Many Christians have misconceptions about reincarnation. One particular misconception is that it means people don't inhabit heavenly realms between earth lives. The misconception is that people reincarnate immediately after death. It ignorantly assumes people will never be permanent residents of heavenly realms. But near-death testimony reveals these misconceptions to be just that - misconceptions. People are free to spend an "eternity of eternities" in afterlife realms before reincarnating to earth again. There is freedom of choice. This is because time, as we know it on Earth, does not exist in the afterlife realms as it does here. The ultimate purpose for reincarnation is for us to learn enough lessons and gain enough experience from earth lives that reincarnation is no longer necessary. Like a graduation. Reincarnation is not the goal. Eternal life means never having to die anymore. That is the goal - overcoming death and rebirth. Reincarnation is the method and means to attain this goal. For more information on this visit my research conclusions on reincarnation.
A good understanding of reincarnation begins by understanding the ancient teachings on the subject and comparing them to what we know about NDEs. The following are teachings of the various ancient religions on reincarnation.
Resurrection and the
Persian Religion
For
thousands of years, Christians believed that when a person dies
their soul would sleep in the grave along with their corpse. This soul sleep continues until a time in the future known
as the "last day" or also known as the "final judgment."
This doctrine concerns a time when Jesus supposedly returns in the sky and
clouds with the angels to awakened sleeping souls in the graves. Then all corpses will crawl out of
their graves like in the movie "Night of the Living Dead." This doctrine is the
orthodox Christian doctrine called "resurrection" and it is the
result of a misunderstanding of the higher teachings of Jesus concerning
the reincarnation of the spirit into a new body and the real
resurrection which is a spiritual rebirth or "awakening" within
a person already alive. The orthodox concept of resurrection as the "Night
of the Living Dead" is also the result of a great schism which occurred
in early Christian history concerning pre-existence and the nature of
Jesus. Was he a man who became God? Was he God born as a man? The struggle
was between the Church established by Paul in Rome and the remnants of the
Jerusalem Church who fled to Egypt after Rome invaded Israel in 70 AD. The
Roman faction rejected pre-existence and reincarnation and believed Jesus
was God become man. The Jerusalem faction knew Jesus was a man who
achieved the human-divine at-one-ment which is the goal of everyone to
escape reincarnation cycle of birth and death and have eternal life. But
Rome won the political battle and orthodox resurrection became the "Night
of the Living Dead." Many Christians would be surprised to learn
that the resurrection of corpses did not originate with
Christianity nor with Judaism. It originated with the Zoroastrian religion in
ancient Persia (of Magi fame). During the Babylonian exile of the Jews in
Old Testament times, the Jews
were influenced by Zoroastrian concepts such as the resurrection of
corpses, a final day
of judgment, the dualism of good versus evil, the hierarchy of
angels including fallen angels, and the arch rival of God
called Satan. Over time, these Zoroastrian doctrines were incorporated into the religious doctrines
of Judaism. From those days forward, a foreign concept of regeneration
called "resurrection" competed with the much older concept of reincarnation
and the concept of Sheol - concepts that can be found in
the Hebrew scriptures.
Reincarnation
and the Hebrew Religion
The first-century Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus
wrote about the Pharisees
being believers in reincarnation. The Pharisees were the Jewish sect which
Paul belonged to before his NDE and conversion to Christianity. Josephus wrote
about the
Pharisees' belief that the souls of evil men are punished after death.
But the
souls of good men are "removed into other
bodies" and they
will have "power to revive
and live again." From time to time
throughout Jewish
history, there was a persistent belief about dead prophets returning to
life through reincarnation. But the Sadducees,
a purist sect of Judaism, rejected the Persian concepts of resurrection and all Hellenistic
influences involving reincarnation that was happening in Jesus' day. The
Sadducees accepted only the orthodox Hebrew belief in Sheol. So there were a variety of
influences going on in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. When Jesus
began his ministry, many people wondered if he was the reincarnation of one of the prophets. Some
people wondered the same thing concerning John the Baptist. And
even Jesus affirmed to his disciples that John the Baptist was
indeed the reincarnation of the prophet Elijah. Throughout his
ministry, Jesus taught people about the true resurrection
- a spiritual rebirth within a living person. Thus, when Jesus stated that
he was the resurrection and the life, he was teaching them a radical new
principle. It was a rebirth of the spirit - not into a new body - as when
we are born from our mother's womb - but a rebirth of our spirit within
the body we now inhabit. Jesus was distinguishing between what was already
believed in those days concerning the afterlife and a new teaching
concerning a spiritual change within us that can lead to liberation. He
was making a distinction between "the resurrection of the body"
(returning to life from physical death) and "the resurrection of the
spirit" (returning to life from spiritual death). As you will soon
see, this confusion concerning Jesus teachings is documented in John 3
when Jesus had to explain to Nicodemus the difference between physical
rebirth and spiritual rebirth.
Reincarnation
and Early Christianity The first great Father of the early
orthodox Church was
Origen
(A.D. 185-254)
who was
the first person since Paul to develop a system of theology around the
teachings of Jesus. Origen was an ardent defender of pre-existence and reincarnation.
Pre-existence is the religious concept of the soul as not being created at
birth; rather the soul existed before birth in heaven or in a past
life on earth. Origen taught that pre-existence is found in Hebrew
scriptures and the teachings of Jesus.
Origen was a disciple of Clement of Alexandria who was a disciple of the
apostle
Peter. Clement and Origen wrote about receiving secret teachings of Jesus handed down
from the apostles. One of these secret teachings was the concept
of physical and spiritual rebirth. The existence of secret
teachings and mysteries from Jesus is recorded in the Bible. Here
are some of them: He replied, "The knowledge of the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
(Matt. 13:11-12) I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its
fullness - the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:25-27) Listen, I tell you a
mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.
(1 Cor. 15:51)
The
doctrines of pre-existence and reincarnation
existed as secret teachings of Jesus until they were
declared a heresy by the Roman Church in 553 A.D. It was at this time
that the Roman Church aggressively destroyed competing teachings
and so-called heresies within the Church. Along with the
destruction of unorthodox teachings came the destruction of Jews,
Gnostics, and ultimately anyone who stood in the way of the
Inquisition and Crusades. But on December, 1945, writings containing many
of these secrets of early Christianity were unearthed in upper
Egypt. This area was one of the the main locations where Christians fled
to when the Romans invaded Israel. It was here that these secrets were
continued to be taught. Undisturbed since their concealment almost two thousand years ago, these
writings of the secret teachings belonged to a early sect of Christians
called Gnostics and these writings ranked in importance with the Dead Sea
Scrolls which were discovered two years later. These so-called secret teachings
concerning life and death are strikingly similar to what we know about near-death experiences.
Reincarnation and the
Secret
Teachings of Jesus
There are many Bible verses that affirm the reality of reincarnation.
We will examine some of them
here. The episode in the Bible where Jesus
identified John the Baptist as
the reincarnation of Elijah the prophet is one of the clearest statements
which Jesus made concerning 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)
Just speak out and tell Jesus that you accept him as your savior today and things will be better when you do.
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