Posted by ab skin on November 07, 1999 at 01:29:14:
In Reply to: reincarnation posted by sunray on November 06, 1999 at 17:03:32:
I think that often when there is a false belief (I believe reincarnation to be that)there is always some true belief distorted lying under it. I feel that it is very natural for us to feel a connection to our past and the society of the past. What G.K. Chesterton calls happily, the Democracy of the Dead, or tradition, seems to hang around us. People have always had elaborate rites concerning death and sometimes rites for the 'keeping of a soul' after death. There are these ways we stay connected even after our soul becomes 'absent from the body--present w/ the Lord'. for instance, in the Christian religion, we have a living witness in two men: A.W. Tozer and C.S. Lewis. Both of these men are in the grave in terms of the dust that was once their bodies. They are not Moses or Jesus. They are in rest. But, to doubt their very real and living presence among Christians would be almost as foolish as saying that there were no Jesus. They are very much active today through their work, through their prayers, through their efforts and their writings. To deny their existence would be foolish. But I am not C.S. Lewis, nor will I ever be A.W. Tozer. This is the Abel's Blood Principle. According to Holy Scripture, we know that even at the time of the New Testament, Abel's blood was still crying out for justice. Abel is dead, but he is still a living testimony. And even more important, Abel is still Abel. I think that we are always in touch with the Society of our beloved departed. This is no morbid teaching, but a boldly Christian hope. We also teach that we will all be bodily ressurrected one day (no imperfections anymore). once again, we know this from Holy Scripture. God has revealed this to us. We also know that when we die we go straight into the presence of the Lord, some into eternal salvation, others into eternal damnation. There are no alternatives. I think reincarnation is a proper understanding of the Society of the Dead, that feeling of connectedness, but diluted by an improper understanding of the uniqueness of each individual. And therefore, as a Christian, I can not have reincarnation as an option. Our connection to each other, before and after death, is the connection of a community in God, not a dissolution into a cosmic soup where the individual is blurred and disrespected. Each soul and body is counted and named by God.