Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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ALLAN KARDEC
the term, lacks this essential condition of theoretic soundness. It was natural that the religious belief of
peoples Who, knowing nothing of the attributes of God, were backward enough to admit the existence of
maleficent deities, should also admit the existence of demons but, on the of those who acknowledge the
goodness of God to be His distinguishing quality, it is illogical and contradictory to suppose that He can
have created beings doomed to evil. and destined to do evil for ever, for such a supposition is the negation
of His goodness. The partisans of the belief in devils appeal to the words of Christ in support of their
doctrine and it is certainly not we who would contest the authority of His teachings, which we would faint
see established, not merely on the lips of men, but also in their hearts. But are those partisans quite sure
of the meaning attached be Him to the word "devil"? Is it not fully admitted that the allegorical form is
one of the distinctive characteristics of His utterances, and that the Gospels contain many things which
are not to be taken literally? To prove that such is the case, we need only quote the following passage: -
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened,and the moonshall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven... Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass
till all these things are fulfilled" (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30, 34.) Have we not seen that theform of the biblical
text, in reference to the creation and movement of the earth, is contradicted by the discoveries of science?
May it not be the same in regard to certain figurative expressions employed by Christ in order to adapt
His teachings to the time and the scene of His mission? Christ could not have made a statement knowing it
to be false. If, therefore, His sayings contain statements which appear to be contrary to reason, it is
evident either that we do not understand their meaning or that we have interpreted them erroneously.
Men have done in regard to devils what they have done in regard to angels. Just as they have imagined
that there are beings who were created perfect from all eternity. so they have imagined that spirits of the
lower degrees Were beings essentially and eternally bad. The wordsdemon, devil, ought, therefore, to be
understood as indicating impure spirits who are often no better that the imaginary beings designated by
those names, but with this difference. viz., that their state of impurity and inferiority is only transitory.
They are the Imperfect spirits who rebel against the discipline of trial to which they are subjected, and
who, therefore, have to undergo that discipline for a longer period, but who will, nevertheless, reach the
goal in time, When they shall have made up their minds to do so. The words demon, devil, might
accordingly be employed in this sense but as they have come to be understood exclusively as conveying the
meaning now shown to be false. their employment might lead into error by seeming to recognise the
existence of beings specially created for evil.
As regards the term "Satan," it is evidently a personification of the principle of evil under an allegorical
form for it is impossible to admit the existence of a being who fights against God as an independent and
rival power, and whose sole business in life is to contravene His designs. As images and figures are
necessary in order to strike the human imagination, men have pictured to themselves the beings of the
incorporeal world under a material form. with attributes indicative of their good or bad qualities. It is
thus that the ancients, wishing to personify the idea of time, represented it under the figure of an old man
with a scythe and an hour-glass. To have personified it under the figure of a youth would have been
contrary to common sense. The same may be said of the allegories of Fortune, Truth, etc. The moderns
have represented the angels or pure spirits under the form of radiant beings with white Wings-emblem of
purity Satan, with horns, claws, and the attributes of bestiality-emblems of the lowest Passions; and the
vulgar, prone to understand such representations literally, have taken these allegorical embodiments of
abstract ideas for real personalities, as they formerly did in regard to the allegorical personifications of
the old mythology.