It seems to me that the biblical writers did affirm that the new birth was by means of faith, a faith sovereignly given to the elect. In other words, they taught that conversion via the Gospel (the chief elements of which are love, faith, and repentance) produced a regeneration. They did not teach that regeneration produced a conversion as the "regeneration precedes faith" view affirms. For, "regeneration (new birth) before faith and repentance" is the same as "regeneration before conversion."
Some Calvinists say that regeneration is one side of a single coin while conversion is the other side. That is perhaps allowable to say, in some sense, however the more biblical way of expressing the matter is to say that regeneration is conversion, or that regeneration or new birth is the result of conversion.
Certainly John 1: 11-13 shows that conversion precedes regeneration, or is the same thing. Does it not? "To as many as received him to them gave he the right to become children of God." It does not say "as many as he gave the right to become the children of God received him."
In either case, the fact is that one is not born again who is not converted, who is not a Christian.
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