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In 1 John 5:1 below do you place faith before or after birth in sequence or time. What are your thoughts aside from a doctrinal position .

Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστὶν ὁ χριστὸς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται,
 
Do you agree or disagree with the following, why or why not. Thanks .

John states that all who believe that Jesus is the Christ (i.e., the Messiah) have been born of God. As the book has already indicated, this requirement includes believing specifically that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (4:2), that he is God’s Son, and that he is the Savior of the world (4:14–15). One should not think that John is promoting mere intellectual assent as the requirement for being a child of God, since the second half of the verse indicates that Johannine faith includes an ethical dimension. That is, faith and love are inseparable (cf. 3:23). The phrase “Jesus is the Christ” corresponds to 2:22 and is possibly an early creedal formulation.

The text goes on to declare that those who have faith in Jesus as the Messiah are “born of God.” Thus faith is a sign of sonship. John has previously mentioned the theme of sonship in this epistle. He states that being born of God leads to right behavior (2:29), prevents one from habitually sinning (3:9–10), and causes one to love others (4:7). In the fourth Gospel we read that faith is not only a sign but also a condition of the new birth: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Marshall writes: “Here, however, John is not trying to show how a person experiences the new birth; his aim is rather to indicate the evidence which shows that a person stands in the continuing relationship of a child to God his Father: that evidence is that he holds to the true faith about Jesus.” The perfect tense of the verb gegennētai suggests a past action with results that continue in the present. In other words, Smalley concludes, “The regenerate Christian (past) must constantly live out (present) his faith in Jesus as Messiah, and also give his sustained allegiance to the love command.”

Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 189.

QUESTION—What is the relationship between believing and being begotten by God?

Belief is a sign of regeneration [Brd, HNTC, NIC, NTC, TH, TNTC, WBC, Ws]. Some commentators explain that faith is the sign of regeneration because faith is the result of regeneration [EBC, ICC, NIC, TNTC]. Others say that faith is the condition for the new birth [Brd, NIC, WBC]. However, the logical order between faith and regeneration is not in focus here; for the true believer, each is present with the other [Brd, ICC, NIC, Ws].

John Anderson, An Exegetical Summary of 1, 2, and 3 John, 2nd ed. (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2008), 168.
 
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In 1 John 5:1 below do you place faith before or after birth in sequence or time. What are your thoughts aside from a doctrinal position .

Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστὶν ὁ χριστὸς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται,
About as meaningful a question as "does giving birth engender a child" or "does a birth happen because of a child."

Have regard to your apostle Calvin "Est autem argumentum ex communi naturae ordine sumptum."
 
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Do you agree or disagree with the following, why or why not. Thanks .

John states that all who believe that Jesus is the Christ (i.e., the Messiah) have been born of God. As the book has already indicated, this requirement includes believing specifically that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (4:2), that he is God’s Son, and that he is the Savior of the world (4:14–15). One should not think that John is promoting mere intellectual assent as the requirement for being a child of God, since the second half of the verse indicates that Johannine faith includes an ethical dimension. That is, faith and love are inseparable (cf. 3:23). The phrase “Jesus is the Christ” corresponds to 2:22 and is possibly an early creedal formulation.

The text goes on to declare that those who have faith in Jesus as the Messiah are “born of God.” Thus faith is a sign of sonship. John has previously mentioned the theme of sonship in this epistle. He states that being born of God leads to right behavior (2:29), prevents one from habitually sinning (3:9–10), and causes one to love others (4:7). In the fourth Gospel we read that faith is not only a sign but also a condition of the new birth: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Marshall writes: “Here, however, John is not trying to show how a person experiences the new birth; his aim is rather to indicate the evidence which shows that a person stands in the continuing relationship of a child to God his Father: that evidence is that he holds to the true faith about Jesus.” The perfect tense of the verb gegennētai suggests a past action with results that continue in the present. In other words, Smalley concludes, “The regenerate Christian (past) must constantly live out (present) his faith in Jesus as Messiah, and also give his sustained allegiance to the love command.”

Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 189.

QUESTION—What is the relationship between believing and being begotten by God?

Belief is a sign of regeneration [Brd, HNTC, NIC, NTC, TH, TNTC, WBC, Ws]. Some commentators explain that faith is the sign of regeneration because faith is the result of regeneration [EBC, ICC, NIC, TNTC]. Others say that faith is the condition for the new birth [Brd, NIC, WBC].

However, the logical order between faith and regeneration is not in focus here; for the true believer, each is present with the other [Brd, ICC, NIC, Ws].

John Anderson, An Exegetical Summary of 1, 2, and 3 John, 2nd ed. (Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2008), 168.
The above is correct. The subject of 1 John 5:1 is faith itself, and not how a person comes by (the gift of) faith (from God).
 
About as meaningful a question as "does giving birth engender a child" or "does a birth happen because of a child."

Have regard to your apostle Calvin "Est autem argumentum ex communi naturae ordine sumptum."
I’m not a Calvinist . Ad hominem duly noted. And you do not know Greek .

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I’m not a Calvinist .
"Calvin aspired to construct a presentation of Christian doctrine of a scope and catholicity comparable to that of the great early doctors of the Western church, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory. He largely succeeded in doing so. Two enduring concerns shaped his thought: (1) to demonstrate his commitment to the Chalcedonian Christology, after his first writings inadvertently gave those hostile to him a basis for accusing him of errors concerning the doctrine of the Trinity; and (2) to demonstrate that the vision of Christianity that he defended did not entail a radical challenge to the social and political order.

Ad hominem duly noted.
I assumed that you would have esteemed such an earnest defender of Chalcedonian Christology. Obviously the votaries of Chalcedon are not homogeneous. A house divided against itself will come to ruin.

And you do not know Greek .
I gave an answer in Latin. What was wrong with it?
 
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