Reincarnation_Res
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RESURRECTION AND REINCARNATION<br />
M.M.NINAN<br />
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the<br />
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen."<br />
(This is considered to be the earliest seed of all later creeds. By tradition it is<br />
attributed to the twelve Apostles. The earliest written version of the creed is perhaps<br />
the Interrogatory Creed of Hippolytus (ca. A.D. 215). The current form is first found in<br />
the writings ofCaesarius of Arles (A.D542).<br />
When the Apostles’ Creed was formulated, no explicit mention was made of the<br />
soul. But this omission was intended to guard against any idea that the soul dies<br />
and is raised up again with the body. One other reason for speaking only of the<br />
resurrection of the body was to refute the first-century heresy of Hymeneus and<br />
Philetus. They claimed that biblical references to the resurrection are not concerned<br />
with the body, but only with the soul’s rising from the death of sin to the life of grace.<br />
What we have in the Creed, therefore, is a profession of belief in the real<br />
resurrection of the body.<br />
The Nicene Creed<br />
"We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; we look for a resurrection of<br />
the dead and life in the age to come. Amen" (Nicene Creed A.D. 381).<br />
Nicene Creed simply states that all men will come back to life and will have a life in<br />
the coming age.<br />
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