Reincarnation… Again

SAT., SEPT. 1, 1984, 6:41 AM
FARM, STUDY

You have an early teaching that deals with this idea, and later ones have touched on it, but you have introduced it early this term in your Death class and it is therefore “in your mind”… so hear as I comment on it, yet again. You can compare the two when this one is completed and see if I have been reasonably consistent. (Always remember that I don’t have to be what you would call consistent.)

“Reincarnation” is a perfectly good word, but it has unfortunate connotations for many Christians. Though I obviously can use the word, in a Christian context I would prefer an expansion of the concept of eternal life, which is familiar as a positive, desirable, attainable condition.

One obvious difficulty is that the Scriptures tend to say that eternal life was “created” because of Me, as Jesus, implying that it did not exist before that specific time less than 2,000 years ago. Just as I showed you, recently, that grace and forgiveness were factors in earth life before My incarnation as Jesus, so eternal life was functioning from the beginning of creation. I didn’t create it magically, as Jesus. I simply fulfilled what was only dimly known.

The Christ spirit obviously existed from the “very beginning.” John commences his Gospel with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God…” This is true, but it doesn’t make the situation crystal clear. John’s message, of course, is that I, Jesus, was the Word and that I was from the beginning, both a part of and apart from God. (The birth tale was of minor interest to John.)

All right, we’re getting down to the crucial question now: did I incarnate in the earth before I came as Jesus? The answer is not as clear as you might want it to be… or is sufficiently duplicitous to be non-threatening. I was around in the earth as Spirit and, as the Scriptures tell, I made Myself known to a number of persons… Adam, Noah, Moses, Daniel, and all of the prophets. Still, I did not occupy a particular body until I did that as Jesus of Nazareth.

But hear also that I joined the spirit that was Jesus, to become Jesus the Christ. The birth story tells that Jesus was born from the union of Me, the Holy Spirit, and Mary. The spirit that she “contributed” was one that had had a good deal of earth experience and had the developed capacity to become the Christ and live the earth life that was necessary, according to My plan.

The spirit that is fundamental to the human, Bob Russell, has eternal life. (The law of thermodynamics applies equally to the realm of spirit in this “system”… spirit is not created and destroyed, but is transformed only.) My Spirit can produce individual spirits that live in many forms, and then, through the growth process, eventually return to union with Me.

Some humans, like yourself, have had some previous lives in the earth. Some have had many, and others, few. Other humans have experienced life in other realms, some many, others few. Some of these have had much earth experience, in some disembodied form, while others are new to the earth.