Regeneration, while sometimes perceived to be a step in the Ordo salutis

Ordo salutis

Ordo salutis, refers to the series of conceptual steps within the Christian doctrine of salvation. It has been defined as "a technical term of Protestant dogmatics to designate the consecutive steps in the work of the Holy Spirit in the appropriation of salvation." Although there is within...

('order of salvation

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

'), is generally understood in Christian theology

Christian theology

- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...

 to be the objective work of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 in a believer's life. Spiritually, it means that God brings Christians to new life from a previous state of subjection to the decay of death (Ephesians 2:4). While the exact Greek

Koine Greek

Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

 noun palingensia ("rebirth" or "regeneration") appears just twice in the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 (Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...

 19:28 and Titus

Epistle to Titus

The Epistle of Paul to Titus, usually referred to simply as Titus, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles , traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...

 3:5), regeneration represents a wider theme of re-creation and spiritual re-birth. Furthermore there is the sense in which regeneration includes the concept "being born again" (John

Gospel of John

The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...

 3:3-8 and 1 Peter

First Epistle of Peter

The First Epistle of Peter, usually referred to simply as First Peter and often written 1 Peter, is a book of the New Testament. The author claims to be Saint Peter the apostle, and the epistle was traditionally held to have been written during his time as bishop of Rome or Bishop of Antioch,...

 1:3).

Regeneration Summary

Regeneration is a topic that is one of the key elements of the Christian faith. It is through regeneration, or rebirth, that an individual is able to become one with Christ. Galatians 3:28 states that “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” By saying that we are all one, what is meant is that the individual identities that we are categorized in go away once we put faith is Jesus Christ. This is because Christ came to earth and lived a perfect life, then died for our sins and conquered death by rising from the dead so that we would not have to die for our transgressions, and spend an eternity in hell. So what does it mean to put faith in Christ? Putting faith in Christ means that you trust him with your life, leaving your past ways of life behind, hence the term rebirth. What happens when you are reborn? There are a number of things that happen when a person is reborn. First, they receive forgiveness of their sins, and are seen as blameless in God’s eyes. Ephesians 1:4 states that “God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” We are only seen as faultless when we are “in Christ”, or we put our faith in Christ and believe he died for our sins. The second thing that happens to someone who experiences regeneration through Christ is that they become a new person. 2 Corinthians explains this concept by saying that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun”. Because we have put our faith in Christ we have a new way of thinking, a new of acting, and a new way of viewing the world. Many times when someone has given their life to Christ, others around them will see a complete change in the person. This is because, as stated earlier, their life been renewed, and they view life through the eyes of Christ because that person and Christ has become one. The next thing that happens to a person who undergoes regeneration through Christ is that they become apart of the body of Christ. No matter the individual’s background, social class, economic income, or race, once they give their life to Christ, they become apart of the body of Christ, meaning they have the same identity as other believers. An example of this that further explains this concept can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:13, which says, “Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But, we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit”. The Final aspect of regeneration I will discuss is how someone receives the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is sort of like a stamp from God the claims you are His’. Ephesians 1:13 says that when we believed in Christ “he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit”. In verse 14 it goes on to state “the Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he purchased us to be his own people”. The Holy Spirit was sent to earth so that those who believed in Christ, and trusted their life in him would not forget what had been promised to them, which is eternal life. It dwells within a believer and is constant reminder that God is with them.

Baptismal regeneration

Lutheran

Lutheranism

Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 and Roman Catholic theology holds that "baptism confers cleansing of [original] sin, the infusion of regenerating grace and union with Christ." Official Roman Catholic teaching specifically states that regeneration commences with baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

.

General evangelicalism

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

During the period of the Great Awakening

Great Awakening

The term Great Awakening is used to refer to a period of religious revival in American religious history. Historians and theologians identify three or four waves of increased religious enthusiasm occurring between the early 18th century and the late 19th century...

, emphasis in Protestant

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 theology began to be placed on regeneration as the starting point of an individual's new life in Christ.

Pelagianism

Pelagianism

Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius , although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without...

Pelagius

Pelagius

Pelagius was an ascetic who denied the need for divine aid in performing good works. For him, the only grace necessary was the declaration of the law; humans were not wounded by Adam's sin and were perfectly able to fulfill the law apart from any divine aid...

 believed that people were born pure, with God's spirit already at work, making the need for spiritual regeneration from a previous sinful state irrelevant. Since Pelagius, modernist

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 theology

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...

 has seen regeneration as more a matter of education than spiritual renewal.

Calvinism and Reformed theology

Reformed theology

Calvinism

Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...

 views baptism as an outward sign of God's internal work. So, for example, the French Protestant reformer John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

 describes regeneration as the "secret operation of the Holy Spirit."

Arminianism

Arminian theology

Arminianism

Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

 holds that after a believer has made the faithful decision to follow Christ, God regenerates them spiritually.

Comparison among Protestants

This table summarizes the classical views of three different Protestant beliefs.

Topic	Lutheranism	Calvinism Calvinism Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...	Arminianism Arminianism Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
Justification	Justification of all of his people completed at Christ's death	Justification is limited to those predestined to salvation, completed at Christ's death	Justification made possible for all through Christ's death, but only completed upon placing faith in Jesus

>

See also

• Altar call
  Altar call
  An altar call is a practice in some evangelical churches in which those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church building. In the Old Testament, an...
  
  
• Augustine of Hippo
  Augustine of Hippo
  Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
  
  
• Born again
• Conversion to Christianity
  Conversion to Christianity
  Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to some form of Christianity. It has been called the foundational experience of Christian life...
  
  
• Decision theology
  Decision theology
  Decision theology is the belief by some fundamentalist and evangelical sects of Christianity that individuals must make a conscious decision to "accept" and follow Christ . Some Christian denominations object to the "decision theology" theory as contradicting the monergism of orthodox historic...
  
  
• Evangelicalism
  Evangelicalism
  Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
  
  
• Evangelism
  Evangelism
  Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
  
  
• Holy Spirit
• Justus Velsius
• Monergism
  Monergism
  Monergism describes the position in Christian theology of those who believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about effectually the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual...
  
   and synergism
• Sinner's prayer
  Sinner's prayer
  A sinner's prayer is an evangelical term referring to any prayer of repentance, spoken or read by individuals who feel convicted of the presence of sin in their life and desire to form or renew a personal relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. It is not intended as liturgical like a...
  
  

External links

• A Discussion of “Experience” and “Decision” in Relation to Salvation - A Lutheran perspective
• Decisionism: An Invitation to Cross-Less Christianity - Adapted from Becoming an Emissary for God by Allen Atzbi
• Theological Observer Charles Finney on Theology and Worship by Lawrence R. Rast, Jr.
• Decision Theology: Can you make a decision for Christ? Extreme Theology