Its Final Deception by W. A. Colcord

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 43.

Its Final Deception

By W. A. Colcord

MODERN SPIRITISM.—No. 8.

Its Final Deception.

THE second coming of Christ is the event toward which all prophecy points, the event toward which all events tend.

The advent of man into the world was the signal for disaster, the ruin of the race through sin. Christ, the second Adam, has undertaken to repair the ruin and redeem the race. To atone for sin, He came into the world as man, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to bear sin in His own body on the tree. The cross was the climax and culminating point in His first advent.

But this surely was not the end of Christ’s work for the restoration of the race. His first advent was not the conclusion and consummation of the plan of redemption. His work would be incomplete were He not to come again and restore all things. A second coming is an essential to the completion of the work undertaken and begun in the first. This, therefore, is the great focal point presented in the Scriptures, the object toward which the eye of every true believer naturally turns, the event for which he fondly looks and waits. It is the consummation of the Christian’s hope. At this time the righteous dead are raised, and the saints enter upon their future and final reward. This is the hope of the church, the glorious hope of the faithful of all ages.

As has been already shown, Spiritism, at first, was strongly anti-christian and infidelic. It denied the existence of God, the divinity, incarnation and atonement of Christ, and the inspiration of the Bible. It thus adapted itself to that large class of people known as infidels or unbelievers. But later, chameleon-like, it began to take on a different aspect. It began to be religious, to profess faith in God, Christ, and the Bible—in a way! This was to adapt itself to the religious world. When Satan fails to persuade all to remain in open unbelief, he transforms himself into an angel of light, and professes to believe the truth himself. But he does it only to deceive. While professing to believe the truth, he perverts the truth, so that men receive error as truth, and thus he accomplishes his purpose, only in another way; for the truth perverted is a more deceptive and dangerous thing, and a far more difficult thing to deal with, than open unbelief.

At first Spiritism denied the personal second coming of Christ. It declared that itself was that coming! But later this teaching gave place to that of a personal coming. Christ had actually appeared in person, and had been seen, by certain individuals, in the cabinet of the Spiritistic medium, at a private seance!—the very thing Christ warned against, and said not to believe, that He had come “in the secret chamber.”

But while this delusion might deceive some, those who have read the Bible at all carefully know well that this by no means meets the nature of the event so plainly described in the Scriptures. To more nearly meet the requirements of the case, therefore, something more striking and more public must occur. It has been impossible for Satan to create universal unbelief in the doctrine of Christ’s second coming. It has been impossible also for him to deceive all into believing that Christ has come in the “cabinet-box,” or secret chamber. The Scriptures describe the second coming of Christ as a great and glorious event, visible to the eyes of all; and the world-wide proclamation of His coming by those who are preparing to meet Him, brings these Scripture-descriptions prominently before the people. They are therefore not so easily deceived. Satan has not only been compelled to

acknowledge that Christ will come again, but before that event actually takes place, so general will have become the idea and expectation of His coming, that, in order to deceive the whole world, he will be compelled to imitate that coming just as nearly as it is possible for him to do so. This is the natural and the only event in which his work of deception can logically terminate. At his instigation, many false christs and false prophets will arise; some have already appeared. These will profess to be Christ, and will show great signs and wonders. But as the final and almost overmastering deception, Satan will himself personate Christ. He, the great antichrist, will appear in the assumed person of Christ. This great deception has been so well described by another that we subjoin the description here:—

As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look to the Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. (Rev. 1:13-15.) The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, “Christ has come! ‘Christ has come!’” The people prostrate themselves in adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands, and pronounces a blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people, and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has blessed. He declares that those who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name by refusing to listen to his angels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samaritans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying, This is “the great ‘power of God.’”—Great Controversy, p. 624.

Those who read the account of the alleged appearance of Christ at the private seance, given in our last article, will be struck with the numerous similarities between that and the description here given. The reason for this is apparent. Both are descriptions of the working of the same arch-deceiver upon the same point; that of the second coming of Christ, one given by spiritists themselves, the other by a devoted Christian to whom God has given special light. One was a Satanic delusion before a select few, tho marvelous and striking in its every detail; the other will be the same thing, only on a larger and more magnificent scale.

But what a dastardly and cowardly thing will this be for Satan to do. He who in heaven sought to dethrone Christ, and on earth inspired wicked men to nail Him to the cross, pretending that he himself is Christ! What an acknowledgment that his efforts to overthrow Christ have proved a failure! What a testimony to the triumphs of the cross.

But this will be the greatest delusion and deception of all. This will be the master-stroke of Spiritism. And how may we know that this being, when he appears, is not the very Christ? How may we be fortified against this great and final deception? The Scriptures our only safeguard will be the subject of our next and concluding article of this series.

W. A. COLCORD.