Salvation
Regeneration is a gradual process taking many years, involving effort,
love, good works |
In his
book What the Bible Actually Teaches,
John Odhner, who is a follower of spiritist Emmanuel Swedenborg, states:
‘Changes in our spiritual life are also gradual. They take place one step at
a time, and spiritual growth will be easier if we know that it does not take
place in a moment. It is an ongoing process. Jesus said, "Unless one is
born again he cannot see the |
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Confutation |
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First of
all, I want to tell you what regeneration is according to the Bible. Regeneration
or the new birth is a spiritual experience through which a man is resurrected
spiritually, that is, through which a man is made alive for the Holy Spirit
comes into his heart. The new birth is necessary in order to enter the |
When does
the new birth take place in a man? How long does it take to be born again?
The Scripture teaches that a man is regenerated or born again when he
believes in Jesus Christ, for it is when he believes that he receives the
remission of sins. The apostle John wrote: “Whoever believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God ….” (1 John 5:1 – NKJV). You may say, ‘John does
not refer to the time when a person is born of God, but he refers just to the
spiritual condition of a man who believes that Jesus is the Christ!’ You are
wrong, because it is evident that if a person who believes that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God, that means that when he
believes that Jesus is the Christ he experiences the new birth. In other
words, if a person who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, that means that a person who does not believe that
Jesus is the Christ is not born of God, so it is evident that this person
becomes a child of God – or is born of God - when he believes. So the new
birth is a spiritual experience that takes place in a single moment. The
apostle John confirms this important concept in the Gospel when he says: “He
came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe
in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God” (John |
Anyone who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ can say, ‘I am born again!’ No matter how
long he has been a believer, he is born again, he is a child of God, for he is
in the faith, he has the Spirit of God in his heart who bears witness with
his spirit that he is a child of God. All over the world there are millions
of people who have experienced the new birth, and all of them confirm what I
have just said, that is, what the Bible teaches about regeneration. |
As we have
seen, however, John Odhner affirms that the new birth is a step by step
process that involves a complete change of character and that Peter describes
it in seven distinct steps: "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue
knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance,
and to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7) Did Peter mean by those words that
regeneration is a gradual process taking many years, involving effort, love,
and good works? Not at all, for he wrote in his first epistle: “Now that you
have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love
for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been
born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living
and enduring word of God” (1 Peter |
If
regeneration were a gradual process taking many years, which involves effort,
love and good works, an unbelieving person who is about to breathe his last –
like the thief on the cross - could not have the possibility of entering the
kingdom of God, for he could not be born again. That would be a great
injustice toward those who are about to breathe their last. But thanks be to
God for the new birth takes place in a single moment, so we are sure that if
a sinner who is about to breathe his last believes in the Lord Jesus Christ
he will be born again, and thus after his death he will enter the kingdom of
God. |