“What about reincarnation?”

Steve Brown:
What about reincarnation? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and suffers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there is a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. So here’s seminary professor and author, Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man. How you doing?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing good.

Pete Alwinson:
Good. You preaching this week-end in any place?

Steve Brown:
No, they don’t. You know, this COVID thing has been interesting, as surely. It’s cut into a lot. Although a lot of churches are beginning to open, and I do preach occasionally. But I’m not doing much travel.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Have you gotten your shot?

Pete Alwinson:
No.

Steve Brown:
Are you going to get it?

Pete Alwinson:
Uh, no.

Steve Brown:
Well, I said that too, but when it came down, I thought, I don’t want to die that way. So, and so my wife and I, because we’re old, we got our shot early. And I’ve got the vaccine and I probably will leave this studio today and be run over by a bakery truck.

Pete Alwinson:
Probably. But, but, but if you not and you live, it could cause infertility, Steve. So be careful on that.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. I don’t want to, I don’t want that to happen.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s a real problem.

Steve Brown:
You’re bad.

Pete Alwinson:
I’m sorry.

Steve Brown:
Sometimes I don’t even think you’re saved.

Pete Alwinson:
I may not. I know. Sometimes, I don’t either.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson, by the way, and go to ForgeTruth.com and you’ll be glad I told you about it. Such good stuff, and if you haven’t read Like Father, Like Son, go get it. You’ll be glad I told you about that too. Hey, we love getting your questions. You can give us a call whenever you have a question. And that phone line is open, 24 seven, 1-800-KEY-LIFE and follow instructions. When they tell you to hit a certain button, do it. And record your question and sometimes we put that on the air, or you can write to

Key Life Network

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In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
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Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And if you haven’t downloaded the new Key Life app, you can go to either one of those app stores, the iPhone, or the Android, put in Key Life and it’ll bring it up and you’ll download it free and you’ll get a lot of good stuff, if you haven’t done it. And if you can help us financially, do. You could make a difference in a lot of lives, we’re a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. Both of those organizations ensure ethical financial policies, but we were ethical before they came along, but they check, to make sure. Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and then we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
Alright. Alright. Let’s pray. Our great God, what a joy it is to stop for just a minute and to, make a connection. Lord, maybe we met with you this morning, but the day is moving on and we need to pray without ceasing. We just need to, to reconnect. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace all, all the time. And thank you that you’re in charge right now, of our life, what we’re experiencing, what we can’t control, what we’d like to control, what we’re angry about, fearful about. Lord, we give those things over to you. We roll them over to you, and ask that you would take them. Take the burdens that enable us to trust you with our whole heart. And thank you that your goodness enables us to remember that all things do work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So we honor you and we praise you, we thank you for Key Life and those who do so much behind the scenes. And, Lord, we just pray for Steve and the rest of the crew here, that you would be honored and glorified through everything and every person that we were able to connect with. Lord, we pray for our pastors and leaders this week-end, as they lead us in worship. Oh Lord God, give them boldness and grace to bring the gospel of truth to us. And now we commit this time of Q&A to you, as we pray in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Pete, this is an e-mail. Does the Bible say anything about reincarnation? I’m a hospice nurse, and by the way, you hospice people are absolutely amazing people. Just amazing. I’m a hospice nurse and want a Biblical reply when someone says, that they believe in it.

Pete Alwinson:
Well, I’m a hundred percent with you, Steve, on the whole idea of how important these hospice nurses are.

Steve Brown:
Oh yeah, if you’ve ever been in a place and I have, and they came at two o’clock in the morning when I called them, they were there, every time and I, I love hospice people.

Pete Alwinson:
They are great. They’re gracious people. They have really have service hearts. Reincarnation and resurrection often get confused in people’s mind. Resurrection is when we die, and at the end of the age, we are raised to new life, in Christ. That is a Biblical doctrine. Reincarnation says that we die and then come back in some other form. And the form that we take is dependent upon, what good deeds or bad deeds we have done in this life. So we could come back in a lesser form, and the goal of this Eastern way of thinking is to escape bodily experience overall and get into the great Nirvana. So, it is a different deal altogether. It’s not Christian. I would, but in talking to people in a hospice condition, is it is a tough situation, to point them to Jesus and talk about the resurrection from the dead, would be the way to go, I think.

Steve Brown:
You know, what you said is very good wedge for somebody who’s a Christian, who has an opportunity to talk to somebody who’s dying and says they believe in reincarnation. And that is what you said, that if you, depending on your good deeds or your bad deeds, you get a good body or a bad body next time around. And eventually you’ll make it to nothing, Nirvana. And, but the works thing is where you go, and you can say to somebody, look, reincarnation, presupposes that God is a God, who’s going to send you to hell, if you’re bad and send you to heaven, if you’re good. It’s just the long way around. But let me tell you the truth, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, no matter who you’ve hurt or slept with or smoked or drank,
Jesus will save you. All you’ve gotta do is ask him. And it gives you an opportunity to jump off from the reincarnation thing,

Pete Alwinson:
Totally.

Steve Brown:
to the thing about the presentation of the Gospel.

Pete Alwinson:
So good. Yeah. I totally think that’s the way you ought to go, get away from that into

Steve Brown:
Yeah. And what you said, I’ve never thought of that before and you’re talking about the bad deeds, good deeds thing. All of a sudden, I go, wow. You could use that as a way to present the Gospel. The Gospel is good news. Reincarnation is horrible.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s horrible news, who invented it. It’s a terrible thing.

Steve Brown:
I know. And it, the Bible says, and you’ve heard this quote it a lot.

The appointed unto men, once

not twice, not five times

once to die, and after that the judgement.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
And the people who say, well, it’s Biblical. They say, you’ve gotta be born again. No, no, no. That’s not what it’s talking about.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Read, being born again is what happens in, in time and space and history by the work of the Holy Spirit, as we commit to Jesus Christ.

Steve Brown:
This an interesting question. What do you think about I Corinthians 11, where Paul instructs a woman to wear a head covering. Do you think it still applies and will God be upset if I don’t?

Pete Alwinson:
Wow. Yeah. That’s not as controversial today as it was at one time, though there are still Christians, who do, where the women do wear head coverings. My take on it is that it was a cultural adaptation during that time, that head coverings were important for women, but they don’t show submissiveness to God today as they did in a previous time.

Steve Brown:
And so, it’s permissible by, with nodding in the direction and smiling to those Christians who believe that’s still something you ought to do, but it’s permissible to say that that’s a cultural thing and it was relevant in the first century. That submission to God is still important, but it’s not symbolized by head covering.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s how I would, that’s how I take it. I think we, yeah, we agree on that. I don’t, and certainly it ought not to be something that we divide fellowship over, but also as you said to recognize that some Christian women still feel, and some churches teach this. And, that’s why we have different denominations, because we’re trying to be Biblical, generally speaking.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
Trying to be obedient to Scripture, not to be antagonistic.

Steve Brown:
And you ought to get points for that. If you’re doing your best, I’m trying Lord. I get it wrong some, but I’m trying.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Are Christians both sinners or saints? How can that be possible?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? I mean, isn’t that what Luther,

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Pete Alwinson:
talk about that, called the sinner saints.

Steve Brown:
Well, he says they were all both, all the time. We’re saints. And in fact, in the Scripture, everybody who is a Christian, is a Saint, set apart, holy.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And, so I should call you Saint Peter, and you can call me Saint Stephen, because we are in fact Biblically saints, but I know you Pete, and I know me, Pete, and I know that there are things in my life that I’m not proud of, that I wish I could fix, that are besetting and that, were it not for the blood of Christ, would mean I was lost for all of eternity. And so, being a Saint is a positional thing that is factual and true of you, if you’re a Christian. Being a sinner, you just are.

Pete Alwinson:
We still sin. Now, when Jesus comes back, that’s going to be remedied, I John 3:2.

When we see him, we’ll be like him, we’ll see him as he is.

I love that.

Steve Brown:
And we don’t yet appear what we shall be, but we can be like him. I, that’s nice. It’s going to take longer for me than it does for some people, my wife is going to be instantaneous. Aye.

Pete Alwinson:
She’s so close anyway,

Steve Brown:
but I think maybe that’s going to happen with me, in order to work. Does Satan know your thoughts?

Pete Alwinson:
Oh man, you know, a controversy. I don’t believe he does, but he’s a great observer and his demonic hierarchy are, they’re great observers of us, I don’t think he can read our thoughts. They’re not God, they’re not omniscient, they’re not omnipresent. They don’t know everything about us.

Steve Brown:
Do you think sometimes that we make, we give Satan too much power and credit?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I think we do. We almost see him as the dualistic opposite of God.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Pete Alwinson:
That he is equally powerful and like the force we could lose if we’re not careful.

Steve Brown:
And we’re not dualists.

Pete Alwinson:
No, we’re not. We’re not.

Steve Brown:
I mean, Jesus has already won this thing for us.

Pete Alwinson:
Absolutely. There’s only one King. Only one God.

Steve Brown:
Some will give Satan power, he doesn’t have. We got to go guys. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.