HEAVEN AND HELL
Spiritistiska Studiegruppen
Stockholm, Sweden, 06 Feb 2016
Humberto Werdine
[email protected]
FIRST MESSAGE
Christianity is by far the largest
religion in the world, with more
than 2.2 Billion followers, around 33%
of the world's population.
Within the Christian
denomination, the Catholicism
has more than 1.2 billion
followers. The remaining are
shared by the Lutherans (72 Million), Ortodhoxes
Orthodox (300 million), Evangelics
(600 Million ), Anglicans and others.
SWEDEN x RELIGION
Religiosity in Sweden plays a limited role
compared to the European average and even
many church members participate in religious
activities for only cultural reasons, and do not
believe in Christianity.
Atheism and agnosticism are widespread in
Swedish society. In a Eurobarometer Poll in 2010,
just 18% of Swedish citizens responded that
"they believe there is a god", although a further
45% answered that "they believe there is some
sort of spirit or life force".
SWEDEN x RELIGION
Almost eight out of ten Swedes are either "not religious"
or "convinced atheists", according to a new global study
that concludes the Nordic nation is the least religious in
the West.
However around 70 % of the Swedes declare themselves
as Lutherans.
The same study shows that globally, only China, Hong
Kong and Japan have more atheists than Sweden.
 The study was carried out by polling firm WIN/Gallup
International as part of its 2014 End of Year Survey, with
the data on religious beliefs in 63 countries
One of the most crucial questions
people ask themselves for Thousands
of years
Death is certain… is
there life after this life,
after death?
Heaven and Hell - Christianity
The teachings from Christianity include Hell and
Heaven as the places where the souls go after death.
The Catholicism also believe that there is another
place, between Hell and Heaven, named Purgatory.
In USA, research from PEW
Research Center in 2014 showed
that people believed more in
Heaven (72%) than in
Hell (58%)
The Budhism
The Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is entirely
different from that in other religions. Buddhists do
not accept that these places are eternal. It is
unreasonable to condemn a man to eternal hell for
his human weakness but quite reasonable to give him
every chance to develop himself.
The Budhism
From the Buddhist point of view, those who go to hell
can work themselves upward by making use of the
merit that they had acquired previously. There are no
locks on the gates of hell. Hell is a temporary place
and there is no reason for those beings to suffer there
forever.
The Budhism teaches Reincarnation as means to
reach the Nirvana (the same as Heaven)
The Islam and the after life
Muslims believe in the continued existence of the
soul and a transformed physical existence after death.
Islam teaches that there will be a day of judgment
when all humans will be divided between the eternal
destinations of Paradise and Hell.
Not that much difference in relation to Christianity.
The Hinduism
Hinduism is a religion that believes in
reincarnation based on karma. In Hinduism, there
are three types of karma: that of past lives, that of the
present life, and that of the lives not yet lived. This
karma will determine in what entity they will be born
in their next life, with the goal of eventually being
released from the rebirth cycle to reach moksha.
The Hinduism
Moksha is a state of enlightenment that can only be
achieved through a series of good deeds from one life
to the next. Once Moksha is reached, there is no
more suffering and ultimate self-realization comes
into focus during that life. From there, with the
rebirth cycle broken, the final step is Ioka (heaven).
¿Su Santidad, ¿Cual es la mejor
religión?
Number of religions in
the world = 4.200,
12 the main ones.
(jul/2010, site
www.examiner.com).
A Summary
Some initial conclusions.
Christians and Muslims believe in Hell and Heaven
and do not believe in Reincarnation. They account for
around 55% of the world’s faiths.
Around 25% of the world’s religious people do not
believe in Hell neither Heaven. They believe in
Reincarnation as the means to purify their souls.
Hell and Heaven according the Bible and the Torah
The traditions and the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, the
Torah and the Bible says in many of their chapters about physical
places on Earth (Hell) and in the upper space (Heaven).
According to these books, Heaven is reserved for the Justs of the Old
Testament, the angels, the Christians, for Jesus and God. See Hb 12,
22-23. Hell is reserved for the Non Christians, the evildoers and for
the decayed angels.
Hell and Heaven according to the Catolicism
The baptized faithful go to Heaven, because God has
accepted the sacrifice of His (Her) son Jesus and his
blood washed away all sins of the the Christemdom
(see Roman 5, 6/10 and Colossenses 1, 12/14).
As consequence, the non-faithful, the Pagans and noChristians go to Hell.
Hell and Heaven according to the Christianity
Hell according to the Christian faith is a physical place, a
lake of eternal fire. When the end of the times arrive,
there will be the ressurection of the death. The evildoers
and Non Christians will have their new bodies burnt in a
much more painful punishment, because in addition to
the spirit, the body will burn for the eternity. (Apoc 2o,
11-15)
The Spiritism
Spiritism is a religious philosophy or a philosophy
with profound religious principles.
It has a deep respect for all religions.
Spiritism is Christian as it teaches that Jesus was
the most important spirit ever incarnated in our
Planet.
The Spiritism
Spiritism teaches about Reincarnation and do not
believe in eternal punishment (Hell) or eternal
happiness (Heaven).

Because nobody is so evil to deserve a eternal
punishment in Hell, neither so good to go to
“Heaven”
Spiritism believes and teaches that we are souls
that migrate and travel through the cycle birthlife-death-life in the spiritual world-birth-lifedeath-life in the spiritual world and so on
towards purification.
Allan Kardec
The Spiritism, was codified by Allan Kardec, codename of the French
professor Leon Denizart Rivail, during 15 years, since its studies and
experimentations in 1854 until his death in 1869. Five books were written:
The Spiritists Book, The book of the Mediumns, The Gospel according to the
Spiritism , the Genesis and Heaven and Hell.
The book Phostumous Works, compiled by the direction of the Parisien
Society of Spiritists Studies in 1890 is also part of the Spiritist Codification.
The Book of Spirits with 1019 questions and answers
initiated a philosophical movement inside the
Spiritism by giving answers to the
paramount questions of the mankind:
'Who and what am I?' 'Where did I come
from?' 'What am I doing here?
'Where am I going?'
The key questions
The answers to the questions
625 and 627 were the ones that
made Kardec to rethink the
path and the destiny of the
Spiritism, its philosophical
caracter that included
profound religious
consequences.
Question 625 BE
Q. What is the most perfect type that God has offered to
man as his guide and model?
A.
Jesus…
Question 627 BE
Since the true laws of God have
been taught by Jesus, what is the
use of the teachings given by
spirits? Have they anything more
to teach us?
Answer to the Q 627
"The teachings of Jesus were often allegoric, and
conveyed in parables; because He spoke according
to the time and place in which He lived. The time
has now come when the truth must be made
intelligible for all. It is necessary to explain and
develop the divine laws, because few among you
understand them, and still fewer practise them...
Answer to the Q 627
"... Our mission is to strike the eyes and ears
of all, in order to confound pride, and to
unmask the hypocrisy of those who assume
the outward appearances of virtue and of
religion as a cloak for their turpitudes.
Answer to the Q 627
We are charged to prepare the reign of good announced
by Jesus; to furnish the explanations that will render it
impossible for men to continue to interpret the law
of God according to their passions, or to pervert the
meaning of what is wholly a law of love and of kindness."
The next book
The Gospell according to the Spiritism was
published in 1864 and it caused the fury of the
Church against its teachings, because the book
firmly attacks eternal punishment and other
points on which the Clergy supports their
influence and credit. It was cried it heresy and it
immediattely
entered
into
the
Index
Prohibitorum
The following book
Thus, after the book The Gospel According to
Spiritism, who taught a friendly Christ and treated
God as Father, incapable of condemning their
children to a perennial torment, it would be
necessary to teach the followers of Spiritism what
type of life exists in the hereafter, what kind of
punishments and consolations are there in this new
plane of life
The following book
To demonstrate the absurdity of eternal hellfire
and contemplative happiness in Heaven, a new
book arrived in 1865 named Heaven and Hell
with the subtitle The divine justice according to
the Spiritism.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONING
If we really have only one shot at
eternity in either heaven or hell, what
happens to those whose lives are cut
short by war or cancer? Why people are
born blind and handicapped? And if
God can simply wipe away all of our
past mistakes by Grace, is there a point
to our actions on earth?
The reencarnation and the traditional Christian
Churches
There are several theologians and exegetes not
spiritualists who claim that reincarnation and the
pre - existence of the soul were taught in the Old
Testament (the Torah) and by Jesus and therefore
were taught by his apostles and the first Fathers
of the Church.
The Reincarnation in the Old Testament
and in Torah
"I was given a sound body to live in because I was
already good." (Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20).
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
before you came to birth I consecrated you; I have
appointed you as a prophet to the nations“ (Jer I, 5).
The Reincarnation in the Jewish Kabbalism
Q. Why are there evildoers who are well off and
righteous who suffer evil?
A: Because the righteous man was an evildoer in
the past and is now being punished.
Q. Is one then punished for his childhood deeds?
A. I am not speaking of his present lifetime. I am
speaking
about what he has already been
previously.
(Text Sefer ha Bahir of 1180)
The Reincarnation in the New
Testament (Matt 11)
12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent take it by force. 13. For all the prophets and
the law prophesied until John. 14. And if ye will
receive [it], this is Elias, which was for to come.
15. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
The Reincarnation in the New
Testament (Luc 9)
18. And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his
disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying,
Whom say the people that I am? 19. They answering
said, John the Baptist; but some [say], Elias; and
others [say], that one of the old prophets is risen
again.
The citations about the secret
teachings of Jesus
“The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to
you. But to those on the outside everything is said in
parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never
perceiving, and ever hearing but never
understanding…'” (Mark 4:11-12)
The citations about the secret
teachings of Jesus
"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom
among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or
of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that
has been hidden and that God destined for our glory
before time began." (1 Cor. 2:6-8)
The citations about the secret
teachings of Jesus
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to
explain because you are slow to learn. In fact,
though by this time you ought to be teachers, you
need someone to teach you the elementary truths of
God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid
food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an
infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about
righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who
by constant use have trained themselves to
distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:11-14)
Some of the secret teachings of Jesus
"Watch and pray that you may not be born in the
flesh, but that you may leave the bitter bondage of
this life." (Book of Thomas the Contender 9:5)
"This soul needs to follow another soul in whom the
Spirit of life dwells, because she is saved through the
Spirit. Then she will never be thrust into flesh
again." (Secret Book of John 14:20)
Some of the secret teachings of Jesus
"When you see your likeness, you are happy. But
when you see your images that came into being
before and that neither die nor become visible, how
much you will bear!" (Gospel of Thomas, saying 84)
Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi
Codex
DSS found in Egypt beween 1946 and 1954 and the
NHC found also in Egypt in 1945
Origen and Arius
Origen (185-254) of Alexandria was a third century
Church Father who taught about reincarnation and
the soul’s opportunity to become one with God. He
wrote many books about it and his works fell into
disfavor with the Church in the fifth and sixth
centuries. His books were burned, and he was
declared heretic.
One of his most important books is On First
Principles.
Origen and reencarnation
“Every soul ... comes into this world strengthened by the
victories or weaknesses of the previous life. His place in
this world, as a chosen vessel to honor or dishonor , is
determined on their merits or demerits. His work in this
world determines its life in the future world. "
Arius
Arius was a Libyan priest of the fourth century that
caused a theological tsunami in the Church by
basically demonstrating that the teachings of Origen
were correct and that man can become one with
God, throughout his lives emulating the teachings of
Jesus.
The Arian position had the potential to erode the
authority of the Church since it implied that the
soul did not need the Church to achieve salvation!
The reencarnation and the Church
But for the leaders of the early Church, it was a
dangerous philosophy. If salvation could be achieved
through reincarnations, the Church would not be
necessary.
So to maintain power over the faithful, the ideal
would be to ban the teachings about the
Reincarnation and teaches that salvation would only
be possible through the Church and its rituals. If not,
hell was the place for them.
Origen and Arius
The process against Arius was named Arian
Controversy and gave the background and the
reasons for the Roman Emperor Constantine to call
the Council of Nicea in the year of 325.
Very similarly to what happened with Origen, Arius
was excommunicated, declared heretic and his
books burned.
Origen and Arius
The Council of Nicea could hardly be called
ecumenical. Out of 1800 Christian bishops, scarcely
300 attended, being only 7 from the Latin speaking
West, where the reincarnation teachings were
widely accepted.
Anyway it was the first
important blow to the
reincarnation philosophy.
Reincarnation x Original Sin
But with the abolishment of the reincarnation
philosophy, one big problem was created that is
how to explain the human suffering and the
inequalities of the human being?
The church took almost 150 years to find a partial
alternative for the reincarnation: the original sin
doctrine crafted by Saint Augustin and approved by
the Council of Orange in the year of 529.
The reencarnacion and the Church
This dogma explains human suffering as having been
caused by Adam's disobedience to God and have fallen
into temptation to sin through his wife Eve .
This philosophy teaches that mankind is naturally bad
and today pay the mistakes of Adam and Eve, our
ancestral biological parents through suffering .
The reencarnacion and the Church
So, we are born with original sin, transmitted through the
semen during the intercourse that gave our origin.
After over a hundred years of intense debate, the theory
gained strength and was approved as dogma and doctrine
of faith in 529 at the Council of Orange.
The Council of Constantinople
The Council of Constantinople gave the second and fatal
blow in the Reincarnation philosophy. It was called by
the Emperor Justinian in 543.
Emperor Justinian wanted Origen’s writings and
teachings to be condemned and destroyed but Pope
Virgilius refused to sign a papal decree condemning
Origen's teachings on reincarnation. As a result of his
disobedience, the Emperor had the Pope arrested and
put into jail.
The Council of Constantinople
The decisions of the Council were only approved by the
next Pope Pelagius I, a name imposed by Justiniano after
the death of the Pope Virgilius :
“If anyone asserts the fabulous preexistence of
monstrous
restoration which follows from it: let
souls,
and
shall
assert
the
him be anathema. (The Anathemas against Origen),
attached to the decrees of the Fifth Ecumenical
Council, A.D. 545, in Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, 2d ser., 14: 318).”
The doctrine of the
Purgatory
But the doctrine of the original sin brought another problem. It
explained the reasons for the human suffering, however why
some people suffer more than others? Why these sufferings are
different if the sin was the same?
Well, in 549 the Pope Gregory I approved the existence of an
intermediate place between Hell and Heaven, a place of purging
of the sins where the souls wait for the purification of their sins
to go to Heaven.
The Purgatory caused tremendous controversy that it took
almost 1000 years to be formally approved in the Council of
Trento in 1563.
The Purgatory
Unfortunately, with the invention of Purgatory, the
Catholic Church has developed the figure of the selling of
the Indulgences, which were offered to the relatives of the
dead so that they, the dead could spend less time in
Purgatory and swiftly go to Heaven .
This practice – very lucrative triggered the Protestant
Reformation by Martin Luther.
The substitute doctrine
The combination of the doctrine of original sin together
with the doctrine of Purgatory is what the Catholic
Church offers the faithful instead of the reincarnation.
For most of the Reformed Churches, only the grace of
God can take the souls to the Heaven, independent on
their deeds on Earth.
Conclusions
Hell and Heaven as places of eternal reward or sufferings
are not logical.
Reincarnation is the meaning of the Divine Justice.
Hell and Hell are states of the soul. We build, we harvest
our own private hell or heaven.
Conclusions
Jesus' teachings are much easier to understand with the
knowledge of the reincarnation. The Sermon of the
Mount, as the song of hope never equaled is only
understandable if the reincarnation is used as a key to
open their teachings.
Some references
Bibliografia
Bibliography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Heaven and Hell (AK)
Book Whose words is it? Bart Ehrman
Book Reincarnation- The Missing link in Christianity Elisabeth Clare
Prophet
Book Nicaea and its legacy Lewis Ayres
Book Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New
Testament Bart Ehrman
Book From Jesus to Christianity L.Michael White
Images from Internet