General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, at the end of the nineteenth century, once said, "I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be:
RELIGION
WITHOUT THE HOLY GHOST,
Christianity without Christ,
FORGIVENESS WITHOUT
REGENERATION,
Morality without God,
And Heaven without Hell."
This is the bane of modern Christianity, for modern Christianity is WHOLLY WITHOUT THE HOLY GHOST, from the false prophets of the Charismatics and Pentecostals, to the cessationists and conservatives of the Baptists and Presbyterians.
Dwight Moody, also in the nineteenth century, perceptively observed --
|
"I think the grandest mistake among ministers is that they are talking to dead men, that they are talking to men in the flesh instead of men born of God. Now, let us get them into Christ, and then educate them and build them up to the highest faith. Let us not try to teach men who are not born of God." D. L. Moody, Sudden Conversion |
Never were those words truer than today. And even in Bunyan's day, at the very height of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Puritans as the fruit of the Reformation, Bunyan himself nevertheless somberly noted --
|
"Scarce one of forty professors know what it is to be born again... O what a dreadful after-clap is coming upon them! which all their hypocritical assembling themselves, with all their prayers, shall never be able to help them against, or shelter them from... To say God is your Father in a way of prayer or conference without any experiment of the work of grace in your souls is to say you are Jews and are not, and so to lie." John Bunyan, A Discourse Touching Prayer |
The number of genuinely born again Christians today is VASTLY FEWER in percent than in Bunyan's day. VASTLY FEWER. That's because the pastors and evangelists are themselves not born again. It is EXTREMELY RARE to meet a genuinely born again pastor or evangelist today. EXTREMELY RARE. And you certainly won't find them on the television, nor will you find their books in the local Christian bookstore. This generation of professing Christianity is WHOLLY of the FLESH, from the pastors and the evangelists down to the individual members of the congregations they preach to.
If you find all of this hard to believe, or if the above is not your observation as well, then you merely testify of yourself that you are just as unregenerate as the rest, that you yourself are a complete stranger to the UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the NEW BIRTH.
When is the last time you watched someone preach in DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, AND OF POWER? When did Jesus Christ HIMSELF PERSONALLY INTRODUCE HIMSELF (that is not metaphor) to you in the UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE of the NEW BIRTH? 1 Corinthians 2:4
If the following four testimonies are not testimonies that you yourself can HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY own and proclaim, then you are deluding yourself if you think you're born again --
|
People are not born again when they are in bed and asleep, so that they do not know it. They FEEL it; they EXPERIENCE it. Galvanism, or the power of electricity, may be mysterious; BUT THEY PRODUCE A FEELING, A SENSATION. SO DOES THE NEW BIRTH." C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume I, The Victory Of Faith "WHEN I FIRST DISCOVERED WHAT FAITH REALLY WAS, AND EXERCISED IT -- for with me these two things came together, I BELIEVED AS SOON AS EVER I KNEW WHAT BELIEVING MEANT -- then I thought I had never before heard that truth preached." C. H. Spurgeon, Autobiography -- The Great Change - Conversion "Why, if thou art born again... THOU KNOWEST THAT GOD HATH GIVEN THEE THY FAITH... WHEN DID THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD JESUS SHEW THEE THAT THOU HADST NO FAITH IN THEE BY NATURE? And when did the Spirit of Christ convince thee of sin because thou didst not believe in him?... ART THOU BORN AGAIN?... Then thou seest that thy great sin was want of faith in the Son of Mary... THEN THOU KNOWEST THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THEE THY FAITH that thou hast in his Son: Then thou art to say through grace that THERE WAS A TIME IN WHICH I COULD NOT BELIEVE IN THE SON OF GOD FOR ETERNAL LIFE." John Bunyan, Some Gospel Truths Opened "NONE OF US BELIEVE BY NATURE: but after the Holy Ghost has convinced us of the sin of our natures, and the sin of our lives and duties, in order to convince us of our utter inability to save ourselves, AND THAT WE MUST BE BEHOLDEN TO GOD, AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, SO FOR FAITH (without which it is impossible to please, or be saved by Christ) HE CONVINCES US ALSO, THAT WE HAVE NO FAITH." George Whitefield, Sermon, The Holy Spirit Convincing The World Of Sin, Righteousness, And Judgment |
I repeat -- and the Holy Spirit HIMSELF so testifies -- if the above testimonies are not your own by EXPERIENCE, you are deluding yourself if you think you're born again.
Jesus taught there are FEW saved, and that truth was never more applicable than to this generation. But then, this is EXACTLY what the Bible predicted, for this is the generation which will witness the return of Jesus Christ, and thus this generation is the GREAT APOSTATE GENERATION of the world. Matthew 7:14, Matthew 22:14, Luke 17:26-37, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Be warned: you will NOT set foot in the kingdom of heaven unless you are GENUINELY BORN AGAIN -- MIRACULOUSLY BORN AGAIN, for the NEW BIRTH is a GREATER MIRACLE than created the very WORLDS.
|
"The doctrine of REGENERATION is absolutely foundational. It is because so many do not realize this that they have a wrong view of evangelism, and become interested overmuch in decisions... in every single instance that is given in the New Testament of people receiving this gift of the Holy Spirit, it is always accompanied by much and strong feeling, and by the knowledge that they have received it... The answer of the New Testament is that when the Holy Spirit came upon the early Christians they knew it... you cannot be baptized or filled with the Spirit without knowing it." D. M. Lloyd-Jones -- Romans, The Sons Of God "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Romans 8:9 "In that great and terrible day, there will be those WHITE WITH SHOCK when they find that they have depended upon a mental assent to Christianity instead of upon the miracle of the new birth." A. W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit, Vol I "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Romans 8:9 "Give someone an ELECTRIC SHOCK and I warrant you he will know it, BUT IF HE HAS THE HOLY GHOST, HE WILL KNOW IT MUCH MORE." C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol XXX, Receiving The Holy Ghost "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Romans 8:9 |
Would you be born again? GENUINELY born again?
Then take wise counsel -- pick up a Bible based on the Traditional Text -- in English, the ONLY VALID Bible based on the Traditional Text is the King James Bible -- and then read with SOLEMNITY, beginning in the Gospels preferably, and beg Jesus Christ to reveal himself to you, and give him no rest until he does, for if you read the TRUE written Word of God, you will find the Lord of Glory, even Jesus Christ, moving upon the face of the waters in its pages, just as he moved upon the face of the waters when he walked across the Sea of Galilee, and if you follow the advice just given, and if you persist, Jesus Christ HIMSELF will verily MANIFEST HIMSELF to you (for he HIMSELF promises to do this for those who truly heed this advice), just as he MANIFESTED HIMSELF to his disciples when he moved upon the face of the waters as he walked across the stormy sea some two thousand years ago, and just as he did with ME not too many years ago, and just as he has done with a FEW others from day to day since that time, in this very generation, and just as he will do for YOU if -- IF -- you heed my advice, and if -- IF -- you persist therein, for he who promised is FAITHFUL. John 14:21, Matthew 14:25-27
The Great Gamble
Regeneration And The Holy Spirit
Where Have All The Preachers Gone?