Page 255 - Early Writings (1882)

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Spiritualism
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to and reverenced. I was perplexed and asked my attending angel
who it was. He said, “It is Satan. He is the conductor, in the form of
an angel of light. He has taken the world captive. They are given
over to strong delusions, to believe a lie that they may be damned.
His agent, the highest in order next to him, is the engineer, and
others of his agents are employed in different offices as he may need
them, and they are all going with lightning speed to perdition.”
I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in
the opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow
pathway. All seemed to be firmly united by the truth. This little
company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe
trials and conflicts. And it appeared as if the sun had just arisen from
behind a cloud and shone upon their countenances, causing them to
look triumphant as if their victories were nearly won.
I saw that the Lord has given the world opportunity to discover
the snare. This one thing is evidence enough for the Christian if there
were no other; there is no difference made between the precious and
the vile. Thomas Paine, whose body has now moldered to dust and
who is to be called forth at the end of the one thousand years, at
the second resurrection, to receive his reward, and suffer the second
death, is represented by Satan as being in heaven, and highly exalted
there. Satan used him on earth as long as he could, and now he is
carrying on the same work through pretensions of having Thomas
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Paine so much exalted and honored in heaven; and as he taught here,
Satan would make it appear that he is teaching there. And some
who have looked with horror at his life and death, and his corrupt
teachings while living, now submit to be taught by him—one of the
vilest and most corrupt of men, one who despised God and His law.
He who is the father of lies, blinds and deceives the world by
sending forth his angels to speak for the apostles, and to make it
appear that they contradict what they wrote by the dictation of the
Holy Ghost when on earth. These lying angels make the apostles to
corrupt their own teachings and to declare them to be adulterated.
By so doing, Satan delights to throw professed Christians and all
the world into uncertainty about the Word of God. That holy Book
cuts directly across his track and thwarts his plans; therefore he
leads men to doubt the divine origin of the Bible. Then he sets up
the infidel Thomas Paine, as if when he died he were ushered into