Daily Bible Nugget #323, John 3:7

The Nugget:

John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

My Comment:

Today is November 7, 2014. It was 61 years ago on November 7, 1953, that I was born again, that is genuinely saved. I was saved as a result of reading the New Testament intensively from late August until early November that year. On Saturday morning, November 7, 1953, while delivering the Detroit Shopping News to my 300 customers, I thought about the many Scriptures I had been reading. While delivering a paper to a home on Lumpkin street in Detroit, I crossed to the east side of the street in the middle of the block, and while folding the paper for the next house, I thought, “What if I were struck dead by a car while I crossed in the middle of the block?” I then thought about what my eternal destiny might be. I realized, from the Scriptures I had been reading, that I had never really been saved, though I had been taken to church by my parents since I was an infant. I stopped right then, prayed to be saved, asked for the forgiveness of my sins, prayed for Christ to enter my life, and went on with the delivering of my papers that morning whistling the Gospel song, “Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity.”

My experience demonstrates that an ordinary reader of the New Testament can understand what it teaches enough to know how to be saved, and can be saved anywhere, any time, without even being in a church! Now many people do experience salvation and respond to the Gospel while at church, but being at church is not required.

Jesus said that we MUST be born again, so this is no optional matter.

Some churches mistakenly teach that to be born again a person must be baptized. That is NOT what the Bible teaches.

Some churches mistakenly teach that a person is saved at the moment they have been baptized as an infant. The Bible nowhere teaches this either.

Some churches teach that in order to be saved a person must be baptized by one of their pastors or baptizers. Some of those churches claim to possess an unbroken line of baptizers traceable back to John the Baptist. Other churches holding this doctrine say that to be baptized outside of their line of baptizers is to experience an invalid alien baptism which does not save, and such persons will ultimately be lost unless they are re-baptized in their church.

One religious organization, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, teaches that no one today needs to be born again, because there were only to be 144,000 individuals with a “heavenly hope,” who needed to be born again, and that number of persons has since been reached, such that everyone else can only have an “earthly hope.” I suspect Jehovah’s Witnesses may have a problem with what Paul said in Ephesians 4:4 that we have only “one hope,” which flatly contradicts what the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach about two different hopes, a heavenly and an earthly hope.

Some years ago I was asked by my school administrators to be the sponsor of the newly formed Bible Discussion Club at Cass Technical High School. I met many wonderful gifted young people who were interested in and excited about the Bible. One time a young lady stopped me in the hall to tell me why she no longer attended the Bible Discussion Club. She said I was not giving out the Gospel, was not stressing the plan of salvation, never gave a Gospel invitation for lost students to come forward to be saved. I told her that many students had come to me personally to let me know that they had personally received Christ as their Savior as a result of hearing our discussions at the Bible Discussion Club. The young lady did not agree. She asked me how many people attended the church I go to. I told her well over 100. She asked me how long my local church had been in existence. I told her the church had just celebrated its 75 anniversary. She was horrified. She said my church must not be giving out the Gospel, for after that many years it ought to be a huge church. Her church, Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, had 5000 people in attendance in Sunday School every Sunday.

We can be grateful to God for those churches God has allowed to grow large. But little churches also have a most significant ministry, often as neighborhood churches. Little churches that give out the Gospel faithfully in their neighborhood not only reach souls, but also transform the neighborhood where they are without being “sheep stealers.” What do I mean by “sheep stealers”? Some churches have what they call an effective “bus ministry.” They have big programs, even helicopter rides, to attract young people to their church. But after the fanfare of the special emphasis weeks dies down, I found the pupils “stolen” from our Sunday school came back to our little church, where they were known, cared for individually, and felt at home.

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2 Responses to Daily Bible Nugget #323, John 3:7

  1. ken sagely says:

    another very helpful cross refs and comments on being born again. jn 3.7

  2. ken sagely says:

    jn 3.7 i love the gospel of john. a favorite cross on jn 3.7 is jn 5.24 verily, verily, I say
    unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath ever-
    lasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

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