The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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Resurrection of the Body

1010. Does the resurrection of the body signify reincarnation, as now taught by spirits?
“How could it be anything else? This expression and many others only appear to be irrational when people take them literally, which leads to skepticism. When they are explained rationally, free thinkers accept them easily because they are used to refection. Free thinkers, perhaps even more so than others, thirst for a future. They want nothing more than to believe, but they cannot acknowledge what science disproves. The doctrine of multiple lives is consistent with God’s justice, and it alone explains what is otherwise inexplicable. How can you then doubt that its principle is found in all religions?”


1010-a . Does the Church actually teach reincarnation with the dogma of the resurrection of the body?
“This is obvious. This doctrine is the answer to many things that were once obscure. Soon, everyone will recognize that this doctrine is implied in every part of the sacred Scriptures. Spirits do not communicate with intentions to discredit religion as is sometimes claimed. On the contrary, they confirm and endorse it by providing irrefutable proofs. It is time to reject the use of figurative language. The spirits do not use allegory and every statement has a clear and precise meaning without any danger of misinterpretation. Consequently, there will soon be a greater number of individuals who are sincerely religious and true believers than today.” Saint Louis


Science has determined that resurrection, in the way it is commonly believed to occur, is impossible. If, upon breaking down, it could be shown that the fragments of the human body remain the same, even when scattered and reduced to powder, we might conceivably entertain the possibility that the essential elements can come together again, but this is not the case. The body is made of various elements, including oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. They are dispersed and form new bodies, so that the same molecule of carbon, for example, can be used in the composition of thousands of different bodies (we are speaking only of human bodies, not animals). An individual’s body may have molecules that were once in the bodies of our prehistoric ancestors. The very same organic molecules that you have consumed from your food today may have come from the body of someone whom you have known, and so on.


Matter exists in a finite quantity. However, its transformations are unlimited in number. How is it possible that the countless bodies formed out of it are rebuilt with the same elements? Such a reconstruction is physically impossible. The resurrection of the body is possible, rationally, as a figure of speech or a symbol for reincarnation. If interpreted in this manner, it contradicts neither reason nor science. According to dogma, resurrection takes place at the end of time.


According to Spiritism, it takes place every day. The image of the Last Judgment hides a beautiful face under the veil of the allegory of an immutable truth. However, when we learn about its real significance the belief in resurrection, as the only judgment day, goes away. When we carefully study the Spiritist teachings regarding the destiny of souls and their fate after the various trials they must undergo, it is clear that, the assessment or judgment that condemns or absolves is not a fabrication, as skeptics suggest. We should note instead that today this is a natural and accepted consequence of reincarnation and the plurality of worlds, whereas according to the doctrine of the Last Judgment, the Earth is the only inhabited world.

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