One doctrine that is necessary, according to the
teaching of Spiritists themselves, before
Spiritism can be accepted is that the soul is
immortal. Another necessary doctrine is that the dead
are in reality not dead, but living upon another
plane. Anyone who accepts the teaching of Scripture
concerning the dead, that they 'know not anything',
that there is 'no device nor wisdom in the grave', and
that the dead are asleep until the resurrection, are
armed against this subtle error, but Christians who
believe that the soul of man is immortal, and that the
dead are now alive, either in purgatory, paradise, or
heaven, are exposed to this dreadful system of deceit.
No man has ever received a message from the dead. What
he has received is a message from demons,
impersonating the dead and using the seance or the
planchette as a means of introducing the doctrine of
demons.
Spiritism is as old as mankind. Its first appearance
is in Genesis 3, and a study of Satan's
methods recorded there will illuminate Spiritism
to-day: his method, deceit; his medium, a woman;
his means, a lie instead of God's Word.
Modern Spiritism, or, as it is called, Spiritualism,
dates from 1848, when in New York it
made its first appearance. Since then it has spread
over the earth like a plague. It was computed in
1894 that there were 60,000,000 Spiritists, and 200
journals and magazines published in the exclusive
interests of Spiritism. There may be some who read
this pamphlet who endorse the teaching advanced by an
American publication which states, as to sin :
'The only scriptural, the only rational, the only true
solution lies in the acceptance of God's
grand dictum that all is out of Him, and through Him,
and for Him'.
Apart from sin, according to this teaching, we should
never have had the delicious sense of
God's fatherly affection. And as to Satan, the same
teaching has it, that he did exactly what God had
planned he should do. We are glad to know that many
who have endorsed this teaching out of a desire to
glorify God, do most emphatically repudiate Spiritism,
and in all Christian love we would ask such to ponder
the words of a Spiritist in a book entitled, 'Whatever
is, is Right' :
'What is evil? Evil does not exist; evil is good'.
'What is a lie? A lie is truth intrinsically: it holds
a lawful place in creation, it is a necessity'.
'What is virtue? Virtue is good and sin is good. The
woman who came to the well of Sychar
was just as pure in spirit before she met Christ, even
though she was a harlot, as she was afterwards when
she went to live a different life. There's no
difference between Herod the murderer of babes in
Bethlehem, and Christ the Saviour of men'.
'Christ and the devil are both alike'.
'No matter how bad that path may be: whether it be the
path of the liar, or the murderer: it is
the path of Divine ordination and Divine destiny'.
It is far from our intention to give the impression
that those to whose teaching we have
referred above can endorse such blasphemy, but we do
ask any who have been attracted by it to see how it
approximates in its logical issues with this monstrous
doctrine of demons known as Spiritism.
Satan is both a liar and a murderer; that is the
teaching of Scripture, and one who teaches
that Satan did exactly what God planned he should do
gets perilously near to endorsing the last
quotation of the Spiritist given above.
Spiritism denies the Scriptures to be the Word of God,
denies the Deity and true manhood of
Christ, and denies His redeeming and atoning Blood.
Spiritism leads to immorality, and prepares the way
for the final great sowing of the 'tares', 'the
children of the wicked one'; for it denounces what it
is pleased to call 'sexual tyranny', and advocates the
abolition of marriage, as Scripture has foretold :
'It is the sublime mission of Spiritism to deliver
humanity from the thraldom of matrimony
and to establish sexual emancipation'.
The fact that these matters are objectionable must not
allow a false modesty to hide these
solemn issues. On every hand these doctrines of demons
are manifesting themselves, and we must
'cry aloud and spare not' if we would be faithful.
In every department of life 'emancipation' is the word
that is uppermost. To be 'modern' one
must throw aside all bondage. Thus we get New Art, New
Music, New Literature, the essence of
which is mainly rebellion against all accepted canons.
In politics, in domestic affairs, in religion is
sounded the same cry of 'emancipation', while all the
time those who shout the loudest are the most tightly
bound slaves of Satan. 'The truth shall make you
free'. All other 'freedom' is a snare.
