By Abdu Rafiu

Reincarnation has, for ages, remained a controversial subject. The following is a reaction to the subject of reincarnation treated in this column last week. Come with me; the rejoinder reads as follows:

Thank you, Sir, for this contribution which I have just read. I am aware that many cultures recognise reincarnation as a reality of life which also features in their worship modes. This is as African as it is in other cultures. A great deal of this has shown up in the Greek mythology and plays, Roman gods and goddesses, oriental rituals and drama and African traditional rituals and drama and African traditional rituals, mythology and theatre. New Testament Christianity, following Paul’s writings speaks of judgment after death without making any allowance for an afterlife in-between.

I am a Pentecostal Christian, and in the last four years, I have heard demons manifesting and shedding light on many happenings recorded in the Bible which we understand only partially. Never once have I heard a demon contradict a verse of the Bible. Instead, they quote and affirm its force even while working against it as their duty. Indeed, on some occasions, the Lord Jesus Himself has confirmed some of their claims and shown deeper layers of meaning, all still confirming the word of God in the Bible.

Much more significantly, in the same four years, I have had the privilege of hearing the Lord Jesus speak expressly about the Bible (that not everything that happened was written), contemporary events, the course the world is following and His guidance of the church. I am amazed at how close and personal He appears (despite our assumption to the contrary), how clearly He speaks, how lovingly and gently He leads and guides and how deliberately He lets us into his plans.

As a case in point, a global pandemic in the offing that will affect humanity in very fundamental ways. This is different from pandemic being generally being speculated, as they may even be wiped by it. God said it will be more severe than COVID-19 and the plagues of Egypt. While global in reach and impact, Nigeria will be of particular concern as all the fat cats that have been plaguing Nigeria from the beginning will sleep and not wake up. It will be a repeat of what happened to the army of Sennacherib. Nigeria will be delivered without war or bloodshed, only Divine Hand of Judgment. It’s a three-pronged judgment over Nigeria, financial liberty, judgment over Satan’s deputies holding Nigeria at the jugular from their bedrooms.

Beyond these, God is standing on and working out the text of Genesis 1:2 in our days and carrying revolutionary post-Biblical transformations that no one can imagine. Imagine Nigeria’s population cut down to less than half without any internal or external aggression and all the present and past lords of the Manor running around like rats looking for help. That is what is coming.

And so when I think of the very radical steps that Heaven has taken regarding Nigeria and the rest of the world, I tend to believe that existing realms of knowledge of the Bible and other beliefs are in for incredible shaking. These things are near, though unseen. It will not be long when they will begin to manifest. The evidence now is that God is fully back in His Temple directing human affairs with incredible zeal. The forces of Darkness are in a moment of unprecedented anguish—yet the end has not come. God is executing a scene in His Divine plan that no creation has been led to anticipate.

May he keep us in His perfect Will to the end even as these events play out before our very eyes.

As an addendum to this (I was distracted when finalising this rejoinder, hence I didn’t quite relate what I said to the central thesis of your essay, which is reincarnation), I have heard the Lord saying many lives have been wasted to profit the minions of the Darkness and that the concerned souls weep as they roam around. I heard this directly during a deliverance session, not that someone told me.

Judging from this and given the stubborn belief of life as continuum in most African and ancient cultures and indeed of reincarnation (I ‘m aware of Jesus’ reference to Elijah and John the Baptist) I am of the opinion that there could be a point in the reincarnation thesis. I remember how desperate Chief Obafemi Awolowo was searching for Moody’s Life after Life shortly before the Chief passed on in 1987. When I found myself in England in 1993, I equally searched for the book in second-hand bookshops with the same desperation until someone who eventually sold me a copy asked, “What’s so special about the book?” For me what was special about it was that Awolowo wanted it badly, and I wanted to find out what the old man was looking for!

So, reincarnation may be real after all, but since it is not the central message of the Cross, mainstream Christian doctrine cannot emphasise it. More importantly, however, in view of what I just said above, it would seem that the global reform going on which will soon begin to be visible to all, is shaking the pillars of what we thought we knew about God and His Kingdom. I didn’t exaggerate when I said God is re-enacting Genesis 1:2 in our own time, thus creating an unprecedent interlude during which He is uprooting the foundations of evil, false religions and doing other things that would usher in a peace the world has not known before the End Time phase rolls in as described in the Bible. From the above premise, I believe humanity will be revising what is known about the Divine and how He interacts with His created world and beings. May the Lord preserve us to see these things and reflect on them.

My response
MANY people are familiar with the concept of reincarnation but are at a crossroads. In this rejoinder for example, the author says although reincarnation may be real after all, it is not at the centre of the message of the Cross. First, what is the Cross? The Cross is the symbol of Truth. It is in fact the Truth. It was a Sign seen radiating behind the Lord Jesus Christ and the Dove above His head, both revealing His identity as the Bringer of Truth, and indeed, the Truth itself.

As the Spirit of Truth the Lord said would come after Him, this Envoy of God sent by the Almighty was coming bearing the same signs as also Part of the Father. Christ said He would take of His and “give it onto you” that is to mankind. “If I do not go, He will not come. I go back to the Father and you shall see Me no more. The Father and I are One.” The Spirit of Truth in reference is also to lead mankind to further Truths, and bring judgment.

In other words, he would complete the Mission of the Lord Christ cut short by the conspiracy of the political and priestly Establishments of His time over fear of losing their hold on the people. When the Almighty gave the fiat, “Let there be Light”, a Part of Him like a Spark went out forming four equal-arm Cross with the Face of that Part at the centre of the Cross which was anchored at the boundary of the Divine Realm to give Light to the void!

Creation thus came into being and so also the Primordial Beings that were Created in the image of God the Almighty Father, the image referring to some of the attributes of the Most High such as perfection, for example! The Cross in reference is different from the crucifix! This is not the occasion to discuss the Cross exhaustively. It suffices to state that the Cross is the Truth and when it is in circle, it is indication that it is the sign that Truth has entered the world.

One may then ask: What is the relationship between the Cross and reincarnation? What is the relevance? As I did state last week, there is much to say about the blessings in reincarnation. It is a special grace borne out of the love, mercy and justice of the Most High, the Creator of all the worlds, that the possibility of reincarnation is worked His mechanisms with which He governs the entire Creation and all life. The mechanisms are the expression of His Will. They are the Laws of Nature. The self-acting, incorruptible Laws are driven by the Power of the Most High. It is He that is behind the outworking of the Laws that bear goodness and Justice of the All-Highest. Since the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth is Justice and bears the Cross, reincarnation necessarily finds accommodation in His outworking of goodness and love, love grants the possibility that mistakes in a previous earthlife can be corrected and indeed wiped off a person’s slate.

Those who are open may be able to sense some foreboding of a really trying times ahead. Many concepts and accounts in the Bible have been misunderstood, distorted or misinterpreted. Take for example, the verse in which it is stated that all that is dead will be awakened in the End Time to face judgment. Another area that is misinterpreted is it is given unto man to die but once, after which comes judgment.

When the Lord appeared before His Disciples after His crucifixion, they did not recognise Him. He had to reassure them that it was He. He invited doubting Thomas to draw closer to Him to be able to recognise Him. They did not recognise the Lord because He appeared to them in His ethereal body which they had no knowledge of and were not familiar with such phenomenon. If He had risen in His earthly body, their Lord and Master they had followed, they had related with, with Whom they ate and served for many years, it is inconceivable that they would not be able to recognise Him.

The immense pressure of the Light made even more intense by the approach of the Great Comet which we learn in higher knowledge spreading in these times awakens all that is dead or slumbering within mankind. In the process, the noble and the good are endued with strength. They rise higher in nobility and goodness and the evil-minded are worse in Luciferian practices. They are mindlessly evil—murderers, terrorists or kidnappers. Upheavals and separation thus ensue as features of the End-Time. Therefore, the expression refers not to all the dead but all that is dead in human beings. The body of the dead decays and goes back to dust. The soil it forms may, after many years, be cultivated for farming or excavated for building by a generation that has no knowledge of what constituted the soil.

Many are misled by the expression that it is given unto man to die but once to dismiss the concept of reincarnation. The choice for mankind is between salvation or damnation. The expression refers to spiritual death, to damnation— when a man has gone to perdition.This happens when the World of Matter goes into disintegration and human beings who have failed to ascend to the Light Region are caught in the disintegration. All they had tried to gain by way of self-consciousness for thousands of years are mangled in the disintegration, shattered and returned into spirit seeds in ever-lasting damnation. Since university education is the peak of learning, a person can be expelled after being adjudged by the authorities that he cannot benefit from university education! As I have said in these pages many times, life on earth is a school to mature, cultivate virtues of chastity, nobility and become self-conscious.

The knowledge of reincarnation is too wide spread in cultures of the different peoples of the world to at this stage warrant any controversy. Specific details and credentials of who is reincarnating we may not know. Veils are drawn over our eyes so we do not know our past; there may be traits here and there. We are denied knowing our past so that we do not work to the answer. Experiences of the epoch and tasks to discharge and overcome are what we need for atonement and development to firmly turn our gaze onto On High, to Paradise, our Home Above. There is not one single human being who is living on earth for the first time. Indeed, some have lived on this planet earth for more than 20 to 30 times. However cycle of the earth is closing, and with it limited privileges for repeated earth lives.