We have covered a lot of ground, and made a number of propositions. We are not attempting  to be dogmatic, even though we feel cautiously certain in our own minds that we had a pre-existent life. [Read more…]

In the last number, we saw how George Ritchie had been granted a “glimpse behind the curtain.” His experience was in 1943, but he had kept the details very close to his chest for many years, finally writing his book in 1978. It was becoming more commonplace at that time to read stories of those who had experienced a “close encounter” with death. [Read more…]

George Ritchie writes – “It was the end of September 1943, and I was on my way out to Camp Berkeley, Texas, for basic training. I was 20 years old, tall, skinny, a pretty typical kid of those days, full of idealism about winning the war and whipping the Nazis. The only thing I hadn’t been prepared to fight was dust.” [Read more…]

Our third quote comes from PHAEDO, the “beloved disciple” of Socrates, and the dialogue is the last before Socrates is condemned to death for holding to TRUTH. We enter the discussion at the point where Socrates has been asking his disciples about the discernment of EQUALITY. His present conversation is with one by the name of SIMMIAS. [Read more…]

Some of our readers may wonder why we should have considered these ancient Greek philosophers at all, seeing that, (as evangelicals have been taught) Paul condemned them in his letters, particularly that to the Colossians. But the trouble arises from ignorance, rather than truth. [Read more…]

The last story in Plato’s Republic, which the author relates to his friend Glaucon, concerns a certain hero from the wars, one Er, son of Armenius, aPamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. [Read more…]

The very word “Apocrypha” causes the minds of many believers to seize up. Immediately they think they are being asked to look at something as bad as a volume of Black Magic Curses. [Read more…]

Hastings Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, page 239, has the following entry.

Clement wrote, “The Male is Christ, and the Female is the Church. And the Book and the Apostles plainly declare that the Church existed not now for the first time, but comes from on high, for she was spiritual, as our Jesus also was spiritual, but is manifested in the last days that He might save us.”  (14:1-2) This points to an ante-mortal relationship between Christ and the Church, during which Christ was chosen and foreordained to become the future sacrifice for His brethren. (1 Peter 1:19-20) [Read more…]

Our second excursion into the thoughts and writings of Origen may best be summarised by the following extract from Hosea Ballou’s book, entitled “The Ancient History of Universalism.” This book was first published in 1828, but more recently re-printed by the “Saviour of All Fellowship.” [Read more…]

Our first contender for pre-existence must surely be Origen, (c.185 – c.254 A.D.) that much-maligned defender of the faith, who held a significant teaching position in the Church at Alexandria, and was considered to be the greatest theologian of the early Christian Church. [Read more…]