I have a prediction to make.

A profoundly significant shift in our cultural perspective is about to happen. It will occur within the span of a single generation. Before our children are dead, it will be over, completed, for better or for worse.

And it is up to us, up to this group, up to all who hear this message, to make the difference as to whether it will be for better or for worse.

Of what do I speak? The reincarnation debate is about to end.

Reincarnation research will not go away. Past-Life Regression will not go away. More and more documented evidence will be compiled of people whose detailed memories of past lives have been checked and rechecked, validated and confirmed as fact. The evidence for reincarnation will become more and more clear, and soon its weight will be so overwhelming as to be undeniable and irrefutable by any reasonable person. Like public acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution, the shift in the public's opinion will be gradual but steady, until one day, a whole generation is born who know of the time when people questioned the doctrine of reincarnation merely as a chapter in the history books.

What's the problem with this?

It will be the birth of a new consciousness of truth within our society, and all births are potentially dangerous, especially for the mother. The "mother" who will be giving birth to this new consciousness will be Western culture, Western civilization (remember - the vast majority of the rest of the world's cultures already believe in reincarnation).

But in the West, the dominant belief, the foundation of the very culture, is Christianity, and there the cry is "resurrection, not reincarnation!". This cry is being heard more and more often lately, ever louder and more desperate, as Christian culture collectively begins to sense the shift in the tides of scientific evidence towards reincarnation. Christianity is getting palpably uneasy; after all, it has had some very unpleasant experiences along these same lines in recent centuries. It suffered huge embarrassment by insisting for way too long that the sun revolved around the earth, and finally had to stand up red-faced and admit its mistake. And virtually the same thing happened more recently with the evolution issue, in which even Pope John Paul II recently found himself forced to admit that "evolution is more than just a theory".

But the reincarnation issue cuts far deeper to the core of Christianity, and unless it sees any other way out, it will see itself as backed into a corner by this apparent frontal attack, and end up dying cruelly and miserably on the battlefield, scratching and biting the whole way.

Christianity sees reincarnation as deadly and dangerous, its "mortal enemy". It has fought against reincarnation since the early centuries of the Church, fighting against Gnosticism, and then Manichaeism, and then Cartharism, all of which were Christian sects which did integrate reincarnation into their teachings. These battles went on from the beginnings of the Church all the way up to the 13^th century.

Why is Christianity so afraid of reincarnation that it waged all-out war against it for over 1300 years? Simple - reincarnation is not thought to be compatible with a belief in resurrection, and the Church is founded upon resurrection as its single most fundamental belief.

Why is the Church convinced that if reincarnation is right, then resurrection is wrong?

Jesus' supreme achievement was in rising from the dead. If Jesus had not risen, there would be no Christian church today. His Resurrection is the original foundation and glorious promise of the Church; in His Resurrection, the promise is seen that all men may one day be resurrected from the dead as well. By "breaking the doors of death", the church believes, Christ made it possible for all others to also eventually be resurrected, an event which is believed to be scheduled to occur at "the end of time", during the Judgment Day scenario.

The church is firmly convinced that if reincarnation is correct, then everything, EVERYTHING, the Christian church believes in must be completely wrong. A fantasy. A mistake. If people naturally raise back up life after life, then what need have they for any concept of a "General Resurrection", or for that matter, any Savior who guarantees that resurrection? In short, the public acceptance of reincarnation could kill Christianity. It could die in childbirth.

The evidence supporting reincarnation is piling up, and the church is getting more and more nervous. Many are getting more and more uncertain; many within the church already doubt many of its most basic tenets, but see themselves as stewards devoted to their vessels, intending to go down with the ship they are already fully expecting to sink.

Christianity is in a dire predicament, and is losing courage fast. Within a generation, the battle will be fought and over, and virtually everyone expects Christianity to lose.

But it need not lose. In fact, this battle need not occur at all.

The entire conflict is based on a mistaken assumption, the result of our culture's having forgotten that Christianity was originally based on the Binary Soul Doctrine.

Christianity can be saved. This battle need not occur. Christianity is Truth, every bit as True as is reincarnation ; the two only seem incompatible because of a mistaken assumption about the nature of the soul. As soon as one plugs the Binary Soul Doctrine into the picture, one instantly sees how reincarnation and resurrection can both be true at the same time - one half of us, the spirit, reincarnates again and again, while the other half of us, the soul, does not generally arise again until it is resurrected.

The Gnostics, and perhaps the Manichaes and Carthars as well, knew that this resurrection of one's past-life selves could occur at any time, though normal spiritual development, but if not, it was certain to occur sooner or later, guaranteed to take place during the Judgment Day scenario if not before.

But be not deceived. Today we stand at a critical threshold, during which the destiny of Christianity will be decided forever. Either Christianity finds a way to incorporate our new discoveries about the validity of reincarnation, or it will perish.

To my knowledge, there is no other avenue available for Christianity to integrate reincarnation into its resurrection-based faith except that of the Binary Soul Doctrine. That of DivisionTheory.

- Peter Novak