Christian reincarnation

The long forgotten doctrine

Many Christians have the misconception that when people die, they immediately reincarnate. The near-death experience shows that this is not true. Because there is no time in the afterlife, a person can spend an "eternity" there if they choose. If a person decides to reincarnate, they once again become bound by time.

Does it make any ultimate difference in one's religious life whether or not he believes in reincarnation? I believe there are much greater priorities in a spiritual life than whether one does or does not accept a particular theological tenet. Those who are still irresolute on the question of reincarnation, or indeed those who are emphatically resolute in one direction or another, possess no special advantage before God. The only possible advantage that the reincarnationist may claim over those who are unresolved or opposed is that he has a reasonable and consistent theory to account for the prenatal and postmortem life of the soul as well as an explanation for the apparent absurdities in the dispensation of divine justice. The following are excerpts from two of the greatest books on the subject I know. The first is Reincarnation for the Christian by Quincy Howe Jr. The other is Reincarnation: The Missing Link of Christianity by Elizabeth Prophet.

Christian Reincarnation Index

The controversy erupts

The doctrine of reincarnation

Scriptural support for reincarnation

More scriptural support for reincarnation

The mystery of God in humanity

The Arian controversy

The Council of Nicea

The Fifth General Council

Conclusion

Dead Sea Scroll evidence

Evidence suggesting reincarnation

Reincarnation research

Reincarnation in NDEs

Bulletin board

The controversy

During the period from A.D. 250 to 553 controversy raged, at least intermittently, around the name of Origen, and from this controversy emerged the major objections that orthodox Christianity raises against reincarnation. Origen of Alexandria, one of Christianity's greatest systematic theologians, was a believer in reincarnation.

Origen was a person devoted to scriptural authority, a scourge to the enemies of the church, and a martyr for the faith. He was the spiritual teacher of a large and grateful posterity and yet his teachings were declared heresy in 553. The debates and controversies that flared up around his teachings are in fact the record of reincarnation in the church.

The case against Origen grew by fits and starts from about A.D. 300 (fifty years after his death) until 553. There were writers of great eminence among his critics as well as some rather obscure ecclesiasts. They included Methodius of Olympus, Eppiphanius of Salamis, Theophilus, Bishop of Jerusalem, Jerome, and the Emperor Justinian. The first of these, Methodius of Olympus, was a bishop in Greece and died a martyr's death in the year 311. He and Peter of Alexandria, whose works are almost entirely lost, represent the first wave of anti-Origenism. They were concerned chiefly with the preexistence of souls and Origen's notions about the resurrection of the dead. Another more powerful current against Origenism arose about a century later. The principals were Ephiphanius of Salamis, Theophilus of Alexandria, and Jerome.

From about 395 to 403 Origen became the subject of heated debate throughout Christendom. These three ecclesiasts applied much energy and thought in search of questionable doctrine in Origen. Again the controversy flared up around 535, and in the wake of this the Emperor Justinian composed a tract against Origen in 543, proposing nine anathemas against "On First Principles", Origen's chief theological work. Origen was finally officially condemned in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, when fifteen anathemas were charged against him.

The critics of Origen attacked him on individual points, and thus did not create a systematic theology to oppose him. Nonetheless, one can glean from their writings five major points that Christianity has raised against reincarnation:

(1) It seems to minimize Christian salvation.
(2) It is in conflict with the resurrection of the body.
(3) It creates an unnatural separation between body and soul.
(4) It is built on a much too speculative use of Christian scriptures.
(5) There is no recollection of previous lives.

Any discussion of these points will be greatly clarified by a preliminary look at Origen's system. Although it is of course impossible to do justice in a few pages to a thinker as subtle and profound as Origen, some of the distinctive aspects of his thought can be summarized.

The doctrine itself

Looking at the sequence of creation from its inception to its conclusion, one could summarize Origen's theological system as follows: Originally all beings existed as pure mind on an ideational or thought level. Humans, angels, and heavenly bodies lacked incarnate existence and had their being only as ideas. This is a very natural view for anyone like Origen who was trained in both Christian and Platonic thought. Since there is no account in the scriptures of what preceded creation, it seemed perfectly natural to Origen to appeal to Plato for his answers.

God, for the Platonist, is pure intelligence and all things were reconciled with God before creation - an assumption which scripture does not appear to contradict. Then as the process of the fall began, individual beings became weary of their union with God and chose to defect or grow cold in their divine ardor. As the mind became cool toward God, it made the first step down in its fall and became soul. The soul, now already once removed from its original state, continued with its defection to the point of taking on a body. This, as we know from Platonism, is indeed a degradation, for the highest type of manifestation is on the mental level and the lowest is on the physical.

Such an account of man's fall does not mean that Origen rejected Genesis. It only means that he was willing to allow for allegorical interpretation; thus Eden is not necessarily spatially located, but is a cosmic and metaphysical event wherein pure disincarnate idea became fettered to physical matter. What was essential for Christianity, as Origen perceived, is that the fall be voluntary and result in a degree of estrangement from God.

Where there is a fall, there must follow the drama of reconciliation. Love is one of God's qualities, as Origen himself acknowledged, and from this it follows that God will take an interest in the redemption of his creatures. For Origen, this means that after the drama of incarnation the soul assumes once again its identity as mind and recovers its ardor for God.

It was to hasten this evolution that in the fullness of time God sent the Christ. The Christ of Origen was the Incarnate Word (he was also the only being that did not grow cold toward God), and he came both as a mediator and as an incarnate image of God's goodness. By allowing the wisdom and light of God to shine in one's life through the inspiration of Christ, the individual soul could swiftly regain its ardor for God, leave behind the burden of the body, and regain complete reconciliation with God. In fact, said Origen, much to the outrage of his critics, the extent and power of God's love is so great that eventually all things will be restored to him, even Satan and his legions.

Since the soul's tenancy of any given body is but one of many episodes in its journey from God and back again, the doctrine of reincarnation is implicit. As for the resurrection of the body, Origen created a tempest of controversy by insisting that the physical body wastes away and returns to dust, while the resurrection takes on a spiritual or transformed body. This is of course handy for the reincarnationist, for it means that the resurrected body either can be the summation and climax of all the physical bodies that came before or indeed may bear no resemblance at all to the many physical bodies.

There will come a time when the great defection from God that initiated physical creation will come to an end. All things, both heavenly bodies and human souls, will be so pure and ardent in their love for God that physical existence will no longer be necessary. The entire cohesion of creation will come apart, for matter will be superfluous. Then, to cite one of Origen's favorite passages, all things will be made subject to God and God will be "all in all." ( 1 Cor. 15:28 ) This restoration of all things proposed by Origen gave offense in later centuries. It seemed quite sensible to Origen that anything that defects from God must eventually be brought back to him. As he triumphantly affirmed at the end of his "On First Principles", men are the "blood brothers" of God himself and cannot stay away forever.

Scriptural support for reincarnation

Many people have the misconception that when people die, they immediately reincarnate. The near-death experience shows that this is not true. Because there is no time in the afterlife, a person can spend an "eternity" there if they choose. If a person decides to reincarnate, they once again become bound by time.

Reincarnation often shows up in near-death experiences. In Jeanie Dicus’ near-death experience, Jesus asks her if she wants to reincarnate. In Sandra Rogers’ near-death experience, Jesus asks her the same question. Reincarnation is the reason some Christians reject the near-death experience altogether because they reject the concept of reincarnation. But, to ask if there are any verses concerning reincarnation in the Bible is like asking if there any stars in the sky. The answer is, "Yes, it is filled with them."

The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus stated that the Pharisees, the Jewish sect that founded rabbinic Judaism to which Paul once belonged, believed in reincarnation. He writes that the Pharisees believed the souls of evil men are punished after death. The souls of good men are:

"removed into other bodies ... "

and they will:

"have power to revive and live again."

From time to time in Jewish history, there had been an insistent belief that their prophets were reborn. Reincarnation was part of the Jewish dogmas, being taught under the name of "resurrection". Only the Sadducees, who believed that everything ended with death, did not accept the idea of reincarnation (Matt. 22:23). Jewish ideas included the concept that people could live again without knowing exactly the manners by which this could happen. "Resurrection", an idea which came from the Zoroaster religion, presupposes a return to the same physical body. Reincarnation is the return of the spirit to physical life in another body which has been newly formed for it, and which has nothing to do with the previous one.

There are many Bible verses concerning reincarnation and in this section we will examine some of them.

One episode in particular from the healing miracles of Jesus seems to point to reincarnation:

"And as he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" Jesus answered, 'Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but the works of God were to be made manifest in him.'" (John 9:1)

The disciples ask the Lord if the man himself could have committed the sin causing him to be born blind. Given the fact the man has been blind from birth, we are confronted with an unusual question. When could the man have committed such sins as to make him blind at birth? The only conceivable answer is in some past life. The question assumes an ability for people to commit sins prior to birth which suggests a prior life. It should also be noted Jesus says nothing to dispel or correct the assumption. This verse provides irrefutable proof for the doctrine of human preexistence.

The episode where Jesus identifies John the Baptist as Elijah is a clear statement of reincarnation.

"For all the prophets and the law have prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who was to come." (Matt. 11:13-14)

"And the disciples asked him, saying, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' But he answered them and said, 'Elijah indeed is to come and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also shall the Son of Man suffer at their hand.' Then the disciples understood that he had spoken of John the Baptist." (Matt. 17:10-13)

The first great father of the early Church was Origen, the first person since Paul to develop a system of theology around the teachings of Jesus. Origen was also a believer in reincarnation. He taught human preexistence can be found in both the Old and New Testaments. Preexistence is the doctrine that all humans existed in the spirit realm before they were born. It was only in later times, after his death, that Origen’s teachings concerning preexistence and reincarnation were suppressed. Despite the counter reaction that eventually to led to Origen’s doctrine of preexistence being declared heresy, modern Christian scholarship acknowledges preexistence as one of the foundational elements of Christian theology. Preexistence is a necessary tenet in the doctrine of reincarnation.

As for the "John is Elijah" episode, there is little doubt for its reason. Because Jesus identified the Baptist as Elijah, Jesus identified himself as the Christ. The gospels mention particular signs that precede the coming of the Christ.

"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mal. 4:5)

This is one of the Messianic promises found in the Bible. According to Malachi, one of the signs the Messiah has come is that he will be preceded by the appearance of Elijah the prophet.

These "John is Elijah" passages demonstrate absolute proof of reincarnation:

1. The Old Testament prophesied that Elijah himself (not someone "like" him or someone "similar" to him, but Elijah himself) would return before the advent of the Christ.

2. Jesus declared John the Baptist as Elijah when stating "Elijah has come."

Now, based on these passages alone, either (A) or (B) must be true:

(A) John the Baptist was Elijah himself, meaning Elijah reincarnated. If this is true, then reincarnation must belong once again in Christian theology, and the concept of "resurrection" must be radically revised, or...

(B) John the Baptist was not Elijah himself, meaning Elijah himself had not returned. If this is so, then either (1) or (2) below is true:

(1) Malachi’s prophecy about Elijah coming before the Christ failed to happen (which would mean prophecy is fallible), or...

(2) Jesus was not the Christ.

Basically, it comes down to what do you want to believe? Either X, Y, or Z, must be true:

X. Reincarnation is true, or

Y. Jesus was not the Christ, or

Z. Bible prophecies are not reliable.

As surely as one plus one equals two, one of the above must be true. Nevertheless, the verse in which Jesus says John is Elijah is "overt" and direct:

"But I tell you, Elijah has come." (Mark 9:13)

The following verse is sometimes used to refute this "John is Elijah" connection.

"And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah." (Luke 1:17)

Critics of the near-death experience who refute reincarnation say John the Baptist merely came in the same ministry as Elijah. But, that is not what the verse says. The verse gives a perfect description of reincarnation: the spirit and power. Reincarnation is the reincarnation of the spirit - not the body, mind or ministry. This verse explicitly reveals John the Baptist as possessing the spirit and power that was Elijah.

John the Baptist carried the living spirit of Elijah, not his physical memory. Because of this, John did not have the memories of Elijah. This explains why John the Baptist denied being Elijah.

"They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.’’ Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ ‘I baptize with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." (John 1:21-27)

Jesus, however, knew better and said so in the plainest words possible:

"This is the one ... there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist....And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matt. 11:11-15)

Jesus said John was Elijah, and John said he wasn't. Which of the two is to be believed? Jesus or John? The answer should be very clear.

Also, notice those questioning John were expecting a reincarnation. The question itself, whether John was Elijah, suggests those questioning John believed in reincarnation. But, like most people, the Baptist was not aware of being a reincarnation. However, this fact alone doesn’t mean he was not; especially when Jesus said he was.

The Bible also reveals other appearances of Elijah the Prophet. In the Book of Revelation, there is a prophecy concerning the days leading up to the second coming of Christ. Two prophets are predicted to appear working the same miracles as those of Elijah and Moses.

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want." (Rev. 11:3-6)

While this verse does not specifically identify the two prophets as Elijah and Moses, the description of these two prophets suggests it is them. If Elijah and Moses are to "rise" immediately before the second coming of Christ, the only realistic way for him to do so is through reincarnation.

The Bible describes a strong connection between Elijah, Moses and Jesus. Since Jesus already identified Elijah as appearing during Jesus’ first coming, it is not hard to conclude that Elijah will appear again at Jesus' second coming. The Malachi prophecy, which we have already discussed concerning Jesus’ first coming, may also apply to Jesus’ second coming.

"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mal. 4:5)

After the death of John the Baptist, Elijah appeared again along with Moses at the Mount of Transfiguration:

"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don't be afraid.’ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, ‘Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’ The disciples asked him, ‘Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist." (Matt. 17:1-13)

In very explicit language, Jesus identifies Elijah, who appeared with him at the Mount of Transfiguration, to be John the Baptist. Even his disciples understood what Jesus meant.

Due to the declaration of reincarnation as heresy by church officials centuries after the death of Jesus, reincarnation became an enemy doctrine to Christianity. However, reincarnation was certainly not an enemy doctrine to the people of Israel around the time of Jesus. It was certainly not an enemy doctrine to Jesus. Israel in those days was a geographic crossroads receiving a large flow of foreign travelers and ideas. Reincarnation was a familiar belief in Asia and the Middle East in the first century.

Throughout the history of Israel, there has been an belief of their prophets being reborn. The Israelites of the first century wondered if Jesus was the reincarnation of some prophet.

"When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." (Matt. 16:13-14)

It is apparent, the Israelites of the first century assumed Jesus had been openly promoting reincarnation when he claimed John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah. When confronted with these rumors of Israelites believing in reincarnation, Jesus does not refute nor deny the doctrine. Instead, he spoke in support of it.

In the Book of Revelation, there is another verse that supports reincarnation as a doctrine of Christianity:

"Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him." (Rev. 1:7)

This verse reveals an astonishing fact about the Second Coming of Jesus and that is that those who killed Jesus will be alive on Earth to see this event with their own eyes. Given the fact that those who killed Jesus have been dead for a very long time, only the reincarnation of these people can allow them to witness the Second Coming with their own eyes.

Another verse suggestive of reincarnation can be found when Jesus declares the following to the believers in the Church of Philadelphia:

"He who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it." (Rev. 3:12)

The above verse has Jesus declaring people prior inhabitants of the temple of God. As soon as the person overcomes (the world) the person becomes a permanent inhabitant of this temple and never again has to leave it. The flip-side to this is that after death those who do not overcome must leave this temple of God and return to the world.

One of the controversial passages of scripture deals with the definition of being "born again". In an incident with Nicodemus, Jesus flatly tells him:

"I tell you a truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)

Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus means by "born again":

"How can a person be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (John 3:4)

In response, Jesus states:

"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:5-6)

In context of these verses, Jesus is talking about the process of "resurrection", that is, being born of water and being born of the Spirit. Here, Jesus describes physical "resurrection" (to be born of water) and spiritual "resurrection" (to be born of the Spirit). They are two similar yet different processes. These verses alone present a good case that Jesus taught the concept of "resurrection" as being both a physical rebirth as well as spiritual rebirth, in other words, reincarnation.

Another passage of scripture that is suggestive of reincarnation is as follows:

"She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne." (Rev. 12:5)

This verse describes the birth of a child who is taken to heaven after his birth. The interesting aspect is that this child is to rule all the nations with an iron scepter. Because the child was taken to heaven after birth, reincarnation is the only way the child can return to the world in order to grow up and "rule all nations." Although Revelations is mostly symbolic and is often quite abstract, this verse implies the ability to incarnate more than once.

Within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states the following:

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." (Matt. 5:5)

Such a statement makes sense only in light of reincarnation. It begs the question, "When does the meek inherit the earth?" Common sense tells us that the meek do not inherit the earth in their lifetime. It is the strong that rule the earth. It is survival of the fittest and most aggressive, not the meekest. This inheritance must come about through the means of another incarnation, a reincarnation, of the meek into the strong.

Below is another verse suggestive of reincarnation.

"No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or wife or children or land for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age - homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields ... and in the age to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:29-30)

It is difficult to imagine how such a promise could be fulfilled apart from reincarnation. In one lifetime, one can only have a single set of parents. Common sense tells us that the disciples, who left their homes and families to follow Jesus, never received compensation a hundred times. It is evident, Jesus was making a promise to the disciples that only reincarnation could fulfill.

The following verses in Hebrews are a clear statement of reincarnation.

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Heb. 11:13-16)

The above passage describes people who could have had an opportunity to return to earth after death. This could only have come about through reincarnation.

"Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection." (Heb. 11:32-35)

A passage in Jeremiah describes God's role in the process of reincarnation.

"I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever he pleased. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand..." (Jer. 18:3-6)

Now it's true this passage speaks directly to the nation of Israel. But it's true as well that these verses have always been applied to individual lives, signifying God's power to shape us as he wills. The thing of it is, the passage speaks of RE-shaping, of destruction of the vessel entirely and its' re-creation. Not a transforming, but more a material death and re-birth, the Father's allowance for the immortal soul to begin again in another vessel.

There are also verses, such as the one below, which support discarnate preexistence.

"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish in his sight and love." (Eph. 1:4)

The above verse reveals God choosing people before the world existed and before they could have physically been born. This suggests the people the verse is referring to, must have existed somewhere even if only in the Mind of God. Such an existence does not rule out the preexistence of souls. After all, there may be no difference between a soul and a thought in the Mind of God.

Another verse suggestive of preexistence is below.

"Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls - she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’" (Rom. 9:11-13)

This verse suggests that God loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were even born. Again, even if it was merely in the Mind of God, it would still be preexistence. Preexistence is a necessary doctrine associated with reincarnation.

Another verse suggestive of preexistence is below.

"’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’" (John 8:58)

In this verse, Jesus is tells his enemies that he existed before Abraham was born. This would be an impossibility unless the preexistence of Jesus was true. If Jesus preexisted, it is a short step to assume we have all preexisted.

There are other verses suggestive of reincarnation. In the gospels, Jesus gives information about his return and who will be there to witness it. Several times, Jesus mentions that some of the people around him will be alive when he returns. One example is in the book of Matthew when Jesus gave the signs preceding his second coming. After revealing the signs, Jesus states:

"I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." (Matt. 24:34)

The generation of people around Jesus who heard him speak this prophecy died without seeing these signs. This verse makes more sense if it refers to these people being reincarnated immediately before his second coming. There's good reason to take Jesus at his word, as did those in the Apostolic Church, who assumed he meant that the majority of them would still be alive at his coming. However, because these people died before his second coming, it is clear he meant something else entirely - the successive incarnation of immortal souls.

Another passage concerning successive incarnations can be found in John:

"Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, "Master, who is the one who will betray you?" When Peter saw him he said to Jesus "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me." (John 21:20-23)

These words were interpreted by those in the Apostolic Church to mean that John the Apostle would not die before Christ's return. When he did, it shook the faith of many, so convinced had they been of its' truth. But as in the scriptures previously cited, the truth was something other than what seemed obvious. What did Jesus mean? How would John be here until his return? The only reasonable answer would be through reincarnation.

Another verse concerning the succession of incarnation is below.

"Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. 16:24-28)

What does it mean to "taste death until Jesus comes?" The description of a person having to "taste death until Jesus comes" is a good description of reincarnation.

Another reference to reincarnation appears in the account of the death of Lazarus. When Jesus visits Lazarus’ tomb, he has an interesting conversation with Lazarus’ sister Martha. The verse goes as follows:

"Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’" (John 11:23-26)

In these verses, Jesus tells Martha that her brother Lazarus will "rise again". Martha mistakenly believes Jesus means that Lazarus will return to life at judgment day. Jesus corrects her by implying that the dead do not have to wait until judgment day to be raised to life. To prove his point, Jesus then raises Lazarus from the dead. This appears to be the main reason for raising Lazarus.

Another verse can be found in Matthew 22:24-32 where the Sadducees, who did not believe in the concept of resurrection (reincarnation), tested Jesus by posing a hypothetical which they believed disproved the concept of resurrection. The verses are as follows:

"That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?’ Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead-- have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matt. 22:24-32)

From this passage it may be argued that Jesus is once again correcting the notion of the dead having to wait until judgment day to be raised to life. Jesus gives us a glimpse of the nature of resurrection when he states that those who are raised become like the angels in heaven in that they do not marry at all. From this, it can also be argued that "becoming like the angels in heaven" is a reference to being born again through reincarnation and becoming a child again. This interpretation is supported by other passages of scripture where Jesus teaches that in order to enter the kingdom, one must become as a child:

"And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." (Matt.18:3-5)

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven." (Matt. 18:10)

These verses can be interpreted to show Jesus teaching the correct notion of resurrection as being reincarnation.

Despite these verses, there are other verses suggesting on the surface that the dead are raised only on judgment day. Here is one of them:

"And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day .... No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:39-44)

While this passage does describe people being raised at the last day, it does not necessarily rule out raising people before judgment day. In fact, Jesus demonstrates time and time again in scripture that resurrection is not limited to a single future event at the time of the last day.

There are several verses suggesting Jesus may have had past lives and had several incarnations in the flesh. Paul wrote of Adam as being:

".. a pattern of the one who was to come [Jesus]" (Rom. 5:14)

Paul also draws a parallel between Adam and Christ:

"The first Adam became a living being; the last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit." (1 Cor. 15:45)

Christ is described as the last Adam, the man who through obedience reverses the outcome of the disobedience of the first Adam:

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned - for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:12-21)

These verses show the work of Adam being undone by the work of Jesus, a good description of how divine justice is meted out in the Bible. The only person who could satisfy divine justice in reversing what Adam did would have to be Adam himself, or a reincarnation of Adam. Paul’s description of the "one man" as Jesus could only have satisfied divine justice if he indeed was a reincarnation of Adam.

The belief in many incarnations of Jesus is not a new belief. The early Christian group known as the Ebionites taught that the Holy Spirit had first incarnated as Adam and later reincarnated as Jesus. Other Jewish Christian groups such as the Elkasaites and Nazarites also held this belief. The Samaritans believed that Adam had reincarnated as Seth, then Noah, Abraham, and even Moses. The Clementine Homilies, an early Christian document, also taught many incarnations of Jesus.

The Zohar, a book that has much authority with Kabbalistic Jews, states:

"So it is that when a man is about to depart from life, Adam, the first man, appears to him and asks him why and in what state he leaves the world. He says: "Woe to thee that through thee I have to die." To which Adam replies: "My son, I transgressed one commandment and was punished for so doing; see how many commandments of your Master, negative and positive, you have transgressed." (Zohar I, 57b)

What is interesting in the above verse from the Zohar is that Adam appears to the dying person at death. In a great number of Jewish and Christian near-death experiences, it is Jesus who appears. Could this be merely a coincidence?

Another possible incarnation of Jesus is the Old Testament figure known as Melchizedek, the High Priest and King of Salem, who:

"..without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever." (Heb. 7:3)

It is clear from the book of Hebrews that Melchizedek was not an ordinary man, assuming he even was a man. The description of Melchizedek sounds uncannily similar to Jesus. The book of Hebrews even declares Jesus to be a:

". priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." (Heb. 7:17)

The verses above may be suggesting Melchizedek to be an incarnation of Jesus.

There are several verses highly suggestive of the "mechanics" of reincarnation. Before his arrest, Jesus stated:

"All who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matt. 26:52)

Common sense tells us not all people who live "by the sword" will die by the sword. This statement can only be true if meant in the context of a future life. If in this life one "lives by the sword," he or she will most certainly "die by the sword" if not in the same lifetime but a future lifetime. This concept is identical to the ancient concept of "karma" which is a tenet of reincarnation and is the foundation of reality mostly in the East. Below are more Biblical references to karma:

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what he sows." (Gal. 6:7)

"Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exod. 21:24-25)

"In anger his master turned him over to the jailers until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matt. 18: 34-35)

"If any one slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain." (Rev. 13:10)

"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny." (Matt. 5:25-26)

Concerning the Matthew 5 passage, the interesting aspect to it is that it states a person will not get out of prison until the debt has been paid. In many of the parables of Christ, the word "prison" is often used when referring to hell. This reference of getting out of prison suggests that people are able to get out of hell when their debt has been paid. Since people are able to get out of hell, one wonders where they would go. It would be reasonable to assume that they would be raised to life through the process of reincarnation.

In James 3:6, some translations (such as the American Standard Version) mention "the wheel of nature" which seems to resemble the cycle of endless reincarnation taught by the Eastern religions. However, in this context the verse refers to controlling speech in order not to sin. The ASV translation states:

"And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell." (James 3:6, ASV)

Nowhere in the Bible is reincarnation denied or refuted. Job asks:

"If a person dies will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come." (Job 14:14)

Here, Job wonders if people are restored to life after death. He answers his own question by stating that he will live again when he is renewed after death.

Another Old Testament verse states:

"Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again...What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Eccl. 1:4-9)

The Jewish kabbalists interpreted this verse to mean a generation dies and subsequently returns through reincarnation.

The verse below is often used to refute reincarnation.

".. man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..." (Heb. 9:27)

This verse is often said to mean people live and die only once then face judgment. But if this is true, this verse not only applies to reincarnation, but to the modern concept of resurrection. In fact, this verse refutes resurrection, not reincarnation. As mentioned earlier in this book, the Bible describes many people being resurrected, all of whom, with the exception of Jesus, died more than one time. Other people such as Enoch, did not even die at all. The above verse does not refute reincarnation at all because when a person dies and is reincarnated, it is not the same body that reincarnates and eventually dies. The verse implies a one body/one death reality, which agrees with reincarnation and disagrees with the modern definition of resurrection. This definition is that after the physical body dies and faces judgment, the physical body will be raised from the grave someday to face possible death again (such as the so-called "second death" spoken of in Rev. 2:11) and judgment. Resurrection assumes the same body rises. Reincarnation assumes a different body rises. So Heb. 9:27 does not refute reincarnation at all, but does refute the modern concept of resurrection.

Due to the condemnation of reincarnation by church authorities some 500 years after Jesus left the scene, this doctrine has become an alien, even enemy concept to the Judeo-Christian West. However, as we have shown, reincarnation was not an alien concept to the people Jesus preached to, nor, to Jesus himself. As a natural geographic crossroads, the land of Israel enjoyed a strong and steady flow of both foreign travelers and foreign ideas; the doctrine of rebirth is not only likely to have been a familiar concept in 1st century Israel, but actually seems to have been widely considered a distinct possibility. Even though the idea later became a heresy to the people of the Christian Empire, during the life of Jesus, at least, reincarnation was an open question in the minds of many.

More scriptural support for reincarnation

Ancient writings were discovered in 1945 which revealed more information about the concept of reincarnation from a sect of Christians called "Gnostics." This sect was ultimately destroyed by the Roman orthodox church, their followers were burned at the stake and their writings were either wiped out or hidden. The writings included some long lost gospels, some of which were written earlier than the known gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gnostic Christians claimed to possess the correct definition of "resurrection" - based on Jesus' secret teachings, handed down to them by the apostles.

The existence of a secret tradition can be found in the New Testament:

"He [Jesus] told them, ' The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" (Mark 4:11-12)

"No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." (1 Cor. 2:7)

"So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God." (1 Cor. 4:1)

A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the Gnostic texts discovered, describes Jesus performing secret initiation rites. Before the discovery of Gnostic writings, our only knowledge of it came from a letter written by Church Father Clement of Alexandria (150 AD - 211 AD), which quotes this secret gospel and refers to it as "a more spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected." He said, "It even yet is most carefully guarded [by the church at Alexandria], being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries." Clement insists elsewhere that Jesus revealed a secret teaching to those who were "capable of receiving it and being molded by it." Clement indicates that he possessed the secret tradition, which was handed down through the apostles. Such Gnostics were spiritual critics of the orthodox Church of what they saw as not so much a popularization as a vulgarization of Christianity. The orthodox church stressed faith, while the Gnostic church stressed knowledge (gnosis). This secret knowledge emphasized spiritual resurrection rather than physical resurrection. Indeed, the Gnostic Christians believed reincarnation to be the true interpretation of "resurrection" for those who have not attained a spiritual resurrection through this secret knowledge.

The New Testament talks about this gnosis (knowledge):

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues." (1 Cor. 12:7-10)

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding." (Col. 1:9)

The following are some of the secret teachings of Jesus from the Gnostic gospels that affirm reincarnation, revealing the secret knowledge:

"Watch and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that you may leave the bitter bondage of this life." (Book of Thomas the Contender)

"When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas)

In the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells the disciple Thomas that after death those who were once believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory beauty" will be consumed "in their concern about life" and will be "brought back to the visible realm."

In the Secret Book of John, reincarnation is placed at the heart of its discussion of the salvation of souls. The book was written by 185 AD at the latest. Here is the Secret Book of John's perspective on reincarnation:

All people have drunk the water of forgetfulness and exist in a state of ignorance. Some are able to overcome ignorance through the Spirit of life that descends upon them. These souls "will be saved and will become perfect," that is, escape the round of rebirth. John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do not attain salvation. They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and thrown into "prison", the Gnostic code word for new body. The only way for these souls to escape, says Jesus, is to emerge from forgetfulness and acquire knowledge. A soul in this situation can do so by finding a teacher or savior who has the strength to lead her home. "This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John)

Another Gnostic text, Pistis Sophia, outlines an elaborate system of reward and punishment that includes reincarnation. The text explains differences in fate as the effects of past-life actions. A "man who curses" is given a body that will be continually "troubled in heart." A "man who slanders" receives a body that will be "oppressed." A thief receives a "lame, crooked and blind body." A "proud" and "scornful" man receives "a lame and ugly body" that "everyone continually despises." Thus earth, as well as hell, becomes the place of punishment.

According to Pistis Sophia, some souls do experience hell as a shadowy place of torture where they go after death. But after passing through this hell, the souls return for further experiences on earth. Only a few extremely wicked souls are not allowed to reincarnate. These are cast into "outer darkness" until the time when they are destined to be "destroyed and dissolved."

Several Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and union with God. The Apocalypse of Paul, a second-century text, describes the Merkabah-style ascent of the apostle Paul as well as the reincarnation of a soul who was not ready for such an ascent. It shows how both reincarnation and ascents fit into Gnostic theology. Error! Bookmark not defined. to read more.

As Paul passes through the fourth heaven, he sees a soul being punished for murder. This soul is being whipped by angels who have brought him "out of the land of the dead" (earth). The soul calls three witnesses who charge him with murder. The soul then looks down "in sorrow" and is "cast down" into a body that has been prepared for it. The text goes on to describe Paul's further journey through the heavens, a practice run for divine union.

Pistis Sophia combines the ideas of reincarnation and divine union in a passage that begins with the question: What happens to "a man who has committed no sin, but done good persistently, but has not found the mysteries?" The Pistis Sophia tells us that the soul of the good man who has not found the mysteries will receive "a cup filled with thoughts and wisdom." This will allow the soul to remember its divine origin and so to pursue the "mysteries of the Light" until it finds them and is able to "inherit the Light forever." To "inherit the Light forever" is a Gnostic code for union with God.

For the Gnostic Christians, resurrection was also a spiritual event - simply the awakening of the soul. They believed that people who experience the resurrection can experience eternal life, or union with God, while on earth and then after death, escape rebirth. People who don't experience the resurrection and union with God on earth will reincarnate. Jesus states the following in the Gnostic Gospels:

"People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken. If they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once they have died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip)

Paul writes in several places that resurrection involves a spirit body. Such a definition corresponds with spiritual resurrection and reincarnation:

"It [the dead body] is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." (1 Cor. 15:44)

"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Cor. 15:50)

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ." (Col. 2:13)

The Gnostics claimed their terminology was sprinkled through the Epistles. For example, the author of Ephesians uses the words "awake", "sleep" and "dead" in a Gnostic sense:

"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Eph. 5:13-14)

Some of the Greek words in the New Testament translated as "resurrection" also mean to "rise" or "awake." Therefore, argued the Gnostics, when Paul says people can be part of the resurrection, he is really saying that their souls can be awakened to the Spirit of God.

We know that in some passages Paul writes about the resurrection as a present rather than a future event:

"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6:3-11)

Colossians also seems to describe the resurrection as a present-day event:

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." (Col. 3:1)

"Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Col. 3:9-10)

In the above passage, taking off the old self and putting on the new is a code for the resurrection, which, again, is described as a present-life event.

The Gnostic manuscripts present a clear, simple and strong vision of the resurrection. First, the Gospel of Thomas disabuses people of the notion that the resurrection is a future event:

"His followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?' He said to them, 'What you look for has come, but you do not know it.'" (Gospel of Thomas)

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is saying that the resurrection and the kingdom are already here. We simply do not realize it - or, in the Gnostic sense, we simply have not integrated with them.

Jesus explained the concept of resurrection before raising Lazarus from the dead:

"Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:23-26)

In these verses, Jesus tells Martha her brother Lazarus will "rise again." Martha mistakenly thinks Jesus means Lazarus will come out of his grave at Judgment Day. Jesus corrects her by stating that those who believe in him will live, even before they die. Jesus is referring here to spiritual regeneration. Jesus also states that those who die believing in him, will never die. This clearly implies reincarnation. The flip-side to this is that those who die not believing in him, will have to die again (i.e. reincarnate). It is interesting to note that by raising Lazarus from death, Jesus is forcing Lazarus to live out the rest of his life only to die physically again. By raising Lazarus from death, Jesus seems to be demonstrating that one does not wait until Judgment Day to rise.

Jesus flatly tells Nicodemus:

"I tell you a truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)

Nicodemus misunderstands what Jesus means by "born again":

"How can a person be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (John 3:4)

In response, Jesus states:

"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:5-6)

In context of these verses, Jesus is talking about the process of resurrection, that is, being born of water and being born of the Spirit. Jesus describes physical resurrection (to be born of water) and spiritual resurrection (to be born of the Spirit). They are two similar yet different processes. From these verses, the case can be made that Jesus taught the concept of resurrection as being physical rebirth as well as spiritual rebirth.

In the Apocryphal book Wisdom of Solomon, recognized by the Catholic Church, is the following verse:

.".. I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)

This verse raises the following question: How is it possible to get a body after you have already been good if reincarnation is not a fact?

Reincarnation has been a tenet for thousands of years for certain Jews and Christians. The Zohar is a work of great weight and authority among the Jews. In II, 199 b, it says that "all souls are subject to revolutions." This is metempsychosis or a'leen b'gilgoola; but it declares that "men do not know the way they have been judged in all time." That is, in their "revolutions" they lose a complete memory of the acts that have led to judgment. The Kether Malkuth says, "If she, the soul, be pure, then she shall obtain favor.. . but if she hath been defiled, then she shall wander for a time in pain and despair. . . until the days of her purification." If the soul be pure and if she comes at once from God at birth, how could she be defiled? And where is she to wander if not on this or some other world until the days of her purification? The Rabbis always explained it as meaning she wandered down from Paradise through many revolutions or births until purity was regained.

Under the name of "Din Gilgol Neshomes" the doctrine of reincarnation is constantly spoken of in the Talmud. The term means "the judgment of the revolutions of the souls." And Rabbi Manassa, son of Israel, one of the most revered, says in his book Nishmath Hayem: "The belief or the doctrine of the transmigration of souls is a firm and infallible dogma accepted by the whole assemblage of our church with one accord, so that there is none to be found who would dare to deny it. . . . Indeed, there is a great number of sages in Israel who hold firm to this doctrine so that they made it a dogma, a fundamental point of our religion. We are therefore in duty bound to obey and to accept this dogma with acclamation . . . as the truth of it has been incontestably demonstrated by the Zohar, and all books of the Kabalists."

The mystery of God in humanity

Early in the fourth century, while Bishop Alexander of Alexandria was expounding on the Trinity to his flock, a theological tsunami was born.

A Libyan priest named Arius stood up and posed the following simple question: "If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence." In other words, if the Father is the parent of the Son, then didn't the Son have a beginning?

Apparently, no one had put it this way before. For many bishops, Arius spoke heresy when he said that the Son had a beginning. A debate erupted, led by Arius on the one side and by Alexander and his deacon Athanasius on the other. Athanasius became the Church's lead fighter in a struggle that lasted his entire life.

In 320, Alexander held a council of Alexandria to condemn the errors of Arius. But this did not stop the controversy. The Church had nearly split over the issue when the controversy reached the ears of the Roman emperor Constantine. He decided to resolve it himself in a move that permanently changed the course of Christianity.

The orthodox accused the Arians of attempting to lower the Son by saying he had a beginning. But, in fact, the Arians gave him an exalted position, honoring him as "first among creatures." Arius described the Son as one who became "perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable," but also argued that he had an origin.

The Arian controversy was really about the nature of humanity and how we are saved. It involved two pictures of Jesus Christ: Either he was a God who had always been God or he was a human who became God's Son.

If he was a human who became God's Son, then that implied that other humans could also become Sons of God. This idea was unacceptable to the orthodox, hence their insistence that Jesus had always been God and was entirely different from all created beings. As we shall see, the Church's theological position was, in part, dictated by its political needs. The Arian position had the potential to erode the authority of the Church since it implied that the soul did not need the Church to achieve salvation.

The outcome of the Arian controversy was crucial to the Church's position on both reincarnation and the soul's opportunity to become one with God. Earlier, the Church decided that the human soul is not now and never has been a part of God. Instead it belongs to the material world and is separated from God by a great chasm.

Rejecting the idea that the soul is immortal and spiritual, which was a part of Christian thought at the time of Clement and Origen, the Fathers developed the concept of "creatio ex nihilo", creation out of nothing. If the soul were not a part of God, the orthodox theologians reasoned, it could not have been created out of his essence.

The doctrine persists to this day. By denying man's divine origin and potential, the doctrine of creation out of nothing rules out both preexistence and reincarnation. Once the Church adopted the doctrine, it was only a matter of time before it rejected both Origenism and Arianism. In fact, the Arian controversy was only one salvo in the battle to eradicate the mystical tradition Origen represented.

Origen and his predecessor, Clement of Alexandria, lived in a Platonist world. For them it was a given that there is an invisible spiritual world which is permanent and a visible material world that is changeable. The soul belongs to the spiritual world, while the body belongs to the material world.

In the Platonists' view, the world and everything in it is not created but emanates from God, the One. Souls come from the Divine Mind, and even when they are encased in bodily form, they retain their link to the Source.

Clement tells us that humanity is "of celestial birth, being a plant of heavenly origin." Origen taught that man, having been made after the "image and likeness of God," has "a kind of blood-relationship with God."

While Clement and Origen were teaching in Alexandria, another group of Fathers was developing a countertheology. They rejected the Greek concept of the soul in favor of a new and unheard of idea: The soul is not a part of the spiritual world at all; but, like the body, it is part of the mutable material world.

They based their theology on the changeability of the soul. How could the soul be divine and immortal, they asked, if it is capable of changing, falling and sinning? Because it is capable of change, they reasoned, it cannot be like God, who is unchangeable.

Origen took up the problem of the soul's changeability but came up with a different solution. He suggested that the soul was created immortal and that even though it fell (for which he suggests various reasons), it still has the power to restore itself to its original state.

For him the soul is poised between spirit and matter and can choose union with either: "The will of this soul is something intermediate between the flesh and the spirit, undoubtedly serving and obeying one of the two, whichever it has chosen to obey." If the soul chooses to join with spirit, Origen wrote, "the spirit will become one with it."

This new theology, which linked the soul with the body, led to the ruling out of preexistence. If the soul is material and not spiritual, then it cannot have existed before the body. As Gregory of Nyssa wrote: "Neither does the soul exist before the body, nor the body apart from the soul, but ... there is only a single origin for both of them."

When is the soul created then? The Fathers came up with an improbable answer: at the same time as the body - at conception. "God is daily making souls," wrote Church Father Jerome. If souls and bodies are created at the same time, both preexistence and reincarnation are out of the question since they imply that souls exist before bodies and can be attached to different bodies in succession.

The Church still teaches the soul is created at the same time as the body and therefore the soul and the body are a unit.

This kind of thinking led straight to the Arian controversy. Now that the Church had denied that the soul preexists the body and that it belongs to the spiritual world, it also denied that souls, bodies and the created world emanated from God.

The Arian controversy

When Arius asked whether the Son had a beginning, he was, in effect, pointing out a fundamental flaw in that doctrine. The doctrine did not clarify the nature of Christ. So he was asking: If there is an abyss between Creator and creation, where does Christ belong? Was he created out of nothing like the rest of the creatures? Or was he part of God? If so, then how and why did he take on human form?

The Church tells us that the Arian controversy was a struggle against blasphemers who said Christ was not God. But the crucial issue in the debate was: How is humanity saved - through emulating Jesus or through worshiping him?

The Arians claimed that Jesus became God's Son and thereby demonstrated a universal principle that all created beings can follow. But the orthodox Church said that he had always been God's Son, was of the same essence as God (and therefore was God) and could not be imitated by mere creatures, who lack God's essence. Salvation could come only by accessing God's grace via the Church.

The Arians believed that human beings could also be adopted as Sons of God by imitating Christ. For the Arians, the incarnation of Christ was designed to show us that we can follow Jesus and become, as Paul said, "joint heirs with Christ."

The orthodox Church, by creating a gulf between Jesus and the rest of us, denied that we could become Sons in the same way he did. The reason why the Church had such a hard time seeing Jesus' humanity was that they could not understand how anyone could be human and divine at the same time. Either Jesus was human (and therefore changeable) or he was divine (and therefore unchangeable).

The orthodox vision of Jesus as God is based in part on a misunderstanding of the Gospel of John. John tells us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Later John tells us the "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The orthodox concluded from these passages that Jesus Christ is God, the Word, made flesh.

What they didn't understand was that when John called Jesus "the Word," he was referring to the Greek tradition of the Logos. When John tells us that the Word created everything, he uses the Greek term for Word - "Logos." In Greek thought, Logos describes the part of God that acts in the world. Philo called the Logos "God's Likeness, by whom the whole cosmos was fashioned." Origen called it the soul that holds the universe together.

Philo believed that great human beings like Moses could personify the Logos. Thus, when John writes that Jesus is the Logos, he does not mean that the man Jesus has always been God the Logos. What John is telling us is that Jesus the man became the Logos, the Christ.

Some early theologians believed that everyone has that opportunity. Clement tells us that each human has the "image of the Word [Logos]" within him and that it is for this reason that Genesis says that humanity is made "in the image and likeness of God."

The Logos, then, is the spark of divinity, the seed of Christ, that is within our hearts. Apparently the orthodox either rejected or ignored this concept.

We should understand that Jesus became the Logos just as he became the Christ. But that didn't mean he was the only one who could ever do it. Jesus explained this mystery when he broke the bread at the Last Supper. He took a single loaf, symbolizing the one Logos, the one Christ, and broke it and said, "This is my body, which is broken for you."

He was teaching the disciples that there is one absolute God and one Universal Christ, or Logos, but that the body of that Universal Christ can be broken and each piece will still retain all the qualities of the whole. He was telling them that the seed of Christ was within them, that he had come to quicken it and that the Christ was not diminished no matter how many times his body was broken. The smallest fragment of God, Logos, or Christ, contains the entire nature of Christ's divinity - which, to this day, he would make our own.

The orthodox misunderstood Jesus' teaching because they were unable to accept the reality that each human being has both a human and a divine nature and the potential to become wholly divine. They didn't understand the human and the divine in Jesus and therefore they could not understand the human and the divine within themselves. Having seen the weakness of human nature, they thought they had to deny the divine nature that occasionally flashes forth even in the lowliest of human beings.

The Church did not understand (or could not admit) that Jesus came to demonstrate the process by which the human nature is transformed into the divine. But Origen had found it easy to explain.

He believed that the human and divine natures can be woven together day by day. He tells us that in Jesus "the divine and human nature began to interpenetrate in such a way that the human nature, by its communion with the divine, would itself become divine." Origen tells us that the option for the transformation of humanity into divinity is available not just for Jesus but for "all who take up in faith the life which Jesus taught."

Origen did not hesitate to describe the relationship of human beings to the Son. He believed that we contain the same essence as the Father and the Son: "We, therefore, having been made according to the image, have the Son, the original, as the truth of the noble qualities that are within us. And what we are to the Son, such is the Son to the Father, who is the truth." Since we have the noble qualities of the Son within us, we can undergo the process of divinization.

To the Arians, the divinization process was essential to salvation; to the orthodox, it was heresy. In 324, the Roman emperor Constantine, who had embraced Christianity twelve years earlier, entered the Arian controversy. He wrote a letter to Arius and Bishop Alexander urging them to reconcile their differences, and he sent Bishop Hosius of Cordova to Alexandria to deliver it. But his letter could not calm the storm that raged ove