V. Time to Unmask Satan’s Masterpiece

Spiritualism is incontrovertibly the oldest, most persistent, most cruel, most ruinous, most subtle, and most widespread deception ever foisted upon mankind. It is as old as the race, and as evil as its malign originator. At the beginning of time it was conceived in the mind of the devil himself, the father of all lies (John 8:44). It is therefore uniquely the original lie, told to the forebears of humanity in Eden, and accepted by them with disastrous results.CFF2 1271.2

The foundation and essence of Spiritualism are a lie with intent to deceive. The goal is to lead men away from God-to reject the Word and flout the warning of God. Its method of propagation has always been deception. Offering life, it brought death. Offering light, it brought darkness. Offering exaltation, it brought degradation. Offering kinship to God, it brought estrangement and separation. It is the world’s most hoary and yet most virile falsehood today. It is a wily stratagem that successfully ruined the entire human race and, though the fact is persistently denied, it has brought death and woe to every son and daughter of Adam and Eve since the beginning of time.CFF2 1271.3

1. ADAPTED TO ALL AGES AND CONDITIONS

Spiritualism is also the most adaptable and adjustable deception ever spawned on earth. Like a chameleon, it has accommodated itself to the changing conditions of men of all ages and situations, and adjusted itself to all races and cultures and colors. From basest savage paganism with its gross animism, and pantheism with its all-embracing godship, to the highest civilizations and cultures, such as the intellectual glory that was Greece, it has established its sinister claims and credentials.CFF2 1272.1

It thrived amid the pluralities of polytheism, and entrenched itself in monotheistic groups as well. It swept over Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Europe-the Old World and the New, Orient and Occident alike. It has been virtually universal in its spread and appeal. It is unmistakably Satan’s masterpiece.CFF2 1272.2

2. FROM UNIVERSAL PENETRATION TO CROWNING DECEPTION

It has survived all changes, civilizations, and culturesand rides higher today than ever before. From entrenchment in the raw heathenism of ancient nations, it penetrated the two true religions-the chosen Hebrew faith of ancient times and the succeeding Christian Church. It plagued the Early Church and persisted throughout the Dark Ages. It manifested itself in gross Satanist and Luciferian cults, with their revolting secret mysteries.CFF2 1272.3

It has built with equal facility upon pagan, Catholic, and Protestant concepts of a never-dying soul that persists after the death of the body, and that somehow communicates with the living on earth. It prevails today to an alarming degree. And it is destined to become the crowning deception in the closing drama of all time-even to presumptuously seeking to simulate the second coming of Christ in the final deception of the race.CFF2 1272.4

But its “father” and its followers alike, its demonic propagators and its human devotees, will all at last be destroyed in the lake of fire at the close of the millennium. In this retributive holocaust not only will the devil and his angels be burned up but all “liars” and “sorcerers” will be destroyed with them forever (Revelation 21:8). That is the destined finale according to Holy Writ.CFF2 1273.1

3. SPIRITUALISM A CRUEL TRAVESTY

Spiritualism is a cruel hoax, a mocking travesty, a cunning cheat. It preys upon pious human hopes and fears, but leads only to disillusionment and despair. It promises endless life, but leads to eternal death. It promises communication with departed loved ones, but substitutes the pretense of masquerading demons. It promises exaltation, only to disappoint and degrade. It promises that all who hear and heed its siren voice will be like God, only to lead them into fellowship with devils, and to partake of their sinister characteristics. It is a fiendish hoax devised for the unwary.CFF2 1273.2

4. ADAPTS ITSELF TO SCIENTIFIC AGE

As stated, it adapts itself to all cultures. In crude, materialistic, superstitious forms and in vaunted religious garbs and pretensions it flourished for a time-and still functions-in “churches,” with ministers and hymns, prayers and doxology. But it adroitly adjusted itself to this scientific age, donning the laboratory coat with emphasis on Extrasensory Perception and Parapsychology-appealing to scientists, physicians, and savants. It succeeds in duping the elite and the astute in this nuclear age.CFF2 1273.3

It publishes no membership lists. When no longer able to function in the open as a separate movement, it goes underground, as it is largely doing today, and seeks entrance into the popular Protestant churches by captivating and utilizing the susceptible among their ministers and scientific laymen. It likewise seeks to mold statesmen and military leaders through mediums that function in high places. But in and through it all it leads inevitably on to disaster. The ultimate end in this earthly phase will be the holocaust of Armageddon.CFF2 1273.4

5. SWEEPING WORLD INTO THREEFOLD ALLIANCE

There is nothing comparable to Spiritualism in the history of the human race. It is the doctrine of devils and the incantation of “seducing spirits” (1 Timothy 4:1). We repeat, it has survived every passing age and changing epoch, and is going strong today. It will reach its imposing climax in what are denominated the “last days.” It is destined to sweep vast multitudes into earth’s final ensnarement, as it penetrates, infiltrates, and integrates itself into both Protestantism and Catholicism in the final threefold union of apostasy, deception, and disaster, masterminded by Satan himself and implemented by his evil cohorts. The outcome is Tamiliar ground to the discerning student of the Word-and so is the triumph of truth and the deliverance of the elect.CFF2 1274.1

Such is the amazing, age-old record of Spiritualism. It turned the Garden of Eden into the first seance chamber, as it were, with the subservient serpent as the first medium. It spoke persuasively through that medium. But the voice of the talking serpent was the voice of Satan. And its seductive message was his dual lie persuasively told to man. Its format and its approaches vary through the ages, but its essence and its undeviating objective never change. And its success persists despite all obstacles.CFF2 1274.2

6. BUILT UPON REITERATION OF UNCHANGING LIE

The stone marker that identified the site of the original Fox sisters’ cottage in Hydesville, New York, in 1848, bore the legend, “There Is No Death; There Are No Dead.” The obelisk by the side of the later Spiritualist church, in Rochester, New York, carried the same falsification-“There Is No Death; There Are No Dead.” And today, in the scientific garb and phrasing of its new frontier, in disguised tones it reiterates the same unchanging lie-“There Is No Death; There Are No Dead.” That is the essence of Spiritualism. It never changes. Its foundation is universal Innate Immortality, and consequent communication between the visible and the invisible worlds.CFF2 1274.3

Whoso believes it is believing a lie. Whoso receives it is accepting a deception. But far more disastrous, whoso gives himself over to the devil’s master deception will soon share the devil’s final fate in the lake of fire-the second death. Whoso propagates it is a rebel against the government and Word of God. And whoso believes it makes God, perforce, a liar and a deceiver, and the devil the fountainhead of “truth” and beneficence. But God is true, and the devil a liar from the beginning.CFF2 1274.4

7. OCCULT AUGMENTATIONS FROM THE EAST

Satan has now brought on his reserves from the East to augment his legions in the West. “Wicked spirits” out of the “mouth of the dragon” of paganism are now joining forces with those of the Beast and the False Prophet, whose identities are well known to Bible students. The final conflict is drawing near. Eerie astral hands from the Orient join the spectral fingers and figures of the West in seeking to entice and then enmesh the masses of the globe in the great final deception that leads to the closing cataclysm of earth.CFF2 1275.1

Theosophy, with its mahatmas and reincarnations, New Thought and its divinity of man, Astara, Psychiana, Unity, Baha’ism, and such—with their varied metaphysical meditations, Yogic exercises, and the contention that man is a “spark of the divine fire”—are some of the multiple reinforcements derived in whole or part from the Orient. They are now making kindred cause with Spiritualism in the West. Such are the augmentations from the East. Together they form a formidable phalanx, having already gained an amazing foothold in the Old World and in the New today, with the climax soon to come.CFF2 1275.2

8. HIGH TIME TO SOUND THE ALARM

In the light of all this, it is high time to sound the alarm to all mankind. It is high time to unmask the devil, and to identify and expose his cohorts and his dupes. It is time to rescue those who are willing to be delivered from the subtlest, cruelest, most devastating fraud ever perpetrated upon gullible man. It preys upon the unsuspecting, the trusting, the groping. Its modus operandi is guile, craft, and cunning. And its end is tied to destruction.CFF2 1275.3

Spiritualism is, and always has been, a cheat, a swindle, a trick, an imposture, a hoax, a deception of the gravest kind. We repeat: It is Satan’s masterpiece of deception and desecration. Its purpose is to subvert and destroy. It is the old original, and the most modern, the first and the last, and ever-diabolic lie. Beware of its subtleties and escape its inevitable overthrow. It will drag down to ruin all whom it can entice. Sound the warning to all men everywhere. The Bible truth will make men free.CFF2 1276.1