GOSPEL, The Gospel, what is it for, J. H. Oliphant The reader will see that I have taken the view that the Bible was never intended by its Author as a means or instrument through which eternal life is given. These acts are evidences that we are the children of God. A man may have this Spirit, and never have opportunity to see its fruits, but still he would be a child of God. Fruit has simply nothing to do in producing the tree. The tree may be good, and we never see any of its fruit. The question how long a man’s nature may be changed before he manifests that change to others does not touch the point at issue. The Spirit must be in men first. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.”
In the order of nature the birth is first, and let the interval be long or short, the birth is antecedent to believing. A man may be of God, and never have an opportunity to hear on earth, and yet he would be of God. The act of believing is evidence of life, and nothing more. Life precedes any impression made by the word, and it is the cause of its favorable reception. Hearing and believing are not the cause of passing from death to life, but the evidence of it; passing from death unto life is first. This life may be in men, idiots, and heathens, who may never have opportunity to manifest it; yet to heaven they will go. (J. H. Oliphant: REGENERATION 1888)