To me, that seems to be missing the forest for the trees. Jesus told his disciples to follow him. To be in Jesus' kingdom, we need to follow him so we will end up where he is. Following Jesus is not about following a religious formula, including learning special religious terms like "born again".Sudsy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 14, 2023 10:22 pmIf Jesus said to Nicodemus you must be born again to see the Kingom of God and that being born again is a spiritual birth, then I understand that to be the basic requirement to be a Christain. This is not a denominational question but a requirement by our Lord.
My testimony is that I grew up around evangelical churches and preaching that talked a lot about being "born again" but the term had almost no meaning because it was not accompanied by a life of obedience to the simple teachings of the New Testament. In fact, I consider a lot of so called "born again Christianity" to simply be dead religion.I am not suggesting that any Christian faith group are not saved but I believe there are people in every Christian faith group that are highly religious in their practise but have not been born again. I have heard many testimonies of those who were very religious and then were born again and share what a difference this has made in their life.
I consider the term "born again" to simply be another trapping of a particular denomination and religious system - just like how Catholics would refer to "confirmation" or the Amish would refer to "being baptised".I use the term of being born again to see what understanding a person has about what this means as some believe their highly religious ways are what saves them and not through the grace of God that makes them into new creatures with new appetites to follow Christ.
The Amish believe that the best testimony is a life lived in obedience to Jesus. Eventually, if someone has questions about why they live the way they do, they can learn about it from the scriptures. That is how they view things.So, how would an Amish person witness in words to an unbeliever telling them how we are saved ?
To be frank, I think their way is proving to work better than the old Dwight L. Moody type of formula, which doesn't seem to be accomplishing very much for Jesus' kingdom these days.