Born again = How

[ezrider]

So I guess your interpretation tops them all?

If you say so...

BTW, the Holy Spirit does teach believers…


John 14:26 NKJV
[26] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Yes, the Holy Spirit does teach believers, I never denied that. But the Lord also said he would send them strong delusion too!

No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

Do you believe this has come to pass? Or do you actively try and witness Christ to those you judge to be unbelievers? Do you stand upon a street corner warning sinners of God's coming judgement?

 

[Hopeful]

Yes, I do consider the bible to be the word of God. But I also know it to be the same as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I prefer my fruit in the King James flavor; there is just something poetic I find about it!

That is one wild equalization.

But I also understand there is a temptation that comes with this knowledge, a temptation that Adam succumbed to: that he should become as God judging between good and evil, and it was for this cause that he was kicked out of the garden. Do you think the Lord would grant you access to the Tree of Life while still feasting upon the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?

By using the word "temptation", you make it sound bad to be able to distinguish good from evil.
I call that ability a blessing, and a gift from God.
As I am already on the path of eternal life, thanks in no small part to the knowledge I have gleaned from the bible.

This is the temptation of the man of sin, who taketh his knowledge from the words of the book, then sits in the temple of God (his Heart) showing himself that he is God. And God said he would send them strong delusion so that they would believe it.

I don't hold such a cynical POV.

So many are caught up under the law and the written word that they have become blinded by sin in the flesh, so that they consider not their sin against the Spirit. Even Jesus warned, because of iniquity, the love of many would wax cold.

I can't agree with that.
God's word doesn't blind folks to sin.
Corrupt interpreters of God's word do.
But, thankfully, God has provided the ways and means of unmaking the devil's helpers so we can remain on the right path.

When Adam took for himself the knowledge of good and evil, his eyes became opened to sin. And when his eyes became opened to sin, he also obtained the knowledge of how to cover that sin. I wonder, what kept Adam from just saying to the Lord, I'm sorry, I screwed up and now I'm all confused. But instead he took for himself a covering and then hid from the Lord.

No sin can stay hidden under the Light.
God is light, and those that walk in Him stay free.

 

[ezrider]

I can't agree with that.
God's word doesn't blind folks to sin.

I said they have become blinded by sin in the flesh, Your right, God's word does not blind folks to sin; it opens them.
When you have become born of the Spirit, then the Spirit closes your eyes to sin, as you are dead to the law.

 

[crossnote]

Yes, the Holy Spirit does teach believers, I never denied that. But the Lord also said he would send them strong delusion too!

That doesn't apply to believers but to those who rejected the Truth...

2 Thessalonians 2:10 (NASB) and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Do you believe this has come to pass? Or do you actively try and witness Christ to those you judge to be unbelievers? Do you stand upon a street corner warning sinners of God's coming judgement?

I think you are mixing categories, as this (Jer 31:34) applies to believers, those already having the new birth, not unbelievers that need witnessing to.
And yes, I have spent time street witnessing up on Hollywood Blvd as well as skid row in downtown L.A.

 

[ezrider]

By using the word "temptation", you make it sound bad to be able to distinguish good from evil.
I call that ability a blessing, and a gift from God.

You have the ability to call it what you want. But somewhere in there, you do realize God said it comes with a curse?

 

[Hopeful]

I said they have become blinded by sin in the flesh, Your right, God's word does not blind folks to sin; it opens them.
When you have become born of the Spirit, then the Spirit closes your eyes to sin, as you are dead to the law.

Do you have some scrip's that validate that the Holy Spirit closes our eyes to sin?
If anything, He opens our eyes to unrighteousness of every sort.

 

[Hopeful]

You have the ability to call it what you want. But somewhere in there, you do realize God said it comes with a curse?

Yes, indeed the knowledge of good and evil came with a curse.
It is written..."And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" (Gen 3:17)
But it was the ground that was cursed.
That, causing men to eat of it all the days of their lives...with hard labor.

BTW, Happy 4000th post !

 

[ezrider]

You are familiar with the day of Pentecost?

Acts 2:14-15
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet....


Stay yourselves, and wonder;
cry ye out, and cry:
they are drunken, but not with wine;
they stagger, but not with strong drink.
For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,
and hath closed your eyes:
the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed,

 

[Hopeful]

You are familiar with the day of Pentecost?

Acts 2:14-15
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet....


Stay yourselves, and wonder;
cry ye out, and cry:
they are drunken, but not with wine;
they stagger, but not with strong drink.
For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep,
and hath closed your eyes:
the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed,

How does that apply to the Holy Ghost "closing our eyes to sin"?
If anything, man's eyes were closed to righteousness, the Savior, and salvation.

 

[Randy]

This is what is written

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

In regard to Born of God - Those God calls His Children
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

Faith and obedience is what I see as required in receiving Jesus.

 

[Edward]

You are dodging. You pose the question in your OP but then do not even address the answer Jesus gave. I'm trying to get you to post His answer. This isn't rocket surgery.

Once again, Jesus said two things are required for a man to be born again.

---> What are those two things?

---> What do Christians call this?

It's in Romans 10
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.../