We continue today the methodical study of “Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism” by Allan Kardec. The first edition was published in August 1, 1865. This work is part of the Kardecian Pentateuch. The answers to the questions suggested for discussion are at the end of the text below.
Questions for discussion
A. Are there inconsistencies in the doctrine of the Church about demons?
B. According to Spiritism, are there demons?
C. Do Spirits have a task in the work of Nature?
D. What is the cause of Spiritist manifestations in the opinion of the Church?
Reading Text
79. According to Spiritism, neither angels nor demons are distinct entities, because the creation of intelligent beings is only one. These embodied beings form the Humanity that settles on Earth and other globes. (First Part, Chapter IX, section 20.)
80. According to the doctrine of the Church, demons were created good, but they became evil due to their disobedience. According to Spiritism, demons are imperfect Spirits, capable of regeneration, and they are placed at the base of the scale, where they develop until they reach the higher levels. (First Part, Chapter IX, section 21.)
81. The common doctrine regarding the nature of angels, souls and demons, not accepting the law of progress, but realizing the existence of beings of diverse evolutionary degrees, concluded that they would be the product of many other special creations. The same way as God created the souls, He made the angels. Therefore, it made of God a father who gives everything to some of his children, while to others he imposes the harshest work. (First Part, Chapter IX, section 23).
82. No wonder that for such a long time men found justification for such preferences, while they themselves used it in relation to their children, establishing birthrights and other privileges of birth. Could such men believe that they were more incorrect than God? Today, however, ideas have widened, and man is able to see things in a clearer way, and he has acquired accurate notions of justice. Wishing to have justice for himself, and not always finding it on Earth, he wants at least to find the most perfect justice in Heaven. This is the reason why it is against his reasoning to accept any doctrine in which the Divine Justice does not shine in all the fullness of its pureness. (First Part, Chapter IX, section 23).
83. The doctrines of the devil, prevailing for so long, had their powers so exaggerated that, so to speak, they made God be forgotten. Everywhere the finger of Satan could be seen, being enough that the fact observed surpassed the limits of human power. Even the good things, the most useful discoveries, especially those that could shake the existing ignorance and widen knowledge were considered many a times as devilish works. (First Part, Chapter X, section 2).
84. Spiritist phenomena of our days, more and more widespread and studied in the light of reason and with the aid of Science, confirmed the involvement of occult intelligences, however, working in accordance with the Laws of Nature and revealing, through their action, a new power and laws hitherto ignored. However, the question reduces to how can theses intelligences be classified, are they souls of the dead, angels, or demons? (First Part, Chapter X, section 2).
85. Of the three categories of angels, admitted by the Church, the first one is exclusively occupied with Heaven, the second governs the Universe, and the third, the Earth. Therefore, it is in this last category that we find the guardian angels entrusted with the protection of each individual. (First Part, Chapter X, section 6).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. Are there inconsistencies in the doctrine of the Church about demons?
Yes, there are numerous inconsistencies. Here are some of them:
1st - If Satan and the demons were angels they were perfect, so how could they, being perfect, fail to the point of ignoring the authority of the God in whose presence they were? The conclusion is obvious: God wanted to create perfect beings, because He wanted to favor them with all the gifts, but He made a mistake. However, according to the Church, God is infallible and makes no mistakes.
2nd - Neither the Church nor the sacred texts explain the cause of the rebellion of the angels towards God and just point out as cause of the problem their reluctance to recognize the future mission of Christ. What value can this precise and detailed picture have? Which source did they call on to infer whether in fact such words and even simple conversations were uttered, so clearly?
3rd - The words that the Church attributes to Lucifer reveal a remarkable ignorance in an Archangel. Indeed, how could Lucifer have said that he would set up residence above the stars, dominating the highest clouds? (Heaven and Hell, Part First, Chapter IX, sections 9 to 19).
B. According to Spiritism, are there demons?
In the sense that the Church gives to that word, there are no demons. Better said, angels and demons are not separate entities. They are solely Spirits, that when embodied, form the Humanity that inhabits the Earth and other spheres, and that, when they are free from the material body, they constitute the spiritual world or Spirits, and thus populate the space. God created them perfect and gave them a goal of perfection with the respective happiness that flows from it. Therefore, in all levels there is ignorance and knowledge, goodness and badness. In the inferior levels, Spirits can still be found with a deep tendency to evil and enjoy it. They can be called demons, since they are capable of harming. Spiritism does not call them demons because this would imply accepting the idea that there was a distinct creation from the human kind, of beings with an essentially bad nature and eternally doomed to evil and incapable of any progress for the good. Those, whom we call angels, earned their graduation, passing, like all the others, through the common path by which we will all pass. (Ibid, First Part, Chapter IX, sections 20 and 21).
C. Do Spirits have a task in the work of Nature?
Yes, when they arrive at a certain degree of purity, the Spirits have missions according to their progress; thus, they fill all the functions assigned to different categories of angels. (Ibid, First Part, Chapter IX, section 22).
D. What is the cause of Spiritist manifestations in the opinion of the Church?
The Church attributes Spiritist manifestations to the intervention of demons. (Ibid., Part First, Chapter X, sections 4 to 6).
