Can the Dead Speak to Us?
31
bring the living into communication with the dead, the prince of evil
exercises his bewitching influence upon their minds.
[19]
He has power to bring before men the appearance of their departed
friends. The counterfeit is perfect; the familiar look, the words, the
tone, are reproduced with marvelous distinctness. Many are comforted
with the assurance that their loved ones are enjoying the bliss of heaven,
and without suspicion of danger, they give ear “to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils.”
Can the Dead Speak to Us?
When they have been led to believe that the dead actually return
to communicate with them, Satan causes those to appear who went
into the grave unprepared. They claim to be happy in heaven and even
to occupy exalted positions there, and thus the error is widely taught
that no difference is made between the righteous and the wicked. The
pretended visitants from the world of spirits sometimes utter cautions
and warnings which prove to be correct. Then, as confidence is gained,
they present doctrines that directly undermine faith in the Scriptures.
With an appearance of deep interest in the well-being of their friends
on earth, they insinuate the most dangerous errors. The fact that they
state some truths, and are able at times to foretell future events, gives to
their statements an appearance of reliability; and their false teachings
are accepted by the multitudes as readily, and believed as implicitly, as
if they were the most sacred truths of the Bible. The law of God is set
aside, the Spirit of grace despised, the blood of the covenant counted
an unholy thing. The spirits deny the deity of Christ and place even
the Creator on a level with themselves. Thus under a new disguise the
great rebel still carries on his warfare against God, begun in heaven
and for nearly six thousand years continued upon the earth.
Not All Deception is Trickery
Many endeavor to account for spiritual manifestations by attribut-
ing them wholly to fraud and sleight of hand on the part of the medium.
But while it is true that the results of trickery have often been palmed
off as genuine manifestations, there have been, also, marked exhi-
bitions of supernatural power. The mysterious rapping with which