The Difference Between Reincarnation and the Resurrection

There are two important concepts pertaining to the spiritual life that often become confused and thought of interchangeably. These are reincarnation and the resurrection. Though each of these concepts speaks of an extension of this present lifetime and a future venue for the expression of one’s further spiritual evolution, other than this similarity they have little in common. And it is important to correctly differentiate between them, if we would gain the light of understanding that leads to the unlocking of our fullest potential.

Jesus spoke often of the resurrection, but he never even mentioned reincarnation. And this was not just an oversight on his part. It was not a statement on his part that reincarnation was not a part of human life. Rather the fact was that he simply was not concerned about reincarnation. But he was vitally concerned for his followers to attain to the resurrection. Why was this? Because reincarnation happens to all of us without any need for concern. But the resurrection happens only for those who do the spiritual work that qualifies them. For the one camp, the path is common and well-trod. For the other camp, the path is narrow and few there are that actually go the distance. So let us look more closely at how these two concepts came into being and how they determine one’s individual destiny.

Human beings were created with a very special faculty that no other creature in our universe has—an endowment of spiritual consciousness. This individual endowment is neither human nor biological in its makeup. Rather it is divine, spiritual, and never dies. It is, in fact, a little part of God Himself, in the same way that a thimble full of ocean water is made of the same stuff as the ocean itself. And though this faculty can seem to us to be only an insignificant part of our human makeup, it is, in actuality, the most amazing and awe-inspiring part of us and on its account human beings have the potential to experience life in its fullest form. As the New Testament proclaims: “God made us a little lower than the angels, crowning us with glory and honor and putting everything under our feet.” (Hebrews 2:7).

When we came forth in creation we had this faculty within us, but it had yet to be known or felt. It had yet to be activated. In this sense then, it was as if we did not have it at all, and not surprisingly, this rendered human life largely indistinguishable from the other creatures in our universe. We were perhaps biologically superior on some levels, but we were in no way set apart or divine. Rather we too were controlled by biological impulses and animalistic urges—an orientation to life that rendered us more like animals than spiritual beings.

What this means is that while we had well-developed brains, we had no special capacity for the kind of knowledge that we now take for granted—knowledge that concerns itself with the high mysteries of creation and universal reality. We could problem-solve and use our minds as tools of survival, but without consciousness our normal thought processes were far from enlightened and elevated. They were mundane, utilitarian, and void of inspiration. This then was how we knew ourselves—a relatively superior creature but certainly not divine or set apart.

But God turned out to be a god of many surprises. How? Over time something monumental began to happen to our species. The faculty of spiritual consciousness within us that had been lying dormant began to stir and awaken. Was this a case of God doing something new as it concerned mankind? Not at all. Rather it was our created makeup acting on cue according to evolutionary instincts. In other words, when God created us with this divine endowment of consciousness it was programmed to evolve and awaken all on its own volition—not as a matter of happenstance but of science. It only took time and the right environmental conditions. This is how the law of evolution works in general, and we see this law at work in many other aspects of creation besides our species.

But again, this was an evolutionary expression unlike any other. Many life forms were created with evolutionary instincts, but no other form was created with the high destiny of glory, honor, and universal dominion. What this meant was that our awakening to our faculty of spiritual consciousness had a very specific purpose and outworking. Not only was its timing governed by scientific evolutionary law; so was its destiny. In other words, our awakening was not the fruition of our evolutionary thrust; it was only the beginning.

All this was happening according to universal created law. That is how God works. Nothing is left to chance. Rather the evolutionary outworking in our human experience was not only known; it was scheduled. God knew that eventually mankind would awake and evolve—that we would, in essence, become like a new creature. For when our endowment of consciousness became activated it drastically changed the way we perceive and experience life. It became the most prominent aspect of our being, taking command of our psychic field and impacting not only our behavior but our subtle motives as well.

The Bible tells us that this activation or awakening of consciousness happened first to one man. But the history of this age clearly shows that from that one man our entire species was impacted and transformed. From the day Adam went forth from the Garden of Eden mankind was a new creation. The species of Homo sapiens that had once roamed the earth was gone and a new man was there in its place. That is why we, as a species, have become defined not by an ancient biological lineage but rather by a relatively short age of time that measures approximately six thousand years. Biologically, there was evidence of continuation with the human version that lived prior to Adam. But the awakening of consciousness changed us so radically that our biological connection no longer carried any weight. That is why the Bible makes the apparently unscientific claim that mankind (and all creation for that matter) is only six thousand years old. For all intents and purposes, the Bible is right. Human life, as we now know it, is as young as the Bible claims it is. And when human life changed, so did the rest of creation.

Pre-Adam life might still apply to us in terms of biological created makeup, but other than that there is no connection or continuation. And the event that severed this connection was the awakening of an evolutionary faculty within us that had always been there—the faculty of spiritual consciousness. After this awakening we could perhaps imagine what human life was like previously, but we could no longer relate. Why is this? Because the awakening of our faculty of consciousness made us into spiritual beings with little biological emphasis. True, we still function as biological creatures on some level. We eat, sleep, procreate, etc. But these functions no longer define us. If anything, they pose a bother and a nuisance to us that most of us would prefer to be done with. And amazingly, if we continue to evolve, we probably will.

Post Adam human life has been defined by the working of spiritual consciousness, even if some of us are not aware of this. Consciousness with its evolutionary impetus is now our source for all motive and choice. It impacts our thoughts, emotions, physicality, and outlook. These are aspects that many of us have become or are in the process of becoming aware of, but there are also many other aspects that we have yet to fully integrate and come into. In many ways we tend to sell ourselves short in our life-view. In our Adamic state, in which we are bound by a blind attachment to our dualistic mental workings and a largely emotional sense of separation, we struggle along in life and allow a convenient collective narrative to shape our reality view. But this is like living half the life we are capable of living. As Jesus so poignantly said, most of us live as if we were blind, meaning that we miss so much of what is really going on in and around us. But this is not an indictment against spiritual consciousness. Rather it can be explained simply by this faculty’s evolutionary quality. In other words, we are only living half a life because we have only evolved half the way home. As the scriptures proclaim, up until now we have been perceiving life as if through a glass darkly but one day we will see clearly who we are and what we are capable of.

Meanwhile, God not only created us with this evolutionary function but has also seen to it that we would evolve in spite of our own ignorance and recalcitrance. This was accomplished through universal law. How does it work? Each one of us has been assigned a karmic guide to bring into our path the experiences we need to grow. True, we may not always profit from these experiences as we should. But they are there and they happen. All we have to do is to allow them to register in our consciousness, so that we can fully integrate their meaning. It is up to us to become aware, and then our endowment of consciousness will do the rest.

But there is another aspect to all this that can be problematic, and that aspect is time. Evolving in consciousness requires time, no matter how you look at it. Why? Because we need time to experience our karmic lessons, as well as time to process them and let them work their transformative magic. Moreover, a human biological lifespan tends to be relatively short in duration. And that is where reincarnation comes in. By law, our karmic guide does its work, and by law it determines how long that work will take. It is rare indeed for a human being that is evolving in consciousness to finish the program in one lifetime. Eventually, there does come an end to this karmic design, but most of us are still far from reaching that point. And so, we die our biological deaths, only to be reborn in new biological vessels. The power that governs this is also constrained by law. It is the power of karmic law combined with the scientific impetus of consciousness evolution. It is, in essence, a divine program, in which human beings are harvested for a new age and a new world to come. And despite the fact that most of us are not even aware that this is going on, it is a program that has been in operation since the day Adam went forth from the Garden. And it is a program that works flawlessly.

And so, we come to see that reincarnation is an integral part of this program. It is both necessary and enduring. But it is not forever. Rather it is operating in service to the harvest program. And when harvest time comes, karma will cease, as will reincarnation. Meanwhile, harvest time comes in two ways: one, it comes individually, and two, it comes cosmically. When we, as individuals, have reached the fulfillment of the program, we stand ready to be harvested. It is as though we are fully cooked. When that is our individual status, both karma and reincarnation cease for us. But there will also be a cosmic end to the program at some point. This cosmic fruition has been decreed by God and will come at a time that none of us can know. On that day, however, it will be understood by all that this has been the age of harvest and either we have qualified to go forward into the New Age or we have not. This is what the resurrection is all about.

Those who have reached the end of their karmic association during this age with the help of many incarnations are those who have qualified for the resurrection. They have evolved in consciousness into the Christ state and through this evolvement have qualified for life in the New Age of the Christ. This individualistic aspect of harvest has been operational since the beginning of this present age, and this has necessitated the phenomenon of the resurrection. Why? Because the cosmic end to the harvest program has not yet taken place. When it does, all karma will cease, all reincarnation will cease, and with these outworkings will come the end of the Age of Adam. But suppose that a reincarnating individual finished the program a thousand years ago. At that time not only was the cosmic decree nowhere near taking place, but also for that individual biological death factored in to the equation—a death that none of us in this age has been able to skirt around. So, that individual was ready for the New Age, but the New Age was not ready for him or her. And so, God made a provision for this situation. And that provision is the resurrection. Individuals who have evolved and finished the karmic program die biologically, but they do not perish. Rather they are preserved, not for another incarnation but for the resurrection until the day that the cosmic program is completed. Thus, they have finished with reincarnation and instead have been entrusted to the safe-keeping of the resurrection.

We might then think of the resurrection as a sort of barn, in which the good harvest of God can be stored until the end of the age. And because this barn is a spiritual reality beyond the scope of biological human life, it can never be assailed or infiltrated. Moreover, it is not bound by the physical laws of time and space. Those who have been harvested for the resurrection can never die again, not even biologically. They are kept and preserved in perfect condition, as they wait for the ultimate decree to come forth and repopulate the earth in the New Age—that is, the Age of the Christ.