In December, 1945,
early Christian
writings containing many secrets of the early
Christian religion were found in upper Egypt, a location where many
Christians fled during the Roman invasion of Jerusalem. Undisturbed
since their concealment almost two thousand years ago, these
manuscripts of Christian mysticism rank in importance with
the Dead Sea
Scrolls. These
writings affirmed the existence of the doctrine of reincarnation
being taught among the early Jews and Christians. These Christian
mystics, referred to as Christian
Gnostics, were
ultimately destroyed by the orthodox Church for being heretics.
Their sacred writings were destroyed and hidden with the belief
that they would be revealed at an appropriate time in the future.
The discovery in 1945 yielded writings that included some long lost
gospels, some of which were written earlier than the known gospels
of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Brian A. Bain, M.A., has this to say about the 1945
discovery:
"Long
considered to be heretical, ancient Gnostic Christian texts
unearthed this century display compelling similarities between
Gnostic conceptions of life and death and modern near-death
experiences. The Gnostic texts devoted extensive tracts to what
readers could expect to encounter when they died. Other passages
make numerous allusions to near-death-like experiences that can be
realized in this life, most notably the human encounter with a
divine light. The Gnostic Christian literature gives us one more
example of NDEs and similar experiences in the ancient
world."
Another
interesting fact comes from Edgar
Cayce (a near-death experiencer) who affirmed that
Gnosticism is the highest form of Christianity.
The Christian Gnostics were regarded by some as a new Jewish sect
who believed they had finally found the long-awaited Messiah and
not a new religion. Some of the apostles became Gnostic and because
of this, Christianity could well have grown up as a Gnostic
religion had it not been for their eventual persecution by the
organized Church centuries later.
The Secret
Teachings of Jesus
An important Christian Gnostic teaching was the "Logos" which in Greek is
translated as "the image of the Word." It is an important concept
found in the gospel of John:
"In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
Logos is the part of God that acts in the world. It is the
perfect unity of the human and the divine. This is affirmed by John
when he wrote that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
When John stated that Jesus is the Logos, he is stating that Jesus
became the Logos, the Christ. The Logos is the divine "spark" of
God within humans that needs to awakened. Everyone has the "image
of the Word (Logos)" within them and it is for this reason that
Genesis describes humanity as created "in the image and likeness of
God."The Logos is the divine Spirit in humanity. By using the
Christian Gnostic idea of the Logos, John is not only affirming the
preexistence and divinity of Jesus, but he is affirming that all
sons of God created in the "image of the Word" as Jesus was,
preexisted in spirit before being born. In other words, every human
is an incarnation of the Logos and every human has to potential of
becoming like Jesus, a manifestation of the human-divine unity.
Every human can be a "Christ" and because of this, every soul will
eventually be drawn back to God.
The Roman Church misunderstood what the Logos was in John and
incorrectly concluded from this that only Jesus is divine - the
Word made flesh. The orthodox Church either rejected or ignored
this Christian Gnostic concept found in John. This may have been a
factor when the gospel of John was almost rejected from New
Testament canon when it was being put together. This was during a
time when Christian Gnosticism became an enemy of the organized
Church. Nevertheless, it was the idea of the preexistence of the
soul and its corresponding doctrine of reincarnation that the Roman
Church had great difficulty with.
The Christian Gnostics emphasized spiritual knowledge rather blind
faith as the road to salvation. They indicated that
they possessed secret
knowledge (i.e., "gnosis" in Greek) concerning the
hidden meaning of the "resurrection." This was a part of the secret
teachings of Jesus handed down to them by the apostles. This
special knowledge was restricted to people who were given the
public teachings of Christianity before qualifying to be initiated
and receive the secret teachings. In contrast, the very term
"Catholic" means "universal", implying that anyone could become a
member of the Church by adhering to the public teachings of faith
and rituals. The Christian Gnostics were harsh critics of the
orthodox Church. The Christian Gnostics accused the Church of
watering down the gospel in order to popularize it for the masses.
The orthodox Church stressed salvation through faith alone and by
the rituals of the Church.
This secret gnosis emphasized spiritual "resurrection" (i.e,.
spiritual rebirth) and physical "resurrection" (i.e.,
reincarnation) as opposed to a resurrection defined as people
sleeping in
their graves until it is time their corpses to crawl out
of their graves at the last day. Christian Gnostics held the view
that if spiritual resurrection was not attained in one lifetime,
then the soul would be subjected to as many reincarnations as it
takes until spiritual rebirth is attained.
One of the great Church leaders was Clement of Alexandria in
Egypt (150-211 A.D.) who indicated that he possessed the secret
teaching handed down from the apostles.
In the Gnostic text entitled The Secret
Gospel of Mark, one of the Christian Gnostic texts
discovered in 1945, describes Jesus performing secret initiation
rituals. Before the discovery of this secret gospel, our only
knowledge of it came from a letter written by Clement. Clement
quotes from this secret gospel and refers to it as, "a more
spiritual gospel for the use of those who were being perfected." He
also states, "It even yet is most carefully guarded [by the church
at Alexandria], being read only to those who are being initiated
into the great mysteries." Clement mentions elsewhere that Jesus
revealed a secret teaching to those who were "capable of receiving
it and being molded by it" He also affirmed that, "The gnosis
(secret knowledge) itself is that which has descended by
transmission to a few, having been imparted unwritten by the
apostles." (Miscell. Book
VI, Chapter 7)
The existence of a secret teaching can be found in the New
Testament:
The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.
But to those on the outside everything is said in parables
so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever
hearing but never understanding' (Mark 4:11-12)
"He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the
kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."
(Matt. 13:11-12)
"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the
mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of
this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's
secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and
that God destined for our glory before time began." (1 Cor.
2:6-8)
"So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as
those entrusted with the secret things of God." (1 Cor.
4:1)
"At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven
and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes,
Father, for this was your good pleasure." (Matt. 11:25-26)
Paul wrote about teachings which are taught to spiritual
"babies," teachings about righteousness for the more mature, and
then teachings for the spiritually mature. Paul reveals this fact
immediately after equating Melchizedek to
Jesus by stating:
"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain
because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary
truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted
with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the
mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish
good from evil. (Heb. 5:11-14)
According to tradition, after the Roman invasion of Jerusalem,
the author of the Gospel of Mark established a church in
Alexandria, Egypt. Mark may also have been the author of a "secret
gospel" containing more advanced teaching for those being initiated
into the Christian mysteries. This secret gospel contains passages
portraying Jesus teaching secret doctrines.
The Champion for the Secret Teachings of
Jesus
As the orthodox church in Rome gained more and more political power
the more it viewed secret teachings as a threat to their own public
teachings. But the Church leader who made the final and greatest
attempt to revive the secret teachings of Jesus within the orthodox
teachings was the first Church Father named Origen (183-253 A.D.) of
Alexandria in Egypt who was a disciple of Clement of Alexandra.
Origen was the first person since Paul to develop a system of
theology around the teachings of Jesus. His effort was the first
within the orthodox church to systematize a theology on so vast a
scale. Although Origen defended orthodoxy, he included in his
system the wisdom of the Christian Gnostics. His theology was a
perfect synthesis of "orthodox" and "gnostic" teachings and came
the closest to reviving the "Lost Christianity" of the original
sects, communities and schools, at a time when the Christian
Gnosticism was falling into disrepute. Unfortunately, hundreds of
years later, the Church declared him a heretic and his teachings as
heresy mostly because they affirmed preexistence and therefore
reincarnation.
Origen had this to say about the secret teachings of Jesus:
[Jesus] conversed with His disciples in private, and especially
in their sacred retreats, concerning the Gospel of God; but the
words which He uttered have not been preserved, because it appeared
to the evangelists that they could not be adequately conveyed to
the multitude in writing or in speech and they saw what things were
to be committed to writing, and how this was to be done, and what
was by no means to be written to the multitude, and what was to be
expressed in words, and what was not to be so
conveyed. (Contra Celsus,
Chap. VI. 18)
Concerning these secret teachings, Clement stated:
James the Righteous, John and Peter were entrusted by the Lord
after his resurrection with the higher knowledge. They imparted it
to the other apostles, to the seventy (Outlines Book
VI)
The Theology of Christian Gnosticism
According to Gnostic
theology, a series of "falling away" from the Whole that
is God occurred in eternity which resulted in all that there is
today. After the first "fall", the divine consciousness descended
to the level of the divided consciousness; now after another
"fall", it has fallen even further, into the depths of the
unconscious; it has been "forgotten." It is now humanity's
privilege to discover the potential realms of human existence and
face the great challenge of the "ascension of consciousness"
through the Man-God-Spirit transformation.
Once souls fell into the lower levels of consciousness, they became
enamored of it and burned with the desire to experience the
pleasures of matter. The souls then no longer wanted to disengage
itself from these lower levels. Thus the world was born. From that
moment souls forgot themselves. They forgot they original
habitation, their true center and eternal being.
Gnosticism proceeds from one fundamental insight: this world in
which we find ourselves is thoroughly and irretrievably less than
holy. The soul is trapped in a prison of flesh, and the flesh is
intrinsically less than divine. According to Gnostic theology, the
creation of the cosmos came about as the result of a tragicomic
mistake: the fall of the soul from God. Thanks to the advent of
Christ in the lower realms of consciousness, the power of
reconciling the fallen souls has been given to restore the One-ness
and usher in the kingdom of light over the kingdom of flesh and
matter. The unity of the Godhead is assured thanks to the
introduction of the new uniting force, the Logos, the part of God
who acts in the flesh and the material. It is important to
distinguish the Logos (Christ) from the soul named Jesus. Any
person has the potential of becoming a Logos but it was the soul
known as Jesus who actually incarnated as a Logos and
therefore became a Christ on Earth.
We, as humans, cannot comprehend the omnipotent power available to
us until we utilize the Christ power. When we effectively use the
divine "Christ awareness" we have the ability to help in the
liberation of the imprisoned "sparks of divinity" from flesh and
rejoin them to the Source. The divine plan of creation will become
complete as the divine outpouring of Christ gnosis liberates
humanity from ignorance. The result of this will be the redemption
of all human beings.
The Christ power can only liberate souls through the call and
revelation of Christ gnosis to, "Awake, remember who you are and
where you come from!" But since the soul cannot by itself hear the
gnosis, the Christ power resorts to elaborate strategies to create
the conditions for which all souls will be saved.
Christian Gnostics felt that initiation into the Cosmic Christ
gnosis is inseparable from "the light
which lighteth every person coming into the world." It
is this light within, our Higher Self, which each individual must
bring to at-one-ment with the divine Source if liberation is to
occur.
As more and more people hear the call to "Wake up!" and attain the
Christ gnosis and become liberated, their souls are received back
into the bosom of Divine Consciousness. The soul becomes free from
unholy flesh and the cycle of birth and rebirth. Christian Gnostics
seek to achieve this by cultivating the Higher Self within people
to seek reunification with the Godhead. But each soul returning to
its divine source must, after death, pass through the various
levels of consciousness. Sometimes Christian Gnostics describe
seven of these heavenly realms, other times ten.
Christian Gnostic Writings
The quote from Jesus from the Christian Gnostic gospel, the
Book of Thomas
the Contender, describes Jesus teaching
reincarnation:
"Watch and pray that you may not be born in the flesh, but that
you may leave the bitter bondage of this life." (Book of Thomas the
Contender 9:5)
In another part of the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus tells
the disciple Thomas that after death, those people who were once
believers but have remained attached to things of "transitory
beauty," will be consumed "in their concern about life" and will be
"brought back to the visible realm."
The following quote from Jesus in the Gospel of
Thomas affirms Jesus teaching reincarnation to his
disciples:
"When you see your likeness, you are happy. But when you see
your images that came into being before and that neither die nor
become visible, how much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas, saying
84)
More excerpts from this very interesting gospel will be profiled
later.
In the Secret Book of
John, written by 185 A.D. at the latest, reincarnation
is placed at the center of the discussion concerning the salvation
of souls. The following is a summary of the Secret Book of John's
perspective on reincarnation.
Everyone has drunk from the water of forgetfulness and lives in a
state of ignorance. Some people are able to overcome ignorance by
having the life-giving Spirit descend upon them. These souls "will
be saved and will become perfect," that is, escape the cycle of
birth and rebirth. John asks Jesus what will happen to those who do
not attain salvation. They are hurled down "into forgetfulness" and
thrown into "prison," the Christian Gnostic symbol for a new
body.
Jesus says the only way for these souls to escape is to acquire
knowledge after coming from forgetfulness. A soul can accomplish
this by finding a teacher who can lead the soul in the right
direction:
"This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the Spirit of
life dwells, because she is saved through the Spirit. Then she will
never be thrust into flesh again." (Secret Book of John 14:20)
Another Christian Gnostic book, the Pistis
Sophia (Greek for "Faith Wisdom"), outlines a system of
punishment and rewards that includes reincarnation. The book
explains the differences in one's fate as a result of past-life
actions. A "man who curses" will be given a body that is
continually "troubled in heart." A "man who slanders" will be given
an "oppressed" body. A thief will be given a "lame, crooked and
blind body." A "proud" and "scornful" man will be given "a lame and
ugly body" that "everyone continually despises." From this, we can
see how this Earth, as well as hell, is a place of education
through suffering.
According to the Pistis Sophia, some souls experience hell as a
place of shadows and torture. However, after these souls pass
through hell, they return to Earth for further experiences. Only a
relatively few extremely evil souls are not permitted to
reincarnate. These souls are cast into "outer darkness" until a
time when they are "destroyed and dissolved."
The Pistis Sophia combines the ideas of reincarnation and divine
union in a verse beginning with the question:
"[What happens to] a man who has committed no sin, but done good
persistently, but has not found the mysteries?" (Pistis Sophia)
The Pistis Sophia reveals such a soul will receive "a cup filled
with thoughts and wisdom," allowing the soul to remember its divine
origin and pursue the "mysteries of the light" until it finds them
and is able to "inherit the light forever." To "inherit the light
forever" is a Gnostic term for union with God.
In the Gospel of
Phillip, Jesus makes a clear distinction between the
resurrection of the spirit (i.e., spiritual rebirth) and the
resurrection of the body (i.e., physical rebirth,
reincarnation):
"People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken.
If they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive,
once they have died they will receive nothing." (Gospel of Philip
73:1-4)
In the Apocryphal book, Wisdom of
Solomon, recognized as canonical by the Catholic Church,
is the following verse:
"I was given a sound body to live in because I was already
good." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20)
This verse raises the following question: How is it possible to
get a body after you have already been good, unless reincarnation
is true?
Among the works of the Christian Gnostics are some of the
early gospels, including secret gospels which were not preserved in
the New Testament. The Gospel of Thomas was the first gospel ever
written and is considered by scholars to be the most reliable
gospel. Much of this gospel contains sayings of Jesus that are
contained in the four New Testament gospels.
The Christian Gnostic gospels reveal a clear and strong vision
of the resurrection as a past and present event. Below is a verse
from the Gospel of Thomas that shows the "resurrection" to be a
past event:
"His followers said to him, 'When will the rest for the dead
take place, and when will the new world come?' He said to them,
'What you look for has come, but you do not know it.'" (Gospel of
Thomas, saying 51)
In the verse above, Jesus says the resurrection and the kingdom
are already here. In Gnostic terms, this quote from Jesus refers to
a person's past "resurrection" (i.e., physical rebirth,
reincarnation) and the fact that we are already living in the
kingdom of God which exists within us. Only through the Christ
gnosis can this kingdom be realized and the cycle of resurrection
end.
The sayings that are presented below are excerpts of the Gospel of
Thomas that are not present in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John.
The Gospel of Thomas
"These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and
Judas Thomas the Twin recorded.
Jesus said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings
will not taste death."
Jesus said, "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds.
When one finds, one will be disturbed. When one is disturbed, one
will be amazed, and will reign over all."
Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Behold, the kingdom is
in the sky,' then the birds in the sky will get there before you.
If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get
there before you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you and outside
you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and will
understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you
do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and embody
poverty."
Jesus said, "Know what is within your sight, and what is hidden
from you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that
will not be revealed."
Jesus said, "I have thrown fire on the world and, behold, I am
guarding it until it is ablaze."
Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me with someone, and tell
me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just
angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say
whom you are like." Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. You have
become intoxicated because you have drunk from the bubbling spring
that I have tended." And he took Thomas and withdrew, and told him
three things. When Thomas came back to his friends, they asked him,
"What did Jesus tell you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you even
one of the things he told me, you will pick up rocks and stone me.
Then fire will come forth from the rocks and devour you."
The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us about the end." Jesus
said, "Have you already discovered the beginning, that now you can
seek after the end? For where the beginning is, the end will be.
Blessed is one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the
end, and will not taste death."
Jesus said, "If you become my disciples and hearken to my
sayings, these stones will serve you."
Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These
nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to
him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to
them, "When you make the two into one, when you make the inner like
the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the
lower, when you make male and female into a single one, so that the
male will not be male and the female will not be female, when you
make eyes replacing an eye, a hand replacing a hand, a foot
replacing a foot, and an image replacing an image, then you will
enter the kingdom."
Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are alone and chosen: you
will find the kingdom. For you have come from it, and you will
return there again."
His disciples said to him, "When will the final rest for the
dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to
them, "What you look for has already come, but you do not know
it."
Jesus said, "I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of
my mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand
is doing."
Jesus said, "Whoever knows everything but lacks within lacks
everything."
Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you
have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do
not have within you will kill you."
Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all:
all came forth from me, and all attained to me. Split a piece of
wood, and I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me
there."
Jesus said, "Whoever is close to me is close to the fire, and
whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom."
Jesus said, "Images are visible to people, but the light within
is hidden in the Father's image of light. He will reveal himself,
but his image is hidden by his light."
Jesus said, "When you see a likeness of yourself, you are happy.
But when you see your images that came into being before you, and
that neither die nor become visible, how much you will be able to
tolerate!"
Jesus said, "When you make the two into one, you will become
sons of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move!' it will move."
Jesus said, "Whoever drinks from my mouth will be like me, and I
shall be that person, and what is hidden will be revealed to that
one."
Jesus says, "Whoever finds self is worth more than the
world."
His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It
will not come by looking for it. Nor will it do to say, 'Behold,
over here!' or 'Behold, over there!' Rather, the kingdom of the
Father is spread out on the Earth, but people do not see it."
(Gospel of Thomas)
The Apocalyptic Texts
Among the Christian Gnostic writings were no less than five
separate apocalypses. Here they are.
The First
Apocalypse of James contains the secret teachings of
Christ that were given to James the Just, the Lord's brother. In
it, James refers to Jesus as "rabbi." Jesus warns James to leave
Jerusalem, for the city is a dwelling place of a great number of
"archons" or evil angels. Jerusalem is stigmatized as the city
which "gives the cup of bitterness to the sons of light." Jesus
coaches James on what to say when he is judged and challenged by
the "toll collectors" of heaven in order to pass through the gates
of heaven.
The Second
Apocalypse of James
The Apocalypse of
Adam
The Apocalypse of
Peter is a record of the vision of Peter the apostle in
which he speaks with Christ in the spirit. In this, Peter is
clearly seen as the true successor to Christ and the founder of the
Gnostic community. In the vision, Peter first sees hostile priests
who seem to be intent upon stoning him and Christ to death. Next,
Peter recalls the crucifixion during which Jesus stood nearby
talking with him.
Peter asks, "Who is this one glad and laughing on the tree
(i.e., cross)? And is it another one whose feet and hands they are
striking?"
Christ replies, "He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing,
this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet
they drive the nails is his fleshy part, which is the substitute
being put to shame, the one who came into being in his
likeness. But look at him and me."
Peter seemed to realize that it would be a long time before his
book was read and understood, for he writes:
"These things, then, which you saw you shall present to those of
another race who are not of this age."
He seems to be right, as this apocalypse has only just seen the
light of day before we enter the age that many believe will begin
with the second coming of Christ.
The Apocalypse of Paul
The Apocalypse of
Paul is an account of the apostle's ascent into heaven
and what he found there, with instructions for other souls on how
to conduct themselves during judgment. One of the most interesting
aspects of this text is that it corresponds to events found in the
New Testament and includes references to reincarnation. Several
Christian Gnostic texts combine the ideas of reincarnation and
union with God.
As Paul passes through the fourth heaven, he witnesses a soul
being punished for murder. This soul is brought "out of the land of
the dead" (i.e., Earth) by angels where three witnesses charge the
soul with murder. The soul looks sorrowfully down and is cast down
into a body that has been prepared for it. The book describes
Paul's journey through the heavens, which is also symbolic for the
Gnostic process of union with God.
The New Testament contains a letter by the apostle Paul to the
Christians in the city of Corinth, Greece, where he had founded a
church on his first visit there. The Christians at this church were
being divided by the teachings of so-called "false teachers" that
were infiltrating the church there and Paul wrote a letter telling
them to not forget what they were taught by Paul. These "false
teachers" were trying to get people to follow their teachings and
not Paul's. In order to put these false teachers to shame, Paul
rebukes the Corinthians by using false pride and boasting about
himself and telling the church why he is more qualified than the
false teachers. He tells them of his sufferings and how he was once
stoned and left for dead (2 Cor.
11:23-26). The letter goes on to say:
"I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained,
I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a
person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third
heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know
- God knows. And I know that this person - whether in the body or
apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to
paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that humans are not
permitted to tell." (2 Cor. 12:1-4)
In the above passage, Paul continued his "boasting" by telling
about visions and revelations he had received from the Lord. "I
know a person in Christ" means that he was speaking about himself.
He explained that he didn't know if he was taken up in his body or
in his spirit, but he was in paradise ("the third heaven"). This
incident cannot be positively identified with a recorded event in
Paul's career, although some think this may have been when he was
stoned and left for dead (Acts
14:19-20). Paul told about this incident to show that he
had been uniquely touched by God.
Many people are unaware of this passage of the Bible and that it is
a near-death experience which Paul had. The person who wrote most
of the New Testament, the sacred writings of orthodox Christianity,
had a near-death experience which he based his authority as an
apostle of Christ to the Corinthian church. It can even be argued
that his near-death experience directly or indirectly inspired his
epistles.
The Apocalypse of Paul reveals how each soul must rise as best it
can after death through a hierarchy of heavens and face the
increasingly difficult challenges posed by the guardian angels of
each heaven. The journey begins with Paul meeting a child on the
mountain of Jericho on the way to heaven (symbolized by Jerusalem).
This child turns out to be the Holy Spirit, who takes Paul first to
the third heaven.
The Holy Spirit warns Paul to keep his wits about him for they are
about to enter the realm of "principalities ... archangels and
powers and the whole race of demons." The Holy Spirit also mentions
that they will pass "one that reveals bodies to a soul-seed," that
is, the being that takes souls and plants them in new bodies for
reincarnation. For the soul who wished to ascend to the highest
heaven, reincarnation was to be avoided.
When Paul reaches the fourth heaven, the Holy Spirit encourages him
to look down upon his body which he has left behind on the mountain
of Jericho. As Paul ascends, he witnesses in the fourth heaven the
judgment and punishment of another soul. He says, "I saw the angels
resembling gods ... bringing a soul out of the land of the dead."
The soul has been resurrected so that it can be judged, one of the
four events promised for the end of the world. The angels were
whipping it.
The soul spoke, saying, "What sin was it that I committed in the
world?" The "toll collector" of this heavenly gate accuses the
soul. The soul replies, "Bring witnesses! Let them show you in what
body I committed lawless deeds." Three bodies rise up as witnesses
and accuse the soul of anger and envy, and finally murder. When the
soul heard these things, it gazed downwards in sorrow ... It was
cast down.
At this point we expect the soul to be cast into hell, as in later
Christian doctrine, but no: "the soul that had been cast down went
to a body which had been prepared for it," and was
reincarnated.
Paul, somewhat shaken by this experience, was beckoned forward by
the Holy Spirit and allowed to pass through the gate of the fifth
heaven. Here he saw his fellow apostles and "a great angel in the
fifth heaven holding an iron rod in his hand." This angel and three
other angels, with whips in their hands, scourge the souls of the
dead and drive them on to judgment. Paul remains with the Holy
Spirit and the gates to the sixth heaven swing open effortlessly
before him.
In the sixth heaven, Paul sees a strong light shining down on him
from the heaven above. He is motioned by the "toll collector"
through the gates of the seventh heaven. Here, he sees "an old man
filled with light and whose garment was white. His throne, which is
in the seventh heaven, was brighter than the sun by seven times."
This old man bears a striking resemblance to Jehovah as he is
described in the vision of Ezekiel.
The old man asks, "Where are you going, Paul?" Only reluctantly,
after some encouragement from the Holy Spirit, does Paul speak with
him and give the Gnostic sign he has learned. The eighth heaven
then opens and Paul ascends. Here he embraces the twelve disciples,
most of whom he has not met before, and together they rise to the
ninth heaven. Finally, Paul reaches the tenth and highest heaven,
where he is transformed.
The Suppression of Christian Gnosticism
The Christian Gnostics believed in reincarnation and the
preexistence of the soul. They refused to believe in a resurrection
of corpses at the end of time. They emphasized meeting Jesus on a
spiritual level to become liberated and attain permanent
citizenship in heaven. The Church of Rome of the second century
A.D., on the other hand, declared that those who deny a Last Day
resurrection of corpses are heretics.
Many Christian Gnostics regarded themselves as part of the
organized body of Christians of the early church. However, as the
organized Church gained political control of the Roman Empire, the
Christian Gnostics were persecuted by the organized Church and many
were martyred. The Christian Gnostic tradition is one of many
branches of early Christianity labeled as heretical by the early
Church fathers. The Gnostic influences and writings were cut out of
official Church doctrines as heresy. Because of their suspected
Christian Gnostic origins, the Gospel of
John and the Book of Revelation was almost rejected from the New
Testament. Nevertheless, the organized Church succeeded
in hiding its Christian Gnostic doctrines.
It is not surprising that the orthodox Church bishops edited out
the practical spiritual knowledge which was once an integral part
of Christianity and was known and practiced by the apostle Paul.
For these fathers, it was far more convenient and gratifying for
their egos to assert that spiritual grace could only be attained
through them as Christ's representatives on Earth. To control the
masses, the political organization of the church declared that
salvation was attained only through the church rituals and through
the priesthood. Salvation through a personal mystical experience
with Christ apart from the organized church was cast away. In a
move that is very likely to have met with the disapproval of Christ
himself, the worldly political aspirations of a few priests won out
over the spiritual enlightenment of the many.
And as it is with any religion or movement, the successors of its
founder decided which things to keep and which to throw out. The
organized Church discarded the spiritual knowledge of Christian
Gnosticism as being too dangerous and kept the concept of blind
acceptance of church doctrine.
Ultimately, the organized Church declared Christian Gnosticism a
heresy and began killing those who adhered to its doctrines. Thus
the powerful Roman Church began its crusade of eliminating all
rivals to its authority. Christian Gnosticism was obliterated and
relatively little historical and theological information was left
to fully understand early Christian history. This all changed in
1945 with the discovery of the Gnostic Christian scriptures
discovered in Egypt. Then in 1947, the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls of early Jewish Gnostic writings occurred. Today, with many
Christians wondering if the Second Coming
of Christ is soon to happen, it may not be a coincidence
that these secret writings have come to surface after two thousand
years of being hidden. Finally, after two thousands years, the
secret is finally out again.