Born Again
Born Again
Born Again
Background of Religion
What do born again Christians Believe?
In the Philippines, we often differentiate between "born again" Christians
and Catholics. In actuality, the two are not mutually exclusive. There are many
born again Christians in the Catholic church and some within Protestant churches
who are not born again. Whether or not one is born again is entirely a matter of
faith, not church affiliation.
So what does a born again Christian believe? For starters, they believe in
God. They believe in one God existing eternally in three persons: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy spirit. They believe in the Bible as their authority on all
spiritual matters. They believe that Jesus is God. They believe He came to earth,
was born of a virgin, and eventually died on a cross and then was raised from
the dead on the third day. Most importantly, born again Christians believe that a
person can only be saved from their sins by placing their faith in Jesus Christ. It
is because of the free gift of God's grace that we can be saved through faith. To a
born again Christian, salvation has nothing to do with good works or church
attendance.
It is on this final point that born again Christians differ with the Catholic
church. Of course, there are some Catholics who understand that salvation is
through faith alone, but probably most do not. For people in the Philippines, their
decision about faith verses works will be the central theological decision of their
lives (whether they know it or not).
If you just prayed the prayer above, it is very important that you recieve
the help of other believers as you begin this new relationship with God.
Source: http://www.learnaboutjesus.biz/page3.html
History of Born Again
The Born Again Movement traces its origin early in the 19th century. In
reaction to Protestant Liberalism a group of Protestant theologians from
various denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and
Evangelicals etc.) wrote a 12 volume book entitled The Fundamentals.
The book contains a compilation of essays of Protestant doctrines and
the Born Again Movement adapted their doctrines from this 12 volume books
that is why some of their doctrines are similar to those of mainline
Protestants. In the strictest sense Born Again Christians is an offshoot of
mainline Protestantism, no wonder they claimed to be a non-denominational
Church.
Born Again Movement arrived in our shores in the late 1930s and
gained its popularity in the 70s and 80s which is considered the golden era
of Born Again Movement in the Philippines. During this years membership in
various Born Again Churches increase because they where able to infiltrate
mainline Protestant Churches and had lured nominal Catholics into their fold.
However their steady growth ceases starting the year 1990 and their
membership declined in the succeeding years. In the year 2000 Born Again
Churches in the United States send their missionaries in the Philippines to reestablished the Born Again Movement and this time their primary mission is
no longer to infiltrate Protestant and Catholic Churches but targeted the
youth in schools particularly college students.
In Davao City there are various Born Again Churches, the following are
the most common Born Again Churches that is actively recruiting students to
join their ranks,
Method of Evangelization
Born
psychology in order to lure people into their fold. Their method is both
manipulation and deception, let me explain why.
There are two principles that work behind their method emotion and
common ground (music). Born Again evangelist realized that music is a
common ground among youths, so they adopted music to attract young
adults into their churches. If you attend the service of one of these Born
Again Churches you can see that their music ministry is like a rock and roll
band, they intentionally composed alternative type gospel songs in order to
add attraction to their service. In this way those people whom they invited
will experience a pleasurable feeling and will come back for more.
Aside from music they add into their arsenal the appeal to the
emotions of the people. The sermons of their pastors are directed to stir up
the emotions of the listeners and sometimes they would even come to the
point of crying in the pulpit that is the reason why their pastors must be a
good public speaker.
Born Again evangelist knew that once they where able to touch the
persons emotion it will be very easy to manipulate him. Through music they
grant pleasure and through emotional manipulation they control the people,
this is a classical example of psychological conditioning (this is also used to
train dogs).
Clearly Born Again evangelization has deception as its chief foundation
and they even used selected passages from the Bible to deceive people. They
usually start evangelizing by asking ambiguous questions such us Are you
saved? or Are you born again?, if the person answers no or I dont know
they will tell you that you must accept Christ as a Lord and Personal Savior in
order to be born again otherwise you will be damned to hell. And if the person
will answer yes they will invite you to their church and worship with
them. And if the person is a Catholic that would mean that you have
to leave the Catholic Church and do away your Catholic beliefs about
Mary, the Saints, confession etc. Let us be vigilant not to fall to the
snares of the Born Again movement.
EXPOSING THE BORN AGAIN DOCTRINES
Bible Alone Doctrine:
Following the battle cry of the Reformers Sola Scriptura! or Bible
alone, Born Again Christians will only believed what they can find within the
pages of Sacred Scripture. Hence for them historical records, writings of the
early church fathers are superfluous. It is virtually impossible to argue with a
Born Again in the realm of history because they will just dismiss it as
irrelevant to our salvation.
Born Again Christians view the Bible as the final authority for a
Christians faith and moral not the Church, aside from this they also view the
Bible as sufficient for everything related to salvation. They are also strict
literalist they have no regard for the historical background of the passages in
the Bible. And they take most of the passages as literal unless in contradicts
their doctrines.
Like any other Protestant Churches, Born Again Christians also believed
in the invented doctrine of the Reformers the so called Faith Alone doctrine.
Born Again Christians is fond of quoting the Scripture out of its context
especially the verses that emphasized the importance of faith.
However Born Again Christians do not express the totality of the
Biblical doctrine of salvation since they only select the verses they read and
used in their Bible studies. The Born Again always make it a point in their
Bible study and preaching that you dont need to perform good works since
God would look into your faith not on your good works.
Protestants divorce faith from good works because part of doing good
is obedience, since they do not want to obey the Vicar of Christ the pope
hence they dismissed the importance of good works. This doctrine is not only
contradictory to Scriptures but it is also heretical (cf. Js.2:24).
The Catholic Church taught us that faith and good works is
complementary to each other, we put our faith into action by doing good
works. In James 2:26 it clearly denotes that faith cannot be separated from
good works since faith without good works is dead.
Even in the time of Christ there were people who believes in faith alone
but Christ rebuked them for this erroneous belief. In Mt.7:21, Christ said not
every one who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven but he
who does the will of my Father in heaven, in this passage Christ rebukes
those who have faith in him alone but does not do the will of the Father.
But what is the will of the Father? In Eph.2:10 we are created for a life
of good works since it is through good works that we can put our faith in
action, as what St Paul said faith that works through love (cf. Gal.5:6).
Although faith is necessary for salvation (cf. Heb.11:6), it must be united with
good works.
In Acts 16:30-31 it shows the unity of faith and good works. The jailer
asked Paul what must I do to be saved? The phrase must I do denotes an
action, something the jailer must perform in order to be saved. And Paul
answered the jailer believe on the Lord Jesus, which connotes that he must
have faith in Jesus Christ. Thus combining the thought in the jailers inquiry
and Pauls answer it tells us that the act of believing or having faith is not just
a mental assent but a good works by itself.
Hence it proves that faith and good works is inseparable from each
other. A faith accompanied by good works is a living faith that is why in Pauls
epistle to the Romans 2:7, he told the Romans that eternal life is the reward
for those who persevere in doing good works. This is proved by the example
of a man named Zacchaeus wherein he put his faith into action by doing good
works (cf. Lk.19:8-9).
Conclusion:
Being a faithful Christian means that we must be obedient to God and
to the people he mandated to tend His flock. In Luke 10:16, Christ told the