What does "born again" mean?

by Country Girl 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  greendawn

  It means to enter into a spiritual dimension, to put away the fleshly man and be clothed with the spiritual man, as well as accept the Holy Spirit through faith and baptism so as to be an adopted son of God through Christ.
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  Narkissos

  The metaphor of "being born again" became very meaningful to me when I left the JWs. I naturally connected the Johannine statement to the Synoptic saying about "becoming like children" -- and to other mystical perspectives, such as the Zen "spirit of beginning".

  Shortly after that I got in touch with some Evangelical churches where people could say, "I was born again 10 years ago" just as a JW would say "I've been in the truth for 10 years"... That was just meaningless to me.

  I mean, if you can say you've been born again for some time, then "you have to be born again"...
• 

  bebu

  I think sometimes being born again is a lot like being "conceived" again. A woman may be pregnant, but not show it for a long while. She is nonetheless as pregnant at 3 months as she is at 9 (even though we joke and say a woman at the 9-month stage is 'very pregnant!'). A lot of people look for a lot of noise and motion (tongues or prophecying or whatever) as proof of being 'born again', but it's something profound on the deepest level which eventually works out into a change of character (fruit of the Spirit... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control). Something like a mustard seed, as the parable goes, though sometimes faster.

  To be born again, I think, is something like receiving God's character in one's self, amalgamated and integrated, like the genes/dna one usually gets from one's parents thru natural birth. The adding of zoe to bios.

  bebu
• 

  DaveNwisconsin

  Whats all this talk about being bored again. If you can't find anything to do with your time than you should donate some time at a public place, ..............................................oh wait its born again. Never mind.
• 

  bebu

  LOL @ Dave!
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  Honesty

  What does "born again" mean to YOU?

  I can't describe it better than this:

  The New Life in Christ

  Romans 6:1-14 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were

  baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, no longer dies. Death no longer rules over Him. For in that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you

  obey its desires.

  And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

  James 1:18 By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth so that we would be the firstfruits of His creatures.

  1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
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  NowImFree

  Hi Country Girl,

  I am fairly new here within the last week or so, but your post interested me. Since leaving the JWs I too consider myself a born again Christian, but I don't always say that phrase. It turns a lot of people off because of people like Pat Robertson and Bush who wear their "christianity" like some kind of political flag. That totally turns me off too, it embarrasses me and I don't want to be connected to that type of christianity at all.

  For me, being born again meant turning everything over to Christ, my sin, my problems, everything and realizing that I could never pay for my sins or do enough to save myself, I knew it was only through him, not my own efforts. I had a complete change in authority, my authority used to be the Watchtower Org, now my authority is Christ. It was very freeing and gave me a peace like I never knew as a JW. When I was a JW, I always felt like I was never good enough, like I could never do enough, be perfect enough to satisfy their God that "they" have made. None of them are good enough, most JWs feel condemmed, that is why so many are so depressed, I was one of them. I was always terrified of Armaggedon because I never thought I would be good enough to make it through it. And if I did make it through, I started getting more and more depressed about being a JW forever. It sounded alot like slavery, it certainly didn't sound like heaven on earth when you really thought about it. I used to think about a world full of kingdom halls, with all of the elders being "princes" when most of them were so cold and arrogant. And of course, there is the huge mess we would all have to clean up and the birds would have to eat all the dead bodies. It sounded more like hell on earth to me the more I thought about it. But I am rambling, sorry. Anyway, to me being born again is a faith that doesn't leave you, it is a spiritual birth, it is not a religion. It is feeling like Christ is with you and in your soul, which is very hard to explain to anyone that has not experienced this. And one of the evidences of this birth is love for your fellow man and reaching out and really loving people like Christ did, unconditionally. I did not see this type of love in the Watchtower, I did not see that self sacrificing type of love or that unconditional type of love so I started to see that they were not really followers of Jesus. I have seen that in many people outside of the organization though, people the organization would call "worldy". I would want them as friends any day.

  NowImFree
• 

  oldiesman

  21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven,
  
  but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

  Acadian, you write many thought-provoking words, but I still believe that we are saved by grace, not by works.

  Grace means divine favor. It is a gift that you can't screw up.

  Even so, when one "does the will of the Father" concerning salvation, which is Romans 10:9, one is saved. "thou shalt be saved."

  I used to be Roman Catholic, and as one, never was sure about salvation... it was always too vague and always determined by good works. And then, maybe, I might be saved.

  Essentially what they are saying is: "You have a chance at salvation, as long as you do what we tell you to do".

  I think that is baloney, personally.

  And don't forget to keep on throwing money in the basket...

  And so I believe that when we are born again, we are children of God. Period.

  We are in Gods family, and members of the body of Christ.

  This is a promise of God, and God doesn't welch on His promises.
• 

  funkyderek

  It doesn't mean anything. It's like the word "psychic". It's something people say they are, but it doesn't correspond to anything in the real world.