When I was 11 or 12 I started to go along to the Young People's Fellowship at the chapel around the corner from my home. One Friday they had decided would be an 'Any questions' night with a panel of speakers. We were invited to submit written questions before hand. The idea appealed to me and so I put a question in the box - anonymously of course. On the night, they dealt with my question first. I had asked Does the panel believe in reincarnation? The chairman of the panel was rather facetious at first and simply said `No'. He did go on to give a proper answer, however, although I do not recall what it was. I was in gross ignorance at the time and it seemed to me that reincarnation was at least as likely as any of the other religious ideas I had heard tossed around. Where I had first come across the idea I do not know.
Truth not imagination
Reincarnation, or metempsychosis as it is sometimes known, is the belief that the human soul passes through a succession of lives. It is a basic tenet of Hinduism and other eastern religions and is also found in various forms of animism. Plato, Pythagoras and other Greek philosophers taught similar things. Even the Church Father Origen is accused of sympathies with the idea. No doubt it is an idea which appeals to many.
The theory holds that when a person or an animal (or even a plant) dies its soul transmigrates and is reborn to be another person, animal (or plant). Modern versions of the doctrine tend to limit transmigration to the human form alone. The late Laurens van der Post, with what one writer describes as a 'disarmingly naïve streak of vanity', believed that he had previously fought on the walls of Constantinople and had been a knight of the Holy Grail. New Ager and actress Shirley MacLaine believes she has been an Inca, a Russian ballet dancer, a monk in a cave and has had many other incarnations. Often people become convinced they have lived previous lives after hypnosis, acupuncture or use of some other 'therapy' or `channelling' process. Such experiences rather reveal the power of the human imagination and Satan's ability to deceive. Some supporters of reincarnation will also quote the 'evidence' of near death experiences. To be fair, such evidence is open to interpretation and often cuts both ways.
The Fall not Karma
In Hindu thought reincarnation is closely connected with the idea of Karma. Evil deeds of past lives relate to this one and how we live in this life will affect future incarnations. According to this theory only those who are holy enough break through the cycle of rebirth into a moksha of ultimate reality and oneness with the Absolute. It can be a rather pessimistic and discouraging doctrine. I remember a former Hindu describing his disillusionment when he became convinced that a deceased uncle of his who was very holy had been reincarnated only as a cow! In John 9:2, 3 Jesus's comment on the man born blind rules out the idea of sins in some past life affecting this one. The man's blindness was nothing to do with anything that he or his parents had done before his birth.
Unlike the Christian doctrine of the Fall the Hindu theory cannot answer the question of the origin of sin and suffering, it merely pushes the question back in time.
Scripture not human logic
Reincarnation does seem to take seriously the fact the soul never dies. However, each reincarnation is considered to be a new person and so the doctrine is denied in reality. There is an inner logic to reincarnation but it is not what the Bible teaches. Rather, there we read Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). We live only one life. At the end of this one life we will go either to heaven or to hell. We will either be punished for our sins in hell or, if we have gone to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be forgiven. You cannot earn this forgiveness. It is the free gift of our gracious God. After death the believer's soul enters Paradise - not mere nothingness but a real and lasting encounter with the Lord of Glory himself. Nothing can begin to match such a hope.
Resurrection not reincarnation
When we die our souls go to God and our bodies are left to rot. But a resurrection day is coming when body and soul will be re-united to stand before God for the final judgement. God has guaranteed this resurrection by raising the first already - Jesus himself. Jesus did not teach reincarnation nor did he live it. Rather he taught resurrection (eg Mark 12:26) and he himself rose from the dead. To believe in reincarnation, whether it leads to comfort or despair, is to believe a lie.
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine
