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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Reincarnation On Trial
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Was a man born blind because he sinned in a previous life?
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from https://leewoof.org/2014/03/07/the-bible-emanuel-swedenborg-and-reincarnation/
John 9 tells the story of Jesus healing a man born blind, and its aftermath. When Jesus first encountered the man, his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Of course, for the man to have sinned resulting in his being born blind, he would have had to sin in a previous life.
However, Jesus rejected both of the possible explanations that his disciples suggested:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:3).
That is a fascinating reply, with a lot of meaning, as explored in the rest of the chapter. But for our purposes at the moment, the point is that Jesus rejected the idea that sins in a supposed previous life were the reason for this man’s blindness from birth. And since the doctrine of reincarnation generally holds that sins in past lives are the reason we suffer in our present life, by extension Jesus rejected the whole idea of reincarnation.
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