Eurípedes Kúhl

Second Advent of Christ

A second advent of Christ may well occur,
as He himself stated categorically

Regarding the second advent of Christ, Allan Kardec in the "Genesis" initially highlights two passages of the Gospel:

1^st - In Matthew, Chapter XVI, verses 24 to 28:

Then said Jesus unto His disciples: If any of you wish to follow my footsteps, he must deny himself, take his cross and follow me. Because, whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it again (...), since the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works. I tell you, in fact, that some of those who are here will not suffer death, without having seen the Son of man in His kingdom.

2^nd - In Mark, Chapter XIV, verses 61 and 62:

(...) The High Priest still interrupted Him and said, “Are you the Christ, the Son of God blessed forever?

Jesus answered him: I am, and you will see one day the Son of Man seated at the right of the majesty of God, coming on the clouds of Heaven. 

Based on these two texts, Kardec says:

Jesus announces His second advent, but He does not say he will return to Earth in a carnal body, or that He will embody the Comforter. He presents Himself as coming as a Spirit, in the glory of his Father, to judge the merit and the demerit of every man according to his works when the time arrives.

Whereas in the dawn of the third millennium many are the Christians, who misinterpret some Gospel passages, particularly the one copied above, I, humbly and prudently, present some reflections found in Spiritism, which perhaps will clarify all doubts regarding your understanding. 

Jesus never left us, and He would not leave us 

The quoted texts form a large panel, and its Spiritist synthesis, always in accordance with Kardec, can be as follows: 

a. The immortal life is the one of the Spirit – the physical life is ephemeral. It is therefore appropriate to care for the first one, and the second one with detachment (the material one);

b. The fact of Jesus having come with the angels to acknowledge (merits) implies the application, by the Spiritual Plan of the Divine Law of Justice, which will have repercussion on Earth, where now live the good along with the bad; such application shall aim to separate them, in such a way that:

-      The good (due to their credits acquired through their virtues) will receive a passport to remain on Earth, by then regenerated (regeneration planet is the one where good overcomes evil);

-    The wicked will compulsorily go to more backward worlds than ours, to where they will take progress, when they will redeem themselves; 

c. A second coming of Jesus leads us initially to three reflections:

1st - one second advent of Christ may well occur. He categorically said it. So what would prevent such an occurrence?

2nd - But for non-Christians, Jesus would not be the "Christ" (the Anointed One, the Messiah) which, would not even have come the first time. Thus, in the current religious ground level, an eventual return of Jesus, like the first time, at least for many, likely He will not be considered to be the Messiah. As we see, here there is a clash of faiths...

3rd – For most Christians (Spiritists in particular), Jesus will not return because ... He never left us, nor would leave us. They rely on the statement of Christ Himself: "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). 

The issue "return of Jesus" should be treated with caution

For my part, not considering the 2nd reflection, the 1st and 3rd harmonize and both one and the other are feasible. Moreover, the issue regarding the "return of Jesus" should be viewed with great caution. To begin with, three days after the crucifixion He was with the Apostles, from the Emmaus road onwards. (Luke, Chapter 24).

In addition to the considerations of Kardec, which I have summarized above, I gathered the four other Spiritist points of view, very short, indeed, showing that the subject does not allow long and large dissertations…

Here they are:

1^st - In "Practical and Doctrinal Sessions of Spiritism," Aurelio A. Valente, Chapter IX, pages 204 and 205, Ed 1937, FEB, RJ/RJ:

"Jesus will descend in all His glory, leading the phalanx of Spirits elected by the Lord. According to the Scriptures, He came among the Hebrews to restore the Kingdom of God, but was not recognized because they expected the reign of men ".

2^nd - In "Allan Kardec" by Zeus Wantuil and Francisco Thiesen, Vol III, page 85, 2nd Ed, 1982 FEB, RJ/RJ:

"(...) the coming of Jesus, announced in the Gospel, will take place in the future when needed, at the right time, and it is not up to us to evaluate the right time".

3^rd - In "Jesus - neither God nor man" by Guillon Ribeiro, page 14, 3rd Ed, 1990 FEB, RJ/RJ:
"This second advent (Jesus) will occur when the same Jesus, as the Spirit of Truth, comes across in all His spiritual glow to the then purified and transformed planet, as its sovereign, visible to also purified and transformed creatures, to show the truth unveiled". 

Doomsday symbolizes the planetary regeneration

4^th - In "When spring returns” by Amelia Rodrigues, psychographics of Divaldo P. Franco, page 13, 6th Ed, 1997 LEAL, Salvador/BA:

"Jesus continues being the eternal spring that we all long for. To wait for His return is the wish that we must, at the moment, cherish, preparing the Earth since then for this time of life, beauty and abundance... "
Regarding this issue, Kardec, still in "Genesis", records[1]:

And when the Son of man shall come in His majesty, accompanied by all the angels, He will sit in the throne of His glory; and gathered in front of all nations, he shall separate them from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. (Matthew, Chapter XXV, vv. 31-33).

Many are the reflections of countless Spiritist authors about Doomsday, regarding this evangelical statement that defends the separation of goats to one side and sheep to another: in an objective analysis, these words express the recognition of the merits of each earthly Spirit, embodied or disembodied – to the good, the regenerated Earth, and to the evil, they shall be purged here, with a passport and compulsory emigration to primitive or even worlds of "tests and atonement," since there are millions in this Universe.

Thus, for me and I think that for other Spiritists too, "Doomsday" symbolizes the planetary regeneration, not "Final" or collective, but rather, individual, and such judgment will take place at an exact time for everybody: the opinion of several Spirits, including Kardec[2], is that (Doomsday) has begun long ago and that, in fact, as always, who defines it with unfailing accuracy is the conscience of each one, dictating him his fate. 

Jesus was never unanimity on Earth

Those who have their consciousness numbed, the infallibility of the Divine Laws, in particular the one of Justice, applies automatically, in the words of Jesus, the magnanimous, which I repeat: every one according to his works.

But still pondering on the eventual return of Jesus there is a painful reality (at least in modern times) for Christians: He is not and never was unanimity on Earth.

Let us see:

- At the time of Jesus on Earth, the world population, according to estimates of some demographers, swayed from 170 to 250 million inhabitants; I will consider the intermediary position;

- For centuries, only a minority accepted Him as the Master of the Masters;
- To this day, not to accept Christ as the Messiah, in no way prevents someone of "being good". No! To be good is not a prerogative only of the followers of any creed or religion, or even any atheists. Obviously, to follow the teachings of Jesus is the best of all possible ways to evolve the Spirit;

- In the book "Guide" (Roteiro), Chapter 9,  "O grande educandario”, Ed. 1952, FEB, RJ/RJ, psychographics of F.C. Xavier, the Spirit Emmanuel reported that for the two billion then incarnated Spirits, there were twenty billion disembodied (2:20);

- The "Spiritist Yearbook 1964", Ed IDE, Araras/SP, in an interview and in the psychographics of F.C. Xavier, the Spirit Andre Luiz reported that for the three billion incarnated Spirits “there were more than twenty billion disembodied" ( 3:21);

- So, in the first quote (Emmanuel), we have that for one embodied there were 10 disembodied (1:10) and in the second (Andre Luiz), the ratio was one to seven (1:7).
Currently (2015), the Earth has a population of over seven billion people[3]. 

Among the disembodied, how many are Christians?

The significant increase of the Earth's inhabitants, from the time of Jesus among us to the twentieth century, seems to signal that the planet Earth is the destiny of a great number of alien Spirits - this is just a guess, only a personal opinion…

- How many disembodied at the time of Jesus and today?

To imagine how many the number of disembodied at the time of Jesus (± 210 million 0f embodied) is a number hard to judge, not to say impossible. Currently, not that I know of, there has been no “updated” information, besides the already mentioned of Emmanuel and Andre Luiz.

-      And, among the disembodied, today, how many are Christians?

This is a difficult answer, absolutely impossible.

I am of the opinion that to know the number of disembodied Christians, would be additional information to our work, allowing us to assess if some Spirits had yet no contact with Jesus, since the Master was among us, approximately two thousand years ago. With this extra data, we could estimate for how many an eventual return of Jesus would be a second time and for others, it would be the first time. 

I also think about the pungent present reality: according to the "Almanac April-Society", 2015, Editora Abril, SP/SP, page 142, in 2014 there were about two billion, four hundred million Christians in the world. Now, by deduction, four billion and six hundred million embodied do not consider Him as a reference of the Messiah, Christ or "Savior" (7 to 2.4 = 4.6).

Sad Humanity…

I imagine that only when there is worthiness, there will be a new stage of Jesus among us. Then this blessed and possible advent, with the fantastic existing means of dissemination, will surely catalyze the world's attention, encouraging sublime and expressive moral improvement of Mankind, thus supporting the regeneration of this planet!