John 3:16 Conference Examines Calvinism

Check out this article from Baptist Press: Click Here! It's seems like an Arminian alternative to the Together for the Gospel Conference which is obviously Calvinistic (Note: I am most adamantly opposed to the former and very strongly adhere to the latter). No doubt that these are godly men, but I wonder what they would say about John 3:16 in light of 3:5-8: "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" The basic point is that being born again (AKA, regeneration) precedes belief/faith.

Wayne Grudem writes:

"The idea that regeneration comes before saving faith is not always understood by evangelicals today. Sometimes people will even say something like, 'If you believe in Christ as your Savior, then (after you believe) you will be born again.' But Scripture itself never says anything like that. The new birth is viewed by Scripture as something that God does within us in order to enable us to believe. The reason that evangelicals often think that regeneration comes after saving faith is that they see the results (love for God and his Word, and turning from sin) after people come to faith. Yet here we must decide on the basis of what Scripture tells us, because regeneration itself is not something we see or know about directly: 'The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or wither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit' (John 3:8)" (Systematic Theology, 703).

J.I. Packer writes:

"Infants do not induce, or cooperate in, their own procreation and birth; no more can those who are 'dead in trespasses and sins' prompt the quickening operation of God's Spirit within them (see Eph. 2:1-10). Spiritual vivification is a free, and to man mysterious, exercise of divine power (John 3:8), not explicable in terms of the combination or cultivation of existing human resources (John 3:6), not caused or induced by any human effort (John 1:12-13) or merits (Titus 3:3-7), and not, therefore, to be equated with, or attributed to, any of the experiences, decisions, and acts to which it gives rise and by which it may be known to have taken place" ("Regeneration," in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 925).

Robert L. Reymond writes:

"Regeneration is not the replacing of the substance of fallen human nature with another substances, nor simply the change in one or more of the faculties of the fallen spiritual nature, not the perfecting of the fallen spiritual nature. Rather, it is the subconscious implanting of the principle of the new spiritual life in the soul, effecting an instantaneous change in the whole man, intellectually, emotionally, and morally, and enabling the elect sinner to respond in repentance and faith to the outward or public gospel proclamation directed to his conscious understanding and will" (A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, 721-722).

Jesus Christ says:

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him... (John 6:44)."