Friend --- This is something I found on the Internet a while back and thought it had some interesting points.........................I didn't write this. At thus point I don't know where it's from,but its a good thing to have handy if you're trying to make a point to some conventional Christians.....Wynn

     On this page we will quote some Scripture verses, examine them, ask some questions and make a few comments. We are not making any dogmatic conclusions, nor are we trying to set forth any changes in interpretations of the Scriptures. The purpose is to get Christians to think. The challenge is to go beyond what you have been taught and see for yourself what the Bible says.

Malachi 4:5 - Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

     What did the Bible mean when it says that "I will send you Elijah the Prophet?" Is this a physical return? Is Elijah going to return in the same body that he had when he was here on earth? Or is it talking about his soul returning in another body? Is this talking about the reincarnation of Elijah?

Matthew 17:9-13 - And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?' And Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.' Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

     Was John the Baptist the return of Elijah the prophet? It certainly seems the disciples understood that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah the prophet.

Matthew 11:13, 14 - For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, which was to come.

     Jesus made a plain statement about John the Baptist when he said he was the return of Elijah.  

Luke 9:7, 8 - Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead; and of some that Elijah had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, "John have I beheaded: but who is this of whom I hear such things?" and he desired to see Him.

     Doesn't it seem that reincarnation was a common belief in Biblical days? Did Herod believe that Jesus was the return of John the Baptist? Did others believe that He was one of the prophets reincarnated?  

John 9:1-3 - And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked him, saying, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents; that he was born blind?"

     This verse is very interesting in that the disciples asked a pertinent question. They said "who sinned, this man or his parents that caused him to be born blind." How could this man sin before he was born blind? Isn't it conventional Christian thinking to believe that his birth is the beginning for him? Why did they ask if he had sinned before he was born? Is it possible that he had a life before this one, and now the disciples believe he could have done something bad in a previous life and is now having to pay for it?

Matthew 16:13, 14 - When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" And they said, "some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some Elijah; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets."

     Again, it appears that it was a common belief in those days that personalities did re-appear in other bodily forms. Elijah and Jeremiah had lived hundreds of years before. And now the people thought that Jesus may be the return of one of them.

The purpose of this article is not to get you to change your mind, or to shoot holes in your favorite doctrines, nor to cause controversy, but to cause you to stop and consider what the Bible really says. If you really believe the Bible, then believe it all.