
By Stephen Lampe
No amount of logical arguments
can convince some Christians of the fact of reincarnation. Nor would the
accounts of the personal experiences of other people persuade such Christians.
Even though it is quite obvious that, without reincarnation, one cannot argue
convincingly of the perfect Justice of God, many Christians would still want to
know what the Scriptures say about reincarnation. They would ask: Does the Bible
support it? What did the earliest followers of Christ think of it? We shall
show, in this Chapter, that in Biblical times, belief in reincarnation was so
widespread, was so much a part of the culture, that it was taken for granted.
Some Truths Are
Not in the Scriptures: Before we discuss specific
passages in the Bible that indicate acceptance of reincarnation, let us remark
that it is wrong to assume that all truths are to be found in the Scriptures. It
is simply not so. Truths are revealed to mankind according to men's state of
spiritual maturity. Some truths may not have been given to men at some
particular point in time because they were not yet ready for such truths. Even
the way a particular truth is presented also depends on how mature the audience
is perceived to be. We find that this makes sense in our educational system; why
should it not make sense in the school of spiritual life?
When a child has finished
drinking his bottle of Coke, we may tell him that the bottle is empty. He will
agree, and this is true for his age. But we may tell an older child that the
bottle is not really empty, that nature does not permit a vacuum. The bottle is
full of air. And again, this is true. And yet we can go on to tell a yet more
mature person, that the empty bottle contains more than one item; that it
contains a mixture of many gases including nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide.
It is in a similar manner that spiritual truths have been revealed to mankind
over millennia...
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