What is the "New Birth" Experience?

I was watching a Billy Graham television broadcast recently, and at the end of his crusade program, Mr. Graham asked people to come down from various parts of the stadium they were in so that they could be "born again". As multitudes came down to the front of the arena, they were led in a prayer, and told that they were now "new creatures" in Christ. Because they had done what Mr. Graham told them to do, and because they had meant it with their "whole heart" - these sincere seekers were convinced that they had been "born again". This kind of thing is not unique to Billy Graham. It can be seen on virtually every Christian show on today's airwaves. But we must tell you the truth: Billy Graham, and every minister that employs such "evangelistic" techniques are LIARS. God has not sent them to do what they are doing, nor to teach what they are teaching. The sad part is, that most of God's children are not in a spiritual condition to know that these men's works are the works of Satan. What they are doing is not of God.

What is it to be "born again"? What is it to be made "a new creature in Christ Jesus"? Certainly it is NOT what I have described above. If you have "accepted Jesus" or "said a prayer" and have been convinced this is the "new birth experience", you are sadly mistaken. Let us now see why...

Being "born of the Spirit" is the same thing as "receiving the Spirit". There is nobody who has been born of the Spirit who has not "received" the Spirit. When a person "receives" or is "born of" the Spirit, they are at that moment, put into the body of Christ. No sincere believer will deny that this is true. If you have received the Spirit, you are in the body. If you have not received the Spirit, you are not in the body of Christ (Rom.8:9). So being put into the body of Christ is being "baptized" into the body, because that is how one becomes a member of the body: "by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1Cor.12:13).

It is absolutely clear from the Scriptures, and no sensible person who can read will deny it, that the baptism of the holy Ghost (of holy Spirit) is the experience which places one into the body. When a person is baptized with the Spirit of God, he is then (not before, not sometime later) a member of the body of Jesus Christ. "For by one Spirit" Paul wrote, "are we all BAPTIZED INTO ONE BODY" (1 Cor. 12:13). We were "BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST", Paul told the Romans. And to the congregations in Galatia Paul plainly wrote, "For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). Paul would have been ridiculed by Pentecostal ministers today. For some strange reason, the Pentecostal/charismatic community has invented a doctrine which would have us to believe that a person is in Christ, a member of the body of Jesus, a blood-washed, born-again believer BEFORE he is baptized with the holy Ghost. Contrary to all that the Scriptures have to say on the matter, these people -- God's people -- teach that the holy Ghost baptism is an experience reserved for members of God's congreagtion, when the truth is that without it, no one is a member of God's congregation. And they will warn you not to listen to me?!? Friend, I warn you not to listen to them!!! They are blind leaders of the blind.

On the other hand, non-Pentecostal denominations can see that the Pentecostal doctrine on Spiritual baptism is indefensible and that the Scriptures clearly, unequivocally say that the baptism of the Spirit is the experience of new birth. But, strangely, non-Pentecostals deny the reality of it, teaching that speaking in tongues is not for today. So, these denominations teach that you must receive the baptism of the holy Ghost, yet do not have it themselves, while denominations who DO believe in the baptism -- Pentecostals -- teach you can be born again without it. Those with it denying it, and those without it preaching its necessity! What could possibly be more bizarre than that?

THE NEW BIRTH IS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST, WITH THE EVIDENCE OF SPEAKING IN OTHER TONGUES, AS THE SPIRIT GIVES THE EVIDENCE!

This is really the issue. Does everyone who is baptized with the holy Ghost speak in tongues when he is baptized? I am persuaded by the Scriptures and by experience to believe that every person who receives the holy Ghost speaks in tongues when he receives it. In this regard, I stand with most of the Pentecostal/charismatic community. It has been a hallmark of Pentecostal teaching for more than my life-time that the "initial evidence" of receiving the holy Ghost is speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gives the utterance (cp. Acts 2:4). What I cannot comprehend is, why do they teach that a person is born again before being baptized with the holy Ghost? An Assembly of God minister finally admitted that, yes, the baptism was the new birth in the Bible. "But it's different now", he added. Maybe I'm looking at it wrongly, but being told that God has changed his plan of conversion just isn't good enough for me. If conversion is not still just as Jesus described it to Nicodemus, if it's not the way that Paul described it to the congregations in Galatia, Corinth, and Rome, then where and who is the man to whom the new revelation came?

Speaking of the precious, blood-bought baptism of the holy Ghost, wise Peter was inspired to write that "baptism doth also now save us" (1 Pet.3:21). How is it, then, that my Pentecostal brothers teach that a man "gets saved" before he is baptized with it? If the Apostle Paul's sins were washed away, not on the Damascus Road, but when, by the laying on of Ananias' hands he received the holy Ghost (Acts 9:17; 22:16), will someone in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement please explain to me by what authority do you teach now that everyone else's sins are washed away BEFORE receiving the holy Ghost? Will somebody out there please help me to understand your teaching? The separation of baptism from the new birth by modern Pentecostals is one of the most puzzling and indefensible developments in the history of true doctrine. But who is questioning it? Who is asking why some in the body of Christ are teaching one thing and the Scriptures so very plainly are teaching another? Where are the inquisitive minds? Where is the questioner? Where is the Bible student?

Don't be intimidated by a man's appearance. He is just one more helpless pilgrim, just like the rest of us. He, too, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions. Your soul's destiny is far too important not to ask the hard questions, not to demand to know a man's authority to teach the things he is teaching. Your eternal destination will be determined by who and what you believe.

No dear friends... men are lying when they tell you that you can be born again prior to the baptism of the holy Ghost (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues). There is no such thing in the Bible. Clearly, then, we must study to know what the Bible says, and listen to see if what we are being taught is in harmony with the Scriptures. Please do that. By all means do that. If you do, you will find out who has been, and who has NOT been born again, and knowing that will save you from a multitude of sins, and the confusion which God desires all his children to be free from.

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