Meaning:
Christians who affirm their renewed and strengthened commitment to their
religion are called `born again'. To be born again is to be `born of the
spirit'; the first birth being the physical birth of the flesh.
Background:
From the Bible, John 3.3 (King James Version):
Jesus answered and said ... Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.
The term began to be used in the 1960s to give a specific name to those who
renewed their faith. The earliest printed reference I can find to `born
again' in this sense is from the Reno Evening Gazette, October 1914:
"It [Christian Science] gives man the opportunity of being born again."
The first that specifically mentions `born again Christians' is the Decatur
Evening Herald (Illinois), December 1928:
"I knew I had the new desires that a born-again Christian acquires."
By the 1980s the term was well enough established in the language for it to
begin appearing in modified forms in jokes (always a good measure of
linguistic acceptance). In 1981, at the start of the Wimbledon Tennis
Tournament, and after Bjorn Borg had won five consecutive titles there, The
Times published an article assessing his chances with the headline `Bjorn
Again?'. Since then an Abba tribute band has also adopted `Bjorn Again' as
their name.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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Wow. Bjorn again. Got to love etymology!
Christians do not have monopoly on being reborn and, for some, reinventing self
throughout life is a necessity. They start with a model, they strive, achieve,
doubt, languish, discover new strength, and grow out of their suffering, like a
snake sloughing off its old skin.
