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6. MONOTHEISM & REINCARNATION
time and space return into Brahman, and the whole cycle starts again in an endless process of manifestation and dissolution.
According to Christianity, on the other hand, the world was created only once, and not as a necessity, but out of God's superabundant love. Although the world became corrupted by sin, this situation does not belong to a normally repeated scenario as in Hinduism but is the result of a wrong human response to God's love. Despite the fact that our world is different from what God has originally intended, it will not follow a repeated cycle of manifestation and dissolution. The "new heaven and new earth" presented at the end of the Revelation (21,1) is not a new creation similar to the one presented in Genesis. Otherwise, it would indeed confirm a cyclic manifestation of the world according to the Hindu pattern. The Bible does not confirm such a mechanism. The "new heaven and new earth" is rather an everlasting world where sin is eradicated and there will be "no more death or mourning or crying or pain" (Revelation 21, 4). It will belong to those who accepted the saving work of Christ and will never have a pralaya to end it.
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