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The Amish Voice
MAP
P.O. Box 128
575 U.S. Highway 250
Savannah, OH 44874
(419) 962-1515
May 2015
Born of the Spirit
The Word of God is clear and leaves no
room for doubt; if one desires to see or
enter the kingdom of God he/she MUST
be born again.
John 3:3 and 3:5
Jesus answered and said unto him
[Nicodemus], Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he
cannot see
the kingdom of
God.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he
cannot
enter
into the kingdom of God.
These statements, made by the Lord
Himself, are black and white, sure, and
to the point; one must be born again or
he/she will
never
see nor enter God’s
kingdom.
With that in mind, let’s ask ourselves
some questions and then dig into God’s
Word for those answers.
1. Are all people born again in the
same way?
2. Do different groups become born
again in different ways depending
on the structure of their church
and family beliefs?
3. Does the second birth happen
gradually and over a lifetime, or
does it happen instantly?
4. Can a person be born again by
simply belonging to and following
a certain church or religion?
5. Can those who leave the church
ever be born again, or
must they return and
re-join before
the new
birth
takes
affect?
6. How is a
person
born
again?
S
everal years ago, while
having a conversation with
my friend, Albert, we discussed some of
these same questions at length. We went
into great detail on how Jesus, in John
chapter 3, told Nicodemus, “
You must be
born again if you want to see the
kingdom of God.
”
At one point, Albert looked at me and
said, “Joe, you may be surprised to know
that I have memorized every single verse
in John chapter 3.”
I responded by saying, “Albert, I cannot
recall ever hearing of anyone being able
to quote the entire chapter by heart. That
is just absolutely phenomenal!” But
then I asked him, “Albert, now that you
are able to quote the whole chapter by
heart, do you know how to be born
again?”
He gave me a puzzled look and
said,
“Well,
Joe, I’m not sure
that I know, but my
guess is that since I
got
baptized,
joined
the
church, and
am doing the
best I can in
following
the commandments of God and the
church, I will probably be considered
born again in God's eyes.”
“Oh my, Albert,” I said. “I have to ask
you a very important question. If Jesus
told us in John 3:7, “Ye must be born
—Joe Keim