Baptismal Regeneration 2

Evangelicals have an incorrect view of New Birth/Regeneration. They argue that it is an internal change wrought by the Holy Spirit that makes one "Saved." One way of stating it is that one's spirit is dead and then it is made alive by the Holy Spirit once one believes in Christ. Then one is born again.

The central biblical text regarding new birth is John 3 -- the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. I do not want to write a 25 page paper, so let me do a bullet point version of my thoughts. My view is that the discussion with Nicodemus is not about an internal change wrought by the Holy Spirit.

• Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born-again/born from above/born anew to see the Kingdom of God.
• This is a metaphor.
• The text never says the metaphor describes an internal change wrought by the Holy Spirit. (Never)
• Birth is a family metaphor.
• For Nicodemus family identity would have been everything and it would have been how he would have determined whether he is in God's Kingdom.
• For Nicodemus, membership in God's Kingdom meant membership in Abraham's family -- i.e, being a Jew by birth.
• Jesus wants Nicodemus to see that a new thing is coming -- Israel is being reconstituted in him.
• If Nicodemus wants to be in the Kingdom of God, he has to become part of a new family.
• How do you get into a new family? One way is to be born a second time or born from above or born anew -- into that new family.
• New birth in John 3 is not about being zapped by the Holy Spirit. It is about one's status being changed.
• To be born again is to become a member of the Kingdom by becoming a members of God's family.
• To be born again is to become a member of Christ's Church.

More to come....

UPDATE: It is probably better to say John 3 is a central biblical text. Or maybe the central text regarding new birth for baptistic evangelicals.

UPDATE 2: Above I write, "The text never says the metaphor describes an internal change wrought by the Holy Spirit." The text does say one must be born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit causes or at least is part of the causality of new birth. That is not the same as sayng new birth is an internal change wrought by the Holy Spirit. That can only be read into this text. The Holy Spirit can cause other things than making dead spirits live spirits.