Reincarnation: The Biblical Way
I thought I should add something about reincarnation here, this is a Vedic ‘zine, I should at least address it. But most likely, the majority of the readers will either already know about reincarnation, or have no idea what it is. When I was a practicing Christian I thought that those silly people from India wont eat meat because they think animals were at one time their relatives. That was my idea of reincarnation. Also, I feel that those who know little about reincarnation see the Bible as their main source of information about God. Christianity (today) seems to be one of the only religions that does not address reincarnation. So how could I speak of reincarnation from the Vedic standpoint if those I am speaking to never heard of it? That is why I chose to address this issue from a Biblical standpoint.
I think I should first point out that in 553A.D. Byzantine emperor Justinian (at the Second Council of Constantinople) had the teachings of reincarnation banned from the Christian scriptures. But he didn’t get all of them. There remain some very powerful allusions to reincarnation.
One is Matthew 17:9-13:
So was Elijah reincarnated as John the Baptist? Well, if you take the words of Christ literally and fundamentally, yes, it seems so. In Matthew 11:7-15 it is also not just supported, but actually stated that John the Baptist is Elijah:
Let me explain a bit about why we are reincarnated. It is due to something called "karma." Karma is basically put as "every action has an equal and opposite reaction." We decide our next lives. Understand? I’ll continue. This evidence of karma is even in the Bible in John 9:2 &3:
If this man had born blind because of sin, he could not have sinned before birth, it had to be in a past life. The disciples must have had karma and reincarnation in mind when they asked Jesus this question. I will discount original sin as the cause of their questioning as we all "should be," according to logic, afflicted with equal amounts of original sin. We are not all blind. Here, Christ had the chance to totally rule out reincarnation and karma, but he did not. He simply said he was blind so that the work of God could be shown in his life.
Okay, three examples. It should be enough to go on, but if you’re still not convinced, here is more.
Malachi 1:2-3 and Romans 9:11-13 both state that God loved Jacob, but hate Esau even before they were born. If you do not believe in reincarnation, tell me how you can hate someone before that someone is born. A nonexistent thing cannot be loved or hated.
Karma is again address by Christ in Matthew 26:52: …for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." That is karma. These are words of Christ, they should be taken universally, just as everything he said should.
In Mark 10:28-31 Jesus speaks of the rewards for leading a pious life. As you can see, these rewards could not be fulfilled in just one lifetime:
In Revelation 3:12 the idea of more than one life is supported:
Note the words, "Never again will he leave it." Again? If we had not gone out "before" in an incarnations, we could not go out "again". This is very similar to Luke 20:35-36.
Note again the words: "can no longer die." Very similar to the Revelation verse. If we only die once, we can’t die again. Thus the phrase "can no longer die" would be impossible and the Bible wrong.
Many of you more avid Bible readers might conclude that these idea of the verses are wrong and dismiss them as "another person’s interpretation of scripture." But I am not interpreting it. I am doing something that so many people find it so hard to do, I am taking it literally.
And in closing there should be at least some logic applied: How could an eternity of damnation or an eternity of blissful life with God be determined in one miniscule life on earth?
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