re jacob and esau reincarnation in article may athos rutgers edu jek cu nih gov writes gerry palo wrote that there is nothing in christianity that excludes the theory of a succession of lives i wrote that the apostle paul in romans speaks of god as choosing jacob over esau and adds that this is not as a result of anything that either child had done since they had not been born yet clearly paul does not believe that they had had previous lives nor does he suppose that his readers will believe it for if they had had previous lives it would not make sense to say neither of them has done anything good or bad as yet since they are not yet born paul s statement only asserts that that particular choice was not a matter of karmic fulfillment of the past just as the fate of the man born blind john was not there is no question here of the simplistic idea of karma as a machine that is the sole determiner of one s destiny even the eastern traditions or many of them do not say that as one knowledgeable poster pointed out and if in fact that paul did not know about or believe in reincarnation does not say anything one way or another about it even john the baptist who jesus says emphatically is elijah matt does not appear to have been aware of it at least at the point at which he was asked but it is interesting that his threefold denial to the question whether he is the christ the prophet i e isaiah or elijah is emphatic in the first case and very weak in the third i would like to add once again that while it is important to discuss the different passages that may point directly to the teaching of repeated earth lives one way or another what i really see as important in our time is that the subject be revisited in terms of the larger view of christianity and christian doctrine for the most part those who do accept it either reject the central ideas of christianity or if they are christians hold their conviction as a kind of separate treasure i believe that christianity has important new understanding to bring to bear on it and vice versa much that is central to christianity takes on entirely new dimensions of meaning in light of repeated earth lives it has a direct bearing on many of the issues frequently discussed in this newsgroup in particular i have said openly that i have developed my views of repeated earth lives largely from the work of rudolf steiner not that i hold him as an authority but the whole picture of christianity becomes clearer in light of these ideas steiner indicated that the old consciousness of reincar nation necessarily had to fade away that it could be renewed in later times after a time of development of the christ idea through the first two millenia after christ s deed on golgotha in our own time it becomes important that having received the basic gospel of salvation our understanding of life and of the human being can now grow to embrace the significance of this idea for the discussions in this newsgroup i have tried to focus on that which can be related as directly as possible to scripture and to fundamental christian teaching and tradition gerry palo compuserve com
