Are all born again Christians saved?

[Serving Zion]

Aren't we truly born again from the moment or we come to Jesus and ask him for salvation with a truly repentant heart? Then the holy spirit works in us to keep us not only in the faith but also sanctifying us for the rest of our lives?

Hi OP, I'd like to enter the conversation at this point, it is the very question I had sought to isolate at the beginning of your thread.

There are some confusing doctrines about what it means to be born again, basically originating from those who didn't really understand it when they were first asked to explain it (eg: 1 Timothy 1:7).

St. Paul wrote "I was alive once apart from the law, but when the commandment came, then sin came to life and I died". So he says that the spiritual death is one in which sin has come alive in response to some command. The knowledge of Torah (that is God's law), that has presented to him an expectation of morality (I say Torah is about morality because Matthew 22:40). So in saying this, he has said that he chose to transgress Torah, but only after receiving the knowledge of it that he had been so tempted to abandon. He implies in this, that before the commandment came (that is the expressed expectation of compliance in behaviour), then he was alive. He was not under any condemnation in a spiritual sense. Just as a child is naked and knows no shame, so is a person who is alive before the sin comes to life (Matthew 18:1-7).

This goes hand-in-glove with what St. James wrote in James 1:14-15, wherein some desire has to first of all be conceived into a sin, and then as that sin takes hold of us that we have to cover our nakedness to avoid being shamed, then we begin walking in the darkness (1 John 1:6, John 3:20-21).

As a result of this, a person is no longer of good conscience, clean and undefiled in the sight of God, and that is why they avoid giving straight answers to questions that will expose their shamefulness. Those ones are the ones who, though they will give straight answers to questions if they don't have smarts enough to know how those questions can be used to condemn them, their answers can be assembled to draw a logical conclusion of guilt, even though they will refuse to acknowledge that guilt. They have been taken captive by their sin, and they avoid the light for fear that their deeds be exposed. (I am speaking of light in a poetic, spiritual way, as it is well defined in Ephesians 5:13-14 - "everything being made manifest is light").

"In God there is no darkness at all", and 1 John 3:10-14 says that love is the hallmark of one who is born of God, while the one who does not have love, is of the devil - the devil being characterised by Jesus as the father of lies.

So we see that there is a problem for people who have wound up in that place, where they are unable to come into the light and thereby demonstrate the fruits of the spirit as love (consider 1 Corinthians 13:6). They are trapped in their state of hiding from the light, for fear that their deeds will be exposed. What can draw them from that place? It is only The Holy Spirit - the spirit of God, that is love (1 John 4:16), but not a spirit that everyone who claims to be Christian actually has (Matthew 7:21-23, John 13:35, Matthew 7:16, 1 John 4:8).

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear is of (read: comes from, belongs to) punishment. The one who fears has not been made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18).

In this way, we see that someone who is residing in love is able to lead a person to repentance so that they will recognise there is no reason to hide from God if they will begin walking in the light (John 20:21-23, Matthew 7:5, Genesis 4:7).

Now what is interesting to add to this, is John 15:3. It is the word that does the cleansing (Proverbs 25:15).

Just as Jesus was saying in John 3:7-8 "the wind blows where it will, and you hear it, but where it came from or where it goes next, nobody knows - so it is with those born of the spirit". So it really is God's work of bringing people together where one heart of love can manifest knowledge of His character in such way that the person will trust Him and leave his life of sin. In that way, he has chosen to evict the evil spirit that had taken hold of him through the opportunity of his sin (Romans 6:16), and has instead been born again of the spirit of God that he is walking in newness of life, and The Holy Spirit that now has dominion in him begins to operate his mind so as to manifest love - because the fear is being driven out through increasing trust in faith. Though, there is also the warning of John 15:6 that goes with the likes of Matthew 12:43-45 and Hebrews 10:26-31, showing that we must keep walking in the light lest our condition end up worse than it was before.

So you see that it isn't so much about meeting a known criteria, but being breathed on by the spirit of God (Genesis 2:7, John 1:4, John 6:63).

This little brochure that I made will probably quite interest you in that regard.

 

[Andy centek]

BLESSSINGS:

To all who like to pronounce themselves and others as spiritually saved I say this. It is God who chooses His Elect, not man. His Elect are those who are truly spiritually saved by His Spirit through the teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles.

Andy Centek

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

To all who like to pronounce themselves and others as spiritually saved I say this. It is God who chooses His Elect, not man. His Elect are those who are truly spiritually saved by His Spirit through the teachings of Jesus Christ and is apostles.

Everyone might be present when someone teaches the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles,
but the teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles won't save everyone.

To be born again, to be born from above, is only accomplished by the Father in heaven, according to and born again by His will, not by the will of man, nor of the flesh.

After someone is born again, and Yahweh reveals this to them,
they may pronounce it (and must and will of course ! ) and all the angels in heaven REJOICE whenever anyone is born again !

That Yahweh chose them/us is of course TOTALLY in HARMONY with ALL SCRIPTURE -
the fact and wonderful truth that we proclaim this to others
is also totally in line with ALL SCRIPTURE, with exceptions if or when Jesus says "tell no man" or something like this.

 

[RaymondG]

All those who are born again are saved.....but not all who are saved are born again.

"He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost."

These who believed, had not yet received the spirit.....yet I would imagine they all felt they were saved......

To enter the kingdom, ye must be born again.....

 

[ViaCrucis]

Aren't we truly born again from the moment or we come to Jesus and ask him for salvation with a truly repentant heart? Then the holy spirit works in us to keep us not only in the faith but also sanctifying us for the rest of our lives?

This is largely the modern Evangelical view, which asserts Decision Theology and the belief that the new birth refers to a purely private, interior, conversion experience.

The historic Christian teaching is that the new birth refers to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. This was the universal and unanimous position of the Christian Church since the beginning, and remains the teaching of all the historic churches.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[zoidar]

This is largely the modern Evangelical view, which asserts Decision Theology and the belief that the new birth refers to a purely private, interior, conversion experience.

The historic Christian teaching is that the new birth refers to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. This was the universal and unanimous position of the Christian Church since the beginning, and remains the teaching of all the historic churches.

-CryptoLutheran

Interesting! Can you back that up?

 

[Marvin Knox]

This may sound like a stupid question. I apologize if it comes off as stupid I'm 100% sincere. But are all born again Christians saved? There are many varying opinions on google so I was searching for the correct interpretation.

Not a stupid question at all. It seems many here are fuzzy about the answer.

The analogy of being born again was used by the Lord so that we could understand the concept of salvation simply by comparing it to something we are all familiar with. And yet there are some who still seem to want to make it more difficult to understand than it was meant to be.

The physical process goes like this:
Our life was generated in secret by a specific act of our earthly father. We played no part in it. Indeed there was no "we" until our father acted.
In due time we came forth through the medium of water as a new born babe for the world to see and started our mortal and temporary life in the Kingdom of this world. We grew by taking in the air and the food of this world.

The spiritual process goes like this:
Our life was generated in secret by a specific act of our Heavenly Father. We played no part in it. Indeed there was no "we" until our Father acted.
In due time we came forth through the medium of the Spirit of God as a new creation for the world to see and started what is for us an "eternal life" in the Kingdom of God. We grow by taking in the Spirit and the food He feeds us.

Where as we were nurtured in the natural in water until our time to be born came due in the natural - we were nurtured in the work of the Holy Spirit until our time to be born again came due in the spiritual.

For some - the time of nurturing in the Spirit seems to be short with hardly any struggle at all. For some, like Paul and like myself, there is a longer period where we "kick against the goads".

Where as our physical birth began by taking in air - our spiritual birth began by taking in the Word of God as administered by the same Spirit who had quickened us.

We were born again by the living and abiding Word of God and we are nurtured and grow in the same way. We could not have entered eternal life in the Kingdom of God except by the ministry of the Spirit of God using the Word of God.

Any way - there's a lot of rambling there I suppose. But it really isn't spiritual rocket science. It's quite simple. Think of the natural and carry it over to the spiritual.

By the way - being "born again" is not the same as being "regenerated" any more than being born in the natural was the same as our original "generation". That was a new creation in the womb waiting for the time he or she was to be born.

We do not become a new creation through anything we do. Rather we are saved by grace by a sovereign act of our Heavenly Father.

Sorry to take so long on what should be a rather simple subject.

But it seems that many here want us to see our life as a saved person in the Kingdom ending an beginning and ending and beginning now and then throughout our years depending on how successful we are in refraining from sin and doing good works at the time.

Which of course is ridiculous and, may I say, completely ignorant of the most basic concepts the Lord meant us to easily understand.

 

[salt-n-light]

This may sound like a stupid question. I apologize if it comes off as stupid I'm 100% sincere. But are all born again Christians saved? There are many varying opinions on google so I was searching for the correct interpretation.

Yes, they are saved.

 

[faroukfarouk]

Yes, they are saved.

Yes, by definition, from John 3.

What must be avoided, though, is presumption and carelessness.

 

[Andrew Jeremiah]

This may sound like a stupid question. I apologize if it comes off as stupid I'm 100% sincere. But are all born again Christians saved? There are many varying opinions on google so I was searching for the correct interpretation.

Not a stupid question. A very important question.

"Are all born again Christians saved?"

Yes.

And all saved Christians are born again.

Be careful here...

Adam was a sinner before the act of sin. He sinned because he was a sinner, he is not a sinner because

he sinned.

Be careful.

 

[Serving Zion]

Food for thought on this page, OP: Adonai Reigns : The Gospel : God did not send his son to condemn the world!

 

[ViaCrucis]

Interesting! Can you back that up?

Sure.

"I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, 'Unless you be born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Now, that it is impossible for those who have once been born to enter their mothers' wombs, is manifest to all. And how those who have sinned and repent shall escape their sins, is declared by Isaiah the prophet, as I wrote above; he thus speaks: 'Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from your souls; learn to do well; judge the fatherless and plead for the widow: and come and let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as snow. But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.'

And for this we have learned from the apostles this reason. Since at our birth we are born without our own knowledge or choice, by our parents coming together, and were brought up in bad habits and wicked training; in order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe; he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God; and if any one dare to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. And this washing is called illumination, because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed." - St. Justin Martyr, First Apology, Ch. 61

"'And dipped himself,' says [the Scripture], 'seven times in Jordan.' It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as an indication for us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: 'Unless a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.'" - St. Irenaeus, Fragments, 34

"But give me now your best attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life, and to view the fountain that gushes with healing. The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man in order to wash him with water and the Spirit; and He, begetting us again to incorruption of soul and body, breathed into us the breath of life, and endued us with an incorruptible panoply. If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be god*. And if he is made god* by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead. Wherefore I preach to this effect: Come, all you kindreds of the nations, to the immortality of the baptism. I bring good tidings of life to you who tarry in the darkness of ignorance. Come into liberty from slavery, into a kingdom from tyranny, into incorruption from corruption. And how, says one, shall we come? How? By water and the Holy Spirit. This is the water in conjunction with the Spirit, by which paradise is watered, by which the earth is enriched, by which plants grow, by which animals multiply, and (to sum up the whole in a single word) by which man is born again and endued with life, in which also Christ was baptized, and in which the Spirit descended in the form of a dove." - St. Hippolytus, Discourse on the Holy Theophany, ch. 8

*c.f. 2 Peter 1:4

I could keep going, but I figure this might be sufficient. As early and for as long as anyone talked about the new birth in Christianity it has been identified explicitly with Holy Baptism.

Don't simply take my word for it, you are welcome to see for yourself by looking at the historical record. That's what I did, and is one of the reasons why my own views on the subject changed: the words of Scripture, the testimony of the ancient Church, and the demonstrable consensus on the subject throughout the history of Christianity was simply an overwhelming amount of evidence that I had to take seriously.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[dqhall]

This may sound like a stupid question. I apologize if it comes off as stupid I'm 100% sincere. But are all born again Christians saved? There are many varying opinions on google so I was searching for the correct interpretation.

Some who call themselves born again are not truly born again.

Matt. 7:21 (World English Bible) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Mark 6:16 (WEB) He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.

 

[marineimaging]

This may sound like a stupid question. I apologize if it comes off as stupid I'm 100% sincere. But are all born again Christians saved? There are many varying opinions on google so I was searching for the correct interpretation.

Item 1. Stop paying attention to Google. It is mans opinion.
Item 2. What must the person do? Accept Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of the living God "Jehovah" “Yahweh,” "יהוה", or "YHWH" (just to make sure we are on the same page) That same Jesus who died on the Cross for you, was buried and resurrected, that HE is their Lord and Savior, then yes, they are going to heaven. If that is not simple enough then ask them to read the Bible, and I recommend the KJV for the best in poetic and literal understanding. I also pray that you will know in your soul where the truth lies and that question goes away from you. Just remember that for all the folks who dance around with all those fancy words, God's Grace in the form of His only Begotten Son, Jesus, is simple enough for a poor, illiterate sheep herder tending his sheep to understand. Don't get lost in the complexity of men. We boast in our long winded words but Love and Grace cannot be dissected any more deeply. Love and Grace reside as the core elements of our Father and are made visible in the love and sacrifice of His Son.

 

[Oloyedelove]

I suspect we'll all go to heaven. The trip will be more painful for some than for others.

Lol funny post, some of us will pass through warm holes while others will pass through black holes.

 

[Oloyedelove]

The point, however, is that by insinuating that there are people who only think they are born again means that we make different classes of Christians: there's a special class of Christians are "truly" born again, and there are those who aren't. And if we cannot know if we are born again, then we cannot know if we belong to God, and thus salvation inevitably is reduced to terrifying guesswork or trying to feel the right feels, think the right thoughts, or performing the right acts.

In distinction to this, however, Scripture tells us what the new birth is and where it is found, Jesus Himself tells us in John 3:5, that the new birth is to be born of "water and Spirit", which Paul echoes in Titus 3:5 when he says that not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by the "washing of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit".

All who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. We can look to our baptism with absolute confidence that here, in these blessed waters, God has clothed us with Jesus Christ and all His righteousness, that we are born of God, anew, as a new creation, as an adopted child of God, and all other ways Scripture speaks of this truth.

We don't look to ourselves, or inside of ourselves, to find out whether or not we belong to God--because inside ourselves is only a pile of dead man's bones, the law of sin working itself through our mortal members. We can, therefore, look only outside of ourselves: to the Christ who suffered, bled, and died on the cross, who descended into death, and rose from the dead on the third day; and this Christ and His work is made ours, as pure gift, from God, through the works of God in Word and Sacrament. That it is through this Gospel of what Christ has done that God takes hold of us--sinful wretches that we are--and makes us Christ's, and if we belong to Christ, then we belong to God. And, therefore, we are children of God, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus. And here we have life-giving hope, hope in this life that we belong to God, and hope for the next when we are raised up to that life everlasting in the age to come.

We must recognize the location of our salvation as outside of ourselves, in Jesus Christ and the gifts of God's grace through the Gospel by which we receive Jesus Christ and He us. For "it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

-CryptoLutheran

The word clearly taught that being clothed with Christ is being clothed with his life and that our old man was crucified with him through death that the body of sin may be destroyed is clear from scriptures. Paul clearly said when we WERE in the flesh the motions of sin made us miserable but now we've been delivered from the flesh and it's passions bcoz we've put on Christ.

Romans 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
TAKE NOTE OF VERSE 14.

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
TAKE NOTE OF THE ''WERE''.

Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
HE THAT IS DEAD IS FREED FROM SIN. WE ARE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, THE LIFE WHICH WE NOW LIVE IS THAT OF CHRIST. A LIFE THAT TRIUMPHS OVER SIN ALWAYS.

Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
CAN YOU SEE THAT AS BELIEVERS WE CAN MORTIFY(PUT TO DEATH) THE DEEDS OF THE FLESH. THE BELIEVER HAS ABILITY IN CHRIST TO LIVE VICTORIOUSLY ABOVE SIN DAILY. THIS IS WHY HE CAME.

Acts 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 3:26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
TAKE NOTE OF THE BLESSING, CAN YOU SEE THE BLESSING IS TO TURN US AWAY FROM OUR SIN. THE LORD ENABLES THE UNABLE.

If I tell you I could live right before I saw what Christ has purchased for me, I will be the greatest liar on earth. But when my eyes opened to the life we have in Christ, then he has been given me ability beyond my wildest imagination. He does everything in us without an aorta of effort on our part.

 

[Oloyedelove]

Great question! To believe in Jesus is to have an obedience/love/faith relationship with Christ. You believe in him, and in what he says, and you live as he tells you to live. Trusting in him and believing in him taking our sins on himself is one side of the coin, the other side is obedience through love.

Thanks so much for saying this. I actually wanted to answer the question but thought I should just let it pass until I saw ur answer. Believing in Jesus is believing in him. It's not only believing in his death, burial and ressurection. It's believing in how he was born, the miraculous life he lived, believing his words, believing everything he stands for. He promised to come back and take us to where he is, we believe that also. We believe in the person of Jesus. That's why John said we should test every spirit, every spirit who doesn't proclaim that Jesus came in the flesh he's not of God. Because Jesus that we believe in actually came in the flesh. We believe he is alive today and that's why we can have a relationship with him.
God bless.

 

[Oloyedelove]

No God does not "force" people in this matter. He does something better and greater. He bonds them to Christ so that they remain in Him eternally.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Cor 12:12)

Go study that scripture carefully and you will discover what you think it's saying is not what it's actually saying.
God bless

 

[Micah888]

Go study that scripture carefully and you will discover what you think it's saying is not what it's actually saying.

What makes you say that? It is a very plain Scripture.

The word "baptized" means immersed, and we are told here that the Holy Spirit "immerses", or joins each and every believer to the Body of Christ. He is the Head, and all believers are members of His Body, and all partake ("drink") of the Holy Spirit, since all receive the gift of the Spirit when they repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

At the same time, Christ does not recognize any distinctions of ethnicity, social status, or anything else within His Body, since all are children of God by faith. This is the Church, the Body of Christ.

 

[Micah888]

Isn't obeying the gospel believing in Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection though? 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. Or am I missing something?

Yes, you are missing something called "repentance" (which is not merely a change of mind, as some insist). It is a change of direction. Turning from sins and idols, and turning to the living God and Christ. See 1 Thessalonians.