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.