GENESIS THE MIRACLES AND THE PREDICTIONS ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM

Allan Kardec

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The New Generation

27. In order that man shall be happy upon the Earth, it is necessary that it be peopled with good spirits, incarnate or discarnate, who desire only good. This time has arrived; a great emigration is being accomplished at this moment among those who inhabit it. Those who return evil for evil, and in whom the desire to do right is not felt, being unworthy of the transformed state of the Earth, will be banished from it, because they will bring only trouble and confusion, and would be an obstacle to progress. They will go to expiate their hardness of heart, some into inferior worlds, and others with terrestrial races behind them in development, which will be the equivalent of inferior worlds, where they will carry their acquired knowledge, and where it will be their mission to teach undeveloped beings this knowledge. They will be replaced by better spirits, who will make justice, peace, and fraternity rule among them.

The Earth, according to the intelligence gained from the spirits, must not be transformed by a cataclysm which would suddenly annihilate a generation. The present generation will gradually disappear, and the new one succeed in the same manner without anything having been changed in the natural order of things.

All externally will pass along as is usual, with this difference alone, which is an important one, that a part of the spirits which are incarnated here now will no more be incarnated here. The children who will then be born, instead of being underdeveloped and inclined to evil, will be more advanced spirits inclined towards righteousness.

It acts then much less upon a new corporeal generation than upon the new generation of spirits. It is undoubtedly within this context that Jesus understood things when he said: “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” Thus, those who will expect to see the transformation brought about by supernatural or miraculous effects will be disappointed.

28. The present epoch is a transition one; the elements of the two generations are mingling together. Placed at the intermediary point, we assist at the departure of one and at the arrival of the other. Each one signalized itself by its own proper character.

The two generations which follow each other have views and ideas totally opposed to one another. By the nature of the moral disposition, but more particularly by the intuitive and innate disposition, it is easy to distinguish to which of the two each individual belongs.

The new generation, being the founder of the era of moral progress, is distinguished generally by a precocious intelligence and reasoning powers, joined to the innate sentiment of goodness and of spiritualist beliefs, which is the unmistakable sign of a certain degree of anterior advancement. It will not be composed exclusively of eminently superior spirits, but of those who, having progressed already, are predisposed to embrace all the progressive ideas, and apt to second the regenerative movement.

That which distinguishes, on the contrary, undeveloped spirits is, firstly, the revolt against God by refusing to recognize any power superior to humanity; then the instinctive propensity to the degrading passions, to the anti-fraternal sentiments of selfishness, of pride, of the attachment for all that which is material; sensuality, cupidity and avarice.

These are the vices of which the Earth must be purged by the removal of those who refuse to amend, because they are incompatible with the reign of fraternity, and as good men will suffer always by contact with them. When the Earth shall have been delivered from them, men will march without hindrance towards that better future which has been reserved for them here below as the recompense for their efforts and perseverance, looking forward to a purification still more complete, which will open to them the entrance to superior worlds.

29. By this emigration of spirits it is not necessary to understand that all undeveloped spirits will be expelled from Earth, and condemned to live in inferior worlds. Many, on the contrary, will return here – those who have yielded to temptation by the force of circumstances and example; those who appeared to be much worse than they really were. Once delivered from the influence of matter, and the prejudices of the corporeal world, the greater part of them will see things in an entirely different light than when living, as we have numerous examples of it. In this they are aided by benevolent spirits who are interested in them, and who try to enlighten them by showing them the wrong in the way they have pursued. By our prayers and exhortations we can ourselves contribute to their improvement, because there is a perpetual connection, an unbroken chain, between the dead and living.

The transformation is very simple, entirely a moral one, which is according to the laws of nature.

30. Allowing that the spirits of the new generation are new ones, but better, more advanced than the preceding ones, or ancient developed spirits, the result is the same. From the instant that they become inspired by better desires, the renovation takes place. There are then two categories of incarnated spirits, which are formed according to their natural dispositions – on one side those tardy in progression who depart, and on the other the progressive ones who arrive. The condition of society in a nation or in the entire world will be according to the preponderance which one of these two categories has over the other.

31. A common comparison will make this better comprehended. Let us suppose a regiment composed of a great majority of undisciplined and unruly men, those who in constant disorder are brought to feel the severity of the penal laws. These men are the stronger, because they are the more numerous; they are sustained, encouraged, and stimulated by example. The few good ones among them are without influence; their counsels are despised, they are scoffed at, badly treated by the others, and suffer from this contact. Is this not an emblem of society at present?

Let us suppose that these men are withdrawn from this regiment one by one, ten by ten, hundred by hundred, and that they are replaced by an equal number of good soldiers, even by those who have become seriously amended. At the end of some greater or less period of time, there will be the same regiment, but a transformed one; good order will have succeeded to disorder. Thus will it be with regenerated humanity.

32. The great collective departures have not alone for object the acceleration of the different departures, but they also transform more rapidly the minds of the masses by removing the bad influences from the way, and by giving a greater ascendancy to new ideas, because many are ready for this transformation, notwithstanding their imperfections, while many depart to strengthen themselves at a purer source.

Should they have remained in the same midst and under the same influences, they would have persisted in their opinions, and in their manner of seeing things. A sojourn in the spirit- world suffices to open their eyes to the truth, because they see there that which they could not see on Earth. The incredulous, the fanatic, the absolutist, will then be enabled to return with innate ideas of faith, of tolerance, and of liberty. On their return they will find things changed, and will submit to the ascendancy of the new midst in which they will be born. Instead of making opposition to new ideas, they will be helpers towards them.

33. The regeneration of humanity does not absolutely require the complete renewal of the spirits. A modification in their moral dispositions suffices. This modification takes place with all those who are predisposed to it when they shall have freed themselves from the pernicious influence of the world. Those who return, then, are not always other spirits, but often the same ones, thinking and feeling otherwise.

When this amelioration is isolated and individual, it passes unperceived, and is without ostensible influences upon the world. Entirely different is the effect when it operates simultaneously over great masses of people; for then, according to the proportions of it in one generation, the ideas of a nation or a race can be profoundly modified by it.

This is observed after great accidents which decimate a population. The destructive scourges do not destroy the spirit, but only the body; they accelerate the coming-and-going movement between the corporeal and spiritual world, and consequently the progressive movement of incarnate and discarnate spirits. It has been observed, at all historical epochs that great social crises have been followed by an era of progress.

34. It is one of these general movements which is operating at this time, and which must lead to the repairing of humanity. The multiplicity of the means of destruction is a characteristic sign of the times; for they must hasten the expansion of the new germs. They are the leaves of autumn which must fall, but to which will succeed new leaves full of life; for humanity has its season, as individuals have their ages. The dead leaves of humanity fall, carried away by the tempestuous blasts of life, only to be reborn with still greater strength, with the same breath of life which is not annihilated, but purified.

35. To the materialist, destructive scourges are calamities without compensation, without useful results, since, according to him, they annihilate the beings forever. But for him who knows that death destroys only the envelope, they have not the same consequences, and cause not the least bit of fear. He comprehends the object of it, and knows that men lose no more by dying together than separately, since, in one way or another, it is necessary to arrive there.

Incredulous will laugh at these things, and treat them as chimerical dreams; but, whatever they may say, they cannot escape the common law. They will fall in their turn like the others; and then what will occur? They say: nothing! but they will live in spite of themselves, and be forced some day to open their eyes to the truth.

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