WE have many times stated the Bible doctrine that there is no consciousness in death, and no life after death until the resurrection. It will be remembered that we quoted in the issue of July 25, 1916, from an article in Hearst’s Magazine for July, in which Miss Stead, daughter of W. T. Stead, the late journalist of international fame, had invited the mourners who have lost their loved ones during the present war, to be comforted by the information which comes to us through the revelations of spiritualism. Speaking of some of the great scientists who had investigated spiritualism with the hope of refuting its claims, she tells us that “they were themselves convinced beyond doubt that communication with those said to be dead is possible, and that they have communicated with those who have passed on to the great beyond.” Her appeal to her readers follows:
“Then comes the question, Why should not they too converse with their loved ones? And to those who have the courage and faith and patience to learn the way and overcome the difficulties, comes one day the assurance, ‘There is no death.’”
Pictures of Purported Spirits
MISS Stead goes on to give the results of the investigation that she has made in the matter of spirit photography, and claims to show a number of pictures taken of these returned spirits. Most of them are of persons with whom she is well acquainted, and one of them purports to be a portrait of her own father. She gives a final appeal to faith in spiritualism in the following terms:
“For those mourning their loved ones I would say, Have courage and fear not — you can prove the truth of my words if you will have patience and faith to try.
“Of the boys who are passing over from the battle field, my father tells me that many are looking after them; that bands have been formed in which are many young fellows who have themselves passed on suddenly, and so are able better to appreciate and realize the feelings of the boys passing on from the battle field to-day. Those bands have been drilled and trained, and they wait for the boys, and deal with them according to nationalities. Some are raving, some are hungry. The bands look after them all. They are not in a state to see their relations at once. It takes a long while sometimes for them to recover. By sending out thoughts and prayers toward them, we can help nurse them. As they recover, they too work to help their comrades. The great thing my father wants me to tell you is that they are all pressing and eager to make those loved ones mourning them here realize they are not dead.”
Echoes of Satan’s Great Lie
IN comment upon this statement, alleged to have come from those who have died, we would say that any one who is at all conversant with the Bible can find something here terribly incongruous with the truth of the Word. Let us see some of the11ways in which these statements by the spirits claiming to be the spirits of the departed dead, are absolutely antagonistic to the statements of the Bible.
First, we have an utter denial that there is such a thing as death. We are told plainly that “there is no death.” This at once places us where we must accept either God’s word, or the word of the devil originally given in the beginning of the Bible, when the problem of evil was first introduced. God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] thou shalt surely die.” Gen. 2: 17. But the serpent — in reality, the devil — said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” Now, since it was by spiritualistic mediumship, the devil using a serpent, that the first denial of death, against God’s word, was brought in, who is it to-day that is uttering denial of God’s word, and claiming that there is no death?
In this connection, let us read two or three scriptures: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, . . . even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause 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: 8-12. “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Cor. 11: 13-15. “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. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments.” Rev. 16: 14, 15.
Nationalities in Heaven?
ANOTHER thing that stamps this statement with the finger marks of satanic error, is the statement that nationalities are continued in that other world. Any one who knows anything at all about the Bible, knows that nationalities have come as a result of sin, and when God created this world, all were of one language and one speech, and He promises that the saved shall be turned back to pure speech. If even in this life, as Jesus says, there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither bond nor free, neither Jew nor Greek, what will continue the separation of all in the world to come?
These statements, made by these lying spirits, are made in absolute contempt of anything the Bible says about the matter. By this we know who they are. They are not the spirits of the departed dead, for the Bible tells us that “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.
Again, this communication from the spirit world tells us that when these who die on the battle fields are ushered into that other world, some are raving, some are hungry. “The bands look after them all. They are not in a state to see their relations at once. It takes a long while sometimes for them to recover. By sending out thoughts and prayers toward them, we can help nurse them.” What a heaven this pictures! If there is no death, from what are they to recover? If one dies, death is banished; and sickness must be banished with it, for sickness is really partial death. How inconsistent and silly are these statements!
When Christ was here on earth, although His glory was veiled in humanity, although He lived as a man, yet we know that He banished sickness and suffering, and in many a city of the Jews there was not one sick or suffering person in their midst. All had been healed by the great Physician. Think of heaven as a place where the Creator resides, the Mighty One who builds the worlds by His word; think of Christ at His right hand, the One who could speak, and health came again over trembling nerves, and bounded through veins and arteries, giving to the wan sick one, invigorating strength and the flush of health; think of these individuals who have died, coming into the presence of God and Christ and the mighty angels, raving, hungry, and needing our help to cause them to recover. What a blasphemy it is on God and the future state!
The Doctrines of Devils
THESE things are but the doctrines of devils. They are untrue. There is no comfort in them; and any one who can be caught by them, must be either utterly ignorant of the Bible, or a contemptuous unbeliever of the Book.
The word of God makes clear that we shall not enter heaven until the resurrection day. Read the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. Read the fifth chapter of 1 Thessalonians. And when, in God’s order, the saved of earth do reach that land, the inhabitants shall not say, “I am sick.” “The people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isa. 33: 24. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Rev. 21: 4. And when God, by the resurrection, banishes death, and this mortal puts on immortality, and death is swallowed up in victory, it will not be through any aid that man or spirit can give that these things shall come. It will be the work of God Himself; for He declares, “Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21: 5.
One thing more we will say before we close.
It is the one thing, perhaps, more than all others, that shows who sends this communication through spiritualism. In all the writings of spiritualists everywhere, and all through their communications, it will be observed that everybody in the so-called spirit world is alike. No matter how their lives were lived, they are to live together over there. No matter how wicked they have been, life is still promised them. Death itself, it is claimed, in the universal sense, does not exist.
Thomas Paine, the arrant infidel, once said that in a few years’ time, there is reached by these spirits a plane of existence in the other world equal to that of some of the good men of the Bible who were over there hundreds of years before. The character of such a statement reveals the character of the one who made it. It shows an utter defiance and disregard of sin, and of the distinction that sin makes. Christ could say of the sinner and the saint that a great gulf is fixed between them; but nothing of this kind from the communications of the spirits!
It will be seen that, in the quotations which we have here made from Miss Stead’s article, there is not one whisper of the differences in these persons who have died. They died on the battle field. One may have been lisping a prayer, and the other uttering a curse. They go over into eternity alike, and are dealt with on identically the same basis. How is it possible for one to read these statements of the spiritualists, and not see in them inconsistency and incongruity compared with the Word? Who cannot discern the contempt for righteousness? Who cannot see the scandal they seek to utter against God? Who cannot discern their blasphemy?
Although the devil is transformed into an angel of light, although he comes in pleasing garb, and with pleasant voice, the words he utters form themselves into nothing but lies. Christ Himself has said that the devil is a liar, and the father of lies. “From the beginning,” he “abode not in the truth.” John 8: 44.
