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Patriarchs and Prophets
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
1 Timothy 4:1
. Paul,
in his second letter to the Thessalonians, points to the special working
of Satan in spiritualism as an event to take place immediately before
the second advent of Christ. Speaking of Christ’s second coming, he
declares that it is “after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9
. And Peter, describing the
dangers to which the church was to be exposed in the last days, says
that as there were false prophets who led Israel into sin, so there will
be false teachers, “who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them.... And many shall follow their
pernicious ways.”
2 Peter 2:1, 2
. Here the apostle has pointed out one
of the marked characteristics of spiritualist teachers. They refuse to
acknowledge Christ as the Son of God. Concerning such teachers the
beloved John declares: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.”
1 John 2:22,
23
. Spiritualism, by denying Christ, denies both the Father and the
Son, and the Bible pronounces it the manifestation of antichrist.
By the prediction of Saul’s doom, given through the woman of
Endor, Satan planned to ensnare the people of Israel. He hoped that
they would be inspired with confidence in the sorceress, and would be
led to consult her. Thus they would turn from God as their counselor
and would place themselves under the guidance of Satan. The lure
by which spiritualism attracts the multitudes is its pretended power to
draw aside the veil from the future and reveal to men what God has
hidden. God has in His word opened before us the great events of the
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future—all that it is essential for us to know—and He has given us a
safe guide for our feet amid all its perils; but it is Satan’s purpose to
destroy men’s confidence in God, to make them dissatisfied with their
condition in life, and to lead them to seek a knowledge of what God
has wisely veiled from them, and to despise what He has revealed in
His Holy Word.
There are many who become restless when they cannot know
the definite outcome of affairs. They cannot endure uncertainty, and
in their impatience they refuse to wait to see the salvation of God.
Apprehended evils drive them nearly distracted. They give way to
their rebellious feelings, and run hither and thither in passionate grief,
seeking intelligence concerning that which has not been revealed. If