Christian Pure

Is Reincarnation in the Bible? No: What Scripture and the Churches Teach

Christian Pure Team

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Published

Summary

  • The Bible does not teach reincarnation. Hebrews 9:27 says people “die once, and after that comes judgment.”
  • Jesus called John the Baptist the Elijah who was to come, but Luke says John came “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John himself said he was not Elijah, and Elijah never died.
  • Resurrection happens once, at the end of time, to the same person in a changed body; reincarnation is a series of lives in different bodies.
  • Irenaeus argued against the transmigration of souls about 180, and Origen called it “foreign to the church of God.”
  • The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death” (1013).
  • Even so, 29 percent of American Christians told a 2017 Pew Research Center survey that they believe in reincarnation.

No. The Bible does not teach reincarnation. The Letter to the Hebrews says people “die once, and after that comes judgment,” and the New Testament’s hope is resurrection: the raising of the same person, body and soul, at the end of time, rather than rebirth into another life on earth. The clearest picture of that hope is the risen Jesus himself. When he stood among his frightened disciples, he did not come as someone new. “See my hands and my…

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Bibliography (Click to show)
  • Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Hebrews 9:27–28; Job 7:9–10; 2 Samuel 12:23; 1 Kings 17:22; John 11:44; Luke 16:22, 26; Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Malachi 4:5; Matthew 11:14; 17:12–13; Luke 1:17; John 1:21; 2 Kings 2:11; John 9:2–3; John 3:3–6; Daniel 12:2; John 5:28–29; 1 Corinthians 15:42–44; Luke 24:39). Other passages described: Luke 16:23; Matthew 14:10; 17:3. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-Standard-Version-ESV-Bible/
  • “Reincarnation,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/reincarnation
  • “Karma,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/karma
  • “Origen,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Origen
  • “Saint Irenaeus,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Irenaeus
  • “Nicene Creed,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nicene-Creed
  • Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, chapter 33, New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103233.htm
  • Origen, Commentary on Matthew, Book 13, chapter 1, New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/101613.htm
  • Second Council of Constantinople (553), “The Anathemas Against Origen,” New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3812.htm
  • Dan R. Schlesinger, “Did Origen teach reincarnation? A response to neo-Gnostic theories of Christian reincarnation with particular reference to Origen and to the Second Council of Constantinople (553),” MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow, 2016. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/7845/
  • “What is Codex Sinaiticus?,” Codex Sinaiticus Project. https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 999. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2H.HTM
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1013. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2I.HTM
  • The Nicene Creed, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe
  • The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 32, Orthodox Presbyterian Church. https://opc.org/wcf.html
  • Claire Gecewicz, “‘New Age’ beliefs common among both religious and nonreligious Americans,” Pew Research Center, 1 October 2018 (survey of 4–18 December 2017). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/

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