Spiritism - do you believe?

Spiritism-

Believing in the spirits of loved ones and others who have died are still living in spirit form beyond our world and that sometimes they can communicate with those still living. 

Do you believe your loved ones are still living in spirit form in heaven? In hell? In a place in between? If so then you believe in spiritism even if you don't practice trying to contact those you believe are still alive as spirits, you believe in spiritism.

The belief in our dead loved ones as living spirits has infiltrated a lot of religions. This belief is so commonplace that very few contradict it to say they believe differently.

Satan has truly done his job well.

To say there is no harm in that belief is one of those lies, those evils that people call good and believe them wholeheartedly.

Read the following and perhaps tomorrow by the grace of God we will discuss more on why the belief in spiritism is deadly- eternally deadly.

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Daniel and Revelation - Revelation Chapter 17 & 18

CHAPTER -- XVII -- Babylon - The Mother   (Excerpt taken from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith 1897-1911 Editions)

VERSE 15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.  16.   And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.  17.   For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.  18.   And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

An Important Symbol Defined. - In verse 15 we have a plain definition of the Scripture symbol of waters; they denote peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. The angel told

p 707 -- John, while calling his attention to this subject, that he would show him the judgment of this great harlot. In verse 16 that judgment is specified. This chapter has, naturally, more especial reference to the old mother, or Catholic Babylon. The next chapter, if we mistake not, deals with the character and destiny of another great branch of Babylon, the harlot daughters. 

CHAPTER -- XVIII -- Babylon - The Daughters 

p 709 -- VERSE 1. And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.  2.   And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  3.   For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Some movement of mighty power is symbolized in these verses. (See under verse 4.) The consideration of a few facts will guide us unmistakably to the application. In chapter 14 we had a message announcing the fall of Babylon. Babylon is a term which embraces not only the Roman Catholic Church, but religious bodies which have sprung from her, bringing many of her errors and traditions along with them.

A Moral Fall. - The fall of Babylon here spoken of cannot be literal destruction; for there are events to take place in Babylon after her fall which utterly forbid this idea: as, for instance, the people of God are there after her fall, and are called out in order that they may not receive of her plagues; and in these plagues is embraced her literal destruction. The fall is therefore a moral one; for the result of it is that Babylon becomes the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. These are terrible descriptions of apostasy, showing that, as a

p 710 -- consequence of her fall, she piles up an accumulation of sins even to the heavens, and becomes subject to the judgments of God, which can no longer be delayed.

And since the fall here introduced is a moral one, it must apply to some branch of Babylon besides, or outside of, the pagan or papal divisions; for from the beginning of their history, paganism has been a false religion, and the papacy an apostate one.

 And further, as this fall is said to occur but a short period before Babylon's final destruction, certainly this side of the rise and predicted triumph of the papal church, this testimony cannot apply to any religious organizations but such as have sprung from that church. These started out on reform. They ran well for a season, and had the approbation of God; but fencing themselves about with creeds, they have failed to keep pace with the advancing light of prophetic truth, and hence have been left in a position where they will finally develop a character as evil and odious in the sight of God as that of the church from which they first withdrew as dissenters, or reformers. As the point before us is to many a very sensitive one, we will let members of these various denominations here speak for themselves.

Alexander Campbell says:       "The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, incased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the Church of Rome." 

Again he says:       "A reformation of popery was attempted in Europe full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into Presbyterianism, that into Congregationalism, and that into Baptistism, etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed itself into many forms of Wesleyanism. All of them retain in their bosom - in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances - various relics of popery. They are at best a reformation of popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and

p 711 -- traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands." - On Baptism, p. 15.

The report of the Michigan Yearly Conference, published in the True Wesleyan of Nov. 15, 1851, says:       "The world, commercial, political, and ecclesiastical, are alike, and are together going in the broad way that leads to death. Politics, commerce, and nominal religion, all connive at sin, reciprocally aid each other, and unite to crush the poor. Falsehood is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit; and sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen go unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land. These churches are like the Jewish church when the Saviour exclaimed, 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hyprocrites.'"       Is their condition any better now than it was then?

Abundance of similar testimony might be produced from persons in high standing in these various denominations, written, not for the purpose of being captious and finding fault, but from a vivid sense of the fearful condition to which these churches have fallen. The term Babylon, as applied to them, is not a term of reproach, but is simply expressive of the confusion and diversity of sentiment that exists among them. Babylon need not have fallen, but might have been healed (Jer. 51:9) by the reception of the truth; but she rejected it, and confusion and dissensions still reign within her borders, and worldliness and pride are fast choking out every plant of heavenly growth.

Chronology of This Movement. - At what time do these verses have their application? When may this movement be looked for? If the position here taken is correct, that these churches, this branch of Babylon, experienced a moral fall by the rejection of the first message of chapter 14, the announcement in the chapter under consideration could not have gone forth previous to that time. It is, then, either synchronous with the message of the fall of Babylon, in chapter 14, or it is given at a later period than that. But it cannot be synonymous with that; for that merely announces the fall of Babylon, while this adds several particulars which at that time

p 712 -- were neither fulfilled nor in process of fulfilment. As we are therefore to look this side of 1844, where the previous message went forth, for the announcement brought to view in this chapter, we inquire, Has any such message been given from that time to the present? The answer must still be in the negative; hence this message is yet future. But we are now having the third angel's message, which is the last to be given before the coming of the Son of man. We are therefore held to the conclusion that the first two verses of this chapter constitute a feature of the third message which is to appear when this message shall be proclaimed with power, and the whole earth be lightened with its glory.

The work brought to view in verse 2 is in process of accomplishment, and will soon be completed, by the work of Spiritualism. What are called in Rev. 16:14 "spirits of devils, working miracles," are secretly but rapidly working their way into the religious denominations above referred to; for their creeds have been formulated under the influence of the wine (errors) of Babylon, one of which is that the spirits of our dead friends, conscious, intelligent, and active, are all about us; and this renders such denominations unable to resist the approach of evil spirits who come to them under the names and impersonations of their dead friends.

A significant feature in the work of Spiritualism, just now, is the religious garb it is assuming. Keeping in the background its grosser principles, which it has heretofore carried so largely in the front, it now assumes to appear as respectably religious in some quarters as any other denomination in the land. It talks of sin, repentance, the atonement, salvation through Christ, etc., almost as orthodoxly as the most approved standards. Under the guise of this profession, what is to hinder it from entrenching itself in almost every denomination in Christendom? The basis of Spiritualism is a fundamental dogma in the creeds of almost all the churches. Its secret principles are, alas! too commonly cherished, and its dark practices too commonly followed, to put them at variance on that ground, so long as they seek a common concealment. 

p 713 -- What, then, can save Christendom from its seductive influence? Herein is seen another sad result of rejecting the truths offered to the world by the messages of chapter 14. Had the churches received these messages, they would have been shielded against this delusion; for among the great truths developed by the religious movement there brought to view, is the important doctrine that the soul of man is not naturally immortal; that eternal life is a gift suspended on conditions, and to be acquired through Christ alone; that the dead are unconscious; and that the rewards and punishments of the future world lie beyond the resurrection and the day of judgment. This strikes a death-blow to the first and vital claim of Spiritualism. What foothold can that doctrine secure in any mind fortified by this truth? The spirit comes, and claims to be the disembodied soul, or spirit, of a dead man. It is met with the fact that that is not the kind of soul, or spirit, which man possesses; that the "dead know not anything;" that this, its first pretension, is a lie, and that the credentials it offers, show it to belong to the synagogue of Satan. Thus it is at once rejected, and the evil it would do is effectually prevented. But the great mass of religionists stand opposed to the truth which would thus shield them, and thereby expose themselves to this last manifestation of Satanic cunning.

And while Spiritualism is thus working, startling changes are manifesting themselves in high places in some of the denominations. The infidelity of the present age, under the seductive names of "science,"  "the higher criticism,"  "evolution," etc., is making not a few notable converts.

Public attention was forcibly called to this situation by a writer, Mr. Harold Bolce, in The Cosmopolitan Magazine for May, 1909. Having made an investigation into the character of the teaching that was being imparted in some of the leading universities of this country, he reported the results in The Cosmopolitan, which drew forth this comment from the editor:   

"What Mr. Bolce sets down here is of the most astounding character. Out of the curricula of American colleges, a dynamic

p 714 -- movement is upheaving ancient foundations, and promising a way for revolutionary thought and life. Those who are not in close touch with the great colleges of the country will be astonished to learn the creeds being fostered by the faculties of our great universities. In hundreds of class-rooms it is being taught daily that the decalogue is no more sacred than a syllabus; that the home as an institution is doomed; that there are no absolute evils; that immorality is simply an act in contravention of society's accepted standards.... These are some of the revolutionary and sensational teachings submitted with academic warrant to the minds of hundreds of thousands of students in the United States."

At about the same time The Independent, N. Y., an exponent of the higher criticism, referred to conditions in the Baptist and Presbyterian churches, with the announcement that       "the heretics have won the day in Chicago and New York."       This was shown by the action of their ministers' meetings in those cities, in refusing to exclude from the ministry, teachers of the most open heresies.       "It has been a bad week for the old guard,"       said The Independent,       "and these occurrences give evidences of a mighty change of view on questions of theology within the past twenty years, or even ten." 

Continuing, the same journal said:   -

"The mighty breadth of tolerance which these Baptist and Presbyterian bodies thus allow, is hardly less than revolutionary. It began with the scientific and historical study of the Bible. When we found that the world was more than six thousand years old; that there was no universal flood four thousand years ago; that Adam was not made directly from dust, and Eve from his rib; and that the tower of Babel was not the occasion of the diversification of languages, we had gone too far to s. The process of criticism had to go on from Genesis to Revelation, with no fear of the curse at the end of the last chapter. It could not s with Moses and Isaiah; it had to include Matthew and John and Paul. Every one of them had to be sifted. They had already ceased to be taken as unquestioned final authorities, for plenary inspiration had followed verbal

p 715 -- inspiration just as soon as the first chapter of Genesis had ceased to be taken as true history. The miracles of Jesus had to be tested as well as those of Elijah. The date and purpose of the gospel of John had to be investigated historically, as well as that of the prophecy of Isaiah; and the conclusion of historical criticism had to be accepted with no regard to the old theologies. We have just reached this condition; and there is repeated evidence that it marks an epoch, a revolution in theologic thought. This is what we learn from Chicago and New York from two such militant denominations as the Baptist and the Presbyterian."

From the standpoint of such a lamentable outlook, and under the leadership of such men, how long before Babylon will become full of spirits that are foul, and birds that are hateful and unclean? What progress has already been made in this direction! How would the godly fathers and mothers of the generation that lived just before the first message was given, could they rise from their graves, and comprehend the present condition of the religious world, hearing its teaching and beholding its practices, stand aghast at the fearful contrast between their time and ours, and deplore the sad degeneracy! And Heaven is not to let all this pass in silence; for a mighty proclamation is to be made, calling the attention of all the world to the fearful counts in the indictment against these unfaithful religious bodies, that the justice of the judgments that follow may plainly appear.

Verse 3 shows the wide extent of the influence of Babylon, and the evil that has resulted and will result from her course, and hence the justness of her punishment. The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Who take the lead in all the extravagances of the age? Who load their tables with the richest and choicest viands? Who are foremost in extravagance in dress, and all costly attire? Who are the very personification of pride and arrogance? - Are they not church-members? Where shall we look for the very highest exhibition of the luxury, vain show, and pride of life, resulting from the vanity and sin of the

p 716 -- race? - Is it not to a modern church assembly on a pleasant Sunday?

But there is a redeeming feature in this picture. Degenerate as Babylon has become as a body, there are exceptions to the general rule; for God has still a people there, and she must be entitled to some regard on their account until they are called from her communion. Nor will it be necessary to wait long for this call. Soon Babylon will become so thoroughly leavened with the influence of these evil agents that her condition will be fully manifest to all the honest in heart, and the way be all prepared for the work which the apostle now introduces.

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Truth.

Will we come out of Babylon to believe all God's truth?

Will we stand up for truth when spiritualism has gripped the world so tightly all around us?

Will we stand up for truth when people say all we need is Jesus' love and nothing more, no commandments, nothing? Will we say they are right, that all we need is Jesus' love, and from that love we obey?  We don't obey to obtain the love, we obtain the love by choice, by choosing to believe.

Will we stand up for the truth when we are told none of it matters?

Standing for truth- loving ALL- obeying ONE- Jesus Christ our Savior!

Please Father God, please bless us! Keep us! Forgive us! Know us!

In the name of Jesus Christ our LORD our Savior now and forever.

Amen.