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[BIBLE]BORN-AGAIN-ISM
by Richard R. Ochs
© Copyright 1999 Chapel Library; Pensacola, Florida. Published in the USA. Permission is expressly granted to reproduce this material by
any means, provided:
1) you do not charge beyond a nominal sum for cost of duplication
2) this copyright notice and all the text on this page are included.
Worldwide, please download material without charge from our website, or contact the international distributor as listed there for your country.
In North America North America, for additional copies of this booklet or other Christ-centered materials from prior centuries, please contact:
Chapel Library . . 2603 West Wright . . 2603 West Wright Street Street . . Pensacola, F . . Pensacola, Florida lorida 32505 USA 32505 USA
Phone: (850) 438-6666 Fax: (850) 438-0227 . chapel@mountzion.org Chapel Library :: Home
THERE IS MUCH TALK these days about the rapid growth of the cults. Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Mormonism, the Unification Church, and a host of lesser-known groups are making converts at astounding rates. Yet, the combined effect of all these groups is overshadowed by a movement that in the last few years has grown to include over 30%
of the U.S. population. The amazing development of what might be called Born-againism is affecting all sectors of our
society. In fact, if the latest figures presented in the religious polls are accurate, the current Born-again phenomenon
could well be viewed as the fastest growing cult in America. Born-againism has permeated fundamentalist denominations as leaven in dough, and expanded into the culture at large. Candidates espouse it in order to get votes, entertainers
use it to attract crowds, pro-football players proclaim it to give respect to their Sunday afternoon brutality, and the business world promotes it in order to make money. Even the secular press, radio, and T.V. have found it fashionable to occasionally slip the little words born again into their speech and print.
That the world has jumped on the Born-again Bandwagon in order to exploit it is sad but not surprising. We really
shouldn't expect anything else from the spiritually blind worldling. The real tragedy is that the whole mess was spawned
and spread by the Church, and is now lauded as a great revival of Christianity.
The truth is that much of contemporary evangelicalism, like the church of Sardis, appears to be alive, but actually is
dead (Rev 3:1). And we can't blame the atheists, the agnostics, or the liberals for this condition. No, the fault lies with the
supposed Bible believers. Error has been preached as truth and propagated with cultish zeal. As a result multitudes
have believed a lie and are headed for hell from fundamentalist church pews with a Bible in their hands and a prayer on
their lips. Many others have become disillusioned with all the hypocrisy and false fulfillment, and have concluded that
there is really nothing to this born-again stuff after all.
Truth Turned to Error
But doesn't the Bible teach that men must be born again? Was this not an absolutely fundamental teaching of our
Lord, His apostles, and the Church down through the ages? Yes, of course it was, and without this there is no true Christianity. But error cloaked in Biblical terms is still error. In the case of the current born-again movement, Scriptural terminology is being used to teach just the opposite of its original meaning. The great doctrine of man's need for
regeneration (i.e., miraculous new birth) is being presented in a way that denies the very point it is supposed to teach.
Stated simply, the error is this that men are born again as a result of something they do. This something may be going
forward at the close of an evangelistic message, making a decision for Christ, or repenting and believing the Gospel. Whatever the requirement that is put before the sinner, the impression is given that sinful man himself is the one
who brings about regeneration. 2
The sad results of such a teaching can be seen all around us. Evangelists, who believe that men dead in sin can and
will turn to God if the right kind of emotional and psychological inducement is presented, push and pressure lost people
into making decisions. Whatever is necessary to get people to come forward, or raise their hand, or sign a card, is tried
by today's soul winners. Highly emotional meetings, prolonged appeals, repeated musical choruses, and even the deceitful tactic of having counselors strategically placed in the audience to come forward at the time of the appealall
smack of the techniques of crowd psychology.
Those who do come forward (or raise their hand, or sign a card) are then coached into believing that God has come
into their lives, and that they are now saved. Deep down, though, they know that nothing has really happened. The
evangelist has done something, the lost person has done something, but God has done nothing. There has been no miracle. The person may give mental assent to the doctrine of the new birth and try to rejoice in it, but there has been no supernatural passing from death to life (Eph 2:4-5). This is why most of the converts of this kind of born-againism
show no real zeal for God, and many fall away completely after a month or two.
That some people are brought into the kingdom in these situations is no doubt true. But it is in spite of these methods, not because of them. If we turn to the section of Scripture most often quoted regarding the new birth, we find the
Lord teaching just the opposite of the modern soul-winner.
You Must Be Born Again
In the third chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, You must be born again. What did the Lord mean by
this statement? First of all, it should be noted that Jesus said nothing of any action or decision that Nicodemus must
make, nor did He even tell him to repent and believe the gospel. As a matter of fact, Jesus was not telling Nicodemus to
do anything! You must be born again was not a command Nicodemus was to obey, it was simply a statement of fact.
Nicodemus, in his blindness, misunderstood this statement and asked how anyone could do such a thing as thata man
cannot enter a second time into his mothers womb and be born, can he? To this Jesus said in effect, Im talking about
the Spirit of God coming and miraculously generating life in you. You being flesh can only produce flesh. Only the Spirit
of God can produce the spiritual birth you must have in order to enter the Kingdom of God, and God's Spirit blows where
He wishes (see Joh 3:1-8). The modern evangelist's techniques and teachings are conspicuously absent in this account.
The Lord gave Nicodemus no Four Spiritual Laws, nor any instructions on How to Be Born Again; and He certainly
used no manipulative tricks. He was concerned to emphasize just one thing: Regeneration is a miraculous work of God's
Spirit.
We can and must tell men to turn from their sins and believe the Gospel, but in doing this we should realize that
when a man does repent and believe, it is the result of God's prior regenerative working within him. If this were not the
case, if man must actually initiate his own salvation, then it would be impossible to escape the conclusion that men do
not need regeneration at all, but possess in themselves an innate goodness which causes them to seek after God. Though
it be ever so slight, this goodness is then the ultimate reason why one man is saved and another is lost. But the Apostle
Paul clearly teaches the contrary when he writes:
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom
3:10-12).
Here Paul states plainly that there is no spark of goodness in man that causes him to respond to the Gospel. In fact,
man, blinded by sin and Satan, does not even understand the Gospel. He is in total rebellion against God and His truth. If
regeneration were contingent upon man first desiring God, no one would ever be born again, for there is none that
seeketh after God. Moreover, if man must ultimately be given credit for coming to God, Christianity is turned into just
one more of the world's man-centered religions or cults which teach salvation by works. All such man-centered systems
offer a false hope; for it is simply impossible for sinful man to make himself different than he ishe needs a new heart,
he needs to be born again!
Again, it should be stressed that we are certainly to tell men to seek God. We must tell them to believe and receive
Christ. But these commands will fall on spiritually deaf ears unless God first generates life through the inward workings
of His Holy Spirit.
You may protest that this makes God the ultimate determiner of who is saved. To this the apostles and prophets with
one voice cry, Amen! Salvation is of the Lord (Jon 2:9). Christians, as John puts it in the opening chapter of his Gospel,
are people, who were born not...of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Joh 1:13). That's why we give
thanks to God when someone is converted. We know that God has graciously wrought a miraclethe sovereign, supernatural miracle of the new birth. 3
This truth should give us confidence to present the pure Gospel, knowing that it is not up to us to somehow maneuver and manipulate men into Christianity. It should also bring us to our knees before the God Who is sovereign in salvation. Only He can remove the heart of stone and give a new heart (Eze 36:26). Only He can give life to the dead. Only He
deserves the blessing, glory, and honor.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer 17:9)
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. (Gen 6:5)
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (Joh
6:44)
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given
me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (Joh 17:24)
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Rev 19:6)
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
(Rom 9:18)[/BIBLE]
[BIBLE]BORN-AGAIN-ISM
by Richard R. Ochs
© Copyright 1999 Chapel Library; Pensacola, Florida. Published in the USA. Permission is expressly granted to reproduce this material by
any means, provided:
1) you do not charge beyond a nominal sum for cost of duplication
2) this copyright notice and all the text on this page are included.
Worldwide, please download material without charge from our website, or contact the international distributor as listed there for your country.
In North America North America, for additional copies of this booklet or other Christ-centered materials from prior centuries, please contact:
Chapel Library . . 2603 West Wright . . 2603 West Wright Street Street . . Pensacola, F . . Pensacola, Florida lorida 32505 USA 32505 USA
Phone: (850) 438-6666 Fax: (850) 438-0227 . chapel@mountzion.org Chapel Library :: Home
THERE IS MUCH TALK these days about the rapid growth of the cults. Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Mormonism, the Unification Church, and a host of lesser-known groups are making converts at astounding rates. Yet, the combined effect of all these groups is overshadowed by a movement that in the last few years has grown to include over 30%
of the U.S. population. The amazing development of what might be called Born-againism is affecting all sectors of our
society. In fact, if the latest figures presented in the religious polls are accurate, the current Born-again phenomenon
could well be viewed as the fastest growing cult in America. Born-againism has permeated fundamentalist denominations as leaven in dough, and expanded into the culture at large. Candidates espouse it in order to get votes, entertainers
use it to attract crowds, pro-football players proclaim it to give respect to their Sunday afternoon brutality, and the business world promotes it in order to make money. Even the secular press, radio, and T.V. have found it fashionable to occasionally slip the little words born again into their speech and print.
That the world has jumped on the Born-again Bandwagon in order to exploit it is sad but not surprising. We really
shouldn't expect anything else from the spiritually blind worldling. The real tragedy is that the whole mess was spawned
and spread by the Church, and is now lauded as a great revival of Christianity.
The truth is that much of contemporary evangelicalism, like the church of Sardis, appears to be alive, but actually is
dead (Rev 3:1). And we can't blame the atheists, the agnostics, or the liberals for this condition. No, the fault lies with the
supposed Bible believers. Error has been preached as truth and propagated with cultish zeal. As a result multitudes
have believed a lie and are headed for hell from fundamentalist church pews with a Bible in their hands and a prayer on
their lips. Many others have become disillusioned with all the hypocrisy and false fulfillment, and have concluded that
there is really nothing to this born-again stuff after all.
Truth Turned to Error
But doesn't the Bible teach that men must be born again? Was this not an absolutely fundamental teaching of our
Lord, His apostles, and the Church down through the ages? Yes, of course it was, and without this there is no true Christianity. But error cloaked in Biblical terms is still error. In the case of the current born-again movement, Scriptural terminology is being used to teach just the opposite of its original meaning. The great doctrine of man's need for
regeneration (i.e., miraculous new birth) is being presented in a way that denies the very point it is supposed to teach.
Stated simply, the error is this that men are born again as a result of something they do. This something may be going
forward at the close of an evangelistic message, making a decision for Christ, or repenting and believing the Gospel. Whatever the requirement that is put before the sinner, the impression is given that sinful man himself is the one
who brings about regeneration. 2
The sad results of such a teaching can be seen all around us. Evangelists, who believe that men dead in sin can and
will turn to God if the right kind of emotional and psychological inducement is presented, push and pressure lost people
into making decisions. Whatever is necessary to get people to come forward, or raise their hand, or sign a card, is tried
by today's soul winners. Highly emotional meetings, prolonged appeals, repeated musical choruses, and even the deceitful tactic of having counselors strategically placed in the audience to come forward at the time of the appealall
smack of the techniques of crowd psychology.
Those who do come forward (or raise their hand, or sign a card) are then coached into believing that God has come
into their lives, and that they are now saved. Deep down, though, they know that nothing has really happened. The
evangelist has done something, the lost person has done something, but God has done nothing. There has been no miracle. The person may give mental assent to the doctrine of the new birth and try to rejoice in it, but there has been no supernatural passing from death to life (Eph 2:4-5). This is why most of the converts of this kind of born-againism
show no real zeal for God, and many fall away completely after a month or two.
That some people are brought into the kingdom in these situations is no doubt true. But it is in spite of these methods, not because of them. If we turn to the section of Scripture most often quoted regarding the new birth, we find the
Lord teaching just the opposite of the modern soul-winner.
You Must Be Born Again
In the third chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, You must be born again. What did the Lord mean by
this statement? First of all, it should be noted that Jesus said nothing of any action or decision that Nicodemus must
make, nor did He even tell him to repent and believe the gospel. As a matter of fact, Jesus was not telling Nicodemus to
do anything! You must be born again was not a command Nicodemus was to obey, it was simply a statement of fact.
Nicodemus, in his blindness, misunderstood this statement and asked how anyone could do such a thing as thata man
cannot enter a second time into his mothers womb and be born, can he? To this Jesus said in effect, Im talking about
the Spirit of God coming and miraculously generating life in you. You being flesh can only produce flesh. Only the Spirit
of God can produce the spiritual birth you must have in order to enter the Kingdom of God, and God's Spirit blows where
He wishes (see Joh 3:1-8). The modern evangelist's techniques and teachings are conspicuously absent in this account.
The Lord gave Nicodemus no Four Spiritual Laws, nor any instructions on How to Be Born Again; and He certainly
used no manipulative tricks. He was concerned to emphasize just one thing: Regeneration is a miraculous work of God's
Spirit.
We can and must tell men to turn from their sins and believe the Gospel, but in doing this we should realize that
when a man does repent and believe, it is the result of God's prior regenerative working within him. If this were not the
case, if man must actually initiate his own salvation, then it would be impossible to escape the conclusion that men do
not need regeneration at all, but possess in themselves an innate goodness which causes them to seek after God. Though
it be ever so slight, this goodness is then the ultimate reason why one man is saved and another is lost. But the Apostle
Paul clearly teaches the contrary when he writes:
There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom
3:10-12).
Here Paul states plainly that there is no spark of goodness in man that causes him to respond to the Gospel. In fact,
man, blinded by sin and Satan, does not even understand the Gospel. He is in total rebellion against God and His truth. If
regeneration were contingent upon man first desiring God, no one would ever be born again, for there is none that
seeketh after God. Moreover, if man must ultimately be given credit for coming to God, Christianity is turned into just
one more of the world's man-centered religions or cults which teach salvation by works. All such man-centered systems
offer a false hope; for it is simply impossible for sinful man to make himself different than he ishe needs a new heart,
he needs to be born again!
Again, it should be stressed that we are certainly to tell men to seek God. We must tell them to believe and receive
Christ. But these commands will fall on spiritually deaf ears unless God first generates life through the inward workings
of His Holy Spirit.
You may protest that this makes God the ultimate determiner of who is saved. To this the apostles and prophets with
one voice cry, Amen! Salvation is of the Lord (Jon 2:9). Christians, as John puts it in the opening chapter of his Gospel,
are people, who were born not...of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Joh 1:13). That's why we give
thanks to God when someone is converted. We know that God has graciously wrought a miraclethe sovereign, supernatural miracle of the new birth. 3
This truth should give us confidence to present the pure Gospel, knowing that it is not up to us to somehow maneuver and manipulate men into Christianity. It should also bring us to our knees before the God Who is sovereign in salvation. Only He can remove the heart of stone and give a new heart (Eze 36:26). Only He can give life to the dead. Only He
deserves the blessing, glory, and honor.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jer 17:9)
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. (Gen 6:5)
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (Joh
6:44)
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given
me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (Joh 17:24)
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Rev 19:6)
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
(Rom 9:18)[/BIBLE]
