Update (4/19): Comments are closed on this post, and I know everyone with an opinion wants to broadcast it. I encourage you to visit Wittenberg Gate.
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The day probably began for Marty Minto like any other. The evangelical Christian and radio talk show host was discussing the death of Pope John Paul II. A caller asked Minto if he thought the pope was going to heaven. The Bible-believing Christian answered the question as any Bible-believing Christian would. My response to the question was this (see this post):

[I]f the Pope believed Christ died for his sins, and that we are saved through faith alone in Christ alone by his grace alone, the Pope, like anyone else who believes these things, will be spared from God’s righteous and just punishment.

Minto’s answer was similar. He said that the Bible makes it very clear that unless a person is born again, the person will never enter or see the kingdom of God. WORD-FM, a Christian radio station, fired Marty Minto because his response “alienated listeners.”

What is it about “born again” that’s so alienating? The concept is often maligned and mocked in our unbelieving culture, but every Bible-believing Christian knows it is how we are able to profess Christ. To be born again is to be made anew. The old self, separated from God, has died, and the new creation in Christ exists in its place. The passage that illustrates this most clearly is John 3.

The Sanhedrin was the ruling religious body in Judea during the Roman era. It was fervently opposed to Jesus and later convinced the Romans to kill him. Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin who believed that Jesus had been sent from above, came to see him under the cover of night for fear of being seen by his fellow Jews. He said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,” Jesus said. Nicodemus took this statement literally and asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus was speaking of the second birth, spiritual birth:

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

To be “born again” of water and the Spirit is the regenerative work of Christ. Water in this context is figurative, symbolic of the spiritual “washing away” of sins. If Jesus Christ still walked the earth, he’d be considered the most politically incorrect person alive for claiming that he, and no other, had the power to forgive sins and regenerate the repentant.

This same chapter contains one of the most often quoted and least understood passages in Scripture, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

In this context, “world” does not mean literally the entire planet. It refers to “the elect,” the sinners Christ came to forgive. For his own divine purposes, God chose to spread the Gospel through the testimony of believers and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. This is what evangelical Christians believe, and this is what we do. Only God knows who the elect are, so we are commissioned to share the Gospel with all men, including those who erroneously believe man-made traditions are more authoritative than the word of God.

The freedom to share the Gospel as taught in the Bible was why the Reformation took place. There was a time when people were being burned at the stake for not believing that bread was the literal body of Christ or that the mother of Jesus was sinless. While Marty Minto is no Martin Luther, he was doing what the Reformation gave him and others freedom to do. “Alienating listeners” is just a new cover on the same old, rotten book.

WORD-FM’s motto is “Making it possible to hear the word,” but with Minto’s firing, the words are meaningless. Brannon S. Howe, writing for WorldNetDaily sums it up:

Biblical truth is offensive to nonbelievers and our post-modern country that has over-dosed on non-judgmentalism. The Bible says the Gospel message is foolishness to the unsaved. But is not the purpose of Christian radio to convert the lost? How is that going to ever happen if “Christian” broadcasters fire pastors that defend the biblical doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ alone?

Howe’s question is rhetorical because he knows that conversion of the lost will continue until Christ returns. At that time, it will be too late for those who’ve rejected the Gospel. But Christ has not returned yet, and the good news is that this is still the day of salvation. Christ said:

Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

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Blogs and other links: Real Clear Theology Blog, Reformed Responses, World Magazine blog, Matthew Hall, James White (update here ), Mark La Roi…

Scarborough Country transcript with Minto and guest host Pat Buchanan, a Roman Catholic…