Christian sects having belief in reincarnation

What sources does he cite for this false claim? Traditionally, the Jews followed the Mesopotamian model of the afterlife. After death, the spirit of the deceased would go to Sheol, where they led a shadowy existence. After the Maccabean revolt, the belief caught on among some sects, including the Pharisees and Essenes (but not the Sadducees who ran the Temple cult, that surely the brave men who died for their faith would have a greater reward than that, and surely those who killed them would not get off so easily. Luke explains: “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all” (Acts 23:8). The dead would be bodily resurrected on the Day of Judgment. "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2)". “You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.” (2 Macc. 7:9-14) Jewish belief in reincarnation seems to have been the product of a later development of Jewish mysticism, especially the circles of Kaballah, which most scholars believe was a medieval development based on a book of questionable origin, the Zohar.

That's a very literal ,out of context, interpretation of John 3:3-5, which, like the Pharisee Nicodemus whom Jesus was addressing, misses the point. “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Most Christians believe that the second birth Jesus was referring to was one of being transformed spiritually by accepting Christ--not by being physically reincarnated.

If there was an early Christian or Jewish tradition of reincarnation, the Johannine community that gave rise to John's gospel (and Revelation and the three John letters) would be a logical place to start. They seem to have been into Merkabah mysticism (J. Spong, The Fourth Gospel), associated with the Kabbalists and analagous to Gnosticism. It was the last gospel, written about a half century after Jesus's death, and strikingly different from the others. https://anarch.cc/uploads/gershom-s...ism-merkabah-mysticism-talmudic-tradition.pdf Gnostic theologians like Valentinus an Basilides, as well as Christian Platonists like Origen, accepted the belief, which was later rejected by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 c.e. The Argument over Reincarnation in Early Christianity | Utah Historical Review While it would be inaccurate to attribute the belief to Jesus or Christians in general, there certainly were pockets of support for it in the early church.

 

See, I am not a Spiritist or Christian. Having read the bible as a teenager , I have stated earlier that it reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle that needs more data to create a holistic, coherent picture. Kardec states that the doctrine of reincarnation would make the bible more intelligible and the lack of it could be a reason for the many conflicting interpretations of it.

So yes, there were pockets of support for it in the early catholic church ( apart from that of Gnostic Christianity and other possible independent christian sects like the Cathars and Bogomils.)

The early centuries of brutal persecution of the Christians by the Romans should be taken into account which may have lead to loss of scriptures and theologians leading to dilution of the Christian theological doctrine.

Rejection by the Councils of Constantinople as stated, may have branded the belief as heresy leading to dissolution of other Christian scriptures, theologians and sects having the belief as well.

This sort of constant persecution by the Romans before and after acceptance of Christianity, could be a reason why reincarnation was eventually erased or editted out of Roman Catholicism and Christianity in general.

Reincarnation was not a belief in the roman pagan belief system and this could have increased resistance to such beliefs when the romans embraced Christianity , moulding its theological doctrine as per their sensibilities and transplanting roman pagan festivals into it.

Christmas for example was originally a Roman winter solstice festival, and there is no accurate knowledge of Jesus's actual birth date. There could have been scriptures and theologians who knew his actual birthdate but had probably perished in the early roman persecution.

Christianity and paganism - Wikipedia.

 

Not my area of expertise, might be wrong.

AFAIK not only Roman, but traditional Greek mythology and mainstream Judaism did not have a particular affinity towards reincarnation (often starting as one possible way to theoretically deal with the “problem of evil” in religions).

The only big influence on emerging Christianity that had adherents (not all and not uniform and doctrinally consistent between those that did) of such a concept were, to my knowledge at least, neoplatonic and later gnostic influences.

Those were present in the whole Greco-Roman world, Rome included, and nowhere in that world traditional folk and state mythology had such ideas, not just Rome.

So I would be sceptical of the theory that it was an original Christian belief changed by Roman paganism, it seems more probable that it was a neoplatonist/gnostic belief of certain philosophical groups (which were more religious and lifestyle than what we understand philosophy to be in modern times) that influenced some heterodox Christian or Christianity-inspired developments. Though that holds for most of Christianity anyway, just to different degrees and source selections. But I find it hard to construct a plausible historic theory where the doctrine of reincarnation would be an independent early belief.


There are also some misinterpretations of NewAge authors like pushing the concept of reincarnation even on authors like Origen that were not necessarily supporting anything near the contemporary ideas of the same. Pre-existence of souls for example does not necessarily imply REincarnation.

 

Uh, don’t know, the last one I met was 25+yrs ago, and already a very old man. I don’t think it has much presence anywhere anymore, just indirectly through the influence on the “New Age” movement.

Maybe there are, but there certainly are many that lie about them, and some that have mental illnesses. In their case lying in order to create a comfortable living through a religious movement is the most likely.

Now that we have a much better understanding of history and Eastern religions and have primary sources translated and available, as well as opportunities to learn sanskrit, pali etc. it takes a lot of intentional blindness not to see it is all a lot of BS.

She wouldn’t, witch hunts are not a medieval phenomenon but a later “hysteria” in part facilitated by the invention of the press and the social tensions of religious wars (Catholic vs Protestant) and often done by secular authorities against church skepticism.

 

See, if you were enlightened, you would surely know for yourself whether there are psychic abilities are not.

But you are not, which explains all the skepticism and accusations based on hearsay and limited data, and inability to shed personal insights on this field, other than your personal interpretations of some literature on the subject.

I am not enlightened, but even I have psychic abilities that came up due to satsang and meditation. It is of some utility to me but does not create a comfortable living in a religious movement as you state.