Do you believe that Jesus once taught reincarnation?

BibleAsk Team

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Speaker 1

Great. So Rachel is asking, do you believe that Jesus once taught reincarnation?

Speaker 2

So. Thank you, Rachel. I wasn’t aware this was a thing, but I just looked and I see there’s videos of people try to say that Jesus did teach reincarnation. An example they give, for example, is from Matthew 17 starting at verse ten. And there it says, the disciples approach Jesus and ask why then do the scribe say that Elijah must come first? And Jesus answered and said to them, indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things, but I say to you that Elijah has already come and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wish. Likewise, the Son of man is also about to suffer at their hands. And then verse 13 says, then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. So some people say that what Jesus was claiming here was that Elijah died and was born again as John the Baptist. I think this is a real misinterpretation of what the Bible is saying. And a lot of Christians, a lot of scholars, a lot of people agree that really what Jesus was talking about here is the spirit of Elijah. Like if we look at the Old Testament and see what Elijah did, how Elijah acted, how Elijah was this person who was trying to bring about a revolution within Israel that was in a fallen state and preparing the people for a time of restoration, that exactly then what John the Baptist was doing.

Speaker 2

And this is exactly as Jesus is talking about. Elijah is going to come again. But the last time will be when God’s people really get the God’s message out, god’s true message of love and healing out to the world before Jesus comes the second time. And again he’s not going to be reincarnated. But the same spirit, the way the Holy Spirit worked with power, with Elijah will be and work with John the Baptist will work again with God’s final people. Elijah is in the gray. Actually, no, he never died. Sorry.

Speaker 1

He’s going to say he didn’t even die.

Speaker 2

I didn’t even believe this. I’d like to just believe he’s picked up and then his spirit came floating back down. But for read it, his body was even taken, like the way Liecher was taken doesn’t even support this concept of spiritualism that a lot of people have. So yeah, there’s no concept of reincarnation ever at all in the Bible that’s taught when we really study it out, every person is unique. Everybody has their own unique character and aspects. And when God resurrects somebody, he brings them back as they were. Maybe it was a new body, but that their spirit, their personality, their character, the real essence that made them who they are is attached to him, to them. Sorry, so Elijah is Elijah, john the Baptist is John the Baptist and there’s no recycling of spirits at all. That’s not a biblical concept. Tina, do you have anything to add?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I know 100% agree with you. And I think God is so interesting how there’s so many things that I think God does. Like he foresees problems down the line. He’s like, no, he couldn’t have been reincarnated even. It’s just the spirit of Elijah, the spirit of somebody crying in the wilderness, somebody saying, this is the way of the Lord come back to follow God. And that’s really what Elijah did. Elijah, during the apostasy of Israel, when King Ahab was married to Jezebel, he said, let’s go to this. Let’s go on Mount Carmel, let’s see who is the true God? And he calls down fire from heaven, and everybody returns to the Lord because there needed to be a reformation. And that’s what the purpose of John the Baptist was. That was his calling, was to have God’s true people returned back to Him to follow the true God, because Jesus was coming. And so that was basically the purpose, again of John the Baptist. It was that spirit of Elijah, the spirit of just saying, hey, let’s get out of this blasphemy. Let’s get out of these false lies that we’re being taught, and let’s go back to worshiping the true God out of Israel.

Speaker 1

And so, yeah, I totally agree with you that he could not have been recarnated, nobody’s been reincarnated.

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