If you have heard someone talk about having a past life or having lived in the past or hear people refer to their children as their parents or grandparents being reborn, then you are familiar with reincarnation.
Reincarnation is the belief that the spirit or the soul of the dead enters a new body or a dead person is reborn.
Reincarnation is a major tenet in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
They believe that a dead person’s spirit or soul can experience rebirth continuously until they achieve liberation.
They also believe that one can be reborn as a human or animal, depending on the kind of life lived before death.
Reincarnation is not a biblical concept and is not recorded anywhere in the Bible. However, many believers have endless questions about it, basically using the story of John the Baptist as a case study.
Keep reading this to understand the Bible’s position about rebirth.
What does the Bible say about reincarnation?
No verse in the Bible supports reincarnation. In fact, reincarnation is not a subject matter in the Bible.
That goes a long way to tell us that the Bible does not support the entire ideology of reincarnation.
Instead, the Bible clearly states that everyone is appointed to die once and then face judgment. “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
The psalmist also has something to say about death. “For He remembered that they were but flesh, A breath that passes away and does not come again” (Psalm 78:39).
We are all flesh, powered by the spirit God gave us.
The moment we take our last breath, our spirit departs from us and goes before God for judgment.
How we live our lives then determines where we will spend eternity.
The only rebirth the Bible mentions is being born again.
And this experience happens to only those still alive.
Being born again is a spiritual rebirth and transformation of a repentant sinner’s heart (John 3:1-21).
Anyone who confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior experiences this spiritual rebirth and becomes a new creature (Romans 10:10). However, they are not given new bodies.
They maintain the same form but express new virtues or characters as powered by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
According to John 11:25, “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
The expression that He who dies shall live does not mean they will return to earth. Jesus is explaining what it means to have an eternal life.
Eternal life means to live forever in heaven after dying as a holy person or the second coming of Christ.
Only those who live righteously will have eternal life. However, those who live in sin will experience eternal death or destruction (Romans 6:23).
Those who die as believers and sinners will be given new bodies. However, they are not coming back to life.
Those who believe in Jesus will experience eternal bliss in heaven, while sinners will experience eternal torment in hell (Revelation 21:4, Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:9-11).
Was John the Baptist Elijah’s reincarnated?
People often reference Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:7–14 when claiming that the Bible supports reincarnation.
In this verse, Jesus quoted Malachi, who talks about a messenger God will send to prepare a way for the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Malachi 4:5 confirms that this messenger is Elijah.
Since John the Baptist is the one who has come to prepare the way for the Lord, people believe He is Elijah reincarnated. Is that true? No.
John the Baptist is not Elijah reincarnate.
The concept of reincarnation is based on the fact that a person who has died returns to earth. However, based on Biblical facts, Elijah is one of those who did not see death.
He was taken into heaven by the chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11-12).
Therefore, Elijah did not die in heaven to be reborn as John the Baptist, nor did he exist in two worlds (heaven and earth) at the same time.
According to Luke 1:17, John the Baptist is not Elijah, but he only possesses his “spirit and power of Elijah.”
Elijah was a prophet filled with so much power. John the Baptist was also a prophet called by God.
Therefore, God endowed John the Baptist with Elijah’s power and spirit (Holy Spirit) so that he could perform and accomplish his assignment of preparing the way of the Lord.
Jesus’ transfiguration on the Mount also proves that Elijah and John the Baptist are different people.
The Bible says that Moses and Elijah appeared in the sky with Jesus.
Elijah would not have appeared if he had become John the Baptist. If reincarnation was a thing, transfiguration would have been about Jesus, Moses, and John the Baptist.
At the start of John the Baptist ministry, many people confused him for being many things, including Elijah and even Jesus.
The Jews wanted to be sure about whom they were dealing with, so they sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was.
They wanted to hear from the horse’s mouth. But before then, they asked John the Baptist if he was what people had said he was. And his answer was no. “And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No” (John 1:21). If John the Baptist said he was not Elijah, who are we to impose another prophet’s identity on him?
Why do some people remember their past life?
How can we know for sure that people’s thoughts are from their past lives and not their personal experiences?
We cannot use any mechanism to determine and differentiate thoughts from a former life and present life.
We live in a world saturated with media and technology. An average child in the United States, for example, has access to an iPad at a tender age.
Therefore, they are exposed to media content, including movies, documentaries, books, pictures, etc.
Our brains have the capacity to store and recall information, including those we have totally forgotten, often making us wonder where they are from.
Stories about our parents, grand and great-grandparents can be stored up in our minds, and people might marvel when we say them, or we might experience deja vu when we see things similar to our past experiences.
Having these experiences can be purely coincidental and has nothing to do with you being around some few hundred years or decades ago.
Our minds are blank at birth, and our experiences create memories and thoughts that can be recalled at any time.
Is reincarnation biblical?
Think about salvation and its purpose; you will understand that the concept of reincarnation contradicts the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Jesus Christ died so His blood would wash our sins away and give us a brand new life.
Anyone who accepts Jesus into their lives and confesses Him as the Lord and Savior becomes saved. But that’s not all.
They must work toward maintaining holiness.
They must avoid sin and temptations.
Being a believer also involves a series of trials and tribulations.
Therefore, being a Christian comes with blessings, but it’s not a walk in the park.
It involves self-denial, pain, attacks, and challenges.
Now imagine successfully making it to heaven after overcoming all the hurdles on the way.
Then, your soul or spirit is transferred into a new body to live life all over again.
That means that the entire essence of salvation and your works to make heaven have gone to waste.
God is not wicked, and neither is He unkind to let you live life again, having all the memories of pain, grief, and suffering you experienced in your former life.
The main purpose of making it to heaven is to live a blissful and peaceful life.
Revelation 21:4 says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
God is never interested in your past. He is interested in giving you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
He wants to wipe your record of sin and write your name in the Book of Life. His promises are futuristic.
He does not dwell in the past. Therefore, reincarnation is an ungodly and unbiblical concept every believer should not hold on to.
We must focus on the future and the good things God has in store for us.
We should earnestly prepare for the coming of Christ by living according to God’s Word so we can reign with Him.
We must not believe anything that will suggest that we will have another opportunity to live life over again so we might get the chance to right our wrongs in another life.
Once death comes, judgment follows (John 5:25-29)
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David Akeju is a Christian writer who believes in the transformational power of God’s Word. His articles and books have been published on global platforms, and thousands of lives have been touched. He works with pastors and ministers, churches and ministries, and brands.