How can you
be a Christian
if you are not
born Again?

     While taking our son back to school for his senior year at George Washington Uni­versity he asked my wife and me if he should continue going to Intervarsity Christian Fellow­ship meetings on campus this year if they were not preaching the whole truth. Without asking what the problem was I told him that it was a matter for him to decide. He had to find out what the Lord suggested to do and then do whatever he must by faith. Joanne was not so cautious tho­ugh. She wanted to know what it was that troubled him about the campus fellowship group. Jeff told us that for instance, week in and week out, one unbe­lieving person dominated the meeting by insisting that the fellowship once again prove the existence of God. Jeff thought it was a waste of valuable time for Christians to be sitting aro­und discussing the existence or non-existence of their Savior every time they gathered together. But more than that he felt there was no spirit of discernment for the truth present.
     Anyone who slapped a label of Christian on himself was presumed untouchable as a follower of Jesus Christ. Doctrine and Scriptural truth were handled with kid gloves lest they should prove to be politically incorrect and discriminatory. The bottom line was that the most respected and re­vered person in the group, an older student whose opinion held sway, was probably not even born-again. At the close of one meet­ing Jeff had asked him about his conversion and wanted to know his personal testimony about being born-again. The person responded by saying, "As long as I can remember I've always be­lieved."
     Rightfully, my son was alarmed by this testi­mony and said to us, "I always believed but that didn't mean I was born again." (We knew what he meant because we all remembered that it was not until an E­aster morning when he was 20 years-old that he accepted Christ into his heart.)  I told Jeff he was absolutely right in all of his concerns and that if they were not preach­ing the fact that you must be born-again to see the kingdom of God then his decision whether or not to continue going to Intervarsity Fellowship might be easier than he thought. We all left it at that and are now waiting to see what direction God leads Jeff. Will he call him to go and tell them? Will he direct him some­where else? What God wants to do about this is still unclear, but one thing is certain, it is not eno­ugh simply to believe. -
You must be born-again.
      Jesus coined the term "born-again" Himself and clearly said that this is not an optional thing or an experience that accompanies salvation. It is salvation. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born-again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)
      It is not enough to believe. James says; You believe! So what! The devils believe and because they know God's power and the judgment wait­ing them they tremble with fear. Nicodemus, the man who came to Jesus by stealth, was not only a religious leader but also a great and prominent teacher in all of Israel. It is safe to say that he believed in God - and probably always had. But he was not born-again; didn't even know that you must be born-again to be saved otherwise he would not have asked how can such a thing be? Remember Jesus said you had to be born of the water (by the breaking of the water at natural birth) and of the spirit (by the passing from death into life by the conversion and rebirth of our heart). To be saved we must become new creatures, totally new per­sons. This is the miracle of the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. It gives us right of passage down the birth canal of the spirit so we can be born into God's kingdom. It comes only by turning from trust and reliance on our old black heart, repenting from everything that is our first birth, no matter how good it may seem in the eyes of men, becoming newborn babes in Christ. We must become new creatures with new spirits. We must be born again.
      There can be no moving away or back peddling from this message, this truth. The Church should never allow the Devil to sidetrack them from establishing this fact. We sometimes take heat for this position. The world, and now much of the Christian Church says we, who hold these truths, are narrow-mind­ed and bigoted. But our retort is that we are steadfast not narrow-mind­ed. We trust in the word of God and are epoxied t­o this belief and faith in the miraculous work done by the Father and Jesus Christ for our sakes. If that is narrow-m­inded, so be it.  Any denomination, church, fellowship, group, or person that does not steadfastly insist that a Christian must be born-again to be truly labeled a Christian (disciplined follower of Christ) is missing the most fundamental message of Christianity. Being born-again is not an experience that is subordinate to being a Christian for without it you are not a Christian. It is not an experience that accompanies salvation. It is the salvation experience. To fudge on this would only create another religion other than Christian, tho­ugh the popular move today is to do just this and still call it Christian.
      Don't be persuaded otherwise. You must be born again to see and enter the kingdom of God! How can you be a Christian if you can't see the kingdom of God? How can you see the kingdom of God if you are not looking through the veil of this world born anew into another existence -
born-again? Jesus said so, that should be enough.


      BACK TO BRIDESHIP INTRO

FOUNDATIONAL:
   WHAT AND WHERE THE CHURCH
   THE WORD

YOU MUST BE BORN-AGAIN TO 'SEE' THESE FUNDAMENTALS OF CHRIST
1) REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS
2) FAITH TOWARDS GOD
3) LAYING ON OF HANDS
4) DOCTRINE OF BAPTISMS
5) ETERNAL JUDGMENT
6) RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

ON TO: INTRO TO PURIFIED    INTRO TO PREPARED    SIGNS OF CHRIST'S RETURN

The Nativity - New Birth
What is a Christian?
The Day the King's Son Died

 

 

 

 

And I understood the Truth about life
Three Little Words…

by Terry Smith

      I can still remember the exact moment when it happened. The scene stands alone forever in my mind, a freeze frame that I can recall to memory at will. The two of us were standing in a doorway that led down to the cellar stairs. The door was open, my stepfather leaning, slightly sway­ing against the jamb. We were en­gaged in a deep spiritual talk when suddenly the moment became encased in the special ­energy and electricity that is c­onducted only by truth.
      I can't recall what led up to this moment so significant in my life, nor do I remember what we talked about afterward, but in three words my soul was forever changed­. My stepfather simply said:

"Jesus is alive".

It may not sound like much now. Many will even say, "What an obvious statement". But, for me, in that moment the earth and wind stood still, the skies were torn apart­­, and my eyes and my ears were­ opened. It was as if God had said "Ephphatha", like he did to the deaf man in Mark 7 and instantly­ I heard.
      Three little w­ords. And, for one man, the earth s­topped turning on its axis, the heavens opened.
      Three little words, "Jesus is alive", and a quest for truth ended.
     Three words and my life was severed from its former world of lonely darkness. Three words and I heard the truth, saw the truth, knew the truth. Three words and my world could never be the same. I had played around with the occult, and in ignorance toyed with the pseudo-spiritual world. Some of the things I did for pleasure and had unwittingly opened myself to spiritual influences. Other t­hings I actively so­ught after so I could gain power and control over my own destiny. Drink­ing was a big spiritual trip, and drugs even bigger. These trips into alcohol and drug abuse were not vacation trips ei­ther, they were daily excursions to a spiritual well, where I guzzled­ in the influence of any and all spirits that might come to me. I didn't know that these thi­ngs b­rought me into contact with spirits.

    I was ignorant of the true nature of the spiritual world and the activi­ties of Satan's demonic forces. I just thought booze gave me plea­sure and drugs "expanded" my mind. Little did I know I was let­ting spirits into my life and giving them room to influence my thoug­hts, beliefs, my entire behavior. Through the "doorways" provided by alcohol and drugs these deceiving spirits tried to lure me into the occult. They tried to divert me from the real truth by feeding me with lies and promising me power and knowledge. The spirits of drugs easily manipulated me with their subtle lying sorceries. They led me into Tarot C­ards, I dabbled in the notion of separate realities, had my astrological chart made up, looked into w­itchcraft and ancient religion, and sought after knowledge of any sort. I con­tinued to investigate the love of my life, history, and looked for any confirmation of the power and reality of the world of the paranor­mal. But all the while I was look­ing for TR­UTH. Where was it? What would I do when I found it?
      In everything I explored there was some truth, some reality. Th­at's how the spirits set the trap. But it was always partial truth; with some evil or lying twist to it. Noth­ing, it seemed, had the whole, pure, unadulterated, un­tainted, incorruptible truth. Not until Jesus revealed to me that He, a living person, is the T­ruth. From that time on, I under­stood that Easter was real. Often in my mind's eye I have seen this picture. I see my stepfather's face, brilliant, alive with c­olor, eyes alert with the knowl­edge of God, back­lit with only truth, all other half-truths out of the frame, everything else blur­red and indistinct lost in a gray misty back­drop like from one of those pictures shot in a photo studio. All vision of the world or any dime­nsion outside the s­pirit is a­bruptly closed off, washed out. I see him speak­ing those three dynamic words that forever changed my outlook of the uni­verse. "Jesus is alive!"
     This frozen moment did not "save" me; that would come in God’s due time and by his grace. It was, however, exactly like what had happened ­to the women that h­ad come to the tomb of Jesus on that first Easter morning. It was Mary Mag­dalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that ran to tell the world the good news that Jesus is alive, that He is risen. What revelation hit when those women heard the glorious words "He is risen" spoken for the first time. Those three words of salvation, ­spoken by a mes­senger from God, reverberated through­out the universe like a shock wave.  The most majestic and marvelous of the accounts of this moment of victory, this V-U Day, Victory in the Universe Day; is reserved for Matthew. 

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Mag­dalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
      And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
      His countenance was like light­ning, and his raiment white as snow:
      And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
      And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
      He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
      And go quickly, and tell his disci­ples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
     And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disci­ples word." (Matt. 28.1-8)

     The angel of the Lord had spo­ken three words, "He is risen", and everything was c­hanged. The world and the universe knew the truth. Jesus is alive! That is what E­aster is, and always has been about. Because Christ lives I can get to know Him personally. I can now meet my Maker in this life and be saved from sin and death, healed of blindness to THE TRUTH, healed of deafness to his voice. It was now my choice. I could either receive this living Jesus into my life or reject Him. But I knew He was there, alive and waiting to have a rela­tionship with me. I did not receive Jesus, the living Truth, into my heart that moment. I did not make Him the Lord, the King, the Master of my life and destiny. I did not turn con­trol over to Him that day. It would not be for some time before I would give up myself to THE Truth.
     I was shocked to find out that THE Truth was just a name for a person and that I had nothing to do with it. I guess it hurt my pride and offended my spirit that I had nothing to do with the TRUTH. It was not in m­e. It had nothing to do with me. I had to admit I was not part of it and that it did not need me to become whole or complete. It was outside me and I had to concede to it com­pletely. I did not repent on the spot. I did not even repent, per se, the day I finally accepted Christ as my Savior, I only conceded to Him that he was God, THE Truth, the All Knowing. My full repentance took some doing. But I knew. I knew THE TRUTH and I was freed from my wanderings, submitted to God’s omnipotent being. There was no place else to look, nowhere to go, no more wonder­ing. In that way I was set free. It was up to me, what I was going to do with the TRUTH. Jesus said of Himself, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by me."
     THE TRUTH is a person. THE TRUTH is God. THE TRUTH is Jesus. And I knew I could get to know the TRUTH personally be­cause Jesus lives. Thank God for “Easter” and those three words - "Jesus is risen!" I thank God for saying to me in a way I could understand, those three little words that changed my soul, my being, for­ever - "Jesus is alive!"

 

WHAT ABOUT
SAINTHOOD?

No object of worship ought to steal our affection.
There is only one mediator between man and God; the man Jesus, who died for our sins. A saint is not only a man or woman who did three documented miracles and therefore is given a place worthy of our worship or who becomes empowered to answer our prayers. Actually, true believer is synonymous with Saint.

Down through the centuries, since the Church was established, the meaning of the word saints has changed and been perverted from its original meaning and connotation. In the early church, the New Testament Church, all true believers in Jesus Christ were referred to as "saints". This was not because of anything they had done or not done, but because they had accepted and believed that Jesus’ shed blood on the cross covered their sins.

The words from a Phil Driscoll song say it perfectly.

"We’re the people of God. Called by His name, Called from the dark, and delivered from shame. One holy race, saints everyone, because of the blood of Christ, Jesus the Son. " The saints according to the Scriptures are not people deemed so after their death, by the judgment of men or the voting of synods. They are not individuals who have lived so-called good lives of religious glory. Those things may be admirable but do not make one a saint according to the Scriptures. The term ‘saint’ is not only used to describe the believers who have gone home to be with the Lord, but living ones as well. This is not because they treat people kindly and do ‘good works’. Saints are not merely those, as the oft used cliché says, nice or helpful persons. True saints are those who have yielded their wills to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Just a few of the scriptures indicating this are:

 

The meaning of the word saint is undoubtedly uncovered in its usage in Scripture. Saint is mentioned three times, twice in the Old Testament and once in the New. The word "saints" appears in 23 chapters of the Old Testament and in some chapters more than once. In the New Testament the word is used in 42 chapters and 61 times. That it is used so profusely seems to answer all questions about its wide-range and common use for believers in general.

A few more examples will further make the point as to the common nature of the label, saint for a true believer and not some super-saint concept fostered by Christianity’s false religion which amounts to idolater-ising and worship of men and angels. Proverbs 2:8 says; "He keepeth the paths of judgment and perserveth the way of His saints." The following verses show that saints were just ordinary believers living on the earth. "But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem." Rom. 15.25&26 "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Eph. 4:11&2 "All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." Phil. 4.22 "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Col. 1.12

There are Old Testament saints who lived by faith and believed in God's promises of the coming Messiah. There were New Testament saints who trusted the Messiah and believed His word when He did come. Saints throughout Church history placed their lives in the Savior's hands, not in any system or religion. And there are those living today who are saints of God, ministering and being ministered to, in the same way, in the name of Jesus. There are many who are waiting to be called to the "Marriage Supper of the Lamb". Rev. 19.9 But even beyond that glorious feast, comes the moment ALL SAINTS have been looking toward. "To the end He may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with ALL HIS SAINTS." 1 Thess. 3.13 Also as recorded in Jude 14; "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with TEN THOUSANDS of His SAINTS."

Not a small elite group, but a family of believers!