Questions
A. How does Spiritism analyzes the portrayal of the end of times as presented by Jesus?
B. What is the meaning of the phrase “Your sons and daughters shall prophesy”?
C. Is there such as thing as The last judgment?
Text for reading
1136. Equal latitude to evolve is given by God to all creatures, without exception. The actual destruction of a world, causing the destruction of the body, would not cause any interruption in the spirit’s evolutionary progress. Such is the consequence of the plurality of worlds and existences.
1137. According to this interpretation, the description Last Judgment is not precise, since spirits pass through similar judgments at each renewal of the worlds they inhabit, until they have reached a certain degree of purification. Therefore, there is no Last Judgment per se, but rather general judgments every time there is a partial or total renewal of world populations, and which give rise to the great spirit emigrations and immigrations.”
1138. Signs of the times - The time set by God has come – we are told everywhere – in which great events will occur for the regeneration of humankind. In what sense must these prophetic words be understood? For disbelievers they hold no importance; to them they are only the expression of a childish, unfounded belief. For the majority of believers, they contain something mystical and supernatural that seems to be the precursor of the upheaval of the laws of nature.
1139. Both interpretations are equally erroneous, however: the former, because it implies the denial of Providence; the latter, because such words do not declare the disruption of nature’s laws, but rather their fulfillment.
1140. Everything in creation is in harmony. Everything reveals a foresightedness that cannot contradict itself either in the smallest matters or in the greatest. Thus, right from the start we must discard all ideas of capriciousness as irreconcilable with the divine wisdom. Second, if our age has been designated for the fulfillment of certain things, it is because, in the evolution of the whole, they have their reason for being.
1141. Thus stated, we will say that our globe, like everything else, is subject to the law of progress. It progresses physically through the transformation of the elements that compose it, and morally through the purification of the incarnate and discarnate spirits that populate it. Both of these areas of progress accompany each other and march in parallel, because the perfecting of the habitation is in keeping with the perfecting of the inhabitant.
1142. Physically, science has proven that the globe has undergone transformations that have made it habitable for beings more and more perfected. Morally, humankind progresses by the development of intelligence, moral sense and the softening of customs. While the improvement of the globe occurs under the control of physical forces, humans participate in it through the efforts of their intelligence. They cleanse unwholesome regions, render communication easier and make the earth more productive.
1143. This dual progress occurs in two ways: one is slow, gradual and imperceptible; the other by changes that are more abrupt, each one producing a more rapid ascendant movement which, by clear signs, marks out the progressive periods of humankind.
1144. These movements, subordinated in the details to human free will, are somewhat fatalistic as a whole, for they are subject to laws such as those that operate in the germination, growth and ripening of plants. This is why the progressive movement is sometimes partial, that is, limited to one particular race or nation, whereas at other times it is more generalized.
1145. Human progress, therefore, is effectuated in virtue of a law; thus, since all the laws of nature are the eternal work of divine wisdom and foresight, everything that is the effect of these laws is the result of God’s will – not an accidental or capricious will, but an immutable one. Consequently, when humankind is mature enough to ascend a degree, one can say that the time set by God has come, just as one can say that in such and such season the time has come for the ripening of the fruit and the harvest.
1146. From the fact that the progressive movement of humankind is unavoidable because it is part of nature, it does not follow that God is indifferent toward it and that after having established the laws, becomes inactive, leaving things to continue by themselves. Undoubtedly, God’s laws are eternal and immutable, but only because God’s will itself is eternal and constant, and because God’s thought uninterruptedly animates all things. God’s thought penetrates everything and is the intelligent and ongoing power that keeps everything harmonious. If this thought were to cease even for an instant, the universe would be like a clock without a regulating pendulum.
1147. Thus, God incessantly watches over the execution of the divine laws, and the spirits who populate space are God’s ministers charged with the details according to the attributions corresponding to their degree of advancement.
1148. The universe is, at the same time, an unfathomable mechanism managed by a no-less unfathomable number of intelligences, an immense government in which each intelligent being has its part in the action under the watchfulness of the supreme Lord, whose single will maintain unity everywhere. Under the rule of this vast regulating power everything moves, everything functions in perfect order. What to us seem like disturbances are partial or isolated movements that appear irregular to us only because our perception is limited. If we could take in the whole, however, we would see that such irregularities are only apparent and that they harmonize within the whole.
1149. Up till now, humankind has made incontestable progress. Due to their intelligence, humans have achieved results never reached before regarding the sciences, arts and material well-being. There is much progress yet to be made, however: they have yet to make charity, fraternity and solidarity reign amongst them in order to assure their moral well-being. They could achieve this neither with their beliefs nor their antiquated institutions – remnants from another epoch and good for a certain time – which were sufficient for a transitory state, but which, after having given what they could, would be a stopping point today.
1150. What people need nowadays is not only the development of their intelligence but the elevation of their sentiment, and for this they must do away with everything that incites their selfishness and pride. Such is the age into which we must enter henceforth, and which will mark one of the principal phases of humankind. This phase, which is being prepared at this very moment, is the indispensable supplement to the previous state, just as adulthood is the supplement to youth. It can thus be foreseen and predicted beforehand, and for that reason we state that the time set by God has come.
1151. This time, however, will not entail a partial change, a renewal limited to a certain area, people or race. It will be a universal movement that will operate in the sense of moral progress. A new order of things is on the verge of being established, and those most opposed to it are working for it without even realizing it. Rid of the dregs of the old world and composed of more-purified members, the future generation will find itself animated by different ideas and sentiments than the present generation, which is disappearing by leaps and bounds.
1152. The old world will be dead and will live in history, like the Medieval Era with its barbaric customs and superstitious beliefs.
1153. Furthermore, everybody knows how much the current state of affairs leaves to be desired. After having more or less exhausted the material well-being that is the product of intelligence, one realizes that the supplement to this well-being can only be found in moral development. The more one advances, the more one senses what is still lacking, but one cannot define it clearly. It is the effect of the inner work operating for regeneration; one has desires and aspirations, which are like the presentiment of a better state.
1154. However, a change that is as radical as the one being prepared cannot be accomplished without commotion – there will be an unavoidable struggle of ideas. From this conflict temporary disturbances will inevitably arise until the ground is leveled and equilibrium is reestablished. Consequently, it is from the struggle of ideas that the foretold grave events will emerge, and not from purely physical cataclysms or catastrophes. Widespread cataclysms were the result of the earth’s formation; nowadays, it is no longer the entrails of the planet that are being stirred up, but those of humankind.
Answer Key
A. How does Spiritism analyzes the portrayal of the end of times as presented by Jesus?
This portrayal of the end of times is obviously an allegory, as were most of those that Jesus presented. The powerful images they contain were of such a nature as to make an impression on still-undeveloped intelligences. In order to impress such unrefined imaginations, strongly colored portrayals were necessary. Jesus mainly addressed the common folk, the less enlightened people incapable of comprehending metaphysical abstractions and grasping the subtlety of forms. In order to reach their hearts, he had to speak to their eyes with the help of physical symbols, and to their ears through forceful language. Nonetheless, under such allegories great truths are hidden.
First, there is an announcement about all kinds of calamities that will strike humankind and decimate it, calamities resulting from the supreme conflict between good and evil, faith and disbelief, progressive and regressive ideas. Second, there is the announcement concerning the spread, throughout the earth, of the Gospel restored to its original purity, and finally, the announcement of the kingdom of the good, which will include universal peace, fraternity and the spreading of the evangelical moral code put into practice by all nations.
That truly will be the kingdom of Jesus, for he will preside over its implementation, and people will live under the aegis of his law. It will be a kingdom of happiness, because he said, “After those days of affliction will come days of joy.”
When will such things come true? “No one knows,” said Jesus, “not even the Son.” However, when the time does come, people will be forewarned by precursory signs. These signs will be neither in the sun nor in the stars, but in the social state of affairs and in phenomena that are more moral than physical, and which can be partly deduced from his allusions.
By leading to an improvement in people’s moral state, the widespread practice of the Gospel will, by itself, usher in the kingdom of the good and will cause the collapse of the kingdom of evil. Thus, it is the end of the old world, the world governed by prejudice, pride, selfishness, fanaticism, disbelief, greed and all the evil passions that Christ alluded to when he said, “When the Gospel is preached throughout the earth, then the end will come.” However, that end will precipitate a conflict, and it is from such conflict that the evils that he foresaw will come.” (Genesis, Ch. XVII, items 47 to 58)
B. What is the meaning of the phrase “Your sons and daughters shall prophesy”?
This is unmistakably the announcement of the popularization of mediumship, which is being revealed in our day in individuals of all ages of both sexes and all walks of life. Consequently, it is a prediction of the universal manifestation of spirits, because without spirits there would be no mediums. Thus, it is stated that this will happen in the last days, and since we have not come to the end of the world, but rather to the time of its regeneration, one must understand those words to mean the last days of the moral world that comes to an end. (Genesis, Ch. XVII, items 59 to 61)
C. Is there such as thing as The last judgment?
No. The doctrine of a single, universal final judgment putting an end to humankind is repugnant to reason in that it implies the inactivity of God during the eternity that preceded earth’s creation and during the eternity that will follow its destruction.
Morally, a final judgment with no possibility of appeal is irreconcilable with the infinite goodness of the Creator, whom Jesus ceaselessly presents to us as a good Father, who always leaves the way open to repentance, and who is always ready to embrace the prodigal son. If Jesus had understood the judgment in that sense, he would have contradicted his own words.
Therefore, there is no Last Judgment per se, but rather general judgments every time there is a partial or total renewal of world populations, and which give rise to the great spirit emigrations and immigrations. (Genesis, Ch. XVII, items 62 to 67)
