A quick question to those who have faith...

a reply to: FyreByrd
The OP was apparently asking for opinion from those of Christian faith, since the whole point of the question was asking why that faith lacked references to previous life. So my response was the Christian faith viewpoint.

And the Christian faith does NOT have reincarnation. It has resurrection.
REINCARNATION- repeated change into multiple physical bodies.
RESURRECTION- a one-off event, which does not involve any new physical body.

I'm just wondering why the N.T says Hades instead of Sheol.

a reply to: Specimen88

OT is written in Hebrew, the NT is in Koine Greek.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Yea, but the story of Jesus should of been in Hebrew, since it was only Jews an Roman's, and hardly any mention of the Greeks. Even though anceint greece could of been one of the beasts.

Why is Hell such an over used word, an not Tartarus even though it never actually used in the bible.

a reply to: Specimen88

Tartarus is mentioned in 2 Peter 2:4.

In Jesus' day, Rome dominated the Levant and the used koine Greek as the lingua franca. The Jews already had a familiarity with koine due to the previous Hellenization of Judah. As a result, they primarily studied the OT from a Greek translation called the Septuagint.

a reply to: Deetermined

Jehovah witness believe that every person that ever lived will be remade in the flesh to live a 2ed life.

a reply to: gallop

Perhaps the soul springs forth from physical life and experience. All that we "are" and become then detaches from the physical body and moves on. As if this physical body is the vessel within which the seed of a soul grows - as if life's very purpose on this earthly plane is to develop a new soul. First time around.

We could think of it like if we created AI's and put them into a mobile platform (say, a bi-pedal robot.) Once the robot's useful life has been exhausted, all that it has "learned" and "become" can then be uploaded into "the cloud" for eternity.

a reply to: dogstar23

A chrysalis.

www.merriam-webster.com...

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Wonder if the original translations used both.

That would be funny, like the anceint greeks finally had the guts to not say Zeus of the Underworld name, much like the jews an Yahweh.

Isnt Christianity a much later, or successful attempt at Hellenizing Judaism? Jews feared thunder gods as Satan, while Greek feared dead gods Satan. What a twist.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Now you say - what about the Dalai Lama and such reincarnated masters - they are wise, practiced, compassionate and strong enough to INTEND a specific collection of aggregates into the next live. The vow of the bodhisattva is to "keep coming back until all beings are enlightened."

LOL! History shows that's working so well! (/s)

a reply to: Akragon

Sure there is... as a Christian you just choose not to acknowledge it

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

No, it just means that the Christian omniscient God who knows everything from beginning to end knows exactly who we're going to be and every choice we're going to make long before we were born and the earth was created.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: Deetermined

Jehovah witness believe that every person that ever lived will be remade in the flesh to live a 2ed life.

Personally, I believe that they have misinterpreted the difference between heaven and the millennial kingdom period that happens here on earth.

originally posted by: gallop
a reply to: Hecate666

I actually agree with this. If I were to be inclined to consider that we came from, and return to, something.

I guess my point was, where does this thing that is considered a soul, come from.. if it is birth, wherever it goes, surely is a crowded place. Giving us a place in the 'afterlife'..

Or do we come from the infinity of nothingness, to exist for a brief time, only to return to an infinite nothingness...

It removes the burden of belief. And denies us hope.. but I think, ultimately more realistic..

The person you believe yourself to be, appears at the same instant as the environment every morning when waking occurs..... in deep sleep nothing exists.
So you return to nothing every day.

And when you appear, you do not appear as a separate thing.... you appear as the light show... the play of light (Maya/Lila).....all that appears.

There is only nothing appearing as everything.

Some have mentioned Buddhism, and the same for Hinduism.

In fact you're reincarnating right now and changing bodies, in my case from a tiny baby at birth to an old man (if I continue long enough).

You've already changed bodies considerably in one life time - you don't even have to wait for death and rebirth.

a reply to: Specimen88

By the time Jesus was born, Judaism was already shattered into dozens of sects, each having their own interpretation; much like today's denominational Christianity. So, I don't think there was much left to Hellenize. I'm a believer in Christ, so if you ask me, God temporarily removed the Word from the Jews and gave it to the Gentiles for a time, until the Jews are ready to be grafted back in. That's what's taught in Romans 11.

The NT is written by Jewish disciples to Gentiles. If anything, they taught Jewish culture to a world that didn't really understand the Jews. That doesn't seem like Hellenization to me, but more like diffusion.

Now if you want to talk about Hellenization of a religion, that's what Constantine did to the Christians in his kingdom. He got Roman paganism (which is but an iteration of Hellenistic paganism), and created a "Christian" religion out of it.

originally posted by: halfoldman
Some have mentioned Buddhism, and the same for Hinduism.

In fact you're reincarnating right now and changing bodies, in my case from a tiny baby at birth to an old man (if I continue long enough).

You've already changed bodies considerably in one life time - you don't even have to wait for death and rebirth.

The word reincarnate means to re enter meat...... are you in a body?
Or does the body appear within you?

In the video Peter Brown is asked about reincarnation.

a reply to: gallop

But... Why is there never any mention of life before birth? ? Not really a discussion point, I guess... more I just want someone to think about it, and have a very good reply.

Do you mean life before conception? There is life before giving birth while the child is in the gestation process. Life begins at the point of conception in my belief but I am in the minority on that one. Why is there no mention of preconceptionn? Because there is no preconception or reincarnation in the terrestrial life. Each life is procreated [not created] at the moment of conception.

At what point is the spirit given to the body? At the point of conceiving. Adam was created and not procreated so Adam became an entity in two stages of obtaining life. He was formed from the created terrestrial substances and then given his spirit. Procreation is not the same. God does not procreate anyone. Procreation is the pleasure and choice of all life after Adam was formed. In procreation, the moment of pro creating is all in one instant of pro creating an image and the image given a spirit. In other words God has no further control in the act of procreation. That is the choice of those who came after Adam.


in order to re incarnate, one would then have to re procreate another body and God assign to that body their old spirit. How would that work? Well the spirit would then have many deaths and judgments till it becomes justified. But how can it become justified if it knows not what it did wrong? That re incarnated soul has a brain of receptors but still would have that old mind of transmitters which are not allowed to tell its previous life to the reincarnated brain. Is that this God in the Christian bible who tells us that is appointed only once to die and then be judged? No, the Christian bible does not teach re incarnation nor does it make sense to me that a person could die a thousand deaths and not be given a fair account of its sins.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: gallop
Nothing in my source of faith suggests there was a life before birth.

May I ask when does the soul enter the body? Is it at conception or is it when the body takes it first breath, like when God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul? Thanks looking forward to your thoughts

a reply to: PhilbertDezineck
In my opinion, the Hebrew word NEPHESH, which we translate as "soul", is almost equivalent to "life", so my personal preference would be to identify it with conception.

As far as I can tell, the idea of the detachable soul which can enter and leave the body is a mediaeval concept, not a Biblical concept. Unfortunately, it tends to enter people's minds whenever the word "soul" is used in a translation.

a reply to: gallop

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in a pre-existence, a mortal period, and an afterlife (eternal existence). The basic idea is that all human beings are spiritual offspring of God the Father. This spiritual matter has always existed and always will exist, but God formed us into intelligent individuals prior to our choosing to come to earth. The time on earth provides us a physical body to pair up with our spirit and an opportunity to earn eternal exaltation (life with God and joint-heirship with Christ.)

I am not replying in order to engage in a debate on this belief but merely to reply that there is a Christian denomination whose doctrine includes a belief in a pre-existence of all human beings.

www.churchofjesuschrist.org...