I was just wondering. How is it possible that with all of the billions of people in this world and in history, that God could have made each of us unique? For that to happen, wouldn't something along the lines of reincarnation of one's soul have to occur? It was just a thought. Also, in the Apostle's Creed when it says, pertaining to Jesus, "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." wouldn't this imply that he would have to be reincarnated in order to come back to life on earth?
-Juliana
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Dear Juliana,
Nice questions. If each of us have unique fingerprints, would not many aspects of our souls be unique? The soul is the "form of the body" so it would be unique according to each bodies singularity beginning with the set of chromosomes we receive when our father's sperm joins with our mother's ovum.
Sometimes people look at the soul as something we possess, like a bank account. However, the soul is our very self, each unique. That's why the soul could not be reincarnated into some other embryo to begin all over again. What is the "I" which would be starting a new life?
Jesus would not need to be re-incarnated because he never stopped being incarnated. Or better put it was only a short time his soul was separated from his body. When he ascended into heaven he took his humanity as well as his divinity, his risen body as well as his soul.
When we die our souls will be separated from our bodies, but not to born again in some different human being, but to be eventually given back a new body on the day of the final resurrection. St. Paul describes this as best he can in the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians.
God bless, Juliana.
Fr. Bloom
P.S. While reincarnation is very attractive - seductively so for people today - please do not bet everything on the possibility of being reborn in some other body. Jesus makes it clear this life is serious and the choices we make will determine whether we spend eternity in heaven or hell.
Christian who Believes in Reincarnation
Early Christian Teaching regarding Reincarnation
Praying to the Saints (Teaching of Bible & Church Fathers)
Mary, Mother of God (Bible & Early Church)
From Mystic Rose: What about John 1:21?