The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.

[Ezra]

7 minutes ago, gdemoss said:

I too do not share this view but I would like to know how the conclusion was made.

JAM said "Born again in this instance refers to bodily death, which is why He says to not marvel".

Well according to Scripture, it is exactly the opposite.  "Born again" means that the dead spirit within a non-believer is brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and "a new man" is created within, with a new heart and a new spirit. This is the second birth, or the New Birth.

This individual is guaranteed eternal life, and guaranteed to be in the first resurrection (the resurrection of those who are in Christ). So the New Birth is not about death, but about eternal life. Those who experience the New Birth enter into the eternal Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is within them through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

[gdemoss]

2 minutes ago, Ezra said:

JAM said "Born again in this instance refers to bodily death, which is why He says to not marvel".

Well according to Scripture, it is exactly the opposite.  "Born again" means that the dead spirit within a non-believer is brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and "a new man" is created within, with a new heart and a new spirit. This is the second birth, or the New Birth.

This individual is guaranteed eternal life, and guaranteed to be in the first resurrection (the resurrection of those who are in Christ). So the New Birth is not about death, but about eternal life. Those who experience the New Birth enter into the eternal Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is within them through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Thanks Ezra!  I wasn't clear.  You and I believe the same.  I want to hear his explanation.  How does one get where he is at?  Baffling to me.

[missmuffet]

5 hours ago, Just a Mirror said:

"Except a person be born again..."

Born again in this instance refers to bodily death, which is why He says to not marvel.

I was just reminded by that verse, it seems some believe other things.

No insinuation, just sharing.

What does born again mean to you? What does the Bible say about being born again?

[Just a Mirror]

8 hours ago, Ezra said:

This is completely false, but if that is what you wish to believe, that's your choice,

I'm intrigued by your response, you seem sure of your view, yet you offered no rebuttal or reasoning.

Please state for the record how you feel my statement is false and how we can see the verse from your perspective.

Thank you.

[Just a Mirror]

Let me explain birth, in the context of water and spirit.

You must start first with the meaning of the word Life in the Word.

Life is only found in the presence or "with" God,

Death is separation "from" the presence of God.

We are all born "of" a woman, in a womb, filled with "water".

We are born "of" water, into this body, on this manifestation we call earth.

But, to enter into the Kingdom of God, you must be "born" of spirit, you might think of it this way, our life on earth, in this body, represents the "womb" of spirit.

Our spirit is trapped in this body, or womb, waiting for the day we are released from this body or womb, and our spirit is born into the Kingdom of Heaven, death to the people of earth, LIFE found in death, LIFE found in the presence of God!!!

You see?

Born into the world, living a life here, and if you believe in our Gods commands, then you leave this world and enter into the next, Life into LIFE.

But if you do not believe in our Gods commands, you truly die here, life into death which leads to eternal separation from God.

From water, unto earth, from earth, unto fire, for believers the fire of Spirit, for the unbelievers the fires of hell.

What we consider death, for us is not, for it is a birth unto life.

You must be born of water and fire, onto earth and into spirit.

I think I made myself clear now, love you.

[Ezra]

4 hours ago, Just a Mirror said:

Please state for the record how you feel my statement is false and how we can see the verse from your perspective.

My response to GDMoss (above) covers the basis of why I said that your statement is false.  I could provide chapter and verse for every assertion, but perhaps it would be better if you check this out for yourself.

[Just a Mirror]

19 hours ago, Ezra said:

JAM said "Born again in this instance refers to bodily death, which is why He says to not marvel".

Well according to Scripture, it is exactly the opposite.  "Born again" means that the dead spirit within a non-believer is brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and "a new man" is created within, with a new heart and a new spirit. This is the second birth, or the New Birth.

This individual is guaranteed eternal life, and guaranteed to be in the first resurrection (the resurrection of those who are in Christ). So the New Birth is not about death, but about eternal life. Those who experience the New Birth enter into the eternal Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is within them through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Ezra......

You really need to look at the context of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

You remember when Paul talks about the "meat" of the Word?

Listen, Jesus is talking about Heavenly things here, not about earthly viewpoints.

You remember the wineskins?

The wineskins are representative of our bodies, new wine, new wineskins.

Now obviously you can look at this from the earthly view, where you can say something about renewing of our minds, true, but this renewing is a process, not instantaneous.

Case in point, Paul speaks of knowing, or looking through a glass darkly.

We know in part, because all has not been revealed, ALL, being the key word here.

The new wine, while true, the Holy Spirit is new wine, we do not know fully the complete indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We do not walk around all day COMPLETELY FILLED with the Holy Spirit, this winesking could not handle it.

Therefore we need a new wineskin, which scripture tells us we will receive when Christ returns, then we are completely reborn into an uncorruptable and eternal wineskin, fit for the complete indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we shall at that time become one with Christ, one with the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, a COMPLETE connection, not one bi-polar in nature.

The folly in mankinds thinking is in believing that this temporary life we live here is somehow close to what we shall become.

Its literally unimaginable according to Paul.

When Paul talks of meat of the Word, he is not only referring to certain verses being harder to accept, hes also speaking of the layering of the Word.

A verse can have an earthly meaning, baby food, and then a deeper meaning, meat.

Nicodemus was a ruler of the people, he was a teacher, yet he did not understand the simplicity of spiritual things.

Christ spoke plainly of the Spiritual things, yet Nicodemus heard the words through the filter of an earthly being.

Yes, you can take the same words Christ spoke and here them with earthly ears and comprehend with earthly wisdom, and Christs words seem to make no sense, look at Nicodemus reaction.

But seen and heard from Gods viewpoint, not mans, it makes perfect sense and man is in folly.

I implore everyone to not make such rash decisions about a fellow believers view on a particular subject, because a person cannot see it from their temporary viewing position.

Pride in thinking ones viewpoint is permanent, can lead to a Jesus/Nicodemus conversation.

Saying a person is absolutely wrong is a bold step, maybe the issue is not with what they have said, but with our own viewpoint and believing that because we have believed in something one way for soo long, that it must be the only way to believe.

Sounds much like the state of Judaism at Christs birth and ministry.

My view of birth and death is not anti-Christ, it does not go against biblical teaching, it only ruffled ones feathers because it was different than what some have been taught.

Todays Church would have rejected John the babtist, because he would not conform to todays standards of teaching and societal expectations.

The scripture says to test the spirits, not instantly reject them based on being different from ourselves.

Happy New Year

God bless.