God is Law (5) - Law of Karma and Reincarnation

Of the immutable laws of God, a famous one is the Law of Karma (Cause and Effect), expressed variously as: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

The Holy Qur’an puts it this way: “And so, he who shall have done an atom’s weight of good shall behold it, and he who shall have done an atom’s weight of evil shall behold it” (99:7-8).

The law of cause and effect has such profound effects on us, both on this earth, and the life hereafter, that we need to internalize this law and be guided by it. The spiritual correlation of the law finds expression in the life one inherits after death, and its causative determination of reincarnation.

Orthodox Christians have denied and refused to accept the reality of reincarnation. Reincarnation, or rebirth of the soul, is seen as an esoteric doctrine of non-Christians, or occult societies.

By treating it as anathema, most people are unaware of it as a fact of life that explains the seeming inequities of life on earth.

How come the Christian Bible and Upanishads of Hinduism are talking about reincarnation? And they say the same thing!

The absence of references to reincarnation in Christian doctrines could be attributed to the antagonism that the Roman Catholic Church expressed against the teachings of Christian thinkers such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Arius and others.

Origen’s teachings on the nature of God, Christ, the resurrection and the pre-existence of souls were attacked as heretical, and anathematised at the 2nd Council of Constantinople (5th General Council of the Church) held under Emperor Justinian 1, in 553 AD. Salvation was thus focused exclusively on Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, Jesus Christ did allude to reincarnation to his disciples!

In this article, we shall learn that reincarnation is a spiritual fact, and proceeds from the divine law of karma, and its denial by orthodox Christians does not negate its operation in our lives.  

Reincarnation

Africans believe in reincarnation. Among the Yoruba of the Western Region of Nigeria, they call a person who has died and reappeared “akudaaya”; among Zulus of South Africa, we have the expression “ukuphindukuzalwa” (reappearance in a new form).

In Ga-Adangbe culture, a reincarnated person is called “gbobalor”. Akans call it “kaya”.

We may ask: What has the law of karma got to do with reincarnation? Everything! Simply put, the law of karma addresses the fact of freedom, choices and decisions in life.

Every decision that we take, along with its action, bears an inescapable result; in the spirit world, determining where we go after death, and, in the earthly life, where we are born, and into which family. The law does not fail.

In the Bible, two remarkable events took place that Jesus Christ knew about: they related to John the Baptist. Before John the Baptist was born, an angel prophesied to his father, Zacharias, in the temple, and said:

“And he will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17).

In Mathew 11:7-19, Jesus taught the people about John, and said of him: “For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”

And, at verse 14, he confessed: “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.”

Why did Jesus add if they were “willing to receive it”? He said so because it was a tough and unbelievable fact to accept that Elijah had come back as John the Baptist!

However, it is in Matt 17:10-13 that the disciples really understood what reincarnation was about.

12. But I say to you, that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.

13. Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them about John the Baptist.”

In Elijah’s incarnation as John the Baptist, something dreadful happened to him, as the unavoidable karmic law of cause and effect.

During the reign of King Ahab of Israel in the 9th century, Prophet Elijah ordered the slaughter of 450 Baal worshippers, in a contest to show who the true God was. (1 Kings 18: 17- 40).

Several hundred years or so later, he paid for the killing of the baal worshippers when he incarnated as John the Baptist. His head was cut off!  (Matthew 14: 1-12). He fulfilled the karmic law of reaping what we sow (Matt 26:52 & Rev 13:10).

When John’s disciples told Jesus of John’s death, he did not sympathise with them. He said nothing! Jesus understood why! “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a desert place” (Matt 14: 13).

The forgetfulness of our previous incarnations, especially by adults, is for our own good. A prominent metaphysician, Edgar Cayce, explained loss of memory of previous incarnations:

“We have lived and died many times. The reason we don't remember our former lives is because our vast soul memories are not transferred to our baby brains at birth.

All we know in this life is what we have learned, most of which is a partial memory of things we learned in past lifetimes. At the beginning of each lifetime, we are cleared of all past prejudices, learning blocks and wrong teachings, and are ready for a fresh start.”

However, we would also have known that there are children whom we describe as precocious and others as prodigies. These are children who are born with extraordinary skills or abilities of mind. An example is from South Korea: Kim Ung-Yong, born in 1962. At age four he could read books in German, English, Japanese and Korean. By age five he could perform complex calculus. 

Akrit Jaswal of India, born in 1993, performed surgery on a girl at age seven, by separating her fingers which got stuck together as a result of burns. There are many, many more.

The laws of cause and effect, and reincarnation, are for the perfection of the soul, through the lessons of life, for its ultimate reunion with God.

The various experiences in our lives are not arbitrary: a law is in operation. By rebirth, God offers all souls the chance to improve on their lives, and attain their personal divinity.

The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: akwesihu@yahoo.com