Past lives?

[LeaveIt2Me]

I know that past lives are not really a part Christianity but I was wondering what others think...

[feralfreak]

one of my friends is a witch/pagan, she believes in reincarnation, as someone who believes in Christ i think she is wrong, and since she says she is precancerous and down to 98 pounds, i hope she accepts Christ, before its too late.

[LeaveIt2Me]

Personally I never felt that a creator God and reincarnation conflict although most people think they do. The idea that a person will be judge solely on a single lifetime always bugged me especially since the judgment doesn’t always seem fair. I have been told by multiple Christians that being Buddhist alone is worthy of hell but one of these Christians is a wife beater and is sure he is heaven ready. It just seems like so much is based on which religion you choose and not your actions. I think karma adds balance and personal responsibility for our actions. I think reincarnation from a creator God would be an act of kindness and give everyone a better chance.

[feralfreak]

2 hours ago, LeaveIt2Me said:

Personally I never felt that a creator God and reincarnation conflict although most people think they do. The idea that a person will be judge solely on a single lifetime always bugged me especially since the judgment doesn’t always seem fair. I have been told by multiple Christians that being Buddhist alone is worthy of hell but one of these Christians is a wife beater and is sure he is heaven ready. It just seems like so much is based on which religion you choose and not your actions. I think karma adds balance and personal responsibility for our actions. I think reincarnation from a creator God would be an act of kindness and give everyone a better chance.

in the bible its said we are given once to die and then the judgement, one go-around in the flesh and we report back to Him, i dont see it as an unfairness, we are here to choose, to show our real selves, which do we serve, what side to go to, God or satan, i choose God, sadly some dont choose him because they are brought up in different believes, so they never had a chance to get the word or to understand it like they need to, but that is ok because those who didnt will be educated in the millennium. as for this supposed christian wife beater, God will judge him, and while i dont want to judge myself, the word says its for Him, i think its safe to say he will have some explaining to do at the bare least, GOD DOES NOT ENDORSE THIS! he has freedom to choose, and he is choosing to be abusive, choosing not to see it as wrong and choosing not to get therapy if i was to venture a guess. as for karma, it might be seen in different faiths but meaning one thing, affects of the choices we make in life, for example my late former stepfather, he chose worship pre-pubesint little girls, to the point that he blew off his then wifes heart cath to take one of them to an archery contest, among other things, and when she told him she was leaving over his obsession with little girls, he ran us out of the house in the middle of the night threatening to kill us, he was emotionally abusive even before that, taking out on me in petty ways feeling a loss of control over anything that irked him, like his favorite brother ending up in the hospital, never mind the fact that i had nothing to do with it or even met him, a consequence of this was a taste of almost all of what he put us through, and a particular irony is that when he would get a bug up his ass about something and i walked into the room i could feel it in the air, literally, it made the air heavy, his obsession with little girls was a cancer in their marriage, 2 years after we got ran out he died, of lung cancer. on reincarnation and a better chance, if it was true we wouldnt know what we did in a previous life, and like i tried to say, we are here to show our true nature, are we good, are we evil, i think we would make the same choices, a degenerate that chooses to beat his spouse would do it again, one who loves to rape or murder would do again, because what is in our souls is what we will do. we still have free will and choices to make, are we all going to be squeaky clean? nope, i know i sin but i try to do good, you might too

[le Hollandais]

....And then there's John 3:3 where the Gospel says that Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again.  Before the reign of Emperor Justinian, that verse was prima facie evidence that Christians accepted reincarnation. The Empress, so the story goes helped put the kabosh  on that one. Seems she had a few skeletons in the closet.

[feralfreak]

8 hours ago, le Hollandais said:

....And then there's John 3:3 where the Gospel says that Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again.  Before the reign of Emperor Justinian, that verse was prima facie evidence that Christians accepted reincarnation. The Empress, so the story goes helped put the kabosh  on that one. Seems she had a few skeletons in the closet.

born again is a figure of speech, becoming a new person in Christ, like Saul when he was changed to Paul

[DLClayMongoose]

Just as human beings have to die once, but after this comes judgment, so also Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to deliver those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Heb. 9:27-28)

Reincarnation is not in the cards within the Holy Writ. Ironically, the Pharisees had an unfounded notion that high enough devotion to the Torah would allow for some form of reincarnation versus the Sadducee teaching that you just rot in the ground.