How can we know if we are born again?

Oscarr said:

This is just a question and not to question your faith, but just to satisfy my curiosity: What would you say is the foundation of your faith?

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Love is the foundation. I am humbled by His love and all that He did to bring me Home. Are you familiar with the poem Footprints? In the midst of my suffering there He was. Right beside me. I can never forget or repay Him. I love Him.

If you have a certificate of your baptism, you're born again.

JohnB445 said:

How can we know if we actually believe and it's not just a mere profession of faith held in our neurons?

How can we know we truly experienced the Holy Spirit and not our consciousness making the experience?

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If you no longer think selfishness, that is the self serving ways of man which seek gain at the expense of others then redefine good and bad to justify the acts... is a normal way to live.. you may be born again.

If you see how putting God's will first and loving all neighbours as self counteracts the evil that man does and understand how it is a better way to live... you may be born again.

If you no longer seek to divide among man (as in politics) and instead divide the world man has made from the Kingdom and pursue all your petty human crusades built on such (being of the Kingdom and not world of man in heart and mind)... you may be born again.

If you increasingly notice the world seems backwards, you've found the Kingdom and are being born again.

If you put the governance of God before any governance of man... you may be born again, but won't like the backlash.

JohnB445 said:

And how do we know if the dictionary and definitions have been changed by satan or someone?

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If you understand that man will try to insert human ways in everything including Christianity to suit man's purpose... you may be born again. Weigh everything against Jesus' Gospel of the Kingdom and not the religion or it's gospel... that is being born again.

You go around saying you are born again but still partake in the self serving self defeating ways of man and justify them with religion, you may not be born again.

You watch the evening news and don't see what is wrong with 99.9% of what is shown, or take sides over the issues... you may not be born again.

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

LaBèlla said:

Love is the foundation. I am humbled by His love and all that He did to bring me Home. Are you familiar with the poem Footprints? In the midst of my suffering there He was. Right beside me. I can never forget or repay Him. I love Him.

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It was a loaded question actually.
What I was hoping for you to say was that your faith is based on the promises made by Jesus in the Bible. These promises are unchangeable and form a solid foundation for faith.

If you are basing your faith on experiences, it fails when those experiences are not there. If it is based on love, then when you fail in love, your foundation starts to become unstable. If your faith is based on feelings, then it can become bipolar in the sense that you can be up and strong in faith one day, and down, weak in faith the next.

The strongest foundation for your faith is based on the written promises, because they will never change, and when your experiences turn to dust and your emotions and feelings become contrary, your faith won't faith because it is based on Scriptures like, "To as many as have received Christ, He gives them the right and power to be called the children of God.", and "Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more.", and "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ", and "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death", and "if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness".

These promises form a firm, unshakeable, foundation for faith. I do suspect that your faith is based on the promises in God's Word, but I just wanted to make it clear to you.

Oscarr said:

It was a loaded question actually.
What I was hoping for you to say was that your faith is based on the promises made by Jesus in the Bible. These promises are unchangeable and form a solid foundation for faith.

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I know what it was. But I chose the truth. You haven't walked in my shoes and you didn't suffer what I did. I wonder what you'd say if were subject to a year of demonic torment. You don't know and you can't know. Many have been delivered and turned back. Much like many are healed and walk away. I remained for reasons beyond what I stated. You can't tell me how I should answer. He knows my heart.

If you're posing loaded questions to pontificate where is your heart? Food for thought.

Being hyperanalytical isn't fun!

Is my faith head faith intellectual ascent or is it heart faith genuine believing

On the merry go round I go

As far as i could tell, Oscar had some good advice.

The single best advice I can give, is run from OSAS (Once saved always saved) and those that tell us you don't have to do a thing, just claim you have faith, and habitual sin will not keep us from heaven, when it definitely will. That's by our own design a "Have your cake and eat it too" theology, where some will say even murder and pedophilia as a lifestyle will not affect our salvation. it's completely false and subscribed to by those who are selfish and want what they want and not what God wants, so they create/subscribe to a religion that says anything goes..

There are other good answers here, but in the end, if something doesn't sound right, or even if it does, go to the bible and verify it.

Then there is the problem if someone gives an opinion that is wrong, and you go to verify it, you may read it the same way they did because they explained it to you to begin with. Meaning it may be wrong even though it seemed to verify as right. That's when you go get the opinion of both sides of a matter. The net can come in very handy there. Fortunately, just as the internet spreads so many lies so quickly, it gives opportunity to help us discern what is and what isn't the truth just as quickly.

The bible is the only thing we can depend on 100%, and though God doesn't do a lot to mess with our free will, I believe he makes it a point to at least keep his word forever true.

As far as more direct answers, here is a site that has several lists of things that if we do them as a lifestyle, we cannot get to Heaven. They are very clear. It also mentions some things we must do or lose out on Heaven. again, simple and directly from the bible, can't go wrong with them.

http://blog.adw.org/2013/08/five-biblical-lists-of-mortal-sins/

Lastly, do just like you are doing now with every important unanswered question...I guarantee you, it works.

"Seek, and ye shall find"

LaBèlla said:

I know what it was. But I chose the truth. You haven't walked in my shoes and you didn't suffer what I did. I wonder what you'd say if were subject to a year of demonic torment. You don't know and you can't know. Many have been delivered and turned back. Much like many are healed and walk away. I remained for reasons beyond what I stated. You can't tell me how I should answer. He knows my heart.

If you're posing loaded questions to pontificate where is your heart? Food for thought.

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I am 71 years old. I have been through all the ups and downs in my life - the good, bad and the ugly. I have just left my church of 22 years because I was bullied by a fellow elder who should have known better.

I have had great experiences with the Lord where He has shown me His real presence. When I was young, I went through a deliverance event that turned my life upside down and I went through a week of absolute spiritual darkness until I cried out to the Lord in the middle of a golf course in the dead of night, and He revealed Himself to me and changed my whole life.

But I have learned through the years that experiences, feelings, senses of the real presence of God are not enough. These have accounted for just 2% of my 52 years in the faith. The other 98% has consisted of normal, everyday routine, with no highs or lows, and no special experiences. So, if my faith was based on experiences and emotions, then I would have been struggling for most of my years in the faith.

But, I learned to base my faith on the written promises of God's Word and when life has become really difficult, which it has many times, then I have rested on that foundation and retained my assurance in Christ.

So if you want to talk about experiences, then I am sharing mine. My experience has told me that God's written Word is the absolute foundation for faith when everything else fails. I went through an experience in my life where I lost my wife, child, home, possession, ministry - in fact, my whole life as I knew it. In the depth of my grief, I told the Lord, "Now I will know whether I am a real Christian or not". You know what the Lord did? He came, stood beside me, put His hand on my shoulder and said, "I am your refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." He used the written Word from Psalm 42 to comfort, reassure and strengthen me.

That's why I base my faith on God's written Word. Everything else may fail you, but God's Word will never fail you.

JohnB445 said:

How can we know if we are born again?

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Go through this thread and pick out several divergent views on how to know we are saved. Ask those folks what they mean by the term "born again".

Before following the advice of anyone here - you need to know what they believe "born again" means.

You will likely find a wide swath of view points as to what they think the term means. With that of course - will come a wide swath of opinions on how to become "born again" - all depending on their definition.

IMO - the more vague the answer the person gives to the question, "What does being born again mean to you?", the more you should disregard their opinion on how to be so born.

As I see things - this is completely logical and therefore completely sound advice.

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. - Acts 16

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you are good to go!

JohnB445 said:

How can we know if we actually believe and it's not just a mere profession of faith held in our neurons?

How can we know we truly experienced the Holy Spirit and not our consciousness making the experience?

And how do we know if the dictionary and definitions have been changed by satan or someone?

Is it bad that I am such a fierce rationalist, like Rene Descartes?

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The list of eminent Christian physicists is very long, so don't go away with the idea that Descartes was super-rational. If anything, he was hyperskeptical. And the so-called Enlightenment was nothing of the kind. In fact, the greatest paradigm-changers in physics were almost all Christian - Einstein, however, being a secular Jew educated in a Catholic school, and a very warm admirer of the historical Christ. However, he was a deist, closer to a panentheist than any other faith.

Kurt Godel, a firmly-believing Lutheran, is considered by many to have been the most outstanding mathematician of the last century. Only the power wielded by his father prevented Galileo from becoming a priest, though he remained a fervent Catholic all his life. Newton ended up scorning mathematics, in favour of his rather eccentric ideas on Christian theology.

Atheists, who mysteriously pride themselves on being super-rational, would never have discovered quantum mechanics with its ever-proliferating paradoxes, in a million years.

Oscarr said:

I am 71 years old. I have been through all the ups and downs in my life - the good, bad and the ugly. I have just left my church of 22 years because I was bullied by a fellow elder who should have known better.

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Your question was directed to me. If you wanted someone who would parrot your response I'm not that person. Everything you wrote is about YOU. This is my faith walk. It won't mirror yours.

rockytopva said:

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you are good to go!

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Meaning also what He taught and what He accomplished?

rockytopva said:

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. - Acts 16

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you are good to go!

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I prefer to keep initial salvation very easy. So we have....

1. Salvation - Believing on Christ Jesus
2. Sanctification - Christian maturity
3. Witness of the Spirit - Attaining the wonderful Spirit of God

LaBèlla said:

Your question was directed to me. If you wanted someone who would parrot your response I'm not that person. Everything you wrote is about YOU. This is my faith walk. It won't mirror yours.

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Oh well, if you thought I was attacking you instead of encouraging you, then I can't do much about that.

rockytopva said:

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. - Acts 16

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you are good to go!

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And as our RCC friend maintains - "Go and get your certificate of Baptism to prove it!"

Oscarr said:

Oh well, if you thought I was attacking you instead of encouraging you, then I can't do much about that.

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I didn't think you were attacking me. But, I wouldn't do what you did either. Loaded questions aren't my thing. I'd ask outright. God bless.

LaBèlla said:

I didn't think you were attacking me. But, I wouldn't do what you did either. Loaded questions aren't my thing. I'd ask outright. God bless.

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What I mean by a "loaded question" was that I had a purpose in asking the question to see if you were going to mention the written Scriptures as the bottom line of your faith in Christ.

I am certainly not discounting your experiences and the great need to have love as the basis of Christian faith and practice. And I am certainly not doubting your strong faith in Christ. Often, the Lord leads people to a firm foundation of faith through the things they experience.

True conversion involves a thorough transformation of the heart away from selfishness and sin and toward faith and dependence on Christ. You certainly have demonstrated that without a doubt!

JohnB445 said:

How can we know if we actually believe and it's not just a mere profession of faith held in our neurons?

How can we know we truly experienced the Holy Spirit and not our consciousness making the experience?

And how do we know if the dictionary and definitions have been changed by satan or someone?

Is it bad that I am such a fierce rationalist, like Rene Descartes?

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The new nature and when the new nature is present...

God Bless!

JohnB445 said:

How do I know if I completed step 3?

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I am not sure that I see the problem here. Point 3 seemed pretty straightforward to me.

But if the issue is being sure that you match up, I would say this...if you believe Christ to be the Lord and Savior, etc. but you are not sure if you believe it sincerely enough, what would you change because of that doubt? Do you say you believe Christ only in order to be saved, or do you actually believe in him?

If you would follow him and his teachings whether or not it results in you being saved in eternity--follow him because you are convinced he is what he said he was--you don't need to wonder if you are in or out.

You are trusting him (which is what he asked of those who decided to follow him).