KARMA is a concept almost everyone has heard of and almost everyone, who is not Hindu or Buddhist, misunderstands. People think of Karma in terms of some form of reactionary backlash for some bad deed committed. If someone does something that others disapprove of and something negative happens to that person shortly thereafter, the common consensus is that the negative circumstance was a result of something called “bad karma”. But this just goes to show how falsehood can be seen as true if enough people repeat it.
Someone once said, that if you repeat a lie long enough and loudly enough, people are going to begin to believe it.
It’s pretty much like the myth of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Millions quote it and millions believe it. Yet the multitudes who accept it as true got their information from the crowd and not from the word of God. Having said that, more than likely, everything you think you know about karma is false.
On social media, there are videos dedicated to the theme of what many consider to be bad karma. examples being, rude and inconsiderate drivers, who eventually get pulled over by the police; road rage drivers who pick fights with other drivers only to realize, when the other driver gets out of his car, that he is near twice their size. You know. That sort of thing. Recently, in New York City, a man jumped the turnstile, tripped and fell, and smashed his head on the ground. He was rushed to the hospital but eventually had to be taken off life support. That was a very unfortunate accident, but was it bad karma? The answer, surprisingly, is no.
A close relative of the karma concept is the thought that “What goes around, comes around”. An interesting concept, that is closer to the truth. The only problem is that this formula is applied in a very one-sided manner. Meaning that most, if not all, of those who quote it, do so only when someone does something to them to which they object. “You did me wrong. Remember, that what goes around, comes around.” But what happens when that person does bad things to others? Is it still true that what goes around comes around? So it’s a quote of convenience. Retribution is standing by to serve as an attack dog for the person offended but never when they themselves offend others.
The reason why so many cannot see that this statement is a double-edged sword is because of a little-recognized malfunction of soul that causes “every way of a man [to be] right in his own eyes (Prov 21:2). This is why someone can object to another person’s behavior and yet see nothing wrong when they themselves do the same or worse.
The concept of “what goes around come around” is very close to that of someone reaping what they sow. The reap and sow concept is more than a mere saying. It is something you do not want to ignore. Look closely and you will see that this is not a saying that men made up. The concept comes from the very mouth of God. In fact, this is what the verse says exactly:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. - Galatians 6:7
Notice that it warns us, to “be not deceived”. In other words, “Stop deceiving yourself into thinking you can mock God and get away with it.” Is it warning us to avoid bad karma? No, it isn’t. Karma, bad or otherwise, does not exist. Karma is a cunningly devised fable based on a corruption of an important Biblical truth. Do not allow the serpent to beguile you. The process of sowing and reaping is a process personally overseen and monitored by Almighty God. In other words, God himself is monitoring the outcome to make certain that the sower reaps the reward they deserve. This is why the Bible warns us not to deceive ourselves into thinking that we can sidestep, or avoid, the outcome. Let us look at a few passages of Scripture:
- Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. – Job 4:8 (Please note that this is something Job said he “has seen”.
- Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. – Prov 1:31 (Note: their “own way” and their “own devices”
- For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways – Job 34:11. NB: “render” is a form of “payback”
You may ask, how is this different from Karma? Let me explain. In the mind of the Hindu, his present life is like one link on a long chain made up of lives that are past, present, and future. In the mind of the Hindu, his present conditions and his current quality of life is as a direct result of his actions and dispositions in past lives. The life he or she is experiencing now is as a direct result of how good or bad he/she was in a past life (going forward, I will use the generic “he”).
Please look closely. Karma, supposedly, affects you in subsequent lifetimes. Karma does not kick in during your current life span. Karma is waiting to impose either reward or retribution in the life to come based on your behavior in this life. Based on your character in this life cycle, you will be rewarded with a body that corresponds to your behavior or true disposition. In other words, Karma rewards or punishes you with a body that corresponds to what you deserve, and the body you deserve in the next life is based on your attitude, behavior, and mindset in this life. In other words, you will not feel the effects of Karma in this life. You must first experience death and rebirth. It is at the point of rebirth that Karma kicks in. Got it?
Karma is permanently attached to reincarnation. So the body into which you were “incarnated” and the particular circumstances into which you were born, whether healthy or sickly, rich or poor, are all a direct result of who you were and how you behaved in a past life. There are Hindu sects that teach that, if you ate meat in this life, you will reincarnate as some form of carnivore in the life to come. This could be a dog, or tiger, or any such animal. And you will continue through the endless cycles of birth, death, and rebirth until you qualify, behavior-wise, to come back as a human being, as humans are the highest order on the ladder of reincarnated souls.
Of course, among the humans of mankind, the Brahmins, the priestly caste, are the most advanced souls, or atmans. The soul that has attained to the highest order would be referred to as a Maha atman, or, great soul. The most famous of the “great souls” is the highly respected Mahatma Gandhi. But this is where the Karma concept breaks down. First of all HInduism teaches that souls are sort of “lined up” awaiting rebirth. Not only that, but all souls about to be reborn actually choose the parents who are going to give birth to them. Gandhi’s two children died shortly after birth. Are we to believe that they chose to be born to a “great soul” only to deprive him of the joy of guiding his offspring along the pathway to moksha?
Okay. Let’s do a word study. The endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, is known as samsara, or “wandering”. The final breakthrough where the soul is set free from this endless cycle is known as moksha. Do you see the connection with the Garden of Eden? God told Adam, “in the day you eat thereof, you shall die, die.” In other words, “dying you shall continue to die.” Your death will be endless. You cannot escape the Wheel of Samsara. The Hindus (thorough Talmudic, Kabbalistic influences I am convinced), took the incarnation of Christ (remember that the prophesied “seed of the woman” was known from time immemorial), and embellished it.
Remember that the serpent knew that, as God manifest in the flesh, Christ could literally choose which “virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Isa 7:14). Being the Creator, he was free to choose whom his mother would be, because, “Known unto God are all his works from the. beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). So, in keeping with his lying promise that “ye shall be as gods”, the Serpent made every Hindu believe that, being truly divine themselves, they too, could choose their own parents. You might ask, then why is it that no Hindu remembers their previous life after they pass through the birth canal? Hindus teach that every soul lined up for rebirth must drink of the cup of lethe before proceeding to earth. This drink supposedly causes you to forget everything about your past life by the time you pop out in the maternity room. Now isn’t that convenient? Not only so, but it is very impractical. For instance, if upon graduating to Second Grade, we have to make ourselves forget everything we learned in First Grade, then what’s the point?
Hindus teach that their teachings go back to the early mists of time through the teachings of the Vedas. Yet another half-truth. The religion of Eve goes back to the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden. Eve started this “Universal Religion” by eating from the tree of knowledge. The seprent gave Eve the knowledge she possessed at that point. I’m saying that to say this, the word “Vedas” means “knowledge”. So the statement of the antiquity of the Hindu religion is both true and false at the same time.
But back to Gandhi. If he was a Mahatma or great soul, then he must have attained close to the highest level of incarnation. It would mean that his past life was exemplary. It would mean that he was close to moksha; close to ending and escaping the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. It would mean that Karma should have looked on Gandhi with approval in this life. Instead, contrary to all of the rules of Karma, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated on the 30th of January, 1948. As far as we know, Gandhi has not returned to this plane of consciousness. And, if the Lord Jesus Christ is who he says he is, Gandhi will not be returning. The word of Holy Scripture is very plain and clear when it comes to death and reincarnation,
…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: – Heb 9:27
Karma,in fact Hinduism, is but a branch on the tree of Talmudic and Kabbalistic knowledge. It is a system of vain deceit, using great swelling words of vanity to overpromise and under-deliver. With all due respect for the many sincere and intensely devout men and women who hold to the doctrines of the Sanatana Dharma (the Universal Law or Religion), I regret to inform you that Hinduism is nothing but a “cunningly devised fable” (2 Peter 1:16).
Operating through the British aristocracy, the Talmudic Jews used the Brahmins, the Indian version of the scribes and Pharisees, to invent the caste system where everyone was manipulated into thinking that some great impersonal force had already dictated and predetermined their station in life. And only humble, non-questioning acceptance of that “station” will qualify them to rise to a higher caste system in lives to come. The perfect con. Of course, the hidden Talmudic and Kabbalistic “masters” masquerading as a hierarchy of Ascended Masters had to rewrite Indian philosophical history to make it seem like the religion of Hinduism was an ancient reality going back to the very beginning of time.
This is, of course, code. A blatant lie. But like all of the most believable lies, it comes in the form of a half-truth, because the religion with origins from the beginning of time is the one started inadvertently by Eve when she reached forth and took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and did eat. This tree of knowledge is the basis of all esoteric philosophy and may be seen in such offerings as Star Wars where the principal teaching is that there is only one Force. There may be the light side of the Force or the dark side of the Force, but there is only one Force.
Look closely at the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang. These forces are not opposites but complementary. What do Yin and Yang mean? It literally means dark-light or negative-positive. The Chinese believe and teach that the universe was formed out of a primordial (of deep historical origin) chaotic mass that continues to cycle in and out from chaos to order and that these cycles influence not only the kosmos but our everyday lives. They say it may be seen in cycles of sunlight and darkness, winter and summer, male and female, positive and negative, etc. May the Church wake up to the reality of the deep deception contained in the so-called Positive Confession Movement.
Positive Confession and visualization are both Buddhist concepts of how the world operates and how to get things done. They are not Biblical concepts no more that is Karma. Yin and Yang, action and reaction, are very close to the Hindu concept of Kali Yuga, where all of existence collapses into a state of destruction. According to Krishna.com, we are currently living in Kali Yuga the Age of Quarrel, a period of time lasting 432,000 years and characterized by hypocrisy, degradation, and an overall rise in vice. Sounds like a further corruption of the Biblical truth concerning the last days, except for the time frame they have placed on the end of all things.
So I trust that the main thought is clear. Biblical Sowing and Reaping is not the same as Karma. Karma spans lifetimes and is dependent upon the concept of reincarnation. Karma offers rewards or retribution based on past actions and dispositions and does not affect the person during the course of their present lifetime. Karma stores the information and either rewards or punishes you with a body corresponding to your behavior in past lives. Still no explanation on how a dog or a mosquito will be able to earn karmic points to upgrade to a higher life form. And, as Gandhi has taught us, even highly advanced, moral, and ethical, great souls are immune to horrific retribution.
So Karma, reincarnation, and such do not hold the answer to man’s most pressing problem of how to break free from the power of sin and death and stand before a holy, pure, and righteous God on Judgement Day. Someone has to die the deaths that you would have had to die on your own. Hinduism calculates that it will take 70 million transmigrations of the soul, 70 million cycles of birth, death, and rebirth, to become a great soul or to reach moksha. No. Christ, being infinite in his eternal Being is able to satisfy all of the divine requirements and set you free from the penalty of the broken Law.
No need to try to gain acceptance by following the dictates of the Sanatana Dharma (Universal Law). The Law can save no one for by the Law is the knowledge of sin and the wages of sin is death. Please understand. Hinduism wants you to experience 70 million transmigrations of the soul where you transfer from body to body in the vain hope of escaping the wheel of Samsara. But Christ came to tell us that what we need is not a new body because regardless of the body we possess, we still have the same old, corrupt and sinful soul. How can you be saved and survive in Kali Yuga, when that Age, the Age of Quarreling, is going to be characterized by hypocrisy, degradation, and an overall rise in vice?
These forces are bigger and stronger than you. Look to Jesus. Self-effort cannot save you.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:8-10
While Karma spans lifetimes (supposedly), Biblical sowing and reaping operate within the lifetime of the person. Of course, much of it will be manifest on Judgment Day. Remember what Job said, “Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same”. – Job 4:8 Please note that this is something Job said he “has seen”. He could not have observed this if it spanned lifetimes because he would have no information about a person’s doings in a previous life. Also, remember that Proverbs said, “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices”. – Prov 1:31. Note their “own way” and their “own devices” this speaks of repercussion during the person’s lifetime.
Please do not take this too far. Sometimes we see others suffering but this is no indication that they are reaping what they have sown. The hidden, secret workings of sowing and reaping are best left to the Husbandman explain and unravel in his own time should he be pleased to do so. The Lord gives two examples:
(1)That of the Galilaeans who were murdered by Pilate and had their blood mingled with his sacrifices. A Hindu looking on would immediately conclude that they were the victims of bad Karma. An uninformed onlooker of that day may have concluded that maybe God was specifically angry with them for some unknown reason. Not necessarily. Major calamities are sometimes small-scale reminders of the large-scale judgments to be poured out on Judgment Day.
(2)That of those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell. If someone dies in a tower crash, this is no indication of sowing and reaping on their part. It is no indication that they were greater sinners than their neighbors. And it is certainly not an indication of bad Karma. Major calamities are miniature previews of Judgment to come. It does not mean that those who suffered the loss of life in the calamity were more deserving of Judgment than were others.
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Notice how the Lord sums up both calamities. He says that sinners should use the opportunity to reflect upon the frailty and uncertainty of their own life. The Lord is saying that, just as certainly as the Galilaeans lost their lives, and just as certainly as the tower fell, just so is it certain that Judgment Day is coming. The ones most in danger of the coming judgment are the ones who fret and complain about “Where was God when this was happening?” God is advising all sinners to use those occurrences as triggers to remind themselves that, “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” This has no specific reference to the sinfulness of the victims or what they “deserve”. That would be presumptuous on our part to assume this.
I believe the most prominent example teaching us not to judge or make assumptions based on what someone is going through is found in the example of Job. Was Job suffering from bad Karma? No he was not. Was he reaping what he had sown? Was he a hypocrite whose chickens came home to roost? Was this payback? Not likely. But Job’s friends certainly seemed to think so. Yet God had this to say about Job:
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? – Job 1:8
Job experienced horrendous calamities in this physical life and in his family life. You know the story. Yet it had nothing to do with imaginary Karma or retributive sowing and reaping. He was just caught up in the mysteries of Providence? The Lord gave and the Lord took away, and then he gave again, in an awesome display of his keeping power, along with an object lesson that the secret workings behind suffering in this life may never be known until we get to the other side and see our Redeemer face to face. Notice that when God blessed Job with great material abundance, it was part of Job’s experience in this life. and, I am certain, the blessings flowed into the afterlife where we shall all see Him face to face as we shall be partakers of
….an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. – 1 Peter 1:4-5
Remember that none of that inheritance will be based on what we deserve. Our entire inheritance will be based on grace. But, in terms of our responsibility in this life, to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, always remember that
….the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner – Proverbs 11:31