Frogman, Getting back to your post,
Jesus did not go into all that explaination. But when questioned he simply said if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
This doesn't mean anything to you?
Of Course it means something to me, It means that there is a realm of existance that is above the natural, physical, mental realm that man can see, feel, touch, taste, and smell. That realm that is hidden from man is the spiritual realm that can be accessed only by faith that it exists. By Nicodemus' question about re-entry into the womb of his mother, Nicodemus indicated that he believed that Jesus was talking about the natural, earthly realm. Jesus chided Nicodemus by saying, "if I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
Jesus did not tell Nicodemus to just have faith and he could "born from above". He said except a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom.
How can a man born himself from above, man is not from above? Is he?
How can man influence a spiritual birth when he cannot influence his physical birth?
When man is born into the earthly natural man, he is comprised of a body of flesh, and that life force which quickens the flesh. With that combination, man is nothing more than monkey. However, that is not all that man is born with, you see, because the true essence of man is spirit. It is man's spirit that departs the flesh when man dies. It is the human spirit that is made in the image of God who is spirit.
[John 6:63] `It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
It is the spirit that is dead in sin, not the flesh. Paul calls the flesh "the tent" in which the spirit (inner man) lives.
When the tent wears out, the spirit goes to be with the one in whom it has faith.
Some questions that I am sure you deal with often if this is the way you present the Gospel to anyone. Man must "born again" what does that mean?
Being born again means a transformation of the human spirit through belief. Before believing in God, the human spirit is dead to God, there is no life in it. It is like the soil without any seed, dry and barren. Once a seed of faith (not faith, but only a seed) is planted in soil, the seed comes to life by the "adding" of the ingredients of life, moisture, nutrients, and temperature and light. When through hearing of the word of God, this adding of Life giving ingredients, to the spirit of man, causes the transformation from 'dead' into 'living'. This process of transformation is called "believing". Even so, there is yet to be "a plant" that results from this process for the seedling Faith of the spirit has not yet broken the surface of the Ground and come into the Sonlight. If the soil is too hard, the seed cannot get the "ingredients of life", and lays there until the "birds" come and take it away. If the soil is rocky, with too few nutrients, the seed may sprout, but without a sufficient supply of nutrients, it will wither and die. If the soil is too weedy, the plant does not get sufficient Sonlight, and the seedling gets choked out and dies. But if the soil is good soil, the seed gets sufficient life giving nutrients and Sonlight, the seedling grows into life saving faith which breaks through the surface of the ground so that others can see it.
The germination of the seed is known as "being born again", so, from the Parable of the sower, one can see that not all who are born again, are able to grow into faith sufficient to be harvested (saved), and that is due to the ground into which the seed of faith is sewn. Some soil is too hard for faith to grow, some lacks life giving nutrients, some is too busy with the cares of life (weeds). But that soil which is "good soil" enables the seedling faith to sprout into life giving faith. It is the Holy Spirit that waters the soil, It is God who made the soil to begin with, and it is Jesus' blood spilt on the ground that gives the soil the proper nutrients. The Sonlight is the word of God by which the plant (faith) is either strengthened, or withered. Come harvest time, only those seeds of faith that grew into strong faith, will be harvested. The others who did not grow, remain dead and cannot be harvested.
Man does not even have the power to reproduce physically except God blesses.
Well it just so happens that God set in place the mechanism within man whereby man can and does reproduce regardless of God's blessing. That was part of the creation package. Man is corrupting that "blessing of God", by using it for the wrong purpose, and thereby bringing upon himself, the consequences of doing so, such as Sexually transmitted diseases, overpopulation, abortion, the willful killing of life, jealousies, unfaithfulness, etc.
You really ought to develop a theology that does not have man as its center.
And what might that be? After all, Theology is man's study of God.
God has no reason to have a "theology" because He is the subject of such study! God created Man as his final act of creation, "saving the best for last" and it was "so taxing" that God Rested when he finished creating man.
Man is what religion is all about! If not for man there would be no religion! Cows don't go to church, Dogs and cats don't pray to God, only upon each other. Fish go to school, but not to church! Birds may flock, but not to church! No my friend, Religion and Theology are all about man.
God has no need for any of it! God will learn nothing by it! Without man there is no reason for the existance of either Theology or Religion. These only serve the purpose of guiding man, and do nothing for, or to God.
You perceive that my personal religion is based upon what man can do for his own salvation, and you think, out of your own biases, that I believe man has some kind of ability to make salvation possible. Well sir, you have not read me correctly at all! The only thing that man has the ability to do is believe, and that too is God given. Believing is man, the soil, 'accepting' the seeds of faith that God sows among mankind. By accepting the seed, man becomes an active part in salvation by being the good soil in which Faith grows from seed into Salvation. Without the soil, there is no place to grow Faith for the harvest, thus there can be no Salvation, for there is nothing worth saving.
It is all about Man! God was eternal before creating, and is Eternal in his creation, and will be eternal after this creation passes away. It is by FAITH alone that man is saved in this creation for the coming eternity.