That the unsaved, dead in trespasses and in sins, can be reasoned with and can understand and believe the gospel unto salvation is clear from many passages such as the following: "Knowing...the terror of the Lord, we persuade [unsaved] men" (2 Cor. 5.11); "and he reasoned in the synagogue [with unregenerated men]...and persuaded the [unregenerated] Jews and Greeks [to believe]" (Acts 18.4); "he mightily convinced the [unregenerated] Jews...shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ (Acts 18.28); and so forth.

Not only these scriptures, but many more like them, clearly teach that we are to use reason and Scripture in order to convince the spiritually lost that they need a Savior. The Holy Spirit uses the persuasion of God's Word, which is "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Heb. 4.12), to convict the lost and bring them to Christ. To be reasoned with, persuaded, and convinced, a person must understand the arguments and believe the truth that they convey. Clearly, then, the unregenerate can believe on Christ prior to their regeneration--or persuading them would be a fruitless effort.

God said to the unbelieving and rebellious children of Israel, most of whom refused to respond, "Come now, and let us reason together...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..." (Is. 1.18). If Calvinism were true, God would be wasting His time and effort reasoning with spiritually dead Israelites who could no more respond to the truth than a corpse could give itself a blood transfusion. And if the only way they could repent and believe unto eternal life was by Irresistible Grace to sovereignly regenerate them, why would He plead and warn while withholding the only means whereby those He addressed could respond?

According to Calvinism, God should have first regenerated the "elect" among Israel, and only then could He have reasoned with them to any spiritual benefit. But the Bible tells us otherwise.

From these scriptures as well as many other similar passages in the Bible, one would never conclude that God overwhelms the elect sinners with Irresistible Grace to regenerate them first and then give them faith to believe. On the contrary, He calls upon them to repent and sends His prophets to warn and persuade them.

The very fact that Paul, Apollos, and the other early evangelists expended themselves in persuading men to believe the gospel is completely contrary to the concept of Total Depravity, Irresistible Grace, and regeneration before faith. Paul was not aware of the principles Calvin would extract from his epistles 1,500 years later. But if he was, he certainly did his best by the Holy Spirit to disallow any such notions from Calvinism. And Jesus, He kept urging the unregenerate to come to Him, and from the cross, asked His Father to forgive the very rebels who crucified and mocked Him.

Let us continue to pray to Calvinists to help lead them to Christ.