Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

10 3. Meaning and purpose of the world and human beings The purpose of the creation of the world is determined by the 1. Vatican Council (1870): “…those that deny that the world was created for the glorification of God are condemned.” (DS 3025) The purpose of the creation of the world is, according to statements made by Vatican I, two-fold: “The revelation of divine perfection and the glorification of God derived from that (Ludwig Ott P. 98) and the bestowal of benefactions on other creatures, particularly endowing sentient beings with a soul.” (Ludwig Ott P. 99) Vatican I has the following to say about the aims of man on Earth: “God created man out of his unbounded charitableness for a supernatural final objective, to participate in his divine chattel that completely surpasses all insights of the human spirit… (DS3005) “The supernatural objective of man consist in the participation of divine self-realisation from whence springs a supernatural glorification of God and a supernatural beatitude for man.” (Ludwig Ott P. 124) The decisions of the Council of Trent (1547) considerably curtail this statement because it announced: “…that God predestined certain people to enjoy eternal bliss through an act of his eternal ordination of will.” (DS 1540) 15 One draws its substantiation from Romans 8, 29: …those that he acknowledged beforehand, he also predestined to become homogenous with the image of his son…” It is also a doctrine of the Church that “God, through his eternal ordination of will, predestined certain people to suffer eternal dismissal because of the sins they committed.” (DS 628, Synod of Valence, 855 A. D) The Church sees its biblical justification in Matthew 25, 41: “Away from me that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels!” The Church finds its patristic foundation for this tenet, amongst others, with Augustine : “God is good, God is just. HE can save those without good merits, because HE is good; but HE can never condemn anyone without negative merits, because HE is just.” (Augustine contra Julius III, 18, 35; cited from Ludwig Ott P.296) The incongruities of the Church’s doctrine are openly exposed: Why can sections of his creation, there for his glorification, end up in eternal hell, if God created the world for his own glorification and if he bestowed benefactions upon his creatures? – Can the fact that “certain people” are supposed to be already predestined for either eternal bliss or eternal damnation at the beginning of their human existence be harmonised with the character of a just God? – Why did God in his love 15 Canons 15 and 16 (DS 1565 and 1566) of said Council raise an anathema against all those that reject these theses.