The Wheel of Misfortune

If eastern religious concepts such as reincarnation and the Wheel of Karma seem to be gaining a foothold in the modern Christian church, indeed that's happening.

Such pagan religious concepts were shunned by the church for 2,000 years. However, the embrace of such unbiblical doctrines in our modern times is prophetic.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul warned the early church that "in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1)

Paul followed up that caveat with a another prophetic warning in his second letter to the apostle Timothy: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of false teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Certainly, many professing Christians have abandoned the faith throughout the 2,000 year history of the church to embrace false teachers and their false doctrines. But Paul's prophetic warnings are clear: That the end times preceding the return of Jesus Christ will see a proliferation of false prophets who promote heresies and demonic teachings.

For those who doubt Paul's prophetic caveats concerning the last days and the Christian church, then consider what Jesus Christ Himself warned concerning the last days: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." (Matthew 24:10-11)

One of the false doctrines that has crept into the church over the past 100 years is the pagan belief in reincarnation. What is reincarnation? It is a religious concept that originated in eastern mysticism and teaches that the human soul occupies many different physical bodies--including animals--during several lifetimes until it achieves perfection.

That teaching, which can be found in the Hindu Vedas, is unbiblical. Nowhere does the Bible teach such a concept. Instead, the Bible clearly says this: "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:27-28)

If reincarnation is true, then Christ's death on Calvary's cross and His subsequent resurrection from the dead are meaningless. Who would Christ have died for if people live multiple lives? Which life would be taken into consideration by God?

Furthermore, if Christ's resurrection is considered the first-fruit from among the dead (1 Corinthians 15:23) then who will His followers be resurrected as if they have lived many different lives? That's why reincarnation is incompatible with the Bible.

Nevertheless, reincarnation continues to gain acceptance within the Christian church, despite its pagan roots. In an interview he gave with beliefnet.com, Dr. Christopher Bache, a professor of religion at Youngstown University claimed a 1999 Gallup Poll revealed that over 20 percent of people who identified themselves as Christians at that time believed in reincarnation. That's a significant number of Christians if that's true.

Here's what Bache said when he was asked about why more professing Christians are embracing this concept: "One thing is that more people are becoming aware of the high caliber of evidence that supports reincarnation. Not only Ian Stevenson's extraordinary studies with children, but also therapeutic evidence and the large number of clinical psychologists who are doing past life therapy. That discipline has matured a great deal over the past 25 years." Christians and Reincarnation - Beliefnet.com

Indeed it has. However, what type of evidence is Bache suggesting that allegedly proves the transmigration of the human soul? If that "evidence" has been produced through hypnosis, then such evidence cannot be considered because hypnosis is nothing more than another name for the occult practice of mesmerism.

And mesmerism involves neutralizing the free will via hallucinogenic drugs, or altered states of consciousness via hypnosis. And when that happens, demonic spirits can invade a person's soul and take over their mind to plant false memories and experiences of times, dates and places that never happened.

That's one of the reasons why Christ refused to let demonic spirits speak before He cast them out of people because the spirits were liars under Satan's authority sent by the devil to deceive. (Mark 1:23-27, Luke 4:41) Tragically, the so-called evidence that Bache cites is probably nothing more than demonic hoaxes that are gleaned from hypnotic episodes.

Furthermore, Bache claims that reincarnation "helps us understand the existence of suffering and evil...What it does is expand our understanding of how much time we have to perfect the life process...if by reincarnation you expand the idea that we have not a hundred years but millions of years..."

Again, that's unbiblical and it comes directly from the eastern religions. The Bible never teaches that a person gets additional opportunities to get it right with God if they fail in a particular lifetime. The Bible clearly reveals we're given only one life to live and if we blow it, there will be no second, third or even multiple chances to get it right. If there are multiple chances, then Christ died on the cross in vain.

What reincarnation does is give people a false sense of security that they can live careless and immoral lives because they believe that they will be given additional chances by God to get things right.

Bache even goes on to make the preposterous claim that Christ promoted reincarnation, but the early church fathers edited that out of the scriptures. If Christ did promote such a concept, then why did He give the account of an unnamed rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, as recorded in Luke's Gospel? (Luke 16:19-31)

That account details a rich man who is cast into hell after living a life of selfish, opulent greed on earth. Christ clearly reveals that the man is not only consigned to hell, but that he is unable to get out. If reincarnation is true, then the man wouldn't be consigned anywhere in the spiritual realm.

Reincarnation is the first cousin of evolution because it teaches that the soul travels on an evolutionary path toward godhood through many different lifetimes. The precept of this is that it takes a long time for a person to learn his or her lessons in order to achieve perfection.

However, it doesn't take multiple lifetimes to get right with God. It only takes the reality that we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that's why God sent His Son

Jesus Christ into the world to die for our sins. When we accept God's provision for our sins by faith in Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, then we are born again--not into another mortal life, but rather into eternal life through Christ. (Romans 10:9-12)

Still, there are those who refuse to accept the fact that reincarnation is an unbiblical pagan concept that is demonically inspired. Though the Roman Catholic Church officially rejects reincarnation, an archbishop named Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926) taught that reincarnation was plausible and possible.

Others throughout history who taught this pagan concept in the name of Christ included Nemesius, Bishop of Emesa; (Fourth Century A.D.) St. Jerome; (360-420 A.D.) St. Sulpitius Severus, (363-420 A.D.) and St. Brigid of Kildare. (525 A.D.)

Though there have been professing Christians throughout history who have attempted to reconcile reincarnation with the Bible, it simply can't be done. Christ frequently warned of God's judgment after physical death, and that death includes the reality of hell.

For example, in the Beatitudes, Christ said this: "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:29-30)

That would be meaningless if reincarnation is true. If reincarnation is true, then hell becomes the ultimate contradiction because under the concept of reincarnation, there is no judgment--only spiritual evolution via endless incarnations.

And so, reincarnation is just another pagan concept that is now increasingly being embraced by the end time church. However, how many Christians are paying attention to the warnings that Christ and Paul issued concerning this kind of end time deception?