Life and Death

It is worth noting that reincarnation is a common concept and is found in many religions, with the exception of modern Christianity. But modern Christianity is founded on the Bible which was canonized at the Synod of Nicaea in the 4th Century and reincarnation per se was officially stricken at the Synod of Nice in the 6th Century, where the teachings of Bishop Origen were declared heretical. Origen was one of the early powers of the Christian Church who believed in reincarnation and rationalized it on the basis that if we are created at conception and upon dying we become an eternal spirit then that implies that we existed prior to birth, live, die, and live after death and thus logically are reborn, otherwise the entire process seems pointless. Bishop Origen was defeated in a power struggle with the Church Hierarchy as were the Gnostics who didn’t believe in a priesthood. The decision to outlaw reincarnation was driven by the desire of the early priesthood to secure their power because if our souls have an unlimited opportunity to live and evolve spiritually, the priests could no longer threaten us with damnation and hellfire if we do not do as they dictate.

Prior to this purging of the Bible it was still part of the Christian faith and remained part of the Gnostic beliefs and is found in the Druze Christians today. However, remnants of this philosophy remain in the Bible:

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)

Then there is this passage:

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)

But the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient texts are being translated and with these translations some of these purged teachings and beliefs are coming to light once again. Recent translations from ancient scrolls contain text that points to reincarnation, for example:

"Jesus said, 'If they say to you, From where have you originated? say to them, 'We have come from the Light, where the Light has originated through itself.'" The Book of Thomas, Nag Hammadi Texts.

This passage has some interesting points in that it tells us that we come to the Earth from the Light but more interesting yet is the implication that Light is God and that God was self-created. This is addressed in early Jewish texts collected in the Kabbalah and paralleled in the Nag Hammadi texts under “The Origin of the World”. This is a very lengthy text but begins by noting that everybody both gods of the world and mankind say that nothing existed prior to “chaos” or the beginning,and that they are wrong. That chaos was derived from “darkness” which existed always and before the creation of chaos. That all of the immortal beings (souls) had been created out of the infinite and that it was “Wisdom” that divided mankind from the things above.

This concept of an eternal all knowing and always existing God is at the root of most religions, but beyond that lays several other equally interesting concepts. First that the Heavens and Earth were created for man and that all of our reality is essentially a thought projection, that all of the souls in the existence were created at the same time and are eternal, that our physical bodies are actually prisons for out energetic spirits, and that we come to Earth repeatedly to learn and expand out spirituality. However, we are given free will and this means that whatever we do individually and collectively is our responsibility and not driven or willed by God. Our individual conditions are self-determined and the result of decisions made in this lifetime as well as others.

Science and scientists are busy attempting to demonstrate that science has all of the answers and that God doesn’t exist. Unfortunately the evidence for Karma and reincarnation as well as the evidence for God continues to grow as science moves inexorably to the only logical conclusion that science cannot disprove God and that God may be the only answer. It seems logical that reincarnation exists and that we come to Earth repeatedly.