Here are Scriptures to baffle most professing Christians.
How could Christ, Himself, have been born AGAIN — WHEN?
ONE YEAR ago, in The PLAIN TRUTH of February, 1962, appeared an article captioned "Just What do You MEAN — BORN AGAIN?" It warned: "Don't be too sure you know! Many religious people talk about being 'born again,' who don't really know what Christ meant by those words."
That article of a year ago is available in booklet form — free for the asking.
Impossible to Believe?
But how many realize that Jesus Christ, Himself, was born again — and in the same manner in which He said WE "must be born again?"
Does that seem incredible?
Just what did Christ mean, when He said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the Kingdom of God?" The universally accepted idea of fundamentalist Christians is that being "born again" means the experience of having one's sins forgiven. They call it a "born-again experience." By it they mean a SINNER being converted — experiencing salvation from SIN.
Many fundamentalist Protestants will say: "I am a sinner born again, and saved by grace," and similar expressions. Have these people really been born again — or have they only been deceived? Have they had the same "born-again experience" CHRIST had?
But wait a minute! Surely that last sentence can't mean what it said?
Was JESUS CHRIST actually born again? And in the same manner that He taught that we must be born again? INCREDIBLE? UNBELIEVABLE? Was Jesus Christ a sinner — did He need salvation from sin? NO! Of course not! Yet Jesus Christ was BORN AGAIN — just as He taught that WE must be born again!
I now show you one Scripture — and there will be more later in this article — but most readers who claim to have been "born again" will not believe it, though it is THE VERY WORD OF GOD.
Here it is:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose: For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:28-29).
Jesus Christ is THE FIRSTBORN OF MANY BRETHREN!" Jesus Christ was BORN AGAIN, and the FIRST of many brethren to be BORN AGAIN!
Yet that very Scripture will not be believed by many who claim to have already had a "born-again experience."
WHY Many Can't Believe it!
I am going to give you even plainer Scriptures that say Jesus Christ was the FIRST to be BORN AGAIN, in the same manner that He taught that WE must be born again. Yet many who read these words WILL NOT BELIEVE THESE SCRIPTURES.
Do you know WHY? Let's take time to UNDERSTAND!
Just what does take place in the mind of the average person when confronted with a Scripture statement contrary to his own belief?
The average mind reacts in this manner: Whatever he has been taught, or has heard or read, and is the accepted belief of his church, he has ASSUMED to be true. It has become rooted in his mind AS IF it were true fact. It has become FIXED — lodged hard and fast, in his mind. Millions have the firmly rooted belief that to be "born again" means the experience of a SINNER being converted and put under grace.
Every Scripture that has anything to do with being "born again" is viewed from this concept. It — what HE already believes, NOT what God says — is the fixed concept by which he approaches anything on this subject. His own conviction, erroneous though it may be, is his starting point for considering any Scripture on the subject — his approach — the very BASIS by which he seeks to understand or explain this Scripture.
It never will even occur to him that HIS BELIEF — his definition of what "born again" means — could be wrong. He has firmly ASSUMED this conception to be FACT. His mind, therefore, will seek to understand this Scripture according to his erroneous belief — but NEVER to question or harmonize his belief according to the Scripture.
If he is unable to square the Scripture with his own belief, then he does one of two things. Either he tries to INTERPRET the Scripture according to his idea of being born again, or his mind becomes CONFUSED, and he simply runs away from it — changes the subject — dismisses this Scripture from his mind.
The first of these two reactions is the explanation for the hundreds of different denominations, each having A DIFFERENT INTERPRETATION of the BIBLE! To interpret the Bible is to put your meaning into it — to twist it to mean what You want to make it mean, instead of what GOD made it to mean and wants you to understand.
In other words, the average person who says he has already been "born again" is spiritually BLINDED to seeing the TRUTH on this point. Perhaps it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to even see the truth. He has accepted one of the fables to which God said, through Paul, the world would be turned.
That satanic MOTHER of harlots, described in Revelation 17, has deceived the world. And the world is, spiritually, DRUNK on her false teachings. A physically drunk man cannot see material things clearly and distinctly. They become blurred, out of focus. A spiritually drunk person cannot see GOD'S WORD clearly and distinctly. The above explains the reason. He tries to see God's WORD through the eyeglasses of these false teachings he has absorbed from the daughter churches of the "Great Whore" (Rev. 17:1, 5).
It simply cannot seem to occur to his mind that what he has so carelessly accepted could be wrong.
Tell such a person that being "born again," as Christ taught we should be, does NOT mean that experience that takes place when a sinner has his sins forgiven, is converted and put under grace, and he will say: "You can't tell me that! I KNOW! I've had the EXPERIENCE, brother!" He may have had an "experience" — but it was a different experience than what Christ meant by being born again!
WHAT the Bible IS
WHAT'S WRONG? Not only are millions spiritually BLINDED by the false doctrines that came out of spiritual BABYLON, but almost no one, it seems, realizes just WHAT the Bible IS.
It is God's Message which He sent FOR MANKIND. It IS the revealed KNOWLEDGE, inspired by GOD — basic knowledge man needs, but cannot otherwise acquire. It is the FOUNDATION of all true knowledge.
And what is the PURPOSE of the Bible? You'll find it in II Tim. 3:16. Its purpose is to CORRECT us where we are wrong. To REPROVE us. To reveal to us TRUE doctrine, and correct us where we have accepted false doctrine — and the prevailing fundamentalist concept of being "born again" IS FALSE DOCTRINE! Its PURPOSE is to instruct us in TRUTH, in RIGHTEOUSNESS. To CHANGE OUR MINDS!
This, right here, is going to be a crucial test for many readers of The PLAIN TRUTH. Ask yourself: ARE YOU WILLING to be corrected by GOD'S WORD, on points where you have been deceived? Remember, the whole world has been deceived! God says so! Read it in Revelation 12:9, and 20:3. A deceived person is one who really and sincerely BELIEVES he is right. He may be sincere — but there can be a lot of SIN in that word "sincere." Can you find it? Look at the first three letters!
Yes, you may be wholly sincere and HONEST in your conviction, and still have been deceived, and therefore WRONG! And if you now reject this knowledge from God's Word, God will reject You! (Hos. 4:6).
Are YOU able to let God's Word correct you, when you have accepted and believed something contrary to the truth? Can you admit that it just might be that you, and millions of others, have been taught WRONG about being "born again?"