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What is born again?

def

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I gather there are four interpretations of "born again".

1. It is a status: new person in Christ.

2. It is behavioural: new nature.

3. It is a turning point: fresh start, new beginning.

4. It is material: spirit becomes alive (Spirit gives life to the spirit).
 
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acehighinfinity2015

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Could someone please explain exactly what it means to be born again?
Then you should have no trouble in telling us who the eyes witnesses were and which books they wrote in the Bible.
Hmm...sounds like your true intentions is only to debate here and stir some fire and waste people's time?

Don't worry y'all, the lighter broke before he could even use it :p
The nerve of him :clap:
 
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TheyCallMeDavid

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Thank you very much that explained it perfectly.

As you can see I am an atheist so religion plays no part in my life and never has.

Every weekday I walk past the entrance to a Cathedral that was finished being built in the year 1054 [they have the records, they even know how much each stonemason was paid] and I see the wear in the entrance where millions and millions of frightened people have walked, for what? to keep them in line and ensure they were satisfied with their lot and stayed in their place.

Your welcome. I too am disgusted with how some Christian sects have made a controlling agenda out of a bunch of meaningless religiousity to keep people enslaved to legalism. Jesus was outraged at this too since the Pharisees of his day did the same thing. But fortunately, this IS NOT what true real Christianity is ; what it is about is a dynamic meaningful personal relationship with God thru Christ his Son and not the practicing of a bunch of madeup religiousity and traditions demanding a Person do . Its all about Christ from start to finish and what he did for you...not what a person can do to earn Gods favor and be right with some human institution. So, im totally with you on that one.

I used to be quite a strong professed atheist for 10 adult years till I realized that I couldn't have enough faith in being one considering our creation and the immense complexity and razor edge fine tuning of our universe / earth / human anatomy / and DNA as examples. I came to the realization that Christ is real based on the evidence and that I needed him desperately based on much accumulated sin . I hope you will one day reach that place. This may answer some of your questions : Answers for Atheists and Agnostics
 
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acehighinfinity2015

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bling

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Who said anything about the N/T being "corrupt"? I was talking about the words Jesus is supposed to have spoken,
you said that the N/T was written 20 years after Christ had died so everything we are told Jesus said had to be hearsay.

A lot of these writers are witnesses discribing what they saw and not just what was told them.

Most of what Jesus "taught" by word had already been taight in Old Testament scripture, so Jesus is just repeating the moral lessons of the prophets.

It is much more what Christ did than what he said.

There are lots of good logical reasons for doing it this way.
 
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NorrinRadd

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So, bottom line, you're really not at all interested in definitions and explanations of "born again," you just randomly picked that as your gateway to diatribes about the Gospels being "hearsay."

Is that the atheist version of "honesty"?
 
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oi_antz

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This thread is terrible. OP, you have not directed it well to achieve what you declared to have set out to do. I want to give you that opportunity. Here is what I think can set you in the right direction:

1. What is spiritual life? It is to be alive to Christ. What is Christ? It (He, a living personality) is the truth and the life.

The first story in the bible is about when man and woman had to choose whether they want this life forever under one condition. We see that they had two options: they could eat from the tree of life and live forever, they could eat from another tree and they would die. Whatever you make of this story in terms of historical accuracy is beside my point. Here we see that the human chose to forsake their right to life, and as a statement of basic human nature when making decisions, it is a fairly accurate picture.

Put this in context of Christ being the truth and the life, we see that the story shows they rejected Christ. Since there is no person who never rejects Christ, we all make the same decision at some point. This is the meaning as I see, of being born again. It means that we are given a new life which is only by accepting Christ (note that I also think this can happen before the person consciously knows that it is Christ they have accepted. It is a change of heart such that they receive what the spirit of Christ tells them. And He will lead them to a knowledge of the truth). This is the act of eating from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Do you know what the bible says about that?

Genesis 3:

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

.. So how is it that Christians can believe such a thing as this:

Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” (Jesus)

.. So Jesus appears to be using the word death to mean something other than the cessation of the human body's function. In fact, this is clear through that entire dialogue (see John 8).

In that dialogue is also a statement that is directly relevant to your original question, and what I have brought into it with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Check this:

Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

What makes a person not belong to God? It is not through rightful ownership, because if you assume that God is the creator as is claimed in this religion, then everything must belong to Him. Instead the word "belong" in this sentence does not talk about rightful ownership, it talks about allegiance. This is what we see in the story of Genesis chapter 3. The man and woman chose to believe what the serpent told them instead of what God told them. In doing so, they became susceptible to death. Before that time, they had no fear of death. Immediately, they hid from God. And this is what we all do at some point in our life. We hide from God. God is the only one who can give us life, but we choose to hide from Him :doh:

So to be born again as I understand it to mean in this spiritual context, is to have that life reinstituted so we can approach God freely and in confidence. But how can we do that if we believe that God will not accept us, that our "best deeds are filthy rags in His sight"? The answer is not to believe that our best deeds are not filthy rags in His sight, because that is distorting a claimed and justifiable truth. Instead, we need to have the confidence that He forgives our mistakes and accepts us. In Christianity, it is taught that Jesus is the mediator between God and man. I will have to think more about how that works, I don't fully understand it at this time. But what I do understand is that God is happy for Jesus to be responsible for His sheep. Jesus' sheep tend to follow Him because they love to obey Him. I think this probably contributes somewhat to God's trust in Jesus as our mediator.

My hope is that this will help to get you back on track. Please let me know if you see any problems with what I have said.
 
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R

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Could someone please explain exactly what it means to be born again?
Literally it means born from above, of God's Spirit who is "shed forth" from heaven (above). Starting in Acts 2 and continuing the same today.
The description of a sound (greek: phonos) you hear with everyone (v8) must be the speaking in tongues that signs / signifies this momentous event. Just like a baby cries when it is born naturally (see also Galatians 4:6).

I hope that you decide to be faithful to this as it is receiving salvation.
 
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High Fidelity

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MOD HAT ON

The thread has been cleaned up.

As previously stated, the following from the forum's Statement of Purpose needs to be kept in mind;

If another non-Christian seeker wishes to ask questions about the Christian faith, they may start their own thread. No more than one non-Christian (the OP) may post in a thread.


Thread re-opened.

MOD HAT OFF
 
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Emmy

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Dear Andy998. Born again is what it says, to be born again, as a different person. Luke 10: 25-28: Jesus is asked: " Master, what must I do, to have eternal life? " Jesus answered: " You know the two Commandments, to Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is like it, Love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." The man tells Jesus: " I know them." Then Jesus tells him: " DO THIS AND YOU SHALL LIVE." God is Love, and God wants our love freely given, and NO conditions tagged on.
The Bible also tells us: " Repent and be Born Again." Give up all our selfish wishes and wants, and Love God with all our beings, and love and care for our neighbours, treat all we know and all we meet, friends and not friends,
treat them as we would love to be treated. God sees our loving efforts, and God will approve and bless us. Jesus our Saviour will help and guide us,
JESUS IS THE WAY. What is to be born again? Become a different person,
to Love God as God wants to be Loved, and to love our Fellow-Man as we love ourselves. I say this with love, Andy. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Could someone please explain exactly what it means to be born again?

yes.

(no one on the internet is able to explain exactly what it means to be born again. it is impossible. must be in power of Yhvh in truth in person seen, in Yeshua only, if Yhvh permits(and He is delighted to) )

so, i.e. , if you want to 'know', to 'see', you must , yes "MUST" find a true believer ,
or find Yhvh in Yeshua to explain it straight to you.

on the internet, it is not possible. (oh, there's never ending attempts to, but none of them "work. never. ever. not ever. (never seen it work, and never expect to see it work. and no one else has ever seen it work. go figure - it(the internet and all attempts thereof) IS so popular! )
 
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