The Baneful Character of Spiritualism
By George W. Rine
THE colossal structure of Spiritualism rests upon a lie. That lie is the satanic dogma that man can not die. I say satanic, because it was first uttered by the father of lies (the devil) in Eden. When God so graciously warned our first parents that if they should disobey Him by eating of the interdicted fruit, they should die, He virtually declared that they could die. Subsequently Satan thrust himself upon the attention of the mother of the race, and protested to her that, tho she and Adam deliberately disobeyed God, they should “not surely die.” Thus he flatly contradicted God. God, being God, “can not lie,” as the Scriptures declare. God pronounced man mortal; Satan declared him immortal. Who told the truth? The question answers itself. Even the most rabid proponents of Spiritualism will admit that their cult has absolutely no standing-ground except on the dogma of inherent human immortality. If that dogma is from beneath and therefore false, Spiritualism is from beneath and therefore false. The uniform witness of the Word of God is to the effect that man in his present estate is mortal, altho in Christ he may be a candidate for immortality. Note the categorical declaration recorded in Ps. 146:3, 4: “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.” Remember this is DIVINE testimony and admits of no discount. God here dogmatically avers that when a man dies, his thoughts—his MIND—perish. The same divine Spirit declares through Solomon that “the dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9:5. Again, the inspired Job declares in respect to the man who has passed away, “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Chapter 14, verse 21. Is not this divine pronouncement in absolute contravention of the fundamental thesis of Spiritualism; namely, that the dead are acquainted with the affairs of their living friends? Spiritualists declare this thesis to be an essential truth; God declares it to be an unqualified lie. Whom shall we believe? Let the reader turn to the New Testament, and read 1 Cor. 15:51-56. Here the Spirit of truth teaches in unmistakable language that corruptible man “shall put on incorruption,” and mortal man “shall put on immortality,” “at the last trump,” when “the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” These statements can not be true if man is now and unconditionally immortal. But these statements were uttered by the Spirit of the living God, and are therefore everlastingly true. Read also 1 Tim. 6:15, 16, where the Holy Spirit solemnly affirms that God “ONLY hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” Scores of other scriptures might be given to stigmatize as false the basic dogma of Spiritualism—the dogma of inherent human immortality. God teaches that by faith in Christ man may ultimately attain immortality. The devil teaches that man is inherently and originally immortal. Spiritualism is founded upon the latter doctrine, and is therefore of the devil. The Gospel is founded upon the former doctrine, and is therefore of God. To believe and practise the teachings of the devil, can prove only a curse and issue in death; to believe and practise the teachings of God, can prove only a blessing and issue in life—life eternal. It is therefore to be expected that the curse of Heaven rests upon the practise of Spiritualism; and so it unmistakably does. Does not every Spiritualistic “medium” or “psychic” avow that he is in intimate communion or touch with some one distinct spirit of the other world? This familiar spirit the medium calls his “control.” The word “control” thus used has become technical, and is found continually on the pages of Spiritualistic literature. In short, every medium admits that he has a “familiar spirit.” Now observe that every person who has a familiar spirit—that is, every medium—is under the divine anathema. Here is the evidence: “Regard not them that have FAMILIAR SPIRITS, . . . to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” “And the soul that turneth after such as have FAMILIAR SPIRITS, . . . I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.” “A man also or woman that hath a FAMILIAR SPIRIT, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.” Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27. Read further Deut. 18:9-12, where those who have familiar spirits are classed with enchanters, witches, necromancers, etc., all of whom are declared to be an abomination to the Lord. In 1 Chron. 10:13 it is divinely affirmed that King Saul died for disobeying God by “asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit.” The story is found in 1 Samuel 28. It is because the whole fabric of Spiritualism is of satanic origin, rests upon Satan’s primal lie, and is therefore defiling and ruinous, that God has in mercy to His children placed Spiritualism under so sweeping an interdict. A Modern Revival of Ancient Spiritualism Predicted
That present-day Spiritualism had its origin about the middle of the nineteenth century is as well known as that Columbus discovered America in 1492. During the sixty years of its modern life, Spiritualism has grown and spread by titanic strides. (We shall refer to this fact later.) The votaries of the cult themselves admit that the modern movement is a recrudescence of ancient spiritistic occultism. The Bible abundantly bears them out in this contention. Note that “the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the LATTER TIMES some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to DECEIVING SPIRITS, and doctrines of DEMONS.” 1 Tim. 4:1, Greek. In holy vision the apostle John declares that he “saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the SPIRITS OF DEVILS, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:13, 14. According to verse 15, this manifestation of satanic power takes place just before the coming of Christ in glory, and hence, in the last days. Again, the apostle Paul foretold the ominous fact that immediately before the coming of Christ, Satan would work “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. Now it is expressly declared in 2 Cor. 11:14, that Satan is able to appear in the guise of an angel of light. In other words, he and his angels have the power to personate any human soul. As before stated, each medium or psychic has his familiar “control;” and this “control,” according to the overwhelming testimony of Holy Writ, is an “evil spirit,” or demon. These demons are able to personate the voice, manner, habits, and idiosyncrasies peculiar to any of the deceased before they died. We must not forget that it is the distinctive office of the devil and his angels to DECEIVE. It is Satan who “deceiveth the whole world.” Rev. 12:9. Christ declared that the devil was “a liar, and the father of it” (lying). John 8:44. John, under the quickening of the Holy Spirit, foresaw that the devil would come down to the people of the world, “having great wrath, because he knoweth that HE HATH BUT A SHORT TIME.” Rev. 12:12. Of course, it can be only near the close of time that Satan will have “but a short time.” Can we not now see WHY, dear reader, that Spiritualism was literally reborn in these last days? “The Scriptures can not be broken.” Spiritualism is a momentous last-day deception, foisted upon society by the arch-deceiver, “that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan.” Never since the awful tragedy of sin had its inception, did Satan inflict upon mankind a more terrible curse than that of Spiritualism. Its devotees necessarily assume that man can not die. As a necessary corollary, they assume that sin is a figment, an illusion. Denying the reality of sin and death, they of course deny the need of an expiatory sacrifice—of redemption by blood. The believer in Spiritualism simply CAN NOT believe the Gospel, the divine plan of salvation; for both can not be true, as they are utterly antagonistic to each other. If man can not sin, and, accordingly, can not die, he needs no redemption, no Saviour. But omniscient God declares with awful directness that salvation, or eternal life, is impossible outside of Christ. Acts 4:12. Spiritualism therefore leads its followers away from Christ as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” To lead away from Christ is to lead away9from the fountain of life, and hence from the possibility of ever realizing immortality. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12. Inevitably, then, the way of Spiritualism is the way of death and destruction. The fatal element in Spiritualism is its fundamental assumption that man is intrinsically deathless. If all men actually believed the witness of the divine Oracles as to the nature of man, Spiritualism would be a sheer impossibility. No one who is loyal to the Word of God can possibly fall a prey to the wiles of Spiritualism. The prediction of our Lord that just before His coming in glory false prophets and false christs should arise, and show great signs and wonders, so that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect, is being fulfilled to-day in unmistakable fashion. In “The Widow’s Mite” Dr. Funk tells us that many eminent clergymen who are not regarded as Spiritualists believe that they receive spiritual counsel from their dead. He says that Joseph Parker, the famous London preacher, recently deceased, told him that he prayed every day to his wife after she had passed from earth. He declared that he never came into his pulpit without requesting her to come with him. Again Dr. Parker said: “I encourage a friend of mine whose wife had departed, to pray to her and to pray to God to ask her to come to help. She will be more to him than twelve legions of unknown angels.” And General Booth, in the War Cry, November 27, 1897, writes: I have a spiritual communion with the departed saints that is not without both satisfaction and service. . . . Among these one form, true to her mission, comes more frequently than all besides, assuring me of her continual partnership in my struggle for the temporal and eternal salvation of the multitudes — and that is my blessed, my beautiful wife. Examples of this kind could easily be multiplied. Such instances are touchingly pathetic, and as sad as they are touching. By their assumption of a false theory as to the state of the dead, these zealously good men made themselves the dupes of the great deceiver. Recall the inspired affirmation that Satan himself is able to transform himself into an angel of light. These good men have thus been led to pray to the dead for help, an act unmistakably idolatrous. Note the insidious tendency of the immortality dogma to lead its devotees to the distinctively Roman practise of the “invocation of saints.” This practise is the warp and woof of the great heathen religions of China and Japan. It is only a few years since Protestants, through the insidious power of Spiritualism, could find it in their hearts to pray to the dead. In January, 1909, a report was issued in England setting forth the results of certain experiments conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge and others of the Society for Psychical Research. These experiments constituted an attempt “to carry on definite, unmistakable communications with the spirits of the late F. W. H. Myers and Dr. Richard Hodgson. A despatch to the New York Times said that “the report had excited a tremendous commotion in scientific and religious circles in England.” These reports were conducted pursuant to an arrangement made by Myers and Hodgson during their lifetime, and were carried on with every precaution against dishonesty or self-deception on the part of the mediums. The report proceeds to give reasons from which the only possible inference is that, in the opinion of its writers, the communicators were none other than the discarnate spirits of Frederick Myers and Richard Hodgson. The report contains the actual messages received from the spirit world. It would be difficult to exaggerate the seriousness for evil to humanity of this alliance between eminent and respected men of science and this gross system of demonism. In the words of Philip Mauro, Esq., of New York City, “By means of this new engine of deception million upon millions may be lured into the comfortable belief that they may reject the Christ of God, and may yet be assured, upon the authority of ‘science,’ of a continued existence of blissfulness—‘a supernal heavenly calm’—after death.” Again, on Nov. 10, 1910, Mr. Stead of London sent a despatch to Hearst papers in America to the effect that he had succeeded in getting into communication with the spirit of the late Mr. Gladstone. He gives long citations from what purports to have been a message from Gladstone, bearing upon current British politics. Untold millions of even cultured people implicitly believe these reports for what they purport to be. How overwhelming the evidence that the enemy of all righteousness is, in these latter days, as the Master foretold, deceiving “the whole world”! It is only in the Word of God, which “abideth forever,” that man can find impregnable refuge from the over-mastering deceptions with which Satan is to-day filling the world.