Hinduism - Paths To The Cosmic Fire #2: Is Reincarnation (Soul Recycling)

Mark Cass, who is an instructor of apologetics, world religions & cults at International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas.

An important part of early Hinduism that survived into later Hinduism is the principle of reincarnation: spiritual recycling (varying Hindu concepts that people, after they die, can be reborn as an insect, an animal, another person, etc depending on their karma (Karma is not punishment or retribution but simply an extended expression or consequence of natural acts. Karma means "deed" or "act" and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction).

"This vast universe is a wheel. Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death, and rebirth. Round and round it turns, and never stops. It is the wheel of Brahman. As long as the individual self thinks it is separate from Brahman, it revolves upon the wheel in bondage to the laws of birth, death, and rebirth." Svetasvatara Upanishad p.118.

"Of those ignorant of the Self, some enter into beings possessed of wombs, others enter into plants--according to their deeds and the growth of their intelligence. Katha Upanishad p.22.

Is the Hindu concept of reincarnation really opposed to the teachings of the Bible?

Genesis 1:1 refutes Hinduism's concept of existence from the very beginning. The universe is not eternal. It is not a part of God or an extension of God's being or essence, but was created by Him & for Him (Colossians 1:12-20). Just a basic & elementary reading of the Bible will tell the investigator that reincarnation is completely contrary to the whole meaning of Jesus Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross for sins.