Q. The "New Life Movement" teaches that when a person is born again that he receives a "new spirit" and that his "old spirit" is destroyed (Ezek.11:19; 36:26). Is this true?

No. Our spirit (Heb. ruach, Gk. pneuma) is our personality, our being, the immortal part of us that existed before we were born and which will exist after we have died. It is the real self.

Yahweh said to Ezekiel: "I will give them one heart {an undivided heart -- NIV}, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (Ezek.11:19, KJV). "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh" (36:26, KJV). Yahweh continues: "I will put my own spirit within you, I will make you live by My laws, and you shall obey and observe My orders" (v.27, Moff.). If we go back a couple of verses He says: "..I will pour clean water over you, cleansing you for your impurities and purifying you..." (v.25, Moff., cp. Eph.5:25-26). There can be little doubt that all these passages refer to the Holy Spirit which "cleanses" and "purifies". There is no evidence either here or elsewhere in the Bible that our own spirits are exchanged for new ones.

Rather, the consistent picture of the Scriptures, no better illustrated than in Jesus' parable of the leaven (Lk.13:20-21), is that God's Spirit -- the Holy Spirit -- enters a believer and begins to effect a gradual change on his own spirit, as he is true and faithful to the commandments. The Holy Spirit, like the leaven in the lump of dough, which is the human spirit, gradually transforms the soul to become more Christ-like. This process is called sanctification (1 Thes.5:23).

The "New Life" teaching on the "exchanging of spirits" is a very dangerous one because it leads to the terrible illusion that a person has in some way been completely transformed into a Christ-like person instantaneously upon profession of faith in Christ. And this in turn can lead people to believe that they are no longer capable of sin, that they have automatically made it to heaven, and many other pernicious heresies.

The Saviour and the apostles consistently taught that the transformation of a soul into the image of Christ is a gradual process. To get this point across He consistently used allegories like the growth of crops, the birth of a baby (which goes through a process of gestation after conception, and growth after birth). Common sense alone ought to tell us that we continue to sin -- only Christ has lived a fully human life without sinning (Heb.4:15). Those who say they are without sin are not only deceiving themselves and others they are trying to win over to the Gospel (1 Jn.1:8) but puffing themselves up in vanity (Col.2:18, KJV). And vanity is iniquity (Jer.2:5).

Once again we can see how false doctrine leads to a complete perversion of the Gospel and takes souls deeper into sin. One of the fruits of false doctrine is invariably arrogance and a lack of humility: "For Yahweh taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation" (Ps.149:4, KJV).

This page was created on 16 October 1997 Last updated on 26 February 1998

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