Essay about the interpretation of the doctrine of the fallen angelsThe issue of origins has always had the magical power of attracting curiosity and, from that point of view, it attracts even more with respect to the origins of the human being, particularly when considering that it is impossible for any sensible person to literally accept the biblical report, setting it aside as one of those allegories so much typical of the oriental style. In fact, science comes to explain through indisputable means the material impossibility of the formation of the globe in a period of six days of twenty-four hours each. Given the irrefutable facts written in the geological layers, the Church had to yield before the opinion of scholars and agree with them that the six days of creation represent periods of undetermined lengths, as the Church did in former times with respect to the Earth’s rotation. Hence, if the biblical text is susceptible to this kind of interpretation, with respect to that capital point of view, it can also be with respect to others, notably with respect to the time of appearance of the human beings on Earth, about their origin and the meaning that must be given to the qualification of fallen angels.
Since the origin of things is in God’s designs and since it is only revealed to us when God judges it to be adequate, we are limited to conjectures. Many systems have been envisaged to solve that issue and up until now none has completely satisfied this rationale. We will also try to raise a tip of the veil. Will we be more successful than our predecessors? We do not know. It is up to the future to respond. The proposed theory is thus a personal opinion that seems to agree with reason and logic. This is what is going to give that theory a certain degree of likelihood.
To begin with we assert the fact that it is impossible to uncover any piece of truth unless we resource from the Spiritist theory. This theory has already solved a number of issues that were unsolvable up until now, and it is with the support of the guidelines provided by this theory that we will try to go back the course of times.
The literal meaning of certain passages of the sacred books, contradicted by science and rejected by reason, has produced more nonbelievers than one may suppose, given the obstinacy in turning those texts into an article of faith. If a rational interpretation can make them acceptable, it will evidently bring back to the Church those who ran away from it.
Before moving on it is of the essence that we be clear about the meaning of certain words. How many quarrels have been eternalized but for the ambiguity of certain expressions whose meaning were based on individual interpretations! This was demonstrated in The Spirits’ Book about the word soul. Any controversy was promptly eliminated since we clearly stated the meaning that was given to that word.
The word angel is in the same situation. People use it regardless both in the good as well as in the bad sense by saying things like: “the good and the bad angels, the angel of light and the angel of darkness” from which it follows that the word actually means spirit. It is evidently with that meaning that the word must be understood when talking about fallen angels and rebel angels.
According to Spiritism, and in agreement with many theologians on this, the angels are not privileged beings of creation, exempt from the works imposed onto the others as if from a special favor, but Spirits that achieved perfection out of their own merit and efforts. If the angels were created perfect and considering that any rebellion against God is a sign of inferiority the rebellious could not be angels. Spiritism also tells us that the Spirits advance but cannot move backwards since they never lose the acquired skills. Well, a rebellion from the part of perfect Spirits would be a retroaction, since it can only be conceived from the part of imperfect Spirits.
In order to avoid any confusion it seems opportune to spare the word angel to the pure Spirits and call all others just by good and bad Spirits. However, since use has assigned this expression to fallen angels we say that we take it in its generic application. It will be seen that the idea of fallen and rebellion is perfectly admissible in that sense.
We do not know and perhaps will never know the starting point of the human soul. All that we know is that Spirits are created simple and ignorant; that they advance intellectually and morally; that due to the free-will some take the good path and others the wrong one; that once the foot is stuck in the mud it sinks even further; that after a very large number of corporeal existences on Earth and other planets the Spirits purify and approach God.
A point of difficult understanding is the formation of the first living creatures on Earth, each belonging to a given species, from the plant to the human being. The theory given in The Spirits’ Book seems the most rational to us, although it solves the problem in an incomplete and hypothetical way, a problem that we consider insoluble as much to us as to the majority of the Spirits who are not granted access to the origin of things.
When questioned about it, the sages say that they do not know; others less modest pretend to be revealers and dictate things that are the result of their personal ideas, presenting them as the absolute truth. We must carefully analyze the systems brought up by certain Spirits about the beginning of things. To our eyes, what demonstrates the wisdom of those who dictated The Spirits’ Book is their reservation to questions of such a nature. In our opinion the solution of this issue in absolute terms is not a demonstration of wisdom, as done by some who showed no concern with the material impossibilities demonstrated by science and observation. What we say about the appearance of the first human being on Earth refers to the formation of the bodies. Once the body is formed, it is easier to conceive the fact that the spirit will take that body over. Given the bodies our proposal is to examine the state of the Spirits that animate them so that we can possibly define the doctrine of the fallen angels and the lost paradise in a way that is more rational than what has been done so far.
If we do not admit the plurality of the corporeal existences we must admit that the soul is created at the same time as the body since it must be one of the two: either the soul that animates a body has already lived or it has not lived yet. There is no midterm between these two hypotheses. Now the second hypothesis – the one that states that the soul has not lived yet – leads to a number of insoluble problems, such as the diversity of aptitudes and instincts, incompatible with God’s justice; the fate of children who die at an early age; the mentally challenged people, etc., whereas everything is naturally explained by the admission that the soul had already lived and that when it incarnates in a new body it brings along what had been previously acquired. That is how the societies advance gradually; without that how can we explain the existing differences between the current social condition and that from the times of barbarism? If the souls were created at the same time as the bodies the ones that are born today would be absolutely new and primitive as those that were born thousands of years ago. It must be added that there would be no relationship, no connection between them; they would be completely independent from each other. Why then would
God reward the souls of the present more than those created in the past? Why do they understand things better? Why are their instincts more refined and the customs more sophisticated? Why do they have the intuition of certain things that were not learned? We challenge anyone to give the solution to such a gridlock unless one admits that God may have created souls of dissimilar quality, according to the times and places, a proposition that is irreconcilable with the idea of a supreme justice.
Say, on the contrary, that the souls of today have already lived in former lives; that they were barbarian according to their century but that they have advanced; that they bring the summation of skills acquired in their previous existences and that, consequently, the souls of the civilized world were not created perfect but perfected themselves with time and you will therefore have the only plausible explanation for the cause of the social progress.
Those considerations taken from the theory of reincarnation are critical to understanding the facts we will discuss below.
Although the Spirits may incarnate in different worlds, it seems that, in general, they undertake a certain number of migrations on the same planet and in the same environment to better take advantage of the acquired experience; they can only leave such a world to inhabit an inferior one as a result of punishment or a better one as a reward. It follows that the population of the globe is composed of the same Spirits, with small variations, returning on across several epochs until they reach a degree of purification that entails their transfer to more advanced worlds.
According to the teachings given by the superior Spirits such emigrations and immigrations of the Spirits that incarnate on Earth take place from time to time, individually; however, in certain periods they do occur “en masse” forced by great revolutions that disappear with large quantities of those Spirits then replaced by others that constitute a new generation on Earth or on part of the planet.
Jesus said something remarkable that was not understood, like many other passages that were taken literally when he always spoke through images and parables. Announcing great events in the physical and moral world he said: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place”. Well, the generation from Christ’s time has passed for over eighteen centuries and those things did not take place. We must conclude that either Jesus was mistaken, something that is inadmissible, or that his words had a meaning that was misinterpreted.
If we refer, however, to what the Spirits tell us, not only to us but through mediums from all countries, we should be close to the predicted times, an era of social renovation, that is, a time of great emigration of Spirits that inhabit Earth. That God sent them here so that they could improve, leaving them here for the time necessary to their betterment. God allowed them to get to know his laws, first through Moses and then Jesus; God warned them through the prophets; in their successive incarnations they were able to take advantage of those teachings; now the time has come and those who did not take advantage of light, those who violated God’s laws and neglected God’s power, those will leave Earth where from now on they would be misplaced given the moral progress that takes place and to which they would only create embarrassments, as human beings as well as Spirits. The generation that Jesus talked about could not be understood as the generation of people that lived in his time, physically speaking, but as the generation of Spirits that lived several periods of their reincarnations on Earth and that will leave it. They shall be replaced by a new generation of more morally advanced Spirits who will establish among them the kingdom of love and charity taught by Christ and whose harmony shall not be disturbed by the contact with the bad ones, the proud, the selfish, the ambitious and impious.
According to the Spirits it really seems that among the children that are born now there are many reincarnations of Spirits of that generation. As for those of the previous generation that have merit but who, despite the odds, have not achieved a sufficient level of purification to move to more advanced worlds, these will be able to continue to inhabit Earth and go through a few incarnations. However, instead of punishment this shall be a reward since they will be happier and in constant progress here. The time for the disappearance of a generation and the appearance of a new one may be considered as the end of the world that is the moral world.
What will become of the Spirits that will be expelled from Earth? The Spirits themselves tell us that they will inhabit new worlds where they will find creatures even more underdeveloped than here to which they will have the mission of progress, transferring to them their acquired knowledge. The contact with a barbarian environment will be a cruel atonement to them and a source of permanent physical and moral suffering, becoming the more aware of such condition the more developed their intelligence. Such atonement, however, will be simultaneously a mission that will offer them the means of mending their past; according to the way they accomplish it. They will live a series of reincarnations there during a more or less lengthy time period, after which those who deserve it will move on to better worlds, perhaps even Earth that shall then be a resort of happiness and peace, while those from Earth will gradually move on up to the state of angels or pure Spirits.
That will take too long, some will say. Wouldn’t it be better to move from Earth to Heavens at once? There is no doubt but with such a system you also have the alternative of moving, also en masse, from Earth to Hell for the whole of eternity. Now, you must agree that down here the sum of virtues necessary to go straight from Earth to Heavens is very rare and only a few people would have the certainty of holding them. The result is that it is more likely to go to hell than paradise. Isn’t that more valuable to walk a longer path but with the certainty of achieving the objective? Given the current condition of Earth nobody is concerned with returning here but there is no obligation for that since it depends on each individual to advance in such a way while living here that a promotion may be granted. No prisoner expects to return to the cell after leaving jail and it is easy to do that. All that is required is that one does not fail again. The soldier would also find it very convenient to suddenly become a general but that has to be earned.
Let us return to the course of times and from the present, as a known starting point, let us try at least by analogy to deduce the unknown, although without the certainty of a mathematical demonstration.
The issue of Adam as the only branch of the human race on Earth is knowingly very controversial, because the Laws of Anthropology demonstrate its impossibility, not to mention the authentic documents about the Chinese history proving that the population of our globe goes back to a time much earlier than that of the biblical chronology of Adam. Is the story of Adam a fictitious tale then? It is not likely. It is an image that like all other allegories must contain a great truth whose key will only be produced by Spiritism. The central question, as we see it, is not about the fact if Adam has actually lived or what was the time when that happened but if the human race, identified as Adam’s descendent, is a decayed race. The solution to this issue is not empty of moral content since it can guide our behavior towards the future by enlightening us about our past.
Let us observe, for starters, that the idea of a fallen human race is senseless when separated from that of reincarnation in the same way that one would carry the responsibility for the actions one’s first father. If the soul of a person is created at the time of birth it means that the soul did not exist prior to that. Thus, it must not keep any direct or indirect relationship with the soul that made the first mistake. Then there is the follow up question: how could the soul be responsible for that? Doubt about such a point naturally leads to doubt and even disbelief about many others considering that if the starting point is false then the consequences are also false. That is the reasoning of many people. Well, such reasoning will fall if we consider the meaning of the biblical texts and not literally, and if we refer to the principles of Spiritism that is destined to revive the dying faith, as it was said before.
Let us observe still that the idea of rebel angels, fallen angels and lost paradise is found in almost every religion and is part of the tradition of almost all peoples. Hence, it must be founded on a truth. In order to understand the true meaning given to the expression fallen angels it is not necessary to imagine a real struggle between God and the angels or Spirits, considering that the word angel here is used in its generic meaning.
Admitting that human beings are incarnate Spirits, it stand to reason that the materialistic and atheists are no other than revolted angels or Spirits. These beings are these fallen angels as they are against the Divinity, deny God’s existence, and do not acknowledge God’s power or God’s laws. Isn’t it out of pride that they pretend that everything comes from them and not God? Isn’t it extreme rebellion to preach the nothingness after death? Aren’t they as much to blame for the utilization of their intelligence, something that they swagger about, to drag their fellow human beings to the precipice of disbelief? Isn’t that, up to a certain extent, an act of rebellion to neglect the true attributes of God’s essence, without denying it? Those who cover their bad actions with the mask of pity? Those who, in the name of peace, violate the first of God’s laws: that of charity? Those who sow disturbance and hatred by slander and calumny? Finally, those whose voluntarily useless lives flow down the drain of idleness, without any benefit to them or to others? Everyone will have to report not only their bad deeds but also a good deed that was not done. Well, all those Spirits that have made bad use of their incarnations, once expelled from Earth and sent to inferior worlds among peoples still in the infancy of barbarism, what will they be if not fallen angels that were sent for their expiation? Isn’t Earth to them a lost paradise, comparatively to the inhospitable environment where they shall be exiled for thousands of centuries, up until the day when they deserve their freedom?
If we now go back to the origin of the current race symbolized by Adam we find every character of a generation of Spirits expelled from another world for similar reasons, exiled on the already populated Earth but by primitive, barbarian and ignorant peoples, with the mission of helping their progress by bringing to this world the lights of an already developed intelligence. Isn’t that the role actually played by the so-called Adamic race so far? By relegating it to this world of work and suffering wouldn’t it give God reason to say: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food”? If that race deserved such a punishment for reasons like those that we see today, wouldn’t it be fair to say that it was lost by pride? Couldn’t God out of benevolence promise to send them a redeemer, that is, the one that should illuminate the path leading them to the happiness of the elected one? That savior was sent as Jesus who taught the law of love and charity as the true anchor of salvation.
Here there is an important point for consideration. Jesus’ mission is easily understood by admitting that it refers to the same Spirits who lived before and after his appearance thus taking advantage of his teachings or of the merit of his sacrifice; without the reincarnation, however, it is more difficult to understand the utility of that same sacrifice for the benefit of Spirits that were created after his appearance and in that case God would have created Spirits stained by faults of others with whom they never had any relationship.
That race of Spirits seems to have done its time on Earth. Some of them took advantage of that time and advanced and hence deserved their rewards; others, given their obstinacy in keeping their eyes closed to light, drained God’s benevolence and deserved punishment. Thus these words of Jesus will be accomplished: “The good ones shall be on my right, the bad ones on my left”.
A fact that seems to confirm the theory about the preexistence of the first inhabitants of that race on Earth is this: Adam, considered as the main branch, is represented as a person with a high level of intellectual development, higher even to the present savage races; his first descendants also demonstrated skills on very advanced level.
Now, from what we know about the condition of the Spirits in their origin, what would Adam be from an intellectual point of view if his soul had created at the same time as his body. Admitting, by exception, that God had given him a more perfected soul one still needs to explain why the savages of New Zealand, for example, are infinitely behind their common father, considering that they came out of the same branch.
Everything indicates, on the contrary, that from a physical and a moral stand point they belong to another race of Spirits, closer to their origin, and that they still need a large number of corporeal migrations before they even get to the least advanced levels of the Adamic race. The new race that will surge will speed up their advancement by the rule of Christ’s law everywhere, which is the law of justice, love and charity.
The authors of works on Earth’s anthropology concentrated their attention particularly on physical characters; the spiritual element was almost always neglected and authors who do not admit anything outside matter invariably deny it. When the spiritual element is taken into account by science it will shed a new light upon a number of still obscure issues because that element is one of the living forces of nature playing a fundamental role both in the physical and moral phenomena.
Let us see in a summarized form an example of an analogy that happens at a larger scale in the world of the Spirits. This example will help us to understand it.
On May 24th, 1861 the frigate Iphigénie disembarked with a company formed by 291 men at the port of New Caledonia. At their arrival the commander in chief gave the following order of the day:
“On disembarking on this far away land you have already realized your role. Following the example of our brave mariners whose service you see, you will help us to shine the light of civilization upon the savages of New Caledonia. I ask you this: isn’t that a noble mission? You will accomplish that with dignity. Listen to the voice and advices of your superiors. I am before them. Make no mistake about these words. The choice of your commander, your officers, your sub-officers and corporals is an assurance of the efforts that will be employed in order to turn you into excellent soldiers; I say even more, to raise you to the condition of good citizens, transforming you into dignified settlers, if you so wish. The discipline imposed on you is strict and it must be so. It will come firm and inflexible to your hands but also fair and fraternal, knowing how to distinguish a mistake from vice and degradation…”
Here we have men who were expelled from a civilized country for their bad behavior and sent to a savage environment as their punishment. What did their commander say? “You breached your parents’ laws; you were cause of scandal and turmoil and you were expelled from there. You were sent here. However, you can make up for your past; you can conquer an honored position here through work and then become honest citizens. You have a beautiful mission to accomplish here and that is to bring civilization to these savage tribes. Discipline will be severe but fair and we will know how to distinguish the good behavior.”
Isn’t homeland a lost paradise to those relegated to the heart of savagery for their guilt and rebellion against the law? Aren’t they fallen angels in the far away land? Isn’t the language of their commander the same used by God to the Spirits exiled on Earth?
“You disobeyed my laws. That is why I sent you away from the land where you could live happily and in peace. You will be forced to work here. However, through your behavior you may conquer forgiveness and return to the land that you lost for your own fault – Heavens.”
The first impression is that the idea of a fall seems to be in contradiction with the principle that the Spirits cannot regress. It is necessary to take into account; however, that it is not about a return to the primitive state. The fact that the spirit is in an inferior position does not follow that the spirit has lost everything that had been acquired before. The moral and intellectual development remains the same regardless of the environment where the spirit is located. It is like a common person that was condemned to the galleys for her crimes. That person has certainly fallen from the point of view of her social position but that has not made her more stupid or more ignorant.
Should we suppose that those people sent to the New Caledonia will suddenly become role models of virtue? That they will promptly renounce their past mistakes? One would need to ignore humanity in order to admit that. For the same reason the Spirits that will be expelled from Earth will not suddenly eliminate their pride and bad instincts as soon as they are installed in their new worlds of exile. They shall keep their original tendencies for a long time, the remains of the old yeast. The same must have happened to the Spirits of the Adamic race that were exiled on Earth. Isn’t that the original sin? The stain that is brought by birth is that of the guilty and punished Spirits, stain that can be removed by repentance, atonement and renovation of their moral character.
The original sin is senseless when considered as the responsibility for someone else’s fault and it is the denial of God’s justice. Considered, as the consequence and remains, the initial imperfection of an individual. This imperfection is not only admitted by reason but also totally fair given the responsibility derived from that imperfection.
Such interpretation gives an absolutely natural explanation to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, so much mocked by skepticism. That dogma established that Jesus’ mother was not stained by the original sin. How can that be? Very simple: God sent a pure spirit that did not belong to the guilty and exiled race to incarnate on Earth and carry out her dignified mission, in the same way that from time to time God sends superior Spirits to boost and accelerate progress. Such Spirits are like the venerable pastor that visits the prisons to moralize their residents, showing them the path to salvation.
Some people will certainly find this not aligned to an orthodox interpretation. Some will even call it heresy. However, isn’t it so that many people see the report found in Genesis, the story of the apple and Adam’s rib, as symbolic, simple images? And because they are unable to find a suitable meaning to the doctrine of the fallen angels, of the rebellious angels and the lost paradise, they consider all that as fables? If a logical interpretation can show them a truth hidden by an allegory, isn’t that better than absolute denial?
Let us admit that such interpretation is not in agreement with the strictest orthodoxy from all points of view, using the vulgar meaning of the phase: we then ask if it is not preferable to believe in something than in absolutely nothing. If the belief in the literal text keeps people away from God and if the belief given the interpretation take people closer to God isn’t the latter better than the other one? Hence, we are not here to destroy the principle, uprooting it like some philosophers did. We try to unveil its occult meaning and much to the contrary we came to consolidate it, giving it a rational foundation. However it may be one cannot deny the fact that this interpretation has a grandiose character that in reality is missing in the literal text. This theory simultaneously encompasses the universality of the worlds, the infinite in the past and future; gives everything a reason for being by the interconnections of all things, by the solidarity that it establishes among all parts of the universe. Isn’t that more in agreement with the idea that we make of God’s majesty and goodness than the one that circumscribes humanity to a point in space and an instant in eternity?
