Christians should remember that Jesus was a Jew who thought his mission
was to Jews, for he says in St. Matthew, “I am not sent but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He must have well known the
doctrines held by them. They all believed in reïncarnation. For them
Moses, Adam, Noah, Seth, and others had returned to earth, and at the
time of Jesus it was currently believed that the old prophet Elias was
yet to return. So we find, first, that Jesus never denied the doctrine,
and on various occasions assented to it, as when he said that John the
Baptist was actually the Elias of old whom the people were expecting.
All this can be seen by consulting St. Matthew in chapters XVII, XI,
and others.
In these it is very clear that Jesus is shown as approving the doctrine
of reïncarnation. And following Jesus we find St. Paul, in Romans IX,
speaking of Esau and Jacob being actually in existence before they
were born, and later such great Christian fathers as Origen, Synesius,
and others believing and teaching the theory. In Proverbs VIII, 22,
we have Solomon saying 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 the earth with the sons of men. St.
John the Revelator says in Revs. III, 12, he was told in a vision which
refers to the voice of God or the voice of one speaking for God, that
whosoever should overcome would not be under the necessity of “going
out” any more, that is, would not need to be reïncarnated. For five
hundred years after Jesus the doctrine was taught in the church until
the council of Constantinople. Then a condemnation was passed upon
a phase of the question which has been regarded by many as against
reïncarnation, but if that condemnation goes against the words of
Jesus it is of no effect. It does go against him, and thus the church
is in the position of saying in effect that Jesus did not know enough
to curse, as it did, a doctrine known and taught in his day and which
was brought to his notice prominently and never condemned but in fact
approved by him. Christianity is a Jewish religion, and this doctrine
of reïncarnation belongs to it historically by succession from the
Jews, and also by reason of its having been taught by Jesus and the
early fathers of the church. If there be any truthful or logical way
for the Christian church to get out of this position—excluding, of
course, dogmas of the church—the theosophist would like to be shown
it. Indeed, the theosophist holds that whenever a professed Christian
denies the theory he thereby sets up his judgment against that of
Jesus, who must have known more about the matter than those who follow
him. It is the anathema hurled by the church council and the absence of
the doctrine from the teaching now that have damaged Christianity and
made of all the Christian nations people who pretend to be followers of
Jesus and the law of love, but who really as nations are followers of
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