Born again

Being born again is being born of the Spirit where we begin to see things with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears given us by the comforting of the Holy Spirit. It is the antitheses of eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. John 3 gives us a caveat if we imagine we are born again.
The Bible should be read in the context of the scriptures. Certainly John should be read in the context of John. You are only born again if you loveth the light and if you do evil deeds that God hateth then you also must in fact hateth the light.
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Born again

What does it mean to be “born again?”

Are you born again?

Does the scripture give you a way to check if you are truly born again or if you are just under a strong delusion?

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 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. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In addition, Jesus made a clear distinction between being born of the flesh and born of the Spirit. Without the element of this spirit "from above" an individual will not be capable of seeing or comprehending the "kingdom of God".

The Spirit of Life is the breath of God and is the element of a man's nature which is of God, from above, that makes man truly man.

So, how do you know if you’re born of the Spirit?

God said that if we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we would surely die.

They did not die in the flesh instantly but they died in Spirit. Or in others words, you would die to the Spirit of Life and be born to the flesh alone.

Adam's and Eve's eyes were opened to the fact that they did not have the authority or power to establish what was good and evil by their own imagination or thinking. That lack of authority has been equated with being "naked".

The English word power is often translated from the Greek word exousia which means the power to choose.

God granted man the power or liberty to choose many things but not the power to choose or decide what is "good and what is evil".

The answer to that question is already established in creation by the creator and man has no power to alter that determination. This does not mean that man cannot see what is good and what is evil. With the light of the Holy Spirit he may see the truth but that light also reveals the truth about man himself. If we are not wiling to see the whole truth we will hate the light and love the darkness.

We may in that darkness try to alter what is good and call it evil or alter what is evil and call it good. But man cannot not alter the truth or evade the consequences that comes from his choices to reject that truth.

Lacking authority, as we have stated, was synonymous to being naked. We walked with God in the beginning when he breathed the Holy Spirit into us and we humbly ate of the tree of life rather than in our vanity ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Because we chose to turn our back on God we were cut off from the Holy Spirit that offers eternal life. Men still are eating of the tree of knowledge and in their sophistry they unmoore the precepts of righteousness and whore after their own imagination in false religion, often lined with the tapestry of emotion.

The words born again

The term born again in John 3 is from the Greek gennao meaning born and anothen meaning from above or a higher place. In 1 Peter 1 we see a different Greek term used anagennao which can be understood as a metaphor to have one’s mind changed so that he lives a new life and one conformed to the will of God.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 1 Peter 1:23

Born of water, flesh or corruptible seed are all describing natural human birth. Peter also writes of another birth.

The phrase "born again" mentioned in John 3:7 is a metaphor of that state where God is writing on your heart and mind by the Holy Spirit. It is simply being born of Spirit as it goes on to state in verse 8.

It is when you are walking in the spirit with God as we did before we chose to decide for ourselves what is good and evil by vainly eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Many say they are born again Christians but are they truly born of the Holy Spirit and is there a way they can tell?

Are they even Christians?

How do we do know if anyone is actually born again of the true Holy Spirit of Christ?

How do we know we are not under a strong delusion or worse yet could we be Workers of Iniquity?

Before there can be rebirth their must be repentance.

It is clear God has granted man the power of some choices or there would be no need for instructions. If we are to return to God we must choose to repent.

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:" Acts 17:30.

Repentance by its nature is a choice which usually involves letting go of wrong ideas that are not in conformity to the teachings of Christ.

Man must first choose to repent which is a changing of what or the way he is thinking then he can be born again which is why we are told:

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;" Acts 3: 19.

How do you know if you repented?

Not truly born again

Again, how do you know you are truly born again?

We know we are saved by grace through faith.

How do you even know you have real faith or if you are just fooling yourself?

The same John who tells you about being born again also tells you how you will know that you are not born again.

Many people today are still eating of the tree of their own vain knowledge instead of simply conforming to Christ. They pay false prophets and pastors to tickle their ears and their emotions so that they can imagine that they are saved.

Being born of the spirit is a gift.

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Luke 11:13.

To "Ask" is a choice just like repentance. While repentance is choosing to change the mind it is required that the Holy Spirit must direct that change.

What does John 3 say if we continue to read the whole chapter?

Verses should never be held up as creating doctrine especially out of the context of the rest of the things that Jesus says. Yes, in verse 15 we see the claim, "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And verses 16 & 17 tells us that Christ was sent that we "might be saved". It is not automatic by what we say nor just by what we may think in our minds.

By verse 18 we can see that those "that believeth on him" are not condemned and those who "believeth not" are "condemned already". But again how do you know that you really believe?

The previous verses must always be read in the context of the rest of Verses 20 and 21.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

So, it is clear that "every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."

How do you know someone is born of the Holy Spirit?

By what they do or do not do.

Those dark deeds would include, but are not limited to, the coveting of your neighbor's goods through desiring benefits like the wages of unrighteousness from "men ruling in government who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority one over the other."

Those wages of unrighteousness are the "dainties" of rulers we should not have an appetite for even if we have to put a knife to our throat to avoid them

Those evil deeds would include sloth in caring for the needy through a daily ministration by charity alone which is the practice of pure Religion which the early Church was fully engaged but the modern Church severely neglects. In fact, the modern Christian takes a bite out of one another through the governments they have chosen for themselves which was a rejection of God as far back as 1 Samuel 8, if not Cain and Nimrod of Babylon.

In verse 19 we are informed if we love him we will love the light of the truth He shared, His doctrines. Those that do not want to know the whole truth and provide for it by seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness evidently prefer the darkness.

How do we know if we love the light and not the darkness?

Do we love the truth, even about ourselves, our wantonness, sloth, covetousness and unforgiveness? are we workers of iniquity.

If we will not forgive and therefore will not be forgiven.

Can we accept the truth about our entanglement with the elements of the world?

We will know if we love the light because our deed are evil or not evil.

Do we like and even insist upon receiving the wages of unrighteousness?

Do we bite on another to get all the free benefits of those men who call themselves benefactors or the Fathers of the earth?

We you covet your neighbor's good through men who exercise authority one over the other?

Like the deeds of the Nicolaitan which God "hates" He will hate our deeds.

The deeds of the Nicolaitan and the error of Balaam includes the Corban of the Pharisees that made the word of God to none effect.

The word for "evil" is poneros which is defined as "evil, bad, wicked, malicious, slothful."

Today the young neglect the care of their parents so that their parents have to depend on systems like the Corban of the Pharisees which was the Social Security of that day which still makes the word of God to none effect and often causes the young to do no more ought for their parents.

The list goes on... There are many warnings in the testaments, by Paul and the apostles an by Jesus himself that many will say and do things in His name but will be workers of iniquity.

They have no inheritance in the kingdom, we should turn away because they know him not.

Yes, it is clear we are saved by grace but if we are not keeping His commandments our imagination will not save us.
V21 should make it clear that many modern Churches are not doing the truth nor coming to the light, nor does their deeds make manifest the wisdom nor will of God.

"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Titus 1. 16.

The real Jesus

The question we may need to ask is "Do we Believe in the Real Jesus?"

If you know the real Jesus and not some imagined Jesus through your personal or conjured up intellectual epistemology you keep the commandments that he gave us.

Do you believe in the real Jesus or an image of Jesus constructed in your mind by the vanity of the mind?

Is it not what you do that reveals if faith is alive in you or is dead?

"Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." Acts 8: 22.

Repentance should produce works that are not works of iniquity.

"But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Acts 26: 20.

We know the apostles say that covetous practices is contrary to righteoysness and faith. We are warned to, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." Revelation 2. 5.

The Battle and Rebirth

Before going to Ur, Abraham and his people lived in the Indus Valley. They left because of conflict with the Asuras who were "The mercantile caste". What do they mean Mercantile caste and what was the conflict all about?

When the Bible says Abraham was led throughout all the land of Canaan, the term meant something particular. Canaan means "merchants" or "traffickers" which is what the Asuras were.

The Akkadian Empire was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia followed by the development of a cultural symbiosis between them and the Sumerians. There was a convergence of the Sumerian and Akkadian people in the third millennium BC which produced the kingdom of Sumer and the earliest known civilization in the historical region. It was not only a crossroads of language but also of the philosophies, religions, and cultures of societies from the Indus Valley and Egypt.

Over centuries the conflict between rulers of these civilizations and individual rights has often been a "bitter struggle for power between the temple and the palace---the “church” and the “state”--- with the citizens ... taking the side of the temple."

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• “Are men the property of the state? Or are they free souls under God?
  This same battle continues throughout the world?”

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During the reign of Urukagina there was opposition to "the wealth and criminality of the tamkarum [merchant-moneylenders]" who had enslaved the people. It is in the historical cuneiform "document that we find the word “freedom” used for the first time in man's recorded history; the word is amargi..." which may literally be translated "return to the mother" or her womb.

The term ama-argi or ama-gi produced the idea of "freedom", as well as "manumission", "exemption from debts or obligations", "reversion to a previous state" Akk. anduraāru.

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• "Redemption is deliverance from the power of an alien dominion and the enjoyment of the resulting freedom. It involves the idea of restoration to one who possesses a more fundamental right or interest. The best example of redemption in the Old Testament was the deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, from the dominion of the alien power in Egypt."

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Abraham, Moses and Christ came to set us free in spirit and truth from the sins that brought into bondage to the Cains, Nimrods, Pharaohs, and Caesars of the world.

In the Kingdom of God the people are "free soul under God" but when the people are of the world they are often little more than merchandise, surety for debt, snared in a system of bondage by way of their sloth and covetous practices.

If you make covenants with men who say they are your benefactors but exercise authority one over the other to obtain benefits at the expense of your neighbor then you will be snared by your covetous practices of having One purse and go into bondage to those Fathers of the earth you have chosen for yourselves. According to the Natural Law of God in a cause and effect universe as you judge so shall ye be judged. When you cry out the Lord will not hear you.

But if you repent and seek the Kingdom of God and do what Christ commanded out of true faith in Him and His Holy Spirit according to the law of love you may find redemption and be born again.

The fruit of faith would be the diligent practice of Pure Religion producing a daily sacrifice through fervent charity. Your modern Church would become more and more like the early Church. The modern Corban of the Pharisees that had offered you Social Security would be less important as a true charitable daily ministration grew in a network of love and faith. The Wages of unrighteousness offered by the unrighteous mammon would lose its lascivious attraction as you are willing to daily lay down your life in love for God, your fellow man according to the righteousness of God.

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• "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matthew 16:19

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