1. REGENERATION For your consideration: the differencebetween the Greek wordsPalingenesia andAnothen.Palingenesia is used in many scriptures asmeaning again birth or born over; it has aredundant meaning.Anothen means from above or from the top_James 1:17, "Every goodgift and everyperfectgift is from above, and cometh downfrom the Father of lights, with whom is novariableness, neither shadow of turning. HThis describes this gift cometh from above,or Anothen. In comparison, James 3:15, "Thiswisdom descendeth not from above, but isearthly, sensual, devilish, shows what does Hnot come from above. John 3:3-7, "Jesusanswered and said unto him, Verily, verily, Isay unto thee, Except a man be born again, hecannot see the kingdom ofGod (4)Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man beborn when he is old? can he enter the second 1

2. time into his mothers womb, and be born?(5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say untothee, Except a man be born of water and ofthe Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdomof God. (6) That which is born of the flesh isflesh; and that which is born of the Spirit isspirit. (7) Marvel not that I said unto thee,Ye must be born again. As Jesus is IIexplaining to Nicodemus about being bornagain, Jesus is saying born from above.Nicodemus can only think about natural birthbecause that is all he knows about being born.In verse 3:10, Jesus scolds him for notknowing being a master of Israel, "Jesusanswered and said unto him, Art thou amaster ofIsrael, and knowest not thesethings?" What is it that he should haveknown or perhaps he has forgotten?Colossians 1:25-27, "Whereof I am made aminister, according to the dispensation of Godwhich is given to me for you, to fulfil theword ofGod: (26) Even the mystery whiqhhath been hid from ages and from .generations, but now is made manifest to hissaints, (27) To whom God would make. known2 3. what is the riches of the glory of thismystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ inyou, the hope ofglory:" brings out a greattruth that you can be born of the Spirit andhave Christ in you, yet God has hidden thisfrom his elect from ages and generations.From the calling and election of Abraham, Godhas in mind a chosen seed that begins withAbraham and continues down to Christ.Galatians 3:16, "Now to Abraham and his ieedwere the promises made. He saith not, And to- seeds, as ofmany; but as of one, And to thyseed, which is Christ. This people are GodIICovenant people and arecalJed children ofpromise but their bir5th wasnaturaJ and theseed was natural. One of the things thatNicodemus was supposed to know was thatthese promised children were of God. Thisbeing born of natural seed ended when itdescended down to Christ. His seed nowmakes up the New Covenant people. I think itis wrong to say that just being born of theSpirit gives a chifd of God the quaJificationtoenable him to be in the New Covenant. Jesusspoke to Nicodemus further that you must be 3 4. born of water and of the Spirit to enter thekingdom as the scripture teaches.Revelation 5:9 reads, "And they sung a newsong, saying, Thou art worthy to take thebook, and to open the seals thereof: for thouwast slain, and hast redeemed us to God bythy blood out ofevery kindred, and tongue,andpeople, andnation;H Let us not forget ashe has a people in every age and among allnations, it is reasonable to say that many ofthe Israelites were born of the Spiritaccording to their eternal election, but as waswritten in Colossians 1:25, they did not knowthat Christ was in them. This is the reasonPaul writes that he brought life andimmortality to light through the gospel. TheIsraelites served God with carnal ordinancesnot being mixed with faith. No doubt thecovenant people in the New Testament areable to understand the types and shadows .because they have the Spirit of truth andunderstanding being able to understand eventhe deep things of God. This cov~nant mustbe an election of grace so that they dont .seek righteousness by the Law of Moses, but 4 5. by the election of grace. As we concede that;God has a people in every kindred, tongue, ., . people and nation, only the church that Jesus calls "my church" has the truth. We can see what happens when the bible is preached what comes out is many churches and doctrines. Parables are preached literally, not even understanding that Jesus spoke in parables to hide the Kingdom of Heaven from them, and, revealed the true meaning to his disciples. Now Jesus spoke of a birth to Nicodemus andthat-is to be born of water and Spirit toenter the Kingdom of God. In Galatians 4:19;" My little children, of whom I travail in birthagain until Christ be formed in you, " Paul has used the word "regeneration" or "birth again" to show with what he will labor with until Christ is formed in them. This birth wilt be to them as Job wrote, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of my ears, but now mine eyes see thee and I abhor myself and repent in dust,and ashes." This is when Christ appears or rather Christ is formed again in them. In regeneration, you are not born again as a babe is given a new life. It is not the eternal life in 5 6. the new birth but a life that is spoken byChrist. It is the mustard seed. This seedindeed has life but eventually this life of thistiny seed grows into a large tree. This is .typical of the Kingdom of Heaven.In John 3:7-8, "Marvel not that I said untothee, Ye must be born again. (8) The windbloweth where it listeth, and thou hearestthe sound thereof, but canst not tell whenceit cometh, and whither itgoeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit, H Jesus saysdont marvel at this because you must be bornfrom above or again, the wind or Spirit blows .where it listeth or will. The Holy Spirit is aperson of the Godhead and has the same mindand love that all of the Godhead has. Itpleases the Holy Spirit to give the spiritualbirth according to the will of God. Thespiritual birth by water does not come toevery child of God, but by election. It doesnot seem that it came to Nicodemus who wasa child of God, but he never seemed in his lifethat he could be a disciple of Christ. 6 7. In Titus 3:2-5, "To speak evil ofno man~fobeno brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meeknessunto all men. (3) For we ourselves also weresometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,serving divers lusts and pleasures, /iving inmalice and envy, hateful, and hating one .another. ,(4) But after that the kindness andlove ofGod our Saviour toward man appeared,(5) Not by works ofrighteousness which wehave done, but according to his mercy hesaved us, by the washing ofregenerstion, andrenewing of the Holy Ghost;" regeneration isa birth of belief and faith and it comes tosome children of God by washing out of hisnatural life things that are displeasing to God.This is just the mercy of God to deliver usfrom the things that would keep us fromentering into the Kingdom of God. Titusdescribes these sins that by nature we feel .there is nothing wrong with. We lose ourfoolishness by this washing of the Spirit.How can we know obedience until God dealswith us to know what pleases him? Beingdeceived is a great wrong about the truth.We can be deceived and not know it. This 7 8. washing or condemnation reveals that diverslusts and pleasures. What a surprise to learnthat what we enjoy and spend a lot of timeand money on and something we get pleasurefrom is wrong. The sin of these things is thatit is an idol in our lives. God will not have anyother God before him. This washing is verysevere but when washed away, by the washingof the word, it causes a new life to come intobeing. Even as Job found after hisexperience, when it ended he was given twiceas much as he had before. It was the secondlife as the little Greek word - Regeneration- .or 2nd life whichis life in Gods Kingdom.lCorinthians6:9;.11, "Know ye not that theunrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom ofGod? Be not deceived: neither fornicators,nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,nor abusers of themselves with mankind, (10)Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, norrevilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit thekingdom ofGod. (11) Andsuch were some of .you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,but ye are justified in the name of the LordJesus, and by the Spirit of our God. TheH 8 9. Corinthians had sinful lives that would keepthem out of the Kingdom of Heaven, but Godin his loving mercy washed them, sanctifiedthem, and justifi4ed them in the name of theLord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. Thisexperience of grace came upon people alreadyborn of the Spirit yet leading lives accordingto a sinful nature and God qualified them tobe in his Kingdom where he rules in our livesand we can bear fruit that is to his honor.This subject is of great importance to theTrue Church to be established in the truth.This is written in meekness and I invitecriticism and will try to answer any questions. 9 10. REGE ERATIO By: Elder Don Ell is 11. 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