Sunday Sermons

Reincarnation or Resurrection

Mark Dunagan
04/08/07 - Sunday Morning

Reincarnation or

Resurrection

The word reincarnation is self-explanatory, for the term incarnation means “in the flesh” and thus a reincarnation would be to return in the flesh over and over again. In this theory we keep coming back in the flesh, in different bodies, while the soul or spirit remains the same. The original source for such a teaching appears to come from the Hindu Vedas (Hindu sacred writings) although various early Western philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato taught the same basic idea. In 1982 a Gallop Poll indicated that 23 percent of Americans believe in Reincarnation, and the percentages do not change much for those with some biblical understanding of Christianity, with 21 percent of Protestants and 25 percent of Catholics embracing this teaching.

The Reincarnation Model

Existence as Human, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

Death

Soul leaves the body

Karmic debt No Karmic debt

Reincarnation (start the process all over again)

Absorption into God or Communion with God

(Impersonal view) (Personal view)

The Superficial Appeal of Reincarnation

It is easy to see why such a teaching would be appealing:

· It is convenient. Bad behavior or sins that one does not want to exercise the sufficient will power to forsake can be blamed on something that happened in a past life.

· To many people, the idea of having more than one lifetime to “get it right” seems more equitable.

· There is no doctrine of hell in this theory.

· For religious people who want Christ but reject His teachings on hell, this doctrine presents a very convenient way of believing that God gives people many lifetimes to settle on the decision to serve Him.

Problems Below the Surface

Besides being contrary to the teaching of Christ, Who viewed death as permanent and with no return to the earth or movement between Paradise and Torment (Luke 16:19ff), and the plain statement of the Hebrew writer, “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27), there are also a number of inherent problems in the theory of Reincarnation itself.

· There really is no guarantee that anyone could ever get it “perfect” even if they lived one hundred, one thousand or one million lifetimes. “No matter how many bodies they take, each one might fail to pay off its own karmic debt, or even increase it” (When Skeptics Ask, Norman Geisler, p. 246). This is especially true when it is evident that no one remembers anything about their previous lifetimes, including the supposed learned lessons from the past. If Reincarnation is really true then one should be born with all the learning and wisdom of all previous lifetimes, which means that no one should ever have to go to school to learn to read or write, subtract, add or multiply rather, they would only need a short course on the advances of science and technology that had taken place since their last life.

· One gets the impression when you hear people talk about “Karma” that they are saying that “Karma” is similar to the moral laws that one finds in the Bible. Yet this is more of a Westernized view of Karma. “Karma is not a moral prescription. It is a system of retribution only; it has no content that tells us what to do. It is enforcement, but not a moral law; it is a penal system without a legislature. So where do the moral standards that karma enforces come from? It turns out that there are none. In pantheism, there is no ultimate difference between good and evil, right and wrong” (Geisler p. 243). Allan Watts a spokesman for Zen Buddhism explains, “Buddhism does not share the Western view that there is a moral law, enjoined by God or by nature, which it is man’s duty to obey. The Buddha’s precepts of conduct—are voluntary assumed rules of expediency” (The Way of Zen, p. 52).

· Reincarnation equally has a very poor explanation for why the innocent suffer. Blaming a childhood disease on being bad in a previous lifetime certainly gives no comfort to the parents or the child and is a horrible answer. Jesus made it clear that not all suffering can be labeled as punishment for a previous sin (John 9:3 “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents”).

· From simply observing the behavior of most people it is clear that if Reincarnation is true that it does not lead to spiritual improvement, for it is self-evident that few are still on the Narrow Way to life (Matthew 7:13-14). In fact, a strong case can be made that man, far from morally advancing, is actually losing ground.

The Resurrection

· Reincarnation is the idea that the soul at death passes into another body. By contrast, The Resurrection is the truth that after death and after the Second Coming of Christ, the soul reunites with the same body that is now raised immortal and imperishable (1 Thessalonians 4:16; John 5:28-29; Philippians 3:21). So rather than a series of bodies that die, one is now in a body that never dies (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).

· Rather than seeing man as a soul in a body that is harmful, the resurrection pictures the human body as somethingworth glorifying, for man is soul and body unity. The very fact that God is going to go to the trouble to resurrect every body that went into the grave means that the human body is not detrimental to living the Christian life, but is rather a necessity. It is something that God created and is therefore very good (Genesis 1:31).

· While reincarnation is a process toward perfection (yet no guarantee of any eventual arrival), resurrection is a perfected state (Philippians 3:11-12 “In order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect”).

· Reincarnation teaches an intermediate state, in which the soul longs to be released from the body and be absorbed into God. In contrast, the resurrection is an ultimate state in which the whole person, body and soul, enjoys being in the presence of God, for “We know that when He appears, we will be like Him” (1 John 3:2).

· Instead of losing consciousness or individuality or personality, the Resurrection gives the glorious hope that we will, as distinct individuals with full consciousness, and in a glorified body, stand in the very presence of God (Philippians 3:21 “who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory”).

· Instead of being released from a body and being only “mind” or something “mental”, the Resurrection guarantees all the faithful a wonderful eternity with freedom of actual movement. The type of confinement we will be released from will be that the blind in this life will see, the lame in this life will walk, the crippled will be entirely whole, the weak will be strong, the sick will be healthy, and no infirmity will ever touch us or our loved ones in heaven again (Revelation 21:4).

· Instead of viewing moral or spiritual progress as slow and gradual, the Bible presents it as being all possible, not only within one life time (2 Timothy 4:6-8), but being something that can at times be rather fast (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Acts 9:1,9-11).

Contrasts

Reincarnation Resurrection

Pantheistic Theistic

Soul/Body Dualism Soul/Body Unity

Mortal Body Immortal Body

A repeated event One-time event

Intermediate states Ultimate state

In process Perfected

Based in Karma Based on faith and grace

No guarantee Guaranteed by Christ

Unproven Proven by Christ

Contrary to Experience We see it every Spring

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017