False Doctrines On The Intermediate State After Death By Ed Tarkowski
Pass It On! newsletter The complete doctrine of Reincarnation can be traced as far back as 900-600 BC in India and Greece. This ancient belief system, including Karma, is known today through the Upanishads, the earliest Hindu Scriptures. The formation of the Reincarnation doctrine was brought about through mystical experience based on monism, the belief that all reality in the universe is a unified whole. The Church taught that man could have eternal life, but the doctrine that "Man is God" proceeded from the Hindu belief that he is part of the whole. In the sixth century AD, both Church and State opposed it because a doctrine making man responsible for his own salvation would challenge religious and civic authority. Belief in Reincarnation declined, but the Church was again forced to strike out against the doctrine in Councils held in 1274 and 1439. Reincarnation experienced some resurgence during the Middle Ages, but quieted after a time. In 1875, Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky, a 44 year old spiritualistic medium from Ekaterinslow, South Russia, began the Theosophical Society. She began it, not as a separate religion, but as a revival of "Ancient Wisdom" which "lies behind all religions alike." She restored the doctrines of Karma and Reincarnation, accompanied by communication with the Hindu "Mahatmas," exalted beings (spirits) who supposedly hold the sum of the accumulated knowledge of the past. Her views toward Christianity were negative: God was not personal, and the vicarious atonement of Christ was of no worth. To Blavatksy, the Historic Christ was one who spiritually evolved to become a member of the Hierarchy of Great Spirits who are unfolding the world's destiny, the capstone of which will be the emergence of a World Ruler. The West slowly responded to these doctrines, but the greatest boost came in the 1940's through the occultic Sleeping Prophet, Edgar Cayce, whose spiritual beliefs were also opposed to Christian truths. Part of his fame was due to his "past-life regressions," some dating as far back to the [supposed] lost continent of Atlantis. In 1954, Reincarnation was again well-publicized through the captivating episode concerning Bridey Murphy, who lived in nineteenth-century Ireland. Businesswoman Money Bernstein hypnotically regressed Vlrginia Tighe back to this period and declared that Virginia had lived as Bridey Murphy in the last century. The snowball started downhill and gained speed as time went on: movies, songs, books, and scientific investigation into past-life regression, as well as talk over the backyard fence, focused even more attention on the subject. The testimonies to Karma, Reincarnation and past-life regression grew in number, and past-life regression therapy was used as a treatment for physical and psychological disorders. Many "cures" came in sessions in which the ills experienced in the present life were found to have their origins in an alleged past life. Such events were choreographed by the unseen hand which opened the door to the tremendous interest in and pursuit of Eastern mysticism's doctrine of Reincarnation. This doctrine has become so prevalent in today's society that some scientists have announced a "New Age Science," the legitimizing of a marriage between the mysticism of the East and the science of the West. Karma And Reincarnation Reincarnationists believe the immediate goal of life on earth is man's spiritual evolution into his innate godhood through the process of living many lives (reincarnations). The goal of the initiate, however, is not to seek a continuation of life through reincarnation, but to reach that point where he is united to or absorbed into the monistic or pantheistic, impersonal god of his particular religious culture. The outcome of this "achievement" results in or verges on annihilation, such as a drop of water falling into the sea or a candle's flame being snuffed out. Reincarnationists believe that the Law of Karma is the principle that governs the quality and pattern of life one experiences during his next reincarnation depending on his good or bad choices during his last life. The effects of those choices on his being are resident in his subconscious in his next life. A basic example could be that a person cheated everybody during his life. In his next life, he could find himself being cheated by others all the time. Or, he could find himself feeling horrible guilt when he thinks of cheating during his next life, this being the guilt he subconsciously feels from his previous life. There are no set rules of Karma, except to say one "reaps what he sows" from life to life in one way or another. Christianity: Man Lives Only One Life The writer to the Hebrews refutes any possibility of reincarnation being possible, stating that man dies only once and therefore can only be born once:
Reincarnation Destroys Who Christ Is Reincarnation is the New Age alternative for the resurrection of Christ, who, they say, experienced many reincarnations. But without the resurrection of Christ man is still lost and all the other truths of Christianity fall to the ground. Any other doctrine of Christianity is safe as long as Jesus is at God's right hand because in that place of honor He is Lord and Savior. Remove the resurrection and you leave Satan's power of spiritual death over man totally intact. Destroying the truth of the resurrection removes the very foundation of the Christian faith:
Replacing the resurrection with reincarnation forces all men to eventually seek union with an impersonal god "whose" goal is to annihilate life. Karma's Empty Works Of Righteousness Karma is a debt-paying system of Eastern religions that declares man is not a sinner who sins, but that during his spiritual evolution into godhood, he's made some wrong choices he can correct in his next life. Christians believe sin is real and must simply be confessed by the sinner for forgiveness and cleansing on the basis of Christ's shed blood:
Karma's process is one of works, giving false credence to the idea that man can save himself and thus save God because man is God. But God's word clearly states that He saves us without our works, making forgiveness, the cleansing power of Christ's blood and our salvation real to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit:
Man's righteousness before God is based on Christ, not on man's works as the doctrine of "The Law of Karma" proposes:
It is God who declares man righteous through faith in Christ, not when he obeys any law. The reason God gave the law in the first place was not so we could make ourselves righteous, but that we would see we couldn't keep it and therefore needed a righteousness outside of ourselves:
Union With God - A Present-Life Decision Accepting Christ brings an immediate, initial salvation to the seeker, the Holy Spirit filling the heart with Himself. Furthermore, Scripture says this union actually seals the believer as God's property, guaranteeing him a full redemption (spirit, soul, body) at the return of Christ (Eph. 1:13), at which time the Christian's salvation is be totally manifested to all creation (Rom. 8:8-25). Accepting Christ, though, must be done in this present life, because "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement," a judgement reincarnationists are consciously or unconsciously trying to avoid:
Reincarnationists believe a person is rewarded with a "Heaven on earth" or "hell on earth" according to the good or evil choices one makes in his life. God says they are real places experienced after death, and we will go to one of them depending on whether or not we have believed on Jesus.
PART 1 - Soul Sleep vs The Truth Of Scripture |