Are Catholics “Born Again?”

Our parish has a Q&A feature in which staff members tackle the queries left in a comment box or e-mailed to the parish. I volunteered to reply to the question titled above:

The root of this principle is in John 3:3-5, and it reads:

Jesus said to (Nicodemus), “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

Scripture scholars note that the Greek word ἄνωθεν (anothen) means both “from above” and “again.” Jesus seems to be referring to the first meaning, and Nicodemus seems to misinterpret the Lord, taking the second meaning.

Misunderstandings aside, the notion of being reborn in baptism, in “water and Spirit,” tells of the great significance of the sacrament, and of the commitment to the Christian life it implies. Jesus certainly preaches that those who wish to see and participate in the kingdom of God will experience such a momentous change in their lives, that the notion of a second birth is not an exaggeration.

Many Christians speak of being “born again,” as a graced event in which people, usually adults, experience the Lord in such a significant way that it’s like a whole new life for them. And ideally, this is what all Christians should experience when they commit themselves to Jesus Christ. The question might be raised: does it happen only once? Or is it possible, through a continuing conversion, to go progressively deeper into a Christian commitment to God? The witness of the saints might suggest that this continuing experience is the mark of a godly life.

In baptism, and even as infants, Catholics are “born again,” in the sense Jesus means: “being born of water and Spirit.” It’s no accident that the baptismal font at our parish was designed to suggest a tomb, and that in baptism we participate in death and rebirth, as Saint Paul describes, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)

As a child grows, an openness to God’s grace is necessary. The same is true for adults. Baptism is not a magical event, and neither is the evangelical or charismatic experience of being “born again.” Each of these experiences is an opportunity for God’s grace to work in us. But we always have the freedom to choose: we can close ourselves off from divine grace, or we can cooperate with God’s will and live out a Christian life after being “born from above.”

Image Credit: painter Edward Tanner (1899), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

In regards to baptism and salvation, Scripture does refer to our initial salvation as being identified with a full immersion or complete washing or baptism.

Our Lord was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.

When our Lord spoke to Nicodemus, as recorded in John, it was made clear that even to a believer who was steeped in tradition, unless he was born again he would not inherit the Kingdom of God. Being born again involved a birth by water and birth by baptism of the Holy Spirit. This baptism by the Holy Spirit is a full washing of all past sin at the moment of salvation.

Later we are washed or cleansed of sin by not a full immersion, but by a partial washing, similar to Simon Peter demanding our Lord not wash the feet of another, but when told that unless he was so washed he wouldn’t receive his inheritance, then asked our Lord to wash Him all over, but was then corrected again that a full washing wasn’t required, but simply a partial washing. This is identified with our returning to Him after placing any other thing prior to Him in our faith, missing the target of our faithful thinking, faith in Christ, so we turn back to Him, i.e. repent, not a tearful emotional feeling of guilt of our sinful actions, but simply turning our thinking back to Him through faith in the Cross,....and then confess our sins to Him, both known and unknown missing of His target for us, ...then we are again forgiven by Him and are back in fellowship with Him.

This last act, associated with 1st John 1:9, is a partial washing. Unless the believer, though, had at some time been thoroughly washed, i.e. baptized by the Holy Spirit, then he still was lacking being born again.

We also are commanded to be baptized in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. When we do this, we are obeying His command and are manifesting our faith in Him by a simple work.

Wow, you sure do cherry pick, don’t you? What about the rest of it. Why cut out the good parts?

There is nothing contradictory about “You will find Catholics do not hate. You do.” Only by taking everything out of context can you make it so. So, of course, you do.
I can’t make you honest any more than I can make you not hate.

Only Satan and those that follow him call Rome the darkness. Only liars redifine the Catholic Church into something it is not so they can tear it down. Not hate. Fact.

Christ founded the Catholic Church. Not hell nor you can tear it down. Read the scripture I gave you again. Good luck, you will need it.

"Christ founded the Catholic Church."

As I recall the Scriptures say the church that Jesus founded was not called anything. But, then Rome never has really followed the Scriptures.

The Body of Christ, the true Church of Jesus Christ on earth, the Church triumphant and universal is not an organization that a man joins, but a family into which children who are elect before the foundation of the earth are adopted in order to become heirs of the righteousness of Christ. Rome has long suffered with a myopia, a sort of grandiosity of self-importance that drew the attention to itself, just like your quote. This is likely what will take it to hell. We call upon Rome to repent...if it can.

But, I suspect it is too busy burying the stories of its pedophilia and protection of dirty priests by Ratzinger. Tragic, but expected when men focus on themselves. Is this more of the non-hate which manifests itself in the "love" of little boys?

No Catholic will ever defend the indefensible. Most of the sex abuse that took place dates back to the 50's and earlier. I would ask you, however, what is being done in non-Catholic communities to stop predatory sex abuse of children? This is not limited to the Catholic Church.

Sex Abuse of Children by Protestant Clergy.

The Catholic Church here, through its bishops in the USCCB, have implemented a program to prevent future occurrences. This includes all members of the community who come in contact with children, from janitors in the schools to volunteers who teach children at the parish level. We all are subjected to fingerprinting and a police background check. We are also required to attend classes on how to identify sexual predators and what actions to take. This is possible because of the centralized nature of the Catholic Church. It is also the reason why the media have been able to focus a laser beam on us. This is not possible in the non-Catholic denominations where there is no one to take responsibility.

Report: Protestant Church Insurers Handle 260 Sex Abuse Cases a Year

Worse still, is the sex abuse of children in the education system.

WHEN BOYS ARE MOLESTED BY TEACHERS AND OTHERS IN POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY

And then there are the camp counselors, Big Brothers of America and the list goes on and on. There is plenty of guilt to go around.

"I’m not surprised you went there. YOPIS has no merit. Neither do you. Your rabid hatred of your fellow Christinas is manifest now in everything you"

Well,part of this you have right. There is no merit in me. And it was a tough lesson to come to, but perhaps someday God will grant the same eye-opening, soul-shaking experience to you.

While the Catholic Church wrongly teaches the Gospels of Matt., Mark, Luke and John are records of Jesus calling men to be good, the real story of these Gospels is that men cannot be good, are not good, will not be good...because they are dead in their trespasses and sin. The Apostle Paul clearly set out this in the letter to the Romans (your org's. hometown). But, it takes God removing the scales from sin-covered eyes for a man to say, "That's true of me."

You may holler YOPIOS to us, but we are rescued because we have been granted a view of just how needy we are. And that is what the Scriptures teach, and that is what any reader would come away with...were they not chained to the false self-help gospel of Rome. The Catholic view props men up to focus on themsleves, their accomplishments, their ceremonies, their words of penance (hail mary, our fathers, etc.), their righteousness until the parishoners are more sons of hell than their Pharisaical leaders.

But, my rebellion against Christ has been undone. I pray (not some silly rosary, but directly to God my Father), that your heart may be softened to reread the Scriptures without the Rome-colored glasses. We love the brothers and sisters in Christ and fellowship with anyone who recognizes Christ is Rescuer, alone. Organizations are incidental.

And the reason that I pointed you toward the pedophilia problem of Roman Catholic Church is that when a men demand recognition and claim the gospel is essentially a self-generated personal righteousness, that message is starkly dissonant when those same men cannot control the sin raging in their souls and bodies. Yet they stand before your crowds and tell you to do as they say, not as they are able to do. The intense hypocrisy does not seem to capture their attention. This is the blindness to which I refer. It will be removed only by God's decision to allow Rome to repent.

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