Page 151 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

(Revelation 21:4). There will be no more separation, because death will be conquered (Revelation 20:6).
The best thing about heaven is the presence of our Lord and Savior (1 John 3:2). We will be face to face
with the Lamb of God who loved us and sacrificed Himself so that we can enjoy His presence in heaven
for eternity. cvii

Nirvana and Heaven are not the same. Nirvana is a state of being, while heaven is an actual place.
Buddhism teaches that Nirvana is the highest state of being, a state of pure being, and it is achieved by
means relative to the individual. Nirvana defies rational explanation and logical ordering and therefore
cannot be taught, only realized. Jesus’ teaching on heaven, in contrast, was quite specific. He taught us
that our physical bodies die but our souls ascend to be with Him in heaven (Mark 12:25). The Buddha
taught that people do not have individual souls, for the individual self or ego is an illusion. For Buddhists
there is no merciful Father in heaven who sent His Son to die for our souls, for our salvation, to provide
the way for us to reach His glory. Ultimately, that is why Buddhism is to be rejected.
cviii
When I die, is reincarnation a possibility?
cix

Have you ever heard of the Dalai Lama? So far, there have
been 14 of them. The Dalai Lama is a title of the head
monk (or lama) of the Gelug school in Tibetan Buddhism.
The current Dalai Lama is named Tenzin Gyatso and he
lives as a refugee in India. All the Dali Lamas are the
successor in a line of monks who are believed to be
reincarnations of a past Dalai Lama who renounced
Nirvana to help mankind. That was quite a sacrifice, for in
Buddhism, nirvana is a total release from desire and suffering. The nirvana-after-death, also called
nirvana-without-substrate, is the complete cessation of everything, including consciousness and any
possibility of rebirth. So, the Dalai Lama is simply the reincarnations of previous Dalai Lamas whose
ministry is to help everyone.

Is reincarnation a possibility? The concept of reincarnation is completely without foundation in the
Bible, which clearly tells us that we die once and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). The Bible never
mentions people having a second chance at life or coming back as different people or animals. Jesus told
the criminal on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43), not "You will have
another chance to live a life on this earth." Matthew 25:46 specifically tells us that believers go on to
eternal life while unbelievers go onto eternal punishment. Reincarnation has been a popular belief for
thousands of years, but it has never been accepted by Christians or followers of Judaism because it is
contradictory to Scripture.

The one passage that some point to as evidence for reincarnation is Matthew 17:10-12 which links John
the Baptist with Elijah. However, the passage does not say that John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated
but that he would have fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah’s coming if the people had believed his words and
thereby believed in Jesus as the Messiah (Matthew 17:12). The people specifically asked John the
Baptist if he was Elijah, and he said, "No, I am not" (John 1:21).

Belief in reincarnation is an ancient phenomenon and is a central tenet within the majority of Indian
religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Many modern pagans also believe in

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