₦airaland Forum

Most people who grew up around the protestant/Pentecostal setting will the familiar with this wordings: you must be born again /are you born again? /as a born again. Normal inclination would make one have the assumption that this is the very important position/state to attain in other to be in right standing as a member in the church.
Just as terms are used in every other culture and tradition; the use of the term being “Born Again” within the church congregants seems to have been defined by saying specific confessions in varying words at different places of gathering; but all channeled toward admitting that the Lord Jesus has become the confessor’s Lord and savior.
It is imparative to say that what is not rightly defined cannot certainly to be rightly applied or understood. Like one of my favorite writer would say: when the purpose of a thing/term/action is not rightly known abuse is inevitable.
The knowledge of this term of discuss came from the documentation of the disciple/follower of the Lord Jesus - John the beloved, in the book of John chapter three (3) when he gave an account of the conversations that took place when a Pharisee called Nicodemus, who was a teacher in Israel and came to meet the Lord Jesus at night basically because all of the teaching of the Lord Jesus is centered on the kingdom of God and Heaven. So this man, who has been observing all along, the things that has been happening when the Lord Jesus teaches with miracles following, wanted to know how he, as a teacher could improve himself. The documented conversation from John the beloved went as follows:
John 3:1-11
New American Standard Bible
The New Birth
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
2 this man came to Jesus at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony.

John the beloved in verse 3 recorded the Lord Jesus saying that to see the kingdom, Nicodemus needed to be born again. The pronunced Greek word that the Lord Jesus used when he said born again is gennēthē (Be born) anōthen (from above). This was the condition to see the kingdom. From above was interused with the word again. Some other translations emphasis this to understand properly what the action of the term is about and here are some of them:

John 3:3
Amplified Bible
3 Jesus answered him, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified], he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3
Expanded Bible
3 Jesus answered, “·I tell you the truth [ Truly, truly I say to you], unless you are born ·again [or from above; this may be a play on words, meaning both “again” and “from above”], you cannot ·be in [experience; see] God’s kingdom.”

John 3:3
Complete Jewish Bible
3 “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

ediplan:
John 3:3
Complete Jewish Bible
3 “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Unless a person is Born Again he cannot get the sense of what the Kingdom of God is and it's only those who has gotten the sense can teach others.

So it's not all Christians that are expected to become Born Again rather it's those who will have direct dealings with Jesus and used to dispense spiritual food to others.