What was Jesus Christ's view on reincarnation?

The writer never really considered this question until he joined a discussion in which someone claimed he had asked some Christian priests to clarify him on Jesus's view on reincarnation but it seems the priests could not give him a certain answer as they tried to avoid the discussion. The discussion was initiated by the writer’s book, “The formula of reincarnation (the rebirth equation)” and his hub on reincarnation.

Just like the priests pointed out above, most Christians do not really know what Jesus taught on reincarnation or what his views was on the subject. Consequently most Christians may not want to introduce a concept which other Christian would consider strange or new in the Christian teachings. This is important because Christians generally teach and believe that “after death judgment follows” and one can either go to heaven or hell after the said judgment so the idea of reincarnation may not fit in perfectly in explaining such a situation unlike other religious, spiritual, or mystic movement that do not teach of a specific judgment day but believe that one can carry one’s karma over to another circle of life.

Then is it possible for us to understand what Jesus had to say or thought about reincarnation? The best way to start is to consider some comments Jesus made in the bible which can be related to reincarnation. Firstly, in John 8: 58 Jesus said, “Verily, verily I say unto you. Before Abraham was, I am.” The event/ incident which led to the comment was an attempt by Jesus to prove that he was older than Abraham. It is for this reason that some people claim that Jesus Christ may be Melchizedek who met Abraham in the Old Testament. Whatever may be the case, the comment suggested that Jesus believed and claimed he was older than Abraham even though he was less than 35 year old. Jesus comment was made well over many hundred years after Abraham had died. Then the question is why would Jesus at the age of less than 35 year old claim to be older than a man of hundreds of years old? Even if we assume that Jesus was in heaven with God or was God in heaven then it means he entered the womb of Mary and she gave birth to him; that is similar to what those that belief in reincarnation claim. This is because most of them claim that life started many years ago in Atlantis and since then mankind has been going through circles of lives.

Then again, in the gospel of Matthew 17: 10-13 “And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them. Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you. That Elias is come already, and they knew him not…Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.” This verse may make little meaning to most Christians and as such they may not consider it important. The writer did same until in the discussion mentioned above when same person said that the scribes (some Jews) believed in reincarnation. Then if that was the case it meant they believed Elias (Elijah) would come first before the expected Messiah would come. Then Jesus agreed that Elias had already come and his disciple link it to John the Baptist. We may not really know what the scribes expected of Elias and what he would do. That is if they expected to see same old Elijah, whom most of them did not know, or someone new. However, it is clear that the scribes (and Rabbi like same person claimed) believed in reincarnation and Jesus did not say that was impossible or taught against it.

There are many other occasions in which the idea of reincarnation was used and brought before Jesus and he said nothing against it. For instance when he asked his followers who the people said he was and they mentioned the past prophets yet Jesus did not question them on how that could be possible.

Finally, the writer do believe that we all have our right to our personal belief and that the idea of reincarnation may be a threat to the teaching/doctrine of heaven and hell even though we may not know if there are special situations when reincarnation is applied like some people claim that it happens once in a while when God wants to Change some things then he can send people like Jesus, Buddha, Moses among many others. Whatever maybe the case and no matter what we may conclude that Jesus thought about reincarnation. Two things are important here which are firstly, Jesus did not directly condemned or spoke against the idea of reincarnation. Secondly, we are at least certain that some people belief that reincarnation is real and they have benefited from its hidden mystery and knowledge which they claim to have gained based on their past lives experiences.