The Neglected Kerygma of Christ (Lecture 3)

[Rebbe]

THE NEGLECTED KERYGMA OF CHRIST
a series of lecture essays on the biblical concept of a universal salvation in Christ

LECTURE THREE

Copyright © BRI/IMCF 2020 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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Audio Lecture is now available for members: THE NEGLECTED KERYGMA OF CHRIST [3]: Lecture Three
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“I held that when a person dies
His soul returns again to earth,
Arranged in some new flesh disguise,
Another mother gives him birth.
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain
The old soul takes the road again”

                                         

– John Macefield (1878-1967)
                                           British poet laureate in 1930

“Interesting if true. And interesting anyway”

                             

– Mark Twain

In this current series of lectures on “universal salvation in Christ” we need to take some time out to seriously meditate on an associated notion that has recently surfaced (yet again) on a sacred text found in Hebrews 9.27. I'm gratified that it has resurfaced as it grants an opportunity to discuss a major event that transpired in 553 CE. It was a turning point in the Christian church for the doctrine of reincarnation (and accordingly, universal salvation) which is intimately connected to the background of this Scripture. If I had a sub-title for this lecture it would be “Afterlife Afterthoughts.”

Firstly, we need to attend to the text as it is transliterated correctly from the Greek into English. Some versions are regrettably quite free in their transliteration from Greek into other languages, but the text ought to read as follows: “It is appointed unto men once to die but after this a judgment.”

Ask the vast overwhelming majority of Christian “believers” if they accept the doctrine of reincarnation (or, transmigration and metempsychosis) and they will be aghast at the very thought! This is because they have been indoctrinated to accept that the notion is pagan to its core and actually demonic. “It's a doctrine of demons!” they will usually vehemently and “righteously” respond. If you look at certain religious websites on the topic you will receive the negation (as far as Christianity is concerned) that the idea cannot be located anywhere in the Christian Bible. The owners and webmasters of the various sites speak dogmatically and haughtily on the subject. It is this very dogmatism and authoritarian air that sinks their ship due to the fact that their response in completely uncharted and based on sheer biblical ignorance or, worse still – the knowing suppression of the truth of the matter.

Over the decades, my own personal research – which I have shared freely with others –  has decidedly confirmed what a majority of secular historians have known for decades: the original “Yeshua School” or “Yeshua Party” (the primitive Messianic Movement of the Jewish Messiah and His primary emissaries) accepted, taught, and promulgated the concept of transmigration – nothing less than the teaching of reincarnation. This doctrine cannot be jettisoned (or swept under a spiritual rug) from the overall objective of the Creator God toward accomplishing an ultimate “universal salvation in Christ” of the human masses and indeed of the universe. Surely, many respected clergymen and theologians and reformers of the Christian Faith who have appeared sporadically in ecclesiastical history have acknowledged both doctrines of transmigration and universal salvation.

John Wycliffe (or, Wyclif) – known as “The Morning Star of the Reformation” – was one such man who was converted through the teachings of Walter Lollard, a seventh day Sabbath-observant Waldensian (thought to have been Dutch or German) who travelled as an evangelist to England and brought the true and full Gospel message to the Isles creating churches wherever he went (1315). Wycliffe's followers were known as the Lollards. Certainly they incorporated these vital beliefs as essential to an understanding of the biblical revelation. Some will resist this view, but to their embarrassment however, Wycliffe insisted on translating the James 3.6 expression “the course of nature” as “the wheel of our birth” which carries with it the underlying notion of metempsychosis which has created some consternation among some Christian authorities.

This view of reincarnation (and that of a universal salvation in Christ) is, of course,  condemned by all modern churches, sects and denominations of Christendom today. But they emerged from the Constantinian Church of the fourth century – a great and powerful organisation that persecuted and destroyed, with the Roman Emperor’s consent and direction, any religious organism that maintained the “Jewish thoughtform” which gave us what we call the Holy Bible! ALL secular historians (and some few church historians) recognise that an apostasy from the truth of God took place in the 4th century, and that therefore the “Church” (or, “called-out Community of Faith”) which Yeshua and his emissaries (apostles) established was markedly changed and altered into what we today refer to as “Christianity.”

I have invariably encouraged everyone who is interested in truth to study the Constantinian period themselves in their local public library (or on the net) in order to gain an appreciation of that dark moment in the history of the Christian Church when the Jewish baby was thrown out with the Jewish bathwater! Unbiased independent researchers will agree that our own findings are certainly correct. And they will come to see that reincarnation, as a Christian fundamental belief, was finally changed by a small number of bishops at a hastily prepared, and numbers-stacked church Council at Constantinople as late as 553 C.E. Reincarnation at that unofficial church Council was actually voted out of the Christian Faith! 

I have produced a number of articles and lectures which establish once and for all that reincarnation and karma (the inescapable and blind law of reaping what you have sown by thought, word and deed) is actually biblically-based, and that the great sub-continent of India was introduced to this belief from ancient Israelites who established community trading posts and bases (along with Phoenician economic partners) among the Kushites. Siddartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha (the enlightened One) was introduced to similar ideas by Jeremiah the prophet in the Axial Period of world history. King Solomon believed in reincarnation, along with the patriarch Job, David the king of Israel, and centuries later by the emissary John. Yet Christians today are unaware of these basic facts! Most Christians accept that they have an “immortal soul” but fail to grasp that “immortal” by definition means “eternal.”  They cannot answer the obvious question: “If you are immortal – eternal – then who were you before this present human birth?”   

The question is legitimate as terms such as “immortal” and “eternal” are indicative of a deathless STATE of existence. 

There are Christians (usually sectarians) who do not believe in man’s inherent (or, acquired) immortality. They feel that man has absolutely no spark of divinity within him at all. When a person dies, they argue, that individual stays dead until the resurrection of the dead and the “blowing of the last trump” at the advent of Christ. They pride themselves on the fact that they can produce “innumerable proof texts” from the Bible to substantiate their position. Yet, as I have amply demonstrated in many lectures, I can produce “innumerable proof-texts” that state the precise opposite for which our antagonists are speechless concerning any valid response. Some Bible students have never accessed such biblical texts – while they own a Bible (and sometimes a number of Bibles) they never knew these “problematic” texts even existed.

THE FIFTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
Let me share a little about the fifth ecumenical council of 553 CE – these were councils which were officially recognised by both the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches – the fifth being the Second Council of Constantinople. The primary reason the fifth ecumenical council was called was for the purpose of confirming the condemnation of the teachings of three certain Christian heretics issued by edict earlier in 551 CE by the ruthless Roman emperor Justinian (or, Justinius). Justinian, like Constantine the Great two centuries beforehand, wanted complete political and social unification throughout the Roman empire – and any theological controversies were automatically proscribed in order to avoid schism and inevitable consequential civil disturbance throughout the realm. Justinian therefore called his council and he expected the assembled bishops to oblige his intentions.

We might rightly wonder if Pope Vigilius of Rome participated. The answer is in the negative. Why was this the case? Justinian was no fan of the Roman pope who seemed always to be in distinct disagreement with the emperor's intentions and policies particularly as they encroached upon the domain of the existing papal primacy. So the pope was arrested in Rome and virtually imprisoned for four years in Constantinople.

The Fifth General Council of the Church was then convened without the authority or consent of the Roman Vicar of Christ and without his presence. It so happens that this illegal procedure – and highly irregular Council – brought forth 14 new anathemas in respect of heresies and the 11th anathema included the name of the church's most brilliant theologian since the apostle Paul – Origen. Professor Schaff admits in his monumental History of the Christian Church the truth that “The fifth council was not recognised... by many Western bishops” (see also his Vol.lll, Nicene & Post Nicene Christianity, 351) and frankly should not be recognised even today.

Philip Schaff records the first anathema against Origen as: “If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema” (The Complete Nicene & Post Nicene Church Fathers, Series 2- Collection 14: Catholic Way Publishing. Edited by Philip Schaff).

The anathema referenced the “restoration” and it is this especial expression in Greek – apocatastasis – which is found indelibly penned in the pages of the Greek NT and which Origen included in his understanding of the return of the human soul to union with its Creator. His followers grasped that this union would take place only after a lengthy procession through a series of transmigrations. It was the patriarch Job who also spoke of a number of reincarnations which every soul (or really, spirit) would experience in the overall superintendence of God.

“Lo! All these things does God work,
Two ways, three with a man;
To bring back his soul from the grave,
To enlighten with the light of the living”
– Job 33.29,30
in Rotherham's
Emphasized Bible

The Jewish Publication Society translation of verse 29 speaks as “Yes! Twice even thrice with a man.”

The unofficial – highly illegal – Fifth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Emperor Justinian (the Second Council of Constantinople) spelt the death knell to the doctrine of reincarnation in the Christian Church. 

At this juncture I would like to quote from German author Peter Andreas who has written about the suppression of reincarnation as a doctrine of the Church and how it came about. He notes, “It seems reasonable to conclude that the so-called ban concerning the doctrine of reincarnation is the result of an historical error and contains no ecclesiastical authority whatsoever” (Jenseits von Einstein, 1982. Translated as Beyond Einstein). Indeed, Origen had written in unmistakable terms on the very question of repetitious incarnations of the spirit in man. 

“Each soul enters the world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defects of its past lives. Its place in this world is determined by past virtues and shortcomings” (De Principalis).

Again, “Is it not more in accordance with common sense that every soul for reasons unknown... enters the body influenced by its past deeds? The soul has a body at its disposal for a certain period of time which, due to its changeable condition, eventually is no longer suitable for the soul, whereupon its changes that body for another” (Contra Celsum). 

Andreas continues, commenting on the 5th Ecumenical Council: “Strangely enough, there was not one Roman bishop present at this conference; apart from six African notables there were only Eastern bishops present. A curious feature of this Council was that although Pope Vigilius was in Constantinople at the time of the Council he did not attend. There had previously been conflict between Vigilius and the Emperor and the Empress Theodora. Justinius refused to accede to the Pope's request for a stronger delegation of bishops from both West and East at the Council and then proceeded to convene the Council himself. The Pope did not attend, as a gesture of protest, and as an indication that he would not be held responsible for the Council.

“The ruling monarch did not have an entirely free hand, however, since official regulations drawn up during the eight sessions of the Council, which met over a period of four weeks, had to be officially endorsed by the Pope. This duly took place; the documents, however, only dealt with the so-called 'Three Chapters' controversy – the work of three scholars considered by Justinius to be heretics. The Emperor had already issued an edict against these men. No mention was made of Origen. Research suggests that suspicions about Justinius were valid. Neither Pope Plagius 1 (556-561) nor pope Gregorius (590-604) mentioned Origen when writing about the Fifth Council.”

Further, “But up to now it has been accepted tacitly that the following is the official ban of the Council: “Whosoever teaches the doctrine of a supposed pre-birth existence of the soul, and speaks of a monstrous restoration, is cursed.” How did this come about? No-one can say with certainty, but there are strong indications that by some ploy the Emperor Justinius was able to insist on the convocation of a Council, which was delayed, however, by opposition from the Pope.

“Eventually the first meeting of the Council to took place on 5 May 553, not before the Emperor had managed to call several bishops to a meeting at which he (Justinius) presented his 'Fifteen Anathemata' refuting Origen's teachings, and gained the endorsement of the attending bishops. We can safely conclude that the Pope, who wished to boycott the Council, would certainly not have appeared at this meeting, which was precisely what Justinius had hope for.

“The meeting prior to the Council was used by the wily Emperor to curtail the Pope's powers and to pronounce a ban on the teachings of Origen. His scheming succeeded far better than he could have imagined. The Church accepted the ban as valid, having been imposed by the Council, and it then passed into established doctrine where it has remained for the past 1500 years. This makes the idea extremely difficult to correct. The subject of reincarnation has therefore not played any role in Christian doctrine, in contrast with other religions.

“Thus it seems right to conclude that the 'ban' on the teaching of reincarnation is based on historical misrepresentation and has no ecclesiastical authority. It was in fact a 'fait accompli', brought about by Justinius, which no-one within the Christian church has dared to challenge in the course of some 1500 years. What is worse is that the subject has been totally ignored, as a glance at any encyclopaedia will show.”

NEW INTERPRETATIONS INTRODUCED
Almost needless to say, the altogether carnal, despotic politico-religious vote to outlaw reincarnation from the teachings of the Christian Community ended up Romanising what was left of the Jewish thoughtform in the Messianic Scriptures with the imposition upon certain texts of entirely different interpretive understanding to what was previously grasped by students of the Word for centuries. This was especially the case with Hebrews 9.27. Previous comprehension was candid and clear, but now the verse is offered as a major evidence that both reincarnation and universal salvation are out of the question. After all...

“It is appointed unto men ONCE to die and after this THE Judgment.” No reincarnation possibility even hinted at here. The insertion of an emphatic “THE” – where it did not belong – reinforced this view.

“It is appointed unto men ONCE to die and after this THE Judgment” – “the Last Judgment will decide your eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. It's entirely up to YOU!! Choose wisely for today is the day of salvation.”

God's GRACE, loving kindness and unending love have suddenly been eclipsed with a caricature of a god who imposes endless misery for those who at this time have not accepted or acknowledged His Son as Lord and Saviour.

That Justinian was the most able emperor since Constantine is inarguable. That he was also the most aggressive when it came to meddling in Christian theology is also inarguable. Certainly he maintained unity in the empire at the expense of Christian lives. Justinian expected his bishops to rubber-stamp his edicts no matter what they were and those who refused to “toe the line” were either banished from the empire or executed. Remember, this was the man who had no hesitation in imprisoning a Pope.

DO ALL JEWS ACCEPT REINCARNATION?
Without doubt the modern approach from some “official Jewish sources” is to imply (or even to state directly) that the issue of transmigration first entered into the Jewish community in the 8th-10th centuries of the Common Era and that it cannot be referenced at all in the Hebrew Bible. It is suggested by some that Jewish society first caught this “virus” from Islamic scholars and teachers around this period. This suggestion is a very modern phenomenon. We have illustrated the idiocy of such Jewish opinion with our biblical textual extracts on the subject of reincarnation in lectures over the years. It does appear some rabbis do not want to alienate themselves too much from Christian supporters and well-wishers. So, they distance themselves from any hint of belief in transmigration. Tragic but true.

Let me say this: To the contrary of what is commonly perceived to be the case by most Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians, scattered references to reincarnation are found implanted and entrenched throughout the Bible. We can locate transmigration in the writings of David and Solomon even further back in the oldest scroll in the Word of God – that is Job. It is located as a doctrinal imperative in the writings of the Dead Sea sectarians at Qumran. As I have written in previous lectures,

“The sectarians at Qumran believed in transmigration. One would live their life, die, and after this judgment would take place when the spirit returned to God who gave it in the first place. (This is not THE final Judgment. It is a judgment that occurs at death.) Some of the early converts to Messianic Christianity came from such a background and the unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrew Christians notes, in Hebrews 9.27-28:

“And just as it is appointed to men to die once and after that to be judged [please notice that there is no definite article before the word judged or judgment] SO Messiah, after being ONCE sacrificed to bear the sins of many, WILL APPEAR AGAIN, not to deal with sin but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for Him” (Greek).

“The unknown author is drawing a comparison here between man's natural karmic cycle and the REAPPEARANCE of Messiah to ultimately save those for whom He died. Israeli academic scholars who have analysed this letter's contents all give evidence that it was written to an Essene Community just prior to the Roman-Jewish War. The Essenes believed that we came from God, lived out our life here below, died, returned to the heavenlies, were examined, studied and probed (judged) for growth and then sent back out into another body to live out our life here below, to then die, return to the heavenlies and be analysed (judged) for growth ad infinitum.

“Unless we see in this text a recognition of reincarnation the parallel comparison being made between life and death and the return of the Messiah cannot be properly appreciated. The author of the letter is stating a fact of life, as understood by the Essenes, that when a person died he went to judgment to appear before the tribunal for an assessment of his life. He may need to return another time to complete his passage toward spiritual wholeness in his spirit.

“Thus the argument for transmigration is used by the author of Hebrews to set the stage for the need for Messiah to come a second time without sin unto salvation (Heb 9.28).

“We could read it this way for the purpose of clarification. “And just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that to be judged, and then to return to a new life, so Messiah after being once sacrificed to bear the sins of many, will appear again, not to deal with sin, but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for him that is, the elect, those experiencing their last human walk in this their final life of Grace.”

“Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man is judged by the laws of karma, summed up in the Golden Rule. This was the teaching of the believers in transmigration in the mid-to-late Second Temple period leading up to and including the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea and beyond!

“Nothing less than the doctrine of transmigration believed in by the Jewish people of the Second Temple Period and by the early Messianic Movement for at least three centuries (and in some cases longer) can truly satisfy the need for Divine Justice and which sense of justice (accordingly) is finally and perfectly articulated in the GRACE of God in the perfect life, death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.

“As I have already articulated, the vast majority of scholarly Jewish opinion is that the circular Letter to the Hebrews was written to the believers in Yeshua in the Essene sect at Qumran, Damascus and Jerusalem. Thus new light is thrown onto the text in question. In fact the awesome amount of biblical research currently becoming available is so astonishing we can hardly keep up with it” (PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS: Lecture 51. Analytical Commentary on Romans).

Again:

“There is an argument that suggests that man only ever lives once and then he dies and after this there comes the final judgment. In a nutshell this verse negates the entire question of reincarnation.

“WRONG. And here is why its wrong. It is written in Hebrews 9.27: “And it is appointed unto men once to die and after this a judgment” (Greek).

“This judgment is not “the last judgment” or “Great White Throne Judgment” of the Apocalypse as we have been led by the nose to believe by Gentile Christian expositors, commentators, preachers and educators.

“What the author tells us is, in a transliteration of the Greek: “And just as it is appointed to men to die once and after that to be judged [please notice that there is no definite article before the word judged or judgment] SO Messiah, after being ONCE sacrificed to bear the sins of many, WILL APPEAR AGAIN, not to deal with sin but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for Him” (Greek).

“The unknown author is drawing a comparison here between man's natural karmic cycle and the REAPPEARANCE of Messiah to ultimately save those for whom He died. Israeli academic scholars who have analysed this letter's contents all give evidence that it was written to an Essene Community just prior to the Roman-Jewish War. The Essenes believed that we came from God, lived out our life here below, died, returned to the heavenlies, were analysed (judged) for growth and then sent back out into another body to live our life out here below, to then die, return to the heavenlies and be analysed (judged) for growth ad infinitum...Thus the argument for transmigration is used by the author of Hebrews to set the stage for the need for Messiah to come a second time without sin unto salvation (Heb 9.28).

“We could read it this way for the purpose of clarification. “And just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that to be judged, and then to return to a new life, so Messiah after being once sacrificed to bear the sins of many, will appear again, not to deal with sin, but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for him – that is, the elect, those experiencing their last human walk in this their final life of Grace” (FUNDAMENTALS: The Spirit in Man. Lecture 1).

We also locate transmigration in doctrines of the Pharisees which can be read in Josephus and in the letters of the apostle Paul and in the letter of James. It has been seen already in the circular letter to the Hebrew Christians (probably of Essene extraction). It can be found in John's Gospel and in his Apocalypse. The Greek Fathers accepted it as have some Western Fathers of the Church. The anti-Roman Catholic Cathars, Albigensians, Paterene's, Paulicians, and Bogomils all adhered firmly to a belief in transmigration. Its doctrinal cousin universal salvation was also accepted by the original Christian community of faith and the sectarians of the Middle/Medieval period (a few of whom I have mentioned above).

Jews of the Hasidic stream of thought acknowledge it. Orthodox Jews will generally hesitate in denouncing it as a reality. Modern scientific studies including the research activities of prominent investigator into children's past-memories of previous existences Professor Ian Stevenson (Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia in 1957) have verified its reality.

Those who continue to resist the truth of sacred Scripture relative to reincarnation and “universal salvation in Christ” should be reminded that if they accept that they personally possess an “immortal soul” or “immortal spirit” – derived from the everlasting “God who only has immortality” (1 Tim 6.16)  – then by definition they are agreeing that while they have a derived immortality and not an inherent immortality – what they possess is in fact both deathless and eternal. The Greek word for “immortality” is and remains athanasia – deathlessness. That is what “immortal” means.

QUESTION: If this is indeed the case, then what have they who resist the truth been doing for all eternity?

Never be hesitant to ask your religious antagonist such a question as this.

After all, it may very well be the enquiry that will open his or her mind to That Other Reality concerning which only THE SPIRIT IN MAN can fully and adequately appreciate.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE THREE