Perhaps I've fallen into a trap

Perhaps I've fallen into a trap....of my own making. When I hear the term 'born again' (which is probably better translated 'born from above'), particularly when it is compared in some fashion with natural birth (see the New Testament gospel of John 3:3-6), I think of a once for all experience.

One is only born once in the natural way. From there on the process of growth and development occurs in the usual fashions until one dies--all laid out in a timeline that we are all used to. It is our entree into the human race.

But if the term 'born again' is meant to be more metaphoric than we usually think, we get a new sense of the full import of the term.

For those who link being born again with being baptized, whether as an infant or at some later time in life, then being born again is a once forever event. I am not aware of any of the baptismal regeneration folks allowing for people to show up routinely to be re-baptized. There may be other aspects to spiritual growth (confirmation, communion, confession, penance, re-committal, etc.), but the baptism itself happens once, as far as I know.

For traditional evangelicals, being born again means accepting Christ as Saviour, confessing one's sins that stand between the person and God's forgiveness, and becoming a new creation--again a one-time experience. After that, evangelicals switch from terms like being born again, being redeemed, being justified, etc., and move on to a new set of experiences called by names such as sanctification, and so on. I don't think that even the Arminian Christians, some of whom believe that a person could fall from grace and then be restored (others don't accept the restored part) call the restoration a new birth.

What I'm trying to say is that the idea of being born again is understood pretty literally, whether linked to baptism or to repentance, whether infant or adult, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. That is not to say that growth in one's faith and practice is not expected, but the birth itself happens once, just like human birth. It is the way one becomes a Christian, and by extension, represents one's entree into the kingdom of God.

Could it be understood in a different way without doing violence to the biblical text? That's what I want to explore next. Just as soon as I can lift off this blasted trap.