Answer:
The Connection service on 02/08/09 in our World Religions series dealt with some of this. You can request a copy of that here ac3.org/n/content/Contact_Us. There I discussed the Eastern religions that believe in Karma and in reincarnation which is based on Karma.
The basic idea is not unlike what the bible talks about when it says, “do not be fooled, God is not mocked, a man reaps what he sows.” Galatians 6:9 Which is simply saying that morality is like a law of cause and effect, as in Physics where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. You do one thing and you get a reaction. The universe seems to be wired up to return based on our investments, in agriculture, economics AND morality; from putting seeds in the dirt to putting good actions into our lives. This is what God’s moral law is all about. It spells out the “if/then” propositions of God’s good ways. These promise the return of consequences (either good or bad) based on our behavior. So at that level, the existence of a concept like Karma in the East is really an evidence for the Christian belief that God has built his moral code into ALL human hearts (both east and west) so that we know intuitively the good we ought to do, and know innately that we will get “paid back” according to our deeds.
This would be fabulous news if we could just then decide to only do good deeds – we would be guaranteed only good results in our lives (and our 'afterlives'). But we don’t only do good deeds. And so Hindus and Buddhists (and other Hollywood religions, which I talk about in that message) believe that we are destined to be reborn again and again into different lives up or down the food chain depending on our moral performance.
Over millions of lifetimes we can maybe hope to get perfected to the point that we can be released. And in Buddhism, this release isn’t into a heaven where we are welcomed into perfect community with God and others… it’s an absorption where we lose our individual identity and we become essentially “extinct”. So in the normal course, pantheists believe Karma leads to the “hell” of reincarnation over and over, and even the heaven that’s offered – if we can earn it – is sort of like how some envision hell, in that we get extinguished. That’s our reward for good Karma in Eastern religions: to be annihilated.
There is usually in people's minds two ways that Karma works. One is direct consequences for bad (or good) actions. The other is indirect. For example, if I'm mean to my wife, and I get in a car accident that same day, people will shake their head and knowingly say, "karma". The direct version of Karms is pretty straight forward: I lie alot and people don't trust me and I find myself alone. You reap what you sow. But in the indirect version, a flaw in the classic pantheistic understanding of God is uncovered. For if the Universe has no Mind, and no Person behind it, then how are these indirect judgments meted out? Does not the outworking of Karma - especially the indirect kind - require a Mind? A Judge? Here is where Theism affirms the Judge but Pantheism supplies only Judgment.
Standing in stark contrast to this system, is the wonderful surprise and good news of Christianity… that God’s love and grace can break us out of the inescapable results of bad Karma (or, the consequences of the law of sowing and reaping). By Grace through our faith and trust in Christ we DON’T get what our actions deserve, but rather we get our righteousness “account” paid in full by Another, Jesus Christ. Grace is the opposite of Karma.
Ps 103:9-14
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
