Chapter 16
No Compromise and No Quarter
IT is realized by Spiritism, as it must sooner or later be
realized by Christianity, that there can be no compromise in this
conflict, and no quarter can be given. Spiritism is out to wreck the
church; and the Bible plainly declares the destruction of all forces and
systems of evil existing in the world at the coming of Christ. One of
these powers will triumph; and that triumph means the overthrow and
destruction of the other. While we know that the faithful followers of
Christ will win the victory at last, we know that many will go down to
eternal ruin in the conflict between the powers of the evil one and the
Prince of righteousness.
Every ingenious device which the malignant and deceptive powers of
Satan have enabled him to perfect in his six thousand years of the
pursuit of evil, will be brought into play against the last generation
of mankind and the remnant church. It is a contest that will try the
metal of the bravest and truest and most loyal souls this world has ever
known; and they who come through victorious over the mercenary forces of
sin will stand forth indeed as gold tried in the refiner's fire,
purified by the exacting experiences of the fray. Such individuals, in
the sight of the great Judge, will be more precious than the golden
wedge of Ophir. No wonder God can speak of them as His jewels.
Those who win in that conflict have to win not only against attacks
from without the church, but from within as well; for Spiritism has
invaded the church, and speaks today over the pulpit of many a church
dedicated to the service of the God whom Spiritism would dethrone, and
the Saviour whom Spiritism spurns and tramples under its feet.
Says the editor of the Harbinger of Light in its issue of Nov.
1, 1921:
"Enlightened views of this character [the unorthodox views of
Dean Inge] are now permeating the Church of England in Great Britain,
and Spiritualism pure and simple is being preached from many of its
pulpits with each recurring Sunday."
Rev. R. W. Russell is quoted in the same issue of that journal as
upholding the tenets of Spiritism. In view of the headway which
Spiritism is making in Scotland, the Church of Scotland has appointed a
special committee of learned men to investigate the matter for itself. A
Psychical Research Society has recently been formed there, with the Rt.
Hon. (now Earl) A. J . Balfour as president, and lectures are being
delivered before it by certain great men of the scientific world.
In the gathering of the Congregational Union at Leeds in 1915, one of
the principal items discussed was Spiritism, and every one who spoke
upon the question, so far as the report indicates, spoke as a convinced
believer in the fundamental tenet of that cult. (See Australian
Christian World, Dec. 31, 1915.)
In the Harbinger of Light for October, 1921, is given the
summary of an address by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln at the unveiling of
a war memorial, which is a perfect replica of the creed of Spiritism.
The same journal, of the same date, gives the summary of an address at
the Unitarian church, Wellington, New Zealand, by Rev. Wyndham
Heathcote, which would have been much more appropriately given in a
spiritistic temple than in any kind of church. Coupled with its advocacy
of spiritistic practices and its assertions that the demonstrations of
spiritual power in the prophets of old were spiritistic in their nature,
the address makes a subtle attack upon the Bible itself, in this course
also following the lead of Spiritism.
Space forbids that we go farther into this particular development.
But the subtle poison of the teaching of Spiritism is permeating every
rank of society and nearly every denomination in Christendom. This
lamentable fact stares every investigator in the face. He must admit the
fact, and, having done so, he is bound to inquire as to what the result
will be upon church and world. Realizing what the teachings of Spiritism
are in reference to the judgment, we are bound to conclude that the
result will be to increase the sum of the world's immorality. If there
is no judge but ourselves, and the only judgment meted out to us for our
sinful course is such as we ourselves are pleased to mete out to
ourselves, then surely we have not much to fear as a consequence of any
iniquitous course we may take here. So we might say, "Let us eat
and drink, and carouse, and commit any crime in the catalogue if we
wish, for tomorrow we die, and have no one to mete out judgment to us
but ourselves."
We were taught this by no less a personage than Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle himself, in his second lecture delivered in Melbourne in October,
1920. He declared:
"We realize, from the information we have obtained from the
dead, that man has been overharsh with himself; that the 'Great Power
of the universe is not so implacable as we have imagined. . . . We
have everything to hope for and very little to fear. This world is a
mere workshop, and the next is the rest cure."
Beyond question such a message as that from so noted a man will tempt
many a man and woman to think there is no day of judgment for sins
committed in this life. If that belief should become general, this world
in a few years would hardly have enough law-abiding citizens left in it
to keep the rest in jail. The moral standard of the world would sink
like a torpedo-smitten steamer.
"If good and bad meet the same fate, there is no justice in
the world; and if no justice, no reason. . . . The universe, on such a
theory, would be a gigantic practical joke, of the cruelest and most
malicious description."
That is what Satan is trying to make of God's universe and
government, the while he drags those who might be subjects of God's
eternal kingdom of peace and love out of the path that leads to that
kingdom and into the path that ends, with him, in the lake of fire and
destruction.
God has denominated the body of His faithful followers the ecclesia,
the called out; and His invitation-command is:
"Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty." 2 Cor. 6: 17, 18.
"That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter:
because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have
forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto
uncleanness, but unto holiness." 1 Thess. 4: 6, 7.
It does make a difference, then, a tremendous difference, whether we
are careful in our conduct or reckless in our behavior; whether we, to
the best of our ability, and looking to God for the help necessary, walk
in harmony with God's requirements, or follow the baser inclinations of
our own unregenerate nature. Those whose ways please God, and who will
be called His sons and daughters, and who will be received by Him, will
be those who respond to His call to "come out" and be separate
from the baser elements of this world. And those who refuse to
"come out," who trust to themselves to deal leniently with
themselves as their own judges "beyond the veil," and so walk
in harmony with their own lusts and ambitions here, will never be called
His sons and daughters, will never hear the words, "Come, ye
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world;" but they will hear the words,
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,[1]
prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25: 41.
God's "called out" company are called out from something
and called into 'something. They are called out from "the
world" and worldly associations and the demoralizing influences of
the world, and called into the fellowship of the "body" of
Christ, His particular possession, His own particular household. And yet
Spiritism teaches that one suffers no injury who pays no attention to
that call. He may go his own way in this world, join any society, any
organization, any form of religion or no form of religion, and he
suffers no injury in consequence of the course he chooses.
The spirit which called itself "Dorothy Pothlewaite"
affirmed, according to Sir A. Conan Doyle, that "she had been a
Catholic and was still a Catholic, but had not fared better than the
Protestants; there were Buddhists and Mohammedans in her sphere, but all
fared alike." And the spirit of a member of the Dongolese
expedition, who had died while on the way up the Nile, and whom Sir
Arthur called Dodd, stated that he was happy, that he did not wish to
return to the earth.
He had been a freethinker, but had not suffered in the next life for
that reason."
Such accounts as these persons give of the "life beyond the
veil" are so opposed to the Bible account of man's condition in
death as to constitute a complete and flat denial of the teachings of
Jesus and the apostles. If Spiritism's account be true, Jesus and the
apostles have spoken and taught that which is absolutely untrue: and yet
all Spiritists profess the utmost degree of admiration for the
Great Teacher. Perhaps in nothing are the inconsistencies of Spiritists
more apparent than in their professed admiration for Jesus as a teacher,
while they seek to prove false every fundamental precept of His
teaching.
The "revelations" that come through spirit mediums, through
table rappings and the planchette, would lead one to believe that it is
a waste of time to sacrifice for the cause of Christ, or to strive to
build an exemplary and noble character here. The loose-moraled
freethinker leading his prayerless and mayhap immoral life will enter
the same place of happiness as the godly saint who has spent his life in
the service of God and his fellow men. What a danger to the morals of
any community are such teachings!
The "revelations" from that source are designed to convince
mankind that, no matter how wickedly one may have lived in this life, no
matter what horrible deeds one may have committed, he is as certainly
assured of eternal life as they who have done their utmost in
self-sacrificing service of humanity, and who have striven with all the
powers of their being to live in harmony with the principles of justice
and righteousness. It is a sardonic travesty on the wisdom, justice,
benevolence, and love of God. It is an effort to convince man that God
spoke falsely when He warned our first parents that condemnation and
death would follow disobedience.
In Eden, Satan made it appear to Eve that ignorance of evil was a
disability and a handicap that only disobedience would remove; and so he
tells us today that "evil is simply ignorance." --"The
Proofs of the Truths of Spiritualism," p. 149. That is a
soothing balm to conscience for any evil that may be committed. It would
explain away sin, and in doing so would make Christ's atonement for sin
not only unnecessary but absolutely untrue. For instance:
"The present writer . . . cannot say more than that
'Imperator's' teaching is identical with that of Jesus Christ;
but not that of ecclesiasticism or certain forms of modern
theology.
"The 'New Revelation' is a reversion to the New
Testament, and to that alone; when its errors of interpretation
from the original Greek are perceived; for example, 'Imperator' points
out that there was no atonement, but at-one-ment, i. e.,
'reconciliation' [Italics his]."--Id., page 45.
This, while purporting to be in harmony with Scripture, is a positive
denial of Scripture. It would make utterly meaningless, also, the whole
sanctuary service, from the day when Israel set up the tabernacle in the
wilderness under divine direction, down to the last service held in the
temple at Jerusalem before the crucifixion of Jesus. It would go back
beyond that to the first lamb slain as a sacrifice outside the gates of
Eden lost, and stigmatize that and all succeeding sacrifices as
worthless, unnecessary, and false in their typical implication, and make
impossible of explanation the reference of John the Baptist to Jesus as
"the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"
(John 1: 29), as well as the revelator's reference to Him as "the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8.
Then, too, what would mean our Saviour's own declaration: "I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, . .
. and I lay down My life for the sheep"? John 10: 11-15. He also
declared: "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My
life, that I might take it again." Verse 17. There is the
"atonement," taught as plainly as words can teach anything,
and taught by the One who was to make the atonement. The divine
Redeemer, whom Spiritists profess to honor, has thus made a pointed
denial of Spiritism's assertions concerning Him. The same truth is
taught by the pen of Inspiration in the hand of the writer of the letter
to the Hebrews:
"Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle [than the one built in the
wilderness by the Israelites], not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by
His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us: . . . how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must
also of necessity be the death of the testator. . . .
"Moreover he [Moses] sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle,
and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the
law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens
[the earthly sanctuary and its vessels. Ex. 25: 40; Heb. 8: 12] should
be purified with these [the blood of animals]; but the heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of
the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us: nor yet that He should offer Himself of ten, as the high
priest [of the earthly sanctuary] entereth into the holy place every
year with the blood of others; for then must He often have suffered
since the foundation of the world: hut now once in the end of the
world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation." Heb. 9: 11-28
Spiritism has appealed to Christ and to the New Testament to prove
itself true; and both of them have shown it to be false. Moreover, the
very name "Jesus" proves Spiritism's declarations concerning
this matter to be untrue. "Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He
shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 1: 21. The word
"Jesus" means "Saviour." Therefore He could
truthfully say: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John 14: 6. And so Peter could
say of Him: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is
none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." Acts 4: 12.
Yet, in spite of these so plain declarations of the Christ Himself
and of those who wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Spiritism can
unblushingly affirm that neither Christ nor the New Testament teaches
the atonement. One stands amazed at such untrue accusations against the
Word of God, such misinterpretation, such open contradiction, when the
evidence is so plain that answers their challenge and flatly denies
their assertions. One voluminous Spiritist writer is very definite and
very positive in his assertions upon this point. He says, in speaking of
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ:
"The hardest part for one who has believed in Christianity as
taught in any orthodox church, when he is at last forced to let go his
beliefs, is to give up his faith in 'the Lord and Saviour.' No
Spiritist, however, can believe in Him in an orthodox sense. We can
and do recognize the wonderful teacher, the evolved soul, the saintly
life. We know that His death cannot save us from any consequence of
our own acts, that we must work out our own salvation, and that,
beautiful and glorious as was the character of the Master, we shall
also attain that perfection some day. We cannot argue with our friend
on this point. We have passed through many bitter waters, still
holding to the belief in the divine Redeemer , until light came and we
understood."-- Tolerance, July 1, 1918.
The light which revealed that to the editor of Tolerance was
of the character of the light spoken of in this scripture: "If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness!" Matt. 6: 23.
It is a fearful thing to mistake darkness for light. The writer above
quoted has done so, as the foregoing quotations abundantly testify.
Having mistaken darkness for light, such persons, in their fancied
security, are preparing to step into eternity without hope and without
help; and all that eternity might have brought them of life and joy and
satisfaction and association has been thrown to the winds, never to be
experienced by them. They, having spurned what God had planned, and
having substituted their own plans in place of His, are compelled to
join the hosts that step down into eternal night and oblivion when the
redeemed enter upon their eternal reward. But there can be no compromise
then. Each party has made its choice, and the rewards are apportioned
according to the choice made.
No doubt Spiritists will assert that one who states these things is
harshly judging them. But no; there is one way mapped out by Divinity
itself by which man may attain unto the eternal inheritance. We must
choose God's way, or we can have no part in what He has planned for His
redeemed. Said Jesus, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have
life." John 5: 40. He declared again: "He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him." John 3: 36.
The issue is therefore very plain, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
has made it so. He says He is the way, and the only way; that He gave
His life for man's redemption; that those who accept Him for what He
claims to be are assured of eternal life; and that those who reject Him
will not see life, but will suffer the wrath of God.
Now Spiritists profess to honor the Great Teacher; what have they to
say to that divine declaration? He has either told the truth, or He has
not. If He has, then there is absolutely no hope for the
atonement-denying and Saviour-spurning Spiritist. He has most certainly
told the truth, and it leaves Spiritists on the horns of a most
embarrassing and most serious dilemma. He for whom they express so great
admiration, and whom they claim so highly to honor, has plainly told
them they are doomed, so surely as they persist in that course.
This ought to set the complacent Spiritist thinking most seriously.
The time to make choice is now, while choosing is possible. The day of
probation will not be postponed forever; and when it closes, the hand
that hung nail-pierced on Calvary's cross will mete out rewards to the
human race, to "every man according as his work shall be."
There will be neither quarter nor compromise with His rejecters when
that day arrives. How much better to accept Him now, and travel with Him
to the end of the journey here, and then with Him through a journey
hereafter that will never end, than to build a tottering philosophy by
the flickering candle of our own fancy, and go down without light or
life or hope into the black abyss of eternal death!
Notes
[1] For an explanation
of the words "everlasting fire," see page
28.
[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
|
