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Why Christians Don’t Listen To Moses: 2 – The Torah Is Temporary

Suggested Pre-Reading: Why Christian’s Don’t Listen To Moses 1

The Law of Moses, the Torah, as a single body of law comprising many individual laws, can only be eternal or finite in duration. When a Christian says, “I listen to Jesus, not Moses”, they are saying, “The Torah is temporary, and with the coming of Jesus its time to govern has ended.”

This declaration of a temporary Torah is highly offensive to Orthodox Jews, who believe that the Law of Moses is eternal. But the temporal nature can be easily demonstrated from the Old Testament, and both Christians and Jews agree that the Old Testament is God’s inspired word. The 613 commands identified in the Torah by the rabbis can be categorized into various groups. Three of the groups are sin, death, and disease. Both Orthodox Judaism and Christianity agree that after the resurrection of the dead, sin, death and disease will cease to exist. If those three things cease to exist, by logical necessity, so do the related laws. If the laws cease to exist, then they are finite in duration and cannot be eternal.

Consider these examples:

Type	Example
Sin	A jealous husband can make his wife take the adultery test per Numbers 5: 11 – 31
Death	Ritual uncleanness occurs if entering the tent of a dead man per Numbers 19: 14
Disease	Lepers must be easily distinguished in public per Leviticus 13: 45

In the age to come there will be no sin, and therefore no adultery, and therefore no jealous husbands invoking the adultery test. In the age to come there will be no death, and therefore no tents with corpses, and therefore no ritual uncleanness related to a corpse. In the age to come there will be no disease, and therefore no lepers, and therefore no laws instructing lepers how to distinguish themselves in public.

Although we are not yet living in the fully realized kingdom, we can nevertheless demonstrate the temporal nature of the Torah, by going through each and every law dealing with sin, death, and disease, and proving them to be unneeded in the age to come. There can be no doubt about the Torah being a temporary guide, which is just what the New Testament instructs.

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Galatians 3: 24-25)

Why Christians Don’t Listen To Moses: 1 – Introduction

Why don’t Christians listen to Moses?

The simple answer is found in Matthew 17:

Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” (Matthew 17: 1 – 5)

This command to listen to Jesus, instead of Moses and Elijah, came from God and is the fulfillment of words God gave to Moses to give to Israel:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. (Deuteronomy 18: 15)

Peter quoted this very verse in Acts 3 and applied it to Jesus. There is no doubt that the New Testament teaches Christians are to listen to Jesus. This theme is expanded upon by the book of Hebrews, which opens with this:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (Hebrews 1: 1 – 2)

In regards to the differences between what Jesus and Moses taught, we are told this:

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant (Hebrews 8: 6 – 9)

The book of Hebrews teaches that if the first covenant of Moses was sufficient, God would have no need of sending Messiah and promising through the prophets a new and better covenant. But since the first covenant was never obeyed by Israel, because of their perpetual sin, something better was needed. This better thing is Jesus and the New Covenant.

And so to summarize our initial examination of this issue, we as Christians do not listen to Moses because the New Testament tells us to listen to Jesus, and instructs us that the New Covenant has replaced the Old Covenant, due to the Old Covenant’s inability to produce the repentance and faith God desired.

Advent Reflection: The Prince of Peace

A primary role of government is to maintain peace. One way in which governments attempt to maintain peace is through law enforcement. Every government creates laws for the people to obey. But not all people obey the laws of the land, and therefore peace is disrupted. Governments have two main ways of dealing with law breakers who disrupt the peace of society:

They attempt to change the law breaker’s will, via counseling or fines or threats, etc.
They suppress the law breaker’s will, via prison or death, etc.

What this means is that in order to maintain a peaceful society people either have to die or be physically suppressed or have a change of heart. A government cannot just let everyone be how they naturally are, because every society has law breakers and disrupters of peace. Therefore, because there is evil in every generation, intentional action is always needed to suppress the evil and keep the peace. This brings us, then, to the words of the prophet Isaiah, who spoke of the coming Messiah, also known as the Prince of Peace:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. (Isaiah 9: 6 – 7)

A great question to ask is will this kingdom of the Prince of Peace (the kingdom of God) maintain peace like the governments of the world or will peace be maintained in a new way? To answer, we must understand who is in the kingdom of God, and how they got there. The kingdom is populated by those who have had their hearts supernaturally changed by God’s Spirit.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3: 3)

Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3: 7 – 8)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1: 13)

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach…(Colossians 1: 19 – 22)

Since God supernaturally changes the hearts of those who are brought into His kingdom, there are no dissidents to be jailed or killed, for everyone who is born of God wants to be in God’s kingdom. So yes, the kingdom of God operates very differently from the kingdoms of the earth, when it comes to maintaining peace. Everyone in the kingdom desires to be there, desires to obey the laws of the kingdom, and desires peace.

But what about those who say the Biblical teaching on hell proves that God’s kingdom operates just like the kingdoms of the earth, suppressing wills by inflicting violence?

Those people are mistaken.

Hell is not a place for those within the kingdom of God whose wills need to be suppressed. Hell is a place for those who were never part of the kingdom of God, during their life on earth. The final judgment and the sending of people to hell is not a purge of malcontents from the kingdom of God; it is the removal of God’s enemies, who are outside of His kingdom.

The second coming of Christ, which Advent anticipates, will consist of the Prince of Peace ruling over His people, whom He will give new and sinless hearts. Together they will occupy a physical space from which the kingdom of evil has been forcibly removed forever. The result of it all is the Son of David, Son of God, reigning supreme, with His government perpetually ruling a peaceful people on a prosperous plot of land, with no threats ever approaching the border.

Regarding this coming kingdom of the Prince of Peace, John the Revelator summed it up nicely:

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21: 24 – 27)

Faith Toward God: 2 – Faith in Jesus Is Not Enough

Suggested Pre-Reading: Faith Toward God 1

In the same way that faith in a god is not enough, so too faith in a Jesus is not enough. Of course, by “a Jesus” we mean not the real One, but the multitude of fake ones that have existed from the days of Paul until now.

For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. (2 Corinthians 11: 4)

Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for believing in “another Jesus”, rather than believing in the Jesus of Paul’s preaching. From this we learn that saying “I believe in Jesus” does not qualify as a genuine, Biblical faith in Christ. Just as faith in God must be based on the particulars of Scripture, so too must faith in Jesus be based on the particulars of Scripture. Virtually every New Testament book warns of false teachings – if God does not desire accurate faith in Jesus, then what are all the warnings about? Jesus Himself warns us, saying:

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

Why would Jesus reject people who in His name prophesied and cast out demons and performed miracles? He tells us – they were lawless. But how were they lawless? Their lawlessness is seen in their response to Jesus – they offered up their works as proof of their righteousness before God. To stand before God on the Day of Judgment, and to offer up your works as proof of your worthiness, is a tell-tale sign that you believe in another Jesus, because the gospel of the real Jesus states that man can never by works justify himself before God. We are righteous because of Christ, not because of our works. Paul reminded the Corinthian church of this great truth:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

And Jesus, when asked what the great work of God is, did not say “justify yourself through prophecy and miracles”. Rather, He said

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. (John 6: 29)

Faith in the real Jesus is not limited to this one doctrine of Christ making us righteous by His blood. But it is a key doctrine and essential to the gospel. If one does not believe it, then one most certainly does not believe in the real Jesus. And if one does not believe in the real Jesus, then their faith is in a Jesus, which will not be enough on the Day of Judgment.

Faith Toward God: 1 – Faith In god Is Not Enough

If someone asked me, “What do you love about your wife?”, and I answered, “She has eyes and a mouth and a nose”, my answer wouldn’t be based on anything unique to her. Such an answer could call into question whether I actually loved my wife, because my reasons for love were based on things common to all women.

Similarly, if someone were to ask a Christian why they have faith in the God of the Bible, the response ought to be based on more than a list of divine attributes any god could possess. Otherwise, one’s faith is not in The God, but a god. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, gives us a list of general qualities that not only the real God possesses, but which many false gods are said to possess:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse…(Romans 1: 20)

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness…(Romans 2: 14 – 15)

What Paul is saying is that God through creation has revealed the following about Himself:

He is the creator
He is eternal
He is powerful
He has a moral code

Now even though these things are true of the God of the Bible, a Muslim and an Orthodox Jew also believe them. A theist who believes in these four truths is a far cry from a Christian who believes in Yahweh, the God of the Bible, and that Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnate Eternal Son, second person of the Trinity. The Bible is too particular to allow one’s faith to be based only on generally revealed divine attributes. Christians are to believe in a particular God who interacted in history in particular ways. God parted the Red Sea, carried Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, and rose from the dead on the third day.

A faith in god, which lacks the particulars of Scripture and is based only on attributes that can be derived from nature, is not enough.

Resurrection of the Dead: 4 – The Resurrection Coincides With The Judgment

Suggested Pre-reading: Resurrection of the Dead 3

As we have contemplated how the resurrection of the dead functions as a gateway from this life to the Messianic Age, we must not forget that the Messianic Age is only for those who have trusted in Jesus the Messiah. For those who have not in this life believed in Christ, the resurrection of the dead is a gateway to eternal judgment.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12: 2)

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’…Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels’… ‘These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ (Matthew 25: 31 – 34, 41, 46)

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5: 24 – 29)

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20: 11 – 15)

For those who read the Bible but do not believe it teaches an eternal judgment, such as universalists, who think all will be saved, or annihilationists, who think unbelievers will have their life taken away as if they never existed, the resurrection of the dead is a strange event in the chronology of God’s eternal plan. What is this separation taking place, described by Daniel and Jesus and John? Why are people literally being brought before God and placed into one of two categories (righteous or damned)? If all are saved, then putting people into two groups makes no sense at all. If the damned are destroyed with no memory, rather than sent to conscious eternal torment, then why would God keep them as disembodied spirits until the resurrection, reunite them with their bodies, raise them to life, bring them before Him, and then destroy them so that they have no memory of anything?

As hard is it can be to fathom, we must hold to the Biblical truth that God will separate people into two groups at the resurrection, and one of those groups will be sent to the lake of fire, conscious of their punishment for rejecting belief in God and His Christ. It is the severity of that day that ought to move us to reach out to those who are lost and to teach them of Christ and His good news.

Resurrection of the Dead: 3 – Matter Matters

Suggested Prereading: Resurrection of the Dead 2

The resurrection of the dead proves that matter matters. For if the physical world that God created played no permanent part in His plan, what would be the point of a resurrection? If we are to be raised from the dead, meaning our souls are reunited with our physical bodies, then there must be a physical place for our bodies to reside. The Bible refers to this place as the new heavens and the new earth.

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3: 13)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21: 1 – 4)

These New Testament teachings about new heavens and a new earth are consistent with the Old Testament prophets, who spoke about the Messianic Age to come. According to the prophets, the coming Messiah would establish His eternal kingdom on earth – a renewed earth.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious. (Isaiah 11: 6 – 10)

My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever. (Ezekiel 37: 24 – 28)

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. (Jeremiah 33: 15)

And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. (Daniel 7: 14)

And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water; and a spring will go out from the house of the LORD to water the valley of Shittim. Egypt will become a waste, and Edom will become a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, in whose land they have shed innocent blood. But Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem for all generations. And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged, for the LORD dwells in Zion. (Joel 3: 18 – 21)

“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name,” declares the LORD who does this. “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved. Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,” says the LORD your God. (Amos 9: 11 – 15)

And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one. All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site from Benjamin’s gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security. (Zechariah 14: 9 – 11)

Both Biblical testaments teach that the final destination of God’s people is the starting point – earth. Because we die, and our souls leave earth temporarily, the resurrection of the dead is necessary to bring the righteous souls who have been dwelling with God in heaven back to their earthly bodies. It is on this basis – that God does not do away with His creation but renews it – that we conclude matter matters to God and is a significant part of His eternal plan.

A Response to Soul Theory’s Proof of Reincarnation

Note to Reader: This post is an extended response to a comment left on my Resurrection is not Reincarnation blog post, by the author of Soul Theory. Please go to my blog post and review the Comments for context.

Mr. Das,

Have you read the story of the Indian girl born with four arms and four legs, who was worshipped as the reincarnation of the goddess Lakshmi? It does not logically follow that a girl born in India with genetic defects is the goddess Lakshmi. Similarly, the example you offer does not allow one to logically deduce that reincarnation is real.

I will assume, for the sake of argument, that your example is historically true – there was a boy born with a scar, he testified to having been a reincarnated soul, and he provided data from past events that a young boy would not know about. Just because this thing happened does not mean reincarnation is true. The Bible offers a different interpretation. God’s word teaches that there are evil spirits called demons, who could easily have been the power behind the testimony of the scarred boy:

Demons can possess small children:
But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. (Mark 7: 25 – 26)
Demons can afflict the human body.

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. (Job 2: 7)

And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. (Luke 13: 11)
Demons can speak through a human body.
Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” (Mark 5: 6 – 7)

Given this Biblical interpretation of the event you use as proof of reincarnation, on what basis should I disbelieve the Bible and believe Soul Theory? Why is your interpretation more reasonable than the Bible’s?

Resurrection of the Dead: 2 – If Resurrection Is Not Reincarnation, The Dalai Lama Is Not The Christ

Suggested Pre-Reading: Resurrection of the Dead 1

It must be pointed out, in light of the distinctions we just made between the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the dead and the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation, that the Dalai Lama is a false prophet.

The claim of the Tibetan religion is that all Dalai Lamas are the reincarnation of the first Dalai Lama. In other words, the initial Dalai Lama was a chosen one – a christ. That initial christ figure was chosen by the spiritual powers to reincarnate again and again and again within Tibet or the near vicinity, to be identified by a group of monks, and to grow up and offer spiritual wisdom and insight to humanity. If there is no such thing as reincarnation, there is no such office as the Dalai Lama, and any claim to be the reincarnated soul of a spiritual leader is, in fact, false.

The Biblical Christ, in contrast to the office of Dalai Lama, is a singular figure foretold by the prophets hundreds of years before he was born. Although the prophets did not link the name of Jesus to the office of Messiah, they gave us so much data about the Messiah that we can look at the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth and conclude that He is the promised one. The prophets said this:

He would be a Son of David.
He would be born in Bethlehem.
He would teach and instruct His people.
He would perform miracles.
He would appear before the destruction of the Jewish temple (70 A.D.).
He would die to atone for sin.
He would be raised from the dead.
He would combine the office of Jewish king and Jewish high priest.
His message would go beyond the borders of Israel and extend to the ends of the earth.
He would bring both Jew and Gentile near to God.

Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled each one of these Messianic prophecies. No one else has even come close. And, since one of the requirements of Messiah is to come before 70 A.D., no one else can come close.

Distinguishing the Biblical teaching of resurrection from reincarnation is not merely an academic exercise – it affects the way we view the world and the spiritual leaders we choose to listen to. The God of the Bible has told us there is no such thing as reincarnation. As a result, life is not cyclical, but linear. We are all proceeding along a straight line to death. Once we die, we will be judged by God based on whether we believed in the Christ He sent, Jesus of Nazareth, or whether we believed in false christs, such as the Dalai Lama. We will not be reincarnated and given another chance in another life to get things right. We will be resurrected from the dead on the Day of Judgment, and we will either reign with God in eternal bliss, or we will be cast to the pits of hell for eternal torment.

When Jesus Christ was crucified, He did not reincarnate three days later in a new body. He rose from the dead in the body He was buried in – proof of the Biblical teaching of the resurrection of the dead and proof that He is the Christ of prophecy.

Resurrection of the Dead: 1 – Resurrection Is Not Reincarnation

For over a year now, we have been working through a list of seven doctrines central to the Christian faith. This list was derived from the fifth and sixth chapters of the book of Hebrews. So far we have examined the following topics:

We will now discuss the Resurrection of the Dead, starting by contrasting the Christian teaching on resurrection with Buddhist reincarnation. When the Bible speaks of the resurrection of the dead, it is not speaking of reincarnation. There are important differences between the two concepts:

Resurrection	Reincarnation
After death, the soul is separated from the body until the Resurrection of the Dead, when the body and soul are reunited and the body raised to life.	After death, the soul is placed into a new body.
The soul has one life to be reconciled to God.	The soul has many lives to be reconciled to God.
The soul is reunited with its original body, although the original body is renewed.	The new body (human or non-human) is different from the previous one and is based upon one’s karma in the previous life.
When the body and soul are reunited, the soul retains its memory and personhood.	When a soul is reincarnated, there is no conscious memory of the previous life.

It is necessary to understand the differences between resurrection and reincarnation, because there are those, who starting with the pre-supposition of reincarnation, read the Bible and claim that it teaches reincarnation. Consider for example John 9:

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9: 1 – 3)

Now how could a man be born blind for his own sins? That would imply his soul sinned prior to birth, and he was born blind as a punishment for those sins. This apparent account of reincarnation is easily explained – there were false beliefs that existed in the days of Jesus, and this was one of them. Indeed, the rabbis may have very well taught reincarnation or the pre-existence of the soul, but that does not mean their teaching was true. Jesus set their error straight – the man was not born blind for his own sins, but rather that the power of God might be displayed in him. This power of God was displayed when Jesus healed the man’s blindness, giving him sight.

Another supposed instance of reincarnation is in the account of John the Baptist. Malachi said that God was going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD (Malachi 4: 5). Jesus said that John the Baptist was the promised Elijah.

And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. (Matthew 11: 14)

Did Jesus teach John was the reincarnation of Elijah? No. Rather, Jesus taught that John was the typological fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy. John functioned in the same manner as the prophet Elijah, but he was not literally the prophet Elijah. Let us remember that in the transfiguration of Christ, the prophet Elijah appeared with Moses before Jesus and the disciples who were with Him. If Elijah appeared before Jesus, how then could John be the reincarnation of Elijah?

It is crucial to understand the distinctions between reincarnation and resurrection. Reincarnation is fundamentally based upon a judgment of works. The resurrection of the dead is based upon faith in Jesus Christ, Who has made atonement not only for our lack of good works, but for the “good” works we do in an attempt to please God and save ourselves. The gospel of Jesus Christ is fundamentally based upon the fact that humans cannot save themselves – it is the work of Christ that saves us. If someone understands their own heart and their own moral failings, reincarnation is a terrifying prospect. Could you imagine being a weak and terrible sinner, believing that karma is the mechanism by which you will be judged? You would have no hope. But because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the weak and terrible sinner is full of hope. For the gospel declares that people are made righteous through Christ, not through their own power or piety.

It should be easy to see, then, that reincarnation is completely incompatible with Biblical doctrine. If righteousness does not come through the Law, but through faith in Jesus, and if faith in Jesus is a gift of the Holy Spirit, why would the soul be reincarnated over and over and over? The Holy Spirit knows those He has predestined to eternal life, and He gives them faith in the first, and only, life on earth.