Bo​az Baptist Chronicles

 
Jesus said, Ye must be born AGAIN!!! Why? The first birth is no good. (Job 11:12; 14:1; 15:14; 25:4)  That's why you need a second one.

The second birth is a picture of what happened at your first birth when you took your first physical breath. Want a verse on it?

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8

Look at that verse, again. According to Jesus (remember Him?), there is something about wind/air that imparts life–spiritual life. If that's true, since the new birth mirrors the old one in many ways, in physical birth there is also something about breath/wind that brings physical life.

Let's looks at Genesis 2:7

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground [you need a body there BEFORE anything else can happen–thus, after the first man was created, it takes approximately nine months for a body to be "formed" in the womb for every other man/woman to be brought forth], and breathed into his nostrils the breath [the life giving spirit from God] of life; and man became a living soul [the combination of the spirit and the flesh produced a soul].

Now, I know what is described above is a one time occurrence. Let's face it, creation was a one time experience that happened to one man—the first man. But, did you ever wonder how God continued Adam's progeny after God's “image” (Genesis 1:26) was lost in Genesis three through sin? Now man would no longer be in the image of God, he would be in the “image” of Adam. (Genesis 5:3) Instead of forming “man of the dust of the ground” like He once did (Genesis 2:7), since He produced both a male and a female (Genesis 1:27), God now had all that was necessary to populate this planet. Corruptible seed and a womb, was all that was needed for God's offspring [Acts 17:28] to continue. Instead of using the dust of the earth, a body would now be formed in a womb of flesh and would take aproximately nine months until it became strong and mature enough physiologically to come into this world; imparting the breath of life, producing a soul.

Some verses that show that breath has to do with life and in some cases in the context include the word "soul" are...

Ezekiel 37:8-10; I Kings 17:17-23; Job 27:3; 33:4....

Now the question comes in...

When do men become souls, at conception or at birth? (There are only two choices, you know.) Scripture seems to indicate birth, by what Jesus said to Nicodemus.  The context of John three is a new birth. Since Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus was trying to tell him, he asked "...How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?" Apparently, by his answer to Jesus, Nicodemus only understood the natural context (thus "his mother's womb") of what Jesus was trying to convey to him. Jesus seized that moment to explain the new birth to him.

One birth was of the water. The other birth was of the Spirit. (...here it comes...) One birth completed a man PHYSICALLY, the other, completed a man SPIRITUALLY.

When someone hears the Gospel for the first time, they conceive "incorruptible seed" (I Peter 1:23) of the word of God, BUT!!! that doesn't mean that they are born-again.  That only means that they conceived the word (it gets planted)...and then someone waters it.   And, finally, God gives the "increase." (I Corinthians 3:6) [In this case, the increase has to do with the new birth.] It's the same in the natural world.... A "corruptible" seed is conceived (planted), it grows in the womb (“watereth”), and when it is able to stay alive (physically) on it's own—without the help of it's mother to sustain its little life, it leaves the womb, breaths on it's own for the first time ever and becomes a living soul. That's only the first stage of man. The first stage shows it's development in the womb (in darkness—see my chart), then it makes an appearance into this world, where, sadly, this new little soul is born dead in trespasses and sins. That's why Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”

Pastor Bob

For further reading on this topic...

http://www.boazbaptist.com/whendoeslifebegin.htm