Jihad Report May 21, 2016 -May 27, 2016Attacks 39

Killed 331

Injured 482

Suicide Blasts 7

Countries 10

28,460 people killed by Jihadis since 2001.

Fifth Force of Nature Possibly Found in a Lab in HungaryWhat are the four fundamental forces of nature? Let’s see, there’s gravity … electromagnetism … umm … volcanoes? A woman scorned? Cross out the last two and fill in strong nuclear and weak nuclear. Then get ready to add a fifth. A lab in Hungary reports it may have discovered a previously unknown fifth force of nature. Money?

Particle physicists have long suspected the existence of a fifth force of nature because the other four don’t explain dark matter, which makes up 80% of the mass of the Universe. Attila Krasznahorkay, a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Institute for Nuclear Research in Debrecen, was looking for this force in rumored “dark photons” – photons that have mass but can only be detected after decaying into electrons and positrons (the antimatter counterparts of electrons).

In January 2016, Krasznahorkay published a paper announcing he had found a dark photon by firing protons at lithium-7, which created unstable beryllium-8 nuclei that then decayed into pairs of electrons and positrons. The particle’s mass was 17 megaelectronvolts (MeV), earning it the name 17-MeV. For particle physicists, that would be enough for a eureka moment and a beer. Unfortunately, the report received little publicity at the time.

An electron-positron spectrometer used in the experiment

Fortunately, a group of theoretical physicists at the University of California, Irvine, took a closer look at the research and determined that what Krasznahorkay may have discovered was not a dark proton but a “protophobic X boson.” If that sounds familiar, it’s a fundamental particle like photons and the recently-discovered Higgs boson – the so-called God particle.

While the protophobic boson has no deity connections, it’s still a big deal. This boson, if it truly exists, couples electrons and neutrons to form a new energy force that Krasznahorkay found but considered to be an anomaly. In April 2016, the UC Irvine team published their findings and called it the fifth fundamental force.

Of course, this is particle physics so there’s bound to be skeptics. The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia is conducting a DarkLight experiment to search for dark photons with masses of 10–100 MeV. It’s the perfect place to attempt to recreate Krasznahorkay’s work on 17-MeV. CERN, home of Higgs boson, will also be conducting studies, as will labs in Rome and Russia.

One of them is bound to conclusively prove the existence of the fifth force of nature.

Would that make a woman scorned the SIXTH force of nature?

NASA has revealed that a massive hole, measuring more than ten per cent of the Sun's surface area, has opened up on our star. "Coronal holes are low-density regions of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. "Because they contain little solar material, they have lower temperatures and thus appear much darker than their surroundings. 

"Coronal holes are visible in certain types of extreme ultraviolet light, which is typically invisible to our eyes, but is colorised here in purple for easy viewing."

NASA says the huge hole is actually not of great concern, but it remains unclear why the coronal holes actually form.

But it does mean that large amounts of solar winds, that cause the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights to form, have been blasted to Earth. These would weak havoc with our communications and blast us with cancer-causing UV rays, if it were not for the Earth's magnetosphere which shields us from them.

The spokesman added: "These coronal holes are important to understanding the space environment around Earth through which our technology and astronauts travel. 

"Coronal holes are the source of a high-speed wind of solar particles that streams off the sun some three times faster than the slower wind elsewhere. "While it’s unclear what causes coronal holes, they correlate to areas on the sun where magnetic fields soar up and away, without looping back down to the surface, as they do elsewhere."

It could also means the large holes are getting bigger.

Last October, NASA released images showing a smaller hole, which was the size of 50 Earths, had formed in the same area.

At that time, it was believed to have been one of the biggest ever recorded.

The Clinton Crime SyndicateThis is a comment made on a typical article about the clandestine habits of a ruthless and greedy Crime boss as she used her position at the State Department to make herself rich enough to buy the presidency.

The Clintons have used their positions within the U.S. government to operate a major crime syndicate. The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than an international money laundering operation the Clintons are using to enrich themselves as they collect untold billions in return for current and future favors sold to foreign governments and individuals. And Hillary Clinton, as co-CEO of this crime syndicate, also set up her own shadow government while Secretary of State with the private server and email system that was for the sole purpose of total secrecy of all her emails......secret that is, from our regulators but able to be hacked by even the most basic hackers worldwide as she totally compromised the State Department security system during her ineffective term at the State Department. The Clintons are major crime figures and need to be held fully accountable for creating this mafia look-a-like operation.....if they aren't, there is no law anymore in this country because the federal government and legal system will have lost its moral authority to enforce any and all laws in place. The Clintons are both "bought and paid for" and they will have more to fear in physical harm and retribution from the shadowy figures they collected the billions from through the Clinton Foundation if they don't get back control of the White House again in order to produce what they promised them.....maybe that should be their punishment!

The Arrow of Time

Entropy is the only quantity in the physical sciences (apart from certain rare interactions in particle physics; see below) that requires a particular direction for time, sometimes called an arrow of time. As one goes "forward" in time, the second law of thermodynamics says, the entropy of an isolated system can increase, but not decrease. Hence, from one perspective, entropy measurement is a way of distinguishing the past from the future. However in thermodynamic systems that are not closed, entropy can decrease with time: many systems, including living systems, reduce local entropy at the expense of an environmental increase, resulting in a net increase in entropy. Examples of such systems and phenomena include the formation of typical crystals, the workings of a refrigerator and living organisms.

Entropy, like temperature, is an abstract concept, yet, like temperature, everyone has an intuitive sense of the effects of entropy. Watching a movie, it is usually easy to determine whether it is being run forward or in reverse. When run in reverse, broken glasses spontaneously reassemble, smoke goes down a chimney, wood "unburns", cooling the environment and ice "unmelts" warming the environment. No physical laws are broken in the reverse movie except the second law of thermodynamics, which reflects the time-asymmetry of entropy. An intuitive understanding of the irreversibility of certain physical phenomena (and subsequent creation of entropy) allows one to make this determination.

By contrast, all physical processes occurring at the microscopic level, such as mechanics, do not pick out an arrow of time. Going forward in time, an atom might move to the left, whereas going backward in time the same atom might move to the right; the behavior of the atom is not qualitatively different in either case. It would, however, be an astronomically improbable event if a macroscopic amount of gas that originally filled a container evenly spontaneously shrunk to occupy only half the container.

Certain subatomic interactions involving the weak nuclear force violate the conservation of parity, but only very rarely[citation needed]. According to the CPT theorem, this means they should also be time irreversible, and so establish an arrow of time. This, however, is neither linked to the thermodynamic arrow of time, nor has anything to do with our daily experience of time irreversibility.[1]

In 1867, James Clerk Maxwell introduced a now-famous thought experiment that highlighted the contrast between the statistical nature of entropy and the deterministic nature of the underlying physical processes. This experiment, known as Maxwell's demon, consists of a hypothetical "demon" that guards a trapdoor between two containers filled with gases at equal temperatures. By allowing fast molecules through the trapdoor in only one direction and only slow molecules in the other direction, the demon raises the temperature of one gas and lowers the temperature of the other, apparently violating the Second Law.

Maxwell's thought experiment was only resolved in the 20th century by Leó Szilárd, Charles H. Bennett, Seth Lloyd and others. The key idea is that the demon itself necessarily possesses a non-negligible amount of entropy that increases even as the gases lose entropy, so that the entropy of the system as a whole increases. This is because the demon has to contain many internal "parts" (essentially: a memory space to store information on the gas molecules) if it is to perform its job reliably, and therefore must be considered a macroscopic system with non-vanishing entropy. An equivalent way of saying this is that the information possessed by the demon on which atoms are considered fast or slow, can be considered a form of entropy known as information entropy.

All phenomena that behave differently in one time direction can ultimately be linked to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This includes the fact that ice cubes melt in hot coffee rather than assembling themselves out of the coffee, that a block sliding on a rough surface slows down rather than speeding up, and that we can remember the past rather than the future. This last phenomenon, called the "psychological arrow of time", has deep connections with Maxwell's demon and the physics of information; In fact, it is easy to understand its link to the Second Law of Thermodynamics if one views memory as correlation between brain cells (or computer bits) and the outer world. Since the Second Law of Thermodynamics is equivalent to the growth with time of such correlations, then it states that memory is created as we move towards the future (rather than towards the past).

But, it is precisely this ability that separates the Spirit from gas particles and from all other beings on the Earth. We can behold the future very clearly, and by doing so have by definition altered it. The true principle I am suggesting here is that with practice, a being can affect that future on purpose, and add the energy into the resonant aspects of that future in the past, which is currently the present for that person. By adding that energy at the right time and with the right amplitude, the future cannot help but produce the result imagined by the dreamer in the first place.

The State of the Spirit After Death

Is the soul conscious after death? This is not a new question. For centuries there have been certain religionists who have contended that the soul existed after death but that it was not conscious. Upon investigation, some of you may be surprised to know of the wide-spread belief in the teaching of the sleeping of the soul. Because of the universal interest in the whereabouts of the dead, false sects prey upon the public, spiritualists and others claiming the sophistical conclusion that at death the body returns to dust and the soul becomes unconscious. Still others claim that they have the exclusive ability to communicate with those dearly departed and usually for a handsome profit.

Such statements as the following are but a few of the distortions and perversions of the Holy Scriptures that have to do with the soul after death. “At death, it is not the body but the soul which dies.” “The interim from death until the soul is resurrected is one of unconsciousness.” “Even the apostles were unconscious for centuries.” These assertions are being made by the advocates of the teachings of Russell and Rutherford, but they are the views of the men themselves, imposed upon the Holy Scriptures. These ideas were read into the Bible, but were never in the mind of the inspired writers.

Man Is Created to Endless Existence

Every human being enters the world possessed with endless existence. It is true that at death the soul is separated from the body. It is not consistent with the teaching of the Bible to say that at death the spirit lapses into a state of complete unconsciousness or even into a deep sleep. If at first glance it would seem that the Bible teaches this, then we will do well to examine those passages where death is referred to as sleep. The few texts that mendacious scholars have dislodged from their context in order to prove that physical death is the cessation of all consciousness can be easily and understandingly explained when interpreted in the light of the many other passages that deal with this subject.

In Ecclesiastes we read “The dead know not anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Certainly we all agree that a dead and deteriorating body has absolutely no consciousness of anything past, present, or future. But are the advocates of “soul-sleep” justified in using the above text as evidence of the unconscious state of the soul after death? We believe that this method using a text to support a false theory that elsewhere is denied in Scripture, proves that those who stoop to such methods either are untruthful or deficient. Those who teach “soul-sleep” will find it quite difficult to harmonize their views with other statements that are made by the same writer of Ecclesiastes:

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

All go unto one place; for all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again (Ecclesiastes 3:20).

Now we know that this verse is speaking of the body, for in the next verse we read:

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward? (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

Only Man’s Body Dies (or sleeps)

In Scripture we read that man sleeps, but the sleep always is identified with the body. Never once does the Bible refer to the soul sleeping. Where some fall into danger is in identifying man merely with his body and in ignoring the fact that he is a triune being. Man is a trinity; body, soul and spirit. Now the body is not the whole man. Therefore it cannot be concluded that the death of the body is the death of the whole man.

Another misconstrued verse is found in the prophecy of Daniel where we read:

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2).

Some scholars question whether this verse has anything to do with physical resurrection. Dr. A. C. Gaebelein in his commentary on Daniel says that if physical resurrection were taught in this verse, the passage would clash with the revelation concerning resurrection in the New Testament, for there is no general resurrection for the righteous and wicked together. “We repeat the passage has nothing to do with physical resurrection. Physical resurrection is, however, used as a figure of the national revival of Israel in that day. They have been sleeping nationally in the dust of the earth, buried among the Gentiles. But at that time there will take place a national restoration, a bringing together of the house of Judah and of Israel.

It is the same figure as used in the vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. This vision is employed by men who have invented the theory of a second chance and larger hope for the wicked dead to back up their evil teaching; but anyone can see that it is not a bodily resurrection, but a national revival and restoration of that people. Their national graves, not literal burying places, will be opened and the Lord will bring them forth out of all the countries into which they have been scattered. The same distinction holds good which we have already pointed out. The great mass of Jews, who cast their belief in God and His Word to the winds, who accepted the man of sin and acknowledged the wicked King, will face everlasting contempt, but the remnant will possess all things promised to them and become the heirs of that Kingdom, which is prepared from the foundation of the world. And besides the national blessing which they receive, they will be in possession of everlasting life, for they are born again.” We have given this rather lengthy quotation for the reason that some readers may not be acquainted with this view.

However, even if the above interpretation of verse two is not correct, but a physical resurrection is intended, certainly Daniel would not be referring to anything except the resurrection of the body. We are not to conclude for his body.

The New Testament Teaches Man’s Endless Conscious Existence

The citation of a few New Testament verses make it clear that man’s conscious existence is endless.

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose (Matthew 27:52).

Please notice how the Holy Spirit says that the “bodies” slept. Jesus said:

Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep . . . Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead (John 11:11, 14).

Death to our Lord was never anything more than sleep. It is a figure of speech that the Bible applies, for there is never a pause in our consciousness. It was the body of Lazarus that was dead. It was his body that Martha said “stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” When Jesus said plainly that Lazarus was dead, He could mean only his body, for when He added: “I go, that I may awake Him out of sleep,” He did this by raising the body of Lazarus from death and the grave. We read in verse forty-four: “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes.” The part of Lazarus that was dead was that part of him that was bound “hand and foot, and his face.”

Since the soul of man never dies, and the soul is as much a part of man as is his body, then we may say that the dead are alive. The writer became convinced that there was never a pause in man’s consciousness while thinking upon the last words of dying men. Think for a moment of our Lord’s last words as He hung dying upon the Cross. He said: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost” (Luke 23:46). Only a little over three decades before, Christ had come from the presence of the Father, His spirit having taken its abode in the body prepared by God in the womb of the Virgin. He came to bring life and immortality to light through His Gospel. He came, not to bring immortality, but to reveal it and to show man that he could have everlasting life.

By finishing His task He fulfilled every demand of God’s righteous law. He offered His life a ransom for sin, and then departed this life. Jesus knew that His Father was watching, listening eagerly and intently; so with every confidence He spoke to the Father with the consciousness that His task was well done. Then His words, “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit,” is the doctrine of immortality. Here Christ is teaching the world the survival of the spiritual part of man after his physical body has died. Death to Jesus was but a passage into the presence of God, not a cold unconscious condition. He knew all about life and death, and He left us with divine assurance that only the body dies. The spirit continues to exist in a conscious state.

Another of our Lord’s last words from the Cross proves that death touches only the physical part of man. Let us give consideration to the malefactor hanging on the cross next to the Lord Jesus. This man had not joined the jeering mob, but instead he acknowledged Christ in the face of the Roman opposition. With a contrite spirit and simple faith he said: “Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). The world shall never forget the words which Jesus answered the dying thief. With the soul of this criminal at the very portals of Hell, the dying Saviour said to the dying sinner: “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” They were killing his body to be sure, but Jesus promised him that there would be no time of waiting, no pause of sleep or unconsciousness of the soul. Jesus assured him that before that very day had come to a close, he would still be alive and with Christ in Paradise. These words of Christ from the Cross manifest the supreme confidence that He had in a place of blissful life immediately after the believer takes his departure from this earth. If we are called away from this earth today, then “today”--not at some distant period--but immediately, on that very day we shall ascend into

His presence. The death of the body is the gateway into a fuller and larger life into which the soul passes.

There will be no sluggishness nor insensibility after death. Dr. Rimmer writes: “The phenomenon of sleep is peculiar to the flesh alone. The spirit, and the mentality never sleep, and that is why we dream while the physical body sleeps. In that great study that is called the psychology of dreams, it is conceded that all dreams are the result of past experience.

The past experiences may be either mental or physical, but all dreams are predicated upon some past event. When the body succumbs to the influence of sleep, the spirit or soul, in which is resident the consciousness of self, goes off on the amazing peregrinations that men call dreams.” There is a remarkable power of the subconscious mind even when the body is asleep.

The martyrdom of Stephen is a strong argument in favor of the supremacy and the survival of the spiritual part of man. When they stoned Stephen to death, we read that “he fell asleep.” This could have no reference whatever to the soul, for it was his body they had pummeled with rocks. As Stephen’s body went to its death, earth was receding but Heaven’s gate approaching. He knew that he was entering into another sphere of the living. He prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). This disciple of Christ did not seek to postpone death or to fight it off. His murderers held no fear for him. He remembered the words of Jesus: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4). It is the assurance of immortality and eternal life that enables the servants of Jesus Christ to bear suffering, face all opposition, and die if they are called upon to do so. The scoffing and the scorning of the enemies of Christ can never cheat us out of the presence of our Lord and the place that He has prepared for us.

The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into his inner life in an experience that appears only once in all of his writings.

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;) How that He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

In this singular but rich experience of Paul’s there is valuable material that bears upon our subject. So personal and sacred was this experience that Paul is reticent to tell. There is no doubt that the mighty Apostle is referring to himself, although he refers to himself in the third person. Fourteen years before the writing of this Epistle, Paul says that he was caught up into the “third heaven,” also called “paradise.” The Bible speaks of three heavens. There is the atmospheric heaven in which the birds fly, the heaven where the stars shine, and the third heaven, called paradise, where God is and where His glory is set forth. It was into the third heaven, into the presence of God, where the great apostle was taken. If we study the chronology of Paul’s journeys and labors we find that a little more than fourteen years before he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians he was laboring at Lystra (Acts 14:19). There the Jews stoned him and dragged

him outside the city supposing he had been dead. It is generally believed that his experience in paradise to which he refers took place at Lystra while he lay unconscious. He tells us that he was so enraptured by the glories that he saw in Heaven that he did not know whether or not he was there in body--“whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth.” Do not overlook the teaching here. It is possible to be fully conscious and yet be absent from the body. Such clear and unmistakable teaching as this of the Apostle Paul defies and defeats the theory of “soul-sleep.”

There are three accounts of our Lord’s raising the dead. Each time He approached the dead and spoke to him as if he were alive. To the son of the widow of Nain He said: “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14). When Christ came to the daughter of Jairus, we are told: “He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise” (Luke 8:54). Finally, He said to the brother of Mary and Martha: “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43). In each case Jesus speaks to the person as if he were alive. We can only answer that each was alive. As G. Campbell Morgan says: “The body was dead. The man was not dead. No man is ever dead when his body lies dead!” The soul of man will never enter into a state of non-existence nor unconsciousness.

In Christ’s account of the rich man and Lazarus we have the matter summed up and settled that the soul is conscious after death. Both men died and were buried. Though their bodies were in the graves, each of them was alive and conscious. The rich man in Hell could see, hear, speak, and feel (Luke 16:19-31).

The Lifetimes of Man

There was a time, not too long ago, when I would laugh at those who believed in reincarnation. I thought they were being deceived by actually believing that our spirit returns to this world again and again until we reach some kind of "perfection." You see, I used to have rather traditional beliefs where death was concerned. I believed that no matter how long or how short your life was- that was it. It didn’t matter if someone died before taking their first breath of air because of an abortion; too bad, their life here was done. That was their ONLY life, their only chance to learn, and their only chance to believe and be saved by Christ. Yes, this is what I was taught, but my spirit deep within me told me that this could not be true. There are many problems with this type of theology which all Truth seekers and followers of Christ will come to understand. My spirit deep within me cried out that life is for learning, growing and overcoming with Christ. My spirit told me that God would never give up on saving my spirit from this hell that all must go through. Yes, I used to laugh at those who believe we are given many lives to "come to the knowledge of the Truth" and find that "narrow gate", but I am not laughing any more. I am seeing the truth in this.

Before I could come to accept reincarnation, I had to come to realize who I am. I had to have the “I Am” moment, when I became self-aware in a much broader aspect than just a paycheck, or family vacations, or a photo album of memories. Am I just a body? Am I just a better than average brain? Am I a spirit? Well, I have all of these, but my essence, my True Self and destiny lie hidden within my spirit, which came from God. I realized that I am an eternal being having a mortal experience. That gave me a far more healthy perspective on mortality, and on the concept of many mortalities. This is true of ALL individuals created in God’s likeness and

image. God is Spirit and if we are in His Image and Likeness then we too are truly spirit, not just a physical mass of cells that thinks. Your spirit from God is given a mind to "know" with and a body to "move" about with in this world. All have a spirit within us that is from God that must be saved from a kind of spiritual death. To understand more about our spirit given by God, the Father of all mankind, check out this article- "What is Man?"

So why do I believe in reincarnation? Well, the evidence for this belief can be found in many areas like science, psychology and history, but the first place I looked for answers was in Scripture. In my mind, this is a prerequisite for any Truth- even if it be somewhat hidden from our eyes at first. So is reincarnation hidden in the Bible? Yes, I believe it is and I will attempt to show you where.

I will start with the strongest case for reincarnation that is found in the Bible and also look at the counter arguments raised by traditional Christian theology. Here is what we read in the book of Matthew concerning that strange man, John the Baptist:

MT 11:13 "For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 He who has ears, let him hear." NIV

When I now read this verse it speaks loudly to me. Can we accept what Jesus is telling us? What is he plainly saying? Jesus says, "HE IS ELIJAH who was to come." Now, some doubters may quickly point out that it was "the" Elijah as if to differentiate between many prophets "like" Elijah. But other translations do not have a "THE" and make this more clear that John is Elijah.

MT 11:14 "And if you are willing to accept it, John himself IS ELIJAH that was to come." NASB

MT 11:14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come KJV

MT 11:14 And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. NKJV

MT 11:14 and if ye are willing to receive [it], he is Elijah who was about to come; Young's Literal Translation of the Bible

The real question from Jesus isn't IF John IS Elijah, but rather are we WILLING to accept it! So it should be clear that we can’t assume there is a "the" before Elijah. Many words (articles) like this are added to make the translations from Greek easier to read, but we must be careful to keep the original meaning. Jesus clearly says that John is Elijah- no ands, ifs, buts nor "the's" about it. With this in mind, let’s instead focus on what Jesus said that was SO HARD to accept.

First, why would this statement of Jesus' be so hard for any to accept? Whenever Jesus gives the babes some "meat" he says "if you can accept it." In other words, Jesus is saying, "if you are spiritually mature enough to understand what I am saying then listen up!" Many times Jesus prefaces what he says by saying if you HAVE "the eyes to see" or "the ears to hear." These all speak of spiritual truths that were being revealed by Jesus to the "little ones" following Christ. I believe that today more than ever there are Truth Seeker longing for the meat of the Truth. Many

now have the teeth to chew and the fearlessness to swallow. We all start off as babes in Christ not being able to swallow these Truths. In this account, Jesus was revealing the higher Truth of the reincarnation of the spirit, but it was not easy for their natural minds to accept.

One of the arguments used against the idea that Jesus is revealing reincarnation in his "if you can accept it" statement is found in Luke.

LK 1:17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Many of traditional thought believe that this says that John came in the same "manner" as Elijah did. This sounds plausible at first, but I have found MANY problems with this notion. First, we should harmonize our faith and beliefs in all of Scripture. It must collectively make sense. So if this phrase "in the spirit of" really was intended to mean "in the manner of" then we would likely find that same type of usage somewhere else in the Bible. Well, it isn’t there- at least I haven’t found it. So it seems odd that the word "spirit" would be used this odd way ONLY ONCE. Perhaps, the truth is that MAN uses "in the spirit of" to mean "in the same manner," but God never did. I have not found where God would carelessly use His identity (Spirit) as to mean "pretty much the same as." I am not buying it. It isn’t sound logic and doesn’t harmonize with all the other ways that "spirit" is used in Scripture.

Secondly, if it is true that John the Baptist was simply SIMILAR to Elijah, why is THAT so hard to accept? Was Jesus saying, "John is just like Elijah- can you accept that?" I am sure that the disciples could swallow that. But this argument certainly doesn’t stand up either in the face of the evidence especially considering the very prophecy of Elijah returning. This passage says nothing of another man coming LIKE Elijah. It clearly states that this SAME Elijah would come again.

MAL 4:5 "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

God says that He will send Elijah. Do any disagree with God? Did God lie and really mean to say that a man LIKE Elijah was to come? Dear Truth Seekers, I understand that this may be hard to accept, but indeed, the meat is harder to swallow than the milk. Let’s do some more chewing, okay?

Some will bring up another defense to attempt to dismantle the reincarnation belief. They will say that John FLATLY denies that he is Elijah. On the surface, this seems to be true.

JN 1:21 They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"

He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."

JN 1:22 Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

JN 1:23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, `Make straight the way for the Lord.' "

It would appear that John clearly says that he is not Elijah. But notice that he does declare that he is that "VOICE" preparing the way for the Lord. This is key. Also we read MANY times that our Lord Jesus says Elijah DID COME in the form of John. Consider the strong evidence after Jesus was transfigured on that high mountain along side Elijah and Moses. After seeing Elijah talking to Jesus, the disciples asked him again when would Elijah return to the earth. The form of Elijah that they had seen with Jesus had not been seen by them before. It had still not registered in their minds that John was Elijah, but they did not recognized him. So Jesus tells them again.

MT 17:11 Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished.

MK 9:13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."

I find it ironic that many still don’t recognize what Jesus tells us plainly and repeats in the Gospels. Elijah’s spirit, his TRUE INDENTITY reincarnated in another body- that of John. John denied being Elijah because, in HIS mind, he was John, not Elijah. This is the real key. We must come to realize that we are body, mind and spirit. The spirit is what really defines who we are. The body is glorious but only a jar of clay; and the mind is powerful but is something we have and not something we are. The mind is shaped by the world we are surrounded by. The spirit (strengthened by God) can lead the mind and body as it did the bodies and minds of Elijah and John. It was the same SPIRIT BEING that led both men to serve God as they did. Consider the striking similarities in their true identities defined by this same individual spirit from God.

2KI 1:8 They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist." The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."

MT 3:4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

MK 1:6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

They dressed alike. They acted alike. They were the same person on the INSIDE (Paul calls this the "inner man"), but the "outer man" seemed different because the spirit was in different bodies with different environments. Consider that Elijah was a "man of God" like no other- that is except John the Baptist! Both men seemed be on top of God’s list of servants!

MT 11:11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

This seemed to be God’s sentiment towards Elijah as well. The same spirit being (inner man) that was defining Elijah identity was also shining through John the Baptist. Of course by saying this, this leaves the body and soul kind of out of the "who am I really" loop. Elijah and John were led by the SPIRIT in them given by God. In John’s MIND (soul) he did not believe himself to be Elijah. This would make sense because these past memories were hidden from his mind. Our minds cannot be the "part" of us that defines who we are. Our minds are evil and carnal without the spirit in Christ interacting and refreshing it daily. Remember Christ is the Vine and we are the branches that must stay in Him to do anything good. While in Christ, our spirit is alive and active. The spirit of man defines who he really is while connected to the Vine. This is seen in Elijah and John. Both men were great servants of God because they were led by the exact SAME spirit within them.

The mind is always changing from our birth to our burial. The mind may define to a great extent who we are in THIS superficial world, but our True Self is only revealed when obeying the spirit within us. This is exactly what John and Elijah did. The spirit in Elijah was kept from death (this world) until he returned in John to announce that we must repent because God’s Kingdom was coming. Both of these men’s minds were led by the same identifying spirit within them. By obeying the spirit from God, Elijah/John showed who he really is in the Spirit. Our life and true self is only found in that spirit from God. Another passage in Scripture that logically infers the idea of reincarnation is this one:

JN 9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The disciples seemed to believe that this man could have sinned BEFORE he was born in the flesh. This man was blind from birth, yet they ask if he is being punished for his OWN sins or his parent's sins. How could one be punished for sins committed before they are born? There is a central theme in Judaism and Christianity that we REAP what we SOW. What we sow in this lifetime, may be reaped in the next. This is clearly the understanding of the disciples. Now, Jesus never corrects them or says that they are wrong to believe this, but in the case of this particular man, Jesus says he is blind to glorify God by receiving sight.

One of the passages which seems to be used frequently to disprove reincarnation is this one:

HEB 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.

Well, many take this passage to mean our physical death, and this is a level of truth. Everyone is judged after their present life because we reap what we sow. Yet we must also take into account what "death" really is. What about the many that died and were brought back to life? Paul said that he "died daily." He also said that he no longer lived, but Christ lived. I understand "die once" as dying to the old nature or self, so the New Self can be revealed. Also recall that Jesus told us

we must LOSE our life to find Him. This did not mean we had to die a physical death, but we had to die to sin and this world.

There are many passages where we read that we will reap what we sow. That if we live by the sword, we will die by the sword. Yet, many "evil" souls live without any such suffering during their lifetime. Some killers are never killed. Rapists are not raped. Some greedy rich are never poor. There seems to be no reciprocation or restitution in THIS lifetime. Reincarnation solves this dilemma. Reincarnation of your spirit guarantees that God's justice is served in your following lifetimes.

This is why many lives are needed to punish and reward according to our deeds in the flesh. This is the central theme to the separation of the "sheep and the goats" (MT 25:31). They were separated according to what they DID and not what they believed. Now many might believe that those being punished are in hell and those being rewarded are in heaven. To some degree, this is true, but heaven and hell are states of mind and spirit. Hell is this world, but Christ can make it our heaven. For more on this topic, check out this article- "Going Through Hell."

Also this parable is not about salvation and says nothing of what they believed, but only of what they did during their lifetime. This parable is about WORKS, not salvation in Christ. It is NOT about following Christ, but is about how we treated those who WERE following the Christ within. Also the punishments and rewards were said by Jesus to be "aionion"(Gr.) which is translated "age-lasting" in more accurate translations. This "age-lasting" reward or punishment takes its form in another lifetime or age. Yes, the murderer and rapist will feel the pain he has caused others. The kind and gentle will be blessed many times over! God is not a liar. We do reap what we sow- sometimes in many times more in measure.

A similar passage seems to imply that reincarnation was a belief of Jesus time. Even Jesus himself sets up the question this way:

MT 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

MT 16:14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

So obviously the followers of Jesus believed in reincarnation of the spirit of these other prophets into other bodies. Again, Jesus says nothing to condemn this belief, but does confirm the Truth of HIS true identity.

Some may come close to accepting that reincarnation of the spirit is true, but are afraid of losing their identity. They may say if I really have been MANY different people in different times throughout mankind's history then what happens in heaven? They may say which person am I in heaven? I would say you are the TRUE YOU! You are the INNER YOU that God created in His Image which is Christ. This INNER YOU may have peaked through in some or all of the lives you lived like a light under a basket, but this INNER YOU will glow in FULL and is your

destiny. Still, many might be confused as to who they will be married to, or a brother to, or a mother to. Jesus explains that this NATURAL thinking is not applicable in the Spiritual world.

MT 22:29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 32 `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

We are not married to anyone in the flesh, but married to God in Christ. We are ALL related in heaven. We are One Body in the Kingdom. We are all each other’s brothers, sisters and mothers, but we all have only One Father as Jesus again tells us:

MK 3:34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

So we should not worry about seeing our spouses in heaven nor our dear old grandmother nor that child that died at a young age before he could really know life or Christ. They are there, but maybe not as our natural minds might perceive them. We are spirit, and we are all related in the Body of Christ! All in Christ love each other unconditionally as if we are brothers, sisters and mothers to each other. Natural relations are a product of the flesh, not the Spirit.

If we can accept that we are spiritual beings then consider those "evil spirits" who seem to find residence in another’s house ( or body).

MK 5:6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" 8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"

MK 5:9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

While this may not exactly be proof of "reincarnation," it certainly shows that disembodied spirits can move from body to body affecting the minds of their inhabitants. These disobedient spirits were in another’s body and were given PERMISSION from Christ Jesus to enter the swine. And even though they were "evil" and deserved to be punished, they were treated KINDLY by Jesus the Christ as he gave them what they desired.

More evidence for reincarnation of our spirits comes from the truth that God will save ALL of those created in His Image. Our Perfect Creator did not create man in vain. ALL of mankind will be saved by God's unfailing love. Once I was shown this Truth, I had to harmonize the MANY passages in Scripture that speak of the soul being destroyed or forfeited. And what of the billions

of souls that never heard the Gospel, never could have believed and NEVER even had the chance to be saved? What of the countless number of babies that die before ever having any chance to BELIEVE and be saved?

AC 16:31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."

ROM 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So please tell me how these who knew nothing of Jesus or his Gospel will be saved in their ONE short lifetime? Are they predestined for an eternal torture chamber as many minds like Augustine's believed? Is our Father in heaven not going to give them a CHANCE to hear, believe and be saved? What is the fate of these? It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 97% of the earth population that has ever lived never heard about Jesus the Christ. Isn’t God going to offer these salvation too? When is God going to offer everyone salvation? Are we given only one chance to repent and be forgiven? Many Universalists say that God will show everyone the Truth and offer them salvation in "hell." I agree, but we must come to realize that hell is right here in this world. We are going through the death and pain of hell right now. There may be a spiritual cleansing in the Lake of God's Holy Fire apart from this world, but this world is surely the "grave, pit, or hell" for humanity. For more on this topic see- "Going Through Hell." The truth is that all must be given the Truth at some point, all must come to know Christ, but this happens according to God’s will and timing, not ours.

1 COR 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn:

1PE 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 TIM 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.

Yes, Christ Jesus has paid the price for ALL of mankind. We must believe that he will get ALL that he has paid for! All will hear the Truth, accept the Truth and be set free by the Truth in due time. So the "testimony" or Truth of the Gospel will be given to ALL MEN in its proper time. Or should we say the proper LIFETIME? It should be clear that even while Jesus walked Judea, the Gospel was kept away from some that were not yet called to be saved. They heard Jesus preaching, but they didn’t REALLY hear him because this wasn’t their lifetime to be saved.

MK 4:10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, " `they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' "

It was not their time, or age yet to hear the Truth and be saved, so they were to stay in this dark place where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" and the only Light is Christ. So even many who saw, heard and knew the MAN Jesus were NOT ALLOWED to come to the Truth of Christ yet. This was God’s will for them in that particular lifetime, but unquestionably God will give them the sight, hearing and understanding to accept the Truth in some later life. Life is about learning lessons at our Father's hand. He is patient. He is kind. He is love. He didn't create anyone in vain, but knows exactly how to bring us into His Kingdom and Life.

The next area in Scripture I would like to explore would be that of the "spirit of man." The spirit is from God who is the Father of all true spirits.

HEB 12:9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

ECC 12:7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it

JAMES 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

So our spirit from God is what gives us life and is what defines who we really are. With this in mind, we need to understand that the spirit is considered the male gender of our being. The soul or mind is considered the female gender of our total being. This is reinforced by gender usage in the Hebrew and Greek languages. We should understand that Adam and Eve is really describing our true nature as Spirit (male) and Soul (female). The soul, or mind of man (generically speaking) is the spirit’s helper and wife in a spiritual sense. They were joined by God to be one. Now if you can understand that your spirit has a wife (mind/soul), consider that many "men of God" like David and Solomon had many, many wives.

1KI 11: 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God,

It was permitted by God for these men to have many wives. We know that the Bible has many shadows whose spiritual reality is revealed to us as our understanding grows. I believe this is a shadow of the reality of reincarnation. Our spirit will take many, many wives, or MINDS (helpers) in all our different lifetimes. These wives that the spirit marries in our many lives can certainly "lead us astray" because these souls (minds) we take are carnal and worldly. The spirit is led into death by our minds (wives) chasing after "other gods" of this dark and dead world. Have we not read that it was Eve is who sinned? This is to say the soul, or mind of man led the spirit away from God's life and into death.

2 COR 11:3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

1 TIM 2:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Unfortunately, Christendom has used this and similar passages to exploit and oppress women when it is really the MIND or soul of man that became sinful. So we should understand that Adam (the spirit) was not deceived, but the woman (soul) who became lost. The spirit and soul were joined by God so that the spirit was destine to follow the soul into sin and death just as Adam took what Eve gave him. Paul also tells us that "women" will be saved through childbearing (1TIM 2:15). This should be understood that our SOUL (female) will be saved by giving birth to the Mind of Christ. This is a new creation!

GAL 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

So the soul is saved by Christ being born or revealed in us! We may have many wives (souls) throughout our many lives in our spiritual journey, but the soul that gives birth to a son of God is saved. This soul is the one who has been made pure, white like a virgin. This virgin mind is the Mind of Christ. Do any suppose that any natural minds (souls) can enter the Kingdom of God? This is why many SOULS are perishing and are destroyed in this world which is hell.

2COR 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

MT 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Now, this passage from Jesus seems to sap our hope of overcoming this world because only FEW find the small gate and walk the narrow road. Yet, MANY are destroyed. But understand that it is true. In each AGE, or generation, only a FEW do overcome and many are destroyed. This is to say your old memories and your old body are destroyed. God will give us many, many chances to overcome until we finally do by the power and love in Christ. The Few that enter the Kingdom have the pure Mind of Christ. This is why our natural minds must be renewed by the Holy Spirit of God- to be made like virgins for the Spirit of Christ to marry.

COL 3:9 since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

EPH 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Yes, man has been created to be the fullness of God. It is God’s eternal destiny for man that we become the Image of the One God. We call God our "Father" yet do some suppose that God, who is Spirit, is fathering flesh and bone creatures? Or can you accept that we are also spirit from the One Spirit that is placed in a body and given a mind that we may come to know the Truth of who we are? We are the Body of Christ- God's Image. Our spirits can not die, but continue in this world until we overcome this world. The Spirit is the Seed of God. This Seed is planted in many different bodies and in different circumstances so that we can "come to the knowledge of the Truth." Do you understand the parable of the Farmer, the Seeds and soils?

MK 4:13 Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."

The Word of God is Christ, not your Bible. Christ is sown in our spirit to bring forth life- the life of a SON. God is raising Sons and Jesus was the First. If we hear Christ (our True Identity) calling us and we ACCEPT HIM, then we will produce a crop. We will sow this Seed in others. We will also bring forth "fruit of the Spirit." But the main point here is that the Christ Seed is incorruptible and indestructible. The Seed is sown again and again in these perishable bodies, and Paul speaks to this idea.

1CO 15:42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Yes, our spirit is placed in many bodies, in many different cultures learning lessons by the will of the Father. In addition, I believe the spirit of man also retains many memories of his past lives and situations. I believe this explains why many have spoken "in tongues." This happened to the disciples after Pentecost and even today, there are many that in a certain state of mind can speak another language fluently without ever knowing it in THIS lifetime. How can this be? I have heard some Christians say that this ability comes from demons entering our minds. I would hope that the disciples were not demon-possessed when they were speaking in another tongue. This really puts some rain on their parade and makes the Holy Spirit gift a mockery. The only Holy explanation is that can be offered is we have lived in many different cultures and learned many different languages. When our minds are brought into the Spirit, this knowledge becomes available to our minds. As the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, their very spirits now fed their minds this gift from God.

Here are some other passages from Scripture that may be speaking of reincarnation. They speak our "our house," but many times this is meant to mean our bodies.

LK 13:35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

LK 11:24 "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.' 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

MK 3:25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.

God’s desire is to make our bodies HIS HOUSE, or Temple. He wants to be Lord over our house. For this to happen, we must learn that we are nothing apart from God. We must accept who we really are. We are the Body of Christ, the Image of the only God. When we have overcome the world and our false self by the power and love of Christ, then we are to dwell in a permanent body.

ISA 32:18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

In the end, we will find "places of rest" for our soul and spirit. We are to be given spiritual bodies like our Lord Jesus has. We are raised in a spiritual body that can walk through walls, transcend space and time, and is not bound by our natural laws.

1COR 15:48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

Another passage that certainly could be referring to reincarnation is this one:

MT 12:32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

When I read this now, I see that sins committed against the flesh are forgiven, but if we KNOW the Truth (Christ) and then sin in the face of the Teacher of the Truth (Holy Spirit) we can not be forgiven in this lifetime (age) or the next. This harmonizes with what is written in Hebrews as well.

HEB 10:26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

Jesus tells us that this type of sin can not be forgiven in this age (Gr. aion) or in the next. The word "aion" in Greek can mean any number of different time periods. One of its meanings is the "lifetime" of a man. So in this light, it would seem that those who are given the Truth then deliberately refuse to accept it must return to this dark and dead world again after their current "age" or lifetime.

One other area in Scripture that we should investigate is God's fairness. Is God fair and just? Does He love all and desire all be saved and return to Him? Are we all born on equal footing with God? Well then, we must be concerned when God says that he loves one and hates another as in the case of Esau and Jacob.

MAL 1:2 "I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, `How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

Why would these men be treated differently by God? Why would God prefer one over the other? Is it because they must reap what they have sown in a previous life? Also, there is a parallel passage in Romans.

ROM 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, (NKJV)

Could it be true that we have been "predestined" by God? Paul speaks of this many times in Ephesians. Is this fair? Don't we have a choice in our destiny? Again, for God's justice and Perfection to be worked out, there must be a reason why some are "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction." Surely they have done something to warrant this harsh treatment. Surely in God's justice, it is WE who have created our pain and suffering and this hell we perceive. Peter also echoes the same sentiments that God brings some into the world only for them to live ungodly lives and be destroyed.

2PET 2:12 But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish. 13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.

Could these be those who "blasphemed against the Holy Spirit"? We read they will be paid back the harm they have done. But wait a minute here! These men were "created" to be vessels of dishonor by God were they not? They were born ONLY to be caught and destroyed. They were PREDESTINED by God were they not? If this were these men's ONLY lifetimes, is this fair of a Holy God who loves all and desires all to be saved? It should be clear that for God to be just and Holy, these men are being punished for their own sins in another life. This must be the same for Esau. What could that child in Rebekah's womb have done to offend God? Are we able to sin before we are born? This same question was asked earlier about the man born blind from birth.

There are other passages that might speak of the idea of reincarnation, but with all Truths, we must have the eyes to see them in God's Scriptures. There are other areas outside of the Bible that provide substantial evidence for reincarnation. One of them in is somewhat hidden in the history of the Church.

Do Christians understand that many evil men entered Christendom like wolves and have corrupted the original teachings of early Believers? It is well documented that many, perhaps the majority, of early Christians believed in reincarnation. Although in 553 AD, the Second Council of Constanople banned this belief from the "official" doctrine of the Church by a very slim margin. It was apparently defeated by only one vote. Those continuing to hold on to this belief were eventually excommunicated from the now corrupt "church." It should be known that what early Believers were taught varies dramatically to what is currently being taught in Christian religions.

The early Believers believed and taught that ALL of mankind would be saved by God and that the spirit (sometimes called soul) transmigrated from body to body and from age to age. Among those who held this belief was one of the greatest Church Fathers- Origen. He and others taught this belief in many of the theological schools during the first three centuries. One of these schools was in Alexandria, Egypt where Origen was assigned the head this institution and teach new Believers the Truth. Even today, about two-thirds of the world’s population believes in reincarnation. Truth Seekers will find that there is Truth to be found in faiths other than Christianity. God gives good gifts to ALL that call on Him, not just Christians. There is a book that I would recommend to any seeking the Truth in this matter of history and reincarnation. It is called "Reincarnation- The Missing Link in Christianity" by Elizabeth Claire Prophet.

In the scientific field there lies a vast amount of evidence for reincarnation. As has been the case for hundreds of years though, the religious leaders of Christianity would rather turn a blind eye to empirical evidence than to change what they believe. The "Church" would not accept the TRUTH that the earth revolved around the sun. They killed many whom believed in this so-called heresy. So if Christians can accept it, there is considerable research that has been done by Ian Stevenson which is nearly irrefutable. Many of his studies investigate memories of past lives that children recall with great accuracy. It seems that children between the ages of 3-6 seem to recall past memories much easier than older children or adults. They speak of incredible stories in detail only to be proven to be quite accurate. There are also the cases of "child prodigies" that master the piano or some higher skill at five years of age. Are they masters because they were already skilled in that area before? There are hundreds of thousands of accounts of "out of body"

experiences where the "true" person leaves his body and observes the physical world like a spectator.

There is enough evidence in science alone to make the case for reincarnation. Dr. Stevenson has also found that in many cases, the "new" bodies of an individual will RETAIN marks from the previous lifetime. Many times birthmarks on individual's current body will parallel wound marks from their previous life. This evidence is uncovered AFTER they have described the identity, culture and setting of where they were in the previous lifetime. For more on Dr. Ian Stevenson’s extensive work, check out this web site: Dr. Ian Stevenson.

The evidence as a whole is overwhelming, but, as was the case during the Dark Ages, many religious minds adhere to their dead traditions and vain imaginings instead of acknowledging the Truth. Instead of letting the Truth lead what they believe, they cling to what the corrupt minds of the Dark Ages taught the masses. We must accept all Truth- even that from science. If what we believe about God does not align with what God has revealed to us in science, then we must have our minds renewed.

COL 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Many are lying to each other and to themselves. They refuse to believe the Truth. The "NEW SELF" is your Spirit from God. Your True Life, True Self and True Existence are in that Spirit and not in these bodies we possess. There are many passages within the Bible showing that we (in Spirit form) do "pre-exist" the bodies that we currently occupy. God knows us before we are placed in these bodies and lives. He knows what lessons, punishments and rewards we need to bring about His perfection. God is loving and patient to a point which the human mind, bound within space and time, cannot understand. We stay in THIS world for as long as we desire. God KNOWS that we will become sick of this world, sick of being SELFish and desire to return home. Once we have exhausted our worldly desires (become "poor in spirit"), we turn back to God (repent). He fills us with His life, His desire and His love. It is by this Almighty Love that we overcome this dark world, our dark self and our dark minds that lived in ignorance of who we really are. The Truth will not change, so our thinking must.

Genuine Truth Seekers will not deny any type of Truth. This includes the scientific evidence that God allows us to discover. Truth is truth- no matter in what form it may come in. Truth Seekers will not ignore the physical evidence showing us the transmigration of the spirit. Truth Seekers should accept the history showing us that early Believers carried to their deaths the belief of reincarnation. Truth Seekers will not deny our Lord Jesus’ words when he says that Elijah did come again as John the Baptist. Truth Seekers will discover that there is no other way to harmonize Scripture without reincarnation. This is how I was convinced that reincarnation is the Truth. There is no other way to climb that mountain of evidence. If God created the universe, then who created God?

Answering the Critics

by Jonathan Sarfati

A number of sceptics ask this question. But God by definition is the uncreated creator of the universe, so the question ‘Who created God?’ is illogical, just like ‘To whom is the bachelor married?’

So a more sophisticated questioner might ask: ‘If the universe needs a cause, then why doesn’t God need a cause? And if God doesn’t need a cause, why should the universe need a cause?’ In reply, Christians should use the following reasoning:

1. Everything which has a beginning has a cause.1 2. The universe has a beginning. 3. Therefore the universe has a cause.

It’s important to stress the words in bold type. The universe requires a cause because it had a beginning, as will be shown below. God, unlike the universe, had no beginning, so doesn’t need a cause. In addition, Einstein’s general relativity, which has much experimental support, shows that time is linked to matter and space. So time itself would have begun along with matter and space. Since God, by definition, is the creator of the whole universe, he is the creator of time. Therefore He is not limited by the time dimension He created, so has no beginning in time—God is ‘the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity’ (Is. 57:15). Therefore He doesn’t have a cause.

In contrast, there is good evidence that the universe had a beginning. This can be shown from the Laws of Thermodynamics, the most fundamental laws of the physical sciences.

1st Law: The total amount of mass-energy in the universe is constant. 2nd Law: The amount of energy available for work is running out, or entropy is increasing to a

maximum.

If the total amount of mass-energy is limited, and the amount of usable energy is decreasing, then the universe cannot have existed forever, otherwise it would already have exhausted all usable energy—the ‘heat death’ of the universe. For example, all radioactive atoms would have decayed, every part of the universe would be the same temperature, and no further work would be possible. So the obvious corollary is that the universe began a finite time ago with a lot of usable energy, and is now running down.

Now, what if the questioner accepts that the universe had a beginning, but not that it needs a cause? But it is self-evident that things that begin have a cause—no-one really denies it in his heart. All science and history would collapse if this law of cause and effect were denied. So would all law enforcement, if the police didn’t think they needed to find a cause for a stabbed body or a burgled house. Also, the universe cannot be self-caused—nothing can create itself, because that would mean that it existed before it came into existence, which is a logical absurdity.

In Summary

The universe (including time itself) can be shown to have had a beginning. It is unreasonable to believe something could begin to exist without a cause. The universe therefore requires a cause, just as Genesis 1:1 and Romans 1:20 teach. God, as creator of time, is outside of time. Since therefore He has no beginning in time, He has

always existed, so doesn’t need a cause.

ObjectionsThere are only two ways to refute an argument:

1. Show that it is logically invalid 2. Show that at least one of the premises is false.

a) Is the argument valid?

A valid argument is one where it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. Note that validity does not depend on the truth of the premises, but on the form of the argument. The argument in this paper is valid; it is of the same form as: All whales have backbones; Moby Dick is a whale; therefore Moby Dick has a backbone. So the only hope for the sceptic is to dispute one or both of the premises.

b) Are the premises true?

1) Does the universe have a beginning?

Oscillating universe ideas were popularized by atheists like the late Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov solely to avoid the notion of a beginning, with its implications of a Creator. But as shown above, the Laws of Thermodynamics undercut that argument. Even an oscillating universe cannot overcome those laws. Each one of the hypothetical cycles would exhaust more and more usable energy. This means every cycle would be larger and longer than the previous one, so looking back in time there would be smaller and smaller cycles. So the multicycle model could have an infinite future, but can only have a finite past.2

Also, there are many lines of evidence showing that there is far too little mass for gravity to stop expansion and allow cycling in the first place, i.e., the universe is ‘open’. According to the best estimates (even granting old-earth assumptions), the universe still has only about half the mass needed for re-contraction. This includes the combined total of both luminous matter and non-luminous matter (found in galactic halos), as well as any possible contribution of neutrinos to total mass.3 Some recent evidence for an ‘open’ universe comes from the number of light-bending ‘gravitational lenses’ in the sky.4 Also, analysis of Type Ia supernovae shows that the universe’s expansion rate is not slowing enough for a closed universe.5,6 It seems like there is only 40-80% of the required matter to cause a ‘big crunch’. Incidentally, this low mass is also a major problem for the currently fashionable ‘inflationary’ version of the ‘big bang’ theory, as this predicts a mass density just on the threshold of collapse—a ‘flat’ universe.

Finally, no known mechanism would allow a bounce back after a hypothetical ‘big crunch’.7 As the late Professor Beatrice Tinsley of Yale explained, even though the mathematics says that the universe oscillates, ‘There is no known physical mechanism to reverse a catastrophic big crunch.’ Off the paper and into the real world of physics, those models start from the Big Bang, expand, collapse, and that’s the end.8

2) Denial of cause and effect

Some physicists assert that quantum mechanics violates this cause/effect principle and can produce something from nothing. For instance, Paul Davies writes:

… spacetime could appear out of nothingness as a result of a quantum transition. … Particles can appear out of nowhere without specific causation … Yet the world of quantum mechanics routinely produces something out of nothing.9

But this is a gross misapplication of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics never produces something out of nothing. Davies himself admitted on the previous page that his scenario ‘should not be taken too seriously.’

Theories that the universe is a quantum fluctuation must presuppose that there was something to fluctuate—their ‘quantum vacuum’ is a lot of matter-antimatter potential—not ‘nothing’. Also, I have plenty of theoretical and practical experience at quantum mechanics (QM) from my doctoral thesis work. For example, Raman spectroscopy is a QM phenomenon, but from the wavenumber and intensity of the spectral bands, we can work out the masses of the atoms and force constants of the bonds causing the bands. To help the atheist position that the universe came into existence without a cause, one would need to find Raman bands appearing without being caused by transitions in vibrational quantum states, or alpha particles appearing without pre-existing nuclei, etc. If QM was as acausal as some people think, then we should not assume that these phenomena have a cause. Then I may as well burn my Ph.D. thesis, and all the spectroscopy journals should quit, as should any nuclear physics research.

Also, if there is no cause, there is no explanation why this particular universe appeared at a particular time, nor why it was a universe and not, say, a banana or cat which appeared. This universe can’t have any properties to explain its preferential coming into existence, because it wouldn’t have any properties until it actually came into existence.

Is creation by God rational?A last desperate tactic by sceptics to avoid a theistic conclusion is to assert that creation in time is incoherent. Davies correctly points out that since time itself began with the beginning of the universe, it is meaningless to talk about what happened ‘before’ the universe began. But he claims that causes must precede their effects. So if nothing happened ‘before’ the universe began, then (according to Davies) it is meaningless to discuss the cause of the universe’s beginning.

But the philosopher (and New Testament scholar) William Lane Craig, in a useful critique of Davies,10 pointed out that Davies is deficient in philosophical knowledge. Philosophers have long discussed the notion of simultaneous causation. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) gave the example of a weight resting on a cushion simultaneously causing a depression in it. Craig says: The first moment of time is the moment of God’s creative act and of creation’s simultaneous coming to be.

Marc Kay’s critique of Davies The Mind of God points out further logical and physical fallacies of Davies’ reasoning.11

Some skeptics claim that all this analysis is tentative, because that is the nature of science. So this can’t be used to prove creation by God. Of course, sceptics can’t have it both ways: saying that the Bible is wrong because science has proved it so, but if science appears consistent with the Bible, then well, science is tentative anyway.