I. Inner Evolution and Outer Possibilities for Development

This bleak prospect would only apply if the conclusion drawn from it were the right one. But it is not the right conclusion, because the matter is different. It is absolutely true that what our soul would not have acquired in the ancient Egyptian, Indian, Persian, Greek times, it could no longer make up for today, that would be impossible. The only thing is that at present, in our time, there are the first incarnations of man at all in which one can consciously, through one's own fault, miss something in this direction. And that will continue for some time. And now there can also be an explanation for why spiritual science is only now beginning to come into the world: because only now are people beginning to have the opportunity to miss out on something. Now these truths must begin to reach people, because now people are beginning to have incarnations in which, if they are not properly applied, it would be more difficult to make up for what has been missed in later earthly conditions. And now it is also the case that people, if they only want to, can access the spiritual scientific explanation of reincarnation and karma and other spiritual scientific truths, so that they do not need to burden themselves with this guilt. Spiritual science will do everything in the coming centuries and millennia to ensure that people have the opportunity to use these incarnations in the right way and do not need to take on this guilt. It does not matter so much for a single incarnation, but if in our age, which has just begun and will last 2000 to 3000 years, two to three incarnations are used in such a way that one has not extracted the right thing from what one can gain on earth, then one will have missed something important in the following times. That is why spiritual science is now emerging and telling people how important it is to use their incarnations in the right way.