New Birth

[Chateau d'If]

Originally Posted by Jason Badejo

We believe on Jesus through the apostles words by reading what the apostles recorded about Him, more specifically the words of Jesus Himself.

You guys think someone can read every word Jesus spoke in the gospels and die lost without Acts. Missing the whole point of what it is to believe in Christ and willingly blind to the fact that even if we take the book of Acts as the handbook of salvation, the only people who spoke in tongues were the apostles, Cornelius' household, 12 Ephesians, and possibly the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8. This ignores the fact there is no indication that the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost spoke in tongues, the 5,000 of Acts 4:4, the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, nor anyone else spoke in tongues. And also the plain meaning of 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, to say nothing of trying to force a cryptic tongues message into the new testament over the simple, clear, and oft repeated message that salvation is freely available to all who will repent of their sins and trust in Christ as Savior (no strings attached).

This. ^

In the same way the Oneness Pentecostal definition of "New Birth" is based upon a gross misunderstanding of the John 3 exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus.

There are 4 huge holes in their doctrine.

1. In that exchange Jesus did not once mention tongues or baptism yet somehow OP's interpret "water" as baptism and "Spirit" as tongues. He did, however, mention variants of the word "belief" EIGHT TIMES.

2. I struggle to comprehend how Oneness Pentecostals can use the passage to push three-step soteriology when the baptism of Spirit wasn't available to Nicodemus at the time. Why would Jesus require something of Nicodemus that wasn't available?

3. Jesus never asked Nicodemus to be born "again" of water and Spirit. He was already born of water (flesh). Jesus asked him to be born of the Spirit. THAT is the New Birth.

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

4. We are born "again" when we believe. It is the Spirit that gives us life.

9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”