No need for confusion. Evangelcals tend to point out that God is Perfect and ultimately requires all who will live with Him to be perfect too. Humans are by nature infected with sin so that even if they want to live perfectly, by whatever standard they choose, they can't. To err is human indeed. This means that to be human is to be apart from God. Only if one's reality is changed, only if one is born again into perfection can one ever hope to live with God. They point out that with God, all things are possible, even being in this way "born again."
Dear me. I was a feminist, atheist, bitter heathen - totally godless. I argued with Christians and made fun of them constantly. Found myself one day saying to the universe 'Whatever you say, no matter what it is, just talk to me. Help!' My whole worldview, my inward nature clicked on like someone had clicked on a switch. I now can detect God quite clearly. I sense Him with a sense that is beyond my dying flesh.
This flesh really is a pain in the butt, if you really want to know the truth. It causes me to suffer all kinds of crap - mistakes galore, anger, lusts, weariness, hunger. I still have to urinate, just as always. I still struggle against sin, fortunately with increasing success. But there is something new and alive beyond my flesh that is truly me and that will continue onward when this corrupt flesh is finally put into the ground. That thing came into being when I, with all my heart, said to the heavens "help!" I was "born again" at that time. Evangelicals point out that one must be born again in this way if they wish to continue to heaven after death. There is no other way. |
