Don't be too sure you know!
Many religious people talk about being "born again" — yet they don't really know what Christ meant by those words.
The TRUTH is surprising, startling here made so plain you will UNDERSTAND!
LET's be honest — don't some of these religious terms seem vague, meaningless, when you stop to think about it?
Do you know that most people who think they have been "born again" actually have no more real conception of what it means than the young man who said he "gave his heart to the Lord" at a revival meeting. When asked if he had his chest' cut open so he could reach in, take his heart out, and hand it to the Lord, he stammered confusedly that he guessed he didn't really know what it did mean, when he had been told that he "gave his heart to the Lord."
It's about time the TRUTH of what Jesus Christ meant by being "born again" is made so plain you will UNDERSTAND! For He did not say or mean what most religious people think! And NOTHING IS SO IMPORTANT!
Even Preachers Deceived
When Jesus "said- we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God except we be BORN AGAIN, Nicodemus was confused. He didn't understand — but he did know that he had been BORN — once! And he knew that to be BORN meant that he was literally delivered out of his mother's womb, after having been begotten by his human father, and having been nourished by food through his mother so that, as a growing fetus, he developed and grew physically large enough to be finally BORN! That was no ethereal, imaginary, mystic, unreal event.
Yes, Nicodemus knew what it meant to be BORN! But Jesus was talking about being born AGAIN — a second time — not of material flesh — not after being physically begotten by his human father — but of the SPIRIT, after being begotten by the heavenly Father!
WHY cannot people understand? It's hard to believe, but YOUR BIBLE says that this whole world is DECEIVED!
Incredible though it seems, that is true!
Yes, even the clergy! Many large denominations of this world's organized religion ignore this subject altogether. Some refer to it, as a mythical, mystic, meaningless expression, casually and rarely, putting no emphasis on it as a doctrine or teaching. But a few put major stress on "a born-again experience" — without the slightest conception of what it means!
WHY this confusion of tongues? Actually, it has resulted from the greatest, most colossal and diabolical conspiracy ever perpetrated on mankind, which occurred between the years of 70 and 120 A.D. — actually beginning as early as 50 A.D.
The most tremendous discovery of this 20th Century — the most important acquisition of new knowledge — is the discovery of the true factual and authentic history of that gigantic organized conspiracy that resulted in deceiving the entire western world!
If it were truly UNDERSTOOD today what Jesus meant by being BORN AGAIN, the subject would be neither ignored, nor misrepresented in a pseudo-spiritual, mystic sentimentalism.
One religious leader, victim of the Great Delusion, gave this definition of a Christian: "One who has been born again, and washed in the blood of Christ." It will sound incredible to some, but emphatically that is not the Biblical definition. We shall make that PLAIN!
I have before me a religious weekly, in newspaper style, with a 3-column headline, across the top of a 5-column front page, which says: "What Born Again Means." It is a long article, continuing over on, and almost filling an additional whole page. But I read in vain to discover what this evangelist, with the title of "Doctor," thought the words really mean. He listed eight conditions, or religious states, which he thought resulted from the "experience." But what the words "born again" mean — what actually takes place, and how and when — or just what the "experience" is — he simply didn't know. After talking all around his subject, never getting down to it, he finally said the new birth is a "mystery" which we cannot understand!
But WE CAN UNDERSTAND!
God intends us to understand! YOUR BIBLE makes it PLAIN — yes, the PLAIN TRUTH — if you will only quit "interpreting," reading into it a supposed meaning carelessly assumed because it has been popularly taught — or representing it as a system of double-talk in which words do not mean what they say.
The BIBLE says what it MEANS — and it means precisely what it SAYS. Let's quit interpreting! Let's BELIEVE CHRIST, the Living Word of GOD!
A Contradiction?
There is a particular verse that has puzzled millions, discouraged thousands who didn't understand, and caused some to accuse the Bible of contradicting itself.
Look at this verse! It says — and means, literally: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (I John 3:9).
Look at that! It says plainly, that after a man is "born of God" it is impossible to sin again.
Now is that a contradiction of verse 8 of the first chapter of the same Book? Remember that in New Testament language the pronouns "we" or "us" refer to converted Christians. The unconverted are referred to ag' "they" or "them." An example is I Thes. 5. "For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them . . . and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief" (Verses 3 and 4)
Now compare the verse in I John 3:9 with the following, in I John 1:8-9: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is got in us. If we" — (already Christians who repented of, and had forgiven and wiped out, all previous sins at the time of conversion — so this is here referring to sing committed, though of course not deliberately and willfully, after being converted ) — "confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we" — (we CHRISTIANS) — "say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us" (Verse 10). Then, the next verse, I John 2:1: "And if any man sin, we (Christians) have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Of course the Bible teaches that Christians should not sin. The first part of I John 2:1 (not quoted above) teaches that. The emphasis all through the New Testament is on rooting out sin — overcoming sin — growing in God's righteousness, always toward perfection.
But these and numerous other verses (especially the Apostle Paul's experience, Romans 7:14-25) say plainly that converted Christians do sin — though not deliberately and willfully. Certainly it is not impossible!
Look at Jesus Christ Himself! The Scriptures say He did not sin — yet they teach plainly that at all times it was entirely possible for Him to sin. Jesus, in the human flesh, "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). No Scripture says that He could not sin.
So here we have many Scriptures showing that it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE for converted Christians to sin — it was NOT IMPOSSIBLE even for Jesus! Yet, in I John 3:9, we have the flat statement that, if and when we are actually born of GOD, we shall not be able to sin — IT WILL THEN BE IMPOSSIBLE!
THERE IS NO CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THESE SCRIPTURES!
The Source of Error
Nearly every error is based on a false assumption, taken carelessly for granted. The universal error, in this case, is the untrue ASSUMPTION that when one is converted — when one has fully repented, accepted Christ in faith, and received God's Spirit — or, as some state it, "been baptized by the Holy Spirit" — that he has then been "born again."
The colossal error is merely one of using incorrect terminology — yet the error is far-reaching, and totally hides from the world the overwhelming, ALL IMPORTANT MEANING of being BORN of GOD! By this apparently slight misuse of terminology, a cunning devil has DECEIVED THE WHOLE WORLD as to what salvation is — what is the reward of the "saved" — what is the real PURPOSE of LIFE — the MEANING of SALVATION — the goal of God's Plan!
This misapplication of one word of religious terminology has deceived a confused world into viewing the matter of being "born again" as some ethereal, mystic "experience" one is supposed to "feel," 'or, somehow, though he sensed nothing, to have gone through when he professed Christ!
What most religious people — if they use the term — call being "born again" is simply MIS-NAMED. Actually, the term "born again" does not apply at all, nor refer to, the experience of a true CONVERSION — the receiving of God's Holy Spirit — or, as some phrase it, the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." Most, however, who use this latter term are as deceived as to what if is, as they are about being "born again."
The real SOURCE of this whole stupendous error is this: In the English language, we have two different words to express the two phases that occur in the reproductive process of all mammals.
The one, which is the very start of the new life, we call conception, or a begettal. All human and animal life comes from an egg-cell, which must first be fertilized, impregnated, conceived, or begotten (yes, we have all four of those words for this first initial phase of the reproductive process) by a sperm-cell from the FATHER. But NO ONE EVER calls this beginning of the process a BIRTH!
In the case of all mammals, the begotten egg-cell is called a fetus. In the human family it starts as small as a very tiny pencil dot. It cannot be BORN until, nourished on material food through the mother, in the uterus or womb of the mother, it develops and grows, physically, to a size averaging 6 to 9 pounds in the human family.
The phase of the process which in the English language we call being BORN is that process by which the fetus is delivered from the mother's womb, and out into the world comes a little baby to gasp its own first breath. It has then BEEN BORN!
But if you would try to tell a doctor, or a nurse, that the yet unborn fetus had already been born, as soon as you knew it had been conceived, or begotten, the doctor or nurse would surely think you ignorant, and probably try to explain.
The New Testament of the Holy BIBLE was originally written in the Greek language. And, in this case, the Greeks had only one word for the TWO vitally different phases of the process!
That Greek word is "gennao" (pronounced ghen-all-o). The Greek-English dictionary (lexicon) gives this definition of the Greek 'word: to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender."
Four of those definitions mean to beget or to conceive — but NOT to be BORN. To procreate means to beget. To conceive has the same meaning. Webster's dictionary defines "gender" as to beget, breed, generate. It does not refer to the birth. But three of the lexicon definitions of "gennao" mean the actual BIRTH: "be born,” "bring forth," and "be delivered of."
Misleading Translation
Since the original' Greek, in which the New Testament was written, has only the one word for both meanings — and since the "scholars" of our comparatively recent years who translated the Bible into English did not, themselves,
UNDERSTAND God's Plan — they often translated the Greek word "gennao" into the English word "BORN" where it actually meant "BEGOTTEN."
Notice a few outstanding examples!
In John 1:13, the Authorized, or King James Version of the Bible renders it: ". . . which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This is an incorrect translation of the Greek word "gennao." In the American Revised version a marginal rendering says: "or, begotten," as it should be.
Other examples appear in John's first Epistle. Notice:
In the American Revised version I John 2:29 is correctly translated: "is begotten of Him"; but in the A.V. it is, incorrectly, ". . . every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him."
I John 4:7: The A.V. incorrectly has it: ". . . and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." But the Revised version corrected this error, rendering it: ". . . is begotten of God."
I John 5:1, in the A.V., incorrectly: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him." Here, this same Greek word, "gennao," was inspired by the Holy Spirit three times in the same verse. The first time, the King James translators erroneously rendered it into the English word "born." The second time "gennao" is used in the Greek they could not render it "Him that was BORN" or "Him that 'borned' " — for it refers to the human believer, not God. Here they were forced to choose the correct definition of "gennao," in the past tense, as "begat." Then, since they already had to use the past-tense "begat" in that instance, they also correctly rendered it, in the third place the word occurred, "is begotten."
The Revised version also corrected this error, rightly rendering it: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christis begotten of God, and whosoever loveth Him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of Him."
One final example: I John 5:4 — the A.V. erroneously renders it: "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, . . ." but the Revised version corrected it to read: "For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world. . .”
Now quickly notice a few instances where the SAME GREEK WORD was correctly translated "begotten."
I Cor. 4:15 the Apostle Paul is talking to those converted under his ministry: "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." There, it is correctly translated, showing that Paul's converts at Corinth, as his "spiritual children," had been begotten of God, but not yet BORN.
The experience of conversion, in this life, is a begettal — a "conception" — an "impregnation" — but NOT YET A BIRTH! This we shall make PLAIN!
One more — Heb. 1:5 — speaking of CHRIST'S begettal in the Virgin Mary. This verse shows that Christ, later BORN of God by a resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4), was an actual BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD, in a manner that no angel is, or can be. Angels are merely created beings. They are not actually begotten of God, so that in this sense they become His born sons, as Christ now is — and as we may also be. Notice the verse: "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, 'Thou art my Son, this day have 'I begotten thee?"