At least one person reached out to me to suggest that I (in my previous post) misunderstood Dr. Allen, and that Dr. Allen does not teach that 1 John 5:1 teaches that faith precedes regeneration. This person referenced one of Dr. Allen's papers from a few years ago ("Does Regeneration Precede Faith?" in the Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry, Fall 2014, Vol. 11, No. 2), which more modestly argues only that regeneration preceding faith cannot be proved from the grammar of the text (e.g., "The most that can be said from the Greek present participle and perfect tense verb combination is that the actions are contemporaneous" p. 41). Indeed, in that paper, Dr. Allen attempted to resort to an argument from the "broader context" ("The broader context of John’s writings indicate he would not teach that regeneration precedes faith and elsewhere teach that faith is a condition for life as he does in John 20:31." p. 41)
Nevertheless, as documented in my various video responses (Original Response Part 1, Original Response Part 2, Response to Flowers' Claim that Allen Addressed James White's argument, and a follow-up regarding Sherman and Tuggy), especially the Original Response (for example, Part 1, from the place where Allen says, 'Well I'm gunna go ahead and raise some eyebrows'), Allen differs from Flowers and says that there are "semantic grounds" for his view of 1 John 5:1; and Part 2, where he reads section 4 of his paper, which argues from the "semantic structure" that faith precedes regeneration).
Interestingly, the entire challenge posed to Dr. Allen by Dr. White hangs on this point. If Dr. Allen were to abandon his position for Flowers' position, White's challenge would no longer apply to Allen with the same strength, although Dr. White would still be right to demand a consistent exegesis of 1 John 2:29, 1 John 4:7, and 1 John 5:1.
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