No “born again” in the Bible?

LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…Jesus replied, `Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from God’...” (Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, in John 3:3, the Bible).

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WHICH IS WHICH: BORN AGAIN, OR BORN OF GOD? I wish to share here a point of view I espoused in an Internet group which is tackling spirituality, good governance, and many other things, on what change we as a nation must undergo to rise from corruption, poverty and immorality: “The only real change that would transform Filipinos and even the entire human race is not to be "born again".

“For, indeed, even if one is `born again’ a million times, he will be born again a million times as a man, still sinful and evil (for those who believe in the Bible, see Romans 3:23 and Genesis 6:5-7). Man must be `born of God’, so that he can become a `child of God’, truly changed, truly reformed, truly spiritual and therefore capable of leaving his evil and corrupt ways behind him (for those who believe in the Bible, see John 1:12-13, John 3:5-6).

“Then again, what Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, really said, in John 3:3 is not that man must be `born again’, but, even the New International Version now admits, that he must be `born from above’, or `born of God’. May God have mercy on all of us…” Any additional comments on this, please?

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TIME TO RETHINK THE “BORN AGAIN” DOCTRINE? This fine distinction about “born again” and “born of God” may provide us the answer to the nagging question many Christians who espouse the “born again” doctrine are continually raising nowadays: If being “born again” means being endowed with spiritual power, how come “born again” Christians do not seem to be growing in number despite all these years?

I heard Pastor Ed Lapiz, in his daily radio program “Day by Day” aired over DZAS, 702 khz, on March 17, 2014, asking the same question. Born Again pastors also come to me and ask the same thing. And I only have one and the same answer: it maybe because the “born again” denominations are preaching something wrong and so are not blessed in their preaching work.

What is this “something wrong” in the preaching of “born again” pastors? It may very well be the point that, in reality, there is no “born again” in the Bible, Jesus Christ did not say “born again” in John 3:3, and that what he really said was that a man must be “born of God” so he can enter the kingdom of heaven. Maybe it’s time to ponder on this, beloved “born again” leaders?

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HELL EXISTS, NEWS STORY SHOWS: In an Internet e-group, there is a raging debate about the existence or non-existence of hell. But God is good, and God is great, for He has shown that there is hell, and a news story from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, published in its June 24, 2010 issue, confirms this.

This is the story: “Astronomers glimpse distant planet's lethal moods, Agence France-Presse. June 24, 2010. PARIS—A planet named after ancient Egypt's Lord of the Dead is a place where human beings would be simultaneously boiled, poisoned and ripped apart by superstorms, astronomers reported on Wednesday.

“The distant world, orbiting a bright star in the constellation of Pegasus 150 light years from Earth, is known officially as HD 209458b, but has been nicknamed Osiris, the god of the Egyptian underworld. The label is especially fitting, given insights into the planet's climate system reported in the science journal Nature…”

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