Born Again is Not a Denomination, It's an Event.

The Baptists or so-called Born Again Christians believes that they are the only people who can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. According to the Born Again Christians, their group can be founded in this verse of the Bible (using the NIV)...

"In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." - John 3:3 (New International Version - Protestant Bible)

That is the basis of the Born Again Christian. They use the term "born again" very literal. For them, the term "born again" is a denomination. It is a religion for them. They can't understand the real meaning of the term "born again." In the Roman Catholic Bible, John 3:3 is...

"Jesus answered: 'I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" - John 3:3 (The Jerusalem Bible)

For the Jerusalem Bible, it's not Born Again but Born from Above. What does born from above means? Let us take a look in the Holy Scriptures again...

"Jesus replied: 'I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God:" - John 3:5 (The Jerusalem Bible)

Even the NIV Bible deals with that passage from the Roman Catholic Bible...

"Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit" - John 3:5 (New International Version - Protestant Bible)

Now. I have a question for you. What event do you think where you can be born of water and the Spirit (the Holy Spirit)? Of course, in Baptism. That is the only event I know that you can be born of water and Spirit. That's all and God Bless. Shalom.

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Why Luther Removed the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books?

The Roman Catholic Apocrypha/Deuterocanon are the books in the Holy Scriptures mostly seen in the Old Testament. According to Wikipedia, the Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. Marin Luther, the founder and leader of Protestantism, removed the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books because the Apocryphal books doesn't support Luther's Protestant Teachings. Example the salvation because of good works. The Protestants really deny it, they believe that only the Word of God (The Bible) will only save them. But the Apocrypha says...

"...Better to practise almsgiving than to hoard up gold. Almsgiving saves from death and purges every kind of sin..." - Tobit 12:8-9 (The Jerusalem Bible)

But even the New Testament agrees with this statement that salvation should be with works...

"There you see it: faith and deeds were working together; his faith became perfect by what he did." - James 2:22 (The Jerusalem Bible)

"A body dies when it is separated from the spirit, and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds." - James 2:26 (The Jerusalem Bible)

See. The New Testament even agrees with the Apocryphal passage. The Apocrypha supports the Purgatory doctrine which is against Martin Luther's Doctrine...

"after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmae, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered... so that they might be released from their sin." - 2nd Maccabees 12:43, 45 (The Jerusalem Bible)

That's why the Protestants are not including the Apocryphal Books as part of the Holy Scriptures. The Protestants can't accept that their doctrines are wrong. The Protestants are only picking Bible verses that supports their doctrine and anti-Catholic doctrines. That is why Martin Luther removed the Apocryphal books in his Bible (Luther Bible) and some other Protestant Bibles (New International Version, King James Version, English Standard Version etch.) removed it too. It's really scary.

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