Today millions of intelligent people believe in the idea of reincarnation. This is the idea that after death the soul or life-force will eventually find its way into another body. There are many different and contradictory theories concerning how reincarnation works. One thing is sure however. If reincarnation is true, then death is not final. It is only the gateway to a new existence. Death, then, is therefore also relatively safe. There is no need to fear hell-fire or eternal judgment. This is comforting.
Most systems of thought which accept the idea of reincarnation also hold to the doctrine of karma. This is the doctrine that one reaps what one sows in future incarnations. Thus, if I am bad in this life, I might come back as a beggar in the next, or as a dog or a frog. If I am good, the law of karma will ensure that I come back in a more fortunate situation or as a more exalted being. The law of karma is unforgiving but totally fair and always results in everybody ultimately getting what they deserve. Hopefully next time they will learn their lesson and move upward on the karmic scale.
If the law of karma is true, then if someone has an easy life or many advantages, it is because they are being rewarded for what they did in past lives. If someone is poverty-stricken and diseased, it is believed that they have bad “karma” because of misdeeds in a previous life. It would be no use to help them – they would pay for their misdeeds anyway in a future life.
There are many variations on these ideas. The Hindu idea of reincarnation has animals – even insects – coming back as humans, and vice versa. There are therefore some groups in India who take precautions to avoid swallowing or accidentally killing bugs – who knows if that bug will come back as your grandson one day? Also, cows are seen as very exalted creatures. They are worshipped by millions of Hindus as gods and seen as higher than people in the scale of things. It is a fact that there are even temples in India where rats are worshipped.
The New Age movement, which draws on Hinduism for a lot of its ideas, teaches the doctrines of reincarnation and karma. Normally the idea that you have been or might one day be an animal are not promoted. The less pleasant ideas of karma and reincarnation are often played down or ignored altogether. There now even appears to be a short-cut for many. A number of NDE (near death experience) researchers are asking us to believe that when we die we will be instantly promoted to a sort of perfection and oneness with the Universal Consciousness known as the “Omega Point”. Again, there is no need to fear hell or judgment.
Why do people believe in reincarnation? Here are some possible reasons.
- Because they have been brought up to believe in it. They may have
been brought up with Hindu, Buddhist or other religious ideas in which the concepts of reincarnation and karma have been accepted as fact.
- They have had an experience of “deja-vu” and are convinced it is
because of a memory of something they saw or knew in a previous life.
- People under hypnosis have given detailed descriptions of things
they never could have seen – things which they are supposed to have seen in a past life.
- They want to believe it, because the Christian doctrine of hell-fire
for the ungodly seems too cruel and unjust to be right.
- Because they have been influenced by the teachings of the New Age
movement, as they have come through various self-improvement seminars and Hollywood fantasies.
- “Something” just tells them it is so. Some might be so bold as to
say that their “spirit guide” told them it was so.
- They have had an out-of-the-body experience in which they got in
touch with what happened in their past. Having experienced such an amazing thing, they need not consider the dogmas and doctrines of theologians who declare it to be not so.
If you have a different reason for believing in reincarnation, I’d be interested in hearing from you. Write me an e-mail.
Objections to Reincarnation
- The Bible teaches something quite different.
According to the Bible, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). It didn’t say that there would be many chances. God’s judgment is described in Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
“And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:11).
Some would object to this, stating that the Bible is wrong about many things, either because it never was right, or because it was changed. There are so many references to eternal judgment and no clear references to reincarnation in the Bible today, or for as long back as we have manuscripts. The idea that the Bible used to teach reincarnation is pure speculation. Jesus himself warned about hell many times in the gospels. He would not have done so if he knew reincarnation to be true.
When Jesus said of John the Baptist that he was “the Elijah which was to come and restore all things” (Matthew 17:11-13) he was referring to the function of Elijah in restoring the people of God back to the truth. He was referring to the spiritual empowerment and task that Elijah had to get God’s people out of idol worship and back to God and His ways. This function has not been fully completed yet, since “all things” have not yet been restored. In one sense, the true church of Christ must also be an “Elijah” before the second coming of Christ. We don’t have to see this passage as some endorsement of reincarnation at all. In fact, John the Baptist himself denied that he was Elijah (John 1:21), doubtless because if he had affirmed it, the people would not have understood correctly in what sense he was Elijah. In fact, they might have erroneously supposed that he was Elijah reincarnated.
- Demons may be involved in the re-calling of supposed past lives.
The Bible teaches the existence of demons. Jesus said, “These signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will drive out demons.” (Mark 16:17). I personally have had demons driven out of me, and have driven them out of others. There is definitely a flow of supernatural power when this happens which you can sense. There are often unusual manifestations. When demons are cast out, people’s personality improves and sometimes diseases leave them. At times demons have taken over the features and voices of people I have known, and have talked out of them to me. Tens of thousands of Christians whose lives have been changed through a relationship with Jesus Christ can testify to the reality of battles with these unseen spiritual forces known as demons.
In fact, it is very likely that the “spirit guides” which so many are being encouraged to contact these days are nothing more than demons masquerading as wise and helpful departed spirits. Those with experience with “spirit guides” will have to admit that these spirits do sometimes lie to them and deceive them. They cannot always hide their true evil nature successfully. It is quite natural that these lying spirits promote the doctrine of reincarnation. They always oppose the doctrines and teachings of the Bible. Isn’t this what you would expect from a demon?
In the Old Testament law, God himself condemned occult activities, including the casting of spells, or enchanting others (hypnosis) .
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft [wiccans, satanists, witches, warlocks], or a soothsayer [psychics, fortune-tellers, palm readers], or one who interprets omens [astrologers], or a sorcerer [drug dealers, makers of magic potions], or one who conjures spells [hypnotists], or a medium [channellers], or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead [necromancy].” (Deuteronomy 18:10-11).
Under hypnosis, people can be made to believe a lie. It is a tool of deception. Demons are involved with hypnosis, and may give information that the person themselves could have no natural way of knowing.
Demons have been around for a long time, and may have been in many different countries and understand many different languages. Hypnosis, like drugs, is a gateway to involvement with the demonic. And despite what some practitioners may say, all the above practices listed in Deuteronomy 18:10-11 basically involve getting deceived and influenced to a greater or lesser extent by demons. Anyone doing these things is going to the devil for help, whether they believe in the devil or not, and they will be affected negatively. Extensive research has shown how curses, illness, insanity, despair and depression plague those who get involved in these things, and their descendants as well.
Out of body experiences can be brought on not only through hypnosis and eastern meditation (which is basically emptying one’s mind of thought so that a possessing spirit can work in it), but also through drug abuse. I have met people who have had out of body experiences as a result of smoking some “angel dust” in a joint. Many have testified to such experiences. Drugs are just another way of touching the demonic realm and screwing up your brain. Such experiences should not be trusted, even if they are euphoric or pleasant at times. Eventually they will lead a person to the pit of despair.
- We should question those who have taught us reincarnation
Just because our parents, our teachers or even a guru with mind bending powers have taught us something, does not mean it is the true truth. (And if there is no such thing as true truth, then not even reincarnation can be said to be truly true or factual).
Dr. Maurice S. Rawlings, M.D. is a heart specialist. He claims that some of the people he has resuscitated after clinical death came back frightened with experiences of hell, which were later normally suppressed by their memories. He pointed out in his thought provoking book, “To Hell and Back”:
“Some people are convinced they were Bonaparte, King Henry VIII, Alexander the Great, or even one of the Pharaohs of Egypt. This can be an embarrassing situation, however, when several people claim they were George Washington, when only one George Washington existed in history – considering there is only one soul for any one body.”
“There seems to be an unexplained discrepancy. Why doesn’t anyone claim to have been a beggar or a cripple or a garbage collector? There were many more of these than there were George Washingtons. Instead of the plentiful poor, everybody claims to have been someone plentifully rich or important. And if they were important in the past, why aren’t they even more important now, since the law of karma is constantly improving them?”
“If the original law of reincarnation has not been counterfeited but remains the true reincarnation of India, why don’t more people recognise original transmigration and find they were animals in their previous lives? Why don’t they remember being a rock or a tree or a worm as a result of terrible misdeeds in previous lives?”
Unlike Jesus Christ, who physically rose from the dead after his body was more than 48 hours in the grave, teachers of reincarnation cannot establish their credentials in telling us what lies beyond death. They can assert that they have existed before, but why should we believe them?
Why is it that India, the cradle of re-incarnation and the birthplace of karma, is so full of downtrodden people, living in squalor, begging for food in large cities? Hasn’t their Hindu religion helped them to become more affluent, through generations of good karma through right religious observance? Or do good Hindus reincarnate as Christians or Atheists and Christians and Atheists as Hindus?
It does no good to point out the injustices done against India by muslim invaders or British colonialists. If the doctrine of karma is true, then all these sufferings were also due to bad karma of Indian people in previous lives.
With world population on the increase, one has to ask, where did all the souls that presently inhabit human bodies come from? Did they come from animals or microbes? Then how did the soul evolve so quickly, if physical evolution is supposed to have taken so many billions of years to happen? Where is the evidence that an ant or a kangaroo has the powers of a human soul? If animals don’t have equal soul power to humans, then where does that soul power come from when the animal has behaved well enough to become a human? Indeed, if an animal cannot tell between right and wrong, how could some animals move up and others down the scale? What basis is there for talk of karma or some form of morality amongst animals?
Some might wish to avoid such problems by appealing to a preexistent and eternal “Universal Cosmic Consciousness” which is supposed to explain everything. But if our souls are simply parts of the “Universal Cosmic Consciousness”, then how can it be said that one soul truly exists as an individual entity? How can the departed soul or spirit be said to truly reincarnate, if it somehow re-enters this oneness of Universal Consciousness? How can it still be the same soul when it comes out? The problems are many. You can have no hope of truly seeing your departed loved one if re-incarnation is true. The only hope is for Christians who have died in Christ.
Conclusion
Satan doesn’t care which lie you believe, as long as you don’t acknowledge your guilt before God, and you don’t trust in Jesus Christ and His work in paying for your sins and rising again from death. The theories contained in the New Age movement and many of the Asian world religions are contradictory on many points, but they all unite in rejecting what Jesus and the Bible teach. If you believe in reincarnation you cannot believe in the Jesus of the Bible. The New Age Jesus is a demon and a lie. When you perish, your belief will not change the way things truly are. It will be as God warned you through the teachings of the Bible. Please, if you are bound up with new age teachings, occultic practices or mind sciences, call out upon the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He wants to reach down and show you the reality of His power and His salvation, which you and everybody else needs.
