Which is Right?

[Roofdad]

In my resource materials, sent by Christine ( ), I read that when the Lord Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, telling him that He could not imagine that Nicodemus, being a leader of the Jews, did not know that he had to be born again, to see the Kingdom of God; saying that what the Lord meant here was that a man actually had to DIE, and be literally "born" again (resurrected), to enter. (I have read so much stuff since I got the package, I do not remember which book said this)
Anyway, I was on the Berean Bible Society's Bible Study articles, when I came across this, by C. R. Stam:

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again [anew] he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

It is not surprising that the unsaved do not see their need of the new birth apart from the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Even among those who have themselves been born anew, however, there are those who hold that the figure of the new birth applies only to Israel, not to those who live under the present dispensation. They base this conclusion on the premise that our Lord spoke to a Jew about the Jews regarding the new birth, and that Paul does not mention the subject in his epistles. This premise is wrong, however, and so are the conclusions drawn from it.

First, it should be noted that our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in broad terms about seeing and entering into the "kingdom of God." He did not use the narrower phrase "kingdom of heaven," which has to do with the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth (See Dan. 2:44; Matt. 5:3-5; 6:10). This is because He was referring to something which involved more than entrance into the millennial kingdom.

That believers today enter into the kingdom of God as surely as do believers in any other age is made abundantly clear in the Pauline epistles (See Rom. 14:17; I Cor. 4:20; 6:9,10; 15:50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Col. 4:11; I Thes. 2:12; II Thes. 1:5).

It should further be noted that our Lord also spoke in broad terms when He said that it was necessary for "a man" to be born anew to enter into the kingdom of God.

We have no right to assume that our Lord meant that it was necessary only for a Jew to be born anew to enter into the kingdom of heaven, when He said it was necessary for a man to be born anew to enter into the kingdom of God.

Does a reader object that our Lord must have had only Jews in mind since He was at that time ministering only to Jews and was here addressing a Jew? Then we must insist that our Lord's discussion with this prominent Jew is here recorded especially to show that all men in every age need to be born anew to enter into the kingdom of God.

An unfortunate chapter division has obscured this important fact, for the story of Nicodemus in John 3 is but a demonstration of an important assertion made at the close of Chapter 2.

Knowing that it was two different men that taught (the meaning of) these things, I just wonder which is correct?