May a Christian Believe in Reincarnation?
Full article: May a Christian Believe in Reincarnation?Reincarnation-also known as the transmigration of souls-is not some exotic Eastern idea of non-Christian mysticism. In ancient orthodox Jewish and Christian writings, as well as the Holy Scriptures, we can find reincarnation as a fully developed belief, although today it is commonly ignored.
Belief Of The Apostles
The Apostles also believed in reincarnation, for: “As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”20Jesus, the Light of the World, would certainly have rebuked the Apostles for wrong belief if reincarnation was not true. Although the man’s blindness was for the glory of God, the Lord said, “neither this man nor his parents sinned,” implying that the man had certainly existed-and been capable of sinning-before his birth in which he was blind.
Non-Belief in Reincarnation Rebuked By Jesus
When the Pharisee, Nicodemus, expressed his doubts as to a man being able to enter the womb and be born again, physically, saying: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” the Lord Jesus reproved him, saying: “Art thou a master [teacher] of Israel, and knowest not these things?…If I have told you earthly things [about physical rebirth], and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things [about the spiritual rebirth]?”21 especially when every educated Jew was familiar with the already-cited words of Job: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.”22 Moreover, every Jew had heard these words of Moses scores of times: “Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men….Thou carriest them away like a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up [again]….in the evening it is [again] cut down.”23
This same idea was also to be found in the prayer of Tobit: “Blessed be God that liveth for ever, and blessed be his kingdom. For he doth scourge, and hath mercy: he leadeth down to hell [hades], and bringeth up again: neither is there any that can avoid his hand.”24
Also familiar would have been the direct reference to reincarnation in Ecclesiasticus: “Woe be unto you, ungodly men, which have forsaken the law of the most high God! For when you are born, you shall be born to a curse: and when you die, a curse shall be your portion. All that are of the earth shall return to the earth again: so the ungodly shall go from a curse to destruction.”25
God’s Law Behind Reincarnation
But why? Saint Paul tells us: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.“26 In other words, if we lie, we shall be lied to; if we steal, we shall be stolen from; if we cheat, we shall be cheated; if we injure, we shall be injured; if we kill, we shall be killed. Is this law inexorable? In the verse from Numbers, previously quoted, it is flatly stated that the Lord by no means clears the guilty. This supports Saint Paul’s contention that “God is not mocked.”
This principle is not new to either of the Testaments, for when Noah had come forth from the Ark, God enunciated the law: “Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast I will require it, and at the hand of man….Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”27 Notice that this is not a social law, such as those given to Moses. Noah is not being instructed to take the life of murderers; the Lord says, “I will require it.” Yet, how many murderers go undetected and unpunished? Think of the murderers that die natural deaths-even in prisons. Yet God, Who “is not mocked” has said that their life shall be taken by man. And this is in keeping with the next verse in Saint Paul’s Galatians exposition: “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap”-that is, we shall reap in our bodies exactly what we sow in our bodies. And if we die before so doing? Rebirth is the law.
What about the objection that Saint Paul also wrote: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)? Nothing, except Saint Paul’s meaning: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12). Adam’s transgression pronounced the death sentence upon all humanity. And, indeed, after each death we are judged to determine where we shall go in the astral world and when and where we shall return to earth in our next birth. It is interesting that the twentieth-century stigmatic, Teresa Neuman, saw that after death the departed soul was judged by Christ right here, some passing onward with Christ and others remaining in in the earth’s astral atmosphere, obviously to await rebirth.
A Dramatic Example
Certainly from the above we get the idea! Yet I cannot resist giving one more Biblical instance-bridging both the Old and the New Testaments-of how the human drama can be played out over the “acts” of several births on the stage of this world. (This example, by the way, was pointed out to me by Bess Hibarger, a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher of long standing and great popularity, who at least once a year devoted one Sunday to the subject of reincarnation.)
Ahab, the king of Israel, married Jezebel, who was a Gentile and an idolater. For these reasons, Elijah the prophet came to Ahab and challenged him, demanding that he rid himself of Jezebel. As could be expected, Jezebel decided that either Elijah or she had to go-and she preferred that it be Elijah. Though she had squadrons of soldiers searching for the prophet to kill him, he managed to elude them, and departed from this world still in hiding. Later, Jezebel died, but with the desire for the death of Elijah burning in her heart. Thus was the sowing; then came the reaping.
As the Lord Jesus said, Elijah was born again as John the Baptist. Ahab was reborn as Herod, and Jezebel as Herodias, the wife of Herod’s brother. Herod broke the Law by marrying Herodias illegally, thus committing the double crime of adultery and incest. Just as in the previous lifetime, John came to Herod and demanded that he get rid of Herodias. Herod had respect for John, and so tried to simply ignore him. Finally, at the insistence of Herodias he imprisoned John, and ultimately Herodias got John’s head on a platter, fulfilling her desire of centuries.
Further Reading on Reincarnation:
- The Necessity for Reincarnation — A remarkable article on various scientific, moral, and historical aspects of reincarnation by Annie Besant (1847 – 1933), a renowned speaker and writer, and president of the Madras Theosophical society.
- Esoteric Christian Insights Into Reincarnation.
