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Big Red Words

When I was a child, there were two big words that I was aware of:

They were big words. I knew they were religious words. And, if words have a color, their color was 'red'. Red Carnation One had two red-like sounds, and the other had a big red flower planted in the middle of it. I didn't know what the words meant; I just knew they were big, religious, and red. And, when I grew older and learned their meanings a little more, the words seemed to be interchangeable, just two sides of the same 'death' coin. And the words became redder. With death and birth, there was definitely blood involved.

I finally came to understand that the words are rivals. They are mutually exclusive. One to another, they are enemies.

In today's world of ideas, reincarnation, the transmigration of souls, is winning against its rival. There is little or no stigma associated with the idea. In fact, it is a cool, up-to-date, east-meets-west religious concept. There is an after-death hope of sorts. It fits with the modern outlook of progress and evolution. And there is no need for a personal God. With reincarnation, if there is a God, he is the great energy of all souls progressing to an ultimate nirvana.

Resurrection, on the other hand, is battered by its red-word rival. It is a backward, Bible-thumping concept. It is 'owned' by Jesus Christ. God is front and center. It is a one-time proposition, and there is judgment involved. In today's social settings, reincarnation beats resurrection every time.

I had a conversation with a friend recently who believes in reincarnation. She found it so much easier to understand how reincarnation might work. Your body dies, and your soul migrates to another body being born. No hocus-pocus with that, just spirits moving from here to there. But with resurrection, you have the rebuilding of a particular body and a soul? Out of nothing? Out of dust? And I agreed, it is harder to believe. It seems highly unlikely — unless, of course, there was an all-powerful, all-personal God involved.

Mat 22:29 : Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Joh 11:25 : ... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Act 26:8 : Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

Heb 9:27-28 : 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.