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Leyden Professors), 31:9; Mastricht, Godgeleerdheit VI. 3,26; Brakel, Redelijke Godsdienst I, p.
738. These three authorities, however, apparently use the term “immediate” in a different
sense. Further: Turretin, Opera XV. 4,23 f.; Shedd, Dogm. Theol. II, pp. 500, 506; Hodge, Syst.
Theol. III, p. 31; Kuyper, Dict Dogm., De Salute, p. 74; Bavinck, Roeping en Wedergeboorte, pp.
219 ff.; Vos, Geref. Dogm. IV, pp. 46 ff.]
H. DIVERGENT VIEWS OF REGENERATION.
1. THE PELAGIAN VIEW.
According to the Pelagians man’s freedom and personal responsibility
implies that he is at all times just as able to desist from sin as to commit sin. Only acts of
conscious volition are regarded as sin. Consequently, regeneration simply consists in moral
reformation. It means that the man who formerly chose to transgress the law, now chooses to
live in obedience to it.
2. BAPTISMAL REGENERATION.
This is not always represented in the same way.
a. In the Church of Rome.
According to the Roman Catholic Church regeneration includes not
only spiritual renewal, but also justification or the forgiveness of sins, and is effected by means
of baptism. In the case of children the work of regeneration is always effective; not so in the
case of adults. These can gratefully accept and utilize the grace of regeneration, but can also
resist it and make it ineffective. Moreover, it is always possible that they who have
appropriated it will lose it again.
b. In the Anglican Church.
The Church of England is not unanimous on this point, but
represents two different tendencies. The so-called Puseyites are in essential agreement with
the Church of Rome. But there is also an influential party in the Church which distinguishes two
kinds of regeneration: the one consisting merely in a change of one’s relation to the Church and
the means of grace; and the other, in a fundamental change of human nature. According to this
party only the former is effected by baptism. This regeneration includes no spiritual renewal. By
means of it man merely enters into a new relation to the Church, and becomes a child of God in
the same sense in which the Jews became children of God through the covenant of which
circumcision was a seal.
c. In the Lutheran Church.
Luther and his followers did not succeed in purging their Church
from the leaven of Rome on this point. On the whole the Lutherans maintain, in opposition to
Rome, the monergistic character of regeneration. They regard man as entirely passive in
regeneration and incapable of contributing anything to it, though adults can resist it for a long
time. At the same time some teach that baptism, working ex opere operato, is the usual means
by which God effects regeneration. It is the usual, but not the only means, for the preaching of
the Word may also produce it. They speak of two kinds of regeneration, namely, regeneratio