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

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ALLAN KARDEC
for ever from His presence, comes Himself to seek you, that He may lead you back to the
fold! Prodigal children! renounce your voluntary exile, and turn your steps towards the
paternal dwelling! Your Father, with arms already opened to receive you, is waiting to
welcome you back to your home!"
LAMENNAlS
"Wars of words! wars of words! has not enough blood been already shed for words, and must
the fires of the stake he rekindled for them ? Men dispute about the words 'eternal
punishments,' 'everlasting burnings;' but do you not know that what you now understand by
eternity was not understood in the same way by the ancients ? Let the theologian consult the
sources of his faith, and he, like the rest of you, will see that, in the Hebrew text, the word
which the Greeks, the Latins, and the moderns, have translated as endless and irremissible
punishment, has not the same meaning. Eternity of punishment corresponds to eternity of
evil. Yes; so long as evil continues to exist among you, so long will punishment continue to
exist; it is in this relative sense that the sacred texts should be interpreted. The eternity of
punishments, therefore, is not absolute, but relative. Let a day come when all men shall have
donned, through repentance, the robe of innocence, and, on that day, there will be no more
weeping, wailing, or gnashing of teeth. Your human reason is, in truth, of narrow scope; but,
such as it is, it is a gift of God, and there is no man of right feeling who, with the aid of that
reason, can understand the eternity of punishment in any other sense. If we admit the eternity
of punishment, we must also admit that evil will be eternal; but God alone is eternal, and He
could not have created an eternal evil, without plucking from His attributes the most
magnificent of them all, viz., His sovereign power; for he who creates an element destructive
of his works is not sovereignly powerful. Plunge no more thy mournful glance, 0 human race!
into the entrails of the earth, in search of chastisements ! Weep, but hope; expiate, but take
comfort in the thought of a God who is entirely loving, absolutely powerful, essentially just."
PLATO
"Union with the Divine Being is the aim of human existence. To the attainment of this aim
three things are necessary-knowledge, love justice: three things are contrary to this aimignorance,
hatred, injustice. You are false to these fundamental principles when you falsify
the idea of God by exaggerating His severity; thus suggesting to the mind of the creature that
there is in it