Eschatology

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is the belief that the soul (one’s incorporeal true self) passes from one body to another in a series of incarnated existences.

The classic form of the reincarnation doctrine was formulated in India, not earlier than the 9^th century before Christ, when the Brahaman writings were composed. Afterwards it was adopted by Buddhism and Jainism, which are two important Eastern religions which originated in India. Later it was adapted in Chinese Taoism (around the third century before Christ).

Today reincarnation is accepted also by millions of people in the West. It began to be spread in the Western World around the end of the nineteenth century by the Theosophical Society, and later by Anthroposophy. After the second World War, their intense ministry, combined with that of many Eastern gurus (a guru is a teacher, in the sense of being a manifestation of Brahman, which is the ultimate reality), and especially the efforts of the New Age Movement, determined a wide acceptance of reincarnation in our society today. Testimonies from prominent people such as Shirley MacLaine and actor Glenn Ford, who tell of their ‘former lives’, have helped spread the belief in reincarnation.

Let us look now closely at what the reincarnation doctrine says. I will expound reincarnation according to the Hindu point of view.

First of all, this doctrine affirms that the human soul (atman) is eternal and divine, that is, a part of Brahman (like a limb in a body or a branch of a tree), which is another name for God. According to Hinduism, Brahman is the ultimate reality: formless, inexpressible, unknowable, and unknowing; neither personal nor impersonal; both Creator and all that is created.

Secondly, it affirms that we have lived other lives before, therefore this is not the first life we are living on the earth, because when the soul leaves a body it goes into another body. This concept is expressed in the Bhagavad-Gita (the most popular of the Hindu scriptures) in this way: ‘Just as the self advances through childhood, youth and old age in its physical body, so it advances to another body after death. The wise person is not confused by this change called death (2,13). Just as the body casts off worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so the infinite, immortal self casts off worn out bodies and enters into new ones (2,22).’

Thirdly, the doctrine of reincarnation holds that we who are on the earth are or experience what we deserve to be or to experience according to our behaviour in the previous lives. In other words, the good we receive on the earth is the reward for the former good deeds, while the harm we receive is the punishment for the evil deeds committed in the previous lives. Therefore, if one is born in a rich family or is healthy, that means that he has a good karma, while if one is born in a poor family or sick and during his life experiences all kinds of misfortunes, that means that he has a bad karma. ‘It’s his karma!’, that’s what reincarnationists affirm in order to explain why men are rich or poor, learned or unlearned, healthy or sick, or why certain incidents happen in their lives. Karma literally means ‘action’ and is the law of cause and effect which determines destiny or fate, that is to say, the law which says that we will reap (in the next earthly life) what we sow (in this life). This ‘law’ is expressed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4,4,5): ‘According as one acts, according as one behaves, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action.’ Therefore reincarnation (samsara) is the practical way in which one reaps the fruits of his deeds. Therefore, the soul is forced to enter a new material existence until all karmic debt is paid: "By means of thought, touch, sight and passions and by the abundance of food and drink there are birth and development of the (embodied) self. According to his deeds, the embodied self assumes successively various forms in various conditions" (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5,11). In the Puranas specific destinies are figured for each kind of ‘sin’ one performs: ‘The murderer of a Brahmin becomes consumptive, the killer of a cow becomes hump-backed and imbecile, the murderer of a virgin becomes leprous - all three born as outcastes. The slayer of a woman and the destroyer of embryos becomes a savage full of diseases; who commits illicit intercourse, a eunuch; who goes with his teacher’s wife, disease-skinned. The eater of flesh becomes very red; the drinker of intoxicants, one with discolored teeth.... Who steals food becomes a rat; who steals grain becomes a locust... perfumes, a muskrat; honey, a gadfly; flesh, a vulture; and salt, an ant.... Who commits unnatural vice becomes a village pig; who consorts with a Sudra woman becomes a bull; who is passionate becomes a lustful horse.... These and other signs and births are seen to be the karma of the embodied, made by themselves in this world. Thus the makers of bad karma, having experienced the tortures of hell, are reborn with the residues of their sins, in these stated forms (Garuda Purana 5). It must be said, however, that in the West, animals have been excluded from the cycle of reincarnation.

Those who accept reincarnation assert that the law of karma is taught also by the Bible, for it is written in the epistle to the Galatians: “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7 – NKJV). According to the law of cause and effect, one cannot experience the consequences of all his deeds in one life, because while on the one hand he reaps in this life the fruits of his previous deeds, on the other hand he does some other deeds which need to be rewarded or punished in the next life. In other words, a man cannot pay off his karmic debt through one life, that is, he cannot purify himself (or expiate his karma) in one life; so he needs to be reincarnated again and again. That’s why Hinduism speaks of a cycle of reincarnation called samsara. However, it is possible for a man to be delivered from this cycle of reincarnation. This deliverance is called moksha, and it can be achieved through yoga (literally ‘yoking’), which is an Eastern practice – consisting of peculiar bodily postures and breath control - designed to induce a state of trance which supposedly allows the mind to be drawn upward into a yoking with Brahman. It is a means of withdrawal from the world of illusion (maya) to seek the only true Reality, that is, Brahman. Let me tell you something more about this so called liberation or salvation. It is achieved by man when the individual soul (atman) returns to union with the universal soul (Brahman) again, that is to say, when man ‘realizes’ that he himself is Brahman, that he and all the universe are one and the same being. In other words, this liberation is achieved when man is delivered from the ‘illusion’ (maya) that the individual soul is different from the universal soul (Brahman). Then pain and suffering end. Here is what the Bhagavad-Gita says about this liberation: ‘The great souls having achieved ultimate perfection take refute of Me, never again assume this transitory birth full of misery’ (8,15). However, according to orthodox Hinduism, there is no ultimate escape from maya, and one must eventually return to the cycle of deaths and rebirths again. Moksha is merely a temporary rest, another stage on the wheel of existence that goes round and round endlessly, repeating itself every 4.32 billion years.

To sum up, the doctrine of reincarnation is based on the following principles:

the soul is eternal and divine, that is, a part of God (that is called Brahman), which is impersonal (a sort of cosmic energy);

the human soul has been born into the human body after it has lived in another living being or in other living beings;

the circumstances of man’s life, that is, both the good and the bad events, both the pleasant and the unpleasant ones, which take place in man’s life, are nothing but the result of his deeds done in his previous lives;

after death man’s soul will continue to be incarnated on the earth into another human being (or even into some animals) to be rewarded for the good things he is doing and to be punished for the evil deeds he has done (that is, to expiate his karma);

there is hope of putting an end to the cycle of reincarnation (according to some, however, there is no hope of escaping from this cycle of deaths and rebirths);

in order to be delivered from this cycle of reincarnation, a man must practice yoga;

when man becomes Brahman or rather when he returns to union with Brahman again (through yoga) he will realize his divine nature for he will be delivered from the illusion that he is not God, then the cycle of reincarnation will end for he will be perfect;

evil deeds cannot be forgiven for a man must expiate all of them in the following lives;

man must not give account of his deeds to God but to himself.

Confutation

Now I am going to refute reincarnation through the Holy Scripture

1) The Holy Scripture teaches that God is not a cosmic energy, that is, an impersonal God, but a living being who speaks, as it is written: “God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [fill] the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28); who sees, as it is written: “And the Lord said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt ….” (Exodus 3:7 – NKJV); who hears, as it is written: “So God heard their groaning ….” (Exodus 2:24 – NKJV); who remembers, as it is written: “And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24 – NKJV); who feels (that is, He loves, He hates, and so on) and He expresses His feelings, for instance God said to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Ephraim: “Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20 – NKJV); who does good to people or does harm to them depending on whether He rewards or punishes them: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you…” (Genesis 12:3 – NKJV).

2) The Holy Scripture teaches that man is not part of God, that is to say, he is not an emanation of God (therefore man is not a divine being), but he is a creature of God (cf. Genesis 2:7 and Psalm 139:13-15) who needs to be reconciled to His Creator for he is an enemy of God in his mind and deeds, and this he can do only in this life, for it is written: “Be reconciled to God ….. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 5:20; 6:2 – NKJV). Therefore man is a being (separated from His Maker) who, because of sin of which he is a slave, must be reconciled to God in this life. He will never be able to realize that he is one with God and thus God, for he has never been God and he does not need to realize an alleged divinity which is unknown to him. In other words, man is not a divine spark (Atman) which needs to be reunited with the fire (Brahman) from which he has come. Man needs to be reconciled with the only true God (which does not mean to be reunited with God), and this he can do only while he is on the earth, only during his earthly life; and when this reconciliation takes place he is purified from all his sins and on account of this purification he has the assurance that he will go to be with the Lord when he dies. Unless he is reconciled to His Creator he, when he dies, will descend into the fire of Hades for he will die in his sins. The cycle of rebirths (reincarnations) from which a man (a drop) needs to be liberated to plunge into Brahman (the ocean) is inexistent, is a lie conceived by the devil to lead many souls to perdition; and therefore we are convinced that all the reincarnationists who have died so far thinking that they had to go through this sort of cycle of purification in order to be reunited with Brahman, are in the fire of Hades and they are cursing the doctrine of reincarnation and the person who invented it.

3) The Holy Scripture teaches that our soul did not exist before our birth, for it was created together with our body by God (we can’t say, however, exactly when our soul came into being in the womb of our mother). Therefore the soul which is inside our body was not in the body of someone else who lived before us on earth or in the body of an animal. So, brothers, don’t worry, for you are not someone else; your soul is yours, you have never lived inside the body of someone else before you were born in this world and thus you do not need to know who you were in your previous lives.

4) The Holy Scripture teaches that when a man dies his soul goes either to paradise or to hell, depending on whether he is saved or lost. Here is the scriptural evidence.

The soul of the thief who repented on the cross went to paradise for Jesus said to him: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 – NKJV), on account of the fact that the Lord had forgiven him all his sins. It did not reincarnate in anybody, either immediately or after a certain period of time.

The souls of those men who had been slain for the Word of God, which John saw in a vision, were in heaven under the altar that is before God. Here is what John says: “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held” (Revelation 6:9 – NKJV). They did not reincarnate in anybody, either immediately or after a certain period of time.

The apostle Paul knew and taught that when a righteous dies his soul goes to be with the Lord, for he said to the Corinthians: “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1 – NKJV). That’s why he said to the Corinthians: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8 – NKJV), and to the Philippians: “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:23 – NKJV). Therefore the apostle did not believe in an immediate or future reincarnation of the righteous’ soul; but he believed that after death the soul of the righteous moves from the human body into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said that he who believes in Him, though he may die, will live (obviously in heaven), as it is written: “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25 – NKJV). He did not say ‘though he may die, he will live again’ as if there were another earthly life to be lived immediately after his death or a certain period of time after it.

The soul of the rich man, after he died, did not reincarnate in a poor man (or in a pig or in a bitch – I have nothing against these animals) to expiate the injustice he did to that beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. According to the law of karma, the soul of the rich man should have reincarnated in the body of someone who would be poor and covered with sores, or in someone who would have to suffer as much as Lazarus had suffered at his gate, but no reincarnation took place, for the soul of that man descended into Hades where it was tormented by the fire, as it is written: “The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades ….” (Luke 16:22-23 – NKJV). He had lived in luxury and when he died he began to be tormented; Abraham said to him: “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke 16:25).

So, since after death the souls of the righteous go to heaven (paradise) while the souls of the wicked descend into the heart of the earth (Hades or Hell), they can’t enter the body of those who are to be born or have just been born. Brothers, when you finish the race that is set before you you will go to be with the Lord, if indeed you are in the faith, and there you will wait for the day of the resurrection of the righteous on which you will begin to live again in a body (that is, in the body you have left on the earth), which will be immortal, incorruptible and glorious, and you will appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive your reward. Instead, when the wicked die they will descend into the fire of hell, as the Scripture says (cf. Job 21:13 and Psalm 9:17) and there they will wait for the judgement day on which they will rise again, and will be judged according to their works and condemned to an eternal shame.

It is written: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement” (Hebrews 9:27 – NIV), therefore it is excluded that after death the soul of a man might reincarnate in the body of another man. Let these words be always on your lips, beloved, for through them you can stop the mouth of the reincarnationists.

5) The Holy Scripture teaches that God directs the steps of both the righteous and the wicked, who cannot understand fully how God directs them, as it is written: “A man’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24 – NIV), and somewhere else: “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23 – NKJV). In addition to this, it teaches that everybody depends on times and circumstances, as it is written: “But time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11 – NKJV), which God creates according to His purpose.

Therefore, to us believers, the fact that we were born in a rich family or in a poor family, healthy or sick, did depend on God and not on previous merits or demerits which we accumulated before our birth. Even the fact that we live in a certain place, we have married a certain person, we have a certain job, and we pass through certain circumstances, depends on God, who in a way we do not understand directs our steps to do us good in the end. As He directed our steps while we were lost in order that we might be saved, and thus to do us good, so we know that He still directs our steps to do us good in the end. “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 – NKJV), says Paul. Therefore no evil can come upon us unless it was appointed by God for our good. On the other hand we can’t think differently for Jesus said that not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father’s will, and that the very hairs of our head are all numbered (cf. Matthew 10:29-30). So we are willing to accept both good and adversity from God, and in the midst of our afflictions we say as Job: “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10 – NKJV).

As for the wicked, it must be said that they also were born in a rich family or in a poor one, healthy or sick, have married certain people, live in a certain place rather than another, and have certain jobs, not because of some merits or demerits they accumulated in their previous life, but because that’s the will of God for them. However, while some of them will be saved by the Lord at the appointed time for they are numbered among those whom God foreknew and predestined to be adopted as His sons (cf. Romans 8:29-30), and therefore God directs their steps so that in His own time they might come to the knowledge of the truth, which will set them free; the others, being numbered among the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, will be guided by God in such a way as to keep them from coming to the knowledge of the truth and thus to let them go to perdition (cf. Romans 9:21-24). God has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills; man’s salvation depends on the purpose of God according to election and not on the will of those who preach the Gospel or of those who hear it (cf. Romans 9:10-18).

6) The Holy Scripture teaches that man is recompensed while still on the earth according to his deeds, as it is written: “If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner” (Proverbs 11:31 – NKJV), and again: “Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:10-11 – NKJV).

However, the deeds for which both the righteous and the wicked are recompensed on the earth are the deeds which they do on this earth now, in this life, and not the deeds which they did in previous lives they have lived. Therefore, everyone reaps what he has sown in this life only (then when the resurrection of the righteous takes place the righteous will appear before the judgement seat of Christ to be rewarded for their deeds, while after the millennium the wicked will rise again to be judged according to their deeds and condemned to eternal punishment). This spiritual law was created by God and no one can escape it or change it. As he who sows a seed of wheat will reap wheat in due time, and he who sows thorns and thistles will reap thorns and thistles in due time, on account of a natural law ordained by God, so the righteous who sows peace and righteousness will be rewarded by God, while the wicked who sows iniquity will reap all kinds of troubles and woes for he has broken the commandments of God.

7) The Scripture says: “The Lord is the God of recompense, He will surely repay” (Jeremiah 51:56 – NKJV). In other words, God repays those who do evil things punishing them as they deserve. In the Scriptures there are several examples which confirm this. Pharaoh and his household were struck by God with serious diseases for Pharaoh had taken the wife of Abraham into his palace (cf. Genesis 12:14-17); the house of Abimelech was struck by God with bareness for Abimelech had taken the wife of Abraham (cf. Genesis 20:1-18); Nebuchadnezzar was punished by God for his arrogance (cf. Daniel 4:1-37); king Jehoram was struck by God with an incurable disease of the bowels for his wickedness (cf. 2 Chronicles 21:18-19), etc. Of course, believers also will be punished by God if they give themselves over to what is evil in the eyes of the Lord. For Paul says to the Colossians: “He who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality” (Colossians 3:25 - NKJV), and Peter says that “the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17 – NKJV). The following biblical examples confirm clearly that God judges even those who are inside; Ananias and Sapphira were put to death by God for they lied to the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:1-10), many believers of the Church in Corinth were struck with diseases and put to death for they partook of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:28-32). In this case, therefore, the evil which comes upon the head of both the wicked and the righteous is a judgement of God.

8) The Holy Scripture teaches that the fact that one suffers many afflictions on the earth does not mean that he was unjust or wicked in previous lives. The example of Jesus shows this very clearly; even though He was righteous, sinless and blameless He suffered many afflictions. Why? Perhaps because his karma was a bad karma, that is to say, because in His previous lives He had accumulated many evil deeds which He had to expiate? Certainly not. He, as the Son of God coeternal with God the Father, was with God before the foundation of the world (therefore before His incarnation, but keep in mind that Jesus was not the reincarnation of someone who had lived before Him, as some wicked people insinuate) in a state of uncontaminated purity, for Peter calls Jesus a lamb without blemish and without spot that “was foreordained before the foundation of the world ….” (1 Peter 1:20 – NKJV). Jesus suffered all those afflictions, of which the Scripture speaks, for all of us, for our sins in order to cleanse us from our iniquities through His precious blood. And now we who are His disciples are called to suffer as He suffered; for Jesus said that if they persecuted Him they will also persecute us, because men do not know His Father (cf. John 15:20-21); our tribulations therefore are not the inevitable outcome of an alleged karma but the fulfilment of the words of Jesus Christ. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19 – NKJV), says the Scripture, because the righteous is no longer of this world as Jesus is not of this world, and the world hates what does not belong to it, as Jesus said: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19 – NKJV). Therefore Christians suffer many afflictions not because of their karma, but because they do not belong to this world, and since the prince of this world is the enemy, the wicked, who has dominion over most people, he incites those who are under his power to persecute Christians.

9) The Holy Scripture teaches that there is a wicked being called devil and Satan, who, through the rulers of the darkness of this age and other wicked invisible beings who obey him, incites people to sin, as it is written: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8 – NKJV), and in fact Cain killed his brother for he was of the wicked one. And sin repays with death he who serves it, and makes him an enemy of God. Therefore the evil deeds which are done by men cannot be justified through reincarnation, for men sin because they are ruled by a wicked invisible being that is stronger than them. It is quite wrong, therefore, to affirm or to think that one is homosexual because in his previous life he laughed at homosexuals, or that one commits adultery with a married woman for in one of her previous lives she was her wife, or many other similar things. The wicked are of the devil, and they must repent of their wicked deeds, or else they will go to hell when they die. Furthermore, the devil does another thing, that is, he strikes people with all kinds of diseases; Satan struck Job, who was a just man, with painful boils (cf. Job 2:7); he bound for eighteen years that woman who was bent over whom Jesus healed (cf. Luke 13:10-17); and Satan, through a deaf and dumb spirit, had struck that boy whom Jesus set free (cf. Mark 9:20-22). Therefore, in certain cases, the misfortunes which both the righteous and the wicked suffer are works of the devil, which God permits in their lives for certain specific reasons. One of these reasons is to gain honor for His holy name.

10) The Holy Scripture teaches that one day all believers will appear “before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10 – NKJV); that will take place when they rise again. Therefore believers will be rewarded for their works on that day and not during alleged next lives on the earth. God will reward all believers through Jesus Christ. That’s why we are called to be zealous for good works, and as we have opportunity to do good, while we are still alive, for after death we will not be able to do any good works any longer, but we will have to wait for the day on which we will be rewarded for what we have done. What we will have done will be done forever; and what we won’t have done we will not be able to do any longer. And that’s why we are called to abhor evil and flee it, for if we do evil things we not only will displease God and dishonor His doctrine but we will also suffer loss on that day, when we are to give account to God, the righteous Judge, for the evil things done while in the body.

11) The Holy Scripture teaches that the wicked will rise again on the last day in order to be judged according to their works and to be condemned to everlasting torment. For John, who saw the souls of the dead come to life and appear before the throne of God, says: “… And books were opened … The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (Revelation 20:12 – NIV). Therefore, on that day God will have no mercy on those who do not repent of their sins, but He will render to them indignation and wrath. So the wicked after death can’t live again on the earth in order to expiate their debts, for their debts will remain with them forever and they will be punished for them with everlasting torment. Obviously the wicked will receive different degrees of punishment, for they will be judged according to their works (cf. Matthew 11:20-24).

12) The Holy Scripture teaches that God is willing to forgive the sins of those who repent and believe in His Son Jesus Christ, for the prophet Isaiah says: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7 – NKJV), and the apostle Peter affirms: “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43 – NIV). Therefore all the debts which a man has incurred against our God can be forgiven freely while he is still alive. The ‘law’ of karma excludes that a man may be forgiven, but the Word of God affirms clearly that this can happen. The ‘law’ of karma, therefore, must be rejected for it is a lie conceived by the devil, who is the father of lies, who wants to deceive people into believing that their sins can’t be forgiven for there is no forgiving God. It is true that reincarnationists sometimes speak about absolution and expiation, but they are self-absolution and self-expiation for man is called to pay the ransom, that is, the so called karmic debt. Reincarnationists do not mention at all the ransom which was paid by Jesus Christ once for all when He offered Himself to atone for our sins. Men – according to reincarnationists – must pay off their debts (right down to the last penny); when they pay off their debts then they will be saved (not from sin but from the cycle of rebirths).

13) The Holy Scripture states that “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14), which means that he who has believed in Jesus Christ, has been made perfect forever in regard to the conscience, through his faith in the blood which Jesus shed for our sins. For the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse man’s conscience from all sins. We who have experienced this cleansing certify that what the Scripture says is true. Therefore, since the disciples of Christ have attained perfection – in regard to conscience – through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, they do not need to live other lives on the earth in order to cleanse themselves from their sins for they have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. As for those sins which are committed after one’s conversion, they also are blotted out by the blood of Jesus, for it is written: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 – NKJV). That’s why believers know that reincarnation and the ‘law’ of karma cannot be true, for the faith in the perfect atoning sacrifice of Christ and in His precious blood nullifies any doctrine which affirms that a man can expiate his own sins through good deeds in this life or in alleged next lives. Reincarnationists often say that it is impossible for most people to attain perfection during one life, that’s why they need to live other lives. Instead, the Good News of the Kingdom of God affirms that even though men cannot attain perfection during their life, for nobody can cleanse himself from his sins or remove the sense of guilt produced by his sins, Jesus Christ, through His atoning sacrifice on the cross bought with His blood the perfection of our conscience. Therefore what one must do is not to do his best to attain perfection, but to repent and believe in the Son of God in order to be made perfect through His precious blood in regard to the conscience. Thanks be to God for the blood of Jesus Christ which has made us perfect!

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