Stephen
Terry, Director
End-Time
Deceptions
Commentary
for the December 10, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists,
who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult
the dead on behalf of the living?"
Isaiah
8:19, NIV
As far back as I can remember, I
was always interested in spiritual topics. This was before I gave my heart to
Christ as a teenager. Perhaps it was the call of the Holy Spirit on a yearning
heart, but something drew me in this direction. Because of this, I probably
knew more of Greek and Roman mythology than most kids my age. I even tried
praying to those gods, challenging them to prove their existence to me one
night under a star-studded sky. The only response was silence, but I sensed
there was something there nonetheless for as the Psalmist wrote, "The heavens
declare the glory of God." (Psalm 19:1) Though I did not yet know him, the voice
of all Creation seemed as one in glorifying him and reaching out to me to join
them.
It was in this state that others
recognized my interest in matters of the spirit, and they also reached out to
me. I was invited to various churches, and I also was given a Ouija Board by a
well-meaning relative. I experimented with that board with friends and
relatives, but in my opinion, it just seemed like a toy that could easily fake
communication with spirits. Little more than a parlor game, it was a diversion only
for bored teens.
Later, when I gave my heart to
Christ at a Nazarene youth meeting, I did not see any conflict between playing
with the Ouija Board and my new-found faith. But soon, I came in contact with
the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and through studies there, I learned the
dangers of such things. I determined to stop using it. Still not fully aware of
their danger, I gave it to a friend. Shortly thereafter, his mother forbade us
to remain friends. She was involved in spiritism, and since I had been sharing
my faith with my friend, including why I didn't want to use the Ouija Board
anymore, she saw me as a threat to her beliefs. Sadly, that ended our friendship,
and I rarely saw him after that.
An incident that happened shortly
afterwards, opened my eyes to what I was toying with by using the Ouija Board. As
a result, I realized I should have destroyed the board instead of giving it
away. I thought I was now free of the influence of that board, but in a matter
of days, another relative gave me a new Ouija Board. This time I destroyed it.
The Spiderman comic book character has a tingling, spider sense that tells him
when something is about to go awry. My growth in my relationship meant my spiritual
sense was telling me that there was more behind this inundation with Ouija
Boards than simply innocent gifts. I have avoided dabbling with Spiritism ever
since.
What are the spirits in Spiritism?
Popular belief is that they are the spirits of the dead attempting to
communicate with the living. Even the Bible puts it into that context as our opening
verse revealed. Since so many believe that our conscious existence continues,
barely interrupted by death, doesn't it make sense that we should be able to
find a way to communicate with them like the Ouija Board? Seances and
conjurings are other ways purported to open a channel of communication with the
departed. But as our verse said, we need to choose between trying to communicate
with the dead and going directly to God for guidance. We are not encouraged to
blend the two. It is either or.
Sadly, far too many who consider
themselves Christian fall into the trap of Spiritism. Why is that the case?
They have come to accept pop theology that teaches that there is an unconditionally
immortal entity they call the soul. They teach that we do not die when we die,
but simply pass to another plane of existence. Spiritists and pop Christians
may disagree on what that means, but they both believe that there is no loss of
personality or consciousness at the moment of death. Spiritists may represent
them as being in a netherworld, somewhat like Marley's ghost in Dicken's "A
Christmas Carol." Pop Christians say instead that the soul transits to heaven
or hell upon death, but both Christians and Spiritists believe that their continuing
personality and consciousness allows them to communicate with the living and
divulge things that can only be known in the spirit world.
Not all Christians believe this
way. Some make the choice to trust God for answers and turning to the Bible,
they read other verses that say, "His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:4), "Whatever your hand finds
to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or
knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:10), and "The
dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence." (Psalm
115:17) Some may look at that verse in Psalm 146 and say "Aha! It says spirit!
That must be the soul we are talking about!" But is there a conscious entity
called the soul? For that to be true, it would directly contradict the other
two verses I just shared. It helps our understanding to know that the word
translated as "spirit" is rendered as "breath" in other locations in scripture.
There is no indication that it has its own conscious existence apart from the
body. If we look at the "recipe" for creating man, it consists of dirt and
breath, and the two combined produce what is called a soul in the King James Version
of the Bible.[i] A common definition of soul
in that era supports the biblical account that the soul represents the entire
being, not a separate spiritual entity distinct from the body. For instance,
the children's nursery rhyme about old King Cole, tells us that he was a "merry
old soul." They were not talking about King Cole's spiritual manifestation but
about his entire being.
What is to be lost by believing
in a conscious, unconditionally immortal soul? Who will it harm? It is a belief
that is at the very root of the Bible's account of who and what we are. In the beginning
God warned humanity that if they were not careful, they would die.[ii]
But the Devil said, "No, you won't!"[iii]
The very first humans chose to believe the Devil and not God. That same lie is continually
repeated today, and we continue to believe it despite God's continual reminders
in scripture that it is not true. Immortality is conditional based on our doing
what is required to live as opposed to simply taking it for granted as somehow
intrinsic to our being by definition.
We know from historical
precedent that if a lie is repeated often enough, people begin to accept it as
truth. After being repeated for a very long time, it has permeated every aspect
of culture and society. It is so prevalent that telling someone they will not
automatically go on living after death is deemed to be the heresy. It may seem
that such a blatant lie would be difficult to pull off, but with an appeal to
authority, people will believe things that otherwise they might not. For example,
once Hitler or Stalin achieved authority over the reins of state, many, who
otherwise might question their decisions, fell into line, often likewise finding
death to be the result just as the first humans discovered. But how could the
Devil bring about this appeal to authority? The Bible tells us in Paul's second
letter to the Corinthian Church. "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of
light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants
of righteousness." (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)
We might be wary of non-Christians
trying to lead us astray, but when our own Christian ministers serve the lie
rather than the truth and do so week after week, month after month, and year
after year, we slowly but surely absorb the lie into our very being to such an
extent that the actual truth seems alarmingly threatening to us. Although it is
as old as the Bible itself, to some who hear this for the first time, the idea
that any immortality is conditional seems novel and unfamiliar. Some may even
cite near death experiences they have had or visitations by dead loved ones as
proof that the lie is real, but when we consider what Paul wrote about the
Devil and his fallen angels and their ability to transform themselves, it is
not beyond their ability to impersonate the dead in order to bolster the lie.
They do not need or desire our permission to deceive us. Jesus said that the Devil
is the father of the lie.[iv] He
invented lying. It is a tool that has served him well for millennia.
The question for each of us is
whether or not we will embrace a comforting lie or face the hard truth that the
dead are unable to communicate with us or have any part in what the living are
doing. God is love, and he will not force that choice upon us, but his love compels
him to warn us when we are on a deadly path, just as he did the first of humanity.
After so many billions have died since then, are we ready yet to listen?