The Official Pre-Nicene Position Of The Church On Reincarnation
The Foundational Gospel Teachings:
In the approximate year of 178 of our Common Era, Celsus, the Epicurean
Philosopher and opponent of Christianity, published a rather embarrassing work
in opposition to Christianity known as The True Word or Discourse, which
portrayed the Church as a "secret system" which taught the elect the doctrine of
the soul that evolves to perfection over the course of many lifetimes, while
teaching the unenlightened entry-level Christians the doctrine of Heaven and
Hell. It is said that this work was so widely published and used by the Pagan
world as an attack on the Church. Seventy years after its publication The True
Word was still so widely circulated, that the Church Father Origen was
commissioned by St. Ambrosius to refute this attack by Celsus. Who was Origen
that he was asked to present the official position of the Church? Origen is called
“…the
most prominent of all the church fathers” (Encyclopedia. Britannica), and was
considered by Jerome to be “the greatest teacher of the Church after the
Apostles.” St. Gregory of Nyssa called him
“the prince of Christian learning in
the Third Century.” In his Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament,
by Dr. F. H. Scrivener, one of the ablest of modern-day biblical scholars and
critics writes of Origen: “Origen is the most celebrated biblical critic of
antiquity. His is the highest name among the critics and expositors of the early
Church. He is perpetually engaged in the discussion of various readings of the
New Testament, and employs language, in describing the then existing state of
the text, which would be deemed strong if applied even to its present condition,
after the changes which sixteen more centuries must needs have produced… Seldom
have such warmth of fancy and so bold a grasp of mind been united with the
lifelong, patient industry which procured for this famous man the honorable
appellation of Adamantius.”
Based upon the above, the published reply of Origen known as Contra-Celsum, to the allegation of the Church being
a "secret system" that teaches those who have achieved degrees of spiritual
maturity different than the masses of entry-level believers, must be understood
as the official position of the Church. Quoting the Wikipedia with respect to
the support of the confirmation of teachings in Origen's Contra-Celsum (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_Celsum :
"Eusebius admired Contra Celsum so much that in his Contra Hieroclem, he
declared that Contra Celsum provided an adequate rebuttal to all criticisms the
church would ever face".
The position of the Church was that only the believer who sincerely embraced
the teachings of Jesus -- becoming the "good ground"
in the parable of the Sower and the Seed (see
http://SowerAndTheSeed.Ebionite.com ), could
fulfill the purpose and objective of the Gospel teachings. Preparedness to understand
man's higher Soul-Reality, is why Jesus
spoke only in parables to the masses of people who lacked the necessary
spiritual maturity to comprehend the core Gospel teachings -- i.e.,
"And with many such
parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a
parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all
things to His disciples" (Mark 4:33-34). Only those who had achieved degrees of
spiritual maturity, could the mysteries of the Kingdom be revealed -- i.e.,
Jesus explained: “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of
God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That
seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not
understand” (Mark 4:11-12). Which is why St. Jerome wrote:
“The doctrine of
transmigration (reincarnation) has been secretly taught from ancient times to
small numbers of people, as a traditional truth which was not to be divulged”
Why in the pre-Nicene Church were the more spiritually mature taught differently
than those who failed to advance? Origen responded to the allegation of Celsus
by explaining that: “For there are in the divinity
of the Word some helps towards the cure of those who are sick”,
meaning the sinners. Origen then clarifies his statement and writes that these
sinners are by no means invited to “…participation
in mysteries, then, and to fellowship in the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which
God ordained before the world to the glory of His saints”.
In his famed work De Principiis, Origin explains who can be a recipient of the
Mysteries of the Kingdom and the Gospel of God: “Whoever has clean hands, and
therefore lifts up holy hands to God… let him come to us… Whoever is pure, not
only from all defilement, but from what are regarded as lesser transgressions,
let him be boldly initiated into the mysteries of Jesus, which properly are made
known only to the holy and the pure… To those who have been purified in heart,
he whose soul has for a long time, been conscious of no evil, especially since
he yielded himself to the healing of the Word, let such a one hear the doctrines
which were spoken in private by Jesus to his genuine disciples”.
Paul made reference to the inability of entry-level Christians who he, himself,
had taught, to understand the spiritual meaning of the Gospel teachings when he
said:
"...I fed you with milk and
not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now
you are still not able; for you are still carnal".
It is therefore imperative that modern believers
understand Paul's words when he stated to those who he had personally taught:
“But the natural man does
not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”
(1 Cor 2:14). Thus,
it is not a "secret system" when it
is recognized that teachings such as the pre-existent Soul that evolves to
perfection over the course of many lives, cannot be understood by the Christians
who fail to advance to an intellectual level where they are able to comprehend
man's higher Soul-Reality.
Within the official reply to Celsus by the Church is this teaching on the
pre-existent Soul that evolves to Wholeness and Perfection over the course of
many lives:
"Is it not
rational that souls should be introduced into bodies, in accordance with their
merits and previous deeds, and that those who have used their bodies in doing
the utmost possible good should have the right to bodies endowed with qualities
superior to the bodies of others?... The soul, which is immaterial and invisible
in its nature, exists in no material place without having a body suited to the
nature of that place; accordingly, it at one time puts off one body, which was
necessary before, but which is no longer adequate in its changed state, and it
exchanges it for a second". And in his famed work De Principiis the Church
Father Origen explains: "The soul has neither beginning nor end... Every soul...
comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats
of its previous life. Its place in this world as a vessel appointed to honor or
dishonor is determined by its previous merits or demerits. Its work in this
world determines its place in the world which is to follow this..."
The Religion Of Roman Emperors: The
Commissioned Reply of the Church in Contra-Celsum, must be recognized as the official position and doctrine of
the Christianity prior to the take-over of the Church by the Emperor Constantine
in the year 325AD. And the teachings of Origen and the pre-Nicene Church Fathers
on the pre-existent soul were embraced, until they were suppressed in the fourth
century when the Emperor Constantine took absolute control of the Church, and until being
condemned by the Emperor Justinian in the year 553. Turning to the
historian, this ultra important element to the equation of life that causes the
modern Christian to perceive in reverse of both the scriptures and life itself,
is made reference to by Edward Gibbon in the footnote regarding the question of
the disciples at John 9:2: "The disciples of Jesus
were persuaded that a man might have sinned before he was born, (John, ix. 2,)
and the Pharisees held the transmigration [reincarnation] of virtuous souls,
(Joseph. de Bell. Judaico, l. ii. c. 7;) and a modern Rabbi is modestly assured,
that Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, etc., derived their metaphysics from his
illustrious countrymen" (Gibbon; Decline & Fall) -- metaphysics
that embraced the concept of the pre-existence and transmigration of the soul. Did the Jews
believe in the pre-existent Soul? The Hastings-Scribner Dictionary Of The Bible
states: "To affirm that Jews in Christ's time did not believe in pre-existence
is simply incorrect" The Zohar, which is the
foundation of Jewish mysticism states:
“All souls are
subject to the trials of transmigration; and men do not know the designs of the
Most High with regard to them… The souls must re-enter the absolute substance
whence they have emerged. But to accomplish this end they must develop all the
perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not
fulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a third,
and so forth, until they have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion
with God”. This teaching can
rightly be portrayed as the parable of the prodigal son who cannot return to the
Edenic Kingdom until he "comes to his senses".
But, because the Church since the Roman take-over has embraced the manmade doctrines
of the Emperors who ruled over the religion and its accepted doctrines of belief,
the faithful flock has remained entry-level and spiritually disenfranchised
throughout the intervening centuries.
Why was
the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul removed from Christian teaching
and understanding? Because this core Gospel teaching fell to the same fate as many other spiritual
truths which the emperors, such as Constantine and Justinian, did not agree
with. Quoting the Britannica: “Under Justinian all
essential features were already formed: Imperial power extended equally over
state and Church… Since the emperor ruled the Church there was no longer any
independence for the bishops, least of all for the patriarch in Constantinople;
they were in every respect subordinate to the emperor”.
As the leader of the Church and its teachings, in the
year 553 Justinian convened the 5th Ecumenical Council where, quoting
the Catholic Encyclopedia, “…the council opened on 5
May, 553, in spite of the protestations of Pope Vigilius, who though at
Constantinople, refused to attend it… before the opening of the council, which
had been delayed by the resistance of the pope, the bishops already assembled at
Constantinople had to consider, by order of the emperor, a form of Origenism
that had practically nothing in common with Origen…”. Quoting the Britannica:
“After the council, Justinian banished the pope to Egypt, and afterwards to an
island, until he accepted the Council, which he ultimately did.”
After relenting to the will of
the emperor, and finely accepting the decree of the emperor after seven months
of imprisonment, it is reported that the pope met with an untimely death before
he could even return to the Vatican.
Thereafter,
any Christian who suggested that they agreed with the early church fathers with
regard to the teaching on the transmigration of the soul were put to death.
Any reference in scripture that a person's position in life which they were born
into, was in accordance with
what one accomplished in the their Soul's previous lives, was edited out.
Can the Truth be confirmed by the modern believer? Yes. Quoting from
Can
I Get An Original Pure Copy Of The Scriptures
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com#PureCopyOfScriptures
: When Constantine ordered the destruction of
those who opposed the religion of the emperor, many of the more pure copies of
scriptures were collected and hidden away in what is now the Vatican archives.
The Church of Rome has maintained the position that the Truth in whatever form
belongs solely to them -- and these more pure scriptures remain hidden away in
the Vatican archives. Therefore, if the Christian world truly desired to return
to their original spiritual roots, and really wanted more pure scriptures, they
could demand an accounting of these scriptures that remain stashed away in the
Vatican. Historically, the Protestant Reformation was largely the result
of the Gospels being translated into the English language, and given into the
hands of the believing community by John Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated
with Wycliffe's teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44
years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and
scattered in the river! One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted
Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own
language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened
anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake
in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. How
corrupt and spiritually disenfranchised was the Church? In his letter to Pope
Leo X on September 6th, 1520, where Martin Luther wrote of the Christianity of
his day, that the church,
“…once the holiest of all,
has become the most licentious den of thieves, the most shameless of all
brothels, the kingdom of sin, death, and hell. It is so bad that even Antichrist
himself, if he should come, could think of nothing to add to its wickedness”
(Quoted in: The Great Thoughts; compiled by George Seldes). Yet, as predicted by
the Apostle Paul, the AntiChrist not only ruled the Church since the fourth
century (see
The Church Of The AntiChrist
http://Ebionite.com/AntiChrist.htm
) -- but as Paul predicted, the AntiChrist sat on the thrown of the Church and
was worshiped as God. And with regard to Paul's assertion that these things
would come to pass, the Adam Clark Commentary writes of this passage of Paul's
Epistle:
“[Except there come a falling away first]
We have the original word apostasia in our word apostasy; and by this term we
understand a dereliction of the essential principles of religious truth, either
a total abandonment of Christianity itself, or such a corruption of its
doctrines as renders the whole system completely inefficient to salvation. But
what this apostasy means is a question which has not yet, and perhaps never will
be, answered to general satisfaction” (from the Adam Clarke
Commentary).
In the above I provide the OFFICIAL PUBLISHED position of the Church prior to
the violent take over of the Church by the Emperor Constantine. In the case of the Christian Church
beginning in the fourth century, to disagree with the doctrines affirmed by the
Emperor Constantine, carried with it the sentence of death. Thus, Gibbon writes
in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ”Constantine easily believed that
the heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands,
were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy... Not a moment was lost
in excluding the ministers and teachers of the separated congregations from any
share of the rewards and immunities which the emperor had so liberally bestowed
on the orthodox clergy. But as the sectaries might still exist under the cloud
of royal disgrace, the conquest of the East was immediately followed by an edict
which announced their total destruction”. Thus, in the same way that whoever did
not embrace the religion of the emperor met with the sentence of death, whatever
scriptures did not conform to the approved version, was immediately destroyed
(see http://BibleCorruption.com ).
The result is that the very foundational doctrines that are necessary to begin
to mentally and spiritually mature beyond an elementary level of consciousness, were not only anathema by the emperors who
ruled over the Church -- but have yet to
be corrected to this very day. In the same way that the religious doctrines of
the pagan emperors were imposed on the church in the fourth century, this
remained true into the sixth century when the doctrine of the pre-existent soul
was outlawed. Quoting from
http://BrotherOfJesus.org :
Those followers and disciples who walked and talked with Jesus daily -- the
very people who he personally taught -- those followers who could ask Jesus any
question -- all witnessed to the fact that Jesus was a true holy man who became
the Anointed (Messiah/Christ/Enlightened) by fulfilling the Law of God within
his own mind and being see
The Law Of The Gospels
http://TheLawOfTheGospels.com
. They affirmed that Jesus (quoting) "...was justified by fulfilling the
Law. He was the Christ (Anointed) of God, since not one of the rest of mankind
had observed the Law completely. Had any one else fulfilled the commandments of
the Law, he would have been the Christ, for they assert that our Lord Himself
was a man in like sense with all humanity" (quoted from Hippolytus,
Refut. Omn. Haer. vii. 34). Jesus himself taught his followers that any of the
prodigal sons who fulfill the Law as he had done, becomes Anointed
(Messiah/Christ), and is then able to become At-One with the indwelling Logos/Word?Mind/Son of God
that exists at the core of our consciousness. It was the
living of the necessary Consecrated Life that Jesus ordained, and the seeking of
the Kingdom within, that enabled the historical man Jesus to become the Messiah,
and At-One with the Indwelling Logos/Word/Son of God -- a path and teachings that the
modern Church totally rejects based upon the pagan doctrines of Roman Emperors.
And the reality that Jesus, the man, became the Anointed, and through his
Wholeness, achieved a condition of At-Oneness with the Indwelling Logos/Son of
God. This is especially demonstrated in the words of Edward Gibbon with respect
to the original position of the Ebionite Nazirene disciples of Jesus that he
(Jesus) was in “...supernatural union of a man and
God... In their eyes, Jesus of Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son of
Joseph and Mary: but he was the best and wisest of the human race, selected as
the worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of the true and supreme
Deity. When he was baptized in the Jordan, the Christ, the first of the aeons,
the Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, to inhabit his
mind, and direct his actions during the allotted period of his ministry”
(Gibbon; The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, V.4, P.366). The later Church
of Constantine suppressed the core teaching on how each person must fulfill the
Law within their own mind and being, as Jesus taught his original followers (see
Spiritual Meaning And Fulfillment Of The Law
http://TheLawOfTheGospels.com#SpiritualMeaningOfTheLaw
).
In this life my name is Allan Cronshaw. But in the former life of my Soul, I was
known as Jacob/Ya'kov who people today mistakenly call James, the brother of
Yeshua who they mistakenly call Jesus, and as the original author of the core
Gospel composed in the language of Hebrew Characters (see
http://Cronshaw.us ), my Soul
re-entered this world at this time to restore the important teachings that the
Church suppressed and removed from the Gospels (see The Restored Original
Gospel Teachings
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com ). I was sent to convey to
seekers how to enter into the Narrow Gate (see Spiritual Osmosis And The Narrow
Gate
http://TheLawOfOctaves.com#Osmosis ). To prepare for the Inward
Journey, it is necessary to understand the Cosmology of Mind set forth in the
Tree Of Life
http://TreeOfLife.Nazirene.org .
In total opposition to modern Church dogma and the Augustinian doctrine of
Original Sin (see
Original Sin And Spiritual Osmosis
http://TheLawOfOctaves.com#OriginalSin ),
Jesus taught: "They that are whole have no need of
the physician, but they that are sick: I did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance" (Mark 2:17). Before this verse can be
understood, we must first understand what it means to be Whole. Which provokes
the question: How is Wholeness achieved? Contrary to the dogma of the modern
Church, if Jesus is the savior who every person needs for their salvation, then Jesus
himself said the Church was wrong, and those who are Whole do not need him. And
as a physician, Jesus did not come for the salvation of those who achieve
Wholeness and Righteousness, but only for those who are sick and in need of a
physician. And in total opposition to Church dogma, what this also means is that
at the time the historical man Jesus walked the face of the earth, there existed
people who he portrayed as "whole [and] righteous"
who did not need Jesus the physician. Jesus openly states that his mission as a
spiritual physician is not for them, because they achieved the necessary
Wholeness without him. With respect to the question:
Does everyone need Jesus as the modern Christian maintains? While Jesus himself
said that those who had achieved Wholeness did not need him as a spiritual
physician -- i.e., "They that are whole have no need
of the physician..." -- and that with effort, all of mankind is
capable of achieving a condition that Jesus portrayed as
"whole [and] righteous". Which means that those people who
did achieve Wholeness, were not sick, and in Jesus' own words were not in need
of him (Jesus) as a physician to heal them. Which means that the whole
foundation of modern Church dogma which was imposed upon the believing community
by a series of Roman Emperors (see The Religion Of Roman Emperors
http://reincarnation.nazirene.org/#emperors ), is man-made and in
error. And while the Original Gospel Teachings of Jesus are the Truth of all
Truths, these Original Teachings are rejected by the modern Church.
The Gospel teachings on reincarnation can be found at the following links:
Christian Reincarnation http://ChristianReincarnation.org
The Spiritual Castration Of The Gospels
http://DevilSpawn.Ebionite.com#SpiritualCastrationOfTheGospel
Go Out No More
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#GoOutNoMore
Soul-Evolution - Reincarnation And Soul-Development
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com#SoulEvolution
The Cause Of Organic Human Blindness
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com#OrganicHumanBlindness
Spiritual DNA And The Allotment Of Talents To The Invited Guests
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com#SpiritualDNA
Spiritual DNA And The Sower And The Seed
http://OriginalGospel.Ebionite.com#SowerAndSeed
The Intellectual Red Line In The Sand Of Human Consciousness
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#TheIntellectualRedLine
Jesus Teaches The Causal Factors Of Life
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#JesusTeachesTheCausalFactorsOfLife
The Purpose Of The Natural Laws And The Prison
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#ThePrison
Secondary Karma, The Prison, And The Chickens That Come Home To Roost
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#SecondaryKarma
The Causal Factors And The Corrupted Teaching On Children
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#TheCorruptedTeachingsOnChildren
The Causal Factors And The Talents
http://CausalFactor.Nazirene.org#TheCausalFactorsAndTheTalents
Christianity Today: The Religion Of Roman Emperors
http://reincarnation.nazirene.org/#emperors
