I see. So while there may not be a basis for it in the New Testament, it would not be contradictory to consider oneself a Christian and also believe in it. Would you agree with that?
Ok... I don't want to derail the thread, but this brings up something I've been wondering lately: Hypothetical situation - say God takes "eternal life" off the table. Say the creator is the creator, but believing in him gets you no rewards, other than knowledge of the truth. When you die, you die for good. How many of the self-described Christians would still go to Church every week and work at the whole thing?
Jesus is God, according to Scripture, so his return to Earth in any form would be far different than a human being reincarnated.
Personally I think this is very acturate just based upon what I discuss with other pastors. More and more pastors are moving towards Hindu views and mixing them to a compatibility with Christian thought. It is challenging. Cremation is fine for a Christian. My understanding of reincarnation is simply that the essense of a person or the spirit or whatever returns in a different form. So that it remains all a part of the whole system. I think there is allowance for a change of identity and character. Resurrection is a Christian concept of giving the spirit a body fit for immortality retaining both individual identity and character. The body a Christian has on earth is decaying. Resurrection includes providing a body that will never decay.
ello good people of cf. (take me to your leader sort of thing) so say to me good people of cf, as an alien from o 43skdfjs3-, I can't see a lot of difference between what you say 'resurrection' and 'reincarnation'. your back! whats the big deal?
I don't believe it is in Scripture one way or another to be honest. My memory is that Judaism around the time of Christ believed in reincarnation to some extent.
I woud have to give 2 answers since taking this off the table changes things significantly... first if I believe in Him (Jesus), then nothing changes but if I don't believe in Him but what I believe is that doing church on Sunday keeps me safe in the hereafter and I find out there is no hereafter?!?!?! -I am going surfing on Sunday mornings
Acts 1:9-11: "While they [Jesus' apostles] were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud caught him up from their vision. And as they were gazing into the sky while he was on his way, also, look! two men in white garments stood alongside them, and they said:' Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you have beheld him going into the sky." No, he would not be born again through a virgin or any woman. I'd say a good amount would still go. There are many that just goes because of the "eternal life," but there are some that goes for that and other reasons. One reason would be for the blessings. Another would be for their "spiritual" life. Personally, I would still go. But who knows... talk is talk. If something like that would happens, I could completely go against what I just wrote.
awesome question!!! i ask this of other people who claim to be Jesus-followers all the time. sooooooooooo much of what the Church talks about today is simply fire insurance...."did i say the right words just in time to avoid hell???" Jesus spends most of the time talking about life right now...how the Kingdom of God is RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. and then gives instruction on how to live...beyond merely DOING this or that....but instead BEING something different. the life Jesus talks about is one that stops asking, "what's in it for me." Sadly, that seems to be a lot of what the Church preaches, even about Christianity, itself. as for what happens when I die...I'll let God worry about that. I'm not.
Yes. This is highly dependent upon interpretation and translation, nevermind any purging that took place during the centuries of sectarian strife.
In Hinduism, a person does not necessarily reincarnate as a human being. I suppose that would contradict the Bible.
I think a large part of it is also the politically correct society we live in. I wonder how many Christians that say that there are multiple paths to God actually believe it and how many are just being politically correct?
Maybe they look at these "multiple" paths as, when you get right down to it, the same path. So what it means to be a "good" person and lead a "good" life isn't so different for a Hindu or a Muslim or a Jew. And all the stuff that are specific to any given religion are mostly extraneous to the true path.
