Reincarnation: Is Life a Circle?

It’s a popular belief, taken as fact by billions. Despite the lack of proof, it’s one that persists even among Christians, says Harold Harker.

Recently, while visiting in Mongolia, I noticed that almost every taxidriver had tied a Dharma wheel of life to his rear-view mirror. The connection with Buddhism was obvious. Horns would toot as we passed by sacred ovoos on hilltops. With this, the spirits would be appeased and, hopefully, the cab drivers would have a better chance in the next life.

But such beliefs aren’t confined to pagan or Eastern countries, such as Mongolia. In 1984, Time magazine indicated that the belief in reincarnation was alive and well in Hollywood.
Actors Sylvester Stallone and Shirley MacLaine both indicated their belief that in their former lives they were beheaded. MacLaine also admitted being a prostitute in another life (Time, September 10, 1984). Since then, in Western countries, the proportion of those believing similarly has grown immensely; in the US, from about a quarter of the population to more than a half.

a Bible lesson
But Scripture doesn’t support such a concept. The most famous person ever raised from the dead was Lazarus, who lived just outside Jerusalem at Bethany. Lazarus was one of the best friends Jesus had. Jesus would often stay at his house, finding rest and fellowship. Yet, according to John chapter 11, while in Galilee and some distance away, Jesus received word that His friend was sick and near death.

Jesus would normally have hastened to the side of His friend, but this time He stayed where He was for two more days. It was only then that He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea”(v 7).
The disciples tried to dissuade Him, because of the threat to His life, but Jesus went anyway. He was determined to bring to our human race a real understanding about life after death.

Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up”(v 11). The disciples replied with an axiom: “If he sleeps, he will get better”(v 12). Then Jesus told them—quite plainly—“Lazarus is dead.”
Death is equated by the Lord of life as cessation from living, not as another life. Jesus stood before the tomb containing Lazarus and commanded him to come out, which he did.

But after he emerged, Lazarus told of no long, dark tunnel, bright lights or a journey to another time, place or world while in the tomb. He told nothing of being part of another parallel life or of looking down on his grieving loved ones from heaven. He revealed no secrets from beyond the grave. And, not surprisingly, for the Bible is explicit in its statements on this, there are none.

common origins
However, that doesn’t prevent the majority of people in the Western world—many of them Christians—and billions in the Eastern world, believing in life after death and reincarnation. The great lie of the devil in the Garden of Eden—that humankind would not really die—echoes across the whole world today. His lie is told and retold in books, movies, talk shows, pseudo-documentaries and pulpits; and told often enough, the world has accepted this lie as truth. To Satan, the father of lies, it doesn’t matter whether you believe that at death the soul lives on in heaven or a person is given another life, be it human or animal, a famous person or an insect.

what do you trust?
While many famous film stars and personalities reportedly believed in reincarnation, none can gainsay the words of Jesus who declared that, in the ultimate, there is life after death, but it comes only in the resurrection that accompanies His second coming (see John 11:25). In fact, He promises an eternal life, but minus sin and suffering, as He intended at the world’s creation.

In the Bible’s letter to the Hebrews, the situation is made quite clear: “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27, 28).

In these verses you see some of the reasons why humankind has been tempted to believe the great lie of the devil. Reincarnation is a way of rejecting the Bible’s teaching that we will all face a final judgment by God. This helps avoid the alternative—a life consigned to hell. Reincarnation becomes the perfect way to procrastinate, forever avoiding being punished for one’s misdeeds; one just takes another seat on life’s roundabout, always delaying the inevitable!

Another reason reincarnation appeals to people is our human desire to have all answers here and now. After seeing the inequity of life, it can be comforting to some to think that in the next the villain, who is making life hell now, will have to pay for it!

The issues of the future, and rewards and punishments, transcend ideas given to the human race by means of a lie. The issues of life and death, the resurrection and the future are directly concerned with a person—the Creator, the One who died that we might live again. So concerned was He with our situation, He left heaven and lived and died on sinful earth as our “sacrifice,” that death would be relegated to oblivion at the day of His second coming.

Scripture asserts—and it’s very clear—that “the soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). Reincarnation holds to just the opposite, saying, you don’t die, you just live in a different form! Scripture says we die once and face a judgment! Again, a choice comes to us. Two contradictory philosophies are before each of us. Just because some famous people have made this choice, and just because millions believe it, doesn’t mean anything. Truth is not subject to a majority vote. Truth comes through the One who is Truth and cannot lie—Jesus.

facing reality
Adam and Eve were confronted by the father of lies—the devil—and had to choose whom they would believe: the God of the universe or the devil. They chose the devil, and the results of their choice remain with us.

But we are confronted with the same choice: accept the plain word of the One who said “I am the truth and the life” or the devil’s lie. The outcome of our choice is either an eternal life in Jesus or death (not life) forever.

Death cannot mean the continuation of life in any other form; it cannot mean trying life’s roundabout over and over again with the option of a better chance in the judgement. In this matter of eternity, there is only one way out, and that’s to accept eternal life in Jesus Christ.

the premises of reincarnation

1. Reincarnation gives another probation. And another. And another. Endless possibilities make truth and error, right and wrong seem irrelevant. The theory of chance makes it such that everyone who does right in one life might find the looked-for nirvana. No-one faces an accounting for his or her misdeeds. The Holy Scriptures nowhere give credence to this concept.
2. Death, in reality, is something less than real. Hindus and Buddhists alike believe that death isn’t real, just an illusion. Scripture repeatedly speaks of death as the end—a finality—not a beginning (see Malachi 4:1, 3; Matthew 21:41; Ezekiel 33:11; Revelation 20:14, 15).
3. The law of karma presents life as a circle. The past, the present and the future are bound together. They’re a cycle. Scripture, however, makes it clear that there is only one life—the right here and the right now—and that eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ (see Hebrews 4:7; Joshua 24:15; Hebrews 9:27, 28).
4. The body is merely a temporary house for the inner being that may change its habitat continually. This concept—it comes from Plato and other Greek philosophers—has infiltrated Christian thinking. Scripture talks of the resurrection of the body being part of the final life in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15:42, 51-58).
5. Reincarnation is based on the devil’s lie—that death is not really death—but a continuation of life by the soul in another form. Scripture does not support the concept of an immortal soul (see Ezekiel 18:4,20; Hebrews 9:27, 28).