The Character of the true prophet 1 part, II

Theme: False Christs and false Prophets Source: the gospel according to Spiritsm, XXI: item, 9

THE CHARACTER OF THE TRUE PROPHET 9. Mistrust the false prophets. This recommendation is useful in all epochs, but above all in times of transition such as now when a transformation of humanity is occurring, because of a] multitude of those who are ambitious and scheming will promote themselves as reformers and messiahs. We should be on guard against these imposters and it is the duty of all honest people to unmask them. You may well ask how they can be identified. Here are the things which point them out: The command of an army is only confided to a capable general. Do you believe that God is les prudent than Man? You may be sure that He only confides important missions to those He knows are capable of fulfilling them, seeing that great missions are heavy burdens which crush those who are lacking in sufficient strength to carry them. In all things the teacher must know more than the disciple. In order to lead humanity to advance, both morally and intellectually, we must have men and women of superior intelligence and morality. This is why Spirits who are already advanced, having passed their tests in other existences, are always chosen for these missions, because if they were not superior to the ambient in which they are required to act, their effect would be nullified. Having said that, we must conclude that the true missionary of God must justify his mission through superiority, virtue, magnanimity, results and by the moralizing influence of his work. We may also take into consideration yet another consequence. If, due to their character, virtues and intelligence, they show themselves to be less than the part they purport to represent, or the person under whose name they have placed themselves, then they are nothing more than storytellers of low character, who cannot even imitate their chosen model. Another consideration is that, in the greater part, true missionaries of God are ignorant of the fact. They fulfill the mission to which they were called by the strength of character they possess, seconded by occult forces who inspire and direct them, even against their will, but without premeditation. In a word - the true prophet reveals himself by his actions and is discovered by others, whereas the false prophet declares himself to be a messenger of God. The first is humble and modest, the second is full of himself, speaks with arrogance, and as all who lie, appears to be always afraid he will not be believed. Some of these imposters have passed themselves as apostles of Christ, others as Christ Himself, and to the disgrace of all humanity, they have encountered those sufficiently credulous as to believe in their baseness. However, a simple pondering is enough to open the eyes of even the most blind in this matter. That is to say, that if Christ were to reincarnate on Earth, He would come with all His power and all His virtues; unless one admits that He had degenerated, which would be absurd. Well, in the same manner, if we were to take away even one of God's attributes, we would no longer have God. So likewise, if we take away even one of Christ's virtues, we would no longer have Christ. The question is, do those who purport to be Christ have all His virtues? Observe them, scrutinize their ideas and actions and you will recognize that apart from anything else, they lack the distinctive qualities of Christ, which are charity and humility, while abounding in all those Christ does not possess, such as covetousness and pride. Furthermore, take note that at this moment in various countries there are many supposed Christs, just as there are many Elijahs, Saint Johns or Saint Peters, and clearly it is impossible for them all to be true. You may be sure they are only creatures who exploit the credulity of others and who find it convenient to live at the expense of those who listen to them. So then, mistrust the false prophets especially at a time of renewal such as the present, because there will be many imposters who say they are from God. They try to satisfy their vanity here on Earth, but a terrible justice will befall them, of that you may be sure. - ERASTUS (Paris 1862).

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Study given at, Centro Esprita Joana dArc, S. Joo Meriti RJ on 03/ 07/ 2012. Part II to be studied on 02/ 10/ 2012

CONSIDERATIONS:
Well, if the spirit of Erasto says: that for missions there are always chosen spirits already advanced and that the true missionary of God has to justify himself by his own superiority, by his virtues, by his greatness, by the result and by the moralizing influence of his works, this in respect to the mission being important, especially from time to time, when the humanity being ready for another stage of evolution, necessitates new lights to illuminate new horizons, which are open in conformity with their progress, hence, yes, God sends or inspires men or spirits highly able for the mission which god has in His will for ourselves, being the spiritual degree of the missionary in conformity to the task that the Lord God wishes to be done. Not all tasks demand Superior Spirits, because among the Humanity there is a diversity of needs, being some simple, such as to educate children, look after sick people, to be a mother of some spirits who have need to reincarnate, to give example of faith, seek out to instruct oneself in spiritual knowledge, so as to be able to divulge ones spiritual vocation through the use of reason, there are simple tasks, but it does not leave out it to be in the service of God; God has tasks for all the Humanity, because the field of work is immensely large, since the Universe is the limit, and as one goes on from grade to grade as spirits that we are. God purposes to us to ascend spiritually in a continuation of progresses more and happier, in the House of our Father, which has many mansions, that is, many words of degrees and moral differentiated from one to another, that has God kept apart for all His Children, since of course He loves all and none whatsoever will be disinherited, and those who might be dispersed, He awaits their return to the House of their Father who stays watching out looking afar off to see them arriving, to embrace them and give a well-coming home. These nowadays it is difficult for us to accept without having any doubt the true chosen of God, even that nowadays there are theological colleges to form Pastors and Missionaries forming them religiously with acknowledgements of contexts, which attached to each other they constitute dogmas appropriated for each religious conception, accepted by worldly Christianity, and the training to the use of biblical verses, presents elementary teachings (curriculum) which are accept by almost everyone, who for having an inner religious self, do respect them, and so normally people think: God is welcome to my life, this happens without searching in those who are presented as mediums (go-between) of God, some virtues, or even attributes similar to those of Jesus, such as kindnessetc. to constitute a reference, however nowadays one is much guided by the fame of Churches and one has the use to ask: of which Church one is? People is maturing spiritually and the demand for workers is great, Jesus has planted love, a Doctrine of the Father Who had sent him, he gave example, he lived in love and he proclaimed that one should love God and ones neighbor as one self, and that one should go to the whole world teaching and living out the doctrine of love, hence, there are people with the religious vocation willing to aid their neighbor honestly, with some self-testifying which is of their own, but the lack of preparation, or ones moral-intellectual degree sometimes low, does not allow them to complete their will and they fall by the way of giving up, as their will might have been weak as straw fire, which burns for a short while, there are beginners mixed with the more experienced, and so one goes, false or not, if they take their religiosities as a profession, even without any vocation it is very sad, but if ones intention is accepted by God, it will have usefulness, and will gain merit in conformity to the task, because it is: to each one according to their works. This world is a school world, where our learning is with the moral intellectual objective and one will be here adjoined up to the paying the last farthing, the last farthing of our intimate changes, the last farthing of how many reincarnations are necessary to us, the last farthing of moralization and intellectual development which the Earth may be able to purpose, the last farthing of service given to our neighbor demanded from God. The last farthing of payment of debts of the past of which are still to be paid as from other past lives, but that the law of causes and effects demands immediately unloosing for the final rescue, being free and the setting to the spiritual freedom and in that a divine interference. God designates that what is for someone to do, He waits the time which might be necessary for him to do it, that is why I believe that on our reincarnating many times we continue the task of our last reincarnation until we conclude it, if we fail the aim in one reincarnation we suffer for that, but our willingness shall be doubled And we shall arrive to the Victory on its due time, once in victory we shall be ready to be workers of the Lord, with willingness and more confident in the objective of our task, which may be inspired to be fulfilled by us. Jesus said:
Luke.10: 1-5: [1] After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. [2] Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. [3] Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. [4] Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

[5] And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. John, IV: 35-38: 35] Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. [36] And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. [37] And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. [38] I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

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Our reality is that there is a religious historic in every country and in Brazil as a democratic free Nation, and of open hands to all peoples and creeds of cultures, there are hundreds of aggregated religions and the people in their living some with the others gain acknowledgements of a little from here a little from there, and the people live in harmony one with the other and hence the religious peace to us ward is blessed by God. And each one in his own freedom arrives to his own conclusions to choose which religion or not, to be joined and in that or in that choice one is respected by others, it is in that which Brazil is curious and to be admired, because without paying much attention, it is a paradise at least a religious one, because there is harmony and union one to another, and from the cultures of some and others, even if they be different, there is tolerance, respect and mutual acceptance, and there be a natural disaster, how much solidarity is spontaneously offered some to the others in need by the people in charity without asking of what religion they do belong, assuming that we are already in the way of goodness, if we observes that men is being more and more brotherly and solidary to the sufferings of their neighbors, Jesus said: I was hungry and you gave me to eat.

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Let us have some backing up to our study and meditation, in the Allan Kardecs book Gnesis chapter, XVIII: items, 3 to 5 & items, 15, 16 and 17:
3. While this progressive movement of harmony is inevitable, because it is natural, it does not follow that God is indifferent to it, and that, after having established laws, he is now in inactive state, leaving things to take care of themselves. His laws are eternal and immutable without doubt, but only because his will itself is eternal and constant, and that his thought animates constantly all things. His thought which penetrates all things is the intelligent and permanent force which keeps all in harmony. If this thought should one movement cease to act, the universe would be like a clock without a pendulum. God watches, then, incessantly over the execution of His laws; and the spirits who populate space are his ministers charged with the details according to the unfoldment of their functions in their degree of advancement. 4. the Universe is at the same time an incommensurable mechanism, conducted by a number no less incommensurable intelligences, an immense government, where every intelligent being has his active part assigned him under the eye of the Sovereign Master, whose unique will maintains unity everywhere. Under the empire of this vast regulating power, all moves, all operates in perfect order. That which seems like perturbations to us are partial and isolated movements, which appear irregular only because our sight is circumscribed. If our vision could embrace the whole, we would see that these irregularities are only apparent, and that they harmonize with all. 5. Humanity has already accomplished incontestable progress. Men by their intelligence have attained to a knowledge of the sciences, arts, and material comforts never reached before. An immense progress still remains for them to realize, which is to make charity, fraternity, and union reign among them in order to assure to them their moral well-being. They could never accomplish this progress with their present beliefs, their superannuated institutions, which are remains of another age, good for a certain epoch, sufficient for a transitory state, but which, having given all that it has to give, would only be a hindrance now. It is not only the development of intelligence which is necessary to men, it is the elevation of sentiment; and for that reason it is necessary to destroy all that which excites in them undue selfishness or pride. Such is the period upon which they arte entering, and which will mark one of the most important phases of humanity. This phase, which is being elaborated at this moment, is the necessary complement of the precedent state, as the mainly age is that of youth. It could then be foreseen and predicted in advance, and thus they say that the times appointed by God have come.

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15. Whoever has meditated upon Spiritism and its consequences, and circumscribes it not to the production of a few phenomena, comprehends that it opens to harmony a new way, and unrolls to it infinite horizons. By initiating it into the mysteries of the invisible world, it shows to it its true role in creation, a perpetually active one, as well to the

spiritual to state as to the corporeal one. Man marches blindly no more. He knows from whence he came, where he is going and why he is on Earth. The future shows its reality to him, rid of prejudice of ignorance and superstition. It is no more a vague hope; it is a palpable truth, as certain to him as the succession of day and night. He knows that his being is not limited to a few instances of an ephemeral existence; that the spiritual life is not interrupted by death; that he has already lived, that he will live again, and that of all he has acquired in perfection by labor nothing has been lost. He finds in his anterior existences the reason for that which now he is; and, by that which man is doing now, he can conclude that which he will be someday.

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16. The idea that individual cooperation and activity in the general work of civilization has been limited to the present life, that one has been nothing and will be nothing, gives to man no incentive for the present or future. What matters it to him that in the future man will be better governed, happier, more enlightened, kinder to one another, since it bearers no fruit for him? Is not this progress lost upon him? What good it will do him to work for posterity if he will never be acquainted with it, if it is composed of strangers who will, after a little, enter themselves into nothingness? Under the empire of a denial of a future for the individual, all forcibly shrinks to the narrow proportions of the moment and of personality. But on the contrary, what amplitude is given to the thought of man by a certainty of the perpetuity of his spiritual being? What can be more national, grander, more worthy of the Creator, according to which the spiritual and corporeal life are only two modes of existence which alternate themselves for the accomplishment of progress? What can be more just, more consoling, than the idea of the same beings progressing without ceasing, at first through generations on the same Earth, afterwards, from world to world onward and upward to perfection, without solution of continuity? All actions have, then, an object, for, by working for all, one works for himself, and reciprocally. As long as individual or general progress is never sterile in its results, it is profitable to future generations and individuals, who are no other than the past generations and individualities arrived at a higher degree of advancement. 17. Fraternity must be the cornerstone of the new social life. But there is no real, solid, and effective fraternity if it has not been supported upon an unchangeable base. This base is faith, not the faith in such and such particular dogmas, which change with time and people, and at which the stone is cast, and in anathematizing it they sustain the antagonism to it, but the faith in fundamental principles which all the world can accept, - God, the soul, the future, individual progress as well as indefinite, the perpetuity of connection between individuals. When all men shall be convinced that God is the same to all; that this God, sovereignly just and good, can will no injustice; that evil comes from men, and not from him they will regard themselves a children of the same Father, and will extend to him the hand. It is this faith which is given to Spiritism, and which will henceforth be the pivot upon which human beings will move, whatever be their mode of adoration and their particular beliefs.

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What amplitude is given to the thought of man by a certainty of the perpetuity of his spiritual being? The word spiritual being here means our soul our spirit, the breath which animates the body, but because of ignorance, many think that it is but for one solely life, that has no continuity, and reckon: if died is finished, but if it were so, by nature of that, we would be everyone for himself, each one taking care of himself, selfishness would be the law, greed would be the law, the strongest would be the one to conquer the goods of the weak one, pillage, thieving, blood spread killing, iron and fire would be the law, brutality would be amplified more and more, no one would preach love, because all would think the same way selfishly and proudly, etc. With their pride they would have hanging in their necks the skulls of that many they might have killed; it certainly would be the law of the stronger, of the fastest, it would be a land of bang, bang, the fastest would survive and it augment his pride. However thanks be given to god, that it is not so, but a continuation of life, survival of the spirit, a constant progress, moral and intellectual evolution jumping on and on degrees of merits, joys and happiness to be acquired, eternal life of the spirit, reincarnating or not, programs and projects inspired to be elaborated with taste, joy, spontaneity and love, in ones own feelings to feel in those workers the radiation of the eternal life exposed to whomever has eyes to see. Oh, how it is different to those who have eyes of faith, faith in God, faith in the future, faith in oneself, faith in a betterment of oneself, faith in the blessings of God,, faith for the others so that the Lord might bless them too, nothing of selfishness of wanting Heaven just for oneself, nothing of pride in thinking and wishing that others should go to hell, since they feel they are saved on the way to Heaven, true or not, that is very sad, the best is to live nicely some with the others, loving each other, forgiving each other, in fraternity, solidarity, in love, in tolerance, in good advises, in good education, in healthy culture, in comprehension, in patience some with the others, thats rightly yes,

so it must be, been it good for everyone! And we shall all be what we really are, spirits in evolution and progress in the Celestial direction, by the grace and will of God! . *****

As a final back up, let us see the question number: 793 of the Spirits Book:
793. By what signs shall we know when a civilization has reached its apogee? "You will know it by its moral development. You believe yourselves to be considerably advanced, because you have made great discoveries and wonderful inventions, because you are better lodged and better clothed than the savages; but you will only have the right to call yourselves 'civilized' when you have banished from your society the vices that dishonor it, and when you live among yourselves like brothers, practicing Christian charity. Until then, you are merely enlightened nations, having traversed only the first phase of civilization" Civilization has its degrees like everything else. An incomplete civilization is a state of transition which engenders special evils unknown to the primitive state; but it none the less constitutes a natural and necessary progress. which brings with it the remedy for the evils it occasions. In proportion as civilization becomes perfected. it puts an end to the ills it has engendered, and these ills disappear altogether with the advance of moral progress. Of two nations which have reached the summit of the social scale, that one may be called the most advanced in which is found the smallest amount of selfishness, cupidity, and pride: in which the habits are more moral and intellectual than material; in which intelligence can develop Itself most freely; in which there is the greatest amount of kindness, good faith, and reciprocal benevolence and generosity; in which the prejudices of caste and of birth are the least rooted, for those prejudices are incompatible with the true love of the neighbor; in which tree laws sanction no privilege, and are the same for the lowest as for the highest; in which justice is administered with the least amount of partiality; in which the weak always finds support against the strong; in which human life, beliefs, and opinions are most respected; in which there is the smallest number of the poor and the unhappy; and, finally, in which every man who is willing to work is always sure of the necessaries of life.

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It is not of the will of God that in the world evil may prevail, nor that anyone may get lost, and the world only will be a generating world when all men be good men, and that may live in harmony, tolerance, peace and love throughout, because love generates love as much as other virtues, we do need less pride, less hate, less covetousness of what does belong to others, less ambition of wanting what belongs to someone else, or covet someone elses merit, less greediness of the material world, regarding that we are here temporarily, if one cannot help, at least one should not get on someones way producing them, as it seems there is who loves to push down others, it is as pulling down those who have success in life just for the sake of jealousy, we need less vengeance, less attitudes of grandeur and of superiority some of the others, we do need to be humble of hearts, not in the sense of leaving others to peel out ourselves thinking ourselves that, that it is a way of giving love, no, each one has to carry his own cross, his own responsibility, his own duty before the laws of God and of the jurisdictive of ones country, one has to be contented and satisfied of what one possesses according to ones own merits, it is not easy to be Christian, but the times have come, for us not to be childish anymore but adults in spiritual maturity, because in the laws designated by God, it is on giving that one does receive, it is loving that one is loved and so on, and so forth! The one who is greatest in condition ought to aid the one who is in most need, be it material need, be it in culture or education need, be it in the moral or spiritual need, one should have in conscience the law of love which Jesus had brought and gave example and mentioned: that he did not come to be served, but to serve. Let us be aware that the world contains a huge diversity of spirits in a much varied graduation, even those who do prejudice us if we do not be watchfully, therefore the need of the helping each other, however, careful in that which belongs to us, because we too do have our needs and responsibilities before God, family and our near neighbor, hence to live a dignified and balanced life. Well, May the Lord be with us, as formerly, today and always.