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Tuesday: Reincarnation — 14 Comments

  1. When we think of reincarnation it often brings to mind eastern religions which teach about going through a series of rebirths until you reach Nirvana - a state of endless being with no suffering, or sinful desires. However, the idea has also crept into Christianity. The Church of the Latter-Day Saints make much of President Snow's little couplet:

    “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be”

    When you compare that statement with:

    For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: Isa 14:13 KJV

    ...and:

    For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen 3:5 KJV

    ... it puts a different perspective on the LDS statement.
    There are a couple of issues at the heart of the reincarnation idea. 1) The state of salvation is something that you achieve by progressive improvement (works) and 2) The temptation to be something that you are not.

    (55)
  2. Around 20 years-old I decided to look for other explanations in life. Back then I was not happy with what I had seen in the church - (I was probably looking for Jesus in humans). At that time, I was far away from home and started to read a best seller titled "Many Masters, Many Lives", it was the 90s. I thought I had found the explanations I needed, but I was mistaken. I tried myself to have an "out of the body experience". But nothing brought me peace, because I continued to feel lost. After going for a long ride, I ended up at the very place I had left, the Bible foundation. Now 23, I decided to give my life again to Christ and got baptized. Many obstacles still had to be overcome, while the most difficult ones were and are related to my own inner nature. But Jesus freely gives me peace, and He leads me into "fresh pasture and fountains of water". I have to say thanks to God every day, because I'm not in this fight alone. And when I fall hard and things are hurting too much, He carries me through. I want to choose God's truth found in His Word every day, because that's the safest way to reach ABUNDANT LIFE, TODAY.

    (56)
  3. JC, thanks for sharing your testimony, and your spiritual journey. God bless you as you journey on. "And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony." Revelation 12:11. Amen.

    (10)
  4. Satan doesn’t care what we believe, that’s why there are so many options outside of the truth. All he cares about is that we don’t believe the truth. Genesis 2:16 & 17 tell us what God said to Adam & Eve. In the very next chapter, Genesis 3:4-6 Satan tells the very first lie to Eve. We have to choose, just like Eve did, which we will believe. The only way we have to know the truth is to study Scripture, with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Each of us has to know it for ourselves. I can’t just follow what someone says, I have to look and follow for myself.

    (13)
  5. I agree – “there is no place for the idea of reincarnation in the Christian faith.” It appears that it was always man’s greatest anxiety not to know what happens when he dies. In our days, science is working on extending and enhancing/creating life by developing the symbiosis between machine and flesh – the cyborg; basically allowing the extension of life by updating parts that can be operated through computer programing.

    Considering reincarnation – it is one among many answers which man came to embrace in his quest to be comfortable with dying. It appears that the quality of civic life forms around the value one attaches to a human life, and so, the structure of civilizations developed based on their understanding and worship of their god(s), always wanting to extend one's happiness into the life after death.

    It is interesting to find that all religions seem to base the quality of the afterlife on the quality of the life lived in one's current life. Our generation is blessed with receiving God’s last revelation, brought to us by His Son, to finally satisfy man’s search for answers regarding life, death, and life after death.

    (5)
  6. Brother Maurice Ashton:
    Jesus taught that Satan is the father of lies.

    “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44, KJV).

    In Satan's temptation of Eve:

    “4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5, KJV)

    two statements were put forward and God verified one of the statements, that there would be no doubt about which statement was the lie.

    “¶And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:” (Gen. 3:22, KJV).

    (3)
    • God never designed His children to "know evil." He planned for them to know only good and live with abundant joy and happiness. And He still does. The path of joy is still found only in His presence. (See Psalm 16:11; John 10:10)
      Do we sometimes still yield to the desire to "know evil"?

      (8)
      • Inge: When the Lord returns & "this corruption puts on incorruption" how are we going to un-know evil? Also, about the beings who have been observing this ordeal, in which we have been embroiled for so long, after observing evil
        how can they not know evil even though they have not succumbed to it?

        (3)
        • Hi Leilani,
          In the Bible "know" is used as "to experience" not mere intellectual acquaintance. If a man "knows" his wife, for instance, a baby results. In different contexts "know" may mean different things.

          Certainly in Genesis, God did not wish Adam and Eve to experience evil. They got to "know" evil by directly participating in it. God "knew" evil because it was directed at Him. He did not "know" evil by participating in it.
          In eternity, the saved will certainly not "know" evil through participation. But I believe they will always have a distinct memory of what happened when humanity rejected the rule of God.
          The saved will "know" joy and happiness by experience.
          Does that make sense?

          (3)
    • Alcoholism and/or drug addiction are realities that we know of their existence. We can get to know them in two ways, one of them would be through the experience of trying initially and then becoming consumers; another way is by contemplating the effects on other people. Which one would we choose wisely?
      God desires that we not come to know evil by becoming involved with evil itself.
      God knows evil, not because we have participated in it (this is very obvious) but also adjusts to our future reality and God's plans.
      I believe that God did not verify anything, He knew it from the beginning.

      (2)
  7. I remember a friend leaning over to whisper words of comfort after i had lost my elder brother and his words were: "Cheer up my brother, our brother was a good man and he is in heaven and just 'laughing' at us as we mourn! All we should do is to ask him to send the Spirit of courage."

    He wasn't of the Adventist faith, of course. He isn't the only one who professes this type of faith; even now that's the talk in today's circles. Today, for one to be convinced that the dead are sleeping they need not only a plethora of Bible texts (thanks to this Quarter's lesson guide, I'm now much more confident) but lots of time as well. As one tries to share this message, they're like out of this world! Reminds me of Paul's message to Timothy-

    "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Tim. 4:3.

    Most people will quote their church leaders and not the bible. May God help us to let this message out irrespective of the responses and situation out there.

    (7)
    • That is so true. People think we are crazy not to believe in having our family and friends in heaven right now after their death. You hear this so often wherever you go and see it in all media. 2 Timothy 4:3 was a great text to point out in this discussion. They may only accept what we have to say when we first show them that we are a person to be trusted and that cares for them. They also will not accept it without the influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

      (4)
  8. King David wrote Psalm 16:11 thousands of years before Jesus came. Jesus said what He said in John 10:10 when He was here alive and well. But there He also said that those who came before Him were thieves and robbers. Who were those who came before Him that He said were "thieves and robbers?"

    Also, JC Zielack, when you said that you gave your heart to Jesus again, were you then also "rebaptized?" Were you also baptized the first time that you gave your heart to Jesus?

    (1)

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