(The following is taken from Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler)
Reincarnation means literally “to come again in the flesh.” This is not to be confused with Christ’s “incarnation” as when he came “in the flesh” once and for all (1 John 4:1-2). Re-incarnation means that after death the human soul attaches to another body and returns to live another life.
There are many forms of reincarnation. The most common spring from Hinduism and Buddhism and are based in the inexorable law of karma. Under the law of karma, what one sows in this life is reaped in the next. Every action in this life has a reaction or consequence in this life or in the next.
Reincarnation is not only the dominant belief in Eastern religions, but it has gained increased popularity in the Western world. About one in four Americans believe in reincarnation. Among college age young people the figure is nearly one in three. Surprisingly, about one in five who attend church regularly also believe in reincarnation, in spite of the fact that the Bible and orthodox Christian belief reject reincarnation.
Many celebrities have proclaimed their belief in reincarnation. One of the most vocal has been Shirley MacLaine. Other famous celebrities who believe in reincarnation have included Glenn Ford, Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo), Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, George Harrison (Beattles), General George S. Patton, Henry Ford, John Denver, and Mark Twain.
Reincarnation has a long history. Many believe that the original source of the doctrine appears to be the Hindu Vedas (Scriptures). Buddhist, Jainist, and Sikh forms seem to have been derived from these, as have teachings of Transcendental Meditation and Hare Krishna. Psychic Edgar Cayce and adherents of the late-eighteenth-century theosophical movement, including writer Helena Blavatsky, were influential teachers about multiple lives.
Philosophically, reincarnation is wrapped up in Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It is strongly rejected by Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.
Karma includes both actions and the ethical consequences attached to them. The ‘Ramanuja Personal System’ of Reincarnation (Hindu) states: ‘You definitely reap what you sow. If you do good deeds, you are born into a “pleasant womb.” If you do evil, your destiny will be proportionately less noble. You might even find yourself in a “foul and stinking womb,” be it animal, vegetable, or mineral.’ The cycle of death and rebirth (samsara) is often depicted as a wheel, with death as the gateway to new life. The goal, though, is to escape from this cycle. This escape is called moksha, and it is here that the difference arises between the personal and impersonal forms of the doctrine. The impersonal version says that once all karmic debt is eliminated, the soul loses all identity and simply becomes one with the One; the self merges with Brahman, a divine, impersonal force. The personal view says that the soul is simply liberated to be itself, fully devoted to Bhagwan (the personal God).
Buddhists say that the unconscious soul (vinnana) continues, but the self (intellect, emotions, and consciousness) is obliterated at death. [The final state of ‘being’ in Buddhism is] ‘Nirvana’, which is attained by the grace of Buddha.
Jainism and Sikhism follow the same patterns as personal and impersonal Hinduism, respectively.
Most unorthodox Christian forms of reincarnation do not differ in their basic concept, but are influenced by other factors. Most important, during human existence, a decision is made about whether to accept or reject Christ. In the simplest model, those who accept Christ go to be with God, while those who reject him are reincarnated. The cycle will continue until all recognize Christ. In this way, all will eventually be saved. Some Christian reincarnation theories provide ultimate punishment for those who are lost causes. In MacGregor’s view the punishment is annihilation. Hick’s theory is somewhat novel in that he supposes that humans are reincarnated to lives on other planets.
Several rationales are given to justify belief in reincarnation. Three of the most basic reasons [for believing in reincarnation] are the belief in an immortal soul, psychological evidence of past-lives, and the argument from justice through reincarnation.
Immortality of the Soul – Plato’s main reason for believing in transmigration of souls (another name for souls going to a different body) was that he considered the immaterial part of each human being to be uncreated and indestructible. It existed before we were born, and it continues to exist after we die. Nothing, either good or evil, can corrupt it. If that is the case, then reincarnationists argue that it is likely that it appears in the world in different bodies at various times. This is part of its perfecting process. In the same way, pantheistic philosophies assume that all is eternal and divine, so the soul is equally incorruptible.
Psychological Evidences – Ian Stevenson, a para-psychologist and researcher of past-life recall, has said,
“The idea of reincarnation may contribute to an improved understanding of such diverse matters as: phobias and philias of childhood; …childhood sexuality and gender identity confusion; birthmarks, congenital deformities and internal diseases; …and abnormal appetites during pregnancy.”
Past life regression, through hypnosis or other altered consciousness states, has been helpful to some to explain feelings that the patient cannot account for or overcome. By finding some experience in a past life, many have been relieved of feelings of fear, depression, or unwantedness.
Need for Justice -To many, the idea of having more than one chance at life seems to be the most equitable solution. Karma is just. If you do bad things, you pay the price; if you do good, you get a reward. Punishment is in proportion to how bad your karma is. The idea of condemning someone to an everlasting hell for a finite amount of sin sounds too harsh. Also, suffering in this life can be justified if it is really an outworking of karma from past lives. All suffering can be explained as the just outworking of bad deeds done in former incarnations. This explanation eliminates the need [for a Sovereign God].
As Quincy Howe observes, “One of the most attractive aspects of reincarnation is that it removes entirely the possibility of damnation”. The doctrine of eternal punishment seems totally incompatible with the love of God to many people. Reincarnation suggests a way in which God can punish sin (through the law of karma), demand faith in Christ (during at least one lifetime), and still save everyone ultimately. Someone who rejects Christ gets more chances. This even protects human freedom, because God does not coerce anyone to believe; he merely gives them more time to exercise their freedom. Moral progress and spiritual growth can also occur during successive lifetimes, which will allow individuals to understand the love of God better. Some think that moral perfection cannot be attained without reincarnation.
The arguments for reincarnation are without real foundation. At best they show only the possibility of reincarnation, not its reality.
Past life “memories” do not prove reincarnation. There are other ways to explain the so-called “memories” or past lives. They may be false memories. Many other so-called “memories” have been shown to be false. Some people have “remembered” things that were empirically proven not to have happened. There are notable cases, such as Bridie Murphy, where the alleged “memories” of past lives turned out to be nothing more than stories her grandmother read to her when she was a little girl. Other false memories have been implanted by hypnosis (the power of suggestion) or guided imagery therapy during counseling or teaching sessions. [Or, they could easily have been planted there by a devil.]
Reincarnationists complain that a Christian faced with the grieving mother of a dying four-month-old can only say, “I don’t know.” But the law of karma can give her an answer: “Your sweet, innocent angel is dying because in an earlier incarnation she was a scumball.” This is not a solution to the problem, it is merely a subversion of it. It doesn’t deal with the difficulty; it dismisses it.
Is it really fair for God to punish children for the sins they don’t even remember committing? It seems morally repugnant and terribly unjust to mete out judgment on someone who does not even know what his crime was. Besides this, by putting the guilt back one lifetime, one begins an infinite regress of explanations that never really pays off with an explanation. If the suffering of each life depends on the sins of a former life, then how did it all begin? If there was a first life, where did the karmic debt come from to explain the suffering in that life? Is evil an eternal principle, right alongside God? You can’t keep “back pedaling” forever to solve the problem of evil. The law of karma fails to resolve the conflict. It merely pushes the problem back into previous lives without ever coming to a solution.
One gets the impression, and some argue, that karma is the same as the biblical law—a rigid, universal moral code. However, karma is not a moral prescription. It is a system of retribution only; it has no content to tell us what to do. It is an impersonal, amoral law of act-consequence relations.
In pantheistic systems there is no source for the moral standards that karma enforces. Why punish people for some wrong if there is no moral standard of right and wrong? For in pantheism, there is no ultimate difference between good and evil. Karma is not a moral law. Unless something is absolutely right, nothing can be actually right; and if nothing is right (or wrong), then karma has no business punishing anyone for it.
Reincarnation is ultimately anti-humanitarian. It generates no social compassion. Anyone who helps the thousands of poor, crippled, maimed, homeless, and starving people on the streets of India is working against the law of karma. People suffer to work off their karmic debt and if you helped them, then they would have to come back again and suffer even more to work off that debt. According to traditional Hindu belief, anyone who helps the suffering is not increasing their karma but one’s own. The social compassion that exists in India is the result of non-Hindu, largely Christian, influence. Hinduism did not produce Mother Teresa.
Scientifically, we know that an individual life begins at conception. It has life (soul) and a body. It is a unique individual human being. It did not exist before. To claim that its soul (life) existed in previous body has no scientific basis. The scientific evidence points to human conception as the point of origin of an individual human being.
If reincarnation were correct, society should be improving. After all, if we have had hundreds, even thousands, of chances to improve over millions of years, then there should be some evidence of it. There is no evidence that such moral progress is being made. [Just take a short look at youth today: 60 years ago they were respectful to parents, dressed conservatively, and the worst thing they did was to chew gum or spit on the sidewalk; today teens are shooting and snorting Meth, smoking dope, getting drunk, speaking vulgarities with every other word, living together in ‘gangs’, terrorizing neighborhoods, committing fornication with opposite and same gender partners…. What happened to ‘karmic law’ on that one?! Looks like it went in an extreme reverse!]
The reincarnationist’s assumption that there has been an infinite amount of time before today [has a] serious problem. In an infinite amount of moments there is more than enough time to achieve the perfection of all souls which reincarnation is designed to do. In short, all souls should have received oneness with God by now, if there had been an infinite amount of time to do so. But they have not. Hence, reincarnation has failed as a solution to the problem of evil.
Fundamental to all the biblical reasons to reject reincarnation is the doctrine of creation. All humans since Adam begin at conception (Ps 51:5; Malt. 1:20). This being the case, there can be no preincarnate existence of our soul.
Scriptures teach that, upon death, the soul leaves the body and goes into the spirit world where it awaits resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8). The “souls” of those who had just been martyred were conscious in heaven. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:” (Rev 6:9). Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross conscious bliss that very day of his death, saying: “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
There is not the slightest hint anywhere in Scripture that the soul after death goes into another body, as reincarnationists claim. It simply goes into the spirit world to await the resurrection.
[Who or what governs this karmic cycle and what one is reincarnated as; they must be quite powerful in order to control a soul’s destiny. Is this a built in system in or bodies, or our soul? Is there an all-wise Brahman or Bhagwan?]
Reincarnation is the belief that, after death, the soul passes on to another body. By contrast, the Bible declares that, after death, the same physical body is made incorruptible at the resurrection. Rather than a series of bodies that die, resurrection makes alive forever the same body that died. Rather than seeing personhood as a soul in a body, resurrection sees each human being as a soul-body unity. While reincarnation is a process of perfection, resurrection is a perfected state. Reincarnation is an intermediate state, while the soul longs to be disembodied and absorbed in God; but, resurrection is an ultimate state, in which the whole person, body and soul, enjoys the goodness of God.
According to Scripture, human beings die only once, followed by the judgment. For “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). We are born once, we live once, and we die once. But according to reincarnation, we live many times. We are born and reborn over and over again. The Hindu apologist Radhakrishna wrote: “There is a fundamental difference between Christianity and Hinduism; that while the Hindu to whatever school he belongs believes in a succession of lives, the Christian believes that ‘it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment'”.
When asked whether a man’s sin before birth was the cause of his sin, Jesus replied: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:3). Whereas this is probably a reference to the false Jewish belief that one could sin in the womb before birth, thus producing physical deformity, Jesus’ reply excludes any belief in prebirth sins and karma.
Grace is contrary to reincarnation. Reincarnation is based in the doctrine of karma, which dictates that, whatever one sows in this life, one reaps in the next life. Sins cannot be forgiven; they must be punished. But, according to Christianity, forgiveness is possible. Salvation is a “gift” which is received by faith.