Preface

Today being “born again” is big news. Time magazine carries a feature story on “Born Again Faith.” Political candidates give the subject as much attention as the latest economic statistics or the energy crisis. A former Black Panther leader and radical of the 1960s returns from exile and announces, “My life has turned 180 degrees. I have been born again.” A man who was deeply involved in one of the most publicized political scandals of our time writes a bestseller explaining the change in his life as a result of being born again. A Gallup poll comes up with the astonishing conclusion that “more than one-third of those who are old enough to vote have experienced born again religious conversions.”

Born again!

Is it possible? Can life be transformed? What’s it all about? What does it mean? Is it real? Will it last?

How is a person “born again”?

The expression “born again” is not a new term, invented by modern journalists to describe recent religious trends. The term “born again” is almost two thousand years old. One dark night, in the ancient city of Jerusalem, Jesus turned to one of the best-known intellectuals of his time and said, “I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In those words Jesus told us of both the necessity and the possibility of new birth—of spiritual transformation. Since that time untold millions throughout the ages have attested to the reality and the power of God in their lives through being born again.

A young Marine Corps officer, a veteran of the Vietnam War, described publicly the night battle in Vietnam when he and his troops came under enemy attack. Only a few were lifted out alive by helicopter. The sixteen surgical operations he endured had helped to restore his physical powers, but now he was speaking of the spiritual rebirth he had received since returning home. He said, “We bear an allegiance to the flag of our country, but unless we have been born again through faith in Christ, all our religion is worth nothing.”

This lieutenant had been born again.

I think of the great Dutch Christian, Corrie ten Boom, who is now in her eighties. Her story of courage in the midst of Nazi persecution has inspired millions. She tells of an experience when she was only five years old when she said, “I want Jesus in my heart.” She described how her mother took her little hand in hers and prayed with her. “It was so simple, and yet Jesus Christ says that we all must come as children, no matter what our age, social standing, or intellectual background.”

Corrie ten Boom, at the age of five, had been born again.

I have had countless people tell me, in person and by letter, how they were born again and their lives were changed. A man from Milwaukee wrote:

Tonight my wife and I had come to the brink of ending our marriage. We felt we could no longer stay together under the conditions in which we were living. Both of us admitted that we thought we no longer loved each other. I no longer enjoyed her company nor appreciated my home life. We made bitter statements about each other. We could make no compromise, nor could we agree on how to improve our marriage even if we were to try.

I believe it was God’s will that I turned on the television and listened to your message about spiritual rebirth. As my wife watched with me, we began to search our hearts and felt a new life within us. I prayed that God would come into my heart and truly make me a new man and help me begin a new life. Our troubles seem rather slight now.

Both this man and his wife were born again.

What does it mean to be born again? It is not just a remodeling job, performed somehow by us on ourselves. Today we hear a lot about recycling, reconstruction, and reshaping. We renovate houses and add on more rooms. We tear down old buildings and build new ones in our cities, calling it urban renewal. Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on health spas, beauty resorts, and exotic cosmetics—all by people hoping to reshape their faces or renew their bodies.

In like manner, people frantically pursue all sorts of promised cures for the renewal of their inner lives. Some people hunt for renewal at the psychiatrist’s office. Others search for spiritual renewal in exotic oriental religions or processes of inward meditation. Still others seek inner peace and renewal in drugs or alcohol. Whatever the path, however, they eventually come to a dead end. Why? Simply because man cannot renew himself. God created us. Only God can re-create us. Only God can give us the new birth we so desperately want and need.

I believe this is one of the most important subjects in the entire world. Governments may be elected or may topple. Military machines may advance and retreat. Men may explore outer space or probe the ocean depths. All of these events are part of the grand plan for humans on this planet.

But the central theme of the universe is the purpose and destiny of every individual. Every person is important in God’s eyes. That is why God is not content to stand with His arms folded (as it were) and simply watch the human race wallow in misery and destruction. The greatest news in the universe is that we can be born again! “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This new birth happens in all kinds of ways. It may seem to happen over a period of time or in a moment. The paths that people take to reach that point of decision may be very direct or very circuitous. Whatever the path, we always find Christ at the end to welcome us. And that encounter with Christ, that new birth, is the beginning of a whole new path in life under His control. Lives can be remarkably changed, marriages excitingly improved, societies influenced for good—all by the simple, sweeping surge of individuals knowing what it is to be born again.

It may be that down inside you sense an unnamed need you cannot describe. Perhaps you have been consciously searching all your life to fill a void in your heart and to find a purpose for living. Perhaps outwardly you have been very successful in life, but you know it has not brought you peace and true happiness. Perhaps your life is an unbroken chain of heartaches and shattered dreams. Maybe you are just curious.

Whatever your background may be, I pray that God will use this little book to give you hope—to show you that you, too, can be born again.

How to Be Born Again is not for the theologians or the philosophers. There are many learned works of theology that probe the meaning of the new birth (or “regeneration,” as theologians often call it). I know there have been different emphases among theologians concerning the new birth. Some have stressed the importance of what God does to bring us to faith. Some have stressed the importance of man’s search for faith. Some have thought of the new birth as a single event in time, while others use the term to speak of all God wills to do in our lives. Ultimately there is a mystery about the new birth; we cannot understand everything about it, for our minds are finite.

However much the theologians may disagree about fine points of doctrine, the central truth of the new birth is clear: Man apart from God is spiritually dead. He needs to be born again. Only by God’s grace through faith in Christ can this new birth take place.

My concern has been to make this book practical. Although we may not be able to say everything possible about the new birth, I have wanted to say everything that was necessary to help people who really want to know God. I want to help them come to have this life-changing experience. I want them—I want you—to be born again. I believe God wants you to be born again.

I was already working on this book when the term “born again” became big news. I have sensed the blessing of God as I have continued writing, and have sensed also that God may have led me to write this book at just the right time as millions wonder about being born again.

I gave my original manuscript to my friends Paul Fromer and Carole Carlson—and asked for help. Then with the added help of my wife and of Cliff and Billie Barrows, we finished it in a little apartment provided by dear Mexican friends while I recuperated from an illness.

Thus, my deepest appreciation to Bill and Vivian Mead of Dallas, Texas, and our wonderful friends, the Servitje family in Mexico, for making our working, recuperating period possible; to Paul Fromer, professor at Wheaton College, and to my secretary, Stephanie Wills, who typed and retyped the manuscript; for the wonderful encouragement and help from my wife, Ruth; for the comments of Dr. John Akers and Mrs. Millie Dienert; but especially to Carole Carlson for the magnificent work she did in helping to simplify what may have been too deep and theological for people all over the world who I pray will read this book and experience “the new birth.”

Billy Graham Montreat, North Carolina May 1, 1977

Author’s Note

I am using the words born again and regeneration in their widest possible terms in this book. I recognize that in one sense they can be narrowly defined theologically, and in another sense cover the whole range of what we mean by “Salvation.” (The term new birth has been used in a wide and in a restricted sense; it may signify the whole process of salvation including the preparatory work of conviction and the concluding work of discipleship and, ultimately, glorification; or it can be used only for that act of imparting spiritual life, excluding the preparation phase and the lifetime phase.)

I recognize that different denominations have slightly different interpretations. For example, the Roman Catholic Church regards regeneration as meaning everything in the transition from a position of condemnation on earth to a state of salvation in heaven. The Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord use the new birth or regeneration in the wide meaning but distinguish between justification and sanctification. In the Reformed Churches, such as the Presbyterians, the term is used in the wide significance, but also distinguishes between justification and sanctification. Thus reformed theologians include not only the new birth but all that comes from it. Calvin taught that the new birth was the restoration of the Divine image within us. He believed that the new birth came not only by an instantaneous act of Divine life being infused to the spiritually dead, but also the various processes of spiritual growth that followed. The Westminster Confession of Faith never used the term regeneration, but used the term effectual calling. This meant the entire work of the Holy Spirit in the application of total redemption.

Sometimes these uses of the terms new birth and regeneration have led to semantic differences. In this book I am not making these distinctions but simply stating what most denominations basically believe historically—that man needs regeneration and to be born again—and how he may go about it if he lacks the assurance or if he has never made this commitment, whether he is a church member or not.