(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see how)
Focus Question:
Does being born again mean Jesus taught reincarnation?
Intro:
In Christianity, you’ve heard the phrase “born again,” and you’ll hear it in today’s passage in John. Ou focus question of the day, then, is “Does being born again mean Jesus taught reincarnation?”
Spoiler alert: The short answer is “no,” and as we read in Hebrews 9:27,
…just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment (Hebrews 9:27, CSB)
The big “but,” however, is that many groups use the verse you’ll hear in John today to claim that Jesus taught that it was necessary to be reincarnated.(1) So I’ll share an important distinction after our NT Segment.
And yes, I said “big but” because I haven’t said it for awhile, and as a subtle shout out to you listeners who have told me you chuckled before when I said it. That’s the difference between the written medium and the spoken medium.
New Testament segment:
Passage: John 3
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 36
Words: ~773
Does being born again mean Jesus taught reincarnation? There’s a key distinction to remember, and you can remember it in two words: reincarnation versus regeneration. Jesus isn’t teaching reincarnation. And we can tell that what he means is regeneration from several facts, these coming to you today from Norm Geisler’s book, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties.
First, the doctrine of reincarnation teaches that, after a person dies, he enters another mortal bod to live on this earth again.(1)
Jesus didn’t say “born again and again and again.”
Second, the doctrine of reincarnation teaches that people die over and over until the reach perfection (Nirvana).
As we read in Hebrews, we die once.
Third, in the verses that follow, Jesus explains what he means by being born again.
Commentators differ on exactly what the “water” comment means, but they don’t differ that it does not relate to reincarnation. And this is a good time to take a step back and look at what the whole Bible says…and clearly being born again means being cleansed from our sins and given “the life of God by the Spirit of God” (Ro 3:21-26, Ep 2:5, Col 2:13).(1)
In our OT Segment, we’re in the book of Jeremiah, and the southern kingdom of Judah is up the proverbial creek without at a paddle. Babylon is knocking at the door, they want to kill Jeremiah instead of listening to him, and today God’s judgment of them continues in the context of Jerusalem’s last days and their futile rebellion against Babylon.
Old Testament segment:
Passage: Jeremiah 39-41
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 52
Words: ~1541
Wisdom segment:
Passage: asdf
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: asdf
Words: ~
The bottom line:
Here’s the bottom line today: remember the word “regeneration.” God promises to give us new life, both a current transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit and new bodies in the new heaven and earth.
And here’s the good news. There isn’t a person on the planet who doesn’t sense the need for that. You might even ask them, “What do you do with the evil in your own heart?” Reincarnation is an attempt to answer that…that somehow you’ve got to suffer this life over and over until you finally get it right by your own power and smarts. There’s just one problem with it: the empirical evidence is against them. Believing that somehow humankind is “progressing” and getting better, more moral, smarter, or whatever really, actually requires the blind faith Christians are often accused of.
Jesus offers to regenerate us. The better question is, “What must I do to be born again?”
Love you!
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Norman L. Geisler and Thomas Howe, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear And Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1992), 405-406.