Spiritists explain that at death the soul, or “incarnated spirit,” leaves the body​—like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. They believe that these spirits are later reincarnated as humans in order to purge sins committed in an earlier life. But there is no recollection of those earlier sins. “God considered it convenient that a veil be cast over the past,” says The Gospel According to Spiritism.

What Is the Reason for Suffering?

Much human suffering comes about because of things that unwise, inexperienced, or even wicked people do. What, though, of tragic events that cannot be directly blamed on people? For example, why are there accidents and natural disasters? Why are some children born with congenital defects? Allan Kardec viewed such things as punishments. He wrote: “If we are being punished then wrong must have been committed. If that wrong is not of the present life then it must come from a past existence.” Spiritists are taught to pray: “Lord, You are all justice. The illness You saw fit to send me must be deserved . . . I accept it as an expiation for my past and as a test of my faith and submission to Your blessed will.”​—The Gospel According to Spiritism.

Did Jesus teach such a thing? No. Jesus well knew the Bible statement: “Time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11) He knew that sometimes bad things just happen. They do not have to be a punishment for sins.

Consider this event in Jesus’ life: “As [Jesus] was passing along he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?’” The reply Jesus gave was most enlightening: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but it was in order that the works of God might be made manifest in his case. After he said these things, he spit on the ground and made a clay with the saliva, and put his clay upon the man’s eyes and said to him: ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam.’ . . . And so he went off and washed, and came back seeing.”​—John 9:1-3, 6, 7.

Jesus’ words showed that neither the man nor his parents were responsible for his congenital blindness. So Jesus gave no support to the idea that the man was being punished for sins committed in a previous life. True, Jesus knew that all humans inherit sin. But they inherit the sin of Adam, not sins they committed before they were born. Because of Adam’s sin, all humans are born physically imperfect, subject to sickness and death. (Job 14:4; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12; 9:11) In fact, that was a situation that Jesus had been sent to remedy. John the Baptizer said that Jesus was “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!”​—John 1:29.a

Notice, too, that Jesus did not say that God had deliberately caused the man to be born blind so that Jesus could come along and heal him some day. What a cruel, cynical act that would have been! Would that have brought praise to God? No. Rather, the miraculous cure of the blind man served to ‘make manifest the works of God.’ Like the many other cures Jesus performed, it reflected God’s sincere love for suffering mankind and confirmed the trustworthiness of His promise to bring an end to all human sickness and suffering in His due time.​—Isaiah 33:24.

Is it not comforting to discover that instead of causing suffering, our heavenly Father gives “good things to those asking him”? (Matthew 7:11) What glory it will bring to the Most High when the eyes of the blind are opened, the ears of the deaf are unstopped, and the lame walk, jump, and run!​—Isaiah 35:5, 6.