True. Which confirms that Lazarus was dead...not resuscitated....For " Lo he stinketh"
If he wasn't resuscitated (i.e. awakened from the sleep of death), that only leaves two other possibilities reincarnation or resurrection both of of which could not be. For one the ransom was not yet given and resurrection still a long ways off and two reincarnation the belief that an individual human soul passes through a succession of lives. This belief is often spoken of as the transmigration of souls, which makes the soul immortal as well as incarnate, not only in human bodies, but also is in animals and plants.
Since the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not supported by the scriptures and therefore a false doctrine, there is no reason to even consider reincarnation which is of pagan origins anyway. Reincarnation is but one of many no-death theories in order to take away the sting of death, it plays straight into the hands of the Adversary who said, "
Thou shall surely not die."
It is odd that three-quarters of the world's population believe in either reincarnation or transmigration, and yet rare indeed is ever a claim made of a person who actually remembers a former existence. And when this claim is made, the "
memory" of a past life is so vague, so indefinite, as to prove that it is actually no more than wishful fancy. If we are all reincarnations of persons who lived before, we know nothing of it. We recognize neither our former selves, nor our associates of other lives. Therefore, so far as the real value is concerned in terms of practical satisfaction and comfort to sustain one in time of bereavement, the theory of reincarnation is worthless.