The Goal and Climax of Error.
By R. F. Cottrell
In modern Spiritualism may be found almost every error and falsehood ripened and perfected. For six thousand years Satan has been studiously and laboriously engaged in perfecting his scheme to bring all men to believe the great lie which he uttered in Eden—that man is immortal independent of his Maker, that the threatening of death against sin cannot be executed, because the germ of a god is in man himself; and that it was only necessary for our first parents to disobey God, and defy his power, in order to develop this germ and bring it to maturity. "Ye shall not surely die," said the serpent to the woman, "Ye shall be as gods." On this passage Dr. Adam Clarke comments as follows: "The tempter through the nachash, insinuates the impossibility of her dying, as if he had said, God has created thee immortal, thy death therefore is impossible; and God knows this, for as thou livest by the tree of life, so shalt thou get increase of wisdom by the tree of knowledge." And though death actually entered into the world by sin, yet Satan succeeded in persuading first the heathen world that death was not a reality, but that the soul is immortal, being an emanation from God, and consequently a little god itself. The ancient men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, decidedly opposed this doctrine, declaring positively that men die in the same manner as the brutes, that they all, men and beasts, have one breath or spirit, that the dead know not anything, and that there is no remembrance of God in death, and no work, nor device, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in Sheol—the receptacle of all the dead. While these sacred writers were believed, the Devil's primary doctrine could get no foothold in the church. But when the great apostasy was developed—the "abomination of desolation," the "man of sin" sitting in the temple of God—when Paganism was baptized into the Christian name, it became necessary, in order, as Luther says, "to make the pope's pot boil," to make the immortality of the soul a Christian doctrine, since without it, purgatory, the source of so vast a revenue to the church, could not exist. Hence these heretofore Pagan doctrines must be adopted by the church together. The result is, the Christian world are prepared, by this false teaching, to be easily ensnared by the last great effort of the Devil to sustain his first lie, and are ripe for the reception of Spiritualism, which professes to demonstrate the immortality of the soul, independent of, and in opposition to the Bible, and God its author. The immortality of man by nature is the leading doctrine of the Devil, and Spiritualism is the goal to which it naturally leads. This ism is the climax of Satan's plan, the key-stone of the structure he has been six thousand years in building. This is the leading doctrine—the first announced—but not all. It is curious to see how almost every error that has crept into the church, harmonizes with this, and tends to the same result. It shows not only that Satan has been busy, but that he has worked with a view to the grand consummation of his one great plan—to enclose the world in the net of Spiritualism, and lead men to a decided position against God and the Bible: Death entered into the world by sin; and while Satan declares that there is no death, he must take the ground also that there is no sin. Spiritualism says, "Spiritually and divinely considered there is no sin." The existence of sin, would show the existence of a law, of which sin is the transgression. Hence if the law of God can be destroyed, there will be no sin, and if no sin, no death—no punishment of sin. The Antinomian views of professed Christians, have paved the way for this consummation of Spiritualism. By the deceptive workings of the "mystery of iniquity," which developed the "man of sin," the Sabbath of God's law was set aside, and the Pagan Sunday, a child of idolatry and of the Devil, was foisted into its place, baptized and christened, the Christian Sabbath. To account for this change, it became necessary to show that the original Sabbath had been abolished. This could not be done, unless it could be shown that the fourth commandment had expired; for it still says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." And there being no Bible proof that the fourth commandment is abolished, unless the whole code of ten commandments is dead, this position has been fearlessly and shamelessly taken, by men professing the religion of the Bible. The grand result is found in Spiritualism, which teaches that "Good men need no laws, and laws will do bad or ignorant men no good." "True knowledge removeth all laws from power, by placing the spirit of man above it." (I am not responsible for the grammar.) How well this chimes with the doctrine that since the first advent we are under grace; and that the Christian needs no law to restrain him. The whole law-changing and law-abolishing system, reaches its goal and culminating point in Spiritualism. The false doctrine of the conversion of the world, a doctrine that has acquired such popularity in its short life of about two hundred years, has done its part in preparing the way for Spiritualism to convert the mass of men to the Devil. And those who will have it that the world is to be converted before the advent, will be obliged to accept of Spiritualism as the converting power. Again, the doctrine of the spiritual coming and reign of Christ, taught by those who do not wish him to come literally, according to his word, has called men's minds to look for a mysterious something, which looking will only meet its expectation in Spiritualism. The men of this generation have rejected the truth of the literal advent of Christ at hand, of which the word testifies so clearly—they have said, We will not have the same literal Jesus to reign over us. We will have a spiritual reign for a thousand years first. On the strength of this popular delusion, the leaders of nominal Christianity rejected the Advent doctrine in 1844, as the Jewish church rejected Jesus in his first advent; and they had scarcely got their heel upon the neck of Adventism, in triumph over its supposed failure, ere modern Spiritualism came up, crying, Lo, here! Behold the spiritual coming and reign! The "christs of the last dispensation" are here, and the grand spiritual era has commenced. Spiritualism is indeed a "strong delusion;" and it is strengthened and upheld by the false doctrines of which we have been speaking. The way has been graded, and the rails have been laid by the professed church, over which the Devil is now driving the engine of Spiritualism, propelled by hatred to God and the Bible. And yet many who do not as yet accept of Spiritualism, are still with their might driving the spikes to fasten the rails upon which this engine is running, swifter than the lightning trains of our day. Can they not see the goal to which their teachings are leading men? Why will they not turn from these popular fables to the Bible as it is? It is time for men who would be on the side of revealed truth, to take their position.