Born Again, Saved, Lost
What do the above words mean to you?
Can You Be Born a Christian?
Jerry Wilhite, author If you take your time and read this study and read it over, you will understand more about being saved, why, and what it benefits you to be saved and what happens if you are not, if being "born again" is accurate wording for what we are talking about, and more. To the last question first no, you can not be born as a Christian. To be a Christian means to have a belief in Jesus, what He did for us, and what He is to us now. A new born baby until age 3-9 really can not understand and make a decision. As for "born again", let's take a look at what Jesus said about being Born Again: John 3 1. There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
As you have read in Verses 3-7 Jesus said one must be born again to enter in the kingdom of God. Some denominations like Missouri SYNOD of the Lutherans for the most part do not believe in being born again. I even heard one pastor of the Missouri SYNOD Lutherans preach that no one even knows if they are saved until they get to the next life.
To quote what he said, "we all have a plane ticket but no one knows what flight their ticket is validated for until they get to the airport" referring to the next life. What I found to be the biggest shock was that no one of at least 400 church members doubted what he said to be true.
Let me say what I am about to say needs to be read with an open mind and understand I love everyone and only say this to help others find the truth and in the truth find freedom.
Do not even think I am attacking anyone. I was saved in a Baptist church, worked with the Lutherans and the Methodist, and for the longest wanted to be a Catholic Priest. No they did not turn me down, I never even tried.
Ok, with that out on the table understand this is just to free you from what has become a truth but is not.
What happened is in late 1490's Martin Luther found out the truth about the Catholic church when he finally was able to read 2 books that were only read by the pope. He was excomunicated for calling the pope an Anti-Christ.
Now for another truth, but first some of you may not have known that the Baptist Denomination is not based on John the Baptist (Jesus' cousin), but on what happened in the late 16th century. A group of people believed that to be baptized one must be imersed into the water, not sprinkled. Some who did not believe this, started taking those who believed in imersing a person and placed them on a see-saw and would dunk them until either they changed their belief or drowned.
Can some one be born again or not? That we covered above and the answer is yes.
Is the statement "Once saved always saved" true? Yes, and no, more on the no side.
If we had no choice to make at any time in our life we would not have free will and if one part of God is not true then all is not true. Some who have adapted this are those (NOT ALL, JUST SOME) because of their sin in their life. They had to justify their life style and started by saying once saved always saved. Why did I say yes? Because we are the only ones who can change our position and why would anyone refuse or leave such love as that of God.
Is rapture true or false? Rapture does, has, and will exist for the body of Christ.
There have been 4 raptures to date:
There will be 3 raptures to come, one pre-tribulation, then mid-tribulation (at the 3 ½ year point), and end of tribulation. This of course makes 7 raptures and 7 in the word is the number for completion, i.e. 7 days is a week. Not to get too far off track, you need to read the studies Life Starts Here and Rapture to understand rapture and why I say there are 3 to come.
The problem has been that if man reads the word of God without the help of the Holy Spirit then man interprets the word and in such there are many differences. But when the word is read via the Holy Spirit there is understanding.
If you and a friend read a book and both had different understanding of the meaning and then went to the author of the book you might learn you were both wrong. This is the same with the word. No I am not saying others are wrong and I am right, all I am saying is why there are so many different beliefs.
I tell everyone that before anything after they are saved or born again is to stop and take time to hear from God, to hear His voice. Depending on the time given to this endeavor is what determines how long it will take before you hear His voice.
When you hear from God then it is very easy to ask Him.
Also you need to know the following passage before you hear anything.
1 John 4
1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
John 3:8-22
8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
22. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
So why do so many say you have to be baptized to be saved?
This unfortunately started with a person saying this and others who look up to this person then took it as gospel and then it grows until it is now baptism of water over what Jesus did for us to be saved.
All I have to say to this is that, "It is Jesus that saves not anything we do." Remember Jesus followed all that was of the law and of the time. He kept the law, He was baptized with water, and so forth. Then in Acts He tells us what we should be baptized of, the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:5). If you read all the verses about baptism and all the verses before and after in the Literal Bible and in Greek you will see why I say baptism of water is something we do of faith, and faith only.
I do not drink, chase women, use four letter words, but I do smoke cigarettes, and am in the process of stopping. God does not hold that against me, it does not stop our relationship. He does tell me I need to stop, but He does not stop talking to me or tell me if I do not stop we will lose our relationship. The point is He does not force anything on us, and He does not sit there just beating us up about what we do wrong. If anything He just suggests what and why.
So do not worry about having to change and give up your life to His. It would not hurt if we did, but He will not force us. He is more like a very loving Father. What you gain out weighs what you may lose so much you will realize you should have done this sooner.
Remember , it is not overnight growth; it takes time.