''Born Again''
Bishop Leovino A. Trinidad
Many today are deceived by hearing the preachers that they must be “born
again” and using the text of John 3:3, 5 - 7. People are asked to accept
the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior and promise that they will
have eternal life. The results of these offers are a kind of professing
Christian because it is based on fleshly realm and therefore we say that
flesh begat flesh.
This notion is not the teaching of the Bible nor is this the teaching of
Jesus when he explained to Nicodemus the subject of being born again. As a
leader, Nicodemus should know the scriptures found in Deut 30:6; Ezek.
11:19 - 20; 36:26 - 30.
The scripture is very, very clear that Salvation comes from the Lord
(Jonah 2:9).
The Bible teaches that man is not capable nor has the power to decide for
eternal life. It is God in His eternal counsel who predestinated an exact
number of sinful men to eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world. Truly man is dead and when he is dead as the
scripture tells us, he cannot make his own decision for life. Dead is
dead.
Man was, is and being born in to this world that which is flesh is flesh.
But those who are born again are born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God, John1:13.
Again, God had determined from eternity past an exact number of men to
eternal life as we see this in Ephesians 1:4. This determinate counsel of
predestinating to eternal life was done before the foundation of the
world.
Therefore, God in His eternal counsel determined who should receives the
new birth and not based on man’s ability because man has no free will, no
life and condemned, Rom. 6:23a. Man is spiritually dead and cannot ask
Jesus to enter into his heart. It is God alone who can open the heart of
man as we see this in Acts 16:14. It is also the teaching of the Bible
that the Holy Spirit is the one who opens the heart of man as we see in
John 3:8, “The Spirit is like the wind and He blows as He pleases
according to the counsel of God the Almighty.
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