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Reincarnation
and the Church
It
really shouldn't matter much whether or not
a Christian believes in reincarnation. Doctrines
and beliefs matter very little in comparison
to a mystical experience with the light of God.
A multitude of near-death accounts affirm that
God is not concerned about the theology that
people profess; rather it is the inward spirituality
that matters most. Whether reincarnation is
true or not, near-death accounts reveal that
it is the life we are currently living that
is important. This may be one of the reasons
that reincarnation was suppressed by the Church.
Forgetting an existence before birth is also
an important revelation from NDEs. Accordingly,
people are required to forget their prior existence
in order to not dwell on the "mission"
they are to accomplish in life. It is also the
reason why NDE experiencers are made to forget
details of their pre-existent life when they
return to life. Focusing on the life we are
living also ensures that we are not so heavenly
minded, we are no earthly good. While debating
whether or not reincarnation was once a doctrine
of the early Church is like debating how many
angels can dance on the head of a pin, reincarnation
is certainly a concept that ties the other Christian
doctrines together and solves many of the mysteries
found in the Bible.
Jesus affirmed that
the way to overcome death and rebirth and attain
eternal life is simply through the practice
of love (Luke
10:25-28).
Faith assumes the possibility of doubt; but
knowledge implies certainty. Knowledge of God
is attained through love according to John (1
John 4:7).
When it comes to living a life of love, having
faith in reincarnation does not give anyone
an advantage before God. Reincarnation is a
theory that, at most, explains the apparent
inequities and apparent injustices between people
and the dispensing of divine justice. But the
spiritual life of love does not depend upon
the particular creed one professes. With this
in mind, the following information is an excerpt
from Dr. Quincy Howe, Jr.'s excellent book entitled
Reincarnation for
the Christian.
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Table of Contents |
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1.
The Controversy About Origen |
During the period
from A.D. 250 to 553 controversy raged, at least
intermittently, around the name of
Origen
(183-253 A.D.),
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 man 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,
Epiphanius
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 pre-existence
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 ecclesiats 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:
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1. |
It seems to minimize
Christian salvation.
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2. |
It is in conflict
with the resurrection of the body.
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3. |
It creates an
unnatural separation between body
and soul.
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4. |
It is built on
a much too speculative use of Christian
scriptures.
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5. |
There is no recollection
of previous lives.
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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.
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2. The Theological System of Origen |
Looking at the sequence
of creation from its inception to its conclusion,
one could summarize his 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 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 Jesus
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
Corinthians 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.
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3. Objections and Rebuttals to Origen's Theology |
Objection #1:
It seems to minimize Christian salvation.
This objection was
expressed very clearly by
Theophilus
(385 - 412 AD), patriarch of Alexandria:
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"What
is the point of preaching that souls
are repeatedly confined in bodies,
only to be released again, and that
we experience many deaths? Does
he [Origen] not know that Christ
came, not in order to free souls
from bodies after their resurrection
or to clothe freed souls from bodies
once again in bodies that they might
come down from heavenly regions
to be invested once again with flesh
and blood? Rather, he came so that
he might present our revived bodies
with incorruptibility and eternal
life." (Jerome,
Letters 98.11.)
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Rebuttal
#1:
The essential difference between Theophilus
and Origen is this: For Origen, man, the creature
of free choice, stands responsible before God
for his initial defection. God uses all his
love and persuasion to hasten man along his
way, but man must go the whole journey. For
Theophilus, however, part of the responsibility
for man's defection from God is lifted from
his shoulders by the Son. Thus man is a completely
free and sovereign agent only when he falls;
when he rises, however, much of the travail
is being borne by another. Man does what he
can in a single life and Christ will make good
the rest.
Reincarnation should
be understood, however, not as a statement on
Christ, but as a statement on man. Theophilus
is in effect charging that man is so feeble
that he must depend on Christ to take him most
of the way. The reincarnationalist, however,
is convinced of man's divinity and hence of
his innate ability to return to God's favor.
Objection #2:
It is in conflict with the resurrection of the
body.
Here are the words
of
Epiphanius of Salamis
(310 - 403 AD):
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"First of all if, as the Origenists
say, another body succeeds this
one, then the judgment of God is
not just, for he will either be
condemning the new body for the
sins of the former one, or he will
be ushering it into its glorious
and heavenly inheritance in recognition
of the fastings, vigils, and persecution
suffered for the name of God by
an earlier body." (Epiphanius,
Ancoratus 87.)
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Rebuttal
#2:
For the Platonic philosopher, as for Origen,
the entire goal of life is to disentangle the
soul from the pernicious influence of the body.
This stands in strong contrast to the statement
of Epiphanius that the body is itself a living
principle and whatever it has endured, it will
carry before God for judgment. For Origen, it
is unthinkable that the body of flesh and blood
should be resurrected into immortality. This
body, after all, belongs to the transient world
of matter and passes away as all matter must.
Origen, the Christian and the Platonist, found
it much more likely that a new spiritual body
have nothing in common with the material elements
of the "natural" body should enjoy the resurrected
life. Furthermore, he found ampler support for
this in
1 Corinthians 15:44.
(Against
Celsus 5.19.)
Objection #3:
It creates an unnatural separation between body
and soul.
Probably the best
statement of this is to be found in a letter
of the
Emperor Justinian
to
Mennas,
patriarch of Constantinople. This letter from
the year 543 was the prelude to Origen's condemnation
in 553 AD:
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"Therefore it is clear that souls
are not cast into bodies for the
punishment of sins as they [the
Origenists] foolishly claim, but
rather that God fashioned body and
soul simultaneously, creating man
in his perfected entirety [i.e.,
body and soul]." (Letter to Menna,
PG 86.1, p. 951)
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Rebuttal
#3:
This again raises the question of how one views
the human creature. Is he basically a spiritual
being, or does he exist only as a composite
creature with body and soul? With pre-existence
goes the assumption that he is essentially spirit.
Indeed the reincarnationalist can even find
Scriptural support for personal disincarnate
pre-existence. Origen took Ephesians 1:4 as
proof for his case:
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"He chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be
holy and without blemish in his
sight and love." (Ephesians 1:4)
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Jerome, who is just
as uncomfortable as Justinian about pre-existence,
interprets the passage to mean that we preexisted,
not in distinct disincarnate form, but simply
in the mind of God (Against
Rufinus 1.22),
and from this throng of thoughts God chose the
elect before the creation of the world. The
distinction is indeed a fine one, for Jerome
is asking us to distinguish between that which
exists as a soul and that which exists as a
thought. What is illuminating for the reincarnationalist
is that this passage from Ephesians offers very
explicit Scriptural testimony for individual
pre-existence.
Objection #4:
It is built on a much too speculative use of
Christian scriptures.
Rebuttal #4:
This resistance to speculative thought
is implicit in so much of what is said against
Origen. Epiphanius, for example, cannot conceive
of a spiritual body coming into man's heavenly
inheritance. Justinian cannot conceive of a
soul that preexists the body.
Methodius
(311 AD) cannot conceive of man as a disincarnate
creature. All these objections show an unwillingness
of the early church to deal in speculative ideas
that do not find immediate confirmation in the
Scriptures. Origen constructed a theology and
cosmology that accounts for the rise and fall
of creation and the state of man both prior
to the beginning and after the end. This was
a very natural thing for him to do, for Greek
philosophy had always been engaged in inquiry
of this sort.
Objection #5:
There is no recollection of previous lives.
If reincarnation is
indeed true, why do we have no recollection
of earlier lives? Justinian raise this question
in connection with
Luke 16:19-31
(Letter to Mennas, PG 86.1, p. 959). The evangelist
tells of how Lazarus, the impoverished and sore-ridden
beggar, sits at the bosom of Abraham after his
passing, while the rich man, whose very crumbs
from the table had been a boon to Lazarus, is
buried in hell. The rich man calls out to Abraham
in distress, only to be reminded of the profligate
manner of his life. Justinian takes this as
an indication that while man is in the disincarnate
interval after life, he recalls what has transpired
during his incarnate life - after all, the rich
man does recall the manner of his life. If this
is so, then surely incarnate man, upon his return
to a new body, should recall the incidents of
earlier incarnations. Origen does not address
himself to this specific problem, but he may
very well have been satisfied with the myth
that Plato used to account for the lapse of
recollection between lives. According to the
account of Er at the
end of Plato's Republic
(621 BCE), the souls of men drink from the waters
of forgetfulness as they proceed from one life
to another.
It should also be
noted here that this phenomenon of
forgetting memories
remembered in the afterlife
is a theme for near-death experiencers.
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4. Conclusion on Origen's Condemnation |
With the condemnation
of Origen, so much that is implied in reincarnation
was officially stigmatized as heresy that the
possibility of a direct confrontation with this
belief was effectively removed from the church.
In dismissing Origen from its midst, the church
only indirectly addressed itself to the issue
of reincarnation. The encounter with Origenism
did, however, draw decisive lines in the matter
of pre-existence, the resurrection of the dead,
and the relationship between body and soul.
What an examination of Origen and the church
does achieve, however, is to show where the
reincarnationist will come into collision with
the posture of orthodoxy. The extent to which
he may wish to retreat from such a collision
is of course a matter of personal conscience.
With the
Council of 553
one can just about close the book on this entire
controversy within the church. There are merely
two footnotes to be added to the story, emerging
from church councils in 1274 and 1439. In the
Council of Lyons in
1274 it
was stated that after death the soul goes promptly
either to heaven or to hell. On the Day of Judgment
all will stand before the tribunal of Christ
with their bodies to render account of what
they have done. The
Council of Florence
of 1439
uses almost the same wording to describe
the swift passage of the soul either to heaven
or to hell. Implicit in both of these councils
is the assumption that the soul does not again
venture into physical bodies.
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5. Origen's Theology on Human Pre-Existence |
Origen was a champion
for the doctrine of pre-existence. Even if we
didn't have any references by Origen concerning
the subject of reincarnation, his belief in
pre-existence alone shows that he was a believer
in reincarnation. The reason is because all
of his other beliefs cannot be true without
reincarnation. His other beliefs would be impossible
without the assumption of reincarnation to be
a fact. His beliefs in the fall of souls, pre-existence,
the divinity of the soul, and
universal salvation
are Neo-Platonic doctrines that, without the
tie that binds them together (reincarnation),
his theology is not only impossible, it is irrational,
illogical, and ridiculous. We don't need any
quotes from Origen concerning reincarnation.
Everything he has written, in context, demonstrates
his clear stance on this subject. The Church
didn't fight so hard to get rid of pre-existence
for nothing. They knew that pre-existence implied
reincarnation because they are virtually the
same concept. And because the Church destroyed
the Origenists and their texts, the rest of
orthodox theology, in my humble opinion, is
ridiculous and dishonoring to God.
Origen taught that
the pre-existence of souls can be found in both
the Old and New Testaments in the story of Esau
and Jacob and how God loved Jacob and hated
Esau before they were even born (Malachi
1:2-3 and
Romans 9:11-24).
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"So the
one nature of every soul being in
the hands of God, and, so to speak,
there being but one collection of
reasoning entities, certain causes
of more ancient date led to some
of these being made vessels unto
honor, and others vessels unto dishonor." (Origen,
de Principiis, Bk. III, ch. i)
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The phrase "certain
causes of more ancient date," is a clear
and distinct reference to the pre-existence
of Esau and Jacob whose past life karma caused
Jacob to be a "vessel created for honor"
and Esau a "vessel created for dishonor"
(i.e. destruction)."
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"Those
who maintain that everything in
the world is under the rule of the
divine foresight, as is also our
own belief, can give no other reply,
it seems to me, in order to show
that no shadow of injustice can
rest upon the divine government
of the world than by holding that
there were certain exact causes
of prior existence by consequence
of which all souls before their
birth in the present body contracted
a certain amount of guilt in their
reasoning nature, or perhaps by
the actions, on account of which
they have been condemned by the
divine providence to be placed in
their present life ... Even in such
a case we must admit that there
sometimes existed certain causes
preceding the present bodily birth." (Origen,
de Principiis, Bk. III, ch. iii,
sec. 5)
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These last two citations
from Origen are taken from Rufinus' Latin translation.
Rufinus took great liberties in watering down
Origen's writings to fit orthodoxy.
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"Rational
creatures had also a similar beginning.
Indeed, if they had a beginning
such as the end for which they hope,
they must have unquestionably existed
from the very beginning of the ages
which are not seen ... If this be
so, then of course there has been
a descent from a higher to a lower
condition not only by those souls
who have deserved this change by
the variety of their inner movements
of consciousness, but also by those
who in order to serve the world,
came down from the higher and invisible
spheres to these lower and visible
ones." (Origen,
de Principiis, Bk. III, ch. v, sec.4)
"We see
that not then for the first time
did Divinity begin its work when
it made this visible world: but
just as after the destruction of
this visible world there will be
another world, its product, so also
we believe that other worlds existed
before the present came into being."
(Origen,
de Principiis, Bk. III, ch. iii,
sec.3)
"Every
one, therefore, of the souls descending
to the Earth, is strictly following
his merits, or according to the
position which he formerly occupied,
is destined to be returned to this
world in a different country or
among a different nation, or in
a different sphere of existence
on Earth, or afflicted with infirmities
of another kind, or mayhap to be
the children of religious parents
or of parents who are not religious:
so that of course it may sometimes
happen that a Hebrew will be born
among the Syrians, or an unfortunate
Egyptian may be born in Judea." (Origen,
de Principiis, Bk. IV, ch. i, sec.
23)
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The following are quotes
from Origen's writings and supporting texts
that display his reincarnational beliefs. Origen
stated that the doctrine of resurrection was
misunderstood by the spiritually unaware. He
wrote:
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"[Resurrection
was] preached in the Churches for
the simpleminded and for the ears
of the common crowd who are led
on to live better lives by their
belief." (Origen,
Against Celsus 5.19)
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When Clement states
that the Mysteries of God are never written,
but rather, only spoken between teacher and
disciple, the ultimate meaning of this great
truth is only comprehended when one arrives
at the level where they realize that the true
oral teaching is that which is whispered in
the ear when a consecrated disciple is able
to come into the presence of the True Prophet
(i.e., the indwelling Son of God).
Among the mysteries
that were concealed from the masses was the
doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. In "The
True Word",
Celsus accused the early Church of teaching
the masses the doctrine of heaven and hell while
teaching the elect the doctrine of reincarnation.
Origen does not refute Celsus, but rather explains
that:
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"But on
these subjects much and that of
a mystical kind, might be said;
in keeping with which is the following:
It is good to keep close the secret
of a king, (Tobit
xii, 7),
in order that the doctrine of the
entrance of souls into bodies, not,
however, that of the transmigration
from one body into another, may
not be thrown before the common
understanding, nor what is holy
given to the dogs, nor pearls be
cast before swine. For such a procedure
would be impious, being equivalent
to a betrayal of the mysterious
declaration of God's Wisdom."
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The
key verse is: It is good to keep secret the
entrance of souls into bodies, but not the transmigration
from one body into another."
Here,
Origen openly affirms the doctrine of the pre-existence
of the soul, as well as the doctrine of transmigration
(reincarnation), are openly revealed to Christians
who have been purified and matured sufficiently
to comprehend the mysteries of God, while the
knowledge of why the soul even came into this
world is kept secret, and is not openly revealed
to carnal minds. In explanation, Origen quotes
scripture and writes It is good to keep close
the secret of a king, and affirms that certain
mysteries only belong to the spiritually mature
in the word, and that one should not permit
what is holy given to the dogs, nor pearls be
cast before swine."
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6. Origen's Theology on Reincarnation |
Perhaps the most well-known
quote by Origen concerning his belief in reincarnation
is the following quote:
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"The
soul has neither beginning nor end
[They] come into this world strengthened
by the victories or weakened by
the defeats of their previous lives" (Origen,
de Principiis)
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In view of this very
well defined Biblical doctrine, isn't this the
same exact message that Jesus mentions in his
Parable of the Talents?:
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"Again,
it [the kingdom of heaven] will
be like a man going on a journey,
who called his servants and entrusted
his property to them. To one he
gave five talents of money, to another
two talents, and to another one
talent, each according to his ability."
(Matthew
25:14-30)
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Origen wrote in
On First Principles,
Chap V,
that he believed that the wicked will be resurrected
with "dark and black bodies" according
to their previous state of spiritual darkness
and spiritual ignorance. Those who have lived
a holy life will receive bright and glorious
bodies. He then explains further in a passage
that was removed from his work, but preserved
by Jerome:
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Origen writes: "Perhaps, however,
the 'gloom and darkness' should
be taken to mean this coarse and
earthly body, through which at the
end of the world each man that must
pass into another world will receive
the beginnings of a fresh birth."
(G. W. Butterworth, ed., Origen:
On First Principles, (Gloucester,
Mass.: Peter Smith, 1973), Intro.,
p. xxiii.)
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Jerome commented on
the above quote from Origen:
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"In so
speaking he clearly supports the
doctrine of transmigration taught
by Pythagoras and Plato." (Letter
CXXIV, to Avitus)
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The passage
of Origen's view on resurrection, along with
Jerome's comment of it, shows that he is referring
to holy people reincarnating to another world
at the end of the age (which is an astrological
reference, not the end of the world). But concerning
the "dark" person (spiritually ignorant)
that Origen refers to had a past life in the
body before the end of the age. After the end
of the age, if there is more spiritual ignorance
within the individual, he is incarnated again
to a different world. Origen is talking about
more than one incarnations and that is reincarnation.
Jerome certainly knew what he meant.
Gregory
of Nyssa preserved the following writing from
Origen:
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"By some inclination toward evil,
certain souls ... come into bodies,
first of men; then through their
association with the irrational
passions, after the allotted span
of human life, they are changed
into beasts, from which they sink
to the level of plants. From this
condition they rise again through
the same stages and are restored
to their heavenly place." (B.W.
Butterworth, On First Principles,
Book I, Chapter VIII (New York:
Harper & Row, 1966), p. 73)
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The above
writing by Origen clearly describes not only
pre-existence, but multiple incarnations as
well.
Origen quoted from
the Apocryphal
Gospel of Hebrews
where Jacob states:
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"I am
an angel of God; one of the first
order of spirits. Men call me Jacob,
but my true name, which God has
given me, is Israel." (Orat.
Joseph. apud ORIG). Many of the
Jewish doctors have believed that
the souls of Adam, Abraham, and
Phineas, have successively animated
the great men of their nation. Philo
says that the air is full of spirits,
and that some, through their natural
propensity, join themselves to bodies;
and that others have an aversion
from such a union." (Commentary
on John, Book II)
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Origen is stating
in the above quote that John the Baptist was
an embodied angel who had previously lived on
Earth as the prophet Elijah.
Origen also discussed
reincarnation with the skeptic Celsus: |
"Is it
not more in conformity with reason
that every soul for certain mysterious
reasons (I speak now according to
the opinion of Pythagoras and Plato
and Empedocles, whom Celsus frequently
names) is introduced into a body,
and introduced according to its
deserts and former actions? ...
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 a 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." (Contra
Celsus, Book I., chap. XXXII)
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Even
with the obvious attempt by a pious scribe to
qualify Origen's clear statement of reincarnation
with "I speak now...etc.," it is clear
that Origen was discussing his own belief in
reincarnation by referring to multiple incarnations.
In the
next passage, Origen refers to "fallen
souls" (which alone shows his Neo-Platonic
and Gnostic reincarnation leanings) and then
discusses how they have multiple incarnations:
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"It can
be shown that an incorporeal and
reasonable being has life in itself
independently of the body... then
it is beyond a doubt bodies are
only of secondary importance and
arise from time to time to meet
the varying conditions of reasonable
creatures. Those who require bodies
are clothed with them, and contrariwise,
when fallen souls have lifted themselves
up to better things their bodies
are once more annihilated. They
are ever vanishing and ever reappearing."
(Letter
CXXIV, to Avitus)
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Origen describes four
types of bodies: (1) ethereal, (2) aereal, (3)
gross, and (4) fleshly. This doctrine of the
descent of the soul into four lower bodies is
preeminently Platonic and has much in common
with the doctrines of the various schools of
Christian Gnostics. Origen teaches that God
created matter to accommodate the fallen souls
so that they could be restored to their spiritual
state.
The divisive result
of Origen's doctrine on the reincarnation of
men, angels and demons cannot be overestimated.
The idea of fallen angels walking the Earth
as humans paying their "karmic debts" for past
life sins is the key to Origen's doctrine of
universal salvation - even the salvation of
the devil.
Origen and early Christians
believed in a higher form of "metempsychosis",
a form of reincarnation which rejected the possibility
of humans reincarnating as animals (i.e., transmigration.)
It is this confusion that anti-reincarnationalists
have today which leads them to falsely conclude
that Origen's theology did not include reincarnation.
Origen's
writings show that the controversy was not about
reincarnation (a higher form of metempsychosis)
but about Plato's doctrine of transmigration:
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"And
the expulsion of the man and woman
from paradise, and their being clothed
with tunics of skins (which God,
because of the transgression of
men, made for those who had sinned),
contain a certain secret and mystical
doctrine (far transcending that
of Plato) of the souls losing its
wings, and being borne downwards
to Earth, until it can lay hold
of some stable resting-place."
(Contra
Celsus, Book IV., chap. XL)
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Origen, who had obviously
been initiated in the
Eleusinian Mysteries,
does not teach transmigration of the souls of
human beings into the bodies of beasts:
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"We think
that those views are by no means
to be accepted which some people
most unnecessarily advance and support,
to the effect that rational souls
can reach such a pitch of abasement
that they forget their rational
nature and high dignity and sink
into the bodies of irrational beasts,
either large or small." (de
Principiis, Bk. I, ch. viii, sec.3)
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Origen regarded the
Biblical "fall" as separating souls from God.
He taught that redemption required the active
application of free will to earn reunion with
God and, in the interim, souls could go around
again and again, occupying human bodies as one
might put on and put off clothes until salvation
was achieved.
In his chapter on
"Loss or Falling Away," Origen explains that
the fall necessitated the use of bodies of various
levels of density. He writes:
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"All rational creatures who are
incorporeal and invisible, if they
become negligent, gradually sink
to a lower level and take for themselves
bodies suitable to the regions into
which they descend; that is to say,
first ethereal bodies, and then
aereal. And when they reach the
neighborhood of the Earth they are
enclosed in grosser bodies, and
last of all are tied to human flesh."
(G. W. Butterworth, ed., Origen:
On First Principles, (Gloucester,
Mass.: Peter Smith, 1973), p. 40-
41.)
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7. Other Church Fathers on Reincarnation |
Other
prominent figures in the Church affirmed that
reincarnation was a part of early Christian
doctrine:
Rufinus assured Anastasius in a letter that
belief in repeated lives was a matter of common
knowledge among the church fathers and had always
been imparted to the initiated as an ancient
tradition. (Reincarnation
and Karma, Pfullingen 1962, p. 41)
According to
Jerome
(340-420 AD):
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"The transmigrations
(reincarnation) of souls was taught
for a long time among the early
Christians as an esoteric and traditional
doctrine which was to be divulged
to only a small number of the elect."
(Jerome,
Letter to Demetrias)
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According to Origen's predecessor,
Clement of Alexandra
(150-211 AD):
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"The Gnosis
itself is that which has descended
by transmission to a few, having
been imparted unwritten by the apostles."
(Miscell.
Book VI, Chapter 7)
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St. Gregory
(257-337 AD) wrote:
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"It is
absolutely necessary that the soul
should be healed and purified, and
that if it does not take place during
its life on Earth, it must be accomplished
in future lives." (Trinick
1950: 38)
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Gregory of Nyssa
(330-400 AD) wrote:
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"The resurrection is no other thing
than 'the re-constitution of our
nature in its original form'", and
states that there will come a time
"when the complete whole of our
race shall have been perfected from
the first man to the last."
(On the Soul and Resurrection)
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Justin Martyr
(100-165 AD) wrote the following to Trypho the
Jew:
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"And what
do those suffer who are judged to
be unworthy of this spectacle? said
he. They are imprisoned in the bodies
of certain wild beasts, and this
is their punishment." (Dialogue
with Trypho)
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Jerome wrote in a letter to Demetrius that among
the early Christians, the doctrine of reincarnation
had been passed on to the elect, as an occult
tradition. (Reincarnation
and Karma, Pfullingen 1962, p. 41)
According to Origen,
Basilides
(117-138 AD) held a doctrine of reincarnation
that was identical to the Pythagorean belief
that human souls may take on the bodies of animals
in future lives (i.e. transmigration). (Basilides,
"Fragment F," in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures,
p. 439.)
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8. The Christian Neo-Platonist Clement of Alexandria |
The famous Neo-Platonic
School was founded to restore the Platonic philosophy
and theology. Reincarnation was accepted by
the Christian Neo-Platonists in Alexandria,
Egypt.
In a passage surviving only with
Eusebius, he quotes Clement in "Institutions,
Book 6":
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Clement stated that he possessed
teachings...
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"... preserving
the tradition of the blessed doctrine
derived directly from the holy apostles,
Peter, James, John and Paul." (Miscellanies,
Book I, chap.1)
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Clement on the divine mysteries
of Jesus:
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"The Lord
... allowed us to communicate of
those divine Mysteries, and of that
holy light, to those who are able
to receive them .... The Mysteries
are delivered mystically, that what
is spoken may be in the mouth of
the speaker; rather not in his voice,
but in his understanding..."
(Miscellanies,
Book I, chap.1)
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9. Biblical Support for Pre-Existence |
The Church of Rome in
declaring Origen and his teachings heresy declared:
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"If anyone
assert the fabulous pre-existence
of souls, and shall assert the monstrous
restoration which follows from it:
let him be anathema." (Anathema
I, 5th Ecumenical Council)
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The whole idea of reincarnation
is connected inextricably with the principle
of pre-existence, and of the restoration of
the soul to its former condition after the death
of the body. Below is a Bible verse supporting
pre-existence:
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"He chose us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be
holy and without blemish in his
sight and love." (Ephesians 1:4)
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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 pre-existence of souls. After all,
there is likely no difference between a soul
and a thought in the Mind of God. Here is another
Bible verse on pre-existence:
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"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.'" (Romans 9:11-13)
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This verse shows 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 pre-existence.
Below is an excellent verse in the Old Testament
on pre-existence:
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"The Lord brought me forth as the
first of his works, before his deeds
of old; I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world
began. When there were no oceans,
I was given birth, when there were
no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled
in place, before the hills, I was
given birth, before he made the
Earth or its fields or any of the
dust of the world. I was there when
he set the heavens in place, when
he marked out the horizon on the
face of the deep, when he established
the clouds above and fixed securely
the fountains of the deep, when
he gave the sea its boundary so
the waters would not overstep his
command, and when he marked out
the foundations of the Earth. Then
I was the craftsman at his side.
I was filled with delight day after
day, rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world and
delighting in mankind." (Proverbs
8:22-31)
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In the
above passage, Solomon states that when the
Earth was made he was present, and that, long
before he could have been born as Solomon, his
delights were in the habitable parts of Earth
with the sons of men.
For information about
the Biblical support for reincarnation visit
the
Reincarnation and
the Bible page.
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