The Lost Teaching of Reincarnation

Reincarnation means to be reborn. Did Christ teach one must believe in him in order to be born again? Not one time. He simply told Nicodemus that the Jews (in Greek he uses the plural for you) must be born again and that it was something the Spirit did, not something that they had any part in whatsoever. Being born again or born from above was the corporate experience of all, not the individual experience of a few1.

But didn't John say some have life and others don't therefore we need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven? Eternal life is not heaven. Jesus said eternal life is knowing God. Lets look at that momentarily... John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Let me paraphrase: "He who trusts in Jesus holds on to ("to have, to hold, to embrace, to hold fast to") the foretaste of the age of life with the non-religion of knowing God by direct internal experience, but if he doesn't hold on by his trust in him, then he stays under the passion of God against the system of Law (the wrath of the Law) and will not pass into the age of life." This verse can't apply to us because we are already on the other side of that "wrath" event.

The early Christian philosophers adopted the Greek concept of nous, the soul’s immortality, and thought of the soul as being created by God and infused into the body at conception. The Gospel of Thomas, one of the lost texts found in the 1940s, states: "These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down."

1 Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said: “whoever discovered the interpretation of these sayings shall not taste death.”

In the first passage of the Gospel of Thomas, we read about Jesus speaking about death and achieving a sense of immortality, similar to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians. In Aramaic, the word death means “existing elsewhere” in the language that Christ spoke. [W]

We were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13

Though modern Christianity does not believe in reincarnation, many Christian sects have believed in the transmigration of souls throughout history. In 1945, researchers discovered some early Judeo-Christian writings. Two years later, the world heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls, the discovery which changed biblical history. These texts teach us that early Christians and Jews followed the teachings of Jesus - including the concept of resurrection.

Herbert Puryear, author or Why Jesus Taught Reincarnation - A Better News Gospel, explains there are several examples of this found in ancient resources. The oldest texts provide two concepts of resurrection: spiritual and bodily. The spiritual rebirth by the Holy Spirit is also known as being born again. The bodily resurrection of a human could also be called reincarnation. One of the earliest important figures in the Orthodox Church, Origen (185 AD to 254 AD), believed that the soul existed before birth and claimed that Jesus also taught the same. He suggested that pre-existence was found in the Hebrew Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus29.

“The writings of Clement of Alexandria — a disciple of the apostle Peter — suggest that his master received a few secret teachings from Jesus. One of them was related to the concept of physical and spiritual rebirth,” according to Ancient Origins.

A fragment suggests that Jesus knew about reincarnation and past lives.

Someone in the crowd asked him: “What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven” - John 6:30-32

Jesus doesn't refer to “your fathers” but “you,” signifying that the story is connected with every person. In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.”

In deference to the Roman Empire, Christ’s original teachings on reincarnation were removed from the catechetical teachings most likely during the installation of the Nicene Creed. By 553 AD, the secret teachings of Jesus were declared heresy at the Second Council of Constantinople.

The Roman Church decided to destroy all the teachings which talked about it. The Catholic doctrine and the priests’ source of wealth could have been in danger if people believed that they would come back to life many times. The old knowledge faced the same fate as many ancient books by pre-Christian writers. The bishops were afraid of the knowledge which could prove that the institution of the Church wasn't the only option to bring “eternal life” to people.

Many doubt Christ’s teaching on Reincarnation simply because they believe it is not in the Bible. This important teaching can be deduced or inferred from passages that have been largely ignored by those unable to explain the references satisfactorily. These are the actual passages where Jesus teaches the Doctrine of Reincarnation:

In Matthew 4:5, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

In Matthew 11 and 17, Jesus tells his disciples that Elias reincarnated as John the Baptist.

In Matthew 11:14-15, Jesus says, for all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.

In Matthew 16, if reincarnation is not true, do you think Jesus would remain silent and allow the disciples to believe in it? Don't you think he would have rebuked them for believing a false doctrine?

In Matthew 9, Jesus is conspicuously silent after the disciples refer to reincarnation (the past life and sins) of the man born blind. Isn't this, at least, a very suspicious circumstance that merits your further thought?”

In Corinthians, Apostle Paul says there is a natural and spiritual body.

What Jesus himself taught, his so-called followers just a few hundred years after his death, denied. Deciding that they know better than their Lord, the church leaders voted to drop reincarnation and karma from the catechetical teachings.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul Mathew 16:26

Reincarnation is God’s gift to us to enable us to grow to a point where we can accept God’s other gifts. The reincarnation of souls in human bodies is the same process as the incarnation of the Son of God in the man Jesus Christ. As souls, we, like Jesus, are spiritual beings who incarnate in human bodies. The mechanics and the purposes are essentially the same:

The works of God should be made manifest - John 9:3

No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven - John 3:13

No one goes to a spiritual plane except a spiritual being. If the soul will always be in eternity, was there ever a time when it was not? If in heaven, the essence of the souls is not limited by time or space, nor by a physical body, then what is the nature of this essence?

Reincarnation is a natural result of the incarnation. Christ, a spiritual being, came into the flesh - incarnated - on a bodhisattva mission (loving-kindness). All souls incarnated on earth have a special mission to accomplish during their lives. We are all perfect divine beings made in God’s image; children of God, it is your destiny to be once again confirmed, in perfection, to that which you naturally are. It is only with the concept of reincarnation that we may truly assume full responsibility for all that we are and all that we are experiencing30.

Without reincarnation, the gospel of Christ has become a narrow and elitist religious system. Why would Jesus lecture about the soul if it didn’t exist? There are many reasons, some understandable, for the church to eliminate the teaching of reincarnation; however, none of these reasons are good. For example, Christian Orthodoxy is very hostile to Christ’s teachings of the divine nature of the human family. They teach a materialistic view of humanity: that our true reality is physical and only physical. Funny then that quantum physics invalidates those teachings and supports a divine hypothesis. The Orthodox Church even rebels against Christ’s words: Ye Are Gods. The Church has a rich history of denying and disowning its Spirit-filled prophets because they were psychics, healers, and mystics. Protestants and Catholics are so anxiety-ridden about the manifestation of the Spirit they condemn offhand any testimony without inquiry. Some people complain against the teaching of reincarnation by saying: “If I lived before, why don’t I remember?” 31

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 14:26

We may turn to the words of Master Yeshua to understand that our remembrance will come only as we permit ourselves to be quickened by the spirit. This is one of the most important reasons Jesus taught reincarnation. He wanted us to have and understand the gift of Spirit called remembrance. When souls incarnate, they bring special gifts developed in previous lives. They enter for the specific purpose of sharing those gifts with the world. Where would Christ have learned this teaching of reincarnation? The Jewish people believe in and teach the concept of the soul but do not focus much on reincarnation. The teachings of reincarnation are infused throughout the spirituality of the Hindu and Buddhist peoples. Perhaps Jesus learned these teachings during his lost years.