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Resurrection and reincarnation. Reincarnation strengthens family ties, whereas a single life destroys them. - Instructions from the spirits: Incarnation limits. Incarnation need.

1. When Jesus came into Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples: Whom do people say that I am? They replied: Some say you are John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He asked them: What about you? Whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered: You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus replied: Blessed you are, Simon Barjonah, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but God, who is in Heaven. (Matthew 16:13-17; Mark 8:27-30.)

2. Herod heard about all that was done by Jesus. Herod was astonished, because some people said John the Baptist was risen from the dead. Some, that Elias had appeared. And others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. Then Herod said: I beheaded John the Baptist; so, who is this man, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. (Luke 9:7-9; Mark 6:14-16.)

3. The disciples asked Jesus: Why do the Scribes say that Elias must come first? Jesus answered: Elias truly shall come first and restore all things. But I tell you that Elias has already come, that they did not know him, and that they did to him whatever they desired. I will also suffer of them likewise. Then his disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. (Matthew 17:10-13; Mark 9:11-13.)

Resurrection and reincarnation

4. As these passages show, the Jews believed that the dead could live again, although ignoring the exact way how. Only the Sadducees, who believed that death finishes everything, refused this concept. On such matter, the Jews had only a fuzzy idea, because they lacked an appropriate knowledge about soul and its relationship with body. They probably named resurrection what Spiritism more properly calls reincarnation. Resurrection presumes a dead body can return to life. However, science shows that a corpse cannot return to life, especially when its elements were scattered away and reabsorbed. On the other hand, reincarnation is the return of a spirit to corporeal life through a new body, especially made for it, completely different from the previous one. According to the Gospel passages above, the Christ's disciples understood that John the Baptist was Elias. John the Baptist was known since his childhood. His parents were also known. As the body of John the Baptist was clearly different from the body of Elias, the term resurrection cannot apply to Elias. Therefore, John the Baptist could only be Elias reincarnated, not resurrected.

5. Among the Pharisees there was a man named Nicodemus, who was a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said to him: Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who comes from God, because no one can do the miracles you do, except together with God. Jesus said to him: Very truly I tell you, except if humans are born again they cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus asked him: How can people be born when they are old? Can they enter a second time into their mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered: Very truly I tell you, except if humans are born of water and spirit, they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh. What is born of spirit is spirit. Don't marvel because I say to you that you must be born again. The spirit blows where it wants. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from nor where it goes to. Everyone that is born of spirit is so. Nicodemus asked him: How can these things be? Jesus answered: Hey! You are a master of Israel! Do you ignore these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, but you people refuse our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you doubt, how will you people believe me if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:1-12.)¹

6. Many Gospel passages present the belief that the dead can revive on Earth. If this idea had been wrong, Jesus would have combatted it, as he fought against many false principles. Instead, Christ, with all his authority, endorsed this belief and made it a necessary condition by teaching: “No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again.” Moreover, he insisted by adding: Don't be surprised when I say that you need being born again.

7. The words born of water and spirit have been interpreted by some as regeneration by baptismal water. In order to understand the true sense of these words, we need to grasp the unusual meaning the word water presented in those times.

8. Ancient people had a very rudimentary knowledge of physics and chemistry. They believed the Earth rose out from the waters. On account of this, they considered water as an absolute generating element. This is why the book of Genesis says: “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. - Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. - Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear. - Let the waters abundantly produce the moving creatures that have life and the fowls that fly above the earth.”

According to this belief water represents matter, and spirit, intelligence. The words “born of water and spirit” thus mean “born of body and soul”. This is the way these words were originally understood.

Jesus confirms this interpretation and establishes a clear distinction between body and spirit when he teaches: What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. With these words Jesus explains that only the body comes from body, and that the spirit is independent.

9. We can interpret that the following words: “The spirit blows where it wishes. You hear its voice but you ignore where it comes from and where it goes to.” refer either to the Spirit of God, who grants life, or to the human soul. In the last sense we can interpret the words “you ignore where it comes from and where it goes to” as a way to express our ignorance about the spirit's past and future. If body and spirit were simultaneously created, we would know where the spirit comes from, because its beginning would be known. So, the passages above reinforce the principle of soul's preexistence and its multiple reincarnations.

10. From the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. If you want to know it, this is Elias that was for to come. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. (Matthew 11:12-15.)

11. Some may interpret the reincarnation principle as expressed by apostle John according to a purely mystical sense. But this passage from the book of Matthew is clear and prevents any doubt: THIS IS ELIAS that was for to come. There is a positive affirmation here, different from any symbolic or allegoric idea. As John the Baptist was still alive at that moment, what do the following words mean? Since the time of John the Baptist till today the Kingdom of Heaven is seized by violence. This mention of John the Baptist's name is clarified when Jesus says: “If you want to know what I am saying, this is Elias that was for to come.” Therefore, Jesus can only be referring to the time when John the Baptist was incarnated as the prophet Elias.

Jesus still adds: Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. With these words, Jesus shows he believed only a few people on that time were ready to understand that lesson.

12. Your dead people will live. Together with my dead body, they will arise. (Isaiah 26:19.)

13. If the prophet Isaiah had alluded to the spiritual life, these words would have been contradictory, because they imply an interruption of soul's life. So, in the spiritual sense, he would have better said: Your dead people still live. In the moral regeneration sense, those words deny the eternal punishment and the one-only existence concept, because they establish that the dead come back to life. In the material meaning, these words can only refer to either resurrection or reincarnation.

14. But man dies and wastes away. Yeah. A man gives up the soul, and where is he? If a man dies, will he live again? I will wait all the days of my appointed time, till my change comes. (Job 14:10-14.)

15. The concept of a new moral life that begins at the baptismal water was unknown at Job's time. So, he was not talking about baptism. If Job had referred to the spiritual life, he would have better asked Does he still live? instead of Will he live again? So, Job was not referring to the spiritual life too. Therefore, he could only be alluding to a physical bodily revival, be it through either resurrection or reincarnation.

16. As science shows, resurrection is impossible, especially when there is not any corpse anymore. So Isaiah and Job could only be referring, even unknowingly, to reincarnation, a principle that is not new.

17. Reincarnation is as senseful as the engine that, although hidden, discloses itself by the vehicle motion. Only reincarnation is able to explain where we humans came from, where we are going to and why we are on the Earth. Only reincarnation is capable to justify the many abnormalities and apparent injustices that life presents. When we link effect to cause, the reincarnation principle appears as a need, a condition and a nature's law.²

With soul's preexistence and embodiment plurality, many unintelligible Gospel passages become clear and many contradictory interpretations disappear. Reincarnation will restore the Christian teachings to their true meaning.³

Reincarnation strengthens family ties whereas a single life destroys them

18. Family ties get stronger and closer along the many reincarnations. In the spiritual world, spirits make groups or families which are bound together by affection, sympathy or similar tendencies. Glad by staying together, these spirits seek each other. Incarnation keeps them apart only for a while because, on returning to the spiritual world, they, according to their merits, can meet again, just like friends who have just returned from a travel. They often incarnate following each other, coming to the Earth to get along in the same family or group, in order to work together for their mutual evolution. Even when some of them incarnate, and others not, they keep in touch through thought. The free ones watch over the captive. The forwarder do their best to help the more backward to advance. At each physical existence, everyone achieves some evolution, even little. The less that people are bound to matter, the freer they are from selfishness, pride an violent passions. The weaker that their material interests are, the stronger and more spiritual their affections become. Their moral progress preserves their mutual esteem while they travel through the many existences in flesh.

Here we refer to the real affection, from soul to soul, the only devotion which survives after body destruction. Those that join together only by physical senses lack a motive to seek each other in the Spiritual World. The fleshly-only ties extinguish together with physical bodies. Only the spiritual relationships are long-lasting. The body is restricted to the Earth but the soul eternally exists.

People who get together aiming only at a material interest often mean little to each other. Physical death often separates them both on Earth and in space.

19. A real unity and affection between relatives often indicates the existence of a former sympathy, which has brought them together. People that have character, tastes and trends quite different from their family's are often said to be outsiders. This is someway a deep truth. Reincarnation of antipathetic or stranger spirits within a family usually works as a trial for some and a progress mean for others. This is why God allows it. Through this way, imprudent spirits little by little get better, due to the affection, care and good examples that they receive from their relatives. Step by step their rough character gets milder, their habits become softer and aversions disappear. This is a way through which the different categories of spirits merge, as well as different peoples materially mix on the planet.

20. Someone might be afraid of an indefinite increase of relatives amount due to reincarnation. But such fear is both selfish, because it shows lacking love, insufficient to embrace many people, and reasonless, because ten reincarnations does not necessarily mean ten fathers, ten mothers, ten spouses and a lot of children and relatives. During each embodiment we often find beloved people, whom we might have been linked to in the past, sometimes through the same kinship degree.

21. Now, let us look from the point of view of a belief that denies reincarnation. Such a creed nullifies the soul's preexistence. If there was one only life, the souls of relatives would be stranger one to another, because soul and body would allegedly have been created together, at the same time. So, no previous links could have existed among souls of relatives. In this way, parents would be stranger to their children, because their offspring would be only material, without any previous spiritual link.

On the other hand, with reincarnation, ancestors and descendants may have known each other, lived together, and loved one another previously. With reincarnation they can reunite in order to strengthen their sympathy links.

22. Now let us look at a future perspective. Without reincarnation, the soul's destiny would be irrevocably determined after just one existence. Such a final fate determination would imply the end of all individual evolution. Without reincarnation, parents and children, depending on whether they have lived a righteous or a vicious life, would separately go to either paradise or hell. In such case, they would be immediately and forever separated, without any hope of meeting again. In this way, fathers, mothers and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and even friends would be sure of never seeing each other again. Such hypothesis would mean the complete rupture of all family ties and denies the God's goodness.

But, with reincarnation and progress law, those who love one another can, according to their merits, meet again, both on the Earth and in the spiritual world, and strive together again in order to march toward God. Their failures along the path can certainly delay their progress and happiness. Notwithstanding, with reincarnation they can always keep hope, despite their flaws. Progress is always possible and fate is always changeable. Helped, encouraged and sustained by those who love them, they will, one day, be able to quit the quagmire into which they have allowed themselves to fall. Reincarnation permits perpetual solidarity between either incarnate or discarnate relatives, what reinforces their affection.

23. For human beyond-tomb future, four alternatives arise. Firstly, the nothingness, according to the materialistic point of view. Secondly, the absorption by the Universe, according to Pantheism or similar ideas. Thirdly, individuality with unchangeable fate, according to several creeds. Fourthly, reincarnation, individuality and never-ending progress. According to the first two alternatives, the family ties end at death time, because relatives could never meet again. According to the third alternative, meeting again would be possible only if all relatives, after their bodily existences, go to the same spiritual region, which could be Heaven, Purgatory or Hell. However, with existence plurality and gradual evolution, those who have loved one another can, according to their merits, meet again, continue their relationship and keep helping one another. This makes up a true family.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS

Incarnation limits

24. What are the incarnation limits?

Regarding only the body itself the incarnation lacks a clearly defined limit, because the purer a spirit becomes, the less material its body turns into. In advanced worlds, body is more diaphanous, light and fine. So, it is less subject to misfortune and disease. In even higher evolution levels, body is transparent and almost fluidic. It dematerializes, degree by degree, and finally resembles the perispirit. Spirits use bodies which are appropriate to the kind of world in which they live.

The perispirit itself also undergoes successive transformations. It gradually becomes lighter, until reaching complete purity, which is the state of the highly advanced spirits. Such release from matter allows the evolved spirits to reach any place of the universe, to where they may be sent on mission. There are many special worlds, destined to be dwelling places for the developed spirits. But instead of being prisoners, the evolved spirits are able to easily visit other globes.

The embodiment that is materially dense, as we see on Earth, is restricted to the more inferior worlds. It depends on each spirit to quickly liberate itself from matter, by working hard towards its purification.

In the spiritual world, that is, between bodily existences, each spirit's situation depends on the specific environment in which its advancement degree allows it to live. The lighter the spirits are, the wiser, freer and happier they become. - Saint Louis. (Paris, 1859.)

Incarnation need

25. Is incarnation a punishment? Are guilty spirits bound to suffer incarnation?

God assigns to each spirit a mission on Earth. So the spirits need to pass through the corporeal life in order to fulfill, by material actions, their duties on the planet. Reincarnation is necessary for spiritual evolution, because the activities which the spirit has to perform help it to develop its intellectual and moral skills. God is fair and equally distributes rights and duties. Everyone starts from the same point. All humans are granted similar aptitudes, obligations and liberty to act. Any privilege would be unfair. For all spirits, incarnation is just a transitory state, through which they can intensively use their freewill. Those who earnestly fulfill their tasks quickly pass their initiation and less painfully reap their labor fruits. On the contrary, those who improperly use their freewill delay their progress. According to their evil-obstinacy, they indefinitely prolong their need for incarnation. In such case reincarnation becomes a punishment. - Saint Louis. (Paris, 1859.)

26. NOTE. An analogy helps clarifying this subject. Scholars could not have reached superior studies without passing through the classes which raised their level. So the classes, whatever work they might demand, are the means by which students reach their goals. So, the class itself is not a punishment inflicted upon the students. By doing their best, the students shorten their path and, so, find less thorns. However, the negligent and lazy student has to repeat several lessons. In this case, the punishment is not the lesson itself, but the need to study it again.

Something like this happens to people. For primitive souls, who are just beginning their spiritual life, incarnation is the means by which they can start developing their intelligence and morality. Nevertheless, for enlightened humans, whose moral senses have been developed, being obliged to live again the various phases of a corporeal life, full of anguishes, while they could have already arrived at the finish line, incarnation becomes a punishment, because they are compelled to stay long in inferior and unhappy worlds. On the opposite side, those who actively work toward moral progress shorten their material incarnation period and jump over several intermediate steps, which separate them from the superior worlds.

Someone may allege that spirits should incarnate only once in a certain globe and, then, fulfill their other existences in different worlds. However, this alternative would only be reasonable if all people on Earth were exactly at the same level in both intellectual and moral development. But the difference between people within this planet, from the brute to the civilized, shows that there are many levels on the Earth which must be overcome. Besides, incarnation has always a useful purpose. Even incarnations of short-lived children, who die at a tender age, are beneficial for them and for others. The divine laws are always wise. Everything God does is useful. The Almighty gives the spirits the necessary opportunities to repair reciprocated offenses, by reincarnating on the same globe and living together again. God also expects the spirits, helped by their past relationships, reconcile and establish their family ties upon love, the greatest nature's law.
 
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Do to others what you want that others do to you. (Matthew 7:12)
You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)
 
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