"Born Again"
by Larry J. Walker
What
does it mean to be "born again?"
Does it refer to an event that occurs in this life? Or does it occur at the resurrection?
Worldwide
Church of God founder Herbert W. Armstrong considered that the emotional experience that many
professing Christians regard as being "born again" was a counterfeit
of the real thing.1 He reasoned that since 1 John 3:9 says,
"whoever is "born again" cannot sin," this expression could
not refer to this life, simply because it is humanly impossible not to sin (1
John 1:8). He further discovered that
the Greek word gennao (translated in John 3:3
as "born") can mean either to be "born"2 or
"begotten."2
When
referring to the mother, we say "born." When referring to the father's role, the
translation should be "beget" (active) or
"begotten" (passive). The
latter is the predominant use of gennao in the
New Testament. The father's role in the
birth process is to provide the sperm that impregnates the egg within the
mother. The mother gives birth. So Mr. Armstrong distinguished between "begettal" and "birth" as two separate,
albeit related, stages in the process of producing a son. He further extrapolated that we are
"born" at the resurrection but have only been "begotten"
now. We are spiritual "embryos"
that must undergo a spiritual gestation process prior to birth in the first
resurrection. We are not "born again" until we are given a new body
in the resurrection.
He
tied in John 3:5-6 with 1 Corinthians 15:50 to prove that one cannot be in the
kingdom of God without being "born again," i.e. being changed from
flesh to spirit. "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit" (John 3:6) was the clincher.
Just as everyone born from a physical mother has a physical body,
someone who is "born of the spirit" (which he equated with "born
again") has a spiritual body. He
sarcastically offered "the hat pin test" to anyone who claimed to be
"born again" to prove they were still physical.
There
are three problems with this explanation.
First
of all, the translation of 1 John 3:9 is misleading. The verb gennao
here is in the present indicative, which is "progressive" or
"linear." A simple statement
of fact would have required the aorist.3 A
clearer translation would be, "No one who is born of God makes a
practice of sinning..." (Williams
translation). In other words, someone
who is "born again" does not go on (habitually sinning).
Another
problem is the meaning of beget. The archaic word beget refers to
fathering a child, not to impregnating an ovum.4 Likewise, the New
Testament uses gennao in reference to
the progenitor of a child after that child has already been born. For example, genealogies speak of fathers
begetting rather than mothers giving birth, since genealogies were always
traced to the father.
Of
course the more fundamental consideration is the meaning of gennao,
since "beget" and "born" are English translations of gennao. In
order to determine the proper translation, we must consider both the concept
expressed by the term and the context in which it is used in the Bible.
This
leads us to the third problem with our traditional explanation of "born
again"--the context of John 3. The
book of John is very different in approach than the "synoptic"
gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). John
wrote his account much later than the other three authors. By that time, much false teaching abounded
regarding the person and nature of Jesus Christ. One of John's main objectives was "that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). So he begins the book by expounding those two
themes.
Whereas
Matthew and Luke traced Jesus' human genealogy, John begins with His divine
origin (John 1:1-10, 14).
John
1:11-13 is a key passage. John explains
that Jesus gave those who "received Him" the right to become
children of God (verse 12). Verse 13 explains these children were
"born . . . of God." The
simple (aorist) past is used in both verses.
The sense of the passage is that being "born of God" refers to
becoming children of God, which, by the time John wrote this, had already
occurred to those who accepted Christ during His earthly ministry.
The
remainder of the first chapter of John consists of accounts that emphasize
Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ (Messiah) promised in Scripture.
Chapter
two describes His first miracle and His enigmatic statements to unbelieving
Jews about His divine mission. The lack
of comprehension of who Jesus was stands out in the conversations John records
throughout the book. Nicodemus describes
Him as merely "a teacher come from God" (John 3:2). The Samaritan woman at the well was clearly
on a "different wave length" from Jesus during their conversation
(John 4). John 6:44, 65 tells us no one can come to Christ (or "receive
Him") unless God grants him the opportunity and "draws"
him. This statement is made in the
context of the crowd's total lack of understanding of His statements about
eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
With
that brief background in mind, let us return to what many consider the main
"born again" scripture--John 3:3.
Nicodemus did not come to Christ to ask about the resurrection. He came to find out who Jesus was. Since Jesus worked miracles, Nicodemus and
many of his colleagues knew Jesus had to a special man of God (1 Corinthians
1:22). But Nicodemus wanted to know
more. So he begins the conversation by
posing a question without asking outright, "Who are you?" He is obviously expecting a response to his
statement about Jesus' identity. Since
he poses an indirect question, Jesus gives an indirect answer by implying that
one must be "born again" to "see the
Before
we go any further, let's get right to the crux of the matter--the term
"born again." The Greek words
are gennao ("born") and anothen ("again"). Unfortunately, both are mistranslated in the
King James and New King James versions.
Anothen
can mean either "from above" or "again" (in the sense of
"from the beginning, or starting at the top). In addition to verse 7 (which simply repeats
the expression in verse 3), anothen occurs in
only three other passages, all of which mean "from above."5 "From
above" was a euphemistic way of saying "from God" or "from
heaven" (James 1:17; 3:15, 17). The
Jews avoided using the name of God.
"Born"
relates to the mother. The Bible
emphasizes God the Father as our Progenitor. So "born" is incorrect, both here
and in John 1:13. More importantly, gennao refers to origin, not to a
particular stage of the process of childbearing.6 The simplest one word definition of gennao
is "to generate."7 So Jesus is simply saying that one must
be "generated from above" in order to "see" (understand)
the kingdom of God (which includes comprehending who Jesus is - Matthew 12:28;
Luke 11:20, 17:21).
Nicodemus
replies to Jesus' "born again" analogy with a question posed as an
extension of the analogy. Exactly what
he meant by the question cannot be known for certain.8 But the main
point is, he didn't understand what Jesus meant because he was limited to his
human understanding (1Corinthians 2:14-15).
Jesus explains this in the next two verses. One must be spiritually regenerated (gennao) in order to "enter [into]"9
the
Verse
6 speaks of the two sources of life--physical and spiritual. Flesh can only originate from flesh, and
spirit can only originate from spirit.
He was speaking of the chasm separating them, which resulted in Nicodemus'
failure to comprehend Jesus--who He was and what He was telling him. Nicodemus was of human origin. Jesus, in addition to being human, was also
of divine origin. He offered the
opportunity to become sons of God (divine origin--God as our Progenitor) to
those who "received Him" (John 1:12-13).
The
Bible nowhere suggests that we are spiritual embryos. Rather it teaches that we are already, now in
this life, children of God (1 John 3:1-2, Romans 8:16). Lest anyone protest that this might refer to
unborn children, consider 1 Peter 2:2: "As newborn babes, desire the pure
milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. . .
." Needless to say, this cannot refer to an unborn child. The word translated "newborn" (artigennetos) is related to gennao.
James
1:18 tells us that God, "Of His own will . . . brought us forth by
the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures." Here the Greek
word translated "brought . . . forth" is apokueo,
which is derived from the kueo which means
"to swell, be pregnant".10 The
prefix apo ("from") gives a rough
meaning of "from being pregnant."
In other words the end result of pregnancy, which is the bringing forth
of a new child.11
At
this point it would appear that our previous understanding of "born
again" was totally incorrect.
However, the concept of "firstfruits"
introduced in James 1:18 brings us to another facet of the "born
again" question.
Romans
8:16-17 refers to God's people as "children of God" who are heirs,
awaiting our inheritance. Likewise,
Romans 8:23 explains we have the "firstfruits"
of the spirit and are awaiting the "adoption [huiothesia
- literally "placing of sons"]" by means of "the redemption
of our body." The same two events
are described in Romans 8:29 as being "conformed to the image of His
Son" ("like Father, like Son") and Christ becoming "the
firstborn of many brethren." This
expression refers to the resurrection to eternal life, as seen by comparison
with the previous two passages! So Jesus
is described in Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5 as "the firstborn from
the dead." Hebrews 12:23 speaks of
the "church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven."
The
word for "firstborn" in all four passages is prototokos,
which comes from tikto ("to bring forth"). Unlike gennao,
which emphasizes origin, tikto has the nuance
of producing or bringing forth. Both
words are used in reference to children.
But gennao emphasizes the parental
origin, whereas the emphasis of tikto is on
the delivery or the final stage of "production"12 of a
baby.
So
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 speaks of Christ as the "firstfruits"
of the dead in Christ in terms of the resurrection to eternal life. This resurrection results in a new, spiritual
body (1 Corinthians 15:35,44-49, Philippians 3:20-21,
2 Corinthians 5:1-5). The Greek word tikto emphasizes this glorious event as the delivery
or bringing forth of God's "spirit born" children. Jesus Christ was the "firstborn
from the dead. We will also be
"born again" in the first resurrection at His return.13
We
are God's children now, not embryos. But
we will also be "born again" into God's family as spirit beings at
Christ's return. There is no conflict
here. It is simply a case of two
different analogies.14 There are many New
Testament references to us as children--analogies which convey spiritual
lessons from different aspects of childhood.
We must be careful not to mix our metaphors.
Let's
summarize our conclusions:
1.
We have all been born as children of human parents.
2.
God as our Progenitor has made us His children now in this life via the process
of conversion.
3.
When Christ returns, we will be "born again" from the dead by means
of the first resurrection, which will bring forth the dead in new spirit
bodies.
4.
John 3:6 should not be translated "born again" because anothen should be translated "from above"
and "born" refers to the mother's role.15 Gennao here relates the divine origin of our status as sons
of God the Father, our Progenitor.
_________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
1.
See A History of God by Karen Armstrong, pages 316-317 for an
interesting analysis of the introduction of the idea of being "born
again" as springing from the piety movement that emphasized "the religion
of the heart" in contrast to the intellectual, rationalism of the
Enlightenment period. Also pages 325ff
for Augustine's "born again" experience.
2. Gennao is
here used in passive form.
3.
"This is a wrong translation, for this English naturally means 'and he
cannot commit sin' as if it were . . . aorist. . . . The present active infinitive hamartanein can only mean 'and he cannot go on
sinning . . . .' A great deal of false
theology has grown out of a misunderstanding of the tense of hamaratanein here.
Paul has precisely John's idea in Rom. 6:1 epimenomen
tei hamartiai (shall we
continue in sin, present active linear subjunctive) in contrast with hamartesomen in Rom. 6:15 (shall we commit a sin,
first aorist active subjunctive)" (Word Pictures in the New Testament
by A. T. Robertson, Vol. VI, page 223).
4.
Beget is defined as "to procreate as the father: SIRE." "Procreate" means "to bring
forth offspring." To sire means "to bring into being" or
"originate" (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary).
5.
John 3:31 - "He that comes from above"; John 19:11 -
"unless it had been given you from above" and John 19:23 -
"woven from the top."
6. This can be seen by considering the context
of other New Testament occurrences of gennao
and comparing related words such as genea and geneema ("generation"), genealogeomai ("descent . . . counted"), genealogia ("genealogy"), genesia ("birthday"), genesis
("generation"), genneetos
("born [of women] - Matthew 11:11, Luke 7:28), genos
("kind, "country" [of origin], "offspring,"
etc.). These can all be traced by means
of a Greek concordance. The concept of
origin is the common denominator of all these related terms. The same can be said about our English words
that are derived from them--generation, generate, genealogy, genesis, progenitor,
generator, etc.
7. "Metaphorically, to generate,
. . . e.g., strifes (2 Tim. 2:23)" (The
Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament by Spiros
Zodhiates, article "gennao,"
page 364).
8. He could have been bemoaning the difficulty of going back
to "square one" (literally "the top or beginning) after years of
living by his current understanding (as we would say, "You can't teach an
old dog new tricks."). More likely
his answer reflected the prevailing Jewish belief that their Abrahamic origin entitled them to the
9.
Jesus employed the same word "enter" as Nicodemus used. Nicodemus referred to entering his mother's
womb. Jesus spoke of entering the
10.
(The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament by Spiros
Zodhiates, article "apokueo,"
page 229.
11. The meaning of apokueo
is clearly seen in its only other New Testament occurrence--James 1:15. James explains the progression from
temptation to sin and death by the analogy of the process of birth. First comes
"conception" (when the lust is accepted by the mind--verse
14-15). Then sin is produced (verse 15),
and finally when sin is "fully grown," it "brings forth" (apokueo) death.
So apokueo represents birth, preceded
by conception (sullambano). This clearly establishes birth, not
conception, as the meaning of apokueo.
12.
Our word "technology" is related to tikto.
13.
In a personal letter to UCG member Craig White, Seventh Day Adventist scholar
Dr. Kai Arasola admitted, "Paul comes close to
calling the resurrection a birth. He
compares the process to sowing a seed (Gr. spermaton)
and rising to new life" (1 Cor. 15:20-23).
14.
A Patristic Greek Lexicon by Lampe refers to "man's threefold birth,
physical, baptismal, and in resurrection" as a belief held by early church
fathers.
"The
15.
The word translated "born again" in 1 Peter 1:3,23
is anagennao (ana
- "again" + gennao). Here the contrast is between our human origin
and our divine origin in the sense that the latter is a second origin. Similarly, Titus 3:5 speaks of "the
washing of regeneration (palingenesia - palin - "again" + genesis -
derivative of gennao).