ANSWERS: 1
  • There is a logical reason people may believe in reincarnation. Maybe they have mistaken a stranger they never met for someone else they already know. Or a town or scenery of an area they’re going to for the first time looks familiar. If this is the case, they feel they’ve seen these people/things in a previous life. But does it prove they’ve lived an identical life? The reason for this is, different people who do not know each other coincidentally may look alike or act in similar mannerisms. Many houses in different towns are built with similar designs, and different locations can have similar scenery. Often a hypnotist is able to draw memories out of someone when tapping into that person’s subconscious memory. Does the recovery of these memories indicate that the person has lived a previous life? These newly found memories may consist of things that person has read in a book, or saw in a movie, etc. Over time, the person has forgotten those things. Then the recovery of those memories may leave a vivid impression on the one now remembering, and now the person puts himself in the setting of those memories, and the memories become real to the extent it seems that the person actually lived those events. But if the person simply saw those events in a book/movie, etc. it does not mean they actually experienced those very things. Buddhists generally respect holy books, and one holy book, the Bible, actually tells us the purpose of human creation as well as the future of mankind, as well as the condition of the dead. At Genesis 1:28, 29 and Genesis 2:15, when God created the first man and woman, he placed them in a beautiful garden home and told them to cultivate the earth and have in subjection all the animals, and make the entire earth a paradise. So human beings had an opportunity to live forever and never get old or sick or die. It was never the creator’s desire for humans to die, or to pass on to some other realm in a next life. However, the first man and woman ate fruit from a forbidden tree (Genesis 3:1-6). When they sinned, they passed sin and death on to their offspring, so all of us today grow old, get sick, and die (Romans 5:12). The scriptures also tell us what the condition of the dead is at Ecclesiastes 5:9, 10, and at Psalm 146:3, 4, where it indicates that the dead do not know anything, their thoughts parish. When a biblical prophet, Jesus walked the earth, he spoke about a friend of his named Lazarus, who had died (John 11:14), but he likened his death to being asleep (John 11:11-13). So we see that being dead is like being asleep, someone is in a state of unconsciousness. Therefor, the teaching of reincarnation cannot be true from that perspective. However, the scriptures do not leave us without hope. The scriptures promise that in the future soon, God will restore the peaceful conditions to the earth that he intended. He promises that wicked people will be destroyed and that righteous people will live on the earth forever (Psalm 37:10, 11). The earth will become a paradise again and peaceful conditions will be restored. For example, there will be peace between all humans and animals (Isaiah 11:6-9). We will build our own houses and plant and eat from our own gardens and vineyards (Isaiah 65:21, 22). It also says that there will be no more sickness (33:24) or sorrow or death (Revelation 21:4). Also, those who have hope as well, the scriptures say that there will be a resurrection of the dead back to life (Acts 24:15 and John 5:28, 29) The time for God to act is coming soon. The scriptures indicate that we are living in the last days of this present system of things, and Bible prophecy is fulfilling this. The gospel accounts told us that in the last days of this system of things, we would an increase in a war, famine, pestilences, and natural disasters (Matthew 24:3, 7, 8 and Luke 21:10, 11). There would also be an increase in bad and selfish attitudes among people in general (2 Timothy 3:1-5). So we are in an unprecedented time in human history, and therefore we should be watching world conditions and understand what they mean. Very soon will be God’s time to act and bring about better changes on the earth. Jehovah’s Witnesses feel that they understand these things that are taught in the Bible. For more information, you may visit our website jw.org. We profess to be Christian but do not believe in the Trinity. We do not force anyone to convert or agree with us or to accept our message, our purpose is simply to education people on scriptural truths.

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