Don’t you sometimes wonder just what the churches in America are teaching–or if they’re teaching anything at all, and just leaving it up to the members of the congregation to bumble forward on their own?
The Christian Research Institute–if you’re a fan of Christian radio, you know the CRI is the home of Hank Hannegraaff, “The Bible Answer Man”–reports that 24% of Americans believe in reincarnation… and 22% of professed Christians in America say they believe in it.
Folks, that’s not even trying to get it right! What does the Bible say? [I]t is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) None of this getting born and reborn over and over again until you get it right, you get “enlightened,” and are rewarded by being absorbed into the cosmic amoeba. If that was really going on, then why did Jesus Christ have to be born, and why did He have to die on a cross?
No, no, no–the only way to mix Christianity and reincarnation is by the firm application of pure brainlessness.
Why aren’t the churches teaching God’s word?
CRI encourages Christians, when they encounter some dork who believes in reincarnation, to ask “Why?” We are advised to ask nicely, so that probably lets me out. An honest answer would probably be, “I dunno–a lotta cool celebrities say they believe in it, so if I say I believe in it, I’ll be cool, too.”
I have yet to figure out how to continue the conversation from that point.
Another fallacy that traps Christians is the question: What is your star sign? Your astrological sign? I’ve met more Christians who think nothing of reading their daily horoscope and it’s written in the Scriptures that we are not to seek answers in the stars. I can’t remember the reference right now. I think a lot of Christians don’t have that solid base of Scripture. This base begins with seeing the Bible as God’s Word and then applying oneself to studying it like nobody’s business. But we have so many distractions today in our modern world and our attention is drawn here and there. We don’t always take the time to get into the Word of God. Unfortunately, lots of our time goes for television, internet, video games, and on and on. I’m at fault as well with letting a day or two go by without cracking open the Word of God and yet I check my emails once or twice or more even everyday. God, help us to approach Your Word with respect and with a thirst to be filled with it.
Very well said, Marge.
Hey, did you get your book yet?
What’s the sense behind reincarnation? If it were so, a superhuman power would be spending a lot of effort on deciding who is coming back as a naked mole rat and who is coming back as a Tasmanian Devil.
It strikes me as a polytheistic notion with all living things potentially containing a consciousness which was human, until they screwed up and ended up as a tse tse fly.
First of all, the world is only about 6-10,000 years old. There are currently 7 billion people alive right now. There just hasn’t been enough time for everyone to have reincarnated. Second of all, reincarnation is so depressing. How many times do you have to go through all this drama in a fallen world? And Hinduism & Buddhism say you succeed in not being reincarnated any more by denying all desire – what a drag that is. Christianity as portrayed in the Bible is the most exciting, glorious reality anyone could ever desire.