Has God abandoned us?

Paulo Degering R Jr
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“God will be ahead”; “God will not allow this or that fact to happen”. But then the fact, seen as negative, is consummated. And at that moment, the faith of many fades. “How could God allow such a thing?” many will ask. We will address and face this problem in the following lines.

Many, in moments of suffering, injustice, barbarism, fall into this questioning and, without having a concrete answer, see their faith almost crumbling, to the point where they often turn away from religion and spirituality, falling into the grip of materialism. This movement occurs only for one reason: because we are almost entirely based on false ideas. Now the false idea, being false, does not stand against the natural law. It is denied and collapses, before the course of the divine law, no matter our protests. Was this divine impiety? Or, worse, would all this demonstrate that God does not exist?

We talk about false ideas. Now, one of them is that God interferes in our choices. Another is that God would have an opposite, the Devil. Both are linked to the same problem: the false assumption that we are guided, either by God, or by the Devil, or by the “forces”, either by the stars or by the “universe”. It is the false idea of heteronomy, which, created on a philosophical doctrine that dominates society, makes us fall into these moral and intellectual traps.

The question, therefore, is: is it wrong to reason, if this reasoning leads us away from God? Would human science be reprehensible in this sense? I say: the problem is not in reasoning, but in reasoning on false principles. Since man is God's creation, so is his intellect. To deny the intellect, the reasoning, would be to deny God. Reasoning is necessary – it is an imposition of the law – and, when reasoning leads us to a denial of the law (here, referring to the natural, divine law) and of reason itself, it means that we are basing ourselves on a false idea, which leads to false results.

I will not spend time stressing the impossibility of the existence of a force contrary to God, or even the non-existence of evil. Allan Kardec has already done an excellent and unassailable job in the works Heaven and hell and The Genesis. We recommend to the reader the study, preferably based on FEAL editions. We also recommend the reader who has never studied Spiritism, and who has only inexact ideas about this doctrine, to read the booklet “Spiritism in its simplest expression”, available for download at the button below.

Click to download “Spiritism in its simplest expression”

Let's talk about the impossibility of the interference of God, Jesus or any superior being in our choices, asking: how is any learning really established in ourselves? By imposition, or by the exercise of reason? Of course, the answer can only be the latter, otherwise life itself would be meaningless, and all materialistic logic would be right.

Let us imagine the situation of a father and his son. The first is the best father we can imagine: centered, affable, sensible, fraternal, but energetic, as well as intelligent and very wise. The second is a rebellious son, with a “strong temper”, as some would say. Despite all his father's efforts, this son insists on making decisions contrary to his recommendations, always ignoring his thoughtful warnings. One day, the son says to his father: “I'm going to a party with Dona Maria's children”, to which the father replies: “son, be careful. They, unfortunately, do not listen to reason. They are always involved with bad people, with drugs and I know that, recently, they have even been involved in some cases of robberies”. The son replies, “Bullshit, Dad. I'm going!".

This father would have two choices: the first would be to use his physical and moral strength to physically prevent his son from leaving home in such bad company; the other would be to always warn him, but leave it to his free and autonomous choice of what to do. It was always this second choice that she decided to make, since her son's childhood. He believes that it is only through his own choices and their results, and not through imposition, that the child will really learn what he is still unable to learn through reason and intuition.

The son leaves and, hours later, the father receives a call: it's from the police. They are saying that the son was involved in a case of armed robbery and, although he was not the one to draw the weapon, he was arrested for collaborating with the group, taking a woman's purse and necklace, a fact pointed out by the two children. of Dona Maria, who wanted to see their feathers reduced. Sadness overwhelms this father, who, however, does not become unhappy: “I did all I could do”, he has on his conscience. Convicted after trial, his son spends the next eight years of his life behind bars, while he visits him weekly, advising and morally encouraging him. The other two are in the same prison and, once companions of vagrancy, now subject him to vexatious acts. The son says he is sorry, but if it is just remorse, for the punishment received, or if it is moral repentance for the acts performed, only time will tell.

This little allegory demonstrates that God, incomparable to this father, whose morals and way of acting cannot be criticized in a single point, could not act differently, always leaving us free will and choice as fundamental tools of our evolution. . And that, transposed to the social level, explains everything that affects us through these means. God gives us matter as a tool of the Spirit, but he guarantees us free will, always. Of course, it does not abandon us – on the contrary: through its own creation, which is solidary, we are constantly influenced by Spirits more advanced than ourselves, who, however, do not put obstacles in the way of our choices:

“To elevate himself, a man must be tried. To prevent their action and put an obstacle in their free will would be to go against God and in this case the tests would become useless, because the spirits would not commit faults. Spirit was created simple and ignorant. In order to reach the happy spheres, it is necessary for him to progress and to rise in knowledge and wisdom, and it is only in adversity that he acquires an elevated heart and better understands the greatness of God.”

Quote from São Luis in the Spiritist Magazine of November 1858

Let's see: it was the people themselves - which is a mass of individuals, each with their choices - who elected and glorified Hitler, who, inflaming materialistic pride, led the nation to that state of barbarism. It was, moreover, the people who, inflamed against the truths that hurt their pride or seduced by gold, chose to release Barabbas, condemning Jesus to martyrdom. And from that, what followed, if not a lot of learning, in the midst of absolutely adverse conditions?

But how to explain, within this dynamic, the suffering of those who no fall into the bad choices? We speak of those who, by their own will and for a different state of spiritual progress, make better choices, more connected to the morality of the divine law.

Now, in the same way that that father suffered, limiting his life in many aspects, to be with his son, doing him the good of seeking to help him exercise his reason; in the same way that the apostles of Jesus suffered, who, far from throwing themselves at arms, threw themselves at good, through the propagation of the ideas of Christ. They are proofs, derived from natural law. They are not arbitrary impositions of a wrathful God, with the purpose of collecting debts, but only consequences of divine law, which imposes effects that, in one way or another, bring learning to the Spirit. the natural law imposes that a layer of the earth's crust, under pressure from the mantle, may crack, causing earthquakes or the explosion of volcanoes, whose effects will inevitably bring difficulties. This same law dictates that our choices will produce effects, which, of course, are not the result of a system of sin and punishment, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” or “karma”.

Look: the father did not choose that the son make those decisions, any more than the Jews chose that Hitler was elected. A person, murdered by a criminal, did not choose to be murdered: it was the criminal who chose to commit the crime, without reflection. Because we are incarnated, we are subject to the choices of others, and that is not a penance imposed by God: on the contrary, it is a reflection of the natural law, which brings us, I repeat once more, learning, useful for our progress. Now, how many Jews, imprisoned and treated like animals, have not seen their souls lifted by the exercise of fraternity and faith, while they dealt with so many and suffered adversities? An example: Anne Frank, who lived for two years locked in an attic, with her family, without being able to make a sound, went from the state of hatred of her mother to the state of brotherly pity, and probably learned a lot from it. The Spirit of the person murdered by a criminal may learn a lot from this, or may become attached to the fact, which may cause him suffering. One way or another, you will learn, after all, as we know, the end of a life in matter does not represent the end of the Spirit's progress.

For the freed Spirit, the suffering of the flesh is nothing more than a passing detail, which he gets rid of with happiness, when carried out in God's time, and with commitment to learning, or to which he is even more narrow, when carried out with rebellion. or ended before its time, by the pitiful act of ending one's own life – and that, once again, not by an act of divine punishment, but by the very condition of connection to the matter in which this Spirit is placed.

God, after all, has not abandoned us, and he does not have any material suffering or a single injustice that demonstrates that he is not, in fact, “in charge”. It is enough that we disconnect from the false idea that it interferes in our choices, individually and collectively, as well as from the idea that the individual who acts in evil is being guided by a power contrary to God. No: everything stems from choices, relative to the moral and intellectual state of each one. The evil that arises from these choices does not exist by itself, for the individual is only choosing with a view to satisfying his own desires and inclinations, which, at the root of the problem, is linked to selfishness and pride. Kardec would say, in the Spiritist Magazine of August 1863:

So why evil and how to explain it? Evil does not come from a primitive fall that would have changed all conditions of human life. He has because of the non-fulfillment of God's law and the disobedience of man, misuse of free will.

These very deep roots are not destroyed with an axe: they need to be slowly unearthed by a continuous effort, in which education and fraternity play a fundamental role.

God, far from seeing himself diminished by this, exalts himself in all his attributes, as he gives us autonomy, progress through his own effort and the opportunity for learning and teaching: those who are a little above, teach those who are a little below. , in all the infinite levels of evolution.

Thus, everything is connected, everything is linked in the Universe. Everything is subject to the great and harmonious law of unity, from the most compact materiality to the purest spirituality. The Earth is like a vessel from which a thick smoke escapes, which is rarefied as it rises, and whose rarefied parts are lost in infinite space.

The divine power shines in all parts of this grandiose ensemble, and yet they wanted, to better prove the power if God, that he, not content with this, come to disturb this harmony! Let him lower himself to the role of a magician with puerile effects, worthy of a conjuror! And they dare, in addition, to rival him in skill with Satan himself! Never has the divine majesty been lowered so low, and they are astonished at the progress of unbelief!

There is reason to say, "Faith is gone!" But it is faith in everything that shocks common sense and reason; faith similar to that which, in times past, caused them to say: “The gods are gone!” But faith in serious things, faith in God and immortality is always alive in the heart of man and has been smothered by the silly stories with which they oppressed. It rises stronger, as soon as it is released, as a plant in a dark place recovers when it receives the rays of the Sun again!

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis, 1868. FEAL Publisher.

As for the question “Does God exist?”, we will answer that it is enough to look at everything we have said, with a gaze elevated above matter, and the observation cannot be different. However, if your reason still struggles with the things you've learned, give the aforementioned works a chance, and study them. Very likely, you will find, there, a rationality so clear, brilliant, that you will find the answers you are looking for so much.

One last observation: we said at the beginning that, in the face of the fact, seen as negative, many faint. From our narrow earthly view, everything is negative, everything is bad, everything is retrogression. Let us look, however, to the past: how many advances, in all fields of humanity, were harvested from adversities? How much learning? This means that, although God does not interfere arbitrarily, his Law is perfect, and everything converges to a single point: progress, which is irresistible.

Optimism, therefore. Let's keep studying and doing our part. No individual, much less the world, will be changed by imposition or violence – and here is the collapse of many materialist systems and ideologies, which continue to seduce many incautious ones – but only by the autonomous will. and conscious of each individual. Forward: the work is great, it begins with ourselves and spreads in fraternity to the next. I leave, on here, a suggestion of excellent studies.

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