Born Again.. Anglican

[nahtino]

I have grown up as an Anglican my whole life .. and up till recently .. I have started to take my Christ walk very seriously, thanks to my confessing and accepting Christ in my life ... last year

through an alter call ..

but Im now a Youth Director of my church and am working Gods will on the young people

but heres the issue .. lately I have been researching Baptism, accepting christ and baptism of the Holy spirit.. and I must say I am convinced I must be baptised properly ...

No doubt this flies in the face of what is acceptable in the denomination Im in ..

none the less , I have researched the Bok of Common prayer and asked those in the know ... about Being Born again .. as per how the bible states it ..

Nothing from what I have found is satisfactory ..

We certainly Infant baptise , go through Confirmation and all that .. but no-one according to the Anglican church can come forward and profess the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior ... in our Anglican tradtion

Why is that ?



So

 

[AngCath]

Coming forward and confessing/professing a belief in Jesus Christ as Savior is exactly what is happening in Holy Baptism, Holy Confirmation, and participation in the Holy Eucharist.

 

[TomUK]

I have grown up as an Anglican my whole life .. and up till recently .. I have started to take my Christ walk very seriously, thanks to my confessing and accepting Christ in my life ... last year

through an alter call ..

but Im now a Youth Director of my church and am working Gods will on the young people

but heres the issue .. lately I have been researching Baptism, accepting christ and baptism of the Holy spirit.. and I must say I am convinced I must be baptised properly ...

No doubt this flies in the face of what is acceptable in the denomination Im in ..

none the less , I have researched the Bok of Common prayer and asked those in the know ... about Being Born again .. as per how the bible states it ..

Nothing from what I have found is satisfactory ..

We certainly Infant baptise , go through Confirmation and all that .. but no-one according to the Anglican church can come forward and profess the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior ... in our Anglican tradtion

Why is that ?



So

Your baptism does not depend on the context in which you were baptised. If you were baptised with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit then you were and are baptised. If the sacraments of the church depend on the holiness of the people then frankly we are all lost! Thankfully they depend on (and only on) the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

If you feel a need to reaffirm the promises made at baptism then by all means speak to your vicar, but you have no need whatsoever to doubt your baptism.

 

[MKJ]

Some Protestant groups understand being "saved" as a one-time event, where the person accepts Christ, is "baptized" by the Holy Spirit, and from then on is assured of salvation. The baptism with water is a symbol or seal of the "real" baptism. Some of these groups think it is then impossible to lose salvation no matter what, or others that if you back-slide, then you are never really saved in the first place.

This view is not the Anglican view, or the traditional view of the Church. It results from a misunderstanding of grace as something which is completed in an instant, and a general confusion about how grabce manifests itself in creatures who exist in time.

The Anglican understanding is that Baptism is a special vehicle of continuing Grace, whereby the individual is grafted into the Body of Christ. On the part of the person being baptized, it requires assent of the will to receive that Grace, or in the case of infants their parents provide the assent.

Grace in this understanding is not given to a chosen few, but is offered to all people. And it continually offered throughout the life of the individual, who must continually make the decision to accept it. This is why if you ask an Anglican if he is saved, he will not quite know the answer - he might say he has been offered Salvation and hopes to get there, but none of us know now what the final judgement will find when we stand before God.

Thus being saved is a journey, something we can accept and respond to through the entire course of our lives. Consider that this is perhaps why God gave us a life that is stretched out in time rather than simply making us eternal creatures like the angels.

I am not sure why you think people do not profess Christ as their lord and savior in the Anglican tradition. We proclaim it as a central article of our faith every week in the Creed (if your church does not say the creed every week due to some fad, then I am sorry about that,) and many other times during the Eucharistic Liturgy. If you feel the need more often, you might try praying the offices.

 

[Ave Maria]

One is born again in baptism. As the Bible says, we need to be born of water and of spirit.

(John 3:5 TNIV) Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

 

[Justy90]

Some Protestant groups understand being "saved" as a one-time event, where the person accepts Christ, is "baptized" by the Holy Spirit, and from then on is assured of salvation. The baptism with water is a symbol or seal of the "real" baptism. Some of these groups think it is then impossible to lose salvation no matter what, or others that if you back-slide, then you are never really saved in the first place.

This view is not the Anglican view, or the traditional view of the Church. It results from a misunderstanding of grace as something which is completed in an instant, and a general confusion about how grabce manifests itself in creatures who exist in time.

The Anglican understanding is that Baptism is a special vehicle of continuing Grace, whereby the individual is grafted into the Body of Christ. On the part of the person being baptized, it requires assent of the will to receive that Grace, or in the case of infants their parents provide the assent.

Grace in this understanding is not given to a chosen few, but is offered to all people. And it continually offered throughout the life of the individual, who must continually make the decision to accept it. This is why if you ask an Anglican if he is saved, he will not quite know the answer - he might say he has been offered Salvation and hopes to get there, but none of us know now what the final judgement will find when we stand before God.

Thus being saved is a journey, something we can accept and respond to through the entire course of our lives. Consider that this is perhaps why God gave us a life that is stretched out in time rather than simply making us eternal creatures like the angels.

I am not sure why you think people do not profess Christ as their lord and savior in the Anglican tradition. We proclaim it as a central article of our faith every week in the Creed (if your church does not say the creed every week due to some fad, then I am sorry about that,) and many other times during the Eucharistic Liturgy. If you feel the need more often, you might try praying the offices.

What a brilliant post and response!! This is most certainly a very good synopsis of how Anglicans absolutely do respond to Christ and make their profession for him every Sunday in the entire service especially in the Eucharist.

 

[Flat Eric]

........ you might try praying the offices.

Can you please explain what you mean by "praying the offices" to someone who is new to Anglicanism.

 

[Polycarp1]

Some Protestant groups understand being "saved" as a one-time event, where the person accepts Christ, is "baptized" by the Holy Spirit, and from then on is assured of salvation. The baptism with water is a symbol or seal of the "real" baptism. Some of these groups think it is then impossible to lose salvation no matter what, or others that if you back-slide, then you are never really saved in the first place.

This view is not the Anglican view, or the traditional view of the Church. It results from a misunderstanding of grace as something which is completed in an instant, and a general confusion about how grabce manifests itself in creatures who exist in time.

The Anglican understanding is that Baptism is a special vehicle of continuing Grace, whereby the individual is grafted into the Body of Christ. On the part of the person being baptized, it requires assent of the will to receive that Grace, or in the case of infants their parents provide the assent.

Grace in this understanding is not given to a chosen few, but is offered to all people. And it continually offered throughout the life of the individual, who must continually make the decision to accept it. This is why if you ask an Anglican if he is saved, he will not quite know the answer - he might say he has been offered Salvation and hopes to get there, but none of us know now what the final judgement will find when we stand before God.

Thus being saved is a journey, something we can accept and respond to through the entire course of our lives. Consider that this is perhaps why God gave us a life that is stretched out in time rather than simply making us eternal creatures like the angels.

I am not sure why you think people do not profess Christ as their lord and savior in the Anglican tradition. We proclaim it as a central article of our faith every week in the Creed (if your church does not say the creed every week due to some fad, then I am sorry about that,) and many other times during the Eucharistic Liturgy. If you feel the need more often, you might try praying the offices.

I think this is one very solid statement of Anglican understanding of sacramental and non-sacramental grace. And my wife and I had full-fledged "born-again" conversion experiences after converting to Anglicanism (from a lukewarm Methodist tradition).

Grace is paramount. Salvation is both event and process -- in the sense that it's a journey that begins with taking the first step and may end up with a particular experience along the way. The sacraments are vehicles of grace -- don't confuse them with grace itself, because God is not bounded by them.

"Praying the offices" means reading morning and/or evening prayer (and./or noonday prayer and compline in prayer books that include them) using the BCP. It need not be a terribly complex operation -- the prayer book leaves room for it to be simple or elaborate as desired -- and if done individually or in the family sould definitely leave time for extempore personal prayer. Done as a unit, though, on a consistent daily basis, it provides a good discipline for spiritual growth and deepening of one's knowledge and faith.

 

[gord44]

Some Protestant groups understand being "saved" as a one-time event, where the person accepts Christ, is "baptized" by the Holy Spirit, and from then on is assured of salvation. The baptism with water is a symbol or seal of the "real" baptism. Some of these groups think it is then impossible to lose salvation no matter what, or others that if you back-slide, then you are never really saved in the first place.

This view is not the Anglican view, or the traditional view of the Church. It results from a misunderstanding of grace as something which is completed in an instant, and a general confusion about how grabce manifests itself in creatures who exist in time.

The Anglican understanding is that Baptism is a special vehicle of continuing Grace, whereby the individual is grafted into the Body of Christ. On the part of the person being baptized, it requires assent of the will to receive that Grace, or in the case of infants their parents provide the assent.

Grace in this understanding is not given to a chosen few, but is offered to all people. And it continually offered throughout the life of the individual, who must continually make the decision to accept it. This is why if you ask an Anglican if he is saved, he will not quite know the answer - he might say he has been offered Salvation and hopes to get there, but none of us know now what the final judgement will find when we stand before God.

Thus being saved is a journey, something we can accept and respond to through the entire course of our lives. Consider that this is perhaps why God gave us a life that is stretched out in time rather than simply making us eternal creatures like the angels.

I am not sure why you think people do not profess Christ as their lord and savior in the Anglican tradition. We proclaim it as a central article of our faith every week in the Creed (if your church does not say the creed every week due to some fad, then I am sorry about that,) and many other times during the Eucharistic Liturgy. If you feel the need more often, you might try praying the offices.

excellent post! i am happy to hear this is a view of the Anglican Church.

 

[vespasia]

Within the liturgy of the CofE there is scope to stand and re-affirm your baptism if you have had had a period of searching and wondering and now feel this is a real need.

Baptism to the best of my theological understanding is the start of the ongoing journey we take following Christ- some of us tend to wander and wonder more than others but God is God and draws us back time and again.

If a person has engaged in flagerant outright sin there is also a liturgy of penance that allows a person to confess before God with the support and company of a priest to act as Christs eyes and ears- this is not quite the same as the Catholic confessional as if a serious crime is disclosed CofE protection policies apply but it can be very helpful to those who need the prayer filled support of others.

No one ever told me of these which is a darn shame; the penance liturgy with eucharist would have been very helpful at a very rough time when I was a young [in Christ even though mature as an adult] Christian.

 

[her2011]

Within the liturgy of the CofE there is scope to stand and re-affirm your baptism if you have had had a period of searching and wondering and now feel this is a real need.

Baptism to the best of my theological understanding is the start of the ongoing journey we take following Christ- some of us tend to wander and wonder more than others but God is God and draws us back time and again.

If a person has engaged in flagerant outright sin there is also a liturgy of penance that allows a person to confess before God with the support and company of a priest to act as Christs eyes and ears- this is not quite the same as the Catholic confessional as if a serious crime is disclosed CofE protection policies apply but it can be very helpful to those who need the prayer filled support of others.

No one ever told me of these which is a darn shame; the penance liturgy with eucharist would have been very helpful at a very rough time when I was a young [in Christ even though mature as an adult] Christian.

I only found the penance liturgy by accident while browsing the back pages of the orders of service/prayer book!

I had thought it was a Catholic only thing.


Anyway, Back on topic, I was raised as an Anglican, but wasn't confirmed at 11 like the others and pretty much stopped going to Church. I remained a Christian just not a practising one (praying at a time of need!)

Anyhow, I returned to the Church at 26, was confirmed 6 months later, and I am just staring on the road to Children's ministry, having run the Toddler group for a couple years I am now also assisting with the Sunday School.

One worrying time was when the Vicar couldn't find evidence of my Baptism! But he said there was special get-out clause wording such as 'If (name) has not already been baptised, I baptise her in the namer of the Father etc etc'

Luckily I found photographs and an uncle who was there at the time! (My mother and two of my God parents passed away young so I couldnt ask them)

We do profess our faith, but in a very rigid and sometimes half-hearted monotonous way.. we read the creed out loud, but I am sure half the congregation arent even registering what they are reading!

I could never have the confidence to do a Testimony in front of everyone though!

 

[mark46]

I don't think that we ever re-affirm individual baptism in the US in any formal way. Of course, we do re-affirm our baptismal vows corporately ever time someone is baptized in the Church.

Within the liturgy of the CofE there is scope to stand and re-affirm your baptism if you have had had a period of searching and wondering and now feel this is a real need.

 

[mark46]

Many have given you excellent understandings and input. I have several suggestions.

1) Study a bit before you attend the next baptism or confirmation at your Church. If you sincerely pray the prayers, you will see that you are confirming your baptismal vows.

2) Ask you vicar/priest if you can be received/or reconfirmed into the Church. In our diocese, the bishop does this along with confirmation. many feel the need to reconfirm their lives to Christ. Again, your vows will be confirmed. This process is exactly for those who want to make a formal commitment.

3) Please understand that there is no need for any sacrament. You have already received that Grace. However, if you feel that you need to make a formal statement, consider doing so in your priest's office or after service before a priest. After all, what you want to do is to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior and have it witnessed by the Church.

4) Finally, I don't know whether any church in your area is having an alpha series. If so, there are many opportunities to make such a confession of faith, in addition to a series of teachings and small groups, including those regarding the gifts of the Spirit. Nicky Gumbel's videos are usually used. He is a CofE priest.

I have grown up as an Anglican my whole life .. and up till recently .. I have started to take my Christ walk very seriously, thanks to my confessing and accepting Christ in my life ... last year

through an alter call ..

but Im now a Youth Director of my church and am working Gods will on the young people

but heres the issue .. lately I have been researching Baptism, accepting christ and baptism of the Holy spirit.. and I must say I am convinced I must be baptised properly ...

No doubt this flies in the face of what is acceptable in the denomination Im in ..

none the less , I have researched the Bok of Common prayer and asked those in the know ... about Being Born again .. as per how the bible states it ..

Nothing from what I have found is satisfactory ..

We certainly Infant baptise , go through Confirmation and all that .. but no-one according to the Anglican church can come forward and profess the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior ... in our Anglican tradtion

Why is that ?



So

 

[Polycarp1]

I don't think that we ever re-affirm individual baptism in the US in any formal way. Of course, we do re-affirm our baptismal vows corporately ever time someone is baptized in the Church.

Within the liturgy of the CofE there is scope to stand and re-affirm your baptism if you have had had a period of searching and wondering and now feel this is a real need.

As you note, we reaffirm our baptismal vows in common with the newly baptized in every service of Holy Baptism. Also, the Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows is an integral part of the Easter Vigil service.

Also, when the Bishop confirms and receives into our communion, there is provision for an individual reaffirmation by those so moved.

 

[Anglicanism]

I consider myself to be a born-again Anglican.

I have confessed with my mouth and repented in my heart that Jesus is Lord and He is our saviour. I was only baptised this year and for me I didn't want the full submersion, it would also have been impractical in a parish church, but it meant just the same.


Being "born-again" is all about putting the old, sinful self behind you and moving on, looking towards God and his imminent return to Earth. It's all about confessing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and is saving you from Hell and eternal damnation.

 

[Esdra]

I consider myself to be a born-again Anglican.

I have confessed with my mouth and repented in my heart that Jesus is Lord and He is our saviour. I was only baptised this year and for me I didn't want the full submersion, it would also have been impractical in a parish church, but it meant just the same.


Being "born-again" is all about putting the old, sinful self behind you and moving on, looking towards God and his imminent return to Earth. It's all about confessing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and is saving you from Hell and eternal damnation.

Amen to that!

I think this is really important, as (depending on the parents how they educate their children concerning religion or live Christianity) many young people will quit with church but maybe would like to return when they're older (like me.) (Though with me, I came into a Baptist Church and later on then in contact with the Catholic Charismatic Movement).

In the RCC there are many charismatic groups, and they are very successful and attract really a lot of young people and they all become usually very devout Catholics. (They also talk becoming born again, like Pentecostals do).

I think being born again, professing publicly that you belong to Christ and that you enthrust Him your life, is something the "big Churches" (meaning EO, CC, CofE/Ep., Lutheran, ec.) could learn from the "reborn Churches" (non-denom., Baptist, Pentecostal etc.)

'Esdra

 

[Episcoboi]

I don't think that we ever re-affirm individual baptism in the US in any formal way. Of course, we do re-affirm our baptismal vows corporately ever time someone is baptized in the Church.

Within the liturgy of the CofE there is scope to stand and re-affirm your baptism if you have had had a period of searching and wondering and now feel this is a real need.

I know that I'm replying to a very old post, but...

Mark, the corporate re-affirmation can also be adapted to the individual. It does happen on occasion. I remember, before I was confirmed, one of the ladies in my class wanted to be baptized; however, since she had been baptized in a Baptist church as a child, this was not done, but our priest talked to the Bishop and individual re-affirmation was approved by him. (It wasn't completely irregular, but as the priest wasn't sure, she confirmed the ability to do this with him). It was beautiful. We then re-affirmed our vows at confirmation corporately.

 

[seroom]

One is born again in baptism. As the Bible says, we need to be born of water and of spirit.

(John 3:5 TNIV) Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

And that is why people are confused. The water being referred to is not baptism but the water that flows from the womb at the beginning of child birth, referred to as the waters breaking. To be clear on that Jesus then states. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.... Born of the flesh precedes born of the spirit which is born again.

You must be born again by the spirit to see and enter the kingdom. The way to achive that is John 3.16, no baptism required. You are not born again at baptism but baptism is a public and symbolic expression of what is already a fact in the believers life.. That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The question is not are you baptised but do you believe in Jesus the risen Christ and choose to follow him. If you do then you are born again. If you do not then you can be baptised a dozen times and never be born again.

 

[Targaryen]

And that is why people are confused. The water being referred to is not baptism but the water that flows from the womb at the beginning of child birth, referred to as the waters breaking. To be clear on that Jesus then states. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.... Born of the flesh precedes born of the spirit which is born again.

You must be born again by the spirit to see and enter the kingdom. The way to achive that is John 3.16, no baptism required. You are not born again at baptism but baptism is a public and symbolic expression of what is already a fact in the believers life.. That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The question is not are you baptised but do you believe in Jesus the risen Christ and choose to follow him. If you do then you are born again. If you do not then you can be baptised a dozen times and never be born again.

This is an Anglican thread...not some unorthodox thread. Baptism is required in our tradition.

Please don't comment when you can't understand Anglican theology.