We begin with an explosive text, teaching as it does about a mysterious, invisible birth—a mystic birth. Here is how it reads:
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11-13)
Such a text cannot be properly handled without getting into areas that some may consider radical. It cannot be handled without considering the fact that there are many people in the world who are God's creation but not God's children.
It cannot be handled without an admission that we do truly believe in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. (Stay with me and see what the Word of God says about these concepts!)
It cannot be handled without considering the refusal of many "believing Christians" to accept the terms of true discipleship—the willingness to turn our backs on everything worldly for Jesus' sake.
It cannot be handled without discussing the fact that receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord must be an aggressive act of the total personality and not a passive "acceptance" that makes a door-to-door salesman of the Savior.
And it certainly cannot be handled without a warning that evangelical Christianity is on a deadend street if it is going to continue to accept religious activity as a legitimate proof of spirituality.
In this text God informs us about certain people being born. That is significant. God has stepped out of His way to talk about certain persons being born, and we know that He never does anything without purpose. Everything He does is alive, meaningful and brilliantly significant. Why should the great God Almighty, who rounded the earth in the hollow of His hand, who set the sun shining in the heavens and flung the stars to the farthest corner of the night—why should this God take important lines in the Bible record to talk about people being born?
Quote #2,
Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, predigested, sliced and salted and expect that God must come and hold the food to their baby lips while they pound the table and splash? And we think that is Christianity! It is not. Such a degenerate, illegitimate breed have no right to be called Christians.
Those who insist that the Lord God humor them, letting them continue on as they are and still say in the end, "Come, faithful servants," are fools. Someone needs to tell them so now!
—Faith Beyond Reason
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