Protestants and Born Again Christianism

[Nelka]

I was talking with a Protestant colleague today but born again keeps coming up whenever I talk to Protestants. I tired to explain that Jesus was speaking about baptism but she said she had no choice in being baptised as she was a baby and she was too young to decide when confirmation came at 14 (she was originally a Catholic). She said that being born again was when she chose Jesus as an adult, she said she couldn’t go back to the Catholic Church after being born again.

Please help me here, my mind becomes scrambled with this born again business, how do I explain?

Thanks.

 

[thistle]

I was talking with a Protestant colleague today but born again keeps coming up whenever I talk to Protestants. I tired to explain that Jesus was speaking about baptism but she said she had no choice in being baptised as she was a baby and she was too young to decide when confirmation came at 14 (she was originally a Catholic). She said that being born again was when she chose Jesus as an adult, she said she couldn’t go back to the Catholic Church after being born again.

Please help me here, my mind becomes scrambled with this born again business, how do I explain?

Thanks.

catholic.com/tracts/are-catholics-born-again
catholic.com/tracts/born-again-in-baptism

 

[ynotzap]

Many Catholics have been baptized but never had an encounter with Christ, conversion experience. This is where one turns from a life of sin, and turns to Christ, and gives his life to Christ. There is a danger when we process children, assuming that when they receive the Sacraments they are automatically converted. The Faith is not passed on by any human action, not love, not education. The truths of the faith can be passed on. Jesus Christ alone gives us the gift of Faith, it is a grace of conversion. This is why evangelization is so very needed in the world, even among the baptized. Born again is an expression the refers to the Gospel statement made by Jesus “Unless you be born again, you shall not enter the kingdom” to be baptized with water and the spirit, is to be born again. We receive the grace at Baptism, but we have yet to make a personal commitment to Christ through the encounter. It’s like Jesus is the battery in a car, and the wires, the Holy Spirit are not hooked up to the starter of the car. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior and give our lives over to Him. Jesus releases the graces we received in Baptism. In the lives of many this grace has not been released because they have not had a personal encounter with Jesus. Several Popes have emphasized the need for evangelization world wide. Basically, what Protestants are saying, is have you had this encounter with Christ, some may refer to it as “the Baptism of the Spirit”.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Many Catholics have been baptized but never had an encounter with Christ, conversion experience. This is where one turns from a life of sin, and turns to Christ, and gives his life to Christ. There is a danger when we process children, assuming that when they receive the Sacraments they are automatically converted. The Faith is not passed on by any human action, not love, not education. The truths of the faith can be passed on. Jesus Christ alone gives us the gift of Faith, it is a grace of conversion. This is why evangelization is so very needed in the world, even among the baptized. Born again is an expression the refers to the Gospel statement made by Jesus “Unless you be born again, you shall not enter the kingdom” to be baptized with water and the spirit, is to be born again. We receive the grace at Baptism, but we have yet to make a personal commitment to Christ through the encounter. It’s like Jesus is the battery in a car, and the wires, the Holy Spirit are not hooked up to the starter of the car. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior and give our lives over to Him. Jesus releases the graces we received in Baptism. In the lives of many this grace has not been released because they have not had a personal encounter with Jesus. Several Popes have emphasized the need for evangelization world wide. Basically, what Protestants are saying, is have you had this encounter with Christ, some may refer to it as “the Baptism of the Spirit”.

Jim

 

[Jon_S_1]

Many Catholics have been baptized but never had an encounter with Christ, conversion experience. This is where one turns from a life of sin, and turns to Christ, and gives his life to Christ. There is a danger when we process children, assuming that when they receive the Sacraments they are automatically converted. The Faith is not passed on by any human action, not love, not education. The truths of the faith can be passed on. Jesus Christ alone gives us the gift of Faith, it is a grace of conversion. This is why evangelization is so very needed in the world, even among the baptized. Born again is an expression the refers to the Gospel statement made by Jesus “Unless you be born again, you shall not enter the kingdom” to be baptized with water and the spirit, is to be born again. We receive the grace at Baptism, but we have yet to make a personal commitment to Christ through the encounter. It’s like Jesus is the battery in a car, and the wires, the Holy Spirit are not hooked up to the starter of the car. Jesus gives the Holy Spirit when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior and give our lives over to Him. Jesus releases the graces we received in Baptism. In the lives of many this grace has not been released because they have not had a personal encounter with Jesus. Several Popes have emphasized the need for evangelization world wide. Basically, what Protestants are saying, is have you had this encounter with Christ, some may refer to it as “the Baptism of the Spirit”.

This!

I will just say growing up in “born again” evangelicslism, I thought I hadconverted my life but hadn’t. That happened in my pursuit of truth that lead me to catholicism.

So it works both ways I guess!

Tell your friend that there are lots of burn again believers in the Catholic Church, people that live for Christ and have a disciple like relationship with him. She doesn’t have to leave the church for that and we’d love her back.

 

[johnnyc176]

I was talking with a Protestant colleague today but born again keeps coming up whenever I talk to Protestants. I tired to explain that Jesus was speaking about baptism but she said she had no choice in being baptised as she was a baby and she was too young to decide when confirmation came at 14 (she was originally a Catholic). She said that being born again was when she chose Jesus as an adult, she said she couldn’t go back to the Catholic Church after being born again.

Please help me here, my mind becomes scrambled with this born again business, how do I explain?

Thanks.

Your friend does not realize that she was born again the Bible way. Apologist Steve Ray says that if a protestant asks you if you are born again tell them yes you are born again the Bible way. When they say what do you mean you tell them that when you were baptized you were born again of water and Spirit as Jesus commanded.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Your friend does not realize that she was born again the Bible way. Apologist Steve Ray says that if a protestant asks you if you are born again tell them yes you are born again the Bible way. When they say what do you mean you tell them that when you were baptized you were born again of water and Spirit as Jesus commanded.

And we get rebaptized every Easter.

 

[MarcoPolo]

she said she had no choice in being baptised as she was a baby

I would ask her which passage in the Bible says she can’t be baptized as a baby.

And I don’t know if this will help, but if she was born the first time without her choice, why can’t she be born again without her “choice”?

As well, you can affirm that Catholics do not think sacraments are “automatic” mechanisms, so to speak, so a person could indeed douse the flame instilled at baptism. Examples: *If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law do not contain the grace which they signify; or, that they do not confer that grace on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto…let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, 7.VI)

The sacraments always give grace if we receive them with the right dispositions. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. (I Corinthians 11:27) (Baltimore Catechism #309)*

 

[InNomineDomini]

She said that being born again was when she chose Jesus as an adult, she said she couldn’t go back to the Catholic Church after being born again.

St. Paul warned us not to have disputes over words.

She is using the phrase “born again” in the same way that a Catholic would use the phrase “conversion to Christ”: we must turn to Christ, repenting of our sins, and seeking to imitate Him more and more through the Holy Spirit’s assistance to the glory of God the Father.

But this is a separate issue from whether or not the Sacraments have efficacy.

Help her to understand that, even if we do not open our hearts fully to God’s graces, God nonetheless has bound the Sacraments to Himself. This means that graces are available to us, if we will only cooperate with them. But we must cooperate!

In the case of infant Baptism, we are given graces on behalf of those who represent us before God. This is precisely what God did with Israel. One did not normally become a Jew because one decided to. Rather, it was the free gift of God in circumcision. The rest of the Law was meant to be a means for the Jew in staying in this Covenant relationship.

But that was the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, Baptism is circumcision.

Therefore, St. Paul writes in Colossians 2:

In [Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

As a Catholic Answers Tract points out (catholic.com/tracts/infant-baptism):

If one is an adult, one must have faith before receiving the rite of membership; if one is a child too young to have faith, one may be given the rite of membership in the knowledge that one will be raised in the faith.

It’s wonderful that your friend had a deeper conversion to Christ, but this should not imply that she now has the right to ignore Christ’s Church, or the ordinary means of receiving grace which He established, i.e., the Sacraments.