Overcomer wrote:I think we really need to define just what it means to be "born again". It strikes me from what I have read in this thread, that people don't understand it. Here's how it works:
We are all born with a sin nature. That means that our spirits are dead in sin. Upon accepting Christ in sincere faith (conversion), God regenerates our spirits, that is, he brings them alive. That is what it means to be "born again". It refers to the instantaneous regeneration of the spirit. It is a work that God performs. We can't do it ourselves and nobody else can do it to us or for us. It's all about God giving us new life and begining a transformation in us.
Why would you think we don't understand what born again christians believe?
The kind of "spiritual mugging" or "spiritual rape" that slopeshoulder described has nothing to do with God and everything to do with the devil.
Then this confirms my 30 year old conviction that evangelical, biblicist, fundamentalist, born again christianity is not of God , but of the devil (not that I believe in the devil, let's say it's from the dark, bad, fallen, deluded part of us, representing a perversion of healthy and good religion).
I, too, have had some bad experiences with people who thought of themselves as Christians, but didn't know and follow the Lord at all. But no one should reject Jesus and the Church because of some of the bad apples that misrepresent God. Judge Christianity on the basis of Christ, not people.
I agree, instead we should reject evangelical, biblicist, fundamentalist perversions of christianity. Which is what I did.
There are people who spend their entire lives going to church who NEVER enter into a relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
This is becaue many devout christians see evangelical, biblicist, fundamentalist, born again christianity as a crock. But they are tranformed, converted, metanoia'd, etc. Born agains make such an idol of thier version fo the faith that they are blined to this in their fellow christians.
There are people who are Christians in name only and not in reality. Their spirits were never regenerated and they were never born again.
See above. Born againness is one version of christianity; it does not and has never defined christianity. But I do affirm that for something to be reasonably real some sort of conversion/transformation/metanoia needs to take place.
You can tell who is born again and who isn't. A true Christian, upon being filled with the Holy Spirit, embarks on a process of sanctification under the guidance and by the power of that Holy Spirit. It's a life-long process in which the believer grows more and more like Christ, becoming spiritually mature and serving the Lord. You will never find a perfect Christian, but you will find Christians who are being perfected.
It is against the rules of this forum to declare who is and isn't a true christian. For example, I'm a progressive semi-heretical catholic christian agnostic religious humanist inclusivist, a postmodern existentialist, semi-narrative wittgensteinian fidest, with a great fondness for world religion and little tolerance for magical thinking, biblicism, or calvinism. And I'm hyper liberal on social and sexual issues. And I'm a seminary grad who has never renounced nor been put out of the church. What does that make me? Oops, per the rules, thou must remaineth silent.
I'm sincerely glad you believe you have a great relationship with Jesus. Just watch who you call unchristian, and don't assume all christians need to be like you. OK?