Question Answered by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 4, 1882

Question Answered.

By Editor

How are we to know that the miracles performed by Jesus were not the works of the devil, if, as you say, those performed by the mediums are?

ANSWER. 1. The question accepts the facts of the life and miracles of Jesus. Therefore we need not argue the reliability of the Scriptures as a witness on the subject.

2. We know that both good and evil exist in the world, and we have reason to believe they have existed in the ages past.

3. The Bible plainly asserts the existence of an order of beings called angels; not related to the human race, nor created to inhabit this world; higher than man is in his present condition.

4. The Scriptures also assert that the angels are appointed to minister unto men in their efforts to overcome temptations, and to perfect their characters according to the revealed will of God.

5. Some of these angels sinned—rebelled against the authority of their Creator, and were expelled from Heaven, their appointed abode.

6. That an exalted angel, or cherub, called Lucifer, and Satan, was among the sinning ones, and became the leader in the rebellion against God.

7. That, instead of ministering to man and aiding him, "the devil and his angels" put forth their power to tempt and mislead man. Instead of being our friends, they are now our adversaries.

8. In the days of Moses two classes of miracles were wrought; one by the power of God, to convince Pharaoh and his people of their duty to obey God; the other by magicians, to deceive Pharaoh, and to shut his heart against the message which God had sent unto him.

9. Magic or enchantment, is the work of Satan and his angels (see Webster), and is always wrought for the same purpose that it worked in the days of Pharaoh—to turn men away from God and his truth.

10. Jesus wrought miracles to benefit mankind and to glorify his Father in Heaven; to lead his hearers to love and to obey God. And he cast out demons by the Spirit of God.

11. Evil spirits or demons possessed men to afflict them, to turn them away from God and to oppose the work and mission of Jesus.

12. The word of prophecy teaches us that the same works—miracles to deceive—will be wrought in the last days; Rev. 13. And that these miracles will be wrought by the spirits of devils, or demons. Rev. 16.

13. When Paul describes the gifts or operations of the Spirit, which God set in his church, he says: "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit." But against the truth of God, sorcerers or magicians, work by means of a multitude of spirits. "Seducing spirits"—"spirits of demons," perform "signs, and lying wonders," in those who "receive not the love of the truth."

It is not at all difficult to determine to which class belong the wonders wrought by the spirit mediums of our own days. We have closely observed them since their first appearing in the State of New York. We have carefully and extensively read the literature of Spiritualism, and know the following to be the facts concerning them:—

1. They destroy confidence in the word of God.

2. They deny the authority of God.

3. They deny Jesus Christ and his atonement.

4. They weaken the conscience and destroy a sense of obligation, by denying the authority of the law of God, and a future Judgment.

5. As a consequence of the foregoing, they lead to immorality and sensuality, and to a disregard of the marriage tie.

We invite the questioner to examine these points, and to ask himself if it is possible that these things emanate from the same source with the works of Jesus, and if the one class is in harmony with the other.

And we further invite him to procure our pamphlet entitled, "Nature and Tendency of Modern Spiritualism," for sale at the office of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, wherein this subject is examined at length, and copious extracts are given from Spiritualist publications to sustain our position.