Some of Its Prominent Features—Danger in Denying the Devil / Immortality and Sunday a Basis of Unity—Misled / by Wonder-Working Demons
By WALTER E. GILLIS
SPIRITUALISM is in theory communication with the departed dead; in practice it is the intruding of Satan and his fallen host in every department of the household, in every street of our cities, in the churches, in the national councils, in the courts of justice, perplexing, deceiving, seducing, everywhere ruining the souls and bodies of men, women, and children, breaking up families, sowing hatred, emulation, strife, sedition, murder.
THE WORLD SELF-DECEIVED
The condition of the world when Christ comes will be the result of seed sown and cultivated. The Scriptures show clearly that the world as a whole will be self-deceived; that all but a small minority will be led captive by Satan, who as an angel of light will present before them his masterpiece of deception—namely, himself anticipating Christ’s coming, and receiving the adoration and homage due only to God.
How can such a condition ever be brought about?—By the coöperation of the people.
A little reminiscence will aid us in understanding the anomalous position in which the world stands to-day.
A SPLIT WITH ROME
When the Reformation occurred, it did not represent an abrupt return to the primitive truths of the Bible, but a split with Rome, more or less incomplete. The Reformers, a number of bright lights, left their mark upon different nations and generations; and as an inevitable result, the diversified Protestant denominations sprang into existence. With more or less zeal, they served their generation; and when the founders died, these denominations relapsed into a state of institutionalism. In a few decades, persecution ceased, and a growing popularity caused spirituality to wane.
Spirituality rapidly declined, and there grew in its place social conveniences, such as lodges, clubs, and societies that catered to a union and fraternity with the world. Then came a desire for power. Power such as the world can give comes only by confederacy.
A SPIRITISTIC CHURCH
Confederacy presupposes unanimity of purpose and plans. But this was the very thing that did not exist; and it has always been the contention raised by those opposed to Bible prophecy, that the different church bodies are so at variance that a ground of agreement could never be reached. But this is the very end that able and politic minds have been determined would be accomplished. The devil also agreed with them, and spirit manifestations appeared. In a few years, it became a science. Then it became709Christian in name. Behold it to-day a spiritualist church, organized under the laws of the states and having all the paraphernalia of the Christian churches—preachers, elders, deacons, etc.
How was the ground of mutual interests to be brought about?—By each church’s suppressing public discussion of points of difference and contention. But when public discussion ceased, private interest lagged. This gave birth to a generation coming on the stage of action having no decided convictions of Biblical belief, and ready to be blown hither and thither by every wind of doctrine.
BROUGHT ABOUT STEALTHILY
The whole situation has been skillfully brought about by the great enemy of souls, in such a stealthy way that when the final harvesting of the fruit begins, persecutors of the righteous minority will verily believe themselves to be doing God’s service. “Because they received not the love of the truth, . . . God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2: 10-12.
God has not left men to meet the fiends in ignorance. The Bible clearly reveals the workings of the wily foes, and tells of their confederacy, intelligence, and subtlety, their malice against God, and their malicious determination to destroy men and the earth.
DANGEROUS TO DENY THE DEVIL
None are in greater danger from the influence of evil spirits than are those who, notwithstanding the direct and ample testimony of the Scriptures, deny the existence and agency of the devil and his angels. Many give heed to their suggestions while they suppose themselves to be following the dictates of their own wisdom. And it is because Satan can most readily control the minds of those who are unconscious of his influence, that the word of God gives us so many examples of his malignant work, thus placing us on our guard against his assaults. In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the longstanding controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle, we are now entering,—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition.
A BASIS OF UNITY
Satan and his angels, cloaked with the theology that the soul of man is immortal, have free access to all the peoples of the earth. Using Sunday sacredness to break down the opposition of Protestantism to Romanism, Satan has determined to unite them in one body by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. There, mingling on common ground, all have lost the sense of distinguishing between the holy and the profane. The most sacred truths are discounted, and the holiest ties crucified.
The present “materializing” epoch of spiritualism is not, as many suppose, a distinctly new departure in inter-world communication. Throughout human history, wherever God’s law was trampled underfoot, spirit communication has been prominent. Rapport with the spirits has always been characterized by atheistic views of the Bible. Just as in the temptations of the Saviour, the Scriptures are made to fight against God. His holy law is characterized as a “yoke of bondage,” when the Saviour Himself said that it “is easy.” Matt. 11: 30; Ps. 40: 6-8.
The prophet Isaiah saw that “it shall come to pass in the last days, that . . . many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isa. 2: 2-4.
THE MOVEMENT A FARCE
But the prophet saw that the whole movement was a farce, a “form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” He saw that these people of loud professions were worse than the heathen peoples of the East, and were soothsayers, even as were the peoples of Canaan whom the Lord in old time condemned to annihilation.
And the prophet beheld further (verses 7-9), that these modern nations had become exceedingly wealthy, and delighted in the work of their own hands, even to the point of idolatry. Their spiritual sense had atrophied, and they looked upon God as one like themselves, and offered Him the worship of unrepentant hearts.
They hold peace councils, and build peace palaces, while trampling underfoot the law of peace—the Ten Commandments. When in the history of the world has adultery, bloodshed, thievery, disobedience to parents, coveting and appropriating of the possessions of men and nations, self-worship, and Sabbath desecration been so prominent and unchallenged?
DO NOT SEE THE INCONSISTENCY
But men have refused the Saviour, and the spirits of devils have filled their minds with the soul-destroying sophistries of higher criticism, until they can see no inconsistency in compromising truth for the sake of confederacy. Nor do they see anything to hinder an agreement with the Church of Rome for the accomplishment of their common interest—a union with a church whose opposition to and corruption of the law of God has spanned two millenniums. Yet current literature is impregnated with plans and talks of peace. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Isa. 57: 21. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3: 4.
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King Constantine of Greece, his wife, the sister of Emperor William of Germany, and their five children.
When men refuse to accept Christ as the true sacrifice for sin and their only Mediator before God, they forfeit the benefits of His mediation. As they reject the teachings of His word, God withdraws His Spirit, and leaves them to the deceptions they love.
SATAN PERFORMS WONDERS
As men thus separate themselves from God, Satan, through the agency of spiritualism, will be enabled to perform wonderful miracles. The sick will be healed, supernatural sights will appear in the heavens, and many other undeniable wonders will be performed. And the spirits will declare that they believe the Bible and have respect for the institutions of the church.
The Church of Rome has always boasted of miracles as the sign of the true church, and so has no shield against the deception. Protestantism, having compromised the truth for position, will be alike deluded. Thus the world of moralists and churchmen will be united in a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the millennium.
Satan, having control of all those whom God does not specially protect, plays one against the other for the destruction of all. While appearing to the nations as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, filling the world with every conceivable agency of destruction. Then he will persuade his followers that those who serve God are causing the evils—that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, and are the cause of these terrible disasters, which are said to be manifestations of the wrath of God.
The miracle-working power manifested through spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error. Having instigated the making of laws to suit their malign purposes, they will announce that the laws of the land are as the laws of God, and should be obeyed. They will lament the great wickedness in the earth, and will confirm the testimony of the religious teachers who are everywhere proclaiming that it is the result of Sunday desecration.
A personal knowledge of the Scriptures will be the only defense against this great deception. The time is at hand. The inhabitants of the earth are in deadly peril. On every hand is deception and counterfeit. Individual responsibility in things spiritual has long ago disappeared. A revival of that responsibility is the only hope for any soul. “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
