What Does The Bible Say About Reincarnation?

The English words "carnal" and "carnate" originated from a Latin word, carnis, which means flesh. Hence, "incarnate" means in the flesh, and further, "reincarnation" means in the flesh again.

An excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

"Reincarnation, a belief in the rebirth of the soul in one or more successive existences, which may be human, animal, or in some cases, vegetable. Usually found in the Asia religions and philosophies, the belief in reincarnation, sometimes referred to as the transmigration of souls, metempsychosis (or more properly, metensomatosis, the changing of bodies), or palingenesis (Greek: to have an "origin again"), also has been found in the religions and philosophical thought of primitive religions, in some ancient Near Eastern religions (e.g. the Greek Orphic mystery, or salvation, religion) as well as in such modern religious movements as theosophy."

While various religions have a differing belief in some form of "reincarnation," all are based on the notion of an "immortal soul" that in turn lives in one body (human-human, or even human-animal) after another.

A further excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

"In primitive religions, belief in multiple souls is common. An example is that of the Poso Alfur of Celebes in Indonesia, who have a concept of three souls - the inosa, or vital principle; the angga, or intellectual principle; and the tanoana, the divine element that leaves during sleep and is of the same nature in many plants and animals. Thus the soul is commonly viewed as capable of leaving the body through the mouth or nostrils and of being reborn, for example, as a flying creature, such as a bird, butterfly, or insect. The Venda of South Africa believe that when a person dies the soul stays near the grave for a short time and then seeks a new resting place or another body - human, mammalian, or reptilian.

Among the ancient Greeks, Orphism held that a pre-existent soul survives bodily death and is later reincarnated in a human or other mammalian body, eventually receiving release from the cycle of birth and death and regaining its former pure state. Plato, in the 5th-4th century BC, believed in an immortal soul that participates in frequent incarnations."

"The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die"

The Holy Bible (see Holy Bible Reading Plan), which is the actual Word of God, not the fanciful musings of pagans or philosophers, also describes a "soul" - but which is not immortal. "Reincarnation" of a "soul" from one body to another doesn't happen because the soul itself is the body that dies. Every "soul" that ever existed was the person that lived and died (see the Fact Finder question below for detailed studies).

The English word "soul" originated from an Anglo-Saxon word, sawel, that meant an age, as in a lifetime. The original meaning of "soul" was physical, not something spiritual. Whether coincidence or not, that Anglo-Saxon word sounds very much like the Biblical Hebrew word, pronounced sheol, that referred to the place where physical creatures return after they have lived their lives. Both words are based upon that reality, that is described throughout the Holy Scriptures.

The English word "soul" is used to translate two original words of the Holy Scriptures. The Old Testament Hebrew word (pronounced) nay-fesh, which literally means a breathing creature (human or animal), is variously translated as soul, life, person, mind, heart, creature, body, himself, yourselves, dead, will, desire, man, themselves and appetite. The New Testament Greek word (pronounced) psoo-kay, which literally means life's breath or breathing (see Giving Up The Ghost), is variously translated as soul, life, mind and heart. According to God's Word, a "soul" is a living, breathing creature that eventually dies.

"^2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7 KJV)

Nowhere does the Bible say that the "soul" is immortal (see the Fact Finder question below). The Word of God emphatically states that souls are subject to death (self-righteous "Christians" who reject that reality often sneer at the Word of God while contemptuously using the term "soul sleeping" to voice their Satanic hatred for the Truth - and their love for Plato's "immortal soul" heathen myth).

"^18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4 KJV)

"^5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death" (James 5:20 KJV)

"^3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:19 KJV)

"^146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:4 KJV)

The only "in the flesh again" return to life in the Holy Bible is the second resurrection that is coming in the future. The first resurrection (those on the day of Christ's return), will be to spirit, while the second resurrection (all of the rest of humanity, a little over 1,000 years later), will be to flesh again - the same person that they were when they lived before (see the Fact Finder question below that explains both resurrections in detail).

The famous "dry bones" prophecy is a prime example of the later physical "to flesh again" resurrection when those people will get their first opportunity, by means of the Holy Spirit that they didn't have when they first lived, to know and live by the Word of God - after which they too will be granted salvation unto spirit.

"^37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, ^37:2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. ^37:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?

And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

^37:4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. ^37:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: ^37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

^37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. ^37:8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

^37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. ^37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

^37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. ^37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. ^37:13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, ^37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD." (Ezekiel 37:1-14 KJV)

Fact Finder: (a) What does the Word of God say about the "soul"? (b) Why will the first resurrection be to spirit? When will it happen? (c) Why will the second resurrection be "in the flesh"? Will they be the same people that they were before? When will it happen?
(a) See What Does The Bible Really Say About Your Soul?
(b) See When And Where Your Eternal Life Will Begin
(c) See The Eighth Day: What Does It Mean?

This Day In History, November 25

571 BC: Servius Tullius, king of Rome, declared victory over the Etruscans (the Roman Republic grow out of that earlier Roman monarchy; Imperial Rome, which was a restoration and expansion of the Roman Monarchy, from King to Emperor, grew out from the Roman Republic; see The Politics Of Rome).

1177: During the "Crusades" between the Church of Rome against the Muslim nations for control of Jerusalem (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy and Libya In History And Prophecy), Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.

1644: Ole Romer was born. The Danish scientific researcher and astronomer was the first to accurately determine the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second. Light can travel around the entire earth 7 times in 1 second, or travel from the earth to the moon in just over 1 second.

1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first known European to sight the Pacific Ocean. He claimed the entire Pacific Ocean, and all lands anywhere that were touched by it, for Spain.

1555: In Germany, the Peace of Augsburg was declared. It was the first effort in The Holy Roman Empire to allow Lutheranism (Protestantism) and Catholicism to exist together in the Holy Roman Empire (not a difficult task because the doctrines of Roman Catholicism and "Protestantism" are practically identical; listen also to our Sermon Constantine's Papacy).

1703: The Great Storm of 1703, with winds up to 120 mph (the most powerful windstorm ever recorded Britain) killed over 9,000 people.

1741: Forces supporting Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I the Great, staged a coup d'etat to seize the Russian throne from Ivan VI. Elizabeth was empress of Russia from 1741-1762.

1759: A Mediterranean earthquake devastated Beirut, Lebanon and Damascus, Syria; approximately 40,000 people died.

1818: The first human blood transfusion took place at a hospital in London, England.

1839: A cyclone struck India with a 40-foot storm surge; 20,000 boats and ships were destroyed and an estimated 300,000 people were killed.

1867: Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. The fortune that he made from the explosive and his other weapons-of-war manufacturing interests (i.e. cannons) was used to finance the Nobel Prizes that are named after him - including, ironically (some say hypocritically), the Nobel "Peace" Prize.

1914: German General Hindenburg called off the Lodz offensive 40 miles from Warsaw. The Russians lost 90,000 to the Germans' 35,000 in 2 weeks of fighting.

1917: The National Hockey League (NHL) was established, in Montreal (i.e. the "national" referred to Canada). The original 5 teams were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Arenas. Quebec had a franchise but decided not to operate that season. The Boston Bruins became the first U.S. team to join, in 1924.

1936: The "Anti-Comintern Pact" was signed between Germany and Japan; it provided for collaboration between them in opposition to Communist International. Italy joined the next year.

1940: 240 Jews and a dozen British policemen were killed in the sinking of the Patria in Haifa harbor. In order to prevent the removal of the Jewish refugees on the ship from "Palestine," the Haganah (a Jewish "resistance" group; in today's terminology, they would be defined as "terrorists") arranged to blow a hole in the ship's hull, intending to force the disembarkation of the passengers. Tragically however, the ship sank almost instantly. Ironically as well, the Jewish "resistance" were fighting the British (i.e. they were "biting the hand that was freeing them") whose lawful presence according to a UN mandate (listen to our Sermon The Balfour Declaration) enabled the people of Judah to become an independent nation again after centuries of anti-Jewish Ottoman occupation of the land of Israel (listen to our Sermon The Ottoman Empire).

1941: A Japanese naval armada left their home ports to carry out their attacks on numerous Australian, Dutch, British and U.S. targets (the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was just one of many Japanese near-simultaneous attacks on nations all across the Pacific in December of 1941).

1941: In the Mediterranean, the British battleship Barham was sunk by a German U-boat (German Unterseeboot, meaning "undersea boat" i.e. a submarine) off Sollum, Egypt, killing 848 British Navy seamen.

1956: The first transatlantic telephone cable between Europe and North America went into service.

1996: Israeli troops and Palestinian (a word that originated from "Philistine") security forces exchanged gunfire in Jerusalem and in other areas in Israel, set off by Palestinian opposition to an Israeli historical research tunnel dug in Jerusalem in the area of the Temple Mount (see What Was Holy About Herod's Temple? and The Temple Vessel Prophecies Today). The confrontation was described as the heaviest fighting in Jerusalem since the area was captured by the Jews during the 1967 Six Day War.