{"id":15451,"date":"2025-03-02T20:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T01:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15451"},"modified":"2025-03-03T20:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:35:36","slug":"question-regarding-john-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15451\/question-regarding-john-35\/","title":{"rendered":"Question regarding: John 3:5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a quick question about water baptism.\u00a0 My Dad made sure to make mention to me today that if I do not believe in water baptism anymore, why did Jesus say it in John 3:5? He also made mention that the extra gifts are not required, which really made me question him because the Bible says we must be Born Again to enter into Heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

I told him because they were all under the old law, water baptism was still in effect. I tried to explain how Jesus was the testator of the New Testament and how it wasn\u2019t in effect yet. \u00a0\u00a0My Dad had a hard time with that also.\u00a0 Is my answer to him correct?\u00a0\u00a0I try to be studied up for these questions, but want to make sure I\u2019m on the right track since I\u2019m still new to the Truth since I\u2019ve been lied to in church religion my whole life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Name Withheld<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi \u2014\u2014,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In John 3:5, Jesus was not speaking of water baptism.\u00a0\u00a0Here is what he said that night to Nicodemus: \u201cTruly, truly, I tell you, unless a man be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0But that is not all that Jesus said.\u00a0\u00a0In the next verse, Jesus said to Nicodemus, \u201cWhat is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0That is an explanation of what Jesus said in verse 5.\u00a0\u00a0To be \u201cborn of water\u201d is to be born \u201cof the flesh\u201d; when a pregnant woman\u2019s water breaks, her baby is about to be born.\u00a0\u00a0The Bible never says anything about a person being born by being baptized in water.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Everybody on earth, saint or sinner, has been born of water; that is how we all got here.\u00a0\u00a0And that is why Jesus then said to Nicodemus (verse 7), \u201cYou must be born\u00a0again.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0That \u201cyou\u201d in that verse is plural in Greek; Jesus was referring to all people, not just Nicodemus.\u00a0\u00a0Then, in verse 8, he describes to Nicodemus what the born-again experience will be like: \u201cThe wind blows wherever it will, and you hear its sound, but you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s coming from or where it\u2019s going.\u00a0\u00a0So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0That is exactly what happened to Jesus\u2019 followers on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If people (all of whom have been born naturally) must be born by being baptized with water and then born by being baptized with the Spirit, Jesus would have told Nicodemus, \u201cYou must be born two more times\u201d, not just \u201cagain\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus knew that Nicodemus (and everyone else on earth) had the first birth; he was telling him that they all need the second one.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

John\u2019s baptism in water was still in effect at the time Nicodemus went to Jesus, as you said, but that fact has nothing to do with what Jesus said to Nicodemus that evening about the new birth.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Keep praying for your Dad.\u00a0\u00a0I am glad you had a conversation with him, and I hope that continues.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Your servant in Christ,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us what you think:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1896736036853796900<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John, I have a quick question about water baptism.\u00a0 My Dad made sure to make mention to me today that if I do not believe in water baptism anymore, why did Jesus say it in John 3:5? He also made mention that the extra gifts are not required, which really made me question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15453,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15451\/revisions\/15453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}