How do I know if I'm born again?

[Teflon93]

You’ll know when you are born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. A total change comes over your life. You start to get convicted of any thing you do that is not in the will of God.

Which is exactly what happens when Catholics are baptized. We continue to grow in spirit as our conscience becomes more finely attuned to sin, and as we examine our consciences as part of the sacrament of penitence.

Thus the more we avail ourselves of the sacraments Christ has offered us through his Church, the easier our path will be through the narrow gate.

To not do so is to disobey Christ, to risk damnation, and to allow the pride which is the engine of disobedience to consume us.

Woe be to those who claim, as so many of our brothers and sisters in the fundamentalist communities do, that their earthly works will put more “jewels in their crown” in Heaven!

 

[st_lucy]

You’ll know when you are born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. A total change comes over your life. You start to get convicted of any thing you do that is not in the will of God.

Why do you want your experience be every one’s experience? Your experience is not mine, and so you want to set (or push our Lord off) the judgement seat and point your finger at all those who don’t look like you. (That reminds me of Dr Seuss The Sneetches)

I have mentioned this to you before and as you haven’t answered me before I don’t expect it now.

Luke 6:42

Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother’s eye.

 

[JoeyWarren]

You’ll know when you are born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. A total change comes over your life. You start to get convicted of any thing you do that is not in the will of God.

There have been those that have claimed to have been born again…Jim Jones…David Koresh…they held the same conviction that you currently hold…

 

[guanophore]

Every Christian who is truly born again should have a recollection of the old person and the new person.

I can’t find this. Can you please give the chapter and verse where you got this? Thanks in advance!

 

[guanophore]

Hi,

My hubby was baptized and raised catholic. Let me tell you he is not a born again christian by any stretch of the imagination. Hehas only been to church a handful of times since he was 18 and he is 44 now. He shows very little fruit that Jesus speaks of.

This is what I was thinking is a good answer to misslollipops. I think you are right, that you will know them by their fruits.

2 Peter 1:4-11
5 For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 **For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. **10 Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; 11 so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What does the Apostle imply here in v. 10? If we fail to confirm our call and election by not “making every effort”, then we may fail, and we may not attain the entrance into the eternal.

Thank God for you! How do you know that you will not save him?!

Well, only God can read the heart.

IT IS CHRIST and as soon as my hubby accepts that he will be joing me in heaven AMEN!!

I agree that IT IS CHRIST and this is what the Catholic Church teaches. However, accepting Christ is not sufficient to “get into heaven” either, as we can see from the above passage. We also have up in the thread the example of Judas,who was chosen by Jesus, yet rejected the purpose of God for himself.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Luke 6:46-49

Jesus is saying that people can “call Him Lord” but not follow His commandments. Getting “saved” is not just something that happens at a single point in time, but a lifestyle of obedience. I know you know this from reading your posts,but I am writing this for lollipops.

His baptism did not save him at all. I can say that if my hubby were to die today(God forbid) he would not be going to heaven. That makes me very sad but it is true and my prayer for him and my son is that God not take them until He has saved them.

Myself and my daughter have accepted the gospel(Thanks be to God )

AMEN!!!

We don’t know that, because the end is not yet. It is up to God to decide who goes to Heaven, or not. You have done right to live an example for Him, and to pray. I will pray for him too!

 

[guanophore]

When God saves him and he says he wants to go to a CC then is when I will have to confront my issues about going to the CC.
Honestly, I hope that day never arrives and he wants to go to the church we are already members of.

Have you ever considered that your own issues,and you hope that he does not go back to the CC are what is slowing this whole thing down?

 

[Randy_Carson]

I don’t believe osas

If you sin read Rom7-8

Great!

It’s amazing how many of your fellow non-Catholics have swallowed this “tradition of Protestant men” hook line and sinker.

Unfortunately, it will lead many to hell unwittingly.

 

[estesbob]

You’ll know when you are born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. A total change comes over your life. You start to get convicted of any thing you do that is not in the will of God.

The problem with this is that when this “change” came over you it lead you to believe things that essentially are not true are not substantiated by Scripture , tradition or the teachings of Christ’s Church and lead you to believe a doctrine that condemns tens of millions of children to eternal hellfire.

The doctrine you believe in was as unheard-of until a couple hundred years ago. Do you really believe that the Holy Spirit has revealed to you personally something that he failed to reveal to one else for nearly 1800 years.

Again this is the problem inherent in making oneself the sole arbiter of what Scripture says. Emotion trumps faith. And many are led astray.

 

[Randy_Carson]

According to the bible

Gee, in another post, you said you were done.

Now, you’re beginning the argument all over again.

Talk about vain repetition!

 

[juliamajor]

You’ll know when you are born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. A total change comes over your life. You start to get convicted of any thing you do that is not in the will of God.

Like Jimmy Swagert, Jim Bakker those guys? Cheap grace, no logic, and narrow view of scripture-.You stated your argument in oneliners you were countered by other arguements .your mind has been so prejudiced against anything Catholic that it is really sad to see.That’s the thing I despise about OSAS or born againe philosophy is why are they so hateful toward Catholics? is that what Christ taught us"love one another as I have loved you>" I s almost never see it from excatholics that go into Protestantism-Lot’s of Ex protestants look fondly back to their spiritual roots but say “I finally found the whole truth” If you are taught nthat Catholics are not saved then they are very wrong. ! Who can see the human heart? Do we know everybody’s back stories? Do we know why a person drinks or fornicates?Do understand that people who are hurt act out and do sinful things? I deal with lot of kids and if you saw what the go through you would not judge them.So they didn’t live up to your image of “holy “people… Do you know in your church you could and probably are sitting next to some who is an adulterer,fornicator,liar, thief etc. Do you know their hearts? God is more expansive and loving because people don’t live up to “your” standards doesn’t mean they aren’t struggling step by step toward redemption & salvation. -do you think that being sinful is catholic thing? If you fall off the “born again” wagon-does that mean maybe you thought you were saved but really weren’t or that warm and fuzzy feeling was all an illusion ? Or the Holy Spirit deserted you or you deserted the HS?Do you really believe that all you’ve got to say is"jesus I take you as my Lord and savior” and bam!! your saved . is there no cost to your discipleship? cheap grace is the watered down substitute of NT grace- a grace that costs- that was struggled for fought for … I’m sorry - I don’t believe saying Alleluia I’m saved is enough I believe picking up your cross and carrying in the steps of Christ day after day is true discipleship- Real grace costs, real justification costs- saying something is easy- living it is not.Warm fuzzy feelings and emotions fade but we have to have is a solid idea of discipleship and grace that will help us to work our salvation in"fear and trembling” Broken record theology is not the way-Discipleship is not limited to the Bible as we comprehend it-we must rise above all comprehension. we must be immersed in Christ Himself- become part of Him-We do it in the Eucharist which transcends all knowledge, all theology all earthliness-so we can be united with Him-something which words cannot do

 

[deanarrca]

Gee, in another post, you said you were done.

Now, you’re beginning the argument all over again.

Talk about vain repetition!

Remember Guys-- **Be Nice **
They will know we are Christians by our love not nasty jabs and pokes. (and I know I have done it too- Sometimes we get passionate about what we are posting, but please read your posts before you hit that button and see how someone else reading them might react to it.) Someone is much more likely to look at your side and be more objective about it if you aren’t poking back. JMHO

Have an awesome day everyone. I am in a great mood. Fall is here.
(Ok I live in the South and it is exceedingly hot) but I’m hoping. Now I really have to stop reading these boards and go get some housework done.

 

[JoeyWarren]

Yes, it is currently 78 degrees here at 10 am. Do you know where your children are?

 

[maurin]

I wouldn’t say it is heresy. It is a false teaching that you become born again when you get baptized as an infant

book, chapter and verse, please.

 

[misslollipops]

I’m so glad you’ve posted this!

I’m a convert (Deo Gratias!) from evangelicalism. In my old church, we would’ve answered the question in this manner: a person who dies before the ‘age of reason’ would go straight to heaven. Supposedly, this included unbaptized adults with mental disabilities as well. Curiously, I was never able to piece together a cogent scriptural argument to make this case.

misslollipops, please let us know how this dilemma is solved in your theology, using scripture to back up your claims.

1 cor7:14 believers children are holy

 

[misslollipops]

book, chapter and verse, please.

See post 435

 

[juliamajor]

book, chapter and verse, please.

Don’t expect anything deep or profound here-we are in veryshallow waters.

 

[Teflon93]

1 cor7:14 believers children are holy

BINGO!

Whoops, thought we were playing Bible Bingo again.

I posted the entire chapter; in context, this does not say what you torture it to say, but since “24” is due to premiere soon we’ll forgive you, Mrs. Bauer.

 

[Church_Militant]

I wouldn’t say it is heresy. It is a false teaching that you become born again when you get baptized as an infant

Really? Better get a time machine and go back and tell St. Polycarp that. He was only the bishop of the church at Smyrna, a friend and disciple of St. John the evangelist, and suffered martyrdom for his faith.
Read the story of his martyrdom here, and notice that he was 86 years old and tells the proconsul that he has been a Christian for 86 years.

When the New Testament says they baptized whole households that means every one, even the slaves and their families. Where do ya see anything that excludes the infants?

God literally commanded the circumcision of Jewish boys on the 8th day of their life and it served to both bring them into the faith community of Judaism and set them on the path of salvation. Who made their profession of faith?

Right, their parents, just as Catholic parents do to this very day.

The rest has been gone over previously on this thread.

P.S. C’mon guys, let’s stick to topic and be nice.

 

[JoeyWarren]

1 cor7:14 believers children are holy

You’ve got understand the context of what is being discussed here.

Let’s leave out the children part for a moment.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife

and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband

You don’t actually believe a non-believer can be sanctified do you?

How can an unbeliever be sanctifiied?

That is why you need the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church which is ordained by Jesus Christ in order to be taught the proper context of what it written.

 

[Church_Militant]

You’ve got understand the context of what is being discussed here.

Let’s leave out the children part for a moment.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife

and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband

You don’t actually believe a non-believer can be sanctified do you?

How can an unbeliever be sanctifiied?

That is why you need the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church which is ordained by Jesus Christ in order to be taught the proper context of what it written.Good point JW!