Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 – NLT
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:5-7 – NLT
There is a grave deception in so many traditional churches today. A very casual attitude toward salvation and being saved, and what it truly means to be “born again”.
Jesus said in the Scripture above that you MUST be born again of the water [water baptism] and the Spirit [baptism of the Holy Spirit]. That is what it means to be truly born again. If you are not, you will not see or you will not enter the Kingdom of God.
That is God’s Word!
Unfortunately, many of those who say they love Jesus are just taking the word of their pastor or teacher during the Sunday morning sermon, without ever opening the Word of God and studying it for themselves.
Do not be deceived by the teachings and traditions of others.
You may have been told that you have the Holy Spirit when you believed in Jesus, and that it’s not necessary to be baptized for salvation? But is that what the Bible teaches?
Let’s look at Acts 19:1-6
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
“Then what baptism did you experience?” he asked.
And they replied, “The baptism of John.”
Paul said, “John’s baptism called for repentance from sin. But John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus.”
As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied.
If you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe, why were these believers baptized in Jesus name, and how did Paul know that they had received the Holy Spirit?
In the next blog post, we will continue with Part 2 on this topic. In the mean time, read the book of Acts in it’s entirety for yourself. Then . . . ask yourself, is that what you’ve been taught . . . or not? Many believer’s have heard from the pulpit “that’s not for today, but only for the first century church.”
We will cover that and more next time! To be continued. . .
