| Answer
from Jesus:
Let us begin by
looking at the historical facts. Anyone who cares to dig into the historical
records of the early church will see that between the third and the
fifth century, the Roman Catholic church issued a number of documents
that effectively banned the idea of reincarnation as heresy. This knowledge
is available for anyone who cares to do a bit of research. In fact,
some theologians are aware that the edict to ban reincarnation as heresy
did not receive papal approval. Therefore, some argue that this edict
is not official church doctrine. However, I do not desire to go into
these arguments about the politicking of the church.
The fact that the church made a determined effort to ban reincarnation
as heresy demonstrates that the concept of reincarnation was part of
early Christianity. This is simply a historical fact which no one, at
least no one who is willing to face reality, can deny.
If reincarnation was indeed part of early Christianity, then how could
this idea possibly have been brought into the Christian faith? Is it
possible that the idea was part of early Christianity because it was
introduced by the very person who founded Christianity, namely myself?
Before I answer this question, let us consider why there is such opposition
to the idea of reincarnation. As was the case with the idea of me being
the only son of God, there is an inner and outer reason.
Inner opposition to reincarnation
The inner reason for rejecting reincarnation is the carnal mind and
its complete refusal to take accountability for anything. As long as
a person identifies with the carnal mind, that person is constantly
seeking for ways to justify his or her actions. This can be a rather
difficult preposition.
You live in the universe that is guided by a natural law which modern
science refers to as the law of cause and effect. In other words, you
live in a universe where all of your actions have some form of consequences.
Every religion found on this planet does, in one form or another, describe
this universal law. The Bible is no exception, because it teaches that
as a man sows, so will he also reap. I am sure you realize that this
biblical statement also applies to women.
It is a fact of life that your actions produce consequences and that
those consequences will affect you in some way. Therefore, when the
carnal mind seeks to justify a particular action, it has to find a way
to deny or explain away the law of cause and effect. If you accept the
idea that every act has consequences, then you simply cannot justify
certain acts, because you realize that you cannot escape the consequences.
However, the carnal mind does have a way out of this dilemma. Most people
experience that they can indeed commit a wrong act and avoid suffering
the consequences. If you commit a wrong act, and if no one finds out
about it or can prove that the act was committed by you, then you can
(seemingly) “get away with it.” The carnal mind uses this
common experience to make the argument that it is possible to commit
a wrong act and escape the consequences of that act. In other words,
if you are smart enough to avoid detection, then you can also avoid
the consequences of your actions.
The carnal mind thinks this is a perfectly logical and sound line of
reasoning. Millions of souls have been so consumed by the relativity
of the carnal mind that they seriously believed this line of reasoning.
How does such a soul react when it is confronted with the idea of reincarnation?
The very essence of the idea of reincarnation is that you can never
escape the consequences of your actions. You might be able to hide a
wrong act from other human beings so that you do not suffer any consequences
of that act in this lifetime. However, you can never hide anything from
God, and therefore you will inevitably suffer the consequences of your
actions. If you do not feel these consequences in this lifetime, you
will feel them in a future lifetime.
The concept of reincarnation is a severe blow to the carnal mind’s
reasoning that it is possible to escape the consequences of your actions.
Therefore, a person who has based his or her life on the idea that it
is possible to escape punishment, is not likely to be positive towards
the idea of reincarnation. This idea places all accountability upon
the individual, and that can be a scary thing for some people.
What I am trying to make you see here is that many people fall prey
to a psychological mechanism that predisposes them to ignore, reject
or explain away the concept of reincarnation.
Outer opposition to reincarnation
Now let us look at the outer reason for the rejection of reincarnation.
It is a historical fact that one of the people who was instrumental
in having the church ban the idea of reincarnation was the wife of the
Roman emperor Justinian. Her name was Theodora, and she did not like
the idea that she could be punished for her actions in a future life.
Therefore, she used her considerable influence to start the process
that eventually caused the Roman Catholic church to remove all traces,
or almost all traces, of reincarnation from Christianity.
Theodora was a living example of how a power elite responds to the idea
of reincarnation. First of all, a member of this power elite does not
like the idea that they cannot escape punishment. Yet, beyond that personal
concern, they have another reason why they do not want people to believe
in the idea of reincarnation.
The idea of reincarnation states that you can be punished for your actions
in a future lifetime. However, the other side of the coin is that you
have more than one lifetime to work out your salvation. This is an idea
which does not appeal to a power elite who wants to use religion to
gain absolute power over the people.
The modus operandi of the power elite is to set up an organized church
and claim that it offers the only path to salvation. This idea works
best if people believe that they have only one lifetime to secure their
salvation. If people believe that it is now or never, they are far more
likely to follow the edicts of the outer church.
If you believe that you have more than one chance to qualify for salvation,
then some of the immediacy goes away. You are not as likely to follow
the outer church to the letter, and you are not as likely to blindly
accept the claims made by the church.
Let me illustrate this by asking you to consider a historical example.
When Christianity started spreading throughout Europe, Europe had a
very old culture centered around the ownership of land. The owner of
a piece of land would pass that land on to his children in order to
ensure their survival. When the Roman Catholic church began to spread
its influence throughout Europe, the church did not own much land. Yet,
after only a few centuries, the Catholic church had become the largest
single landowner in Europe. The church did not buy land, and it did
not (in general) use military power to take that land by force. How
did the church come to be the largest landowner in Europe?
Imagine that you are a large landowner who has lived the good life and
therefore obviously committed a number of acts that the church has labeled
as sinful. During your youth, you were not particularly concerned about
these acts. However, you are now old and you are lying on your deathbed.
In that situation, most people naturally begin to worry about what might
happen to them after death. Therefore, you send for the Catholic priest,
who comes to your side.
You have been brought up with the idea of hell and eternal damnation,
and you have a natural desire to avoid this. The priest asks you to
confess your sins, and after having done so, you clearly realize that
things don’t look good. However, the priest offers you a way out.
If you will donate a portion of your land to the church, the church
will absolve you of your sins so that you can escape eternal damnation.
Suddenly, the immediate need to avoid eternal punishment can outweigh
your sense of responsibility towards your children.
On the other hand, if you believed that you had many more lifetimes
to work out your salvation, you had no need to buy that salvation from
the church.
Most people are aware that the medieval church did indeed sell letters
of absolvency. Such letters allowed a person to buy forgiveness for
sins that the person had not yet committed.
I am not saying that this example is the only explanation for the fact
that the Catholic church became the largest landowner in Europe. I am
saying it is part of the reason, but what I truly desire to illustrate
is that a power elite, who wants absolute control, simply cannot allow
people to believe in the concept of reincarnation. This concept places
the question of punishment in the hands of God, an authority that is
above and beyond human beings.
The power elite wants the concept of punishment to be controlled by
themselves. In other words, to attain absolute control over the people,
the power elite must eradicate the concept of reincarnation. They must
make you believe that they hold the key to your salvation, and that
it is now or never. If you don’t do what they say, then you will
go to hell right now, and there is no possibility of escape.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
