East End

3-16-08

In these days and times one thing that happens often is people twist Scripture to make it say what they want it to say and mean. Of course the Bible strongly denounces that practice, but nevertheless people still do it. One Scripture that some cults of pseudo-religions twist is John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” These cults use this verse to say that the Bible teaches reincarnation. They also say that other texts teach reincarnation and even our vernacular we use today supports their claims because Christians refer to themselves as “born again Christians.” This is absolutely taking this text and any others out of context and amount to heresy. The proper context of this verse is understood as Jesus is telling Nicodemus about spiritual birth. This is indicated in the fact that Jesus mentions both types of birth, physical and spiritual in verse five. “Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” “Born of water” speaks of your physical birth. While being “born of the Spirit” refers to your spiritual birth. Being physically born is not enough to get you into heaven. You must be “born from above” as it would be stated later. You can also use this verse to disprove the theory that all people go to heaven. Some people even suggest that when twisted enough John9:2 supports their reincarnation theme. The implication here is that in a previous life the man sinned and thus was born blind in the next life. Of course this is 100% false. The disciples made this comment and thought it because of an Old Jewish belief that says that a baby can commit a sin while in the womb. Of course that notion is incorrect as well. It is important to know that the concept of reincarnation was foreign to Hebrew thought. The Jews and Christians believe in resurrection, not reincarnation. A good way to refute someone who believes in reincarnation is to take them to Hebrews 9:27 which says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” The Word of God clearly says that you have one life to live and then you have an eternity to either spend with God or be separated from God. Life is short and eternity is long, where will you spend eternity? If you aren’t sure you are going to spend eternity in heaven with God and all of His people I encourage you to contact me this week. I would love to share with you how you can know for sure that no matter what happens here in this life, you will spend all of eternity is a place called heaven. God bless you all and may we all live in light of the fact that we serve a Risen Lord!