Reincarnation – an original Christian doctrine

65 In order to divert attention from Origen pursuance, Origen supporters must therefore have encouraged Justinian to convene a council in order the settle the so-called “Three-Chapter Controversy” . Because Pope Vigilius protracted his approval of convening a council, the council could only begin much later, namely on the 5 th of May 553 A.D. Fresh complaints from Palestine about contentions over Origen caused Caesar to once again send a letter to the already assembled Council Fathers in Constantinople in order the facilitate a condemnation of Origen (died in 252?) here also. The given anathemas important to our theme are: 1 “If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.” 11 “If anyone shall say that the future judgment signifies the destruction of the body and that the end of the story will be an immaterial, and that thereafter there will no longer be any matter, but only spirit (nous): let him be anathema.” 14 “If anyone shall say that all reasonable beings will one day be united in one, when the hypostases as well as the numbers and the bodies shall have disappeared, and that the knowledge of the world to come will carry with it the ruin of the worlds, and the rejection of bodies as also the abolition of [all] names, and that there shall be finally an identity of the (gnosis) and of the hypostasis; moreover, that in this pretended apokatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was in the feigned pre-existence: let him be anathema.” 15 “If anyone shall say that the life of the spirits (noon) shall be like to the life which was in the beginning while as yet the spirits had not come down or fallen, so that the end and the beginning shall be alike, and that the end shall be the true measure of the beginning: let him be anathema.” 156 There are no valid reasons to shed doubt on Diekamp’s examinations when he ascertains that during eight official sittings of the Council between the 5 th of May and the 2 nd of June, 553 A.D. they did not deal with Origen . 157 He deduces from this that they might possible have discussed it before the sittings began. What also seems strange in this respect is that Pope Vigilius did not participate in any of the sittings, even though he was in Constantinople at that time on the behest of Caesar. What is of even greater concern is the fact that some of the Council papers dealing with the case of Origen have “accidentally” 158 been lost. Diekamp indicates a number of times that some of the handed down documents must have been falsified 159 , respectively that these Council documents “came to us, apart from isolated Greek pieces here and there, only in their Latin translation.” 160 Even though the official sittings of the Council did not deal with Origen , one finds in the 11. Canon of the Council of 553 A.D. the following anathema: “Whoever doesn’t curse Arius, Ennomius, Macedonius, Appollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen along with their ungodly scriptures and all other heretics, cursed by the Catholic and Apostolic Church and by the previously mentioned four holy synods, who have and had the same attitude, to persist to the end with their ungodliness, let him be anathema.” Mansi, see P. 383 and also DS 433, Neuner-Roos (see P. 136) lists all the Canons of the 5. Ecumenical Council in its German translation, but without any reason whatsoever leaves Canon 11 156 Mansi, see P. 395-399 157 Diekamp, see P. 4, 79, 80f. 158 Diekamp, see P. 3 159 Diekamp, see P. 70 and 136 160 Diekamp, see P. 67