In most of Christianity, New Birth occurs when a sinner repents and falls upon the grace of a merciful Savior. In that moment, God changes his or her heart and places His Spirit within the believer and adopts the newly born child of God into His family as a son or daughter.

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In the ANTM, the justified believer only has his past sins up until the point of repentance forgiven, all future sins must daily be confessed and repented of to maintain a state of certain grace. However, the justified believer is only forgiven in a legal sense. No work of the Holy Spirit has been done within the believer to give them the ability to change, avoid, or overcome sinful thoughts, attitudes or actions. This Catch-22 is not seen as a problem of the theology of the ANTMer’s church, but is instead the unfortunate consequence of Christianity having strayed from the truth centuries ago, resulting in a gospel separated into parts that were never meant to be separated.

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To be born again in the ANTM’s theology requires 2 additional steps, where one receives God’s work of new birth piecemeal, and in response to obedient actions on the part of the believer. One step that is required is Water Baptism “in Jesus’ Name by one having authority for circumcision of heart and the remission of sin”. In this act, the believer receives a new heart that desires to obey and follow God’s ways.

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However, they still are yet to have the power to make true change or right choices. A third step is required to receive this power. It is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is evidenced by the believer speaking in tongues. This can occur privately as a sovereign work of God, later verified by the pastor or elders, or as a result of the laying on of hands, where during the singing of praise songs, the believer spontaneously begins singing and/or speaking in tongues. In this environment, the tongue speaking is also verified by the elder, pastor, or meeting leader.

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Great damage is done to grace and to the completed work of Christ in this theology. First, if a person has to undergo a ritual washing to receive a portion of their “new birth”, then salvation is not of grace, but of works. If it is essential to new birth, why did Paul say, "I am thankful that I baptized none of you...Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel." If one must speak in tongues to have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, then why does Paul clearly say not all speak in tongues. The ANTMer would go on to rebut this point, stating that the gift of tongues is different from the prayer/praise language of tongues, but there is no distinction of two different types of tongues anywhere in the bible. 

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Unfortunately, the ANTMers have fallen prey to the pride of man that has been there since the Garden of Eden and most famously expressed itself in the Galatian church, where believers felt that they needed to add a ritual to grace to really be in the right doctrinal camp. Paul said that if you place confidence in the ritual or in anything besides Christ’s completed work then the cross has become of no effect for you...you are severed from Christ...you have fallen from grace.

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So, bewilderingly to consider, there are nine different types of people can exist in every one of these ANTM churches:
 

1) Unbelievers

2) Justified Believers who have no new heart and a dead spirit

3) Unjustified Believers, who lost their salvation by sinning beyond the unknown point that God "unsaves" them because of their unrepentant sin. They may be aware of this state or not.

4) Justified Believers who have a new heart from baptism, and so want to serve God, but they can’t serve God, because they still have a dead spirit, because they are not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit.

5) Justified Believers who have no new heart to want to serve God, but are able to serve God, because they have received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

6) A fully born again believer (one who has repented of sin, demonstrated faith towards God, has been water baptized in Jesus’ Name for the circumcision of heart and remission of sin, by one having authority and has received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues) that is a babe in Christ.

7) A fully born again believer, who fails to mature and is in danger of being destined for Outer Darkness.

8) A fully born again believer who is working out his salvation with fear and trembling.

9) A fully born again believer, who has been “converted”, who is “an overcomer”. These are the elite Christians, who have “died to self” and are worthy of receiving authority in the new kingdom.

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