6 comments:

• gabriel rodriguez posted at 8:22 am on Fri, Jul 27, 2012.

  Posts: 1

  to be born again means to be baptized in jesus name or else you cannot get into heaven as it says in john 3:3 romans ch 6 explains it best we taking are old body of sin off and putting on christ, washed in his blood.Just because you say you believe in GOD does not mean you are getting into heaven its more than that it is a life style,faith with out works is dead in john ch 8 it eplains why it is so.

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• Robert Jacobs posted at 6:55 am on Wed, Jul 25, 2012.

  Posts: 297

  This is a statement from this article: "To be "born again" means to believe in Christ Jesus."

  This person has it partly right, but doesn't go far enough...

  
  Actually to be born again means you are know in a pre-sin state like Adam and Eve were before they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But this man below said it best a few weeks ago. I'll let his words be you and everyone's guide...

  You Must Be Born Again...

  Faith in Christ is not the cause of the new birth. Faith is the result of the new birth. We believe according to the working of God's mighty power, by the operation of His grace. The new birth is something done to you, for you and in you by God's sovereign, irresistible grace. It is not something you do.

  Martin Luther correctly asserted, "If any man ascribes anything to his or her salvation, even the very least thing, or the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly."

  Here is a powerful word "Born." Salvation is the gift of life, eternal life. When our Lord declares, "Ye must be born again," he is saying you must be the object and recipient of Divine power. Just as God created the world, God must create life in your soul. He must breathe into you the breath of life by His Spirit or you will perish in your sins. We are all spiritually dead, helplessly lost by nature. Our only hope is that God the Holy Spirit will give us life.

  Here is a profound word "Again." The new birth is a mystery of grace. It cannot be explained; neither can it be fully understood. It's a work of God beyond our comprehension. When our Lord says, "Ye must be born again," the word again has two meanings. First it means you must be born a second time. Second it means you must be born from above.

  James tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He then tells us what he is teaching in the next verse. Of His own will begat he us with the word of truth (James 1:17-19). By our first birth we were born in sin and the lust of the flesh. By our second birth, we became wise unto salvation and are made children of promise like Isaac, Abraham's son.

  Make sure, make very sure that you are born again and a child of promise. The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto a perfect day (Proverbs 4:18).

  Willie Hebacker

  Lodi
  

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• Kevin Paglia posted at 9:40 am on Tue, Jul 17, 2012.

  Posts: 1729

  Andy: What you missed in my response was the repeated use of "choice". those not given a choice (through age, location, historical timing or even those completely driven away by fanatical followers) I believe have a kind of alternative means for the afterlife. I know what standards I would think matter, but have no idea what standards God would use. What matters is those who have a choice, choose to seperate themselves from God and whether it is God's fault for this seperation or ours.

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• Andy Crowder posted at 7:57 pm on Mon, Jul 16, 2012.

  Posts: 244

  Kevin, you said, "God desires for us all to be close and makes it incredibly easy for that closeness."

  How can this be when the overwhelming majority of humans who have ever lived on this planet have had no knowledge of the Hebrew god or Jesus? Doesn't seem like "he" wanted those people close at all. It was not "incredibly easy" to attain that closeness for them; in fact, it was/is impossible.

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• Kevin Paglia posted at 4:21 pm on Sat, Jul 14, 2012.

  Posts: 1729

  Sarah: I have tried to use analogies to explain this but they have all fallen short. It basically boils down to this:

  It is not so much a matter of BELIEVING in God that is important to God. It is CHOOSING God (avoiding using Him/Her deliberately here). The fallen angels (demons) believe in God. Our gift is the ability to CHOOSE God. This ability places us closer to God than the Angels because of the sheer POWER in that choice. That choice says "through all the noise, confusion and doubt, I still believe". And there is something special in that choice. God desires for us all to be close and makes it incredibly easy for that closeness. If we CHOOSE to not be close, it is not a failing of God's but of ours. Ours and that of those like William who CHOOSES to use his faith as a flail to judge and cast punishment on others drive others away from God.

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• Sarah Elizabeth Tygert posted at 1:03 pm on Sat, Jul 14, 2012.

  Posts: 41

  What a selfish, egotistical, self-centered god you must believe in to really think that he would consider not believing in him to be the only unforgivable sin, much less for it to be unforgivable at all! With all the evils in this world, do you really think a creator would really care that much about attention? What a horrid thought.

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