In this thought-provoking episode, we delve into the concept of reincarnation and what the Bible has to say about it. Join Dr. J. Vernon McGee as he offers his witty and wise insights into whether reincarnation was indeed a belief during the time of Christ, and how it contrasts with the Biblical understanding of resurrection. We also explore the deeply theological debate between the doctrines of election and free will, shedding light on Scripture’s stance and how it affects our spiritual lives.
Reincarnation is the view that the soul is continuously being reborn to experience life after life after life. What does the Bible have to say about this belief? Was reincarnation a common belief in the days of Jesus? Well, stay with us and find out.
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of foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
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What more can he say than You’re listening to the Question and Answer program with our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. As you join us for the next 30 minutes, we pray that you’ll be blessed by the wit and wisdom that Dr. McGee brings to every answer. So let’s get started. The doctrine of election and free will can create some heated debates, so it’s not surprising that we would get questions concerning this controversy. Such is the case with our first letter today, which comes from a California listener. He writes, In John 6, verses 37, 44, and 65, election seems to be the topic being discussed, or at least referenced to. Yet you seem to emphasize free will instead of election. Could you explain how you could possibly come to the conclusion that these verses are also speaking of free will?
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Now I shall read those verses and then I should like to talk about the doctrine of election and then make application here to these verses. The first one is John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now verse 44 reads, no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. The last verse is verse 65. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father.” First of all, I would have you note that these are verses that have been lifted out of a passage of Scripture, which to my judgment is always a very dangerous procedure because verses of Scripture need to be considered in the light of Scripture, that is, all of Scripture, by the way. Now, let me begin with some general remarks because this is something that is continually coming up today and we’re being actually disturbed by these little groups that have sprung up that have taken it upon themselves to be expert on the doctrine of election. They know all about it to begin with and anyone that disagrees with them is just not with it, that’s all. They are certainly not on cloud nine where these people dwell. Now, the Scripture uses verses like this, The Scripture also uses verses like, whosoever will may come. And that seems to me to be an honest, legitimate invitation to everybody because it says whosoever. Then God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever will Now, if there ever was a place where the word elect could be used, this was the place. But it’s not God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that the elect might believe on him. No, that whosoever will might believe on it. And I believe that’s an honest and sincere thing. And now let me look at this subject in a very general way. And I’m just going to visit with you now because they’ve tried to make this such a hard, cold thing. I’d like to take it out of that realm and discuss it in a little different way. You and I today live in a tremendous universe and one of the things that we discover is that man knows very little about anything. That man is in a universe filled with everything and he knows practically nothing about anything of the everything, any field that you go in. Man today is so limited in his knowledge that we are just a little pygmy down here on a second-rate planet. And someone has said that we are rather like sort of a rash on the epidermis of a second-rate planet. Well, that doesn’t speak very well of us. but that man knows very little. One of the great scientists of the past says all that man is and all he knows is like a little child with a spade and a bucket down by the seashore playing in the sand, putting two or three spadefuls of dirt or sand in the bucket And that little one playing down there knows nothing about the vast oceans and the vast shoreline around this world. Well, little man, he says, is like that in God’s universe. He knows so little and we certainly know very little. Now, when we move over and begin to talk about what God has planned and what God is thinking and what God has done, may I say to you we are even more ignorant in this field. And for anyone today to stand up and talk about election, from the standpoint that the doctrine of election is something that causes us to stand on the sidelines and do nothing, and God is going to do everything. I don’t believe that for one minute at all, that that’s what the doctrine of election is. I always like what Spurgeon said. You know, Spurgeon believed in election, but he preached like I preach. He thought everybody could come if they would. and that everyone was a candidate for salvation. And I think that, and I preach that way. And Spurgeon said, well, if the Lord had put a yellow streak up and down the backs of the elect, he said, well, I just go up and down the street lifting up shirt tails and finding out who had the yellow streak and give them the gospel. But you see, He didn’t make it that way, friends. To make the doctrine of election something that’s mechanical, you have no right to do that. It is a truth, a great truth. And evidently God is operating on that kind of a basis. I must confess, I do not understand it. I do not understand why this person accepts Christ and that person does not accept Christ. It’s been difficult for me to comprehend that. But he never asked me to comprehend. In fact, he must have meant it’s none of my business because he never told me, but he told me to give the gospel to both of those fellows. The one I thought ought to have it and the one I thought ought not to have it. We’re to give the gospel to every creature. So that now, let’s come back to… OUR VERSES OF SCRIPTURE AND LOOK AT THEM WITH THIS IN MIND BECAUSE THIS MAN DIDN’T LIKE THE IDEA THAT I ACTUALLY GOT FREE WILL OUT OF VERSE 37 HERE IN THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF JOHN’S GOSPEL. IT SAYS HERE, ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVETH ME SHALL COME TO ME. Now, if you know who those people are, then you have a right to speak with authority on the doctrine of election. But unless you know that, then the doctrine of election is just something you ought not to operate on because you don’t know it. In fact, you don’t know the answer to these here because he says here, “‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.'” And how are they going to come to me? Well, he says to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That’s my business. That’s yours too, by the way. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, let me say this concerning that verse. And I say that that’s got a whole lot of free will in it. Suppose here’s an individual. that these people who believe in the doctrine of election feel like men there outside. They’re not elected. They don’t worry about getting the gospel to them at all. May I say to you, the Lord’s offering them encouragement. He says, whosoever will may come and I will in no wise cast them out. You can come. That’s what he’s saying to you. And I don’t care who you are listening today. You can come. And I have news for you. If you come, I know you’re one of the elect. If you don’t come, well, I don’t know, because you may on your deathbed come. And so you and I ought not to be concerned about wanting to know about the doctrine of election. And I personally believe, as I was taught by a great theologian, that the doctrine of election should not be taught to unsaved people at all. To begin with, they won’t understand it. And I think a lot of the saints today don’t seem to understand it at all. I think it’s a great doctrine. I think God has two great elect… Peoples in the world, the nation Israel, called an elect nation. That doesn’t mean every individual, but the nation is. And the church is an elect body. That doesn’t mean every member of the church is saved, but it does mean that there is two elect bodies. that are very definitely mentioned in the Word of God. I think maybe that I’ll take a time just to look at one of these other verses here, and that’s verse 44. He says, No man can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. As you go back in your life, those of you that are believers today, don’t you remember the time you came to Christ? Weren’t you really fighting Him? Weren’t you really trying to avoid Him? else had he been working in your life for maybe a long time, creating a hunger, making it necessary for you to come almost. That was my experience. He put me through the ringers, a young fella. I didn’t want God that need him. I found out it was going to be a handicap. Couldn’t have all the fun I wanted to have. But he put me through the wringer, and the day came when I was ready to listen, you see. He did the preparation. I believe all that, but friends, you don’t know out yonder anything about election. You don’t know who the elect is. This is God’s doctrine. And so, don’t pull these verses out and use them as a sort of a six-shooter that you draw on a fella and say, look here, I got you. Well, you haven’t for the very simple reason that we’re doing the thing God’s called us to do, is to give out the Word of God today. And we’re going to give it out because we know about the doctrine of election. But we don’t know it at all to tell the truth. And therefore, we are not going to worry about who is the elect and who’s not. We’re going to let the Lord worry about that. And we’re going to give the word to as many people as we can give it to in every language. Hope you believe that and will go along with us on that because I think that’s what we’re called to do, not argue about election. And if you’re hipped on that today, friends, for goodness sake, get off that kick because it’s something that is devastating to your spiritual life.
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Our next question is from a listener in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She says, Could you please expound and explain the following verses? Psalm 83, Genesis 12, 2 and 3, and Genesis 21, 12.
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I’m going to read your references first in Genesis 12, and I’m going to go back to that, and I’ll read the two verses that you referred to in Genesis 12, and that is verses 2 and 3. And I’m reading now. And I will make of thee a great nation, And I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Now this was God’s covenant that He made with Abraham. And God promised him actually three things there, that He would first of all make him a great nation. that is, those that would come from Him, and that He would give them a certain land, and that He would make them a blessing to all nations. Now that is the thing that God promised. Now over in Genesis 21, 12, and I think I should turn and read that. I’m reading now, And God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight, because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman, in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Now that makes it very clear that when God called Abraham and made this promise to him, that it was not given to all of his offspring because he had quite a few, if you really want to know the truth. If you read the record, you’ll find out that several nations came from him. The Arab world, I think, can go back to Abraham. The Muslim world certainly goes back to Abraham and they refer to him. so that the offspring are many, but it’s only in Isaac and in the line that came from Isaac that the blessing would be. Now you want me to expound Psalm 83. Well, I can’t do that because to begin with, I have a book and I have it right here before me. and I have Psalm 83, and I have my exposition here through the Bible. It had to be very brief. It actually just takes three pages to cover this Psalm. And I’m going to read you several things from it because I’m of the opinion that what you’re after is how did God make this good to Abraham when the nation that came from him, Israel, has had to suffer so much. And why that? And this Psalm tells something of that. And I would like, therefore, to read the introduction that I have to it, and it may be helpful to you in understanding this promise God made to Abraham. This Psalm is a cry for judgment. That’s the theme of it. And it’s a song or Psalm of Asaph. This is the last Psalm of the Asaph series and a rather puzzling one. The fact of the matter is that you cannot fit it into the history of the nation of Israel. Since you cannot, the idea is to guess at it. And there have been some wild guesses. This is an imprecatory prayer, a cry for justice. The Psalmist prays for God to deliver His people from their enemies. And it opens like this. Keep not thou silence, O God. Hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For lo, thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. Now, we come down here to a statement that I make concerning this. Whoever the enemy is here, he hates God, but isn’t that always the case with the enemy? And then he says, they have taken crafty counsel against thy people. Now this refers to those who have plotted the destruction of the nation Israel. There are those who have tried to fit this Psalm into the time of Jehoshaphat and others who have attempted to fit it into other historical periods. The important thing for us to note is that the enemies of God expressed their hatred toward him. And the part that’s difficult is where we begin right here, actually in verse 5. For they have consulted together with one consent, their confederate against thee, the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites of Moab, and the Hagarenes, and so on. And there is mentioned Ammon and Asher, Asher’s Assyria. And the children of Lot here, that would be Moab and Edom that are mentioned here. Now, I have a notion that what you are trying to come to is this present situation. Now, I mention it in this psalm, by the way. At the present time, Israel is surrounded by Arab nations who are apparently joined together not so much as Arabs, but as Muslims. They are opposed to the nation Israel. It looks as though the nations mentioned in these verses will come back into existence during the last days. They are not in existence now and there is nothing to which they correspond. This fact makes Psalm 83 a very remarkable passage of Scripture. And we believe that there will be this great uniting against Israel in the last days, but we can’t believe that what’s happening right now is a fulfillment of this at all.
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We come now to a question from a listener in Malibu, California, who writes, my daughter believes in reincarnation. She says that it was a common belief in the days of Christ and points to the passage of scripture in Matthew 16, 13 through 14, where Jesus asks his disciples, who do men say that I am? Could you please explain the proper interpretation of these verses?
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I’d be very happy to. First of all, may I say that when she says that it was reincarnation, was believed in Jesus’ day, she’s accurate, but not by Hebrew people or not by him or his people at all. It was believed in India by Buddhists. It is Buddhism. And also you will find it in Platonism. You will find out the Greeks, that is some Greeks, believed in it. Those that were known as Platonists that followed the philosopher Plato. Now they taught reincarnation. But now the Lord Jesus Christ, to begin with, He’s not the one that really said this. He asked them, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? There was a controversy in his day just who he was. Now, it wasn’t the fact that John the Baptist was reincarnated. They thought John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. And it wasn’t a fact that they thought that Jesus was Elijah reincarnated, that he actually was Elijah raised from the dead. My friend, there’s a great deal of difference between resurrection and reincarnation. Reincarnation means that your spirit moves from one body to another. Resurrection, that is biblical resurrection, means that these bodies right now are to raise from the dead and instead of flitting around like a bee from one flower to another and you’re in one here today and gone tomorrow and over in another one next year and so on, that actually your body that is sown, a natural body, is to be raised a spiritual body and you have the same body. It’s all the difference in the world. And this verse of Scripture, when He asked them the question, He had no reference at all to reincarnation. It was the remotest thing from His thinking at that particular time. He wasn’t even in the area of reincarnation. He’s talking about something altogether, and it’s talking about who He is, whether He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. And if you’ll follow on through, if you would follow this line that your daughter follows, and of course this is the old chestnut that this group uses. It’s about all they’ve got, by the way. But if you’d follow on through, you’d find that he would contradict it. That’s the interesting thing is that when they lift a verse out, they’re very quick to get it out, not put it back in the context. Because when he goes on, he says, but whom say ye that I am? Now, if they thought he was one of these others, reincarnated, which the passage doesn’t even suggest, but even granting that, then he contradicted it. Because he said, but whom say ye that I am? They are wrong. regardless of what they were thinking, they were wrong. Now he says, Whom say ye that I am? And Peter answering says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You’re none of these, but you’re the Son of God. Now our Lord put his approval on what Simon Peter said and said, You were right, which means the others were wrong. So even if this verse that they used taught that, which it doesn’t, but if it did, our Lord contradicted that later on. So you see, friends, that this verse has nothing in the world to do with it. They lift the verse out and let the rest of the passage alone like it was a hot potato, you see. May I say to you that reincarnation is pagan and heathen and one of the most heathenish of all philosophies. It has nothing in the world to do with the Word of God and not taught in the Word of God. Now, you know, a great many people pick up these philosophies and then try to get a verse of Scripture that’ll prove it. And if you’ll always examine them very carefully, you’ll find out instead of proving it generally contradicts it, but they won’t stay with it that long at all.
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Again, we come to the end of another program, and although we only had a few questions this time, the answers were very insightful. If you’d like more information on these issues or others, contact us for a complete listing of available books, booklets, and CDs by Dr. McGee. You can also join us each weekday during the Through the Bible radio program heard on this station as Dr. McGee expounds on the Word of God book by book and chapter by chapter. Notes and outlines are available when you ask for them, or you can download them free of charge simply by going to our website. You can reach us by calling our office at 1-865-BIBLE Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time. You can also visit us online at ttb.org. Or you can always write to Questions and Answers in the U.S. Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. By the way, when you write to us, be sure to include a brief note for this December Letter Month. Now may our great God answer all your questions and solve all your problems.
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Jesus made it all.
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