MODERN SPIRITUALISM

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 4, 1897

MODERN SPIRITUALISM.

There are any number of beliefs among Spiritualists with reference to theological questions; but the essential points may be simmered down to two: (1) A belief that the soul or spirit exists as a conscious entity after death, and (2) that it is possible for it to communicate with persons in the flesh. These beliefs, and these alone, are the essential beliefs of Modern Spiritualism, or, more properly, Spiritism.

But all who hold to these beliefs do not call themselves Spiritualists. On the contrary, they declare that they are not Spiritualists, and avowedly opposed to the ism. And yet, when the matter is sifted, they are simply opposed to Modern Spiritualists as a society, because of other grosser views, but not to the essentials of Spiritualism. But the evil lies not in the organized societies of Spiritualists; it lies in the essential and basic doctrines.

In the remarks we may make on this question here or hereafter, we desire to state at the outset that our contention is not against Spiritualists as persons, but against Spiritualism as a system of errors, a delusion, a counterfeit, and a snare. There are many sincere souls which have been deceived by it. There are those who would break from it did they know the truth. We desire to point them to the truth as it is in God's word.

The origin of the doctrine dates back to Eden. Its author was the father of lies. When the Lord told Adam, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” he who was once the angel Lucifer declared, “Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” (See Gen. 2:17; 3:1-5, R. V.) Here Satan laid the foundation of the belief in an immortal, invisible soul or spirit, capable of a separate conscious existence. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” and Satan knew that when death followed sin, as it soon would, man would not be deceived unless he could be made to believe that in some way the real man survived the death of the flesh, and existed like God forever, and generally invisible to mortal eyes.

Man believed, and ate, and died. The man who sinned returned to his dust, to wake no more till the voice of God should call him from his long sleep. Yet the great Deceiver has made the greater part of humanity believe ever since that all those whom the Bible declares have died are still living. Out of this falsehood grew demon worship, the worship of spirits believed by man to have once lived here upon earth; and being great here, they have since death become demons, demi-gods, and gods; and thus the belief in a conscious immortal entity, called “soul,” is responsible for the great systems of polytheistic idolatry.

The teaching of God's word is against it. In that portion of the Scriptures called the Old Testament we have no statement, save that of the serpent in the Garden, predicting immortality of sinful man. In the New Testament immortality is ever referred to as that which men here are to seek for (Rom. 2:7), but which will be given only to the righteous at the coming of Christ, and the resurrection and gathering home of the righteous dead (1 Cor. 15: 51-55). In short, it is plainly declared that only God hath immortality, that is, in himself. 1 Tim. 6:16. On the contrary, we are told again and again in the Bible that the dead have no communication with the living, that they “know not anything,” and that their only hope of life is in the resurrection from the dead. In proof of this note the following passages:—

“But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” Job 14: 10.

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” Verse 14.

“If I wait, the grave is mine house.” Chap. 17: 13.

“Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Chap. 14: 19-21.

“For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?” Ps. 6: 5.

“The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Ps. 115: 17.

“For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9: 5, 6.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Verse 10.

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 136: 3, 4.

“David is both dead and buried.” “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2: 29, 34.

“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. . . . For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Cor. 15: 13-18.

Certainly these scriptures show that the essentials of Spiritualism are not the teachings of the Bible. Further than this, the Word of God teaches that those who hold communion with the supposed spirits of the dead, and who worship or revere the supposed spirits of great men who have died, do not, in reality, hold communion with the dead or worship the dead, but rather worship demons, angels of Satan, who come, by means of Satan's falsehood, in the guise of the spirits of the dead. So it is that the psalmist, in referring to the idolatry of Israel, declared:—

“They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.” “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan.” Ps. 106: 28, 37, 38. See also Lev. 17: 7; Deut. 32: 17.

The idolatrous nations believed that the idols they worshiped represented great heroes or rulers who had once lived upon the earth, had died, and afterward became gods, as declared by Satan. The supposed spirits of the dead were, in fact, the demons, devils, or angels of Satan. So also Paul says:—

“What say I then? that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils [demons], and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” 1 Cor. 10: 19, 20.

Modern Spiritualism, organized or otherwise, with its pretended communication with the dead, is the old necromancy and idolatry modernized. The spirits who appear, the “saints” who are supposed to “bless” or “intercede,” the spirits of good or great men or women who seem to influence and minister to the mourning and bereaved ones, are all lying angels of the devil, coming in the guise of those loved and revered, the better to deceive.

There are none, probably, who are doing more to help forward Spiritualism than many professed Christian ministers, hymn writers, and poets. As an instance of this take the following from a sermon by Dr. Talmage, preached in Washington, Feb. 9, 1896:—

“O, will not some of these glorious souls of the past come down and help us? Come down off your thrones, Nettleton and Finney and Daniel Baker and Edward Payson, and Truman Osborne and Earl and Knapp and Inskip and Archibald Alexander—that Alexander the Great of the Christian churches. Come down! How can you rest up there, when the world is dying for lack of the Gospel? Come down and agonize with us in prayer. Come down and help us preach in our pulpits. Come down and inspire our courage and faith. Heaven can get along without you better than we can.”

Here is another extract from the same preacher, quoted from Fitchburg (Mass.) Present Truths, of January, 1897:—

“When I get to heaven, . . . I will come and see you all, . . . yes, I will come to all to whom I have ministered. . . . To show you that your departed friends are more alive than they ever were, . . . I have preached this sermon.”

But Dr. Talmage will not come. He, like Job and David and Paul and other worthies, will wait in the grave till his Lord shall call him. If any spirit comes purporting to be that of Finney, or Alexander, or Talmage, know that it is a demon, a messenger of Satan in that guise. Concerning these things God has forewarned us, and has given the Gospel armor, that we may be forearmed. See 2 Thess. 2: 9, 10; 1 Tim. 4: 1; Rev. 16: 13, 14; Isa. 8: 19, 20. In these scriptures God has also given us the sure test, and the sure refuge, his law and testimony, and the love of the truth. If we abide by these, we shall not be deceived. If we listen to the message brought by those who claim to be our loved and honored dead, we shall be deceived and led into the delusion of destruction.