Born Once or Twice

The Bible speaks of the natural man and the spiritual man. The natural man has been born once. The spiritual man has been born twice. The natural man has limitations that the spiritual man does not have. One of them is that he does not understand spiritual truths.

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Years ago an agnostic English professor (he is now a Christian) told me that he would read a book recommended by me if I would read a book recommended by him. His book was Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw. Here is a quotation from the preface.

“Not long ago I asked a writer of distinguished intellectual competence whether he had made a study of the gospels since his childhood. His reply was that he had lately tried, but “found it all such nonsense that I could not stick it.”

About ten pages later Bernard Shaw says,

“Let us admit that without the proper clues the gospels are, to a modern educated person, nonsensical and incredible, whilst the apostles are unreadable.”

Bernard Shaw was only agreeing with the New Testament. The New Testament says that the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. Bernard Shaw said that he did not understand. He was identifying himself as a natural man. He thought that the shortcoming was in the New Testament when in reality the shortcoming was in him. He was brilliant, but this kind of understanding does not come with brains; it comes by the Holy Spirit. Bernard Shaw did not have the Holy Spirit. He was a natural man.

My recommendation to the English professor was Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott.

You can contact me by calling (208) 883-0997 or by sending an email to ccm@moscow.com. Our web address is http://ccmbooks.org/.

(From Good News/Bad News)

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