Reincarnation or
Resurrection
"If a man dies, shall he live again?" This question, asked by the Bible character Job (Job 14:14), has intrigued humankind since the dawn of history. The answer remains shrouded in faith and philosophy rather than in scientific proof.
Basically, there are three beliefs about what happens after death: annihilation, which holds that nothing happens because there is no reality outside the world of matter; resurrection, the Christian belief that a person's mortal body is transformed into an immortal one; and reincarnation, which theorizes that death is a passage to cyclical but unending rebirth. This last view permeates New Age thinking.
Until well into this century, reincarnation wasn't popular in either Europe or the United States. But now, according to several surveys including a 1982 Gallup Poll, about one-fourth of all Americans believe in some form of reincarnation. The proportion rises to 30% among persons under age 30. Gallup's Princeton Religion Research Center found the findings "particularly surprising in light of the fact that nine in ten Americans give their religious preference broadly as Christian and reincarnation is anathema to traditional New Testament doctrine."1
In a 1985 Roper organization poll, 44% of the adults sampled said they either believed (15%) in reincarnation or were not sure (29%) if they did.2
The wide U.S. acceptance of reincarnation, or transmigration of souls,
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has received a major assist from screen and entertainment celebrities as well as New Age personalities. Superstar Tina Turner reflects her reincarnation beliefs in the record "I Might Have Been Queen" with lines like "I'm a new pair of eyes, an original mind." Shirley MacLaine, whom F. LaGard Smith calls "the Pied Piper of today's reincarnation tune,"3 claims that under the influence of psychic acupuncture she is able to talk to animals, trees, and an entity she calls "Higher Self."
The doctrine of reincarnation and its accompanying Law of Karma are present in the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism. Some scholars trace their origin to the Indo-Aryans of Punjab and Sind, India, about 1800 B.C.4 Others place it no earlier than 800 or 600 B.C.5
According to Norman Geisler and J. Yutaka Amano, there are ten versions of the reincarnation afterlife doctrine available in the world's marketplace of ideas.6 Within the Eastern Yogic tradition, Hindus believe that when humans die, their souls pass, or transmigrate, into a new body with each incarnation. Buddhists, on the other hand, deny the existence of the soul but refer to a journey toward nirvana — a final release from the wheel of existence and the countless cycles of birth, life, and death. Nirvana also brings freedom from the bondage of karma, which has been defined as the cosmic law of cause and effect. Karma is the sum total of one's good and bad actions, a kind of ledger of credits and debits which together determine the circumstances of the individual's next rebirth.
Madame Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, was a major shaper of an eclectic Western theory of reincarnation whose purpose and goal is to merge with God and end the painful rebirth cycle. Said Blavatsky: "It is owing to this law of spiritual development that mankind will become freed from its false gods and find itself finally — SELF REDEEMED."7
Alice Bailey's Arcane School — a Theosophy offshoot — and the copious writings of the late Edgar Cayce, the past-life psychic king whose convoluted incarnation theories included belief that Jesus had previously been the biblical Adam, also molded and influenced current reincarnation theories accepted by millions of Americans.
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And under the New Age aegis, a hybrid form of reincarnation theory has developed on the American scene — one which "avoids the uncomfortable matters of guilt and responsibility before a personal and righteous God," according to evangelical Christian John Snyder, a reincarnation analyzer.8
Reincarnation American style meets psychological needs, attempting in the process to resolve the moral failures of life while hanging onto a hope for survival and salvation. At first glance, this seems to be a more just system than the Christian teaching of eternal judgment for finite transgressions. Under the reincarnation model, karma replaces sin and transgressors get additional go-rounds at life to make up for past errors and faults. Reincarnation is appealing also because it offers an explanation for the existence of pain and suffering: they are the result of wrong choices in previous lives.
Shirley MacLaine's Americanized version introduces "free agentry" into reincarnation and downplays the negative karmic buildup. Most, though not all, New Age reincarnationists reject the idea that the human soul can transmigrate backward to lower life forms once it has progressed upward from such lower incarnations as rocks, trees, and animals.
The notion of group reincarnation is also strong in the American version of working up the corporate cosmic ladder by working off bad karma. In his book, Afterlife, psychic investigator Colin Wilson tells the strange tale of a group of people who allegedly had been involved together in intertwined lives in Roman Britain in the fifth century and in thirteenth-century France, as well as in the Napoleonic era in France in the nineteenth century. According to Wilson, the "facts" as they emerge from the various cases "seem to support . . . [the] view of reincarnation as an evolutionary experience."9
In this connection, Lanny Buettner, analyzing the content of written trance communications by several modern psychic mediums, found them in essential agreement that reincarnation is not only a fact, but that "groups of souls may be working on a project over a period of lives, which could explain close cooperation during the past life."10
This "group soul," according to messages of channeled entities analyzed by Buettner (this type of scenario dovetails with the conceptions of many New Age reincarnationists, by
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the way), plans future incarnations based on the perceived state of the individual soul's karma from past lives:
This is done in consultation with other souls, generally wiser, more advanced ones. The purpose or purposes for the next life are chosen and then what is often called a "blueprint" is drawn up which determines who the parents in the next life are to be (hence the place of birth and a certain social environment) and the physical characteristics (apparently through determining the combination of genetic materials which begins the fetus's growth). Michael [an entity who transmitted messages through an Ouija board] states that certain personality characteristics are also chosen. Finally, certain events are planned to facilitate circumstances appropriate to the goals or purposes of the incarnation (such as an accident at age 20 which will paralyze from the waist down, to help develop a goal of overcoming adversity). Blueprints are apparently coordinated with others, so that, for example, one would be born, knowing that a specific soul would incarnate a spirit as a younger sibling, or even that two souls would become incarnate intending to meet and marry and give birth to a third soul's incarnation.11
It is even possible, according to psychics who do "life readings," to be in touch with one's future incarnations. "Immortality consultant" Patricia-Rochelle Diegel outlined at a trance medium workshop how she had "been into" her own incarnations as far ahead as A.D. 5500!12
Although reincarnationists insist that choosing to take on specific situations in future lives ensures free choice, it is hard to see — if Diegel's story is to be believed — how any element of free will in earthly life is preserved if the projected outcome of future karmic cycles can be known in advance.
The concept of justice is also dealt a fatal blow because personal responsibility for one's own actions vanishes. If I have no free will, then my uniqueness as a person is vitiated and I cannot be held accountable; if I am a truly unique individual with free will, it is unjust for me to bear the load of karma generated by someone else. As Mark Albrecht correctly points out:
"If reincarnation is true, Adolf Hitler will never have to pay for his crimes, for he has ceased to exist. Instead,
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completely new, unknowing and innocent personalities inherit Hitler's karma. Likewise the righteous also cease to exist, never reaping the benefits of their good lives and self-sacrifice. Others reap the reward."13
Since most of us cannot "remember" our past lives, how are we going to work off bad karma if we don't know what caused it? How then is reincarnation a learning experience to help one advance in the next life and eventually perfect the soul? Both the individual and society must suffer meaninglessly.
As proof of reincarnation, proponents cite alleged past-life recollections of people under hypnotic regression as well as case studies of persons who have described "near-death" and "out-of-body" experiences. Psychiatrist Helen Wambach, for example, has "regressed" more than 5000 patients into "prior lives," and her analysis of their "memories" appears convincing.14 And thanatologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's study of the dying has led her to the conviction that they often "see" dead relatives. She has also accepted the spiritualist dictum that in the world beyond death there is no judgment of the dead; "they judge — and punish — themselves."15
But such "evidence" at most implies nothing more than a knowledge of the past; it does not prove that the person who "remembers" it was present in the past. And, under hypnosis, people will sometimes report events as being true when in fact they never happened. Further, even if these experiences support the case for ongoing life beyond physical death, they do not prove reincarnation — only immortality.
Past-life recall and instances of persons knowing information not available during their present lifetime could also be explained by spirit deception or even demon possession.
New Agers have often claimed that the Bible teaches reincarnation. What about this? Some have also stated that original references to reincarnation were deleted from the Scriptures and that — after previously teaching it — the Christian church suppressed the doctrine in the sixth century.
Biblical evidence for reincarnation, as Snyder shows, "is merely the product of wishful thinking and faulty literary criticism."16
Albrecht also lays to rest the false notion of biblical support for reincarnation.17
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After examining four New Testament texts he considers "significant and deserving of exploration," Albrecht concluded: "While all the Eastern, gnostic and occult traditions enumerate karmic patterns and the destiny of rebirth with detail and precision, it is never mentioned in the Bible, which refers only to resurrection."18
The most-cited among a scattering of texts said to contain "vestiges" of reincarnationism is the passage in John's gospel where Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be "born again" to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Jesus' explanation shows that what is meant is not reincarnation but rather a spiritual birth. As James Sire points out in his book, Scripture Twisting, "[E]ach person who has been born physically must also be born spiritually in order to enter God's kingdom. There is no excuse of confusion, for the immediate context contains a definition."19
The New Testament book of Hebrews (9:27, RSV) clearly rules out reincarnation: "it is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment." Comments Gordon Lewis, a philosophy of religion professor at Denver Seminary: "The once-for-all death of Jesus is parallel to once-for-all death for all human beings. The Bible [texts] can't be wrenched out of context to defend reincarnation."20
Shirley MacLaine and other New Agers have rolled up mega-mileage on the claim that early church councils and dishonest Bible editors excised passages and stomped out reincarnation beliefs. But this horse never really gets out of the barn.
First of all, the New Testament canon was developed in the second and third centuries and received in final form by the fourth century, not in the sixth, as many New Age reincarnationists claim. The earliest versions of New Testament texts do not differ appreciably from those that date after the sixth century.21 Thus the "deletion" argument is stopped cold.
Further, the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 553 never considered reincarnation; it simply was not of great concern to the church fathers. The council did discuss — and reject — the idea of the preexistence of the soul, a view which had been held by church theologian Origen (c. 185-254). Origen believed human souls preexisted their physical bodies, but
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he did not believe in reincarnation. In fact, in his writings he specifically rejected reincarnation as contrary to the Christian faith.22
Why didn't the church suppress reincarnation? It didn't need to. The theory wasn't a serious option in Christian belief.
Finally, though New Agers cite some Bible passages to "prove" reincarnation, they at the same time fault Scripture for being unreliable and say the texts were "doctored." As several Christian apologists have noted, the reincarnationists can't have it both ways.
Resurrection is the Christian answer to Job's question, "If a man dies, shall he live again?" And reincarnation is incompatible with resurrection. They cannot both be true, despite efforts to synthesize or harmonize the two.
The historic evidences for the resurrection of Jesus are far superior to those advanced for the theory of reincarnation. As Snyder has observed, they rest upon a tripod of logic: "Jesus taught resurrection; He was raised from death, which among other things vindicated His teaching; and the sources that preserve the story of His life, death and resurrection are historically reliable and trustworthy."23 Although we may not "prove" the accounts, their accuracy is "highly probable" and worthy of serious consideration.
The Christian claim, however, is not to be confused with the Platonic idea of immortality of the soul. The Christian concept is that the resurrection of the soul cannot be separated from the bodily resurrection. Thus, the integrity and unique personality of each individual are preserved at death.
Each resurrected person must face judgment. But instead of meeting a cold, relentless, and uncaring karma, the individual may depend upon the grace of a merciful, sovereign God who judges personally, justly, and with equanimity. And the ultimate state of those who stand before him depends upon their relationship to Jesus Christ: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life . . . . Jesus said, . . . 'I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die' " (John 3:16; 11:25).
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Jesus taught that redemption comes through forgiveness of sin, not shuffling of karma.
In the final analysis, the doctrine of reincarnation does not solve the problem of suffering, injustice, and evil — it only pushes it ahead, perpetuating the endless turning of the karmic wheel.
Chapter 29 || Table of Contents
1. Princeton Religion Research Center Fact Sheet, vol. 4, no. 7, 1982.
2. Statistics provided by the Roper Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn., 15 February 1988.
3. F. LaGard Smith, Out on a Broken Limb (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House Publishers, 1986), 14.
4. Cited in Ray Nelson, "New Age, Old Lie," Passport Magazine (October–November 1987): 4.
5. Mark C. Albrecht, Reincarnation: A Christian Critique of a New Age Doctrine (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1982), 31–32.
6. See Norman L. Geisler and J. Yutaka Amano, Reincarnation Sensation (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1986).
7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Secret Doctrines, 2 vols. (1888; reprint, Pasadena, Calif.: Theosophical University Press, 1977), 2:420.
8. John Snyder, Reincarnation vs. Resurrection (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984), 73.
9. Colin Wilson, Afterlife: An Investigation of the Evidence for Life after Death (Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin/Doubleday & Co., 1987), 198–202.
10. Lanny Steven Buettner, "Ethics in Contemporary Psychic Experience: A Descriptive Analysis," M.A. thesis, University of Southern California, 1984, 19.
11. Ibid., 20.
12. Trance Medium Workshop, San Francisco, Calif., 6 November 1987.
13. Albrecht, Reincarnation, 96.
14. Cited in Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon, Seduction of Christianity: Spiritual Discernment in the Last Days (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House Publishers, 1985), 43.
15. Wilson, Afterlife, 214–15.
16. Snyder, Reincarnation vs. Resurrection, 75.
17. Albrecht, Reincarnation, 36–41.
18. Ibid., 36, 40.
19. James W. Sire, Scripture Twisting (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 92.
20. Gordon Lewis, interview with author, Denver, Colo., 1 December 1987.
21. Joseph P. Gudel, Robert M. Bowman, Jr., and Dan R. Schlesinger, "Reincarnation – Did the Church Suppress It?" Christian Research Journal (Summer 1987): 12.
22. Origen, De Principiis ("On First Principles") 3.5; cited in ibid.
23. Snyder, Reincarnation vs. Resurrection, 76.
