Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev 3:12-13 KJV).
Ask yourself the question: What is this passage of scripture saying to us? What is meant by the words: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out". Setting aside for a moment the fact that if Yeshua was truly God, he would never call God, his God -- i.e., "I make a pillar in the temple of my God" -- most Christian Bible commentaries will remark on the statement with respect to the "pillar" being built in honor of the one who overcomes, but no commentary that I have ever seen has yet to offer a suitable explanation of the words "and he shall go no more out". Why? It is important that we understand why these words are totally ignored by modern-day Christian doctrine? The answer is because this is one of the many verses in scripture that is very difficult to understand from our present-day doctrinal perspective.
This same verse in the New American Standard Bible reads: "and he will not go out from it anymore" -- and in the New International Version it reads: "Never again will he leave it". The problem which these words pose to the modern Christian is the fact that there can only be one interpretation to these words -- and because of the implications of this very clear interpretation, biblical commentaries simply refuse to speculate on the meaning. What the words of Yeshua clearly demonstrate to us beyond any doubt is that there is a coming in and going out of the Kingdom of God, that will continue until one has fulfilled the requirement to "…overcometh".
In the first place we must recognized that in order to return and go out again, we would have had to exist preceding either going in and going back out. This concept, which is very clearly portrayed throughout the Bible in the form of predestination and Divine Providence, creates a problem for the modern church which continues to embrace the thinking of the Emperor Justinian and Darwin. Why? Because it embraces the idea which is known as the pre-existence of the soul -- a reality that represents a great void in our understanding today, and yet is fundamental to even beginning to get a right sense of what is being said in this biblical statement.
From the perspective of the beliefs of the first century Christians, this biblically based teaching pertains to the pre-existent soul of man. In recognition of this fact -- i.e., that Yeshua was speaking of the pre-existent soul -- the biblical text does not say how many times the soul of man has entered the kingdom; and neither does it say how many times the soul of man has gone out. The words "go no more out -- go out… anymore -- never again… leave it", demonstrates that upon entering the Kingdom it is not our first time that we have been there. Further, it is also clear that if the believer has not overcome, and fulfilled the requirements defined by the term "…overcometh", in order to stay and have a pillar built in their honor, they will again go back out. The Bible commentaries that we use today are silent on this teaching because we are unable to even conceive of the question: Go out where? Perhaps this can best be answered by quoting the man who many early Christians believed to be the greatest theologian and scholar in the history of the church -- the third century Church Father Origen, who wrote: "Every soul... comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life" (Origen, De Principiis).
These words of the Christian Church Father Origen are very much an affirmation with respect to the belief in reincarnation in it purest and most biblical form. Yeshua quite plainly taught that: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48 RSV). Today, a great portion of Christian doctrine that we have inherited from the Church of Constantine -- carnal doctrines that cloud our understanding of Yeshua's true teachings -- comes in the form of dogma attempting to explain away why Yeshua did not really mean what he said, and attempts to prove why man can never be perfect. Yet, the continual theme in the Epistles of Paul is that only those who have attained the necessary degree of spiritual perfection are able to move beyond the milk of the Gospel, and truly understand the Sacred Secrets of God.
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