I appear to have left your initially posted comment today until last - having been long retired, and with no adherence to systematic routines or schedules.
Your last sentence is most profound: It is time to be assured there is truth available to you.
So you've been on this quest for information on reincarnation since approximately 1972?
I am absolutely positive that the Bible is ultimate truth, to which you may have access any time you so choose.
God's call to the Prophet Jeremiah,
Jeremiah 1:4 "The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
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“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”God also knew David in the womb, as He does each of us:
David's Psalm 139:13 "For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.…
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"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be."How many times have you read the Bible through since 1972? - or was that rejected out of hand?
Since 1980, I have researched Reincarnation and its parent belief, the Transmigration of Souls, after first studying Christianity, Christendom, Israeli history, Judaic history, Biblical history, Middle Eastern history, the stalwarts of Eastern Religious Mystical Thought (Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Sindoism), Ancient World Religious History, Philosophy and Psychology (with their dingbat founders), Psychic Phenomena, the Paranormal, Neo-Christian Cults, non-Christian Cults, and the Occult.
Biblical Christianity teaches that the most loving thing a Christian can do for another person is to point them to the only hope they have, the only Savior of souls in the universe, Jesus Christ. Like a lone rescue boat in a vast ocean, He is the only hope for humanity (Acts 4:12).
(For me, after forty plus years, the irony of an accumulation of a personal library of 6,000 books; is that it is now possible to find much of the same information freely available on the internet, much quicker, and without the need to retype or scan it.)
1st Corinthians, 12th chapter, tells Christians how the Holy Spirit disburses spiritual gifts to all members of the body of Christ, all believers worldwide:
4 "There are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord.
6 There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all people.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
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All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines."12 The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
14 For the body does not consist of one part, but of many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design.
19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 "The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.”
25 "so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another.
26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it."
This is Christianity as God designed it. Whenever we individually fall on our face, God picks us up, brushes us off, and we go on.
RascalRiley wrote:
What convinced me reincarnation is a logical possibility.
Fifty years ago I was challenged to change any fundamental belief I had and observe the results. I chose reincarnation.
This resulted in ideas I would not have had and info I would not have seen had not been seeking.
I was looking for an explanation for the fact that some are born with more God given gifts or talents then others.
I came to the realization that we grow a little bit each lifetime. We are at various stages on our journeys.
There seemed to be a universal life force we are all part of as well.
I have identified three things I think we transition with and have the opportunity to grow each lifetime.
– Self discipline
Child prodigies practice for long hours.
– Our ability to connection with source, our intuition.
CEO’s often make snap decisions base on very little info.
– Our ability to connect with other people, empathy.
Life is better for people who can connect easily with others.
This, like all beliefs is only a theory.
The only thing I am absolutely positive of is that I am not privy to the ultimate truth.
As an old guy, soon to make his maker, this gives lots to ponder.
What convinced me reincarnation is a logical possi... (
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