Born Again

The term “born again” has become popular in some Christian circles over recent years. Charles Colson, Nixon’s “hatchet man”, who went to prison for his part in Watergate, became a Christian through that experience. Today he is president of Prison Fellowship which has a Christian ministry to prison inmates around the world. He entitled his biography Born Again. Billy Graham has written a best seller, How To Be Born Again. The term has even crept into secular usage. Someone who has found a new lease of life may describe themselves as “born again”. In some Christian circles the word is often associated with a more enthusiastic brand of Christianity. Thus, in popular thinking, we have some Christians who are “born again” and some who are not.

 

The term “conversion” has been around for a lot longer, and in its Christian usage describes that experience whereby a person changes from not being a Christian to being an active believer, whatever one may understand by that process. The purpose of this booklet is to clear away some of the fog associated with the use of these terms. I will look first at the use of the terms in the New Testament. After all, if we believe that in some sense the Bible is a revelation of God and his purposes for us, it will be good to find out what he thinks about the matter. Then I will look at human experiences of conversion in order to clarify some of the misunderstandings that exist about it.