What do you think about reincarnation?

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Question: What do you think about reincarnation? I have a friend who believes in it, but it doesn’t square with my views from the Bible.

C.H.

ATP: The concept of reincarnation is inconsistent with biblical teaching. Both Jewish teaching (Old Testament) and Christian teaching (New Testament) uphold a belief in resurrection.

In Judeo-Christian belief those who have availed themselves of God’s provision for forgiveness will be resurrected to spend eternity with God in peace and joy. Those who have not followed God’s guidelines to obtain forgiveness will be resurrected to face judgment. (See Daniel 12:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, Revelation 20:11-15)

The Judeo-Christian concept of resurrection should not be confused with reincarnation. In reincarnation the idea is that after death, people re-enter the world as another person or in another form, say an animal. In reincarnation this cycle may repeat itself many times over, even millions of times over.

While we may jokingly say things like, “I must have been a fish in a past life, because I really love the water,” it is just an expression. There is no such thing as a past life. The Bible says,

“And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment…” (Hebrews 9:27)

We will only die once physically.

The idea of reincarnation has gained some minor popularity as a belief, but interestingly, primarily in cultures that have Judeo-Christian roots and values, and which therefore do not live in light of the actual tenets of reincarnation. For those who believe in reincarnation and who live in a culture where reincarnation and its attending principles dominate, reincarnation is not seen as a blessing, but as a curse.

In reincarnation life after life must be lived in order to attain “perfection” or higher levels of existence. If a life is not lived well, it must be lived over. Suffering is viewed as the just result for the sins one has committed in a previous life.

Therefore, those who truly believe in and follow reincarnation in these cultures consider it unwise to help a person who is suffering. Helping them will only cause them to have to suffer again. To be merciful, the suffering person must be left to suffer.

You can see immediately of course, the weakness of such a system of thought when carried to its logical conclusions.

It is easy to believe in reincarnation when one lives in a culture that is dominated by Judeo-Christian thought with its commands to help the poor and needy and the suffering. But when one fully practices what the dominant forms of reincarnation preach, reincarnation is not such an attractive or trendy thing to believe in.


More importantly, reincarnation is simply a false belief. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, proving that he is who he says he is, the Son of God. And as the Son of God his Word is trustworthy. It is appointed unto man once to die, and then comes the judgment. So says his Word.