by
Keith Hunt
It is time to answer the number of verses that some want to put
forth as a proof of being BORN AGAIN in this physical life time.
I would have thought the simple to understand words of Jesus to
Nicodemus in John 3, would have been enough. One basic rule of
Bible study is that we let the plain clear easy to understand
words in a given passage be the foundation, and then we
understand the other passages in the light of the easy and clear
passages.
What some are doing with this "born again now" idea is exactly
what MOST Catholics and Protestants have for centuries done with
the "immortal soul" and "going to heaven of hell" at death
teaching. There are many passages that simply and clearly tell
you about what happens at death, what the state of the dead are
in when they die, but many do not have those verses as their
foundation and then understand the other verses that seem to
"indicate" that the dead are not really dead at death, but either
in heaven or hell.
Such backwards reading of the Bible is one of the reasons we have
so many "false doctrines" around today in popular Christianity.
WELL LET'S GET OT IT
1 SAMUEL 10:6-9
The Spirit of God was to come upon Saul, and he was to "turn into
another man" (v.6).
Ah, was Saul to become not Saul any longer but literally change
into being another physical man? Most would laugh at such an
idea, for common sense tells us that God did not mean that phrase
to be taken that way. God Himself gives you the answer to that
use of the phrase, in verse 9 and 10. Really quite simple I would
say. Saul was to be CONVERTED as we say, he was to be given the
Spirit of God that converts the mind to the Eternal's way of
thinking and living, and in this case he even received a "gift of
the Spirit" - Prophecy, and Saul was then among the "prophets"
(v.11).
There is nothing here to even come close to a "born again" status
as JESUS TAUGHT IT in John chapter 3. Saul did not become like
the "wind" - he did not become "invisible" to other humans.
EZEKIEL 36:26-27
Nothing so strange with these verses. It is as basic as you can
get in the Bible. God bring people out of BLINDNESS into LIGHT,
out of darkness into light. The Spirit of God given to people as
God has always given to SOME people from the very start, from the
days of Adam and Eve and their children. The whole NT teaches
this basic truth, people coming to god and receiving His Spirit
as 3,000 did on the feast of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, and
Peter inspiringly preaching to them by the Spirit.
Nothing in these verses of Ezekiel to teach the "born again in
this life time" as is it taught by many of the fundamental
Protestant sects.
Nothing here comes close to how Jesus taught Nicodemus about what
being "born again" means.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-2
The NT is loaded with the teaching that we are TODAY,
**CHILDREN** of God. The NT is loaded with all kinds of
"analogies" from people being "fish" - "wheat" - and sorted out
one day - good from bad. The NT uses analogies of people being
"sheep" and "goats" and going to be divided one from the other
one day. The NT has analogies of God's people being like 10
virgins and some sleeping whiles others kept awake. We have
analogies of God's people as a "woman" or as "the body of Christ"
or some of them as a foot, or eye, head, or arms. We have God's
children as "seed" being thrown out by the seed planter, some
going on stony ground, some into thorns and thistles, some on
good ground where they take root and grow.
We could go on, but I think I've made the point. Are God's
children then "fish" or "wheat" or "sheep" or "goats"? Do they
become in this life time "seed" or "virgins" or do they all
become "women"?
Jesus said He was the "door" to the "sheep-fold" - does or is, or
did, He become in any part of His existence, a "door" in any
literal sense?
Most of course would roll over with laughter to think "yes" to
any of the above questions I have just asked.
So it goes then with many things in the Bible and the NT
especially....TYPES, and ANALOGIES, can be used, are indeed used,
by Bible writers, to put things in "analogy" CONTEXT to get a
point across, to bring out a "spiritual" meaning to those they
are writing to. The ANALOGY is to teach a POINT of what it
REPRESENTS, either in the "spiritual" sense of truth, or in a
"physical way" it may be fulfilled.
We have the fine example of Joseph having a dream concerning the
sun and moon and eleven stars doing obeisance to him (Gen. 37).
All understood, his father sure did, what that dream was meaning,
and it sure was NOT literally to do with the sun and moon and
eleven stars bowing down to him.
The POINT of analogies or types is to get a message across OTHER
than something literal in the "figures" used in the analogy.
This understanding is fundamental to not get all mixed up and in
knots and false ideas that translate themselves into false
doctrines, when reading the Bible and certainly the NT as
concerning this "born again now" teaching.
So then it is with 1 Cor.3:1-2. Paul uses very down to earth
analogies. Certainly a Christian and child of God in this life
can be looked upon, in a "spiritual" sense either as "babe" or a
"grown-up" in relation to their "spiritual" (note the word
"spiritual" in verse one) position with God or Christ. Sure they
can be analogized as still on "milk" or "strong meat" food...in
the spiritual analogy that the physical in the analogy is
portraying. Paul said that some were an eye, foot, hand, ear, of
the body of Christ (1 Cor.12) but he sure was not teaching in the
use of those physical parts, that those who were an eye, or hand,
or ear, literally had gone through some process so they could say
to others, "I'm a new hand" or "I'm a new foot" or so others
could say, "Have you become a new eye yet brother" or "Why don't
you become a new right hand, as I am, and join me."
All this should be making you laugh by now, for most people see
the craziness of such reasonings.
Yet, BECAUSE people will NOT BELIEVE the plain simple words of
Jesus to Nicodemus about what being BORN AGAIN **MEANS** - they
JUMP into verses like 1 Cor.3:1-2, and say there you have it, a
Christian is, or has become "born again" - albeit as a "babe" but
should have been "born" as an "adult" and Paul is raking them
over the coals because of it.
Paul in 1 Cor.3:1-2 was NOT even thinking about some "born again
in this life doctrine." And when I was a part of the
"fundamental" sect groups, and I started to question this
"born again now" teaching, NOT ONE minister, or lay person, EVER
tried to quote such verses as 1 Cor.3:1-2 and the others in this
study, to prove we are born again now in this physical life time.
THEY ALL went to John 3 to give me the "proof" of why they taught
such an idea. when I told them that their understanding of Jesus'
words WAS NOT what He clearly said, they had NO ANSWER, they were
silenced, for there is really only TWO WAYS to understand what
Jesus said.....the fundamental sect's way or the way it is
written, that when you are born again you are LIKE the
WIND...INVISIBLE!
Well we must move on.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
Yes you are a new "creature" if in Christ. What kind of a
"creature"? Maybe you are a "horse" (maybe a new "Seabiscuit"
race horse - the great movie is playing in this year of 2003 as I
write), maybe a "lion" creature, or how about the great "killer
whale" or the friendly and talented "dolphin"?
The very words of this last part of this verse should tell us
that Paul was again using an "analogy" figure of speech - old
things past away and new things have taken their place in the
minds and life of the Christian. Again Paul is speaking on the
"spiritual" analogy type, and just about anything goes when
speaking on such a spiritual zone. I could use all kinds of
types. In this specific verse Paul chose "creature" - like a lion
becoming a donkey, or a fish becoming a "Seabiscuit" race horse.
In Paul's mind here, the difference that a person should have in
their mind and life style living after becoming a Christian,
a child of God with the Spirit of God, was to Paul like becoming
some kind of new "creature" entirely, as a fish becoming a race
horse.
So it was also in his mind when he wrote Galatians 6:15. It was
the same thinking that Paul was thinking the analogy should
convey when a person became converted with the Spirit of God in
them....a "new creature" - being so transformed in mind, words,
thoughts, life living, that it is like one literal creature
turning into another literal creature....as a snail becoming a
Seabiscuit race horse.
GALATIANS 4:28, 29
This one blows me away, that some will try to use this to "proof
text" their "born again in this life-time" doctrine.
I will quote from, yes, someone who was a "born-again in this
life" teacher, who got the idea from John 3 and certainly NOT
from these verses in Galatians. I will quote from ALBERT BARNES
and his NT commentary called "BARNES' NOTES ON THE NEW
TESTAMENT."
QUOTE:
28. "Now we brethren." We who are Christians. "Are the children
of promise." We so far resemble Isaac, that there are great and
precious promises made to us. We are not in the condition of
Ishmael, to whom no promise was made.
29. "But as then he that was born after the flesh." Ishmael, See
ver. 23.
23. "But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh."
In the ordinary course of nature, without ant SPECIAL PROMISE, or
any UNUSUAL DIVINE INTERPOSITION, as in the case of Isaac. "But
he of the free-woman, etc." The birth of Isaac was in
accordance with a SPECIAL PROMISE, and by a REMARKABLE DIVINE
INTERPOSITION. See Gen. 18:10; 21:1,2; Heb.11:11,12. Comp. Notes
on Rom.4:19-20.
The idea here of Paul is, that the son of the slave was in a
humble and inferior condition from his very birth. There was NO
SPECIAL PROMISE attending him. He was born into a state of
inferiority and servitude, which attended him through his whole
life. Isaac, HOWEVER, was met with PROMISES as soon as he was
born, and was under the benefit of those promises as long as he
lived. The OBJECT of Paul was to state the truth in regard to a
condition of servitude and slavery. It is attended with evils
from beginning to end; from BIRTH to the GRAVE......
(Back to verse 29 - Keith Hunt)
"Persecuted him that was born after the flesh." That is Isaac.
The phrase, "after the Spirit," here is SYNONYMOUS with
"ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE," in the PREVIOUS VERSE. It stands
OPPOSED TO the phrase, "after the FLESH," and means that his
BIRTH was by the SPECIAL or MIRACULOUS AGENCY of God. See Rom.4.
It was NOT in the ORDINARY course of events. The persecution here
referred to, was the injurious treatment which Isaac received
from Ishmael, or the opposition which subsisted between
them.....Gen.21:9...."Even so it is now." That is, Christians,
the children of the promise, are persecuted by the Jews, the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, "as it now is," and who are
uninterested in the promises, as Ishmael was....."
END QUOTE
This passage has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY idea of a *spiritual*
"born again in this life" doctrine or teaching. Such was not the
thoughts of Paul here. It was exactly as Albert Barnes has
stated.
I will as I've done before, HIGHLY RECOMMEND that all should have
at least the NT Bible Commentary by Albert Barnes.....certainly
one of the finest NT commentaries out there. I do not always
agree with every comment, but in the MAIN, it is a very FINE
work.
The truth of the matter on these verses in Galatians 4 has been
well explained by Barnes.
EPHESIANS 4:14
If we are not to be any longer "children" then what are we to be?
Are we to be a new "creature" like maybe my dog or cat? I speak
of course as a fool (Paul sometimes had to talk the way I am
talking right now.
Once more Paul is using an analogy. As young children can be
tossed about with "emotions" because they have not grow up in
controlling them, so he was "liking" those foolish, silly,
immature, Christians that were being led astray by false prophets
and false apostles, and false teachers, that had come in among
them. They did need to "grow up" spiritually, in Christ Jesus,
they needed to know the real truth of the matter (v.15).
Nothing here at all about trying to prove we are now like the
wind, invisible, and so "born again" as Jesus taught what born
again means.
EPHESIANS 4:22-25
Verse 23 is the key....."be RENEWED IN THE **SPIRIT** OF YOUR
**MIND.** The person they were before REPENTING AND BEING
CONVERTED (see Acts 3:19 - that was the language Peter used, not
"be born again brothers and sisters.") was to be "put off" or
"put away" (they were acting like their "old selves" - carnal,
unconverted, Spirit-less.
They were to be a "new person" (v.24), in the "spirit of your
mind" (v.23). Yes, the whole analogy has to do with the
"mind-set" they were in and what "mind-set" they NEEDED to
be IN.
It was once more an analogy of becoming a new "creature" - "new
person" in "mind-set" from what they used to be when and before
they had supposedly REPENTED and were CONVERTED (again Acts
3:19). These verses have again NOTHING to do with what Jesus
taught to Nicodemus in John chapter 3.
COLOSSIANS 3:9-10
Again Paul uses an ANALOGY....AN OLD MAN, with set ideas, ways,
wrong thinking, un-converted, with a NEW man that has God's word
and truth in him. It would be like a NEW Adam, created by God
with no false ideals and thoughts and beliefs. They were supposed
to be like that, like a brand new Adam, with a mind-set that was
so different from the Adam that sinned eventually, and whose mind
had become polluted with wrong thoughts, ideas, doubts and
concepts.
Paul is using simply an analogy, and was speaking in "spiritual"
terms as he then also did in verse 11, where in the "spiritual"
sense there were no Jews, Greeks, circumcision, uncircumcision,
Barbarian, Scythian, bond, or free. Another analogy for the fact
was that "literally speaking" there STILL WAS such people.
The "doctrine" of "born again in this life-time" was not, as
before, on Paul's mind at all. If it was, and if the NT apostles
like Paul had this "doctrine" he could have very easily
said those verse and then added, "For you are born again
Christians, and should be different from what you were before
being born again."
HEBREWS 5:13,14
Analogy, analogy, analogy......no more and nor less. And using
analogies, you can analogy with many things. Jesus did, as you
read through the four Gospels. Christians or people in general
were "fish" - "tares" and "wheat" - and would one day be sorted
out, they were "sheep" and they were "goats" to be separated one
day. And on and on, with analogies.
Here Paul looks at the fact that milk is just about all that a
baby gets to eat, and it does okay for that time, but to
eventually mature to a grown person, milk just is not going to
do it. He looks at the simple facts of the human life and how we
grow to be adults and he takes or draws an ANALOGY from it, and
carries it over into "spiritual" maturity. There is nothing
wrong with taking whatever analogy, if it makes the point
unmistakeably clear to those you want to make an unmistakeable
point to for their spiritual maturity growth.
Nothing here by paul to teach a "born again in this life-time"
doctrine.
1 PETER 2:2
Peter used "analogies" also - and why not. Paul used them often,
and Jesus all the time in parables and lessons he wanted to give
a lesson with. Sometimes Jesus' analogies were so analogetic that
the people could NOT understand what on earth He was teaching
or getting at.
Nothing wrong with looking at a babe, literally, and seeing how
they DESIRED milk, just called out for it, cried for it, put up a
good out and out verbal stink for milk, and saying to Christians,
"You should be like a baby and CRY OUT for the milk of the WORD
of God, so just as a baby grows on physical milk, you can grow
spiritually on the milk of the word of God, for His word is full
of the good nutrition for your spiritual life, as physical milk
is good nutrition for a babies' life.
1 PETER 1:23
Covered this in previous studies. Understanding the Greek, and
knowing the truth of what Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3, then
Peter was saying, "Being BEGOTTEN AGAIN...."
Notice we or Peter was talking about "seed" - the seed of a man
begets a child. A man's seed does not "born" a child, it begets,
unites with the female egg and begets a human.
That is how we talk about it in human language - "seed" begetting
not borning. It is the first step to human living, must be
begotten first, then later, nine months or so, a human
is born.
We are now first, begotten, by the seed of God, and in this
"analogy" Peter uses, he equals seed to the word of God. you will
notice he does not equal it to the Spirit of God, but to the WORD
of God. Yes, you can do many things with "analogies" - you are at
liberty to do many analogies with analogies. One time you may do
it this way and another time do it another way. One time God's
seed can be His very Spirit, and then another time it can be His
word, and so it goes.
JOHN 1:13
We are when we receive the Spirit of God, the sons of God (v.12),
and we are BEGOTTEN of God (the Greek once more allowing either
born or begotten), not yet BORN AGAIN, for we have not become
like the wind, invisible, at repentance and conversion.
1 JOHN 3:7-10.
Read this passage in the AMPLIFIED BIBLE - it brings out the
Greek tenses. And once more the word in Greek for "born" can mean
either "begotten" or "born" - this I showed you in previous
studies.
We are BEGOTTEN of God today, NOT YET born of God, when we are
BORN AGAIN, as Jesus told Nicodemus, we shall indeed to like the
wind, INVISIBLE to the human eye, UNLESS we choose to reveal
ourselves to human person, as the God of the OT did indeed do at
times, most of the time revealing Himself in a human flesh and
bone form, but a few times, one time especially to Moses, in His
GLORIFIED SPIRIT form, but then only His back parts, for as He
told Moses, no human person can look on the face or front parts
of God in His Spirit Glory form and live.
One day friends, you can look like Jesus if you will accept Him
as your Savior, and obey the Word and commandments of God (1 John
3:1-3).
Then when Jesus comes again, you will be BORN of God!
...........................
Written July 2003
