Being “Born Again” Doesn't Mean To Live A Changed Life

John 3:1-3, “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

I was curious today what I would find if I typed “How To Go To Heaven” into DuckDuckGo. So, I tried it. The first website that appeared was wikiHow, an article titled: “How to Get to Heaven (Christianity).” Here is a quote from their corrupt plan of salvation...

Ask Jesus to come into your life through the prayer of salvation. Simply acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God and he died for our sins isn’t enough to get you into heaven. You have to make a conscious decision to become a follower of Jesus, praying to God for forgiveness for your sins. This is known in Christianity as being “born again,” because your life should be different from that moment forward. In John 3:3, the Bible explicitly states that you can not go to heaven without doing this: "Jesus answered to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" [emphasis added] SOURCE

It upsets me as a born-again Christians and a Baptist preacher, to see incompetent fools like wikiHow pervert the Gospel, distort the truth and mislead lost sinners about how to get to Heaven. They are like children who have found their father's loaded gun and are playing with it. WikiHow gets it right that we are all sinners and cannot save ourselves, but they get it woefully wrong that you get born-again by becoming a follower of Christ.

Are you familiar with the disturbing story in Matthew 7:21-23 about a group of people who were standing in judgment before their Creator? They boasted of following Christ, doing many wonderful works, casting out devils and they even called Jesus, “Lord, Lord.” This is the deadly falsehood of Lordship Salvation! They were devout FOLLOWERS of Christ, serving Him with all their heart, but they failed to trust Christ alone for eternal life. Jesus rebuked them, calling them workers of iniquity. Sadly, they were cast into Hell forever to burn.

Remember, Satan's favorite weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again. That was their fatal mistake in Matthew 7:21-23. Essentially, they were trying to work their way into Heaven. Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The purpose of God's Old Testament law is to be used as a measuring stick, by which when men compare themselves, they see their sinnership and need for the dear Savior (Galatians 3:24-26). The sole purpose of God's law in getting saved is to show men their need as sinners for faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:19-20). God never intended for men to first commit to keep the law to the best of their ability, as a prerequisite to receiving God's free gift of eternal life.

Jesus told them in Matthew 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” We find the WILL OF THE FATHER in John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” The will of the Father to get to Heaven is to BELIEVE ON JESUS. You cannot get to Heaven by becoming a mere follower of Christ.

WikiHow are very wrong to teach that the biblical phrase “born again” in John 3:3 refers to a changed life. That is not what it means to be born anew from above. The inspired King James Bible teaches that when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he opened the floodgate of sin and death upon the world (Romans 5:12). Consequently, we live in a FALLEN WORLD. This is why there have been horrible deadly forest fires in California recently. Contrary to what Pastor Steven Anderson errantly preached, blaming Californian's sins for their situation; the fires are simply the consequence of living in a fallen world because of Adam's sin.

I remember hearing in the news in 2019 about a little 11 year old girl. She was at a Campground in Indiana with the Girl Scouts. It had been raining heavily the week before. In a freak accident, a tree fell over and killed her instantly. Do you think God was judging that little girl? Was the tree falling on her God's way of sending a message to local sinners? No, of course not. She was just in the wrong place at the right time, and she tragically died.

Life is a veil of tears. The fires in California happened because the region is naturally prone to dryness and forest fires, just as the country of Indonesia is prone to volcanic eruptions more than anywhere else on planet earth. God is not judging those people! Death is the wages of sin for all humanity (Romans 6:23). We all must die. How and when differ for everyone. Ecclesiastes 9:11 in the Bible warns that TIME AND CHANCE happens to everyone. That is, there is such a thing as luck.

If your city burns down, I can be mean by looking to find someone who recently sad something bad about God, and then blame that person for the entire city burning down. This is what people do! By using this type of shallow thinking, you could literally attribute all natural disasters to sinful humans and God's judgment. I humbly do not believe that the fires in California are God's judgment, just as I don't think A.I.D.S. was God's judgment upon homosexuals in the 1970's through 1990's. We all suffer because we live in a fallen world because of sin in general, and not because we individually did something sinful. Granted, if you get drunk and drive into a tree, that is on you.

You Don't Get To Heaven By Praying

WikiHow are darn fools, who speak with authority on the matter of How to Get to Heaven, as if they know what they are talking about, when clearly they don't. It is a very wicked thing to put words into God's mouth, making one's self a liar (Proverbs 30:5-6). Here is what wikiHow foolishly teaches it means to be born again...

You have to make a conscious decision to become a follower of Jesus, praying to God for forgiveness for your sins. This is known in Christianity as being “born again,” because your life should be different from that moment forward. [emphasis added] SOURCE

Nowhere does the Bible teach that you get your sins forgiven by “praying to God.” Repeatedly in the inspired Holy Scriptures we are simply taught to BELIEVE ON JESUS to be saved. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” You do not have to pray to have you sins forgiven. WikiHow are liars!

You Don't Get To Heaven By Following Jesus

Furthermore, nowhere does the inspired Word of God teach to become a follower of Jesus to get your sins forgiven. You may follow Christ your whole life and yet never be born again at all. John 6:26, “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” Notice that they followed Jesus, but were not saved. They had selfish motives. They just wanted a handout of food to eat, and to likely take some home for later.

One of my favorite Baptist preachers, Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951), wrote these excellent words:

“The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past …

Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.” [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Harry A. Ironside, from the sermon: 'What Is The Gospel?'

I absolutely love that quote from Pastor Ironside, because it is 100% true! I marvel in sadness that at least 85% of Baptist pastors today have been poisoned with the toxicity of Lordship Salvation, Misunderstood Repentance and Satan's corrupt Bible revisions. As my regular blog visitors know, I write about this topic quote often. I only do so to counter the woeful lack of preaching today against these deadly evils in the churches. Somebody has got to care! People are going to Hell with a false sense of security, blinded by the falsehoods of False Repentance and Lordship Salvation. By God's grace, I must diligently and faithfully exposes these dangerous lies!

WikiHow have got God's plan of salvation very wrong! Living a changed life is NOT what it means to be born-again. Ephesians 2:1 teaches that we were all born as humans in trespasses and sins. That is, we were all born spiritually dead. This is why we must be born anew from above by the Holy Spirit of God. The new miraculous supernatural birth has nothing to do with one's behavior improving.

1st John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” The passage we just read teaches that Jesus is eternal life. If you have Jesus, you will live forever. If you haven't been born again, then you don't have the Holy Spirit in you. Romans 8:9 calls the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of Christ,” which ever born again person has indwelling them.

You Get Saved By Believing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

1st Corinthians 15:1-4 clearly defines 'THE GOSPEL' as Jesus' death on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection from the dead after three days. Any needy sinner who by faith receives Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for his or her sins, believing that Jesus was buried but then raised up from the dead the third day is saved instantly, irrevocably and forever. Simply BELIEVE that Jesus did it all for you. Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty.