The Church's Biggest LieThe Missing Link in Christianity

AT THE

BEGINNING OF THE

CHRISTIAN ERA,

REINCARNATION

WAS ONE OF THE

PillARS OF BELIEF.

- © BY BENJAMIN SEILER-

Reincarnation is a fact. That it is no longer apart of taday's Christian beliefs is due to onepower-hungry woman who had all referencesto reincarnation in the early Bible removed.A seemingly small act with historical conse-

quences: how different would the history of the last twomillennia have been if Christians hadknown that they themselves wouldreap the fruit of their (mis)deeds in afuture earthly life - that they wouldhave to sleep in the beds they hadmade?!

At the beginning of the Christianera, reincarnation was one of thepillars of belief. Without it (as laterhappened), Christianity would lose alllogic. How could a benevolent, lovingGod give one person a silver spoon andleave the next to starve in their osten­sibly only earthly life? Early Churchelders and theologians,like Origen,Basilides and St Gregory, taught re-incarnation of the soul as a matter ofcourse - it was written in the Bible, after all. Nowadays,most Christians suspect blasphemy if someone refer­ences reincarnation.

But let's return to the 6th century after Christ,where a diabolical conspiracy was hatched in the courtof the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, which would holdmankind prisoner in a false understanding of the real­ity of life and death for 1,400 years. In the generationsbefore that, reincarnation was still an uncontested factin the Christian church. Instead, whether Jesus hadbeen more man or more God was heavily discussed.

Dante glimpses God's essence that reconciles all mankind.

Thanks to reincarnation, every person will attain Heaven in theend. (Illustration by Gustave Dare).

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Nestorius, Abbot of Antioch, believed that Maryshould not be called "the Mother of God," since she hadonly given birth to the 'human' Jesus. But a Councildeclared Nestorius a heretic, sent him into the desert,and determined that Jesus was simultaneously humanand divine. One of Nestorius' bitterest opponents wasEutyches, who, on the other hand, believed that Jesuswas only divine, as his human nature was completely

subsumed in the divine. Today we callthis teaching monophysitism (that is,the teaching that Christ's two naturesare joined into a new single human­divine nature). In 451, the FourthEcumenical Council (also known asthe Council of Cha1cedon) condemnedmonophysitism as heresy and perse­cuted its advocates. One of the mostzealous persecutors was the laterEmperor Justinian.

THE COUNCIL OF 4S1 EMPHASISESTHE LAW OF REINCARNATION

As already mentioned, during thesereligious controversies, reincarna-tion was never once a topic of discus-sion. It was held to be a fundamental

dogma, which was even reinforced by the Council of 451.Who could have imagined then that Christian theol­ogy would so essentially change with the ascension ofJustinian to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empirein 527 and what profound repercussions the followingcenturies would suffer as a result?

The real actor in the shadows was a woman: Theo­dora, Emperor Justinian's wife. She had made a sharpsocial ascent - and this daughter of a bear tamer fromthe Constantinople circus had used a woman's old­est weapon to make her climb. Earlier, she had beena young and beautiful prostitute whose services werehappily sought by the aristocracy.

Hacebolus, the young governor of Pentapolis, fell forher charms and took Theodora with him to North Afri-

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.. •SHE PURPOSEFULLY

SLEPT HER WAY UP

THE LADDER OF

SOCIETY, BECOMING

ONE OF JUSTINIAN'S

CONCUBINES, THEN...

FINALLY... HIS WIFE.

But it was not earthly power alonethat accomplished this evil. Demonicforces were working behind the scenes,powers that saw their chance andknew how to take advantage of it .Because if it is possible to take awaymankind's belief in the atonementof their misdeeds and the resultingreincarnation, then not only can yousubvert their sense of responsibility,but you also make them helpless andinsignificant. The people will forgettheir true divine goal (to someday be­come gods and goddesses themselves).giving themselves over to the mercy ofan external god and forgetting theirown divinity. They wait for a salvationthat will never come, because in real­

ity. each person can only save himself. Such a humanitywill easily surrender the world to evil.

The powers of darkness had found two helpers withtremendous influence in Theodora and Justinian. So itisn't really surprising that both of them were reportedto be possessed. The contemporary historian Proco­pius offers many examples in his Apocrypha. He tells

The Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 AD rewrote church

doctrine, eliminating any obvious references to reincarnation.With this decision. they also execrated men such as Origen

(feft), the founder of Church scholarship and theology.

in the temple halls. Christianity had brought an end tothis custom. And it was precisely on this point that thebiblically recognised fact of reincarnation provided astumbling block: For how could a woman enter eternityas a goddess when everyone was supposed to be reborn?What could prevent the errant empress from beingreborn as a completely normal person - even as a simplebeggar? Theodora knew that as long as reincarnationwas anchored fast in Christian consciousness, thepeople would never accept her as a goddess. And so thedoctrine of reincarnation had to be completely blottedout.

Theodora selected the monophysitist monks, whowere soon to be pardoned from their excommunica­tions, as willing helpers. They were to ensure that everyteaching of reincarnation completely disappeared fromall church documents.

You might think that such a request wouldn't be pos­sible on a practical level alone. But Theodora had spreadher own network of agents over the entire empire andtook care that 'her' monks, little by little, took overleadership of the Church. And the entire power of theByzantine Empire was at her service, for Justinian hadalready become her willing tool.

THE EMPEROR - POSSESSED?

EMPRESS THEODORA SEEKSHER OWN APOTHEOSIS

Theodora succeeded - well, almost. Her burningambition pushed her ever further. There was one finalstep to be climbed: her own deification. Only thenwould she be equal with the Caesars of old. It wasn'treally that long before that the Roman Emperors wereautomatically deified and received a place of worship

ca. But she abused the governor's trust and, at the peo­ple's cost, amassed great riches. When, in her greed, sheoverstepped the mark and Hacebolus was overwhelmedwith complaints from the people, he threw Theodorasout of his palace and confiscated all her goods.

With only the clothes on her back, she fought herway through to Alexandria. At thegates to the city, she was taken in bya hermit named Eutyches. It was thesame Eutyches who had originatedmonophysitism and was now livingout his exile there. Later, Theodorawould remember this fallen monk anduse him to carry out her dark plans.

Back in Constantinople, she pur­posefully slept her way up the ladderof society, becoming one of Justinian'sconcubines, then his favourite concu­bine, and. finally, in 523, his wife. Fouryears later, she and her husband as­sumed the highest position of power inthe secular world: the imperial crown.

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(Left) Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527-565 AD) (Right) Empress Theodora I, Justinian's wife.

Detail from the 6th-century mosaic "Empress Theodora and Her Court" in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

of a monk who travelled to Constantinople to presentthe case of a farmer who had suffered an injustice. Hewas immediately admitted, but just as he entered thethrone room, he cringed and withdrew, refusing toappear before the Emperor, and rushed fearfully backto his room. Once there, he told the chamberlain thathe had seen the 'Lord of Demons' sitting on the throneand his presence was so terrible that he was not able tobear it. We should bear in mind that clairvoyance wasmore prevalent at that time. The demon that the monksaw was by no means a product of his imagination, buta reality from the astral realm that we are not usuallyable to perceive today.

At another point, Procopius quotes Justinian'smother who once confessed to her confidantes thatJustinian was not her husband, Sabbatius' son, nor thatof any other man, but that he was sired by a demon.

Whatever you might think about these reports,Theodora and Justinian's actions were definitely diabol­ical. In order to accomplish their plans, Theodora firsthad to bring the Western Church (of the fallen WesternRoman Empire) under her control. Flavius Belisarius'armies helped her in this by securing Byzantine influ­ence in Rome and enabling Theodora's perfidy of depos­ing the Pope. One of the empresses' favourites assumedthe position.

After she had thus dispensed with the opposition of

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the Western Church, Theodora concentrated once againon Constantinople and, with the help of her puppet, thePatriarch Mennas, she convened the Synod of the East­ern Church of Constantinople (543 AD). This Councilrevoked the condemnation of monophysitism as well asthe affirmation of reincarnation, codified in 451 AD.This was the first deathblow to the doctrine of reincar­nation.

The Synod, however, was not binding for the al­most 3,000 bishops spread across the Empire. And so aCouncil was called to sanction the decisions. Invitationswere sent to all bishops, but they were written so thatone could hope that none of the bishops of the WesternChurch would participate. Pope Virgilius, Theodora's ac­complice, condemned the letters in the harshest termsand thereby strengthened the resolve of many bishopsnot to attend.

A RIGGED GAME

But even the Princes of the Eastern Church didn'tseem to want to accept the invitation. And so the FifthEcumenical Council (also called the Second Council ofConstantinople) was only able to convene in Constan­tinople ten years later (553 AD). Of the more than 3,000ordained bishops, exactly 165 attended, and only 6 ofthem were from the West.

In the intervening years, Theodora had died at the

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...continued on page 18

those who believe inJesus. Origen writes:"You shouldn't imaginethis return to God assomething that hap­pens all at once, but asa gradual, step-wiseprogression over count­less and endlessly longspaces of time." (Peri

Achon III, 6.6)

THE CHURCHDESTROYS EVIDENCE

Just how riggedthis Fifth Council re­ally was can be seen inthe fact that many ofthe important parts ofthe Councils' recordspertaining to Origen'scase 'just happened' tobe lost, even though15 anathemas wereimposed against thisChurch Father who haddied 300 years before.In one place it statesonly: "Whoever doesnot condemn... Origenwith all his god-less writings and allother heretics who aredamned by the HolyCatholic Church... willhimself be damned."

The first gospelscontained, as did thewritings of Origen andBasilides, much infor­mation that today'sscholars would give

their eyeteeth to have preserved. Basilides, who taughtin Alexandria in 125, was supposed to have received hisdoctrine from the Apostles Matthew and Peter (throughhis disciple Glaucus). This early Gnostic had written 24books on the 'Interpretation of the Gospels'. None of hisbooks are available today - the Holy Church had themall burned. These documents would have shed an invalu­able light on the beginning of Christianity since theywere compiled much earlier than the canonised Bible,which was approved by the Council of Nicaea in 325.But decrees and laws alone couldn't erase such a deeplyentrenched belief so easily. And so it took a few hundredyears before the Church had finally

The Bible states: John the Baptist was the

reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah.

trine of reincarnationwould henceforth beheresy and anyone whoadvocated it would bedamned.

With this decision,they also execratedmen such as Origen(185-254 AD). thefounder of Churchscholarship and theol­ogy, whose writingsTheodora had mostfeared. Origen headedthe famous Catecheti­cal School of Alexan­dria, where the largestlibrary of antiquitywas also located. NoChurch scholar afterOrigen would ever beable to access suchcomprehensive mate­rial, since a Christianfanatic, the PatriarchTheophilus, burnedthe library in 389. Thisunbelievable act of barbarism destroyed invaluable cul­tural treasures and has substantially impeded historicalresearch. This was probably Theophilus' goal: also con­sumed in the fire were Christine (early Christian) textsthat provided a very clear glimpse into the origins ofChristian teachings and which would have proven thatreincarnation was a fundamental part of Christianity.

Origen taught the pre-existence of the soul, whichis that a person's soul already existed before the crea­tion of the world. For him, the meaning of all life inthe physical world came from the fact that every soulcleanses and refines itself through many incarnationsuntil each and every soul, by following Jesus' exampleand through its love and devotion to God, is called backto the arms of its Creator. And that is all souls, not just

age of 39 (547 AD).presumably fromcancer. But Justinianwas already so takenby the dark powers andTheodora's ambitionthat he continued topursue the inevitablesteps to the deificationof his wife. Under pres­sure from the Emperor,the small gatheringof bishops decided inproxy for the entireChurch that the doc-

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confiscated, destroyed, or so strongly distorted all theancient Christian documents that the doctrine of rein­carnation was hardly to be found and it slowly disap~

peared from the people's consciousness.The lie of one, single lifetime came in very handy for

many greedy and power hungry Church officials. Fromearly on, the Church lusted after worldly power that itwas not supposed to have and its representatives soldthe teachings of their Lord, so that they them selvescould play lord. The Church accumulated unbeliev-able riches and kingly estates, its leaders behaving likeprinces.

They had seized power. And where earlier, thanksto reincarnation, God's reconciliation with all soulsmercifully lit the way, now the dogma of eternal damna­tion ruled with an iron fist. Ever since the 6th century,each person had only one lifetime, one chance - un-der certain circumstances - to enter Heaven. The keyto Heaven was belief in salvation through Jesus theChrist. And the Church had the monopoly on Jesus. Itwas the only intercessory between Him (and Heaven)and mankind. And so, by the time of Francis of Assisi(12/13th century), private possession of a Bible waspunishable by death! And whoever didn't believe inJesus or the Church as Jesus' only representative wouldsuffer eternal damnation.

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That reincarnation is no longer a part of today's Christianbeliefs is due to one power-hungry woman - Empress

Theodora. However, in the East, reincarnation has long been

a standard teaching as depicted in this Hindu art (credit:Himalayan Academy Publications, Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii).

THE DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION BREAKSTHE POWER OF THE CHURCH

If we Christians had continued to believe in reincar­nation, the Church would have quickly been divested ofall worldly power. The examples of the Hindu and Bud­dhist 'churches', neither of which has ever come closeto striving for power like the Catholic Church, attest tothis. We would know that there is no such thing as eter­nal damnation and that each person does eventuallyreturn to God. And, most importantly, we would knowthat no church in the world can block our way to God ordemand a toll in return for clear passage.

But in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church deter­mined how much belief in the Saviour and an entry tick­et to Paradise should cost. It decided how much moneywas required to be absolved of the sins of fraud, adul­tery, or even worse. And the Church earned good moneywith this business. So it isn't surprising that reincarna~tion was once again condemned by the Councils of Lyon(1274) and Florence (1439). The Holy Church squeezedtheir sheep dry with indulgences. At the time of theantipope in AVignon, Jesus figures with money purseshanging from their hips adorned crosses as a sign thatthe Lord, too, was not averse to money. What heresy!

It is this money~mongeringaspect of the Churchthat encourages anecdotes such as the one about thesacristan who, after collecting a generous offering fromthe congregation while repeating the words "may Godreward you for it," stood alone before the altar, threwthe money in the air and said: "Dear Father, take whatYou will; the rest I will keep!"

Benjamin Seiler, along with Ursula Seiler, publishes andedits Facts are Facts, a quarterly European-based magazinereleased since 1993. The above article appears in Facts areFacts No.6, 2010 and is reprinted with permission.

Facts are Facts is an independent spiritual journalunveiling the truth about subjects mass media don'tdare to publish. The magazine reports on the real powersbehind politics, with articles on the true laws of nature,remedies for healing humans and the earth, as well asinsights into the invisible world of the spirit. Its Germanlanguage sister journal is called ZeitenSchrift, and hasbeen published since 1993. Facts are Facts is for any­one who senses that something is not quite right and areno longer willing to be led up the garden path, and areopen to the higher laws of life, and dream about a betterworld and believe that it can be achieved. Australianscan subscribe to Facts are Facts and purchase back cop­ies by visiting their website www.facts-are-facts.com.

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