Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

Let me rephrase the question: regardless of religious upbringing or belief, what are your opinions about reincarnation? What are the common concepts you come across as to the purpose and end of reincarnation?

The question leads me to believe you don't understand Christianity.

There are precisely 466,457,567,354 that believe in reincarnation as of this moment in time.*

*Note: This number may or may not have been fabricated at the moment of reponse.

I don't know anyone that believes in reincarnation, christian or otherwise.

I know more than enough folks that believe in reincarnation. Most are Hindu and Buddhist, but a few Christians and Jews are among this number. It's safe to say most Christians don't, as a rule, since they believe in the one life/one shot rule. However, others hold on to the passages in the Bible which seem to support reincarnation.

As for myself, I'm not a Christian, per se, and I am on the fence on the matter of reincarnation.

I think its interesting that someone can believe in two things that totally contradict each other. For a Christian to believe in reincarnation means that the power of Christ's death and incorruptible bodily resurrection wasn't good enough, thus denying Him as the Christ, God, and the only Way.

JAMES 1:5-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8he is a double–minded man, unstable in all he does.

Yeah, Biblical Christianity and reincarnation are incompatible. Oh, and ... wow! That Wikipedia entry linked by Gnorb hosts some of the worst hermeneutics I have ever, ever come across. Seriously. Check the "Supporting passages from a Christian point of view" section of that page. The interpretations there are so bad, in fact, that it reinforces the idea that Wikipedia is mere hackery, in most cases.

The idea of reincarnation is not compatible with the teachings of the Bible and as such Christianity. At least in the traditional sense of reincarnation that holds the believe that one if reborn as a child or some other living being upon death.

Christians believe in an eventual resurrection, but this goes along a different theme than that of reincarnation.

The issue with reincarnation is that people believe that its pupose is to give someone a second shot at life if they weren't good enough. The false belief here is that if you believe in reincarnation you don't believe in Hell and therefore you believe that everyone gets to heaven if they're just good enough during one or more of their do-overs. Those Christians I've met which believe in reincarnation see it as a way to learn. You come back because you learned lessons in a previous life and now you return to either share your experiences (not by your choice, but because that is your purpose as defined by God) or because you still have lessons to learn, lessons which are so large they take more than one lifetime to master.

(By the way, no I don't believe in Hell, either. I don't believe that a God who is supposed to love would punish infinitely for a finite wrong. That seems nothing short of evil. I do, however, believe that Hell is a separation from God, and that itself presents its own brand of anguish. But I digress...)

@seananthony: You have just exemplified why things like Wikipedia are needed. Believe it or not, what is presented there is a point of view which exists. You may not agree with it, but it exists. Calling it "mere hackery" because it disagrees with you simply presents you as someone whose core beliefs aren't strong enough to stand up to a challenge.

The problem with religion (and please, please, please don't make the silly mistake of believing the constructs of your belief are faith and not religion, that they are your "faith in Christ"; faith is an action, religion a construct which gives the reason for the structure of that action) is that once a different point of view is presented it can only be right or wrong. And, of course, since you believe what you believe, then what you see is that you are right and they are wrong. After all, you wouldn't knowingly believe something wrongly, correct? And to admit that you don't know is to invite the seeds of doubt. (While I don't believe that second statement, it is that assertion which keeps many from growing.)

The idea of reincarnation is present in various forms of Christianity. According to the Vatican, it is not compatible with Catholicism. Mainstream evangelical Christianity also rejects the idea. However, other "Christian" faiths (Gnostic is the only one I can think of right now, though I believe Mormonism may also fit this bill) acknowledge the idea of reincarnation. (IIRC, Gnosticsm applies a Qabalistic-type structure to the idea of reincarnation.)

Now, I could spend all night here going through the history of all this (Council of Nicea, Counsil of Trent, the teachings of St. Augustine, etc...). I was a Christian once, a rather fervent one. However, once I held my faith up to the light of scrutiny I realized that what I believed was right was not what I was being taught by the church. "To thine own self be true." I was glad to find many who thought like me -- mostly "Liberal Catholics". However, because I don't speak as you, and don't believe as you, most of what I would present would be immediately discarded because it did not fit your preconceived notions of what history should be like; it would pretty much be a waste of my time. That said, I stand by what I said: some Christians believe in reincarnation. I've met some. No evangelicals are among these, however. Most are Catholics, though some are Buddhists who apply the ideas of Thich Nhat Hahn in saying that the teachings of Zen Buddhism and Christianity (usually the Gnostic varieties, from my observations) are not incompatible.

Yes, Christians do believe in reincarnation. The reincarnation of Christ, that is.

I am fascinated by religion as a whole, and yes, there are plenty of Christians out there who believe in reincarnation, or at least the possibility of it. There are groups online that support this, etc. Whether the concept of reincarnation is compatible with the Bible or not is unimportant. People can and will believe as they want, whether there is reason or support for those beliefs or not. (E.g., believe it or not, there are Christian witches and Christian Druids.)

When I ran across several sites about reincarnation and Christianity, the thing I noticed was that this was an area of Christianity that bordered on disbelief in the faith; it was a way of trying to explain away some of the painful things in the Bible, including the concept of Hell. It is no different than when other Christians try to find ways to argue the same things by pointing to translation issues or belief issues. Belief is of course a very personal thing, so one would be hard pressed to find any faith that hasn't mixed in with another faith or idea.

Here is a fact which you might find of interest:

Brazil is nominally a Catholic country, most of its inhabitants being Catholic. Yet, by some reasonable estimates, over half of the country believes in reincarnation! How did this come to be? In the middle of the eighteen hundreds, a movement began in France called Spiritism (as distinguished from Spiritualism in America.) Founded by the researches of Allan Kardec, it is based on the ideas communicated by spirits, usually through the automatic writing of accomplished mediums! Sounds loopy, right? Actually, The Spirits Book, a collection of such communications compiled by Kardec, is one of the most clear and logical explanations of spiritual matters I have come across. Go figure. It is kind of a Christian esotericism.

Many Catholics in Brazil are also Spiritists. If "by their fruits you will know them", the Spiritists I came across were some of the most kind, charitable and decicated Christians I have come across. While in Brazil, I found that the most popular American TV show is... you guessed it... Medium!

Here is a short section from The Spirits Book on reincarnation (in question and answer format):

166. How can the soul that has not attained to perfection during the corporeal life complete the work of its purification?

"By undergoing the trial of a new existence."

-- How does the soul accomplish this new existence? Is it through its transformation as a spirit?

"The soul, in purifying itself, undoubtedly undergoes a transformation; but, in order to effect this transformation, it needs the trial of corporeal life."

-- The soul has then, many corporeal existences?

"Yes; we all have many such existences. Those who maintain the contrary wish to keep you in the same ignorance in which they are themselves."

-- It would seem to result from this statement that the soul, after having quitted one body, takes another one; in other words, that it reincarnates itself in a new body. Is it thus that this statement is to be understood?

"Evidently so."

167. What is the aim of reincarnation?

"Expiation; progressive improvement of mankind. Without this aim, where would be its justice?"

People get rapture, resurrection, and reincarnation all mixed up.

Reincarnation is entirely inaccurate and incongruent by definition. However, Jesus was described as the firstfruits of the resurrection of the dead. If you're one who is curious or who cares, search the word "resurrect" or "resurrection" in the Bible and see what comes up.

Its amazing how few people have even heard of the resurrection of the dead. I was amazed when I started seeing it's emphasis in the Bible.