What does the Bible say about reincarnation: definition, what the early church taught, was it removed from the Bible, & the danger of believing it
Summary
Reincarnation, the belief in the transmigration of a human soul to another entity at death, is taught by some Eastern religions like Hinduism. Reincarnation is not found in the Bible, nor was it ever removed from the Bible. Reincarnation is opposed to the biblical concept of resurrection at the judgment.
Expanded Answer
What happens when we die?
There are several theories about what follows death. One of the more popular, non-Christian ideas is reincarnation. Reincarnation suggests you don’t merely die and worms eat you (materialism) or that your soul travels to another place like heaven or hell (immortality). Instead, in reincarnation, your soul “transmigrates” to another body so your essence can live again. In recent decades this idea has really taken hold in the Western world, but it’s not a Biblical concept.
In this overview, I aim to define reincarnation, discuss the major religions that each reincarnation, explore what the Bible teaches, and reveal a major spiritual danger in believing in reincarnation.
Reincarnation Defined
According to The Handbook of Christian Apologetics at Bible.org, reincarnation is the idea that:
“The individual soul survives and is reincarnated into another body. Reincarnation is usually connected with the next belief, pantheism, by the notion of karma: that after the soul has fulfilled its destiny, and learned its lessons and become sufficiently enlightened, it reverts to a divine status or is absorbed into (or realizes its timeless identity with) the divine All.”
More crudely, reincarnation is a process by which a soul is “recycled” into other life forms after death. If you live a good life, you’re reborn as a more enlightened being. If not, you become a dung beetle. And so on.
According to DeathReference.com, the concept is at least 3,000 years old but has now spread to the point that more people believe in it than do not worldwide. Though it’s not as popular in the United States and Western Europe, the idea continues to take root and expand in our post-Christian culture.
“And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7
Religions That Teach Reincarnation: Hinduism, etc.
The idea of reincarnation originated in Eastern religions. For instance, Hinduism strongly teaches reincarnation as a religious truth. According to Vedanta-Seattle.org…
“The idea of reincarnation in Hinduism is perhaps as old as Hinduism itself. To students of religion reincarnation is a theological doctrine. Most Hindus consider it a fact. The evidence in support of reincarnation comes from two sources: (1) Jatismaras–people who can remember their past birth or births and (2) the testimony of the scriptures or saints.”
Hinduism is the most popular faith tradition that teaches reincarnation. However, other religions also believe in reincarnation. According to Britannica.com, Jainism and Sikhism teach a form of reincarnation. Both of those religions originated in India, where Hinduism arose. Some ancient religions, like Manichaeism and Gnosticism, taught reincarnation. In addition, other minority religions teach a form of reincarnation, like Theosophy and Venda traditional religion in southern Africa.
Interestingly, Buddhism does not understand reincarnation in the same way as described above. According to Alan Peto, a 30-year practitioner of Buddhism, his religion teaches the concept of “rebirth” which is similar to reincarnation but not the same since “there is ‘no self’ or ‘no soul’ in Buddhism.” Hence it would be impossible to be reincarnated as the same person in an animal, for instance, because there is no self to be reincarnated.
To see which major religions believe in reincarnation, checkout this helpful but non-Christian overview on the topic: ComparativeReligion on Reincarnation
“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:46
The Bible Does NOT Teach Reincarnation
The Bible does not teach reincarnation. As a result, there is no mainstream Jewish or Christian group that affirms reincarnation. On the contrary, the Bible teaches several ideas that stand in opposition to the Eastern religious doctrine of reincarnation:
- A person only lives once (Hebrews 9:27).
- The spiritual essence of a person goes to another place immediately after death (Luke 23:43).
- After the resurrection, some people enter eternal life and others go to eternal death (Matthew 25:46).
The Bible rejects reincarnation because it describes another destiny for human beings. Since Old Testament times – and continuing into New Testament times – believers have affirmed another truth that stands in direct opposition to reincarnation: resurrection. After a human dies, the soul of that person returns to God, but the decaying body remains on earth. And yet, the body will one day be resurrected.
Resurrection teaches that after you die, your body “sleeps” for a time. Your soul continues to live in either Paradise or Hades, but your body remains on earth until the first or second resurrection. The first resurrection is the Resurrection of the Just, and the second resurrection is the Resurrection of the Wicked. The Book of Daniel summarizes this teaching: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)
Resurrection vs. Reincarnation: What’s the Difference?
| Resurrection | Reincarnation |
|---|---|
| Taught in the Bible (Old & New Testament) | Taught in Eastern religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc.) |
| One life, followed by death, judgment, and resurrection (Hebrews 9:27) | Endless cycle of deaths and rebirths across different lives |
| Same body raised and transformed (1 Corinthians 15:42–44) | Soul “transmigrates” into a new body or life form |
| Eternal destiny: everlasting life or everlasting judgment (Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:46) | Ongoing journey shaped by karma until enlightenment is reached |
| Rooted in God’s power and grace | Rooted in human effort and karmic balance |
Some Suggest the Bible Affirms Reincarnation (Incorrectly)
Some readers point to verses like Matthew 11:14, where Jesus says of John the Baptist, “and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” At first glance, this might look like Jesus was teaching reincarnation – that Elijah’s soul had returned in John the Baptist.
But the text doesn’t support that conclusion. The Bible is clear: John had his own unique identity (Luke 1:13–17) and was not literally Elijah back from the dead. Instead, John came “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy in Malachi 4:5–6 that Elijah would precede the coming of the Messiah. Jesus was using prophetic language to show that John’s ministry mirrored Elijah’s role, not that he was Elijah reincarnated.
Another passage often misunderstood is John 9:1–3, where Jesus’ disciples ask whether a man was born blind because of his own sin or the sin of his parents. Some argue this implies pre-existence or reincarnation, that the man could have sinned in a previous life.
Yet Jesus’ response shuts down that idea. He said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The disciples were voicing a common misconception of their time, having nothing to do with reincarnation, and Jesus still corrected them. Far from teaching reincarnation, this passage highlights God’s purpose in suffering and healing.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
Was Reincarnation Removed from the Bible?
One of the more common myths about reincarnation is that the early church once believed in it, but later church leaders “removed” the teaching from the Bible at a council. This oft-repeated idea found in pop-spirituality books and forums has no basis in history. The New Testament manuscripts we possess, which are thousands of copies spanning centuries, show remarkable consistency. None of them contains references to reincarnation.
The councils of the early church, such as Nicea (AD 325), did not debate or remove reincarnation from the biblical texts. The focus of the First Council of Nicea was on affirming core doctrines like the deity of Christ and the Trinity, not altering the Bible.
Another misconception is that figures like Origen (a third-century church father) taught reincarnation and that the church later suppressed it. In reality, Origen was a theological mixed bag. Though he speculated about the pre-existence of souls, he explicitly affirmed the resurrection in his writings. Louis Berkof wrote in his Systematic Theology,
“Origen defended the doctrine (of the resurrection) over against the Gnostics and Celsus, but yet did not believe that the very body which was deposited in the grave would be raised up. He described the body of the resurrection as a new, refined, and spiritualized body.”
The consistent voice of both Scripture and the early church is clear: historic Christianity has affirmed one life, one death, and resurrection, not a cycle of repeated earthly lives.
Warning: Eternal Danger For Believing In Reincarnation
Christians cannot affirm reincarnation if they are faithful to the Biblical text. There is no way to hold to both reincarnation and resurrection because those beliefs are incompatible. Reincarnation is false.
Anyone who believes in reincarnation risks an erroneous assurance that you’ll get an infinite number of times to ‘get life right’. That person may say, “It’s okay if I mess up this life, I’ll always have another life to make things better.” That’s both wrong and dangerous to your eternal soul.
“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you” (Luke 12:20)
That belief would be akin to someone who jumps out of an airplane without a parachute, expecting to get another chance at life. In biblical vernacular, it’s foolish. That’s not how life or death works.
I encourage you to explore the Bible’s teaching on both judgment and resurrection. It encourages you and me to take the one life God gave us more seriously and to connect us to how life is constructed in God’s universe.
Resources
- Bible.org: What Does The Bible Say About Reincarnation?
- OpenBible.info: Reincarnation Verses
- ComparativeReligion.com: Non-Christian Overview of Reincarnation
- Sue Bohlin: Was Reincarnation Ever In The Bible?
