Reincarnation

Version 3

By Mark Farquharson

A number of people believe in reincarnation, that when you die, you get reborn into another body of a human or an animal. You start of as a baby again, and go through life again, however you have no memory of your previous life. In this belief you can be reincarnated a number of times and anyone of those times you may come back as an animal, instead of a human.

It is interesting that some Christians believe this, and even some people who believe in “All Saved” also believe in this. Other Christians are open to the idea.

Some believe that this is the way to enlightenment, that you keep coming back until your enlightened, until you reach a certain level of enlightenment. The questions is how can you reach enlightenment if you don’t remember your past lives? If you don’t remember your past mistakes? If you don’t remember your past experiences? Are you not in danger of repeating your mistakes, of gaining no more enlightenment this time around? I wonder if you would ever reach enlightenment this way even if you had a million past lives. What is the point if you can’t remember them? How do you get to this level? How many lives does it take? And what is the point of coming back as an animal, how much enlightenment can you get in the body of a monkey, going up and down trees and eating? What rubbish!

If this is the case then is the present age going to last until everyone is enlightened? No it is not, which makes you wonder why God would stop a system that clearly he must have put in place, that is meant to work so well. How do we know that the present age does not continue until that time? Because the bible tells us that the earth will be destroyed while people are going about their daily lives. Surely one could argue that people will be reincarnated on the New Earth. No that is not possible, because this is after the Judgement.

However if reincarnation is the case then why do people go to the Lake of Fire, if everyone is enlightened then no one needs to go to the Lake of Fire. However the bible tells us that people go to the Lake of Fire, therefore this does not work for everyone if it is true. Why does it not work for some, but it works for others?

Lets turn to scripture to clear up this matter once and for all:

Romans 10 14 How, then, should they be invoking One in Whom they do not believe? Yet how should they be believing One of Whom they do not hear? Yet how should they be hearing apart from one heralding?

15 Yet how should they be heralding if ever they should not be commissioned? {CLV}

If you don’t gain the realization of the truth in this life, then you gain it after you have been raised from the dead. When you are raised you go to judgement, and if you do not know the truth you get sent to the Lake of Fire. It is thru this process that you will then gain enlightenment. I will not be covering the Lake of Fire in this article.

Reincarnation is not needed, and is not true.

What of the verses in John that mention being born again?

In John 3, Jesus is talking about entering into the kingdom. He says that you have to be born again or begotten anew. Does this mean you have to be reincarnated to enter into the kingdom?

Clearly Jesus can not mean this, because if he did it would mean that Hebrews 9:27-28 would be wrong. For it states that you die once then the judging. If Hebrews 9 is correct then Jesus himself would have been mistaken. Since Jesus himself could not be mistaken, and Hebrews 9 is correct, then there must be another answer.

Since you only die one time, then how is it that you can be born again? lets see if the verses can clear it up.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Verily, verily, I am saying to you, If anyone should not be begotten anew, he can not perceive the kingdom of God."

Note Jesus does not say you have to be born many times to enter as in reincarnation.

John 3:4 Nicodemus is saying to him, "How can a man, being a veteran, be begotten? He can not be entering into the womb of his mother a second time and be begotten!"

Nicodemus himself was confused by what Jesus is saying. Thus he asks how a veteran, or someone who is old enter the womb again. However that is not what Jesus meant.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I am saying to you, If anyone should not be begotten of water and of spirit, he can not be entering into the kingdom of God."

In Jesus' answer he is talking about two births that are necessary to enter into the kingdom. Not many births over and over again, just two. Both births are different, one of water, and one of spirit. First you must be born from the womb, that is water, then of the spirit, being the second time or again. There are no more after this, only two births.

John 3:6-7 That which is begotten by the flesh is flesh, and that which is begotten by the spirit is spirit." You should not be marveling that I said to you, 'You must be begotten anew.'"

Here Jesus states the two births again. First you must be born of the flesh, that is the womb. Then of the spirit, which is not being born of the womb. One is flesh the other is spirit, the two are different.

In reincarnation you are repeatedly born of the flesh out of the womb, however Jesus never states that you need to be born of the womb or the flesh again. It is of the spirit that you are born again, and this has nothing to do with being born of the flesh. However you need to be born of the flesh, before you can be born of the spirit, it just makes sense really.

Was John the Baptist the Reincarnation of Elijah?

Jesus said that Elijah had already come, but they did not recognize him:

Matthew 17:12-13 Yet I am saying to you that Elijah came already, and they did not recognize him, but they do to him whatever they will. Thus the Son of Mankind also is about to be suffering by them."Then the disciples understand that He spoke to them concerning John the baptist.

The disciples understood correctly that Jesus meant John the Baptist. However did that mean that John was the reincarnation of Elijah or did Jesus mean something else? He was calling him Elijah in that spiritually he was like Elijah, however he was not actually Elijah reincarnated, that is not what Jesus meant. In Revelation the Great City is spiritually Sodom and Egypt.

Revelation 11:8 And their corpses will be at the square of the great city which, spiritually, is being called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord, also, was crucified." {CLV}

Clearly the great city is not Sodom which was destroyed long ago, and it is not the whole country of Egypt, but spiritually it is like these two places. Thus John the Baptist was spiritually like Elijah.

In John 1:21, John the Baptist said that he was not Elijah:

John 1:21 And they ask him again, "What are you then? Are you Elijah?And he is saying, "I am not."

Thus if he was the reincarnation of Elijah, he did not know this himself. However in the view of reincarnation, most people do not remember there past lives.

In Luke 1, John the Baptist is coming in the spirit and power of Elijah:

Luke 1:17 And he shall be coming before in His sight in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn back the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the stubborn to the prudence of the just, to make ready a people formed for the Lord."

Does that mean he was the reincarnation of Elijah? No not at all. Having the spirit and power of someone does not mean that you are the reincarnation of that person. This can be shown when Elisha wants the spirit of the still alive Elijah. They come to the Jordan and Elijah smites the waters:

2Kings 2:8 And Elijah taketh his robe, and wrappeth it together, and smiteth the waters, and they are halved, hither and thither, and they pass over both of them on dry land. {YLT}

After halving the waters so that they can pass over dry land, Elijah asks what Elisha wants him to do:

2Kings 2:9-10 And it cometh to pass, at their passing over, that Elijah hath said unto Elisha, `Ask, what do I do for thee before I am taken from thee?' and Elisha saith, `Then let there be, I pray thee, a double portion of thy spirit unto me;' and he saith, `Thou hast asked a hard thing; if thou dost see me taken from thee, it is to thee so; and if not, it is not.' {YLT}

Elisha wants Elijah's spirit, not only that a double portion of his spirit. Clearly Elisha does not want Elijah to inhabit his body. This can not be reincarnation for the two of them are alive at the same time. Each has his own spirit, or they would not be alive. Besides how do you get a double portion of someone else's spirit? The meaning here then is something different.

Elijah said that Elisha would have the double portion of his spirit if he witnessed Elijah being taken from him. This is indeed what happens, Elisha sees Elijah taken from him {2 Kings 2:11-12}, and then Elisha takes up the robe of Elijah. Thus according to Elijah's own words, Elisha at that point had a double portion of Elijah's spirit. This is shown to be the case when Elisha smites the waters of the Jordan, showing that he has Elijah's spirit.

2Kings 2:14 and he taketh the robe of Elijah that fell from off him, and smiteth the waters, and saith, `Where is Jehovah, God of Elijah--even He?' and he smiteth the waters, and they are halved, hither and thither, and Elisha passeth over. {YLT}

It should be clearly from this that one was not the reincarnation of the other. The other thing is that having someone else's spirit does not mean they are the reincarnation of that person.

Thus when Jesus referred to John the Baptist as being Elijah, he did not mean that he was the reincarnation of Elijah. He meant that John had the spirit and power of Elijah, but not that he was actually Elijah reincarnated. For Elisha was given a double portion of Elijah's spirit and he was not the reincarnation of Elijah for they lived at the same time, each with their own spirit.

What of the Transfiguration does this Show Reincarnation?

What has became known as the Transfiguration was seen by Peter, James and John. The John here is not John the Baptist. They witness Jesus being transformed, and then Jesus is seen talking to Moses and Elijah {Matthew 17:1-3}. A voice comes out of a luminous cloud and they fall on their faces. {Matthew 17:5-6}. After Jesus approaches them they lift up their eyes and only seen him {Matthew 17:7-8}.

This could be a vision, that is to say that Moses and Elijah may not have even be there at all. Jesus may have been showing them a vision. We do not know if they were really there or not.

If Moses and Elijah were actually there this does not prove reincarnation. Moses and Elijah had died long ago, which raises the question how could they be there if they were dead? They could be if they were reincarnated, however there is another way. They could have be resurrected and come down from heaven. This would have been before any resurrection from an earth time point of view, but in the eternity of heaven this does not matter.

Copyright © M J Farquharson 2008. Additional material added June 2015 and August 2015.

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