Heaven's Credit Check?

In a discussion Sunday about the ordo salutis I was a bit stymied by some questions I was getting peppered with. The questions focused on what I would say to invite a sinner to be saved. Maybe it was the post-fellowship-dinner Call of the Nap, but I just wasn't getting it. Then I caught some comments by Erroll Hulse in the classic The Great Invitation that shed light on the issue:

Apparently, some hyper-Calvinists have advanced the idea that there must be some perceptible, preparatory work in the heart before a person has the "right" to believe; and we therefore have no business calling anyone to believe until they have been "pre-qualified" through the work of the Spirit.

In the immortal words of Nero Wolfe, "Pfui!"

Yes, I believe that regeneration must precede faith. You don't get from "there is none that seeketh after God" to "Lord, I believe" without Divine intervention. But that is a logical order, not a chronological order. Hulse puts it beautifully:

"Why then should a man believe? The answer is that the sovereign God of heaven and earth commands it. This is called the 'warrant' of faith. The word warrant simply means the right to believe. This is important because many think that they must first be subject to a spiritual experience which gives them a reason or right to believe. It may be an experience of inspiration or of deep conviction of sin, but the idea is that you should experience something special before you believe. Once this erroneous concept possesses the soul, much harm is done because it means that the person in question becomes passive. Instead of thinking in terms of working for faith, the soul says to itself, 'There is nothing I can do until something happens within me.' I have come across such people who are very faithful in church attendance, but are dominated by the idea that nothing can be done by themselves. They have become fatalistic in attitude." (Hulse, The Great Invitation, p. 56)