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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 honour. 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

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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

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from the glory and the position and the honour 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

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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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