Critical Questions and the Christian Faith

Reincarnation, the Soul and Resurrection

by Douglas Miller

There seem to be three main views about life after death.

That there is no life after death. Life dies when the body dies, and there is no thought or feeling beyond death. This view is implied by atheist or materialist philosophies. It is also held by some people who believe in God and are influenced by the Old Testament prophets.
That the immortal soul leaves the body and goes to God, who either accepts or rejects the soul (crudely called "going to Heaven or Hell"). Many people think this is the teaching of the Bible, but it is not.
That the soul comes back and lives in another human life, and goes through the human life span again, and again, and again ... Belief in reincarnation is central to Hindu and Buddhist teaching, and has become widespread in the West, especially in the New Age movements.

None of these are the teaching of the Bible. Contrary to common opinion, the second of these is not the teaching of the Christian faith.

Views in the Bible

In ancient Israel (before 200 BC), it was assumed that there was no future beyond death. People only experienced God's favour or anger in this life. At death they sank into a shadowy non-world called She'ol, beyond hope and feeling, and beyond the presence of God. They spoke of going to Sheol with dread.

Psalm 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance if you; in Sheol who can give you praise?

Psalm 39:13 Turn your gaze away from me that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more.

About 200 BC, Jewish people saw that the problem of suffering was insoluble without a belief in a life after death. It is hard to believe that God is faithful to his people when you see good people die in suffering. It is totally impossible if there is no further opportunity for God to favour these people in a future life. However they rejected the Greek belief in the immortality of the soul. They believed in the goodness of the earth and of human life as created by God. They believed they were loved by God as whole human beings, and so they believed that any future life would be life as whole human beings with body and soul together.

2 Maccabees 6:9 You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the king of the Universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.

Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Jesus and New Testament writers like Paul and Luke affirm a faith that God will raise the dead to life at the end of the age. Paul affirms that the whole person will be raised and rejects the Greek belief in the automatic immortality of the soul.

Jesus, in Luke 14:13-14 When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

However they stressed that the life of the resurrection must not be thought of as too literal a copy of our present life.

Jesus, in Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable ... it is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Is this reasonable?

It is widely assumed that the Christian view of life beyond death is a belief that the body decays, but the soul goes to be with God. However this is hardly the view of most of the New Testament writers. They definitely teach a resurrection of the whole person to live on a renewed earth.

The reasons in terms of Christian faith for believing in the resurrection of the dead as whole persons seem to be:

That the creation is God's good gift, and God has created human beings as whole persons, mind and body together.
That Christ has lived among us as a whole human being, mind and body together; and was raised from the dead as a whole human being, not just as a soul.
That life is a gift of God, and God is able to create that life anew.
If there is no life beyond death, it is not reasonable to believe in the goodness of God.

So it is reasonable to expect that life as whole human beings is the best model we know of the life of the world to come, although the life of that world is far beyond all we know or imagine.

But this view is only reasonable if we don't get too literal in our pictures of the world to come, and if we forget that the pictures in the Bible of the great feast, the city of gold or the great choir are only pictures to suggest a reality that cannot be described in human language, as it is far beyond our present experience.

What about reincarnation?

The concept of reincarnation is a fundamental part of classical Hindu and Buddhist thought, and also became widespread in ancient Greek philosophy. This view was also taught by a few of the early Christian thinkers, especially Origen (about 240 AD). However the church rejected this view.

Attempts to find reincarnation taught in the Bible are unconvincing.

Reincatrnation was discussed by Gregory of Nyssa (a church leader of about 380 AD), who gave the reasons why the church rejects reincarnation as:

That we have no memory of any previous life.
That a baby starts without knowledge of people, language or the world, and has to learn everything from zero. It has no knowledge or memory of having ever been through this life before.
That a child's knowledge and wisdom grows as the body grows.
That to suggest that God's future for us is more cycles of the same life, forgetting the previous cycle, does not give us hope but despair.

So he concluded that, just as the child's body derived from the parents, so also in some way the child's mind and life is generated by those of the parents. The soul has not been anywhere else before it was made with the body.

It seems to me that these reasons are as valid now as they were then.

Questions for group discussion

Do you agree that there is almost no mention of life after death in the Old Testament? Why is this?
Why does the New Testament emphasise the resurection of the whole person, not the immortality of the soul?
Why has much popular Christian thinking emphasised the immortal soul, and not followed the New Testament?
Why is there a widespread belief in reincarnation today in traditionally Christian countries?
Are Gregory of Nyssa's objections to reincarnation still valid? Why? Why not?