christianity and repeated lives there is a paragraph in the new testament which in my opinion clearly makes a positive inference to reincarnation i don t remember which one it is off of the top of my head but it basically goes like this jesus is talking with the apostles and they ask him why the pharisees say that before the messiah can come elijah must first come jesus replies that elijah has come but they did not recognize him it then says that the apostles perceived that he was refering to john the baptist this seems to me to clearly imply reincarnation this was a popular belief in the judaism of jesus time that elijah would return again as he had been taken in to heaven in a chariot and did not actually die however jesus was referring to john the baptist not in the sense that elijah was reincarnated as john remember elijah didn t die but that john was a similar prophet to elijah john was a fiery preacher he wore sackcloth and wandered rough through israel preaching the coming kingdom the verses that describe him in mark s gospel can be linked to ot references about elijah hence john was similar to elijah and jesus was drawing the parallels between the two just as he drew parallels with the suffering servant in isaiah and other messianic figures and himself a brief reply but i don t have time to look up all the relevant stuff suffice to say there is a very strong explanation rick richard johnston queen s university malone road belfast belfast northern ireland bt sb u athmail causeway qub ac uk
