Mark Shutts Ministries
"Preaching and shewing the glad tidings
of the kingdom of God" Luke 8:1.
MY ANSWER by Mark Shutts
Mark attempts to answer every question that comes in to him. Though all can not be listed here we have posted the most relevant questions.
If you have a question that you would like answered you may send it to
Mark by email or postal mail by clicking on "contact us" on the home page.
Q:
Is reincarnation real?
NO! Reincarnation is a religious concept of the Hindus and Buddhists. They refer to it as "soul transmigration." It is a belief of the eternal birth-death-birth cycle where a persons soul moves from body to body. Each time they "reincarnate" into a new body (it can be a human body or an animal body) the status or importance of their next body is a direct result of the kind of life, (good or bad), that their soul led in its previous body. So if they lived a "good" life they believe it will result in a rebirth or reincarnation into a higher quality of life and if they lived a "bad" life then they are reincarnated into a lower life form. They base this belief on the law of "Karma" which is the foundation of Hinduism and the ultimate goal in this Karma cycle is for the soul to "progress" to the highest level of existence and "become one with the universe." Reincarnation is a sister religion to "pantheism" which is the belief that everything is God - the trees are God, the sky is God, the grass is God, people are God etc. Both of these, reincarnation and pantheism, are also the central doctrines and beliefs of occultism. What a belief in reincarnation does is that it provides the person with unlimited chances to "get life right." If they don't get it right this time then they can get it right in their next life, then the next life, then the next life and on and on. So, it doesn't really matter what you do in life, how much you sin, how much wrong you do, you can do whatever you want because you have unlimited lifetimes to make things right "whenever you feel like it." The belief of reincarnation goes against the entire teaching of the Bible. The Bible very clearly and concisely refutes the doctrine of reincarnation. The Bible says "it is appointed unto man to die ONCE, and after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Only one life. The Bible says that "the wages of sin is DEATH," (Romans 6:23) not chance after chance and life after life until you get it right. Reincarnation teaches that salvation is not from God through His Son Jesus Christ but rather that salvation is eventually attained by everyone once they have "perfected" themselves at the end of their Karma-based life cycle. It is a dangerous, deadly, heathenistic, paganistic and atheistic belief! Only through the Cross of Jesus Christ can we find perfect peace, and hope, and eternal life.
A:
Q:
What do you think about tattoos?
The Bible teaches that the world is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. All things belong to God. Even our body is not our own, “know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6: 19 & 20). Our body is the temple, or dwelling place, of the Holy Ghost. The apostle Paul calls our body “the temple of God,” I Corinthians 3: 16&17, and “the temple of the living God,” II Corinthians 6:16. We are commanded to yield our body and its members, as well as our soul, as instruments of righteousness to God, to His glory. Scripture instructs that we are not to defile this temple of God “you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh...nor print any marks upon you” Leviticus 19:28. Cuttings and markings in the flesh was a heathen practice in idol worship. The infinite love of God and the all-encompassing effectual power of the Cross is written in Christ’s shed blood upon the hearts of those who have made Him their personal Lord and Saviour. That is the only (if I may use the analogy) tattoo that we should bear.