Dick Fischer wrote:
"For one who takes the Bible more literally than most, I think possibly we have a hint when Christ said, “You must be born again.”
Might this mean continual opportunities? I saw this when it aired on ABC. This is the story in the Daily Courier:"
The Buddhists believe that you come back around and around until you reach the Bodhisattva (Bossatsu in Japanese) or the supposed Buddha (or Nyorai in Japanese) where you are something akin to a god. I just write the Japanese terms because I don't really know enough about the religion as a whole aside from what I have learned here in Japan and exactly how it corresponds is not really something I feel inclined to say much about. At any rate, with thousands of writings and an equal number of effective "sects", is quite complicated to exactly define things in such all to simplistic summaries in an email, but that is something of the essence.
However, I reckon that if we are so far from God on one time around, we wouldn't get there any better the second time around. Just as Abraham says to the rich man (Luke 16:31), "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead". I think this is the condition we all stand in without Grace. Even if it is true that we go in a cycle, which there is no claim in scripture suggesting it, but even if it is true, we will surely not hear and we will not listen no matter how many times we go around the circle. But it is probably worse than that. Were I to come back for that next "chance", I'd expect for all the things I've done, I'd come back as a snail, or a worm or a roach. I don't really think you can climb the ladder, the only direction is down down down. Whether one life and its difficult circumstances or many, only Christ has the power to pull any of us out of the spiraling cycle down.
By Grace we proceed,
Wayne (ASA member)
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Received on Sat Nov 3 21:20:15 2007
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