The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Minister Jeff Allen. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.
What makes you think that reincarnation is true? Believing it to be true doesn't mean that it is. Yes, I know, believing Christianity is true doesn't make it true either. But there is a big difference. In Christianity, we have Jesus. Jesus said He was the only Way. "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." (John 14:6). Jesus also performed many miracles. He walked on water, healed sicknesses, raised people from the dead, and claimed to be God in flesh. Because of these things, we need to look at Him seriously and consider what He is saying.
Now, if Joe Schmoe on the street said that he was the only way to God, we'd look at him and say, "Yeah, right." But, if Joe calmed a storm with a command, raised someone from the dead, walked on water, etc., that would add a lot of credibility to his claim. After all, he is demonstrating extraordinary abilities consistent with his extraordinary claim.
This is the case with Jesus. He made extraordinary claims and performed extraordinary deeds. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that what Jesus said was true--especially since He claimed to be God (John 8:24, 58; 10:30-33; 5:18).
Jesus commissioned the apostles to teach and preach the Christian faith. In Heb. 9:27 it says, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." This verse alone shows that reincarnation is not true. Also, reincarnation negates the necessity of the Cross because reincarnation teaches, you can have different lives in which to try to "get it right." Not so in Christianity. According to the Bible, God gives us one chance to escape the clutches of sin and damnation. God has given us the Law, which states that we are not to lie, to cheat, or steal. But, we all have. Therefore, we are all under the judgment of God, and He will execute His judgment upon sinners on the Day of Judgment. If reincarnation is true, then there is no Day of Judgment, no need of a sacrifice, and no need to trust in Christ.
A person needs Christianity because reincarnation does not remove sin. Also, reincarnation contradicts the Bible which presents Jesus with His miracles, fulfilled prophecies, resurrection, and so much more. Reincarnation denies the Day of Judgment. Also, think about this. Reincarnation works with karma, the idea that your past lives of "goodness" or "badness" affects the quality and position of your next incarnation. The purpose of reincarnation is to help you develop perfect karma by which you might then achieve a union with the divine consciousness after you have learned whatever it is you are supposed to learn. The problem is that each person had a first incarnation. That means that each person then had perfect Karma since he had no previous life and had done nothing wrong. Therefore, if he had perfect Karma and didn't learn or do what he was supposed to in his first life, then what makes him think that after hundreds of incarnations with accumulated bad karma that he will be able to achieve the perfect state of union with the divine consciousness that reincarnation moves him toward? It doesn't make any sense.
But what does make sense is that there is one God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, and the only way to have your sins forgiven is to trust in Him and not your own efforts through various lives to try to become perfect. That is why you need Jesus because reincarnation is not only false, it is empty.
6 comments
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Marylyn (Pepper) Montague
Everything you have ever heard or read is hearsay, secondhand information, and can ONLY be believed or disbelieved. To KNOW is to experience … to experience is to know; you experience reading this and so know you are reading this. There are hundreds of different religions, all teaching different beliefs/ideas of God and no two churches or people “believe” the exact same thing. We argue about beliefs and some even kill for their “idea” of God, but there is one thing that all religions agree on, and that is that the characteristics of God are the characteristics of Love… those characteristics are…honest/trustworthy, tolerant, gentle, joyous, generous, patient, open minded and all power in everything everywhere all of the time and so needs no defenses… all of those characteristics are characteristics that we can operate ourselves by… we can LOVE and if we do, we can know/experience God and have no reason to argue, fight or kill over differing beliefs/religions. Hello Reader! I Love/God you!
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Robert Gagnon
It is all theory no matter what you believe. Everything Jesus did could be accomplished by a very good hypnotist. If God existed as a bearded singular identity his mere presence would dissolve any of us, his minor creations as we would step on ants. We make ourselves important to him through our projection of our own importance in the universe. Arrogant, aren't we? Without defining the where, I believe we go back to where we came from. I do ponder if we can return, are we bound to earth or can we go elsewhere in the universe. If we were to die in space, would be lost in he void without a point of gravity to be drawn to? That's the stuff more worth thinking about.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
In Matthew 16:13, Jesus asks his disciples: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" (or in some translations, "Who do men say that I am?") The disciples respond with various answers they've heard from the people - some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
So, even the ancients believed in reincarnation.
You don't need Jesus. I left Christianity 30 years ago, and returned to neo-paganism, who believes in reincarnation. I'm not a sinner/I've never sinned/I've got a friend named Odin. My life is so much better now.
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
Those of us (ULC ministers, or, those who should be) who know, that Nature (both mother and father) is the creator of everything- and that the word God is merely the personification of Nature — nonetheless, it’s a matter of fact, that everything in Nature (Cosmos, Universe, Galaxy) is “reincarnated” and that those who don’t accept that everything is reincarnated, need to acquire an awareness of astrophysics, cosmology, evolution, chemistry, and fact based non-religious history — before they reject the fact that the only known provable God, is Nature ( as per, Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Spinoza, and even DJT — if he were to be truthful).
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Lionheart
The simple answer to the question is, you don’t need Christianity, or any other religion, to believe in whatever you want to believe.
My daughter used to believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, she didn’t need Christianity.
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So, you are saying that all of us who don't follow Christianity are wrong and yours is the only way?! I am more then willing to grant to you that your belief feels right for you, but please, don't try to push so heavily on others that yours is the only one. Accept gracefully that we are all different.