Chapter 12
Spiritism Fosters the First Falsehood
THE first falsehood ever told in this world was told in Eden
by the prince of ruin. In that falsehood he promised the mother of the
human race that if she would disobey God, so far from dying as a
penalty, mankind would advance in glory and honor. These are his words:
"Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil." Gen. 3: 4, 5.
By disobeying God he said they would become like gods themselves. God
had warned them that the penalty for disobedience would be death. Satan
contradicted God, and promised them immunity from the execution of that
decree, with tremendous advantages besides.
Spiritism is using all its powers of eloquence and deceit to prove to
the race that God told the falsehood and Satan told the truth. The chief
burden of Spiritism is to prove that the dead are not really dead, but
have simply entered upon another sphere of existence, and are able to
communicate with us (though this is plainly contradicted by the Bible);
and the next great burden is to bolster up the satanic idea that men are
becoming gods through processes following death.
God is the Creator of all things. If men are to be like gods, they
must be able to demonstrate their ability in the work of creating. The
Rev. G. Vale Owen, writing under spirit control concerning the
occupations of those who have passed "beyond the veil,"
presents the following:
"We all sat round the open space, and concentrated our wills
on the object to be produced. Very quickly it appeared and stood there
before us. We were much surprised at the quickness of the result. But
from our point of view there were two defects. It was much too large;
for we had failed to regulate the combination of our wills in due
proportion. . . . The result was a mixture between stone and flesh.
Also many points were disproportionate -- the head too large and the
body too small, and so on. . . . We experiment, and then examine the
result, and try again. We did so now."--"The Life Beyond
the Veil," book 1, p. 63.
If this were a true record of actual happenings, how ridiculous it
would appear when compared with the true record of Jehovah's work during
creation week! "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it
stood fast." Ps. 33: 9. Again: "God saw everything that He had
made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1: 31. Nothing too large
or too small, and no mixtures of stone and flesh.
But this spirit reporter teaches that creation is taken up as a
science in the spheres to which the dead go, and they have scientific
instruments to help the unskilled students in their first attempts at
doing the work of gods. One who was instructing a class in this science
actually created a landscape (so the spirit states), including fields
and forests, with bright-plumaged birds flying from tree to tree. The
spirit continues:
"Our guide was somewhat advanced in the science, and had
contrived the forest scene by means of this same skill. As the
learners progress, they are able gradually to achieve the result they
wish without the scientific apparatus which at first is necessary. One
instrument after another is left out until at length they are able to
depend solely on their will. . . . We cannot all be creators of
cosmoi, I suppose, and there are other things as necessary, great and
glorious, no doubt. . . . While the men students mostly looked after
the purely creative part, they [the women] were permitted to add to
and round off the work with their genius of motherhood."-- Id.,
pp. 82-85.
The same writer attempts to prove that the living and the spirits of
the dead stand in the same relation to the Father of all that Jesus, the
Son of God, did and does. He asks:
"Is it meant that He is the Father in manifestation as man?
So, then, are you and so am I His servants. For the Father is in all
of us. Or is it that in Him was the fullness of the Father, undivided?
So in you and in me also dwells the Father."-- Id., book 2, p.
69.
Therefore, if Christ is God, according to this teaching, man also
must be a god; for they claim for man the same relation to God that
Jesus Christ sustains. It is a bold and blasphemous assumption put
forward by the prince of ruin to take away from the glory and the
position and the honor of the Lord Christ, and exalt the disobedient
sons of earth to an equality with the sinless Sacrifice that on Calvary
paid the debt for man's sin.
Again, God styles Himself a "prayer hearing and a prayer
answering God." From the Vale Owen script I quote again:
"We reach the earth also and sense your doings there, and send
you words of instruction, or help in other forms, in answer to the
prayers which come to us for us to deal with."-- Id., p. 76.
God has taught us that it is He who hears our prayers and who answers
our prayers. But Spiritism would usurp this prerogative of Deity also.
Some Spiritists would even rob God of the title of Author of our lives
and Creator of our bodies. Says Dr. V. Maxwell, a French Spiritist:
"We have a soul which is making and perfecting its own
body." -- "Are the Dead Alive?" p. 258.
So according to this teaching we become the creators of ourselves; so
do we eliminate God from His position in the universe, through the
doctrine of Spiritism! Some of these doctrines would make us gods; some
would usurp the prerogatives of God; some would quietly drop God out of
existence entirely.
The author of the Vale Owen script presents in metrical language the
idea that these discarnate spirits are the agents of creation. Thus:
"Diverse and lovely, at their urge,
A myriad living forms emerge,
As they on bird and beast and tree
Impress their personality." -- "The Life Beyond the
Veil," book 3, p. 12.
The same spirit author attributes the ability to create even to evil
powers. He was questioned as to what certain animals were doing in a
certain place where unruly spirits were being held in durance vile. His
reply was:
"These animals have never been in the flesh. Those go into
brighter places. these are the creations of evil powers who are able
to bring them forth so far, but not to project them further in advance
toward incarnation on earth."-- Id., p. 225.
Then one of the distinguishing characteristics of Jehovah -- His
creative power -- according to this teaching, is possessed by devils
also! and all for the purpose of belittling the Godhead and causing men
to believe that Satan's falsehood in Eden was truth,-- that through
disobedience we acquire divinity.
A noted psychic (or spirit medium) of Adelaide, South Australia, Mrs.
Adderson Miller, in an interview granted to Pastor E. S. Butz, of
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia, was asked, among others, the
following questions, the answers to which were set down just as she gave
them:
"Do Spiritualists believe in a personal God?"
"No, God is universal in you; to be developed. God is simply
love one for another."
"Then are we each God?"
"Yes, you are God; I am God."
This is what Satan said men would become through disobedience. This
is what Spiritists say men have become -- and have become gods so
literally and comprehensively that God Himself, through whom even they
live and move and have their being, is ruled out of existence. Surely,
in view of all that is comprehended in accepting the tenets of
Spiritism, it is worth while studying the consequences before taking the
step.
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