171- On what is the doctrine of reincarnation based?
“On the justice of God and revelation. We will repeat this to you over and over: a good father always leaves the door of repentance open to his children. Doesn’t reason tell you that it would be unjust to keep eternal bliss from those who have not enjoyed the opportunities needed to improve themselves? Aren’t all people God’s children? It is only among selfish human beings that we find iniquity, insatiable hatred, and unforgiving punishment.”
All spirits are en route toward perfection and God furnishes them with the means of accomplishing it through the trials of corporeal life. Out of divine justice, God permits them to accomplish in new existences whatever they could not do or complete in a previous trial.
It would not be consistent with equity or according to God’s goodness to punish forever those who, regardless of their will, had encountered obstacles to their improvement within the surroundings in which they had been placed. If the fate of all human beings is irrevocably sealed after their death, it would mean that God does not weigh the actions of all on the same scales and that God does not treat everyone impartially.
The doctrine of reincarnation, which consists in accepting the fact that humans have many successive lives, is the only one that is in line with the idea of God’s justice concerning those of a lower moral condition. It is the only one that can explain our future and give us hope because it offers us the means of atoning for our errors through new trials. Reason confirms this and it is what the Spirits have taught us.
Those who are aware of how imperfect they are derive a consoling hope from the doctrine of reincarnation. If they truly believe in the justice of God, they cannot expect to be equal for all eternity to those who have done better than they. The thought that such imperfection will not exclude them forever from the supreme good, and the fact that they will be able to reach it through continued effort supports them and renews their courage. Who, at the end of one’s career, does not regret having acquired a particular experience too late to have profited from it? This lately acquired experience will not be lost, however; it will be of benefit in a new existence.
Site Espírita 