Life After Life After Life?
by Kenneth R. Wade

J. Z., whose last name was not yet Knight when she encountered this particular problem, found herself strangely attracted to a man she and her husband had hired to help with the horses on their ranch. She couldn’t understand why she should be so attracted to a man other than her husband. Then one day Ramtha, the spirit-being she claims to speak for, gave her an explanation.

J. Z. had "met" Ramtha several years earlier when she and her husband were experimenting with the power of pyramids. When she placed a paper pyramid on her head, a nine-foot-tall spirit being appeared in her kitchen and began speaking to her. He told her that he had lived on earth thirty-five thousand years ago and that he had come to give her wisdom. Soon J. Z. found that she could relay messages from Ramtha to the rest of the world by going into a trance and letting his masculine voice speak through her. Often this involved answering questions for large crowds of people who paid several hundred dollars each to come hear Ramtha’s wisdom.

Ramtha had a message for J. Z. He told her that she and the horse handler had known each other in a previous life, back when Ramtha lived on earth. In fact, they had been "soul mates" at that time. After overcoming considerable opposition, they had married and had lived "happily ever after." Now, in this life, they had miraculously encountered one another again. Ramtha told J. Z. she shouldn’t be surprised at the attraction she felt.

J. Z. decided that though it would mean big changes in her life, she would step out in faith. She left her husband and went to live with the man she had supposedly been married to thirty-five millennia earlier—Jeffrey Knight. Some time later they were married.¹

Unfortunately, this time J. Z. and her "soul mate" didn’t live happily ever after. In 1989 my father sent me a newspaper clipping headlined "Channeler Ramtha is seeking divorce." The article went on to say, "Knight’s estranged husband, Jeffrey Knight, left the family home near Yelm, about 25 miles south of Tacoma, in October. He is seeking $10,000 a month in spousal maintenance."

I wonder whether J. Z. still believes everything Ramtha tells her. 

What Jesus taught

Jesus did not teach reincarnation. In fact, He taught something totally opposite. The "doctrine" of reincarnation is founded on the law of karma. Eastern religions teach that this inflexible law governs everything that happens in the universe. Karma dictates that whatever you do in this life will be rewarded in the next life.

There is absolutely no grace in the world of karma and reincarnation. Karma’s iron hand controls everything that happens to you. If you have managed to build up a store of good karma through righteous deeds, piety, and charity, then the law of karma will see to it that when you die you will be reincarnated in a healthy body and live in a pleasant place.

If, on the other hand, you have been a criminal throughout this life and have neglected piety and religion, your next life will be miserable. You will begin to pay back your debt to the world through suffering, and you will have to keep coming back in new lives, over and over again, until you have finally worked off your debt. There is no divine offer of forgiveness.

Does this reflect what Jesus believed and taught?

The Bible says that two thieves were crucified with Jesus. One of them recognized His power to save and asked to be included in His kingdom. This thief was getting what karma would consider his due—a miserable death on a cross. And karma would demand that he continue to suffer for his sins in his next life.

So, did Jesus tell the thief "Too bad you didn’t repent in time to begin doing some good deeds to pay back the world for your evil"? Did He tell him that he could work off his bad karma by doing good deeds in his next life?

No. Jesus made him an unconditional promise of paradise. In doing this Jesus applied the principles He taught in the parable of the workers in the vineyard found in Matthew 20:1-16. The workmen were not rewarded for the amount of work they did, but simply by the grace of the man who hired them.

Not good enough

Jesus’ response to the thief was based on grace, not on works—and certainly not on karma. There is no way the man on the cross could have earned the right to be in paradise with Jesus. Probably no group of people has ever done more good deeds than the Pharisees. And how did Jesus assess their chances at paying their way into heaven with their piety? To His disciples He said, " 'Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.' "⁴ The best of the best weren’t good enough.

Jesus never implied that reincarnation and satisfaction of karma could lead to paradise. In fact, everything He taught completely contradicted any hope of earning heaven by being good. Karma just wouldn’t cut it with Jesus. There is no way to reconcile His teaching of grace for all who would receive Him with the concept of working your way into heaven through many lives of right living.

No, the Bible makes it clear that God does not save people because of their good works. The apostle Paul wrote, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."⁵ This text flies straight in the face of the law of karma, the foundational premise of reincarnation.

It’s clear, then, that the Bible does not, and never did, support the idea of reincarnation.

Here’s one more text on the point: "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment."⁶

Fortunately, this judgment is conducted by a gracious God, not by the law of karma. Fortunately, the same Jesus who promised the thief paradise will be our judge. Fortunately, He will judge us on the basis of our acceptance of Him as our Savior, not on the basis of our good deeds.

¹J. Z. Knight tells the story of the beginning of her romance with Jeffrey Knight in her book A State of Mind.

²John 3:3.

³John 1:12, 13.

⁴Matthew 5:20.

⁵Ephesians 2:8, 9.

⁶Hebrews 9:27.