Wes, thanks for referring me to the Sproul article. He made a common mistake in his interpretation of John 3:3 when he interpreted the word “see” as “perceive”:

“Spiritually dead persons are incapable of seeing the kingdom of God. It is invisible to them, not because the kingdom itself is invisible, but because the spiritually dead are also spiritually blind.”

That is simply not correct. The word “see” in John 3:3 means “participate in” or “experience” as in the phrase “see death” found in Luke 2:26: “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Another example is the phrase “see life” in John 3:36: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

A.T. Robertson, a Greek scholar and former professor at The Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, commented on John 3:3:

“He cannot see the kingdom of God (ou dunatai idein thn basileian tou qeou). To participate in it as in Luke 9:27. For this use of idein (second aorist active infinitive of oraw) see John 8:51; Revelation 18:7.”
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/...r=3&verse=3

You said, “Dead men don't make choices. It will take a miracle, not a decision to be born again.” Actually, dead men do make choices. Notice what Jesus said in John 5:24-25:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live.”

Some people argue that the dead people mentioned in verse 25 refer to physically dead rather than spiritually dead people. The proximity to verse 24 and the clear reference to physically dead people in verse 28, however, seem to rule out that interpretation. The fact that dead men can make such a decision is a miracle. God initiates the conversion process by irresistibly putting dead men under the special, illuminating conviction of the Holy Spirit. That is a miracle. The dead men are allowed to make a freewill decision to respond to God’s initiative positively or negatively.