Dr Paul Allen

 "I am the Good Shepherd"  (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Acts 9:1–19 “Falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul,Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord ?’” (vv. 4–5a). Every Christian tradition has formulated some doctrine of regeneration . Despite the differing formulations of this doctrine, however, there are ultimately only two different views of the role of man and the role of God in regeneration: monergism or synergism . A synergistic view of regeneration says man and God cooperate in bringing new life to a person. The Lord acts upon the heart of the unbeliever, imploring him to change. However, though God calls to the heart, regeneration cannot occur unless the unbeliever, who has the ability to say, “yes,” or “no,” embraces the divine call.  There are several problems with this view. First, synergism sees the human will working with the divine will to achieve salvation. Yet we all come into the world spiritually de

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Ephesians 2:1-10 "But God , being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ " ( vv. 4-5 ). It is common for Christians to equate the new birth , or regeneration , with the new life in Christ that God provides to all who believe. Because of the way the Gospel is taught in many churches, it is easy to think that regeneration is something that happens when we first confess Jesus as our Savior. We ar