does anyone out there know if the very early church in latin believe in reincarnation please help?

Question

as an important teacher is trying to tell me this really happend and the early church belived it then held a great meating and threw out the idea please help jo

Answer 1

There were numerous theological strands. Reincarnation wasn't really a central issue being debated - the central issues dealt with the nature of jesus (man or god) and the relationship of christianity to judaism (whether or not the jewish religious laws needed to be followed).

The first council of Nicaea in 325 CE codified "authorized" theology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Christianity

Answer 2

This idea come from the belief that Jesus was probably an Essene. His brother James certainly was an Essene, and it is likely that Jesus was too-it is certain he was neither a Pharisee or a Sadducee.

Now the Essenes were an ascetic group that believed in reincarnation, or more correctly, rebirth. So it is very possible that Jesus himself believed in rebirth.

However, at the Council of Constantinople around 500 years after Jesus died, the fathers of the early Church decided that people would "obey the rules" better if they believed that they had only one life on this earth, i.e. "no second chances." Therefore, they ANATHEMATIZED the belief of rebirth/reincarnation, meaning that they made it illegal for a Christian to believe in it.

But that doesn't change the fact that all the earlier ones did, so it needed to be struck down for better "obedience."

Answer 3

If the early church found reincarnation as heresy and threw out false doctrine - absolutely.

Answer 4

It was never a church doctrine. There could have been people in the church who believed in it, but their ideas would have been rejected as heresy.

Answer 5

Only if they were Essenes.