The material intellect is present long before we self-consciously realize that it is the temporal seat of our personal identity. By analogy we might suppose that the soul is present long before we are “born again” and self-consciously realize that it is the potentially eternal seat of our personal identity.
I think what they’re talking about is recognition of the soul, or soul-consciousness, and a commitment to live a “soul-conscious” life. This goes with the definition:
34:6.7 Those who have received and recognized the indwelling of God have been born of the Spirit. “You are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwells in you.” It is not enough that this spirit be poured out upon you; the divine Spirit must dominate and control every phase of human experience.
Those who recognize the presence of God within the soul and allow him to dominate their will . . . I will that thy will be done . . . are those who are born again, or reborn in the spirit. There are people who do not recognize the presence of God within or commit themselves to doing God’s will even though they have souls. Being born again simply means making a conscious pact of loyalty to the process of being perfected by the Perfecter.
Elsewhere in TUB we’re told that those who have been born of the spirit are the faith-sons of God (34:6.4). To be a faith-son requires recognition of the Father. Again, the word recognition. We’re also told that faith-sons work on intellectual and spiritual levels far above the physical level (34:7.7), which I understand to be the soul-level of consciousness.
We also are told what Jesus said to the afraid boy, Fortune, concerning being born again, or “born of the spirit”. He said that rebirth causes a readjustment to life within which then results in a readjustment to the universe without (130:6.4). It is my opinion that this readjustment comes from the awakening of recognition of the presence of God within the soul, the Adjuster.
130:6.4 “This day, my son, you are to be reborn, re-established as a man of faith, courage, and devoted service to man, for God’s sake. And when you become so readjusted to life within yourself, you become likewise readjusted to the universe; you have been born again – born of the spirit – and henceforth will your whole life become one of victorious accomplishment. Trouble will invigorate you; disappointment will spur you on; difficulties will challenge you; and obstacles will stimulate you. Arise, young man! Say farewell to the life of cringing fear and fleeing cowardice. Hasten back to duty and live your life in the flesh as a son of God, a mortal dedicated to the ennobling service of man on earth and destined to the superb and eternal service of God in eternity.”
Yes, religion is functional in the mind and experienced by the personality before it becomes conscious, but what is the definition of religion in this case? I believe they are referring to the pursuit of values. Mind ministry, unless thwarted, naturally draws thoughts spiritward. The spirit of worship (6th adjutant) is the source of the religious impulse (36:5.11). Long before the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the soul, the mind of an individual has natural religious urges due to this ministry. Yet, this does not qualify as being born of the spirit until the Holy Spirit actually arrives in the mind with the birth of the soul. Rebirth is when the individual recognizes that it has happened and chooses to embrace it. It may occur suddenly or gradually. It may take a few years or a whole lifetime, but when it happens there is a major readjustment to reality because it signals entrance into the kingdom of heaven and faith-son status. That is your re-birthday.
103:2.1 Religion is functional in the human mind and has been realized in experience prior to its appearance in human consciousness. A child has been in existence about nine months before it experiences birth. But the “birth” of religion is not sudden; it is rather a gradual emergence. Nevertheless, sooner or later there is a “birth day.” You do not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have been “born again” — born of the Spirit. Many spiritual births are accompanied by much anguish of spirit and marked psychological perturbations, as many physical births are characterized by a “stormy labor” and other abnormalities of “delivery.” Other spiritual births are a natural and normal growth of the recognition of supreme values with an enhancement of spiritual experience, albeit no religious development occurs without conscious effort and positive and individual determinations. Religion is never a passive experience, a negative attitude. What is termed the “birth of religion” is not directly associated with so-called conversion experiences which usually characterize religious episodes occurring later in life as a result of mental conflict, emotional repression, and temperamental upheavals.
Jesus explained that being reborn means entering the kingdom of heaven:
141:6.4 That night Jesus discoursed to the apostles on the new life in the kingdom. He said in part: “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men—always be patient. It is not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply go forth proclaiming: This is the kingdom of heaven—God is your Father and you are his sons, and this good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation.”
Note he mentions wholeheartedness which implies a level of committed consciousness to live as a faith-son in the kingdom. This now becomes TRUE religion, rather than the adjutant religious impulse. True religion is the religion of the spirit, and that spirit lives within the soul. Soul-consciousness is mindful living, religious living, living in the presence of God, recognition of the Spirit within and a committed personal relationship with him.
155:6.3 I have called upon you to be born again, to be born of the spirit. I have called you out of the darkness of authority and the lethargy of tradition into the transcendent light of the realization of the possibility of making for yourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make—the supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in your own personal experience. And so may you pass from death to life, from the authority of tradition to the experience of knowing God; thus will you pass from darkness to light, from a racial faith inherited to a personal faith achieved by actual experience; and thereby will you progress from a theology of mind handed down by your ancestors to a true religion of spirit which shall be built up in your souls as an eternal endowment.
Jesus’ parable of the carpenter is about being born of the spirit. In it he tells us that the only way to produce the fruits of the spirit is to be born of the spirit, taught by the spirit and live a spirit-filled life, sharing it with others. He also mentions the re-created mind, which I believe is the readjusted mind as explained to Fortune.
156:5.2 It was during this same sermon that Jesus made use of his first and only parable having to do with his own trade – carpentry. In the course of his admonition to “Build well the foundations for the growth of a noble character of spiritual endowments,” he said: “In order to yield the fruits of the spirit, you must be born of the spirit. You must be taught by the spirit and be led by the spirit if you would live the spirit-filled life among your fellows. But do not make the mistake of the foolish carpenter who wastes valuable time squaring, measuring, and smoothing his worm-eaten and inwardly rotting timber and then, when he has thus bestowed all of his labor upon the unsound beam, must reject it as unfit to enter into the foundations of the building which he would construct to withstand the assaults of time and storm. Let every man make sure that the intellectual and moral foundations of character are such as will adequately support the superstructure of the enlarging and ennobling spiritual nature, which is thus to transform the mortal mind and then, in association with that re-created mind, is to achieve the evolvement of the soul of immortal destiny. Your spirit nature – the jointly created soul – is a living growth, but the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which these higher manifestations of human development and divine destiny must spring. The soil of the evolving soul is human and material, but the destiny of this combined creature of mind and spirit is spiritual and divine.”
Here’s another quote describing the business of rebirth and being re-created:
160:1.14 In a continually changing world, in the midst of an evolving social order, it is impossible to maintain settled and established goals of destiny. Stability of personality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus to transfer one’s goal from time to eternity, from earth to Paradise, from the human to the divine, requires that man shall become regenerated, converted, be born again; that he shall become the re-created child of the divine spirit; that he shall gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature. The philosophy which I teach, linked with the gospel which you preach, represents the new religion of maturity, the ideal of all future generations. And this is true because our ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite.
Sorry for the length of this. I have a massive amount of material having written about this in my book on the Holy Spirit. I could go on all day, but have to get some things done. Also, don’t have time to edit this right now, so if there are some grammatical or spelling errors, please forgive. Get to it later.
