SPIRITISM and Salvation.

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Source: the Gospel according to Spiritism, XV: 9 e 10 - The Spirits’ Book, a choice
of questions,.
Allan Kardec, ‘Genesis’, I: 38.

THE NEED FOR CHARITY ACCORDING TO SAINT PAUL

6. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity I am become as sounding
brass, or a tinkling cymbal And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all the mysteries and all
knowledge; and though I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, lam nothing. And
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity it
profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, dot not
behave itself unseemly, skeet not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but
rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. And now
abideth faith, hope, charity these three; but the greatest of these is charity (SAINT PAUL, I Corinthians, 13:1-7 & 13).

9. Without truth there is no salvation is equal to without the church there is no salvation, being equally
exclusive, since there is no one sect existing which does not claim to hold the privilege of truth. What man can
boast of being in possession of all the truth when our sphere of knowledge is constantly enlarging and ideas are
being rectified every day? The absolute truth is the patrimony of only the most elevated category of Spirits.
Earthly humanity cannot allege the possession of it because it is not given to mankind to know everything. It is
only permissible to aspire to relative truth which is proportionate to the level of progress. If God had made the
possession of truth an express and absolute condition for future happiness, He would have pronounced a
verdict of general condemnation; whereas charity, even in its most ample form, may be practiced by all.
Spiritism, in accordance with the Gospel, admits the possibility of salvation for every person, independently of
any beliefs, granted that God's laws are observed. It does not say that without Spiritism there is no salvation,
just as it does not intend to teach all the truth as yet. Neither does it say without truth there is no salvation
because this maxim, instead of uniting would only separate and also perpetuate antagonisms.

.WITHOUT CHARITY THERE IS NO SALVATION

10. My children, within the sentence: Without charity there is no salvation, is enclosed the destiny of
mankind, both on Earth and in Heaven. On Earth, because beneath the shadow of this banner all may live in
peace, and in Heaven, because those who have practiced it will find grace in God's eyes. This phrase is the
celestial beacon, the luminous column, which will guide mankind in life's desert, putting all on the right path to
the Promised Land. It shines in Heaven as a saintly halo on the brows of the chosen ones, and on Earth it is
engraved on the hearts of those to whom Jesus has said: "Go to the right and receive the blessing of My
Father". You will recognize them when they come by the aroma of charity that spreads around them. Nothing
can indicate with more exactitude nor summarize so well mankind's obligations, as this divine maxim. Spiritism
could not better prove its origin than present it as its rule, because it is a reflection of the most pure Christianity.
Humanity will never go astray if it takes this as its guide.
So then, my dear friends, dedicate yourselves to the understanding of the deep meaning behind these
words and the consequences of their application and then discover for yourselves all the many ways in which
they may be applied. Submit all your activities to be administered by charity and your conscience will respond.
Not only will it cause you to avoid practicing evil, but it will also make you practice goodness, in as much as a
negative virtue is not enough; it is necessary to possess an active virtue. Therefore in order to do good there is
always the need for the action of willpower, whereas in order to not practice evil it is sufficient to be inert or
unconcerned.
My friends, give thanks to God for having permitted you to enjoy the enlightenment of Spiritism. Not that
those who possess this enlightenment are the only ones who will be saved, but because it helps you to
understand the teachings of Christ, so making you into better Christians.
Therefore make every effort so that your fellow beings, on observing you, are induced to recognize that
the true Spiritist and the true Christian are one and the same, given that all those who practice charity are the
1
Estudo feito no Centro Espírita Joana d’Arc a 25/11/2008.

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 disciples of Jesus, without putting any embargo on whatever sect they may belong to. - PAUL, the Apostle
(Paris, 1860).

***
EVALUATION:
Salvation! Which is the Humanity's purpose? We will inquire the Spirits’ Book to help us in several
subjects to the use of reason. Here is a very clear point in the question, 1009:

..."Union with the Divine Being is the aim of human existence. To the attainment of this aim three things are
necessary-knowledge, love justice: three things are contrary to this ignorance, hatred, injustice. You are false to
these fundamental principles when you falsify the idea of God by exaggerating His severity; thus suggesting to the
mind of the creature that there is in it more clemency, long-suffering, love, and true justice, than you attribute to
the Creator. You destroy the very idea of retribution by rendering it as inadmissible, by your minds, as is, by your
hearts, the policy of the middle Ages, with its hideous array of torturers, executioners, and the stake. When the
principle of indiscriminating retaliation has been banished for ever from human legislation, can you hope to make
men believe that principle to be the rule of the Divine Government?
Believe me, brothers in God and in Jesus Christ, you must either resign yourselves to let all your dogmas
perish in your hands rather than modify them, or you must revivify them by opening them to the beneficent action
that good spirits are now bringing to bear on them.
The idea of a hell full of glowing furnaces and boiling cauldrons might be credible in an age of iron; in the
nineteenth century it can be nothing more than an empty phantom, capable, at the utmost, of frightening little
children, and by which the children themselves will no longer be frightened when they are a little bigger.
By your persistence in upholding mythic terrors, you engender incredulity, source of every sort of social
disorganization; and I tremble at beholding the very foundations of social order shaken, and crumbling into dust,
for want of an authoritative code of penalty. Let all those who are animated by a living and ardent faith, heralds of
the coming day, unite their efforts, not to keep up antiquated fables now fallen into disrepute, but to resuscitate
and revivify the true idea of penalty, under forms in harmony with the usages, sentiments, and enlightenment of
your epoch.
"What, in fact, is 'a sinner’? One who, by a deviation from the right road, by a false movement of the soul.
Has swerved from the true aim of his creation, which consists in the harmonious worship of the Beautiful, the
Good, as embodied in the archetype of humanity, the Divine Exemplar, Jesus Christ.
"What is ‘chastisement’? The natural, derivative consequence of that false movement; the amount of pain
necessary to disgust the sinner with his departure from rectitude, by his experience of the suffering caused by
that departure.
Chastisement is the goad which, by the smarting it occasions, decides the soul to cut short its wanderings,
and to return into the right road. The sole aim of chastisement is rehabilitation; and therefore, to assume the
eternity of chastisement is to deprive it of all reason for existing.
"Cease, I beseech you, the attempt to establish a parallelism of duration between good, essence of the
Creator, and evil, essence of the creature; for, in so doing, you establish a standard of penalty that is utterly
without justification.
Affirm, on the contrary, the gradual diminution of imperfections and of chastisements through successive
existences, and you consecrate the doctrine of the union of the creature with the Creator by the reconciliation of
justice with mercy." PAUL, APOSTLE
***
What is Salvation? Is it to be saved of punishments? No, because St. Paul says:
Chastisement is the goad which, by the smarting it occasions, decides the soul to cut short its wanderings,
and to return into the right road. The sole aim of chastisement is rehabilitation; and therefore, to assume the
eternity of chastisement is to deprive it of all reason for existing.
***
"What, in fact, is 'a sinner’? St. Paul explains:
One who, by a deviation from the right road, by a false movement of the soul. Has swerved from the true
aim of his creation, which consists in the harmonious worship of the Beautiful, the Good, as embodied in the
archetype of humanity, the Divine Exemplar, Jesus Christ.

***

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 Let us see a sequence of questions and answers, which suits us to know now:
984. Are the troubles of our earthly life always the punishment of faults committed by us in our present
lifetime?
"No; we have already told you that they are trials imposed on you by God, or chosen by you in the spirit-
state, and before your reincarnation, for the expiation of faults committed by you in a former existence; for no
infraction of the laws of God, and especially of the law of justice, ever remains unpunished, and if it be not
expiated in the same life, it will certainly be so in another.
This is why persons whom you regard as excellent are so often made to suffer; they are stricken in their
present life for the faults of their past existences." (393.)

987. What becomes of the man who, without doing evil, does nothing to shake off the influence of
matter?
"Since he has made no progress towards perfection, he has to begin a new existence of the same nature
as the one he has quitted. He remains stationary; and thus prolongs the sufferings of expiation."

991. What is the consequence of repentance in the spiritual state?

"The desire for a new incarnation, in order to become purified. The spirit perceives the imperfections
which deprive him of happiness; and he therefore aspires after a new existence in which he will be able to
expiate his faults." (332, 975).

995. Are there spirits who, without being wicked, ape indifferent about their own fate?
"There are spirits who do not occupy themselves with anything useful, but are in a state of expectancy. In
such cases they suffer in proportion to their inactivity; for all states and conditions must conduce to progress,
and with them, this progress is effected by the suffering they experience."

- Have they no desire to shorten their sufferings?

"They have that desire, undoubtedly; but they have not sufficient energy to do what would give them
relief. Are there not among you many who prefer to starve rather than to work?"

998. Is expiation accomplished in the corporeal state, or in the spirit-state?

"Expiation is accomplished during the corporeal existence, through the trials to which the spirit is
subjected; and, in the spirit-state, through the moral sufferings belonging to the spirit's state of inferiority."

999. Does sincere repentance during the earthly life suffice to efface the faults of that life, and to restore
the wrong-doer to the favour of God?
"Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, but all wrongdoing has to be expiated."
- That being the case, if a criminal should say, "Since I must necessarily expiate my past, I have no need
to repent," what effect would it have upon him?
"If he harden himself in the thought of evil. his expiation will be longer and more painful."

***
Duration of Future Penalties.
1003. Is the duration of the sufferings of the guilty, in the future life, arbitrary or subordinate to a low?
"God never acts from caprice; everything in the universe is ruled by laws which reveal His wisdom and
His goodness."

1004. What decides the duration of the sufferings of the guilty?

"The length of time required for his amelioration. A spirit's state of suffering or of happiness being
proportioned to tile degree of his purification, the duration of his sufferings, as well as their nature, depends on
the time it takes him to become better. In proportion as he progresses, and his sentiments become purified, his
sufferings diminish and change their nature."

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 1007. Are there spirits who never repent?
"There are some whose repentance is delayed for a very long time; but to suppose that they will never
improve would be to deny the law of progress, and to assert that the child will never become a man."
1008. Does the duration of a spirit's punishment always depend on his own will, and is it never imposed
on him for a given time?
"Yes; punishment may be imposed on him for a fixed time, but God, who wills only the good of His
creatures, always welcomes his repentance, and the desire to amend never remains sterile."

1009. According to that, the penalties imposed on spirits are never eternal?
"Interrogate your common sense, your reason, and ask yourself whether an eternal condemnation for a
few moments of error would not be the negation of the goodness of God ?
What, in fact, is the duration of a human life, even though prolonged to a hundred years, in comparison
with eternity? ETERNITY! Do you rightly comprehend the word? Sufferings, tortures, without end, without hope,
for a few faults! Does not your judgment reject such an idea? That the ancients should have seen, in the Master
of the Universe, a terrible, jealous, vindictive God, is conceivable, for, in their ignorance, they attributed to the
Divinity the passions of men; but such is not the God of the Christians, who places love, charity, pity, the
forgetfulness of offences, in the foremost rank of virtues, and who could not lack the qualities which He has
made it the duty of His creatures to possess.
Is it not a contradiction to attribute to Him infinite love and infinite vengeance? You say that God's justice
is infinite, transcending the limited understanding of mankind; but justice does not exclude kindness, and God
would not be kind if He condemned the greater number of His creatures to horrible and unending punishment.
Could He make it obligatory on His children to be just, if His own action towards them did not give them
the most perfect standard of justice? And is it not the very sublimity of justice and of kindness to make the
duration of punishment to depend on the efforts of the guilty one to amend, and to mete out the appropriate
recompense, both for good and for evil, 'to each, according to his works'?" SAINT AUGUSTINE

Paradise, Hell and Purgatory.

1012. Are there, in the universe, any circumscribed places set apart for the joys and sorrows of spirits,
according to their merits?
"We have already answered this question. The joys and sorrows of spirits are inherent in the degree of
perfection at which they have arrived. Each spirit finds in himself the principle of his happiness or unhappiness;
and, as spirits are everywhere, no enclosed or circumscribed place is set apart for either the One or the other.
As for incarnated spirits, they are more or less happy or unhappy, according as the world they inhabit is more
or less advanced."
-"Heaven" and "hell," then, as men have imagined them, have no existence?
"They are only symbols; there are happy and unhappy spirits everywhere. Nevertheless, as we have
also told you, spirits of the same order are brought together by sympathy; but, when they are perfect, they can
meet together wherever they will,"
The localization of rewards and punishments in fixed places exists only in man's imagination; it proceeds
from his' tendency to materialize and to circumscribe the things of which he cannot comprehend the essential
infinitude.

1013. What is to be understood by Purgatory?

"Physical and moral suffering; the period of expiation, It is almost always upon the earth that you are
made by God to undergo your purgatory, and to expiate your wrong-doing."
What men call purgatory is also a figure of speech, that should be understood as signifying, not a
determinate place, but the state of imperfect spirits who have to expiate their faults until they have attained the
complete purification that will raise them to the state of perfect blessedness. As this purification is effected by
means of various incarnations, purgatory consists in the trials of corporeal life.

1014. How is it that spirits who, by their language, would seem to be of high degree, have replied
according to the commonly-received ideas to those who have questioned them in the most serious spirit
concerning hell and purgatory?

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 "They speak according to the comprehension of those who question them, when the latter are too fully
imbued with preconceived ideas, in order to avoid any abrupt interference with their convictions. If a spirit
should tell a Mussulman, without proper precautions, that Mahomet was not a true prophet, he would not he
listened to with much cordiality."
- Such precautions are conceivable on the' part of spirits who wish to instruct us; but how is it that
others, when questioned as to their situation, have replied that they were suffering the torture's of hell or of
purgatory?
"Spirits of inferior advancement, who are not yet completely dematerialized, retain a portion of their
earthly ideas, and describe their impressions by means of terms that are familiar to them.
They are in a state that allows of their obtaining only a very imperfect foresight of the future; for which
reason it often happens that spirits in erraticity, or but recently freed from their earthly body, speak just as they
would have done during their earthly life. Hell may be understood as meaning a life of extremely painful trial,
with uncertainty as to the future attainment of any better state; and purgatory as a life that is also one of trial,
but with the certainty of a happier future.
Do you not say, when undergoing any very intense physical or mental distress, that you are suffering 'the
tortures of the damned’? But such an expression is only a figure of speech, and is always employed as such."

1015. What is to be understood by the expression, "a soul in torment"?

"An errant and suffering soul, uncertain about its future, and to whom you can render, in its endeavor to
obtain relief, an assistance that it often solicits at your hands by the act of addressing itself to you." (664.)

1016. In what sense is the word heaven to be understood?

"Do you suppose it to be a place like the Elysian Fields of the ancients, where all good spirits are crowded
together pell-mell, with no other care than that of enjoying, throughout eternity, a passive felicity?
No; it is universal space; it is the planets, the stars, and all the worlds of high degree, in which spirits are
in the enjoyment of all their faculties, without having the tribulations of material life, or the sufferings inherent in
the state of inferiority."

***
A very important explanation of Allan Kardec in the book' Genesis', Chapter: I: 38:
“Without pre-existence of the soul, the doctrine of original sin is not only irreconcilable with the justice of
God, who would render all men responsible, because the soul did not exist at the epoch where it is pretended
its responsibility commenced,
With pre-existence and reincarnation man carries into his new incarnation the germ of his past
imperfections, the defects of which he has not been cured, which betray themselves to his native instincts, in
his propensity for this or that vice,. It is his veritable original sin, to the consequences of which he is naturally
submitted, but with this capital difference: that he carries the burden of his own faults, and not that of the fault
of another.
This difference at one and the same time consoles, encourages, and honors sovereign equity , each
separate existence offering to man the means of making reparation for sins committed, and of progress either
by overcoming some imperfection, or by acquiring some fresh knowledge until he becomes sufficiently purified
to have no more need of earthly experience, when he will live exclusively a glorious, eternal life of spirit.
For the same reason, he who has progressed morally upon rebirth carries his moral qualities with him as
he who had progressed intellectually carries his intelligent ideas with him. The former is identified with
goodness, which he practices without effort, without calculation: that is to say, without thinking about it. While
he who is obliged to combat low tendencies is always in a battle with them.
The first is already conqueror, the second on the way to victory. There is then, origin virtue, as there is
original knowledge, and original sin, or, more correctly, imperfection.”
***
SYNTHESIS:
The Gospel according to Spiritism, XV -. Without charity there is no
salvation..
Question, 1009, Union with the Divine Being is the aim of human existence',

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 Question 984, 'The vicissitudes of life are trials imposed by God, or chosen
by us'
Question, 987, 'If one has no progress towards perfection, one has to begin
a new existence'
Question, 991,' A desire for a new incarnation, in order to become purified.'
Question, 995,' The Spirit suffer in proportion to their inactivity; for all states
and conditions must conduce to progress.'
Question 998, ’'Expiation is accomplished during the corporeal existence
and in the spirit-state.'
Question, 999, 'Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, but
all wrong-doing has to be expiated.'
Question, 1003, 'God never acts from caprice everything, in the Universe, is
governed by laws, which reveal His wisdom and His Goodness.'
Question, 1004,'The duration of the sufferings of the guilty lasts the length
of time required for his amelioration.'
Question, 1007, ’'There are spirits whose repentance is delayed for a long
time'
Question, 1008,'The duration of punishment may be imposed on the guilty
up to the regret and the desire to manifest of getting better.'
Question, 1009,'Punishment imposed by all the eternity would be to deny
the kindness of God.'
Question, 1012,' The joys and sorrows of the spirits are inherent in the
degree of perfection at which they have arrived’
Question, 1013,' Purgatory is the physical and moral suffering; the period of
expiation, it is always upon the earth that it is made’.
Question, 1014,' The Spirits with superiority speak according to the
comprehension of those who question them.'
Question, 1015,' 'A soul in torment is an errant and suffering soul, uncertain
about its future’.
Question, 1016,' Heaven is the Universal space; it is the planets and the
stars and all of the superior worlds.'
Question,' Genesis, I: 38,' Without the preexistence of the soul the doctrine
of the original sin would not be only incompatible with the justice of God, that
would turn all of the responsible men for the lack of only one.'
***
CONSIDERATIONS:
Salvation is a process relatively eternal, or be continuous, until a soul be worthy of eternal happiness.
Happiness is gradually relative to the purity of the Spirit and his reached up degree.
The Spirit constantly searches out in his evolution instinctively to improve himself and in his reflections
he self judges himself spontaneously; if he errors his conscience automatically inconveniences him or it hurts
him, it is because we have in registrations in our conscience our personality and rule of living, as we are not of
today’s epoch, we have already lived in the past, we suffered the vicissitudes of life, and the conscience, which
is our key file of our personality, guides us assiduously in what is better for us.
On living we learn and meditate with inspiring reflexes and consequently we sometimes rectify our
pulses or our ideas and, we make efforts to best move forward in life, in the vocations, inclinations etc. and, so
we grow in morals or in intelligence and, it is in this friccional go-comes that we are saved from previous
consequences disapproved by ourselves or we may worsen them for lack of moral condition or positive
direction of intentions.

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 However, in general the Spirit when fallen resumes his fight impelled by the attractive forces of God or
His evolution Laws, of progress, of likeness, of living, to survive and to ascend for God.
We conclude therefore, that salvation is not to be saved from somebody’s else faults, but from our own
faults, of our deviations, of our passions, of our addictions, of our inferiorities or materialities, thence, our need
to jump off from the matter into spirituality, a transformation need for the good and the beautiful, the
understanding that we are eternal Spirits, even though temporarily in the matter in a physical body, although
sooner or later we will not need it, but while we need it let us give thanks to God for it, because it is accordingly
our desert in the spiritual degree in which we find ourselves to be and, for our best living, let us use the rules
which Jesus gave us of: ‘forgiving each other and loving each other' 2 and, the advice of the Spirits: 'Love one
another, that is the first precept; educate yourselves is the second' 3
May God be with us, as formerly, today and forever!

2
John, XV: 12.
3
The gospel according to Spiritism, VI: 5