BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

Reincarnation in the Bible

Matthew 17:11-13 (NIV)

11/2/25

“Christian nationalism is about power, nothing more.” – Christian Pecker

Since Halloween came this week, and we picked pumpkins from Grace’s garden to carve, I warned Christian and Grace that I knew all about ghosts and spirits in the Bible and that we didn’t need to do anything this weekend that would scare me. I told them about how the disciples thought that Jesus was a ghost when he walked on water. I told them about one of Job’s friends who saw a ghost. I told them about the witch who raised the ghost of Samuel for King Saul. I also told them that ghosts were just my imagination but that the ones from the Bible must have been demons, except for Jesus when he walked on water.

“People seemed to believe in ghosts back then,” Grace said. “The disciples must have, based on their fears when Jesus walked on water.”

“But I don’t want to talk about ghosts,” I said.

“Early Christians believed in things most Christians find heretical today,” Christian said. “We’ve talked about how beliefs change over time.”

“Like what? Just ghosts?”

“They might have believed in reincarnation, too,” Grace said.

“That’s not real,” I said.

“Grace didn’t say it was,” Christian said. “She suggested people might have believed in these things.”

“I don’t want to do ghosts,” I said.

“Reincarnation has nothing to do with ghosts,” Grace said.

“That’s okay, I guess, but the Bible doesn’t have that. I’ve already read about it. See, that one time, the disciples thought the blind man must have sinned before he was born because he was born blind, but Jesus said that the man was actually born blind to show God’s power.”

“Ninth chapter of John,” Christian said. “Jesus spits in the dirt to make a poultice.”

“I don’t know what’s worse, sin blinding a man or a man suffering to prove a point,” Grace said. “He was blind all his life, according to the story, only to prove God’s power. That seems a bit cruel.”

“Just because someone can’t see doesn’t mean they’re suffering,” I said. “People have lots of differences.”

“I stand very much corrected,” Grace said. “That’s not the only passage that suggests a belief in reincarnation.”

“What other ones?” I asked.

“It’s not Sunday,” Christian said. “Grace will find a passage for you tomorrow.”

“If I’m doing the research, I’m expecting a nice breakfast, Christian,” Grace said.

For breakfast Bible study, now that Halloween is done, Christian cooked omelets and baked cream puffs, and Grace picked a passage I already knew but did not understand because Jesus talks about Elijah, who makes no sense to me and confuses the disciples when they ask why the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come before the Messiah.

I read the passage slowly and aloud to try to understand: “‘Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.’”

“It’s just one passage,” Christian said. “But if you take it literally—”

“It means John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated?” I asked.

“That’s one reading,” Grace said.

“What’s the other reading?” I asked.

“Symbolic,” Christian said. “John the Baptist was a prophet like Elijah.”

“Christian belief in reincarnation likely existed until the sixth century,” Grace said. “The disciples seemed to believe in such things, just like they believed in ghosts.”

I plugged my ears about ghosts because scary things always happened in my brain when people talked about ghosts.

“Justinian, a Roman emperor, put a stop to the belief,” Christian said. “He formed a council in Constantinople that outlawed supposed heretical teaching of early church fathers. Mostly, the anathemas involved the Trinity, but by condemning the theology of early church leaders like Origen, they were trying to put a stop to other teachings like reincarnation.”

“How did they stop it?” I asked.

“Christianity was a state religion at that point,” Christian said. “By force, of course.”

“Wait, forcing people to believe is what we don’t want,” I said.

“Exactly,” Grace said.  

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what it actually says.

Some themes in my books below might not be appropriate for children.