WITHOUT THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION. WITHOUT TRUTH THERE IS NO SALVATION 8. The maxim - without charity there is no salvation - stands upon a universal principle and opens the door to supreme happiness for all of God's children, whereas the dogma - without the church there is no salvation - rests not upon a fundamental faith in God and the immortality of the soul, which is a belief common to all religion, but on a special faith, in particular dogmas, which are exclusive and absolute. Far from uniting God's children, it separates them. Instead of inciting them to love their brothers and sisters, it feeds upon and sanctions the irritations between various sectarians of the different cults, who reciprocally consider each other to be eternally damned, despite the fact that these same sectarians may be relations or friends. Therefore by despising the great law of equality in the presence of the tomb, it separates people one from another, even in the area of repose. The maxim without charity there is no salvation consecrates the principle of equality before God and freedom of conscience. By taking this as a norm, all men and women become brothers and sisters, whatever their way of worshipping the Creator, holding up their hands and praying for each other. But with the dogma - without the church there is no salvation - they excommunicate and persecute each other reciprocally, living as enemies. The father does not ask after his son, nor the son after his father, nor a friend after his friend, since they consider themselves mutually condemned without possible remission. Therefore it is a dogma which is essentially against the teaching of Christ and the evangelic laws.
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 practised 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.
