themselves from the pressure of the gospel. What they are really saying is, that because of their being 'graveyard dead' they think that they are somehow free from the responsibility to repent & believe the gospel until God first 'zaps' them.  In essence they are using the truth of depravity as an excuse for their sin and are sucking poison from the Bible. I struggled with this for years in an attempt to answer such unbiblical fatalism until I heard the truth I am setting forth in this paper & looked up the passages.  As true as it is that salvation is completely all of God & He must take the initiative... it is not true that total depravity means man is graveyard dead in the sense that he has absolutely no ability to hear, understand, and believe the gospel! I suppose on that statement I should be prepared to demonstrate what I am claiming from the word of God.

Ladies & Gentlemen... even if one were to regard the unregenerate as a rock it would do him no good.  Why not?  Because dear people... the Bible clearly teaches that a rock possesses the ability to believe the gospel!  This truth comes to us from the lips of none other than the Savior Himself...

Lu 8:6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
Lu 8:13 They on the rock [are they], which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

The parable of the sower presents to us four kinds of  'ground' upon which the seed of the gospel falls and of those four... only one is presented to us as that which rejects it!  The other three all received the word. By the same token only one ground is said to represent true salvation! This alone is enough to wreak havoc with the notion that unregenerate men cannot believe the truth.  Now notice in verse 13 that our Lord tells us that not only did these 'rocks' receive the word but they even showed some... fruit !!!  It is said that they received the word... with joy!  And joy, dear people, is both a fruit of the Spirit and a major element of the Kingdom of God!  Rom 14:7;  Gal 5:22. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus plainly tells us that these rocks actually engage in the exercise of faith for He says that they actually believe... for a while!  It is not until the pressure of temptation comes, in whatever form, that they fall away. They are 'fair weather Christians'... which of course is really no Christian at all.  We cannot deny what Christ is teaching here in this passage & the parallels.  He teaches plainly & clearly that there are many unregenerate people represented to us as 'rocks', who can & do believe the gospel message... but only for a while.

Look Jay..!  You're a radical madman bucking the tide of theological history.  I'm not gunna listen to you.

OK.  Then listen to John Calvin on the parable of the sower...

"But he that received the seed thrown into stony places. This class differs from the former; for temporary faith, being a sort of vegetation of the seed,  promises at first some fruit; but their hearts are not so properly and thoroughly subdued, as to have the softness necessary for their continued nourishment. We see too many of this class in our own day, who eagerly embrace the Gospel, and shortly afterwards fall off; for they have not the lively affection that is necessary to give them firmness and perseverance. Let every one then examine himself thoroughly, that the alacrity which gives out a bright flame may not quickly go out, as the saying is, like a fire of tow; for if the word does not fully penetrate the whole heart, and strike its roots deep, faith will want the supply of moisture that is necessary for perseverance. Great commendation is due, no doubt, to that promptitude, which receives the word of God with joy, and without delay, as soon as it is published; but let us learn, that nothing has been done, till faith acquires true firmness, that it may not wither in the first blade."         Calvin continues further....
"By way of example, Christ says that such persons are made uneasy by the offense of the cross. And certainly, as the heat of the sun discovers the barrenness of the soil, so persecution and the cross lay open the vanity of those, who are slightly influenced by I know not what desire, but are not actually moved by earnest feelings of piety. Such persons, according to Matthew and Mark, are temporary, not only because, having professed, for a time, that they are the disciples of Christ, they afterwards fall away through temptation, but because they imagine that they have true faith. According to Luke, Christ says that they believe for a time; because that honor which they render to the Gospel resembles faith."  Calvin's Commentaries. My own emphasis.

Such is in agreement with the Canons of Dort;

CHAPTER 3-4: ARTICLE 9. It is not the fault of the gospel, nor of Christ offered therein, nor of God, who calls men by the gospel and confers upon them various gifts, that many who are called by the ministry of the Word refuse to come and be converted. The fault lies in themselves; some of whom when called, regardless of their danger, reject the Word of life; others, though they receive it, do not allow it to make a lasting impression on their heart; therefore, their joy, arising only from a temporary faith, soon vanishes, and they fall away; while others choke the seed of the Word by perplexing cares and the pleasures of this world, and produce no fruit. This our Savior teaches in the parable of the sower (Matt 13).

Even if this were the only passage we had, it is enough to show the erroneous notion that total depravity means men are graveyard dead. But it is not the only passage...

Heb 6: 4  For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
 5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
 6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

Some notable points contained in this passage;  It is said of these people that...
They were 'enlightened'.
They 'tasted of the heavenly gift'.
They were made 'partakers of the Holy Ghost'
They 'tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come'.

I can think of no better Biblical description of a true believer than this!  Yet the passage says that such people 'fall away' and render themselves impossible to be renewed to repentance! One might attempt to escape the fantastic pressure of such a passage by hypothesizing it but the previous passage on the parable of the sower effectively plugs such a hole! This is in effect an accurate description of the temporary believer Christ speaks of in the gospels. Such a one is unregenerate and yet he believes.

 Another notable passage...

Heb 10: 26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
 27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
 28  He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
 29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Again of this passage we note the reality of people who;
Sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth.
Trod under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing.

Much of what has been said applies equally here, especially any attempt to say this is a hypothetical notion. One more passage and then some actual illustrations and examples from Scripture showing the reality of such a shocking truth.

2Pet 2: 20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning
 21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
 22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

This graphic passage is speaking of false teachers who will rise up in the last days and lead many folks down the path to perdition! We can easily see the descriptive points that jump right out which identify such people. It is said of them that;...

They have escaped the pollutions of the world!
They have done so 'through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'!  Is this not how a person is saved folks? Through the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
They go back & become entangled once again in worldly pollutions! They return back to their own vomit!  A graphic account of temporary faith! People who are unregenerate... and yet give a fair show in the flesh that they have believed the gospel... for a time! They express faith in the gospel but...

Jas 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Jas 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Jas 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works  is dead also.

...their faith is a dead faith.

And dead faith saves no one!

__________________________________________________________

                                            Further Clarification;

In back of the Biblical evidence just presented it must now be seen that the theme question of this paper; ~Can the unregenerate believe the gospel?~ must be answered...
that depends. On what? On whether or not you mean believing in the sense of believing any other propositional statements, such as "The earth is flat" or, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for His sheep, the elect, and them only" which anybody can believe. Or whether you mean; believing the gospel... ~unto salvation~. This is a truth that most people are not aware of; that true Biblical faith is always belief... ~UNTO~ something... unto what? Let the Word of God tell us;

Rom 10:10  For with the heart one believes ~unto~ righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses ~unto~ salvation.

True belief is ~unto~ righteousness and true confessing with the mouth is ~unto~ salvation. It is very possible for people to engage in a belief that is ~not unto righteousness~! and to making confession with the mouth that is ~not unto salvation~! Such people are rocky-ground hearers who do not have the "root of the matter" in them and are still lost; unsaved; unregenerate. And there are legion of them walking around. More;

Heb 10:38  "But the just shall live by faith;" "and if he draws back," "My soul is not pleased in him."

There are those who "draw back" and Scripture bears testimony of such.
From what do such people draw back? From their shallow profession of faith in the gospel that was not ~unto salvation~.

Heb 10:39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe ~unto~  the saving of the soul.

1Pe 1:5  who by the power of God are guarded through faith ~unto~ a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So now, if we ask the question; Can the unregenerate believe the gospel?; the answer is Yes!

But if we ask the question; Can the unregenerate believe the gospel ~unto salvation~?; the answer to this question is an emphatic No!

***************************************************************************

Now some examples from Scripture. In the Old Testament we find the most striking demonstration of this in Saul the son of Kish, of whom it is said...

1Sam 10: 5  After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where [is] the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy:
6  And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
9 And it was [so], that when he had turned his back to go from  Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.

Saul received the Spirit of God;
He had the gift of prophecy;
He was changed into 'another man'; and...
God "gave him another heart"! ...  and yet the Scripture goes on to tell us of Saul...

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Saul ultimately resorts to consorting with a spiritualist & engaging in necromancy, calling up the dead, which is an abominable sin... and finally ends up committing suicide!  No doubt one could resort to the Biblical truth that any and all sin shall be forgiven men in an attempt to maintain that Saul was, after all, a true child of God but this would require quite a bit of stretching of the language of Scripture.  It is more in keeping with the  overall testimony of the Bible that Saul was indeed an Old Testament example of a person who can come under the influence of the things of God even to the point of being in possession of the Spirit of God... and yet not be a true child of God. The point of such a situation is to show that men, though they are naturally God's enemies and dead in their sin, are not... graveyard dead.  On to the New Testament....

Then said Jesus to those Jews  > (which Jews?)<   which believed on him, !!! IF......................................................... ye continue  in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed;   John 8:31

And then said Jesus further to those same Jews... which believed on Him...

You are of your father...   the Devil !!!!  John 8:44

They believed on Jesus...

They were sons of Satan...

People can... and do... believe in Jesus... and are  Lost!

Oh but Jay..   I am more than a mere believer in Jesus!  I am one of His... disciples! What say you to that Jay?... you radical trouble maker!

John 6:66 Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 

Temporary believers are... temporary disciples and are... Lost!

9 But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime in the city used sorcery,....
13 And Simon also himself believed: and being baptized, he continued with Philip;

Do not these words reflect the account given us in Acts 2:44 ff... of those who believed, and were baptized... and they continued in the Apostles doctrine?  A description of those saints... saved people who were charter members of the First Church of Jerusalem!  Yet in this passage Peter goes on to say of Simon...

20 Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money.
21  Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right before God.
22  Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee.
23  For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.
24  And Simon answered and said, Pray ye for me to the Lord, that none of the things which ye have spoken come upon me.

Again some notable points.  It is said of Simon that;
His heart was not right before God.  Consequently...
His sin had its root in his heart, not his flesh! ...'if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee.'
He was still in bondage to his sin... 'in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.'
A worthy description of the natural man still entangled in his sin.  Concerning verse 24 and Simon's possible repentance John Gill notes;

" pray ye to the Lord for me; the Arabic version reads, 'pray ye two';
 the words are addressed both to Peter and John; for though Peter  only spake to him, yet John joined with him, and assented to what he  said, and approved of it; and which he might signify either by word  or gesture; wherefore Simon desires both of them, that they would  pray to the Lord for him; but whether he was serious, and in good  earnest in this, is a question; since there is no reason to believe  he truly repented, from the accounts given of him by ancient  writers; who always represent him as an opposer of the apostles and  their doctrine, as the father of all heresies, as a blasphemous  wretch; who gave out that he was the Father in Samaria, the Son in  Judea, and the Holy Ghost in other places; and as a very lewd and  wicked man, who carried about with him a whore, whose name was  Helena; whom he called the mother of the universe, and gave out the  angels were made by her, and the world by them; with many other  errors, blasphemies, and impieties: so that it should rather seem,  that though Peter was serious in his advice to Simon, yet he [Simon...JJ] was not so in his request to him; but in a sarcastic sneering way, desired  his prayers for him; suggesting, that he was not in any pain about  what he had said: and if he was in earnest, he did not take Peter's  advice to pray for himself; nor did he declare any repentance for  his sin; and his desire that the apostles would pray for him, might  not be from any sense he had of the evil of his sin, but from a  slavish fear of the evil, or mischief, that was like to come upon  him for his sin, as appears by what follows:..."   John Gill's Commentary

Summation;
Total depravity does not mean that men are 'graveyard dead'... that is, they are in such a condition that they are unable to hear, understand, and believe the truth of the gospel. Enough Scripture has been presented to nullify such a notion. Those who deny it are only denyinmg the word of God as well as historic orthodoxy.

What now does all this mean? Among other things it means that;
It is not enought to say... "I believe the gospel!" People can believe the gospel and still be unregenerate. There are people walking around who 'believe the gospel' who are not saved! I know some personally. People like this are even more dangerous than Arminians because the Arminian message can easily be examined in the light of Scripture and seen to be a false gospel. But people who believe the truth are difficult to tell because you need to do a closer examination of both their doctrine and their life.