[This little article (8 minutes read-time) is a kind of postscript to the recent article about the hostility of the world to spiritual truth. It goes someway further to explaining the acute and wilful ignorance which lies behind that hostility. I hope that you find it helpful in understanding your experience in this alien world]

TO ALL DISCIPLES OF CHRIST: I feel moved to share this with you. Please do not be surprised if the people of the world have no understanding whatsoever about your regeneration. They think that you just decided to be a Christian through an intellectual choice. Just like Nicodemus (John 3:3-4), they have no clue about what it means to be “born from above”, rebirthed by God on a supernatural level. They know nothing of the process known as “repentance” which has taken place in the very heart of your being and which involves far more than merely “being sorry”.

The Greek word translated as repentance (e.g., 2 Corinthians 7:10) is μετάνοια, metanoia, which literally means a total change of mind and heart at the deepest level, as the word itself reveals when truly grasped, which goes so much further than merely being sorry for one’s sins, which is how repentance, as a traditional translation of metanoia, is often inadequately portrayed. This μετάνοια, metanoia is made up of two words, νοέω, noeó, to think or perceive, and the prefix, μετά, meta, which means ‘after’ or ‘beyond’, such as in the idea behind ‘to transcend’ (e.g., metaphysics means elements which transcend or go beyond conventional physics). Thus, metanoeo literally means ‘to have a completely transformed mind’ which thus transcends the conventional understanding of ‘the mind’ and the limited way that it is generally understood to work in this world when profound changes take place in it. This is what happens during the time when one deeply repents before God of everything that one has done, has been, and that one has stood for previously. That is not just “being sorry” but actually being repulsed by everything godless and undevout that you have been up to that point, and wanting to shed it all, while desiring to be whatever wonderful thing that God wants you to be in the future. Such is metanoia when truly understood and experienced.

Once started for real in one’s regeneration, the action of metanoia is a never-ending process of life in this world for the disciple of Christ. For initially you will discover the astonishing fact that as soon as you begin even slightly to turn away from putting yourself on a pedestal in life and then realising the centrality of the Divine power behind the whole creation and the manner in which the way has been paved by Jesus the Christ for human salvation, and thereby feeling the urge to run towards that power (like the Prodigal Son) and even feel as if you are falling in love with it, then that power will begin to run towards you faster than the speed of light and shower you with in-depth insights about Christ, His Spirit and the cosmos!

So let us be completely clear that Metanoia is not just about feeling sorry and having a ‘blub’ as a one-time event. It involves a complete metamorphosis in one’s entire existence — a far-reaching shake-up and disturbance of one’s mind, heart and soul which means that one can never be the same again. You will, in fact, literally be “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is what it is to be “born from above”, or “born again” as it is often known. No wonder, therefore, that the people of the world have no understanding whatsoever about this spiritual process. They know nothing about this metanoia involving deep repentance and the resultant Divine forgiveness. To them, no matter what your age is now or what spiritual transformation you have been through, you will still be to them “the cruel lad who broke his parents’ hearts”, or “the teenage town bully”, or “the local drunk”, or “that lad who nicked stuff”, or “that young woman who behaved like a whore”, or “that smack-smoking junkie”, or “that bastard who abused his wife and kids”, or “that full-of-himself head-bobbler who arrogantly strutted down the high street”, or “that woman who used abortions as if they were a contraceptive”, or “that girl who was rude to everyone, even her own parents”, or “that boy who set fire to cats for fun”, or any other bad thing from your past with which they can smear you. They will forever be stuck in the past — in your past! — because they do not have the spiritual apparatus to get beyond what you were and to thereby acknowledge what you have now become.

The spiritual transformation about which you now speak seems to them like a fiction that you have conveniently invented in order to ‘gaslight’ everyone into thinking you are different from how you were previously, before your regeneration. With great delight they will relish throwing your past sins in your face — especially if in any way they had been on the receiving end of those sins — as if that is all that you are or ever will be, and they will deny completely any notions of your regeneration, your great transmogrification. There is nothing in their experience or current worldview/narrative which enables them to have the slightest grasp of the profound changes which have taken place in your life. They cannot acknowledge your transformation because they do not even acknowledge the existence of the One who has transformed you. Not only that but they also think that ‘spiritual’ = ‘psychological’, so they can only imagine that you had some deceptive psychological experience and are now “in need of psychiatric help” (as I actually had someone write to me not so long ago, while sending me a screenshot of a Wikipedia article about Religious Delusions!🙄). The ignorance about spiritual matters — and especially about the process of regeneration — is absolutely phenomenal. In fact, it is not merely bare ignorance but it is wilful ignorance; because if you try to explain about what has really happened to you, they simply do not want to know.

Well… I say that, but the fact is that there will be cases where you explain what has happened to you spiritually, and is happening to you, and they will be intrigued rather than hostile. When there is that spark of interest, it is a good sign evangelistically because there is not that immediate wilful ignorance but instead there is a curiosity and interest which bodes well. But this is only in a very small minority of cases. Generally speaking, people will range between being dismissive and being highly disparaging when you try to explain your regeneration to others. They will think that you are making up excuses or even that you are mentally ill — which is ironic considering that regeneration, being “born from above”, actually makes you sane for the first time in your life.

In fact, the reason that the people of the world react this way to your newfound sanity as a result of regeneration is because they are fearful of such a massive process of change in you as it implies that there is a higher power at work and if that is so then it means that there is One to whom they are answerable. This is demonstrated very clearly in the account of the man who was possessed by “a legion” of demons. After Jesus has cast the demons out, the Scripture says that the local people “came to Jesus and found the man whom the demons had left, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid” (Luke 8:35). Instead of rejoicing at the utter transformation and newfound sanity (being “in his right mind”) which had taken place in this demonised man, they were frightened. And so it is with you as a disciple of Christ. They are frightened. You make them scared — scared enough to revile you and even to flat-out deny that such a profound change has taken place.

This is why, everywhere you go, whatever you do, the people of the world, in their total ignorance about regeneration, have zero understanding of your experience. As I wrote above, this goes right back to what I was writing about in an article the other day entitled “The Secret (and not so Secret) Hostility of the World to Spiritual Truth”. A major part of their hostility lies in their rejection of the change which has taken place in the regenerated disciple of Christ. They not only regard that change as spurious but it also makes them fearful inwardly. You are a threat to them and their whole species. For you are a new species and they sense that.

I hope that you have found these insights helpful as you try to make sense of your experience in this alien world. For to them you are the alien and they regard you as hostile to their entire sinful and godless way of life.

Blessings to you from me…

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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