"In a comparatively sound church life, it is possible to assume that as a rule the children of the covenant will be born again in their youth and come to faith and conversion 'in stages and gracefully.' But when the world penetrates the church and many people grow up and live for years without showing any fruits worthy of faith and repentance, then the serious-minded feel called to warn against trusting one's childhood regeneration and one's historical faith in Christian doctrine and to insist on true conversion of the hearts, and experiential knowledge of the truths of salvation. Against a dead orthodoxy, Pietism and Methodism, with their conventicles and revivals, always have a right to exist."
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3:583 (HT: David Strain)
P.S. And, yes, I know I'm being provocative with the title. But Nevin is not the answer to what ails us.
