I think there are many who don't understand what it means to be born again. Where is this "new creation"?Did it happen or was Paul misleading the good people of Thessalonica? I say it did happen just as Paul promised them. Many people say the "we" he meant was not the people he was writing to! Oh no, don't tell he didn't mean them -- he meant "us" today.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Paul doesn't specifically say he was this person described in the next passage -- but the question is if we can believe what he said?
2 Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God
knoweth; ) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth; )
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
Can we believe John heard a trumpet and was caught up into Heaven? He said it happened. We don't read that Moses was caught up in the air; but we read he went up higher than others at Sinai when the trumpet was sounding, and he returned with his face transfigured. He had been changed somehow.
Was Paul lying or mistaken when he wrote this in the present tense, as if it's already true?
Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Here is the problem for many people. If they haven't experienced it, it seems impossible for anyone to be in more than one place at a time; but it really is true. The "Son of Man" can be in Heaven and also "come down from Heaven."
John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
The person born of the Spirit can move about. He can move like the wind. He is also forever with the Lord. The person born of water is still maturing. . . .
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 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.
This ought not be a mystery since there are several saints who could around like the wind. Some visited spiritual realms too.
Much love!
