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The Born Again Experience: What It Gives, What It Takes, What It Costs

© Richard Kent Matthews

I was once approached by a young man on the downtown streets of a large western American city. He asked me this question: "Would you like to inherit eternal life?"

"Who wouldn't!" I responded.

"May I tell you how to do so?" he asked gently.

I knew what was coming. "Are you sure you really want to?"

"Yes, I am."

"Go ahead, then, tell me."

After informing me that he referred to himself as a born-again evangelical full gospel dispensationalist Pentecostal street missionary, the conversation went something like this:

"You must accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. The only way you can do that is to admit that you are a sinner. It is only in that confession that the Lord can save you."

"Is that all there is to it? If I simply say I'm a sinner and accept Jesus, then everything is OK from here on out?" I asked.

"Well, yes and no. When you accept the Lord, you also accept a new way of living."

"You mean, I have to give up things?"

"It's partially that, but it's more."

"I know the basic stuff. Drinking, smoking, that sort of thing. But let me ask you a question: do I have to give up my belief that everyone is free to choose his or her own path to God?"

"Yes."

"Do I have to believe that this 'born again' way is the only way? The ONLY truth? The ultimate truth?"

"Yes."

"And do I have to do as you're doing, go out and tell people how wrong they are for not believing as I?"

"Yes."

"Do I have to view Catholics as 'not saved?"'

"Yes, unless they get born again like us. We believe the Roman Catholic church is the Great Whore mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It led the whole Christian world astray for centuries. It is only because of people like me that the truth is finally being revealed."

"And Mormans, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Unitarians, Muslims, and Jews?"

"Yes, unless they become like us. They all subvert the Scriptures, bending them to suit their own programs."

"Must I view women as being in subjugation to men?"

"Yes. Feminists are bound for hell. The man was intended as the authority and head of the family, as Christ is the head of the True Church. God's wrath will be poured out fully on all women who do not submit to the authority of men."

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