Paul in 2 Corin.
5:8 says, "..to be absent from
the body and to be present
with the Lord." If a believer
dies, they are absent from
their body and present with
the Lord. If a believer
has an out of body experience
like you did while you were
alive, you were absent from
the body and present with the
Lord. Elijah was taken
alive to heaven so his body,
soul and spirit were present
with the Lord. So if
Elijah was taken out of his
body up in heaven, he still
would be present with the Lord
and not reincarnated into the
body of John the Baptist at
birth. According to the
Hindu and Buddhist religions,
a person has to die first
before their soul is
reincarnated into another
body. Elijah never died, and
his body, soul, and spirit
remained up in heaven until he
was seen talking to Jesus on
the mount of transfiguration.
He will return to Earth again
as one of the two witnesses,
be killed, and then
resurrected after 3 and 1/2
days.
As for your
notion that while the adult
Elijah was alive up in heaven
that the Lord took his soul
and put it into John the
Baptist at birth and if
reincarnation was true (which
it isn't) then Elijah's soul
would not be able to be put
back into his own body because
he wasn't about to be born
which is when reincarnation
takes place. Elijah's soul
would have to be put into
another person's body about to
be born. Then Elijah in his
alive adult body up in heaven
wouldn't be able to come back
as one of the two witnesses
because his soul would be
missing from his body.
And yes, I
realize that you think that
the Lord took Elijah's soul
out of his body while he is
alive up in heaven and put it
into John the Baptist's body
at birth where it stayed there
for about 34 yrs., and likely
you think the Lord put
Elijah's soul back into his
body up in heaven when John
the Baptist died. You are the
only person that I know that
thinks that because when a
believer is absent from the
body, they are present with
the Lord and not present in
someone else's body.
The article
below lists a number of
early Christian writers
who did not believe in
reincarnation:
Here is
another article as well.
Below is
also a 195 page article
telling why
reincarnation is not a
Christian belief.