Reincarnation or Deception?
I was watching Fox News a while back when Jerry was getting ready for work, and there was a man interviewed who had just published a book on reincarnation. I don’t remember his name – sorry. Anyway, he does ‘reincarnation regression’ which is taking people back to meet themselves in their past lives. He says if they find out they were drowned in another life the regressions will help them overcome their current life fear of water. Or, learning they died by falling off a castle wall, they will overcome their fear or heights. Or, if they died by hanging they will get rid of that neck pain. And so on. I think the poll said 26% of people in the USA believe in it. He also said that the Catholic church and Judaism allow that belief, and rejecting reincarnation began with Constantine who thought people would be easier to control if they had a fear of judgment. Or, he said something like that. It wasn’t anything new. I have heard it before. I have read it before. I have talked to people who believe it.
The important question is really not what percent of the world’s population believe in reincarnation.
The real question is, ‘What is the truth?’
The Bible clearly answers that question when it says, ‘It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.’ Hebrews 9:27
Something very sad about the entire situation, besides the fact that reincarnation will lead people to hell, is that this man was ‘proving his theory’ by stating how many people accept it as true. A lot of people believing something doesn’t make it true, it just makes it acceptable. I believe that is the same way Charles Darwin ‘proved’ his theory. Other people took him seriously, so that proved to him that he was correct.
What the victims of this false teacher meet in their regressions is not they themselves in another life. What they meet are lying spirits. The spirits, or fallen angles, or demons, or whatever you want to all them, are not human. However, they are very real beings. They are liars and deceivers like their master.
Years ago I had a conversation with my art teacher about this. He was a fine Christian man, but he had read a book on reincarnation. He said the people whose stories were written in the book seemed to have credibility. He was struggling with how to put that into his Christian faith without making a grave error.
We went over what the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27
We also went over the story in Luke chapter 16.
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, neither was able to return to earth. It is interesting that the rich man was not repentant. And, he was still trying to set himself above Lazarus by asking Abraham to order Lazarus to do his bidding. If he had been allowed out of hell, he would have gone on to live another life without seeking reconciliation with God.
I personally believe people are not given a second chance in another life simply because they would not take it. They would not take God’s offer even if they had already experienced hell. Notice that Satan will be bound 1000 years during what we call the Millennium Kingdom. At the end of that age, Satan is let out of hell. And, what does he do? Does he fall on his knees and plead for mercy? No. He comes out just as rebellious as when he went in. (Another thing we learn from the kingdom years is that mankind will sin even without the influence of Satan and his followers
It would be pretty much impossible to go over all the things that are not acceptable within the teachings of the Bible, with reincarnation definitely being one of the false teachings that is popular today. Seeking contact with the spirit world in any form is another.
Christians need to know and teach just a few things that will keep younger Christians and even non-believers from many false paths.
First, God made it all – all of everything.
Any being in existence is a being created by God.
Any ‘being’ or ‘feeling’ or ‘vision’ or anything else that teaches something contrary to what the Bible teaches is coming from a created being. That being is a fallen angel, a being you can also call a lying spirit or demon.
Reincarnation rejects the atonement for sin made by Jesus Christ, believing instead that souls eventually work out their own salvation/enlightenment/path-to-god through many lives. It is just another form of salvation by works, but it takes many lives instead of one.
That’s it. For those who believe God is telling the truth in His book, then anything that calls God a liar is not of God. It is from the king of hell – which is Satan.
When reincarnation is mentioned, or contact with the spirit world, or contact with the dead, or aliens, Christians need to boldly state that there has been no real contact with anything except with a deceiving being created by God, and fallen from heaven. You can truthfully say ‘lying spirit’, but that may not be the best way to begin the conversation. If you get their attention, bring on the point about Christ’s atonement for sin. People don’t have to work for their salvation, they just have to accept Christ’s sacrifice. After salvation, then work for Jesus because you want others to know the true path to God.
Barbara
http://tobarbara.blogspot.com
I was watching Fox News a while back when Jerry was getting ready for work, and there was a man interviewed who had just published a book on reincarnation. I don’t remember his name – sorry. Anyway, he does ‘reincarnation regression’ which is taking people back to meet themselves in their past lives. He says if they find out they were drowned in another life the regressions will help them overcome their current life fear of water. Or, learning they died by falling off a castle wall, they will overcome their fear or heights. Or, if they died by hanging they will get rid of that neck pain. And so on. I think the poll said 26% of people in the USA believe in it. He also said that the Catholic church and Judaism allow that belief, and rejecting reincarnation began with Constantine who thought people would be easier to control if they had a fear of judgment. Or, he said something like that. It wasn’t anything new. I have heard it before. I have read it before. I have talked to people who believe it.
The important question is really not what percent of the world’s population believe in reincarnation.
The real question is, ‘What is the truth?’
The Bible clearly answers that question when it says, ‘It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.’ Hebrews 9:27
Something very sad about the entire situation, besides the fact that reincarnation will lead people to hell, is that this man was ‘proving his theory’ by stating how many people accept it as true. A lot of people believing something doesn’t make it true, it just makes it acceptable. I believe that is the same way Charles Darwin ‘proved’ his theory. Other people took him seriously, so that proved to him that he was correct.
What the victims of this false teacher meet in their regressions is not they themselves in another life. What they meet are lying spirits. The spirits, or fallen angles, or demons, or whatever you want to all them, are not human. However, they are very real beings. They are liars and deceivers like their master.
Years ago I had a conversation with my art teacher about this. He was a fine Christian man, but he had read a book on reincarnation. He said the people whose stories were written in the book seemed to have credibility. He was struggling with how to put that into his Christian faith without making a grave error.
We went over what the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27
We also went over the story in Luke chapter 16.
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, neither was able to return to earth. It is interesting that the rich man was not repentant. And, he was still trying to set himself above Lazarus by asking Abraham to order Lazarus to do his bidding. If he had been allowed out of hell, he would have gone on to live another life without seeking reconciliation with God.
I personally believe people are not given a second chance in another life simply because they would not take it. They would not take God’s offer even if they had already experienced hell. Notice that Satan will be bound 1000 years during what we call the Millennium Kingdom. At the end of that age, Satan is let out of hell. And, what does he do? Does he fall on his knees and plead for mercy? No. He comes out just as rebellious as when he went in. (Another thing we learn from the kingdom years is that mankind will sin even without the influence of Satan and his followers
It would be pretty much impossible to go over all the things that are not acceptable within the teachings of the Bible, with reincarnation definitely being one of the false teachings that is popular today. Seeking contact with the spirit world in any form is another.
Christians need to know and teach just a few things that will keep younger Christians and even non-believers from many false paths.
First, God made it all – all of everything.
Any being in existence is a being created by God.
Any ‘being’ or ‘feeling’ or ‘vision’ or anything else that teaches something contrary to what the Bible teaches is coming from a created being. That being is a fallen angel, a being you can also call a lying spirit or demon.
Reincarnation rejects the atonement for sin made by Jesus Christ, believing instead that souls eventually work out their own salvation/enlightenment/path-to-god through many lives. It is just another form of salvation by works, but it takes many lives instead of one.
That’s it. For those who believe God is telling the truth in His book, then anything that calls God a liar is not of God. It is from the king of hell – which is Satan.
When reincarnation is mentioned, or contact with the spirit world, or contact with the dead, or aliens, Christians need to boldly state that there has been no real contact with anything except with a deceiving being created by God, and fallen from heaven. You can truthfully say ‘lying spirit’, but that may not be the best way to begin the conversation. If you get their attention, bring on the point about Christ’s atonement for sin. People don’t have to work for their salvation, they just have to accept Christ’s sacrifice. After salvation, then work for Jesus because you want others to know the true path to God.
Barbara
http://tobarbara.blogspot.com
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