Definition (house-style)
Tikto (Gr. τίκτω) means ‘to bear’, ‘to be born’ and describes the endpoint of the birth process — the actual emergence into the world, the birth itself. In Luke 2:11 it reads: ‘There is born (tikto) to you this day a Saviour.’ As a technical soteriological term tikto marks the endpoint of the rebirth process: the completed birth that began with the receiving of the seed (sullambano) and developed through the process of becoming (anagennao).
In Noordzij’s soteriology tikto emphasises that regeneration is not only an initial moment but a processual whole: from conception to birth. The birth is complete only when the new life has fully come to expression.
Author variants
Noordzij
Noordzij describes tikto as the endpoint of the rebirth triptych, in contrast to sullambano:
“There is also a word that points to the ultimate goal: tikto (= to bear, to be born). ‘Where is the King of the Jews who has been born?’ (Matt. 2:2), ‘To you is born today the Saviour’ (Luke 2:11).”
[Noordzij, Het Woord Gods en de Schrift (The Word of God and Scripture), b2]
For Noordzij the birth (tikto) is more than a moment of beginning: it is the confirmation that the life which began at conception (sullambano) and formed through the development process (anagennao/gennao) has now truly come into existence. Regeneration is complete only when the new life is genuinely ‘born’ — Christ formed in the believer (cf. Gal. 4:19).