Jesus, knowing that His teachings, although noted down by some disciples, would suffer varied interpretations and modifications, promised to send the Comforter:

In addition, I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, to be with you forever. (John, 14: 16).

But that Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I have told you. (John, 15: 26).

I still have much to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. However, when that Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you what is to come. (John, 16: 12 and 13).

From Jesus' statements, it is clearly seen that the promised Comforter would not be a person. It would be a message, recalling His teachings and bringing new information to Humanity. However, this message would necessarily have to be disseminated by an agent, by a Missionary, incarnated on Earth.

However, what should be the profile of this Missionary? It would have to be someone very cultured, practical and objective. Someone able to encourage a return to the simplicity and objectivity of the teachings and examples of Jesus, removing them from the solemnities of the temples and returning them to common life, to human coexistence, according to His recommendations, recorded by two evangelists: Go, behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Luke, 10:3) Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (Matthew, 10:16)

The Missionary in charge of spreading this new message had to be someone very spiritual, but not a mystic who thought and acted outside the objectivity of human life. He could not even be a leader already committed to any religion, as happened with Luther, who was a Catholic priest when he rebelled against the interpretation of the New Testament and against the interpretations and religious practices of Catholicism, founding Protestantism.

Nor could this Missionary be a mystic, isolated, ensconced in a religious temple, just repeating prayers, presiding over liturgical acts amid rituals and songs of adoration and praise. He should be someone who lives with people on a daily basis, knowing the challenges of the struggle in living together in society. He should be someone capable of presenting guidelines to face these challenges, within the ethical and moral parameters outlined by Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels.

The Missionary in charge of fulfilling the promise of Jesus was incarnated in France, in Lyon on October 3, 1804. He was the son of a Catholic family, with a tradition in the area of Law, who sent him to Switzerland, to Iverdum, still a child, in order to study in a secular school, directed by one of the most distinguished and competent educators the world has known: Pestalozzi.

Then a question arises: Why would a Catholic family send a French boy to a foreign school that, although non-denominational, was oriented within the religious principles recorded in the New Testament, whose director, deeply Christian, was a follower of the Reformation?

Because knowledge of the facts reported in the New Testament, – an essential basis for fulfilling his mission to bring the Promised Comforter – was not freely accessible to the religious public, except in the lay or Protestant environment. In the Catholic milieu, handling and study of the New Testament were restricted to priestly circles only.

In Iverdum, the future Missionary would have a place to find out directly about the spiritual guidelines taught and lived by Jesus, recorded in this part of the Bible. Directly reading this book, since he was a boy, the young Frenchman knew Jesus supporting, teaching, healing, consoling, everywhere he went, talking about God, love, charity, fraternity, while healing the wounded and crippled of body and soul, almost always far from temples and religious ceremonies.

Thus, the boy came to know Jesus as an educator of souls, teaching and acting in practical life, far from the ecclesiastical, mystical environment created by Roman Catholicism and other Christian conceptions. This was the preparation of the Missionary, who would be the promoter of the Consoler promised by Jesus. In adulthood, back in France, he dedicated himself to teaching for thirty years, an activity in which he became notable not only as a teacher in various sectors, but also as the author of many works, especially those focused on education. He published more than a dozen books, revealing himself as not only a teacher, but also a profound educator, as a highly religious man without being a mystic.

An astute spirit, of superior intelligence, at the age of 50, he was invited to participate in meetings in which the communication of Spirits was supposed to take place. This fact was not entirely strange to him given the knowledge he had of the exchange with the Spiritual World recommended by the Apostle Paul: Follow charity and zealously seek spiritual gifts, but especially that of prophesying. (I Co, 14).

Understanding the need to apply Jesus' teachings to practical life, outside the temples, the Missionary submitted to the Superior Spirits questions that had arisen over the nineteen centuries of evolution that human society had known. Human intelligence had worked wonders. The questions were different, because intelligence had produced true prodigies in all human activities. The world had changed. In the religious environment, activities that did not exist in the time of Jesus were introduced. For this reason, this new message should lead people back to the simplicity, objectivity and, above all, the spirituality of Jesus' message, removing it from temples and religious solemnities, taking it to everyday life, according to the Master's examples when He left one of His most valuable teachings on the Mount, which was recorded as the Sermon on the Mount.

In the study of the New Testament, as a young man, he understood, through the teachings and examples of Jesus, that religion is for life, to be experienced in all places, at all times and not just during worship in so-called holy places. In that book, he also found the recommendation of prayer at home, away from rituals and religious solemnities practiced inside temples:

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. (Matthew, 6:6)

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions, like the Gentiles, who think that they will be heard for their many words. (Matthew, 6:7)

Thus, from childhood, he saw Jesus teaching and acting directly in practical life, far from the mystical, ecclesiastical environment created by Roman Catholicism.

In Paris, Professor Rivail was invited to participate in a group of scholars. They carried out research on communication with Spirits. He verified that the prophetism, which he had known in the New Testament, continued, that is, that Spirits communicated as in apostolic times, according to what he had read in the First Letter of the Apostle Paul, addressed to the Corinthians, in its 14th chapter: Follow charity, and earnestly seek spiritual gifts, but especially that of prophesying.

Thus, he established fruitful dialogues with the Spirits through prophets of the modern world, which he called “mediums”. This fruitful dialogue made it possible for him to publish The Book of Spirits, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec. He did this aiming for the work to reveal itself for its own value and not shielded by his already famous name in the literary circles of Paris. In this work, he addresses and clarifies numerous teachings of Jesus that had not been the object of study and application to life by scholars of various religions, leaving them only in the abstract field of theology.

With the knowledge drawn from the New Testament, the Missionary found numerous secure foundations to present to the modern world the doctrine of successive lives, reincarnation, proclaimed by the Master himself on several occasions, as in this statement to the disciples, referring to John the Baptist: Because all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. In addition, if you are willing to accept it, this is the Elijah who was to come. (Matt. 11:13 and 14).

Among many rescues of actions from the apostolic times, there is the pass, named in the New Testament as “the laying on of hands”, a practice carried out by Jesus and recommended by him: ... and they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark, 16:18).

Thus, it can be seen that it was up to this Missionary to remove the teachings of Jesus from the eminently emotional field in which theologians confined them. He demonstrated that the Master spoke to the heart, using a religious discourse based on reason, as can be seen in statements such as this : And which of you is the man who, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? And asking him for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask him? (Mat, 7:9 to 11).

The Comforter came not to combat the interpretations assumed by the various religious currents that had formed based on particular interpretations of Jesus' teachings, but to restore the essence of his teachings and examples to their original purity and simplicity.

He came to remove from the ecclesiastical, mystical environment, from the temples, the teachings and practices of Jesus. He launched them into life, in accordance with the answer given at the edge of Jacob's well by the Master to the Samaritan woman. She had asked Him if he should adore the God in Jerusalem, in the temple: ... neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

Based on the broadest and deepest dialogue between the Material World and the Spiritual World, the Missionary - sent by Jesus - published in 1860 the definitive edition of The Book of Spirits, under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec. He did this because, as we have already said, he did not want his work to be sheltered under his name, already famous in French academic circles: Prof. Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail.