Do all religions believe in some form of reincarnation?

Question

Doesn't God know us before we are born? Like we are there before and then sent here.

I've heard that there are as many people on the planet now that has lived up til now.

Reincarnation would also explain how you return to the flesh at judgement time, you never left it.

I've also heard no one goes to heaven til judgement day, where then?

Also people think God is merciless for allowing people to die, to him you don't. One second later you stand before him, not a bad thing because he is fair.

Answer 1

Reincarnation.

Definition: The belief that one is reborn in one or more successive existences, which may be human or animal. Usually it is an intangible “soul” that is believed to be reborn in another body. Not a Bible teaching.

Does a strange feeling of being familiar with entirely new acquaintances and places prove reincarnation to be a fact?

Have you ever mistaken one man or woman who is alive for another who is also now living? Many have had that experience. Why? Because some people have similar mannerisms or may even look almost identical. So the feeling that you know a person even though you never met him before really does not prove that you were acquainted with him in a former life, does it?
Why might a house or a town seem familiar to you if you have never been there before? Is it because you lived there during a former life? Many houses are built according to similar designs. Furniture used in cities far apart may be produced from similar patterns. And is it not true that the scenery in some widely separated places looks very much alike? So, without resorting to reincarnation, your feeling of familiarity is quite understandable.

Do recollections of life at another time in another place, as drawn out under hypnosis, prove reincarnation?

Under hypnosis much information stored in the brain can be drawn out. Hypnotists tap the subconscious memory. But how did those memories get there? Perhaps you read a book, saw a motion picture, or learned about certain people on television. If you put yourself in the place of the people about whom you were learning, it might have made a vivid impression, almost as if the experience were your own. What you actually did may have been so long ago that you have forgotten it, but under hypnosis the experience may be recalled as if you were remembering “another life.” Yet, if that were true, would not everyone have such memories? But not everyone does. It is noteworthy that an increasing number of state supreme courts in the United States do not accept hypnotically induced testimony. In 1980 the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that “the best expert testimony indicates that no expert can determine whether memory retrieved by hypnosis, or any part of that memory, is truth, falsehood, or confabulation—a filling of gaps with fantasy. Such results are not scientifically reliable as accurate.” (State v. Mack, 292 N.W.2d 764) The influence of suggestions made by the hypnotist to the one hypnotized is a factor in this unreliability.

Does the Bible contain evidence of belief in reincarnation?

Eccl. 3:19: “There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies.” (As in the case of humans, nothing survives at the death of an animal. There is nothing that can experience rebirth in another body.)

Eccl. 9:10: “All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.” (It is not into another body but into Sheol, the common grave of mankind, that the dead go.)

How much of a difference is there between reincarnation and the hope held out in the Bible?

Reincarnation: According to this belief, when a person dies, the soul, the “real self,” passes on to a better existence if the individual has lived a good and proper life, but possibly to existence as an animal if his record has been more bad than good. Each rebirth, it is believed, brings the individual back into this same system of things, where he will face further suffering and eventual death. The cycles of rebirth are viewed as virtually endless. Is such a future really what awaits you? Some believe that the only way of escape is by extinguishing all desire for things pleasing to the senses. To what do they escape? To what some describe as unconscious life.

Bible: According to the Bible, the soul is the complete person. Even though a person may have done bad things in the past, if he repents and changes his ways, Jehovah God will forgive him. (Psalms 103:12, 13.) When a person dies, nothing survives. Death is like a deep, dreamless sleep. There will be a resurrection of the dead. This is not a reincarnation but a bringing back to life of the same personality. (Acts 24:15) For most people, the resurrection will be to life on earth. It will take place after God brings the present wicked system to its end. Sickness, suffering, even the necessity to die, will become things of the past. (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 21:3, 4) Does such a hope sound like something about which you would like to learn more, to examine the reasons for confidence in it?

If you would like further information or a free home Bible study, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit http://www.watchtower.org

Answer 2

Christians reject reincarnation for two main reasons. The first is because the Bible does not teach it, and in fact makes it clear that when we die we don't return to earth again but enter eternity—either with God in heaven or apart from God forever. The Bible says, "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

The second reason Christians reject reincarnation is because Christ has paid the full penalty for our sins—totally and completely. He did this by His death on the cross for us. You say you hope to become perfect some day in another life—but Jesus has already made us perfect in God's eyes, by taking away all our sins! The Bible says, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Think of it: Every sin you have ever committed can be completely cleansed, if you will turn to Christ in repentance and faith! Don't be deceived by a false hope, but put your faith and hope in Christ today.

Answer 3

REincarnation is not the same as the Christian belief of resurrection so I have to say NO!

Reincarnation suggests one can return to life in a form different than the one a person exists in at the moment.

Answer 4

Yes, because one of the appeals that religion has for people is that it denies the basic truth that we all die; our existences end; when we're gone...we're gone. Period. It all seems so very unfair when someone dies young or tragically, so we invented God or gods to try to put sense and purpose behind it all. EVERY religion denies the reality of death in some way...any religion that doesn't, won't sell well in the marketplace.

Answer 5

buddhist and taoist believe in reincarnation. As a christian our belief is that at judgement day its not the reincarnated body but the glorified one that will face God.

Answer 6

Depends on how you look at it--I see where you are coming from, but keep in mind the actual meaning of the word "incarnate"--in the flesh. I would say most religions believe in an eternal soul, but not necessarily the taking on of new bodies.

Answer 7

Reincarnation-- it is believed by Hindus, buddhists, jain and mahavirs,

Reincarnation may occur in any life form ,trees, insects, animals etc. not necessarily humans.

None of western religions and islam believe it.

Answer 8

I believe reincarnation and changing the attitude (the spiritual side) doesn't change the person's identity as a being.

In other words, we only live one life.

Answer 9

Christians are appointed once to be born and once to die. Then comes the judgement.

No Reincarnation.

Answer 10

GOD knows everything our beginning and our end. and there is no reincarnation, GOD said "it is appointed to men to live once then judement. you only go around this life once. i'm thankful for that cause i wouldn't want to come back here