18.  Can a Christian believe in reincarnation?

Summary:

•	The Gospels of Matthew and John include passages that some readers interpret as hints that Jesus accepted the idea of reincarnation.  We know that many early Christians believed in reincarnation, which they called transmigration of the soul.

•	Many reincarnation traditions teach that souls do not remember their past lives—a concept sometimes called the veil of forgetfulness.  This may explain why John the Baptist did not remember being Elijah, even as he was fulfilling Elijah’s prophesied mission.

•	Some early Christian theologians considered the idea of reincarnation as a Divine way for souls to achieve fairness and universal salvation.  Reincarnation would also mean the soul can exist before birth.

•	Gnostic Christians believed that the material world (Earth) was flawed and that souls might reincarnate repeatedly until they freed themselves from their materialist desires.

•	Medieval Christian groups including the Bogomils and Cathars also accepted reincarnation.  They were persecuted as heretics by the traditional Church.

•	Traditional Christian arguments against reincarnation are based on interpretations of Jesus’ death, on a clause in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and on the lack of explicit Gospel teachings about reincarnation.

•	The Christian Gospels never describe belief in reincarnation as sinful, and some Christians today accept reincarnation without adopting Gnostic beliefs.

Not only can a Christian believe in reincarnation, many Christians have, including in ancient times.  Early Christian communities included denominations called Gnostic Christians.  The word gnostic (pronounced NOSS-tick) comes from the Greek word gnostikós— γνωστικός —meaning special knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge.  Gnostic Christians were quite numerous in ancient times and many believed in reincarnation, which at that time was called transmigration of the soul. 

Traditional Christianity has long denied the existence of reincarnation, calling it heresy, but a belief in reincarnation is not a sin worthy of eternal damnation.  The ancient Roman Empire persecuted Christians for three centuries; the victims included Gnostic Christians.  If belief in reincarnation were supposedly a terrible sin, then the Gnostic Christians murdered by the Empire would not be martyrs but were damned to Hell, despite the fact that they died for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Gnostic Christians were not the only Christians to consider the possibility of reincarnation.  Several Christian theologians in ancient times also considered the possibility, and some were persuaded that reincarnation could exist.

Today, a number of Christians do believe in reincarnation, though most do not publicize their belief.  Moreover, many Christians who do not believe in reincarnation might be persuaded to if the leaders of their local churches were to treat the idea as acceptable. 

•  Hints of reincarnation in the Christian Gospels. 

The message of Jesus is to love your neighbor, love even your enemies, forgive all, support peace and non-violence, care for the poor, and develop a personal relationship with God.  That message does not require a belief in reincarnation.  Nonetheless, the Christian Gospels record that, on occasion, Jesus did say some things that can be interpreted as implying the existence of reincarnation.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus on two occasions strongly implies that John the Baptist is the reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah, who lived centuries earlier.  According to an ancient Jewish prophecy, Elijah will return to Earth just before the appearance of the Messiah.  In Matthew 11:14, Jesus says, “if you are willing to accept it, he [John the Baptist] is the Elijah who was to come.”  Later, in Matthew 17:10, the disciples ask Jesus if Elijah will return as prophesized.  The disciples receive this answer:

Related to those remarks by Jesus is a story in the Gospel of John.  John the Baptist was asked by a group of Jewish clerics if John himself is the Messiah.  John answered that he is not.  They then asked him if he is Elijah.  John answered that he is not.  Some readers have interpreted John’s second answer as evidence that reincarnation does not exist, but his answer might mean something quite different.  There is a phenomenon associated with reincarnation called the Veil of Forgetfulness.  The “veil” is symbolic: it refers to a reincarnated person not remembering (or not being allowed to remember) the person’s past lives.  The “veil” makes your actions in this present lifetime more authentic because your actions are based on whatever information you have at that moment, without the conscious benefit of your past lives.  In the case of John the Baptist, he knew that his mission was to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, but John did not know why he was chosen for that mission.  If John was once Elijah, the Veil of Forgetfulness prevented him from remembering that he was Elijah.  The Gospel story reveals that some important Jewish clerics (probably Pharisees) were at least aware of the idea of reincarnation because they asked him if he was Elijah, even though they knew that John called himself John, not Elijah.  That is not proof of reincarnation, but neither is it proof that reincarnation does not exist.  If reincarnation does exist and if the story is true, then the story reveals that not even John the Baptist remembered that he was Elijah in a past life, even as John was actively performing a mission that Elijah was meant to perform.

Another hint of reincarnation is the Gospel of John 9:1-3, when Jesus and his disciples encounter a man who was born blind.  The disciples ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Since the man was born blind, he could not have sinned before he was born—unless he sinned in a past life.  How the disciples phrased their question suggests that they were willing to consider the possibility of reincarnation.  They could have phrased their question differently, such as “Why was this man born blind?”  If reincarnation does not exist, their question was an opportunity for Jesus to correct them.  Jesus does not, however.  Instead, Jesus tells them that this man was born blind so that “the works of God might be displayed in him.”  The story ends with a miracle when the man’s eyes gain the ability to see. 

In addition to the New Testament, some early Christians had access to the ancient Gospel of Thomas, a list of sayings attributed to Jesus.  One saying states:

This saying suggests the existence of reincarnation.  It implies that you had past lifetimes in different bodies, which Jesus calls “your images which came into being before you.”  Those images, those past lives, do not “die” in the same way that people die on Earth because those past lives are now recorded in Heaven.  Yet, those lifetimes are no longer “made manifest” on Earth because they have physically ended.  You might be pleased with “your likeness” at present—in other words, pleased with your present lifetime and that image of yourself—but the saying then warns, in the form of a question, that your moral behavior in past lifetimes might upset you if you remembered those lifetimes.  Jesus asks, “how much will you bear?” 

•  Reincarnation in early Christian theologies. 

After Jesus and his disciples departed this world, Christian theologians became Christianity’s major thinkers and writers.  They studied the New Testament and other Christian documents like the Gospel of Thomas, and they also studied ancient Greek philosophy, which at that time was very popular.  They pondered what they had studied, tried to identify hidden meanings in the scriptures, and then published their ideas in essays, all of which were copied by hand because there were no printing presses in ancient times.  In the early years of Christianity, the religion was not unified.  There were many Christian communities and each one was somewhat different.  That resulted in a variety of ideas about God, about Jesus, his teachings, and other religious topics.  Christianity today is a very diverse religion, but ancient Christianity was probably even more diverse.

During the first few years after the crucifixion of Jesus, most Christians believed that the Second Coming of Christ would happen within months or perhaps a few years.  Instead, decades passed, and eventually centuries passed.  Meanwhile, many Christians were being murdered by the pagan Roman Empire.  So, a new idea emerged: if a Christian becomes a martyr, then the soul of that Christian would immediately join God in Heaven instead of having to wait in a grave until the Second Coming of Christ.  That idea reinforced the Christian belief that a person’s soul can exist outside of the person’s body, especially a dead body.  And if a soul can exist outside of a body, then perhaps a soul can transmigrate into another body, into a new body.  In other words, reincarnation might be possible.

Early Christian theologians also considered two related ideas: universal salvation and pre-existence of the soul.  Universal salvation is the idea that every person, without exception, will someday be accepted into Heaven; the Christian version of this idea is that everyone will accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.  The justification for this idea is that God desires to save everyone, without exception; nevertheless, God respects each person’s free will to not repent until the person chooses to.  If the person dies before repenting, however, how can the person repent in the future?  Transmigration of the soul (reincarnation) would solve this.  The soul is non-material.  If the soul can exist without a physical body, then perhaps the soul can exist before the body exists; this idea is called pre-existence of the soul.

In debating these ideas, some Christian theologians became persuaded in favor of reincarnation. 

Reincarnation has two additional benefits that a single lifetime cannot provide.  The first benefit is equality.  People are born into unequal circumstances: some people are born with more wealth, more beauty, better health, or better opportunities than other people.  Many people throughout history were born into slavery.  Many others died as infants.  Life is not fair, and that suggests that God is not fair.  Reincarnation removes the unfairness of having only one lifetime on Earth.  Through reincarnation, a soul can have a variety of lifetimes, some more painful than others, others more joyful, and the soul learns from all of them.

There is also the unfairness of eternal punishment in Hell for every soul whose sins prevent it from entering Heaven, even though not all sins are equal in severity.  After the judgment, why is God limited to only two choices, either Heaven or Hell?  For eternity?  Why for eternity when the average human lifetime is less than a hundred years?  Reincarnation would provide God with many more choices, perhaps infinitely more choices, and that makes reincarnation a solution worthy of God’s infinite power and creativity.

•  Gnostic Christianity. 

According to the Gospels, Jesus also warned against an obsession with money and materialism.  “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.  Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”   (Luke 12:15.)  “You cannot serve both God and money.”  (Matthew 6:24.)  Jesus also taught non-violence, which he emphasized in his Sermon on the Mount: “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.  If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.” (Luke 6:29.)

In interpreting these teachings from Jesus, many Gnostic Christians surmised that this world, this material world, is utterly wicked.  They considered it an evil illusion that must be escaped from.  Jesus, according to this belief, revealed the way to escape: love your neighbor, but abandon your emotional attachment to material things.

Gnostic Christianity consisted of several sects with several different theologies, some of which were quite complicated, but a common theme is that the material world is an illusion assembled by a Satanic being who is not God but who believes that he is God.  Gnostic Christians called that Satanic being the Demiurge.  They called the genuine God, the God worshipped by Jesus, the Monad, a Greek word that means “Unity” or “Single Entity.”  The Gnostics believed that God is perfect and beyond human comprehension and that all physical material came into existence from God’s consciousness.  From God’s consciousness also came some supernatural beings called Aeons, one of whom the Gnostic Christians called Sophia, the Greek word for “Wisdom.”  Sophia is deeply devoted to God, and she wanted to know God more deeply by creating something grand.  She did so without God’s permission, however, and from her consciousness came the Demiurge.  The Demiurge could not create a world, and so he assembled an imperfect world using the physical material created by God’s consciousness. 

Distance, whether physical or spiritual, is a variable in this Gnostic theology.  The more distance there is between God and something else, the less perfect that something else is, according to this theology.  Sophia is close to God but she is not God and, therefore, she is not perfect like God.  The Demiurge created by her consciousness is even less perfect, and more distant from God.  The most distant physical material created by God’s thoughts later combined into less and less perfect versions of the original.  That imperfect material is what the Demiurge used to assemble his imperfect world.  And because he assembled it, the Demiurge assumed that he must be God.  Ruling over his imperfect material world, the Demiurge became the ultimate egotist.

Reincarnation is the reason why this version of the Creation story mattered to many Gnostic Christians.  According to this theology, humans are souls trapped inside human bodies deceived by the material world assembled by the Demiurge.  Humans have a Divine essence (their souls) which they received from God and Sophia, but because their bodies were assembled by the Demiurge instead of created by God (the Monad), humans are not complete or pure.  Humans can become pure when their souls reject materialism as Jesus did and, when their bodies die, their souls become complete by joining God.  If, however, they remain obsessed with materialism and the ego, then their souls upon death could be reincarnated into human bodies again, still trapped in the imperfect material world of the Demiurge.  Many Gnostic Christians treated reincarnation as almost a punishment for not freeing oneself from the materialism of a phony world.

Gnostic Christians found some support for their beliefs in the Holy Bible.  In the Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs, the trait of Wisdom is portrayed as a woman, known in Hebrew as Hokmah— חָכמָה —which means Wisdom, or Sophia in Greek.  Wisdom is devoted to God and she demands to be heard: “Out in the open, Wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square… I, Wisdom, dwell together with Prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion.  To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.  Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power. …The LORD brought me forth as the first of His works, before His deeds of old… Then I was constantly at his side.  I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence…’”  (Book of Proverbs 1:20-21, 8:12-14, 8:22 and 8:30.)

Many Gnostic Christians believed that the Demiurge is mentioned in the New Testament’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (Second Epistle to the Corinthians 4:4.)

The existence of Gnostic Christianity shows that different versions of Christianity are possible, even when using the Holy Bible.  And despite the obvious differences between Gnostic Christianity and traditional Christianity, there are some similarities.  Both versions emphasize the importance of Jesus Christ and his teachings of love, forgiveness, non-violence, and of not becoming obsessed with materialism.  Both versions believe that God sent Jesus to free humankind from an enemy, whether called Satan or the Demiurge, an enemy that is fundamentally the ego.  Ancient Greek philosophy influenced traditional Christianity and it influenced Gnostic Christianity.  To outsiders, the behavior of most Gnostic Christians and of traditional Christians looked quite similar, including devotion to the fundamental teachings of Jesus.  Most of the early Christians, whether Gnostic or traditional, were not obsessed with possessions and materialism.  The ideal was to live as an ascetic, usually including celibacy.  Many Gnostics believed that producing children would trap more souls in human bodies.  (There were some exceptions.  A few Gnostic Christians chose to be sexually promiscuous, claiming that if this world is an illusion, then their sexual behavior is not morally important.)

Gnostic Christianity did not emphasize the crucifixion of Jesus, but neither did the Didache, an ancient instruction probably written by Jewish Christians for new Christians.  In early Christianity, women could become bishops, and some did until Pope Gelasius objected in the fifth century, and the traditional Church became much more misogynist.  By contrast, Gnostic Christianity treated men and women as equals, believing that all people were souls trapped in human bodies. 

Despite teaching celibacy, some Gnostic Christian communities survived for several centuries.  Those communities eventually disappeared as traditional Christianity became more politically powerful.  However, centuries later, in medieval Europe, many ideas associated with Gnostic Christianity reappeared. 

In the tenth century, in Macedonia, which at that time was part of the First Bulgarian Empire, a Christian sect led by a priest named Bogomil adopted beliefs very similar to the ancient Gnostic Christians, including reincarnation.  Called the Bogomils, their beliefs spread throughout southeastern Europe and eventually into parts of Turkey, Ukraine, Italy, and France.  Traditional churches called them heretics and they were occasionally persecuted, but some communities of the Bogomils survived into the fourteenth century.

In southern France, from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, a sect probably related to the Bogomils became especially popular.  We now call them the Cathars, pronounced KAT-hars, but they preferred to call themselves “Good Christians.”  Much like the ancient Gnostics, the specific beliefs of the Cathars varied per community but usually included reincarnation.  Within two centuries, the Cathars in France became so numerous that the Pope, calling them heretics, ordered a military campaign against them.  That war was called the Albigensian Crusade, the only crusade in medieval times that was waged in Europe instead of in the Middle East.  It lasted nearly twenty years.  It murdered approximately one million Cathars, many of them burned alive.  (Many died willingly in a form of martyrdom.)  Compared to the number of Christians murdered by the Roman Empire, the Albigensian Crusade murdered several times more. 

In ancient times and in medieval times, Gnostic Christianity attracted followers whenever the traditional Church was perceived as hypocritical.  After traditional Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 C.E., the Church became increasingly political, more powerful, more materialistic, and less and less like the example of Christ.  Gnostic Christians were always a minority among Christians, but Gnostic Christian communities were locally oriented, known for valuing integrity, they were not materialistic, and they tried to live as simply as Christ had lived.  They also portrayed God as more loving and less petty than the traditional Church did.  They said the harsh God of the Old Testament was the Demiurge, not the genuine God worshipped by Jesus.  Dismissing the importance of the Old Testament made Gnostic Christianity less Jewish, but the Christianity of Orthodoxy and of Roman Catholicism were not very Jewish either.  Gnostic Christians treated everyone as equals, including women.  The traditional Church said that everyone is equal in the sight of God, but the Church itself often treated people quite differently based upon a person’s wealth, power, family, and social position.  For Christians disenchanted with the traditional Church, Gnostic Christianity offered an alternative, including an explanation for an unfair world.  Gnostic Christianity had no Church standing between the human soul and God.  And although the Gnostics considered the possibility of reincarnation a bad outcome, it was a better outcome than eternal damnation.

•  Some Christian arguments against reincarnation. 

In traditional Christianity today, opposition to the idea of reincarnation largely depends on three arguments.  The first argument is that if Jesus Christ died from crucifixion to atone for the sins of humankind, then why would reincarnation exist?  Conceivably, a terrible sinner could continue to sin for many lifetimes with no incentive to repent until the sinner chooses to, perhaps after hundreds or thousands of years.  (That is not how reincarnation works, according to many NDE testimonies, but the early Christians didn’t know that.)  Universal salvation implies that, someday, even Satan himself might be redeemed.  That idea outraged many Christians in ancient times.  In the year 553 C.E., at the Second Council of Constantinople, the Christian Emperor Justinian condemned the idea of pre-existence of the soul.  His action demonstrates that an idea closely related to reincarnation—pre-existence of the soul—was still causing controversy in the traditional Church more than five centuries after the death of Jesus. 

Justinian’s action also shows how very political the Church had become.  The idea was condemned by an Emperor, not by the Pope.  Pope Vigilius was under arrest because the Emperor Justinian was making Church decisions without the Pope’s consent.  Vigilius himself had become Pope after the previous one was deposed by one of Justinian’s generals.  The Emperor ruled from Constantinople in Turkey while Pope Vigilius resided in Rome in Italy.  After Vigilius disagreed with some of Justinian’s religious decrees, Justinian had Vigilius abducted and brought to Constantinople.  Eventually, Pope Vigilius agreed to what the Emperor wanted.  Vigilius died during his journey back to Rome.

Centuries earlier, when the Didache was being written and perhaps earlier than that, many of the early Christians did not interpret the crucifixion in the same way that many Christians do today.  For those early Christians, they called Jesus Christ their Savior not because of his death but because of how he lived his life and the lessons he taught.  He associated death with hatred, resentment, pettiness, the psychological slavery of materialism, and the temptations of this world. 

In the Gospels of Mark and Luke, Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see…the Kingdom of God…”  (Mark 9:1, Luke 9:27.)  That was two millennia ago.  Either Jesus was lying or alluding to reincarnation, or he was associating death with sinful behavior and associating life with liberation from sin.  Reincarnation does not prevent the Second Coming of Christ.  Reincarnation does not mean that morality, forgiveness, and faith are not essential.  Reincarnation can be interpreted as another opportunity to become a better person before the Second Coming.

The second Christian argument against reincarnation involves a clause (not even an entire sentence) in the New Testament’s Epistle to the Hebrews:

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is unknown.  In the several Epistles written by the Apostle Paul, he identifies himself by name, but the author of Hebrews is anonymous.  Furthermore, the grammar of Hebrews is noticeably different from Paul’s style, even in translation.  Paul’s Epistles are less formal and more conversational in style.  Scholars of the Greek language have called the Epistle to the Hebrews the most eloquent book in the New Testament. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews was written to persuade Jewish Christians to remain faithful to Jesus as the Messiah, instead of renouncing him and reverting to being Jews without Jesus.  Not all Christian theologians agree with the Epistle’s arguments, however, and it uses some terminology that many Christians today would consider strange, such as calling Jesus a High Priest.  The Epistle implies that if a Christian ever renounces the Christian faith, even under persecution, then that person can never be forgiven (Hebrews 6:4-6).  This directly contradicts a parable that Jesus told, the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and so the Epistle is not entirely reliable as a source of what Jesus taught and meant.

Furthermore, the Epistle’s clause implying that reincarnation does not exist may mean something quite different.

The clause is part of a longer sentence: “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  (Hebrews 9:27-28.)

According to many NDE reports, the soul, after the death of its body, experiences a life review.  Then the moral conduct of the soul throughout that lifetime is judged; that is the purpose of a life review.  The clause in Hebrews can be interpreted to mean that a person’s lifetime will be judged after death, which means judged in its entirety, including any times when the person was not religiously faithful.  The clause implies that a Christian should never stray from the Christian faith because judgment cannot be escaped from, not even after death.  Yet, the wording of the clause does not exclude the possibility of living another lifetime (after reincarnation), followed by another judgment after that lifetime.  The full quote says that Jesus Christ was sacrificed only once “to take away the sins of the many.”  Presumably, the “many” includes generations before and also generations to come.  This interpretation does not exclude the possibility of souls being reincarnated into future generations.

The Epistle was written at a time when the early Christians, especially Jewish Christians, believed that the Second Coming of Christ was almost imminent.  Presumably, they believed that if they died before it occurred, the Second Coming was still so near that their dead bodies and souls would not wait in their graves for long.  Since the Resurrection was expected so soon, reincarnation would seem to be unnecessary.  The author of the Epistle likely never imagined that, instead of soon, thousands of years would pass before the Second Coming.  Today, devout Christians believe that the soul after death is judged immediately and therefore can enter Heaven immediately, but this belief is not what the ancient scriptures say.  Christians gradually adopted this belief because the idea of a good soul doing nothing but waiting in a grave for thousands of years is unfair, and unworthy of a loving God. 

Theologians in early Christianity had the entire New Testament, and they studied it thoroughly.  This clause in Hebrews did not deter them from pondering universal salvation and the possibility of reincarnation. 

A third argument against reincarnation is that the New Testament’s four Gospels lack any substantial discussion of reincarnation.  Matthew and John contain only hints which might have explanations other than reincarnation.  When John the Baptist is equated with Elijah, that comparison might be only symbolic, not a case of reincarnation.  When John was asked if he is Elijah, he denied it.  This argument against reincarnation ignores the Veil of Forgetfulness; but if reincarnation does not exist, then there is no Veil of Forgetfulness.  (Furthermore, Elijah may not have died a physical death.  In the Old Testament’s Second Kings 2:11, Elijah was alive when a fiery chariot within a whirlwind lifted him to Heaven, although this description might be metaphorical.)  

If reincarnation exists, why did Jesus not explain the process?  One possible answer is that reincarnation is not central to his message.  The teachings of Jesus focus on a few priorities, such as the importance of forgiveness.  If Jesus had made reincarnation a primary teaching, that choice might have obscured the importance of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a moral virtue.  Reincarnation is not.  The Gospel of Matthew at least implies the possibility of reincarnation.  None of the Gospels record Jesus as ever declaring that reincarnation does not exist.  Had he directly denied its existence, the theologies of Gnostic Christians might never have emerged.

•  Is it sinful to believe in reincarnation? 

The possibility that Jesus believed in reincarnation has fed a suspicion since at least the twentieth century that the ancient Church removed some references to reincarnation from the original Gospels.  Unfortunately, the physical evidence we have today is not definitive one way or the other.  The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were probably written during the first century, but no originals have survived.  We do know that those Gospels were altered in later centuries and we also know some of the alterations, but we do not know if any references to reincarnation were removed because we have no originals.  The Gospels of Matthew and John do contain some intriguing hints that Jesus may have believed in reincarnation, but those hints are not absolute proof.  We have some complete copies of the New Testament, but those copies were scribbled in the fourth century, approximately 300 years after Jesus.  From the second century we have only fragments of the New Testament.  We know that Gnostic Christians had some religious scriptures of their own, some from the second century, but any originals from the first century have not survived.  The Didache probably dates to the first century, but we have no originals of that either.  Irenaeus of Lyons may have been the first Christian theologian to denounce Gnostic Christianity as heresy, but his book Contra Haereses (“Against Heresies”) was not written until the second century.  So, while the first century of Christianity was remarkably important, we have remarkably little evidence from it.

From near-death experiencers, we have testimonies that describe reincarnation—and many of those testimonies are from Christians.  (We also have testimonies from some Christian children who seem to have memories of past lives, despite their Christian parents not teaching them about reincarnation.)  If such testimonies are true, then we now have more information about reincarnation, and about life reviews, and about moral accountability, than was known to most Christians in ancient times.  So, perhaps the traditional arguments against Christian reincarnation are no longer as persuasive as they once were. 

A Christian today can believe in reincarnation without believing in any version of Gnostic Christianity.  There is no requirement for a Christian to believe in reincarnation.  There is no requirement for a Christian to believe in an afterlife.  If you truly love your neighbor without believing in an afterlife, then your behavior is probably closer to the example of Jesus than to believe in an afterlife but without loving your neighbor.  The Gospels of Matthew and John (and Thomas) contain hints suggesting the existence of reincarnation.  A number of Jewish theologians believe that the Old Testament likewise contains hints suggesting the existence of reincarnation.  Perhaps all of those hints can be explained away, but this fact remains: the Christian Gospels never portray a belief in reincarnation as sinful.