The Eternal World Picture, vol. 2
17.10  Reincarnation and the creation of the being "in God's image after his likeness"
As the living being's physical body is an instrument for its experience of life and for creating in physical matter, its ability to replace its physical body as it develops or evolves from one stage to another is an essential condition for its evolution or transformation from primitivity to intellectuality, from brutality to humaneness. How could a human being get a human body if reincarnation or rebirth did not exist? In such a case it would be quite impossible for the being to get an organism at all. How could the I get an organism that was appropriate to its spirit if it could not, through reincarnation, get a new organism as it developed this spirit? How could a highly developed spirit manifest itself with sufficient effectiveness through a primitive organism? Would the being not have to have a new organism for every new, higher evolutionary step its spirit passed? What would be the use of the spirit developing itself if it could not get a body that was appropriate to this development? How could a highly developed, intellectual, civilised human being manifest its "high intellectuality" and civilised state if it had not the opportunity to replace its physical organism as the spirit grew and the ensuing requirements for the organism increased? And how could the same being have got its present appropriate organism if rebirth did not exist, and liberation from its old organism was not possible, quite apart from the fact that no flesh and blood body could live the length of time necessary to transform the animal into a human being, even if it could be transformed gradually into this high stage. Yet how could a pigmy organism, not to mention an ape organism, without reincarnation or rebirth, be capable of transformation from its primitive stage into a highly developed civilised human organism appropriate to "the human being in God's image after his likeness"? Do we not have confirmation here of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3)." A little later he emphasises even more definitely to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Reincarnation or rebirth thus constitutes the absolutely only means for God's creation of "the human being in his image after his likeness". As we will now see, the entire creation of karma or fate depends on reincarnation or rebirth.
Symbol by Martinus
Symbol no. 17
Reincarnation, Cycles and Seasons