ORIGINS OF ‘MODERN’
SPIRITUALISM
EXCERPTS FROM THE NOTES OF
KENNETH PETTY (5/6/81 Review)
Chapter One
Introduction
"You
will not surely die" (Gen. 3:4), this [was the] lie boldly proclaimed by
the Devil. Eve was deceived and Adam followed along. All men came under
condemnation and death. Only the promise of a coming redeemer gave man hope of
restoring his broken relationship with God. The redeemer came and paid the
price to make life once again available to men and women. Jesus Christ
conquered Satan through his resurrection, thus opening the way for us to have
the final victory over death.
[However,
more recently] "spiritualism is spreading out its talons... and our
churches are fast falling into the clutches of the Enemy" [Raphael Gasson,
a former Jewish-Spiritist converted to Christ, in his book: Gasson, R., The
Challenging Counterfeit, Logos International, Plainfield, NJ, 1966, p.
41].
We are
involved in a spiritual battle (Eph. 6:12). True believers are not to be
ignorant of Satan's devices (2 Cor. 2:11). Satan is the god of this world (2
Cor. 4:4).
"The
Devil's primary motive was and is to be like the Most High, as God, [to be] His
co-equal and to sit on God's throne getting people to worship him in the place
of the true God" [Cummins, Rev. Walter, Dealing with the Adversary, The
Way International, New Knoxville, Oh., 1974, p. 4].
Today, Satan
still is not able to come out blatantly and demand worship. Thus, he
promulgates spiritualism as a step in that direction.
"Satan
is demanding that people should worship him, but men love themselves too much
to worship knowingly either the Prince of this world [Satan], or God [the true God,
the Father of Jesus Christ]. As a result, Satan has given the people something tangible
in Spiritualism, which is not apparently Satanic, thus getting the worship that
he requires indirectly" [Gasson, op. cit., p. 40].
Satan
launched a major assault on several fronts during the nineteenth century to
bring about the incredible popularity of spiritualism today and 1848 signals
the beginning of a rising tide in political and social liberalism, scientific
materialism and liberal theology, [paving] the way for the new spiritualism and
occultism: Marx issued his Communist Manifesto, Europe was shocked by a
series of revolutions, an American theologian [Bushnell] presented his 'new theory'
of language; and modern day spiritualism was born.
"Mid-nineteenth
century scientists choose to assume that matter was the source of everything in
the universe, including life and consciousness. Everything else was either an
illusion or else subjective impression which could be 'reduced' to material
fact" [Barzun, Jacques, Darwin, Marx and Wagner, 2nd ed. Doubleday,
Garden City, N.Y., 1958, p. 90].
Satan opened
up the assault with a new ‘scientific’ outlook, which denied God and the
spiritual meaning of life. As materialism began to breed hopelessness, the
Devil was slipping spiritualism in [through] the back door, almost unnoticed. Spiritualism
was being offered as an alternative to the scientific realism. It offered to
people a false direction and [a] counterfeit meaning to life.
"No
sooner, it seemed, had mid-century materialists destroyed the last remnant of
belief in the hereafter than appeared spiritualism, psychical research,
theosophy, ‘christian’ Science and innumerable shapes of New Thought. The
coincidence of the dates is remarkable" [Barzun, op. cit., p. 105]
[While sounding
very convincing, a spiritism-spiritualistic oriented man, as we will see in
Chapter Four] Edgar D. Mitchell, a former astronaut, summed [it] up [as]:
"The denial of the non-material aspect of life – [it is,] its sacred
participation in the miracle of existence - leaves people with no source of
meaning and direction" [Mitchell, Edgar, Introduction: From Outer Space to
Inner Space; In: "Psychic Exploration", Mitchell, E. D. (ed), G.
P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y., 1974, p. 45]; [In the same book, other of E.
Mitchell's collaborators wrote that] science replaced religion "as [the] society's
official truth-seeking activity" [Harman, Willis, The Social Implications
of Psychic Research; In: "Psychic Exploration", Mitchell, E. (ed), G.
P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y., 1974, p. 641] .
Chapter Two
Political,
Social and Scientific Revolution
Metternick tied
European governments together under a tight conservative grip, [however] the
old order [did] hold precarious authority throughout the continent. Suddenly,
in the spring of 1848, the whole continent erupted with revolution.
Conservative regimes crushed the rebellion and maintained control only
temporarily; yet it was not the working classes which achieved the victory,
but:
"...Intellectuals
[of the ‘kin’ of Karl Marx] played an extraordinary prominent role. They
formulated the revolutionary theories and slogans, [they] let the mobs and took
charge of the national assemblies and provisional governments that came into
power once legitimate authority collapsed" [Namier, Louis, quoted in:
Hexter, J. H., Pipes, R. and Molko, A., Europe Since 1500, Harper and Row,
N.Y., 1971, p. 691].
The
revolutions were not won with military armaments, but by the power of [a maybe
'sincere' but evil-oriented] words and with a philosophy of socialism. [Those]
intellectuals promised ‘the improvement of the human race’.
"1848
marked the end of conservatism in its classical, Metternichian guise, as a
factor in European politics. After a brief initial reaction, the decades that
followed witnessed the un-impended spread of liberal principles and
doctrines" [Hexter, et al, op. cit., p. 691].
The "Communist
Manifesto" of Marx was published in 1848 and [in it, Marx] proposed
one of the most godless socio-economic systems in the history of mankind, his
[fallacious] thesis was that "The history of all hitherto existing society
is the history of class struggles". Under the Marxist system, [promoter of
war-fares, specially against "bourgeoisie and proletariat"]
little value is placed on the individual. We shall see how this was a vital
link in the Adversary's plan to promote [his] spiritualism.
"According
to the Marxist theory, man as a historical fact has no higher value, no
absolute moral value. Marxism acknowledges human value only in so far as a
man's life is conditioned by the course of history" [Alexeiv, N., The
Marxist Anthropology and the Christian Conception of Man; In: The Christian
Conception of Man, Jessop, T. E. et al, (eds.), Willet, Clark and Co.,
Chicago, 1938, p. 124]
Charles
Darwin published his "Origin of Species" in 1859, 11 years after
Marx's Manifesto, the intellectual world was waiting with open arms to
embrace this new biological theory. Marx seized on Darwin's theory in support
to his own ideas. The struggle in nature proposed by Darwin was carried on in
society as a class struggle. Marx used Darwin to degrade the individual and
exalt the collective unit. Evolution has become pervasive in nearly every
sphere of life - social, economic, scientific, philosophical and religious.
Evolution has been the underlying doctrine for the advancement of spiritualism
in the Western world [Russell Wallace and the other earlier promoters of
Evolution were also involved with spiritism-spiritualism in one way or another,
by sympathizing with those practicing it or by letting evil spirits to control
their thoughts].
Evolution
can be defined thus: "An unfoldment, opening out, or working out; process
of development, as from a simple to complex form, or to gradual, progressive
change, as in a social and economic structure" [Webster's New World Dictionary,
2nd College ed., William Collins Publ. Inc., Cleveland, Oh.,
1979, p. 486].
"The
biological dogma of evolution, when applied to the Bible by analogy, made
Christianity the product of a system of religious evolution. The denial of the
authority of the Bible was a logical outcome..."; "[under
evolutionary dogmas] man was not guilty of original sin for he was
'progressing' and had never fallen. Thus, there was no need for Jesus Christ as
a savior" [Cairns, Earle, Christianity Through the Centuries, Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, 1967, p. 444-5].
"Darwin
seemed to have grown somewhat skeptical [to his own theory] and stated outright
that if even the slightest fault was ever detected in his theory of
mechanistic-materialistic evolution, the whole structure would, and should,
collapse. Such faults actually were [and still being] detected, but [it's
supporters] the Neo-Darwinists [in its hundreds of variants] arose"
[Monsma, John C., The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe, G. P.
Putnam's Sons, N.Y., 1958].
[You can see
very clearly that the ‘new’ theories of Evolution resemble very closely the
same and old heathenism known as reincarnation, “men never dying but perfecting
himself in successive lives on earth”, “insects evolving to men in their successive
existences”, etc, the ancient heathens and Anti-God spirits have done their come
back to earth, it is our duty, of the born again believers to stop them, at
least while we still here!].
In 1848
Richard Wagner wrote: "I will destroy the existing order of
things..." [Wagner, R., quoted by Schonberg, Harold; In: “The Lives of the
Great Composers”, W. W. Norton, N.Y., 1970, p. 256]. The doctrine
promoted by Wagner was [that very same and old heathenism known as] “pantheism”.
"Pantheism
is a favorite doctrine of collectivists because it offers a concept of man
which, on religious grounds, subordinates the individual to the collective. It
also functions as an effective tool in the subversion of [the] God-centered
religion by making [it, the] ‘man-centered religion’, thereby giving a
religious sanction to the doctrines and programs of political collectivism.
Pantheism can be used in bringing people from theism to atheistic
materialism" [Kelly, Rev. Clarence, Conspiracy Against God and Man, Western
Islands, 1974, p. 179].
Considering
Wagner's musical arrangements and themes, it is not surprising that Adolph
Hitler [had] remarked: "Whoever wants to understand National Socialistic
Germany must know Wagner" [Hitler, A., quoted by Schonberg, op. cit.,
p. 271].
"The
dominant theme to most of [Wagner's] operas is that of a world ruined by greed and
deceit, in which the hero succumbs to the forces of evil" [Dorpulen,
Andreus, Men and His Destiny; In: Darwin, Marx, and Wagner: A Symposium, Plaine,
Henry L. (ed.), Ohio State University Press, 1962, p. 13].
"The
world which Darwin, Marx and Wagner pictured, was a world of mechanical
materialism, propelled by impersonal automatic forces, a world which was amoral
and unfeeling, a world without beauty and sensitivity, and one in which art
could have no function of its own, but could merely serve ulterior social ends"
[Dorpulen, op. cit., p. 7].
"[Those
three: Darwin, Marx and Wagner, form] a single stream of influence: ‘mechanical
materialism’, the cold world in which man's feelings are illusory and his will
powerless" [Barzun, op. cit., p. 7].
Such of
intellectuals were thus instrumental in bringing about the destruction of the
spiritual side of life, and replacing it with ‘scientific materialism’.
Chapter
Three
Theological
Revolution
"Many
corrupt the Word of God" [2 Cor. 2:17]. "Corrupt" = to
adulterate, to water down.
Only the
Word of God spoken with believing produces Godly Power.
"[Jesus]
taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes" [Mt. 7:28-29].
Many XIX
Century 'Religious Scholars and Leaders' began to compromise, and to lose the
power and authority of the Word of God [among them 'The Higher Critics', boldly
refuted by E. W. Bullinger, by R. A. Torrey and by a host of true believers in
the Word of God, which were also refuting the 'new' spiritist-spiritualist
movement that started in 1848, as will be seen in Chapter 4].
[One
“corrupter” of the Written Word of God was a] Prussian theologian: Friedrich
Schleiermacher, who "made feelings or emotions the element out of which
religious experience develops. Man is freed from a dependency upon an
historical revelation of the will of God and needs only to cultivate a feeling
of dependence to enjoy a satisfactory religious experience" [Cairns, op.
cit., p. 446].
In America,
Horace Bushnell, the "American Schleiermacher", a Congregationalist Minister,
also called ‘the father of American theological liberalism’, presented his
'theory of language' at Harvard in 1848.
In 1848
Bushnell also had a ‘tremendous’ spiritual experience. The question that needs
to be answered is which was the source of that revelation? We must take God's
Word as our standard in separating the truth from error, [to separate] which is
revealed by the true God, from that which is promulgated by the god of this
world [which is Satan]. Bushnell's ideas [tried to] challenge the integrity and
accuracy of God's Word. Bushnell lost trust in the divine language of the
Scriptures and looked to science for promise of a language in which truth would
be consistent and permanent [Cross, Barbara, Horace Bushnell, University of
Chicago Press, 1958, p. 17].
Bushnell
directs his criticisms specifically against a literal interpretation of the
Bible. He feels that we cannot expect the Scriptures to be logical and [to be] consistent.
Bushnell
carried through Schleiermacher's emphasis on experience over doctrine, and that
somehow, through experience, man could receive the truth of God in a more
entire manner. Bushnell wrote [foolishly]: "There is no book in the world
that contains so many repugnancies or antagonistic forms of assertion as the
Bible. Therefore, if any man please to pay off his constructive logic upon it,
he can easily show it up as the absurdest book in the world" [In: Cheney,
Mary, Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell, Arno Press, N. Y., 1969, p.
205]
By denying
the ability of words to express spiritual truth, and by discrediting the
integrity of the Scriptures, while looking to science as the great hope in
developing ‘a universal language of truth’, Horace Bushnell sold out [his]
theology to 'science'.
In that
rising tide of liberalism in politics, economics, science, and religion, [the] belief
in God's Word was being rapidly washed away... [and] the scene was being set
for the ‘modern’ spiritualist movement.
Chapter Four
The ‘Modern’
Spiritualist Movement
[The Devil
spoke by] the Shakers in 1930, [when he said]: "The commencement of the
promised new era is going to be inaugurated by an extraordinary discovery of material,
as well as ‘spiritual wealth’. Mines of treasures are going to be discovered in
the earth, and floods of ‘spiritual light’ are going to descend from heaven,
and both of these vast outpourings are going to occur in the year of 1848"
[Hardinge, Emma, Modern American Spiritualism, University Books, McGraw-Hill,
New Hyde Park, N.Y., 1870, pp. 27-28].
The material
discovery was the gold [as the Adversary is aware of material treasures
underground, and he uses them to destroy people], which would the next year
cause the famous California gold rush: 100,000 miners [flooded] California
within the next four years:
"The
mania for a sudden wealth now pervaded all classes... The gold rush was
the product of a kind of mass hysteria, and it set a tone and created a state
of mind in which greed predominated and disorder and violence were all too
frequent" [Bean, Walton, California: An Interpretive History, McGraw-Hill,
N.Y., 1969, p. 114].
The
"spiritual light" [also offered by the adversary], which was poured
down [by him,] shone through in 1848 when Margaret and Kate Fox [supposedly]
made contact with ‘the dead’ [evil spirits impersonating dead people]:
"The
really explosive impetus for the revival [of spiritism-spiritualism] came from
America. A completely new epoch in the history of occultism opened on the
evening of March 31, 1848, in the house of the Fox Family, in the town of
Arcadia, Wayne Country, New York" [Wilson, Colin, The Occult, Vintage
Books, N.Y., 1971, p. 39].
This event
was so important that Arthur Conan Doyle, author of "Sherlock Holmes"
and an Anti-Christ-ian practicing spiritist-medium, addressed the 72nd
anniversary meeting of spiritualists, claiming they were celebrating the
greatest event in the world in 2000 years [Doyle, A. C., quoted by Gasson, op.
cit., p. 46; the event that happened ‘2000 years’ ago, since the
perspective of the adversary was his temporary and illusory victory over Jesus
Christ, who was laying dead in the grave for three days and three night, the
legal time to define somebody as legally dead in that culture].
The 'new'
spiritist-spiritualist movement that started in 1848 was a "movement in
'civilized societies', entirely based on a belief and practice of 'regular
communication with the dead' " [Nelson, Geoffrey K., Spiritualism and
Society, Schocken Books, N.Y., 1969, p. 3; just ask now to Sylvester
Stallone, Mrs. Reagan, Norman Vincent Peale, Raymond Moody, etc, to verify the
truth of that statement among ‘civilized’ people that has been deceived by the
adversary, by the enemy of God].
[The Devil
spoke by] the Fox sisters [when he was saying]: "You must proclaim to the
world: This is the dawning of a new era; and you must not try to conceal it any
longer" [Gasson, op. cit., p. 48].
Spiritualism
began to organize in the second half of the nineteenth century with the British
National Association of Spiritualists formed in 1873, the Society of
Psychical Research in 1882, and The Spiritualists National Union in
1891.
By the turn
of the century, scientists were beginning to give acceptability to spiritism-spiritualism.
Raupert has
a great insight into what is happening in the spiritualist field. He wrote the
following in 1919, but time has confirmed that truth for today:
"The
reading and thinking world has recently been startled by the publication of
books and articles from the pens of eminent scientific and literary men in
which the claim is made that 'reliable' communications are being [supposedly]
received 'from the spirits of departed human beings' and that these
communications are of such a character that they may not unfairly be regarded
as a 'New Revelation'...[however,] the modern experimenter [is] forever
learning, yet never to be coming to a knowledge of the truth... My long and
exhaustive study of this aspect of the subject has thoroughly convinced me that
the victims of these spirit-operations are seldom fully aware of what is going
on. They are apt to attribute their impressions to a sort of progressive
enlightenment of the mind, due to a knowledge obtained from a study of the
phenomena, while in reality they are due to the circumstance of the mind, and
of course, their judgment all the while being tampered with by the very
[spiritual and wicked] intelligences whose nature they are investigating, but
who have made themselves [those evil spirits,] the real masters of the
situation in the process. It is thus that science is being led by the nose, and
that a credulous world is being imposed upon" [Raupert, J. Godfrey, The
New Black Magic, Devin-Adair, N.Y., 1919, p. 3 and p. 81].
Today scientists
had become deified, and more people turned from the true God to place their
confidence and trust in 'science'. "Parapsychology" was the
'scientific' term of acceptability for spiritualism. In 1969 the ‘Parapsychological
Association’ was admitted into the American Association for the
Advancement of Science:
"Spiritualism
has claimed that its beliefs could be proved by the methods of 'modern science'
" [Nelson, G. K., op. cit., p. 150].
The
Adversary is absolutely deceiving the scientists who have no awareness of
spiritual realities. The senses analysis of scientists and psychologists
rejects the idea of spirits and looks to powers 'within the human mind itself' [to
deceive people, they attempt to define that very same evil spirits as if they
were ‘the powers of the mind’].
Dr. Raymond
Moody [endorsed even by the deceased Houstonian Lakewood Church Rev.
Osteen, Sr., and promoted in a regular basis by the TBN (Trinity
Broadcast Network)] has attempted to look into death itself, and to
discover scientifically what happens at death. He has studied
"near-death" experiences, and suggests that the scientists' inability
to construct ‘a proof’ may be due "to a limitation in the currently
accepted modes of scientific and logical thought", and that "the
perspective of scientists and logicians of the future will be very
different" [Moody, R. Life after Life, Mockingbird Books,
Covington, GA, 1975, p. 124; in the Appendix you will see how Norman Vincent
Peale and other christian writers have been deceived by these same ideas].
One of the
doctrines of the World Christian Spiritualist League is: "I believe
that all forms of life created by God intermingle, are independent, and evolve
until perfection is attained" [Gasson, op. cit., p. 66]... death is
not an end, but a temporal penal state, and man's "moral education and
evolution continue indefinitely" [Raupert, op. cit., p. 144].
Arthur Conan Doyle said that there is nothing about atonement or redemption
[Raupert, op. cit., p. 21].
Another
characteristic of spiritualism is the idea of universalism. Gasson reports:
"Spiritualism is now attempting a World Federation, and such
societies as the Universal Brotherhood Federation aim high in order to
achieve this end" [Gasson, op. cit., p. 59].
Included in
the spiritistic-spiritualistic goals are: A world bill of rights, world laws,
and a world police force. Again, as in Marxism, Darwinism and Wagnerism, the
individual is being subordinated to the group.
Let's see
the same spiritism-spiritualism source in a statement of former astronaut Edgar
D. Mitchell:
"The
question 'Why Psychic Research?' has already been answered by saying [that] it
can be an important element in the long-sought formula for ‘enriching human
awareness’, ‘reconstructing society’, and generally ‘aiding nature in the great
work of evolution’... the ‘universal man of cosmic consciousness’ can then
emerge" [Mitchell, E. D., op. cit., pp. 43-44, 49].
[Mitchell
wants to see] man evolving into a god [and Mitchell endorses 'reincarnation'
and all the old oriental fallacies as the mechanism for 'the infinite evolution
of man']. When Mitchell refers to "the wedding of science and
religion," by "religion" he means spiritism-spiritualism.
[Other
endorser of Mitchell's conceptions is] Willis Harman, director of the Center
for the Study of Social Policy at the Stanford Research Center:
"It
follows from the foregoing that ‘the human potentiality’ is limitless; that ‘all
knowledge and power is ultimately accessible to the mind, looking within itself’;
and that ‘all limitations are ultimately self-chosen’. Such ‘supernormal
phenomena as telepathic communication, clairvoyant perception, experiencing
events that happened to others, 'instant' diagnosis and healing, precognition,
and levitation and other PK [Psyco-Kinesis, ESP Extra Sensorial Perception, PSI,
Psychic, the Paranormal] events’ are, in general, ‘perfectly possible’ "
[Harman, W., The Social Implications of Psychic Research; In: Psychic
Exploration, Mitchell, E. D. (ed.), op. cit., p. 654].
[In
Guadalajara, Mexico, years ago, and directed by painter Pepín Hernández Laos and wife, and in other places, there was an international promotion
of this E. D. Mitchell spiritism-spiritualism under the name of “Emphaty”
[Empatía], atheist artists,
soap opera actors from Argentina, teachers and local politicians, gay writers, agents
from Russia, Masons, frustrated Americans, lame people, and a bunch of deceived
ones were there].
Colossians
3:3 states that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in God, and
verse 4 adds: "And this I say lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words." These are definitely enticing words, claiming that the
secrets of knowledge and wisdom are within ‘the mind of man’ [quite interesting
that the statements of Harman: ‘all knowledge and power is ultimately
accessible’, etc, sound exactly as coming from the same spirit as the one that
said to Eve in the past: “eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil” in Gen. 3:5].
[Mitchell's
desire is that the boundaries of politics, science, religion and 'the
humanities' became "less sharp," bringing a 'new' "civil
religion" [Mitchell, E. D., Conclusion and Back Again, Psychic
Exploration, op. cit., p. 663].
"Death
will be recognized as a major transition, no more to be feared than birth or
rebirth" [Mitchell, E. D., op. cit., p. 667; when Mitchell talks of
‘rebirth’ he refers to the old pagan heathenism of reincarnation].
[Opposed to that,
the Bible clearly declares that dead men are dead, conscious of nothing, until
the second coming of Jesus Christ and that we need to “cast down arguments and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”, in 2 Cor. 10:5].
Chapter Five
The
Prevailing Word
Apart from
the accuracy and integrity of the Word of God prevailing in our day and time, [the
future day in which we are gone] spiritualism and occultism seem destined to
shape the future of our country and world.
The
"civil religion" of spiritualism and science predicted by Willis
Harman and Edgar D. Mitchell appears to be imminent as the Adversary continues
to deceive the intellectual [that man of ‘the five-senses-only’].
Moreover,
because the Word of God does not live in the organized denominational Churches,
Gasson is correct when saying that the "churches are fast falling into the
clutches of the Enemy." In fact, it may be more accurate to state that the
Adversary controls those churches’ lock, stock, and barrel. By all outward
appearance the Devil holds the future [the coming of the Antichrist is imminent
and unavoidable]. As the god of this world the adversary has a free hand to run
the show. Or does he [at the present time]?
Almost 2000
years ago a man named Paul (formerly known as Saul) was called by God to carry
out the greatest ministry ever given to man. He was chosen to carry the Word of
God to the Nations of the World (the Gentiles):
"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in
me" [Acts 26:18; being that final ‘me’ Jesus Christ, not Paul].
Today, the
true believers in the Word of God have this same ministry. Many eyes are still
closed, the darkness is just as vast now as then, and Satan's power [seems to
be] increased in the centuries since the Book of Acts was written.
As it was
then, even so it is today that the religious hierarchy stands opposed to the
Word of God. While professing Christianity, ministers have allowed the
Adversary to tear down the integrity of the Word of God. Science commands more
respect than does God. In the midst of this treason (and many Christians
certainly have betrayed God and now work for Satan), spiritualism has an open
track on which to run. [However,] we must uphold the great accuracy and power
of God's Word in our own day and time.
First, let
us see what the Word of God says concerning the never final and always in
process, thought highly revered human ‘science’:
"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust,
avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so
called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with
thee. Amen" [1 Tim. 6:20-21].
Whenever
"science" contradicts the Word of God, it has to be ‘false science’.
Notice from this quotation that those who had erred were not unbelievers, but
they were born-again believers! They let their five-senses minds deceive them
from the truth of God's Word.
We are
exhorted to guard that which has been committed unto us.
We do not
let a Darwin, a Marx, a Wagner, a Bushnell, a Fox, or anyone else talk us out
of the truth, and it does not matter how logical or coherent they make their
idea sound. Remember that the Devil has a way of making his lies sound like
truth. He promulgates spiritualism and puts the ‘nice’ label of
"parapsychology" on it. God in His Word tells us exactly what it is
and what He thinks about it:
"When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those
nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of
times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an
abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God
doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy
God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of
times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered
thee so to do" [Deut. 18:9-14].
[Does not
matter if a Mitchell or a Harman are promoting spiritism in disguise of
"the powers of the mind", at the end, they are under God's criteria,
not their own].
Contrary to
the statements in the Bible let’s read what ‘intelligent’ people has to say
about ‘magic’:
“Magic was
not the ‘science’ of the past. It is the science of the future. I believe that
the human mind has reached a point in evolution where it is about to develop
new powers – powers that would once have been considered magical… intellect has
reached certain limits, and it cannot advance beyond them until it recovers
some of the ‘lost powers’. Anyone who has read modern philosophy will
understand what I mean… what is, in fact, the source of philosophy – or of any
knowledge? It is fundamentally the need for power” [Wilson, Colin, The Occult, Vintage
Books, N.Y., 1971, p. 39].
“Magic
involves the use of individual will-power and other special powers to foresee
the future or to bring about changes which are normally beyond human control.
In the traditional practice of magic, this was often done by seeking aid from ‘spirits’
and ‘demons’ whose powers were thought to be greater than those of human
beings. However, many people who believe in magic today largely ignore the idea
of ‘invisible spirits’ in favor of the claim that ‘the human mind itself
possesses powers which enable it to see into the future’, or to read the
thoughts of another person, or to cause something to happen without using the
normal means of cause and effect. The study of these powers is known as ‘parapsychology’…
a small number of psychologists have been trying to remove parapsychology from
the realm of magic, so it can be studied ‘scientifically’, in the laboratory
and in the processes of everyday life” [Gordon, Sol, Psychology For You, Oxford
Book Co., N.Y., 1975, p. 124; to the title of Sol Gordon’s book “Psychology
For You” I must say: NO! thanks].
“Psychic
research is an avenue to the unconscious, a means of building greater wholes.
Now is the time to develop our non-rational abilities into a ‘subjective’
technology, which will begin the wedding of science and religion, reason and
intuition, the physical and spiritual. This union of head and heart, insight
and instinct, will ensure that as science comes to comprehend the non-material aspect
of reality, as well as it knows the material - that is, as science approaches ‘omniscience’-
our knowledge will become wisdom” [Mitchell, E. D., op. cit., 49].
[Again, Mitchell’s
statement that: ‘as science approaches ‘omniscience’- our knowledge will become
wisdom’ is inspired by and in the same spirit as the conversation in the garden
of Eden between Eve and the seducer].
There is no
question or doubt as to what God's will is. These things (whether we call them ‘spiritualism’
or ‘parapsychology’) are an abomination to God, and His will is that they be
rooted out.
This land
today belongs to believers, and we should not tolerate these things to happen
in our country [how many ‘psychic readers’, ‘palm readers’, ‘tarot readers’, ‘fortune
tellers’, etc. are being deceived by the adversary today, and how close of our
own house they live!].
The children
of Israel compromised on God's Word and did not put these things away. As a
result, they went into captivity. Likewise, we also will fall into bondage [if
we follow those things].
When Paul
wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Church was faced with the same
problems as today: people "Having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof" (2 Tim. 3:5); evil men "deceiving and being
deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13); men not being able to "endure sound
doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:3), turning [rather] their ears from the truth and
"turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:4) [Like such fable as ‘the unlimited
powers of the mind’].
Contained
within 2 Timothy are the keys on what we must do as sons of God to crush the
spiritualist movement.
First, we
must rightly divide the Word of God:
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” [2 Tim. 2:15].
When the
accuracy of God’s Word is taught, the lies of spiritualism will be exposed.
Contrary to what is being promulgated today as ‘right believing’, the Bible is
still the God-breathed Word. Furthermore, it alone is profitable for
instruction in righteousness. God had told the children of Israel to put away
spiritualism and to be perfect with God (Deut. 18:13). Today, it is the Word of
God rightly divided and walked upon which makes us perfect.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” [2
Tim. 3:16-17].
The man who
desires to walk for God can never be perfect without the instruction of the
God-breathed Word. The spiritualists will never endure sound doctrine, but they
will always both turn from the truth themselves and turn others away from it
also. God’s Word alone can provide the doctrine, reproof and correction to keep
a believer walking right on. Once we have been instructed in righteousness, we
are to carry out the exhortation in 2 Tim. 4:2:
“Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine”
Recall [that]
the first words [given by the Adversary] to the Fox sisters were “you must
proclaim these truths to the world.” Years later, Kate and Margaret Fox, who
were so instrumental in beginning the modern spiritist-spiritualist movement,
both renounced spiritualism toward the end of their lives, and they both died
alcoholics. They had turned to spiritualism and had been destroyed. The Devil
has absolutely no concern for the individual. He uses people while they serve
his purposes and then, [the adversary] discards them. If people will go out and
proclaim his way of death, how much more should we arise and declare the way of
life!
“The thief cometh not, but for steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly” [John 10:10].
Thus, we must
preach the Word of God. There are two accounts in the Book of Acts where the
Word of God prevailed in cities overrun by spiritualism. The result speak
loudly to our own day and time:
“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching
the Word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ
unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean
spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with
them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. And there
was great joy in that city” [Acts 8:4-8].
The people
of Samaria were under the siege of the Adversary. Devil spirits operating through
Simon the sorcerer, one of the greatest mediums of all, had “bewitched” the
people. This had been going on for quite a while, but Philip came down and
preached the Word of God, smashing the power of the Adversary. A whole city was
set free [and even Simon believed].
“Many of them also which used curious arts [spiritualism] brought
their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the
price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew
the Word of God and prevailed” [Acts 19:19-20].
The word
spoken on the lips of believing caused an entire community to forsake their
spiritualism, and it will do the same today. Just as in Samaria and in Ephesus,
entire communities can be delivered from the chains of spiritualism. Only the
accuracy of the Word of God can stop the spread of this dangerous cancer. As we
boldly speak that Word of God, it will mightily grow and prevail across our
country and world.
Spiritualism,
in whatever guise it takes, will be exposed and defeated [boldly at least while
we, born-again Christian believers are here on earth].
APPENDIX:
Whenever any question arises pertaining to life or
death, we look to the Word of God for our answers. We know that every-thing
good and true comes from God.
Jesus said in John 4:14, “…whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Wherever we have the truth on a subject, we have the
inner assurance. This comes when the Word of God fits together from Genesis
through Revelation without contradiction.
This is a dark hour among many leaders of vast
influence who should have LIGHT. It is spiritual darkness under the guise of
light that is as appalling today as was the darkness regarding Truth in the
synagogues and Temple in the days of Christ.
The challenging counterfeit of spiritualism has
infiltrated many segments of Christendom. Being spurious, we know the source of
such teaching. Satan has always been busy setting truth and error in the same
mould, but, never more so than in dealing with leadership in churches. The
sickening part is that spiritualism has been given the nod of acceptability
without realizing and recognizing it to be a counterfeit. A university,
pioneering in parapsychology and extra-sensory perception, has elevated the
psychic field into the position of intellectual acceptability. This
spiritualism has boldly and openly come forth with what they call concrete
evidence of survival after death. This however, does not prove its accuracy,
Biblically speaking.
This week there came to my desk, influential and far
– reaching publications, all more or less presenting the challenging
counterfeit of spiritualism as truth. These magazines included the April issue
of Guideposts, published by Norman Vincent Peale; the April issue of the
Reader’s Digest; the fundamental and evangelical 12th April
issue of Christianity Today, and the April issue of Christian Life.
In Guideposts, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
presents the first article in a new series entitled “The Blessed Assurance.”
He states that, “Guideposts has commissioned some of America’s most
talented artists to give their interpretation of immortality.” Are we really
concerned about man’s interpretation of immortality, or are we concerned about
“what does the Bible say”? He states in his article: “The truth is, death has
been miscast as a grim reaper. To almost everyone, when it finally comes, it
comes as a friend.” How like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal this statement
must sound to the ears of those who know the Word of God in 1 Corinthians
15:26,
“The last ENEMY that shall be destroyed is
death.”
Dr. Peale says: “What is death then? Obviously, it
is a change into some new form of existence.” Then it is not death logically,
scientifically and accurately speaking. Dr. Peale also tells in the article
about ‘seeing his father’, who has been dead for many years, appearing among
the ministers gathered in a Methodist conference in Georgia. How could this be
if his father is dead? Only by a familiar spirit, a spirit which has likeness
to the personality of the person who once lived. The people who have familiar
spirits are not God’s people (Leviticus 20:27). God may give His people a
vision, by the holy spirit within us, through a word of knowledge (1
Corinthians 12:8), [and] this is always given for a profit (1 Corinthians
12:7).
The Reader’s Digest article is simply a
reprint and reworking of Dr. Peale’s article in Guideposts, under the
title of “How to rise above the fear of death.” The caption reads, “A renowned
minister reviews the evidence supporting the great message of Easter; that
death is not finality but the gateway to life.” [However:] death is a
finality without the resurrection.
In Christianity Today, under the title of
“Light on our Destiny; death has no shape,” by Robert Paul Roth, comes the same
old evangelical and denominational double-talk. He says: “although personal
consciousness survives [in death], the person becomes a shapeless shadow. But
the work of Christ in regeneration is to give us bodily shape until the final
resurrection, when we shall be raised with incorruptible bodies.” Who can make
anything out of that statement, except to conclude it to be [the] ‘ethereal
nonsense’? Certainly there is no Biblical data to corroborate this statement.
[Contrary to that statement, the Bible says that when
a person dies ‘in that very day his thoughts perish’ in Psalms 146:4; ‘the dead
know not any thing’ for ‘the memory of them is forgotten’ in Eccl. 9:5; ‘neither
have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun’
in Eccl. 9:6; ‘there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the
grave’ in Eccl. 9:10; ‘in death there is no remembrance of thee’ in Psalms 6:5]
Finally, the Christian Life magazine, under
the caption of “The Family Doctor”, by William Standish Reed, MD, quotes this
statement: “Death to the Christian is simply a graduation exercise.” This implies
that you immediately go on to a higher life. Again, how subtle and how devilish
THE WORD SPEAKS! It is in the Word that we have the
answer without guessing or conjecture. I will say again as I have been saying
frankly, boldly and courageously, that spiritualism will infiltrate the
organized church to the extent that even the very elect of God will be misled.
Remember, Satan can do signs and wonders, but, they are lying signs (2
Thessalonians 2:9; Matthew 24:24).
Christ died, and he is the only one whom God
raised from the dead thus far. If the Bible is right [and we believe so], then
the only way out of the grave is at the time of the gathering together (1
Thessalonians 4:13ff.) and the resurrections (1 Corinthians 15:13ff.).
Source of Appendix: Wierwille,
V.P., Our Times, Ch. 7, 1990, European Christian Press, U.K., pp.
145-147.
Tasters of the Word (YouTube), videos recientes: "Astronomía y Nacimiento de Jesucristo: Once de Septiembre Año Tres A.C.", "Estudio sobre Sanidades" (en 20 episodios), "Jesus Christ, Son or God?" and "We've the Power to Heal":
Tasters of the Word (the blog, with: "Astronomy and the Birth of Jesus Christ"):