I am a Christian, but also believe in the possibility of reincarnation (Jesus Christ, Bible)
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Yes, I'm vaguely aware of that passage, but you do need to measure it against the verses that say a person must believe in Jesus Christ or be damned.
Boy, isn't that the truth!
I'm happy to hear that, and I can see it in your posts. Well, I'll tell you what I believe. It falls somewhere in between your belief in reincarnation and the belief that all non-Christians will be damned. This is just a brief summary of my belief, but I don't believe that any of us will go to either Heaven or Hell immediately after we die. After all, Revelation speaks of standing before God at the last judgment which won't take place until the Second Coming of Christ. I believe that when we die, our spirits leave our bodies and are accepted into one of two intermediate states of existance.
One of these is Paradise. It is the state into which the righteous are received, regardless of their knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ told the repentant thief who hung next to Him on the cross that He would see Him that very day in Paradise. The reason I don't believe that Paradise is the same place as Heaven is that when Jesus first appeared to Mary on Easter morning, He told her not to touch Him because He hadn't yet ascended to His Father. So, He had been to Paradise but not to Heaven.
The other state is Prison. It is where the wicked will reside until such time as they are resurrected. Peter records the visit of Jesus Christ (in spirit form) to the Spirit Prison during the three days during which His body lay in the tomb. During this three day period, He taught the spirits who were in Prison. Some of them repented and were promised forgiveness. Some did not.
I believe that God is not going to judge any of us until every single solitary person who has ever lived has heard the gospel message and has had the opportunity to fully understand and either accept or reject it. I believe that Paradise and the Spirit Prison continue to exist today and that the gospel is being taught now to those who lived their lives without a knowledge of it. It's not being taught by Jesus Christ himself, but by His followers. There are so many reasons people are not Christians, and some of these are in no way the fault of the people. Would the God in whom you believe send someone to Hell simply because he or she was born somewhere in 4th century China or in some tribal village in 10th century Africa? I don't believe He would, but I do believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that we must ultimately come to a knowledge of Him and a realization that it is through Him that we can be reconciled to our Father in Heaven. I don't believe it is through reincarnation that this is going to take place, but through God's plan that His Son's gospel be shared with all of His children either in this life or before they are resurrected.
..........Lets be careful and simple.........."God sent his Son into the world not to condem"....Friend........What the scripture clearly says is......you are already condemed with out Christ , God Sent His Son to fix you. To offer you a way out...........LIKE BEING IN A BURNING BUILDING.........THE CITY TRIES TO SEND A FIREMAN TO OFFER A WAY OUT....AND SAVE YOU A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH..........
I was going to chase down some quotes, but I think I'll just mention them, including the one that Fundamentalist brought up, as well as another where some people thought that Jesus was Elijah reincarnated, so the concept isn't entirely non-biblical.
Fact is that no one knows for sure what we are doing here, whether he calls himself Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Agnostic, or Christian for that matter. We are human, and part of the deal with life is that we don't and can't know anything, really.
What we have is faith - the hope of things unseen.
I have based my faith on the fact that after studying many religious outlooks, the Teachings of Jesus approximate TRUTH more than any other, or at least what I consider to be the TRUTH.
THE IDEA of reincarnation , includes things that the Bible does not mention, Nicodemus, was told you must be reborn by the spirit. No evidence makes re-incarnation a theory......Living your life by theories is an close line to insanity...........when the Leader does this the sheep suffer and the nation is jeopardized, or destroyed. Live by Faith in God , it is the way out of this burning world.
Last edited by bluescityleon; 01-06-2009 at 05:19 AM..
Faith is belief. There is no objective 'proof' in any scientific, fact-based sense. Dogma doesn't 'prove' your faith, it is adjunct to it.
........intelligent Creator...as a child I heard of "splitting the Atom ".....I ordered a Gilbert Chemistry set.........and pondered if I could just split a ATOM. Then I took an ax and chopped on a piece of wood..........as I thought ,better be careful, l could blow up the whole world. It takes intelegence to " Split an Atom" and it takes His presence to Believe. Jesus is at the Door..........Faith is a Gift..........
It is not only not non-biblical . . . Jesus specifically attributed Elias reincarnation as in John the Baptist. Matthew 17:12-13 (King James Version)
12But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
13Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
I know that a lot of Christians don't even want to consider the possibility, and that's fine with me. I'm not here to try and 'convert' Christians to my point of view. It's useless. Perhaps we share a basic belief in Jesus as Lord, but there are a wide spectrum of differences outside of that, because that is how God created us.
I don't believe that we change species, that is, come back as a cat or bug. But I have met people that I was sure I knew before... in some kind of relationship, be it father-daughter, friend, mate. Perhaps it was just a pre-physical life aquaintance. Who knows? Certainly I don't, and you don't either. It's just an idea to kick around, and I don't see it leading to hell if you are open to it.
It was the spirit of Elias (Elijah), or at least a portion of his spirit, that came, not the literal Elijah. The word "reincarnated" is not a biblical teaching. It is obviously possible to recieve a portion of someone's spirit, but not their soul. Every soul 'dies' only once, then comes the judgement.
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