Born Again

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Mendalla said:
Well, and more than a few mainstream Christians also believe in born again experiences, even if they don't believe they are a necessity.
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I don't hear "born again experiences" coming up often in conversation at church. Then again, we are not all that good at discussing matters of faith except in small study groups. Still, I would say the language of epiphany is more common.
 
Being born again is a spiritual rebirth of our own spirit. Our spirit that is given to us at birth that is dead to God now becomes alive to God, we are now in one and one relationship with the Creator. We are still who we were before the rebirth, the only difference is , is that our desires change, we are more inclined and desire to do good, and not to sin, yet we still will have failures.


Before the rebirth experience, sin was simply a part of who we were, with no conscious witness in our minds that it is , was wrong, after the rebirth experience we come to see sin , not as a natural part of us any longer but as a spiritual disease, and by that we see with in our selves that the ability we have to over come it really is not there.


Being born of the Spirit of God also witness to our hearts and minds of who Jesus is and what He accomplished for us, since we were not there 2000 plus yrs ago, but The spirit of God was there.


Our old nature is still with us, but we now see its faults, its works and we strive to over come it. Everyone s life experience before the rebirth experience is different, some had easier lives , some hard lives. All these life experience come together with Gods Spirit a rebirth, which is why all born again believes experience and struggle differently after the experience.


The Spirit of God is not a magic pill, that we all now bear the fruits of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is a Gift to us, a gentle Spirit, a wise Spirit, all , a teacher to us , as we strive for the Gifts of the Spirit , Holy Spirit inspires and helps us to do so.


God does not take your old spirit away, that spirit of life God gave you at birth is a gift to you. God does not over come your old spirit, that would be possession and God does not posses people , satan does that. God in the rebirth, inspires your old God given spirit, Gives it new wisdom to see spiritually, to understand what Christ did for us, to see the need fro the power of Gods Spirit in our daily lives.


There are many out comes in the new rebirth to write it all here, for me the greatest benefit is , regardless of who I am , my failures, my personal wars and demons I struggle with , at the end of it all, I know for a fact that” God IS”, and “I am”, and that he Loves me because I know God is teh embodiment of Love itself.


When I fail to love someone, I fail to love the image of Gods Creation, and The Spirit witnesses to my consciousness of my failures , to guild me teach me on to maturity one day, for there is NOT ONE born again believer that is 100% mature in Christ. Not one!, But Gods Promise is one day we will be in a new life a new earth.
 
paradox3 said:
I don't hear "born again experiences" coming up often in conversation at church. Then again, we are not all that good at discussing matters of faith except in small study groups. Still, I would say the language of epiphany is more common.
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Maybe things have changed. We had some folks using the terminology back in the day.
 
Born again suggests a renaissance man like Da Vinci ... look what the church did to him and his creative counter Paenes ...

Sometimes a slab art ... contains reflections on what was inhead!

Tis a dark shadowy Zoan ... at least!
 
The words born again IMO tends to have a one time event and experience attached it. Whereas I feel it is a new beginning or a rebirth to want to seek a new understanding of our spiritual nature ....a process that takes us to a higher understanding that is continous and leads us to discover the Christ within us through Christs teachings.
Its probably why a master would interpret the parables in another way than many see them and why there are so many interpretaions that should lead us beyond the obvious. Similar to Koans given by a Buddha maybe.
Jesus is Christ.
 
blackbelt1961 said:
There are many out comes in the new rebirth to write it all here, for me the greatest benefit is , regardless of who I am , my failures, my personal wars and demons I struggle with , at the end of it all, I know for a fact that” God IS”, and “I am”, and that he Loves me because I know God is teh embodiment of Love itself.


When I fail to love someone, I fail to love the image of Gods Creation, and The Spirit witnesses to my consciousness of my failures , to guild me teach me on to maturity one day, for there is NOT ONE born again believer that is 100% mature in Christ. Not one!, But Gods Promise is one day we will be in a new life a new earth.
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I like this.
 
Waterfall said:
The words born again IMO tends to have a one time event and experience attached it. Whereas I feel it is a new beginning or a rebirth to want to seek a new understanding of our spiritual nature ....a process that takes us to a higher understanding that is continous and leads us to discover the Christ within us through Christs teachings.
Its probably why a master would interpret the parables in another way than many see them and why there are so many interpretaions that should lead us beyond the obvious. Similar to Koans given by a Buddha maybe.
Jesus is Christ.
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Jesus is Christ explicitly humble ... avoid the implicite literal sense ...
 
Jae said:
My thoughts... to be "born again" is to have one's old, shameful self killed off; and to be given a new identity in Christ. I think "born from above" is actually a better term sunce the term "born sgain" now carries an unfortunate negative sense. I believe that I have been born from above. As to how this happened - John 3:5 is important to consider. Where do water and the Spirit of God come together to regenerate. These are words which speak to me of baptism. Hence, I was born from above when I was baptized in my infancy. As to the indications that someone is born from above, look for the fruit of the Spirit in that other.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, long abiding, benignity, goodness, mildness, faith, 23 temperance, continence, chastity; against such things is no law." - Galatians 5:22-23 (WYC).
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i-didnt-decide-to-follow-jesus-thankfully-god-made-that-25325158.jpg
 
chansen said:
What no one wants to address is how those who scream loudest that they are "born again" are some of the worst people in the universe.

These are the people who ruin the perception of Christianity, and have ruined the term "born again" for generations.
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Rather like observing that water is wet right? Is it an observation that needs to be made every time?

And possibly the reason why such individuals are so loud is not because they are labouring to convince others (unsuccessfully) so much as it is an attempt to convince themselves that they are of some inherent value and worth.

Something along the lines of, "none profess their innocence so loudly as the guilty" kind of thing.
 
"Something along the lines of, "none profess their innocence so loudly as the guilty" kind of thing."

Radical reaction in the vision of insecurity issues?

Are there recent examples of those so insecure they don;t wish to believe anything ... ?

I hear Spong has a new book out labelled: UNBELIEVABLE!

Is this acceptable expression at the awe of such naivete? Perhaps you'd best not respond ...
 
Luce NDs said:
I hear Spong has a new book out labelled: UNBELIEVABLE!
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My copy is ordered, and should have it by next week. We're doing a Tuesday night group study on it next, assuming that we EVER get through the study we're currently floundering around on : The Great Work, by Fr Thomas Berry.
 
Just 4 simple points to flesh out the meaning intended by Jesus' and the apostles' new birth imagery:
(1) Christians who express discomfort with talk of a "born again" experience are challenging not modern Fundamentalists, but Jesus Himself:
"Do not be astonished that I [Jesus] said to you, 'You must be born again (also "from above"--John 3:7)."

(2) Like physical birth, the new birth experience requires "sperm" or "seed." The "sperm" is the imparted permanent gift of a potential to hear God speaking through the Gospel. Thus, one experiences God's Word as a "living and imperishable" reality:
"You have been born again, not of perishable but of imperishable sperm (Greek: "sperma") through the living and impersishable Word of God (1 Peter 1:23)." Yet what is born is a spiritual "newborn infant" who craves being nourished by "spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation (2:2)." So new birth is not the end; it is the beginning of spiritual maturation.

(3) This miracle of a new birth is authentic inner transformation in the sense of a "new creation," which is what matters most in life:"
"For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything (Gal 6:15)!"

(4) As a new creation, the believer experiences everything in life in a new and fresh way:
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new (2 Cor 5:17)!"
 
Jesus is a strange levity that allow us to connect the darkness of what we know to the darkness of our passions ... and creating a greater mystery out of the question of de Deus of hate ... and after that they were one piece in an instant in the generality!

The mortals were left knowing little ... of the larger story going on on the other side ... it goes on labelled as an immortal item we don;t know any better than the nature of energy! It just does ...

If you do anything while alive ... do you best to add to the question ... just for the sake of interest! Some have nun whatsoever ... for reason we don;t understand!

Yet still some make claims ... right to the edge of tres soon ... anon ... or near to*us ...
 
revjohn said:
Rather like observing that water is wet right? Is it an observation that needs to be made every time?

And possibly the reason why such individuals are so loud is not because they are labouring to convince others (unsuccessfully) so much as it is an attempt to convince themselves that they are of some inherent value and worth.

Something along the lines of, "none profess their innocence so loudly as the guilty" kind of thing.
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I think we're all missing the boat here. The answer to "born agains" isn't to ignore them, and it isn't to refute them. The answer, is to be "born again again".

Hear me out. What we do is find ex-born agains and find out how they were deprogrammed. Then we insist that the deprogramming constitutes yet another "spiritual rebirth", and so these people are now born for a third time.

Mind. Blown.

That's what you sell. "Oh, you've only been born twice? Well I've been born three times!"

Turn the stupidity of "born again" back around on them.
 
@chansen is reminding me of a movie I saw years ago about "deprogramming" an individual who had become involved with a cult. I don't remember the name of it but I think it starred the Canadian actor, R.H. Thomson.
 
chansen said:
I think we're all missing the boat here. The answer to "born agains" isn't to ignore them, and it isn't to refute them. The answer, is to be "born again again".

Hear me out. What we do is find ex-born agains and find out how they were deprogrammed. Then we insist that the deprogramming constitutes yet another "spiritual rebirth", and so these people are now born for a third time.

Mind. Blown.

That's what you sell. "Oh, you've only been born twice? Well I've been born three times!"

Turn the stupidity of "born again" back around on them.
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There already is a state one can move to after being born from above. It's called, "fallen away."
 
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