Questions
A. Will the obstacles against Spiritism stop its triumph?
B. Since the future might be known, does that mean life events are predetermined?
C. Does is the meaning of the phrase “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away?
Text for reading
1093. In telling his disciples, “Another will come later, which will teach you what I cannot say to you at this time,” Jesus was declaring the necessity of reincarnation. How could those men profit from a more complete teaching that would be given later on? How could they understand it if they did not live again? Jesus would have spoken a meaningless proposition if, according to common doctrine, future people would be new individuals, souls who came out of nothingness at birth.
1094. On the other hand, if we admit the fact that the disciples and the people of that time have lived again since then – that they are living again today – then the promise of Jesus is fully justified. Their intelligence, which was to develop through contact with social progress, can now grasp what it could not bear back then. Without reincarnation, Jesus’ promise would have been illusory.
1095. If it were stated that that promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost by the descent of the Holy Spirit, one would reply that the Holy Spirit inspired the disciples, opened up their intelligence and developed within them the mediumistic aptitudes that would facilitate their missions; nevertheless, it did not teach them anything beyond what Jesus himself had taught, because one finds no trace of a special teaching. Consequently, the Holy Spirit did not fulfill what Jesus had announced regarding the Consoler; otherwise, when they were alive the apostles would have elucidated everything that has remained obscure in the Gospel until today, and whose contradictory interpretation has given rise to the innumerable sects that have divided Christianity since the early centuries.
1096. The second coming of Christ - Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me; for he who wants to save his life shall lose it and he who loses his life out of love for me shall find it again. What good does it do a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? Or what can a man exchange to redeem his soul after he has lost it? For the Son of Man must come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and will give to each according to his deeds. Verily, verily I say to you, there are some of those who are here today who will not suffer death without having seen the Son of Man come in his kingdom. (Mt. 16:24-28)
1097. Then, after being led into the midst of the assembly, the high priest questioned Jesus and said to him, “Do you not respond to me regarding what has been said against you?” But Jesus remained silent and did not respond. The high priest questioned him further and said to him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the ever-blessed God?” Jesus responded to him, “I am he, and someday you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God’s majesty and coming upon the clouds of heaven. Immediately, the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further testimony do we need?” (Mk. 14:60-63)
1098. Jesus announced his second coming, but he did not say that he would return to earth in a corporeal body, or that the Consoler would be personified in him. He represented himself as having to come in spirit, in the glory of his Father, to judge merit and demerit, and to render to all according to their deeds when the times were fulfilled.
1099. This verbal promise: “there are some of those who are here today who shall not suffer death without having seen the Son of Man come in his kingdom” seems like a contradiction, since it is obvious that he did not come during the lifetime of any of those who were present at the time. However, Jesus could not have been mistaken about a prediction of that nature, and especially regarding a contemporary issue that concerned him personally.
1100. One must ask first whether his words were always transmitted faithfully, which could be doubted if we remember that he wrote nothing down; that his words were collected only after his death; and when it is seen that the same speech was nearly always reproduced by each Evangelist in different terms. This is obvious proof that they are not the textual products of Jesus himself. Furthermore, the meaning sometimes must have been altered as they passed through successive translations.
1101. On the other hand, it is certain that if Jesus had said everything that he could have said, he would have expressed himself more clearly and precisely about everything, without leaving any room for mistake – as he did regarding his moral principles – whereas he had to veil his thought regarding subjects that he did not deem appropriate to delve into. The apostles, persuaded that the present generation would witness what he had announced, interpreted Jesus’ thought according to their idea. Consequently, they wrote it down from the point of view of the present, rendering it in a more absolute manner than he himself perhaps had done. At any rate, the fact is that things did not happen as they thought they would.
1102. A crucial point that Jesus was not able to develop because the people of his time were not sufficiently prepared for ideas of that order or their consequences, but for which he set forth the principle – just as he did for all matters – was the great and important law of reincarnation.
1103. This law, studied and brought to light in our days by Spiritism, is the key to many passages in the Gospel, which, without it, seem nonsensical.
1104. It is by means of this law that one can find a rational explanation for the above-cited words, if one accepts them as textual. Since they cannot be applied to the apostles personally, it is obvious that they refer to the future reign of Christ, that is, to the time in which his teachings would be better understood and would become universal law. By telling them that some of those who are present would witness his coming, this can be understood only in the sense that they would live again at that time.
1105.The Jews, however, believed that they were going to witness everything that Jesus announced, and took his allegories literally. Moreover, some of his predictions did come true during their time, such as the destruction of Jerusalem, the misfortunes that would result from it, and the dispersion of the Jews. However, Jesus took his vision farther, and speaking in the present, he constantly made allusion to the future.
1106. Precursory signs - “You shall also hear talk of wars and rumors of war; but guard yourselves well against being troubled, for these things must occur. But this will not yet be the end, for you will see nation rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be plagues, famine and earthquakes in many places, but all these things will be only the beginning of pains.” (Mt. 24:6-8)
1107. “Then, brother shall hand brother over to death, and father his son; children shall rise up against their fathers and mothers and have them put to death. And you will be hated by everyone on account of my name; but he who perseveres until the end shall be saved.” (Mk. 13:12-13)
1108. “When you see that the abomination of desolation, which was foretold by the prophet Daniel, is within the holy place (let him who reads this understand well what he reads); then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the roof not come down to take anything from his house, and let him who is in the field not return to get his clothes. But woe to women who are pregnant or nursing in those days. Therefore, pray to God that your flight will not occur in winter or on a Sabbath, for the affliction of that time will be so great that there will have been nothing like it from the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be. And if those days had not been shortened, no one would be saved; however, those days will be shortened for the sake of the elect.” (Mt. 24:15-22)
1109. “Immediately after those days of affliction the sun will be darkened and the moon will no longer give its light; the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “Then, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will wail and moan; and they will see the Son of Man, who will come upon the clouds in the sky with great majesty. “He will send his angels, who will make heard the sound of their trumpets, and they will gather his elect from the four corners of the world, from one end of the sky to the other. “Learn a comparison taken from the fig tree. When its branches have become tender and have brought forth leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you will know that the Son of Man is near, and that he is right at the door. “Verily, verily I say unto you that this generation will not pass away as long as all these things have not been fulfilled.” (Mt. 24:29-34)
1110. “And it will be at the coming of the Son of Man as it was in the time of Noah, for as in the last days before the flood, men ate and drank, they married and their children married until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they realized the moment of the flood only when it overtook them and carried them all away; thus it shall be when the Son of Man comes.” (Mt. 24:37-39)
1111. “As for that day or hour, no one knows it – neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mk. 13:32)
1112. “Verily, verily I say unto you, you will weep and groan, and the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. When a mother gives birth, she is in pain because her time has “come; but after she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of the joy that she has brought a child into the world. Thus it is that you are now sorrowful; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (Jn. 16:20-22)
1113. “Many false prophets will appear and seduce many people; and because iniquity will increase, the charity of many will grow cold. But he who perseveres until the end will be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the earth to serve as a witness to all nations. Then, the end will come.” (Mt. 24:11-14)
Answer Key
A. Will the obstacles against Spiritism stop its triumph?
No. As for the future of Spiritism, we know that the Spirits are unanimous in affirming that its triumph is close at hand in spite of the obstacles put up against it. Such foreknowledge is easy for them, because its spread is their personal work. By directly taking part in the movement or by guiding it, they consequently know what they must do. (Genesis, Ch. XVI, item 11.)
B. Since the future might be known, does that mean life events are predetermined?
No. The ordinary incidents of private life are most often the result of the way that each person acts; thus, one can say that each of us is the artisan of his or her own future, a future that is never subject to blind fatalism independent of the individual.
The events that touch upon the overall interests of humankind are governed by Providence. When something is in God’s designs, it must be accomplished one way or another. Men and women contribute to its execution, but no one is indispensable; otherwise, God would be at the mercy of God’s creatures. If those entrusted with a mission fail to fulfill it, someone else will be assigned to it. No mission is unavoidable; individuals are always free to fulfill that which has been entrusted to them and which they have voluntarily accepted.
Thus, the final result of an event may be certain because it lies within God’s designs; however, since the details and method of execution are most frequently dependent on the circumstances and human free will, the ways and means may be contingent. Spirits can give us a sense of the whole if it is useful for us to be forewarned, but in order to foresee the actual place and date they would have to know beforehand the decision that such and such individual will make. Therefore, if this decision is not yet in that individual’s mind, then whatever it turns out to be may speed up or delay the accomplishment of the event or modify the secondary means of carrying it out, although everything will still lead to the same result. Thus it is, for example, that by means of the whole of the circumstances, spirits can foresee that an unavoidable war is close at hand or not, but without being able to foresee the exact day on which it will begin or the detailed incidents that may be modified by human will. (Genesis, Ch. XVI, items 12 to 14.)
C. Does is the meaning of the phrase “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away?
Jesus’ words shall not pass away, for they will be true for all time. His moral code will be eternal, because it contains the conditions of the good that lead men and women to their eternal destiny.
However, have his words come down to us free from interpolations and false interpretations? Have all Christian sects grasped their true spirit? Have none of them deviated from their true meaning as a result of preconceptions and of ignorance of the laws of nature? Have none of them made of them an instrument of control to serve ambition and material interests, a stepping stone, not for ascension to heaven but for ascension on the earth? Have all of them proposed as a rule of conduct the practicing of the virtues that Jesus made the express condition for salvation? Are they all exempt from the reproach he directed at the Pharisees of his time? Finally, are they all, in theory as well as in practice, the pure expression of his teachings?
Since truth is one, it cannot be found in contradictory statements, and Jesus could not have intended to give a double meaning to his words. Therefore, if different sects contradict one another, if some regard as true what others condemn as heresy, there is no possibility for all of them to possess the truth. If all had grasped the true meaning of the Gospel, they would have met on the same ground and there would have been no sects.
That which shall not pass away is the true meaning of Jesus’ words; that which shall pass away is what people have built upon the erroneous meaning they have given to those very words. (Genesis, Ch. XVII, items 24 to 26.
