Though Christianity teaches that at death our spirits are separated from the physical world, other faiths maintain that the spirit continues being reborn into different bodies. Yet this belief in reincarnation has cropped up at times within Christianity, & some are confused about what the Bible teaches. For example, an Old Testament prophecy said that the prophet Elijah would return before the Day of the Lord (Jesus) arrived (Mal. 4:5). Jesus affirmed that John the Baptist was this Elijah (Matt. 11:14). But was this an actual reincarnation of Elijah? Some insist that Jesus was affirming the pre-existence of John in the person of Elijah, but all one needs to do is examine the context of this statement in relation to other Scriptures.
When John’s birth was announced, an angel declared that John would “go on before the Lord, in the spirit & power of Elijah…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). That means John would figuratively fulfill the same kind of role as Elijah, not actually be the same person as Elijah. Both men called God’s people back to Him & to repentance.
The popular notion back then was that Elijah would literally return to prepare the way for the Messiah. The Disciples were troubled because Jesus had begun His ministry, yet they hadn’t noticed Elijah’s return. When the actual Elijah does miraculously appear with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, it proves that John was not the same man. Jesus then informed them that Elijah had already come, but was not recognized (Matt. 17:1-13), meaning that John came in the same way as Elijah had centuries earlier, but he was rejected as the one who had been prophesied. So to interpret John as a reincarnation should be rejected.
But then some will refer to the man blind from birth (John 9:1ff). The Disciples asked Jesus whether the cause of the man’s blindness was due to some sin he or his parents had committed. It’s possible then that they inferred that the man could have sinned in a previous life that led to his current “affliction” of blindness. But Jesus replied that this wasn’t due to anyone’s sin; “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (v. 3). Whether the Disciples thought that God punished the man because of pre-existent sin, or because of sin in his current life, the fact remains that Jesus dispelled the notion.
Additionally, the case against reincarnation is made more explicit in other Scriptures on the subject of life after death. The New Testament describes death as a conscious state that retains the identity of the person (Luke 16:19-31). Hebrews 9:27 says that a man dies once, & after that comes judgment. Likewise, the concept of a fixed, eternal destiny after death is evident in other such passages (Rev. 20:11-15, 22:11-12, 2 Cor. 5:10, & Ecc. 12:7). The Apostle Paul tells us that “to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). The fact of the resurrection body argues strongly against the same spirit inhabiting many bodies (1 Cor. 15:42ff).
However, not only does the fact of final judgment after death oppose reincarnation, but the entire point of Christianity strongly opposes reincarnation. If every soul will eventually come to perfection through an evolutionary progression, there’s no need for a Savior. If each spirit continually develops the “divine spark” within until he realizes God’s full presence within himself, there’s no need for a Final Judgment because every spirit will be at one with God. The need for redemption becomes unnecessary since there’s no condemnation. That would mean Christ’s death was ultimately unnecessary! But the whole reason He came into the world was to save sinful people who could not save themselves.
Reincarnation is based on the idea of “karma”— getting what’s deserved. The goal of karma is to keep coming back over & over & over until you become so perfected that you escape the cycles of reincarnation to melt into some state of blessedness or “nirvana.” But God’s Word says life is a one-way trip—there’s no return or second chances. We die, face God & give an account. God offers grace through His Son so that we can only be “reborn” spiritually, not physically (John 3:1-6). We will be judged based on whether we’ve received forgiveness through receiving Christ. It won’t be a matter of trying to balance the scales of justice—being sent back to earth in a better life if we’d lived a good life, or being sent back in a worse life if we’d lived a bad life. No matter how many times we could theoretically return, we will never be good enough to deserve heaven or do enough good deeds to earn eternal life. Only Jesus qualified for that, & so offers HIs life for ours (2 Cor. 5:21).
We need transformation, not improvement (2 Cor. 5:17). That’s why I’ll take Christ over karma every time.