Surprised by Suffering: The Role of Pain and Death in the Christian Life by R. C. Sproul

Author:R. C. Sproul
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Future Life - Christianity, Death, Future Life, Eschatology, Family & Relationships, Bereavement, Grief, Religion, Suffering, Death - Religious Aspects - Christianity, Suffering - Religious Aspects - Christianity, Inspirational, Christian Theology
ISBN: 9781567691849
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
Published: 2009-10-15T23:42:42+00:00

We tend to wonder how things would be if we had the opportunity to live our lives over again. We wonder what changes we would make. Our dreams are tormented by the "what ifs" and the "might have beens" of life. We all carry a certain burden of unresolved guilt. A second trip through life offers the opportunity to atone for our sins, to make up for the failures and deficiencies of this life. The idea of repeated incarnations carries the hope of progress, the hope of rising higher and higher in our aspirations or our moral performance.

Yet reincarnation faces a massive difficulty that is rarely discussed among those who cling to this belief. It is the problem of continuity of conscious awareness.

I am a conscious human being. That consciousness includes a wonderful thing called memory. I remember experiences I had as a child. My memory bank stores a kind of knowledge of my personal history. Of course, some of these memories are unpleasant, while others are delightful. I am my personal history. I am not simply what I happen to do, think, or feel at this moment. I am the same human personality that opened toys on Christmas morning in 1943. Certainly there have been changes in my body, my thinking, my self since 1943. These changes continue as life continues. But there is a continuity of personality from the child of 1943 to the adult of the present.

Now suppose that this life is my third or fourth or hundredth incarnation. How much do I remember of my previous incarnations? In my case, the answer is simple: nothing. I have absolutely no recollection of any life experience prior to my birth. I realize that some people have tried to prove via hypnosis and other measures that they do possess some deeply buried vague memory of a previous life. These arguments appear to have more to do with imagination than genuine memory.

Do you remember living in this world before you were born? If not, then the dilemma is clear. Of what possible value is reincarnation if there is no conscious link between lives? If there is no continuity of consciousness, no memory whatever, how can we speak of personal continuity? If I continue to live after this life with no link of personal consciousness, will what follows really be me?

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