132. Can a Christian be a spiritualist?
Can a Christian be a spiritualist? An intelligent Christian cannot be a spiritualist, for spiritualism is exposed and condemned in the most unmistakable terms in the Bible.
Spiritualism is not something modern. It is as old as the days of Moses. The mediums in those days had, or professed to have, familiar spirits who spoke through them. Consulting those who had familiar spirits was condemned by God through Moses in the strongest terms. He says (for example) in Leviticus 19:31 : “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” Again He says in Leviticus 20:6 : “And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.” Again, in Deuteronomy 18:10; Deuteronomy 18:12 : “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them (the Canaanites) out from before thee.”
One of the strongest charges brought against Manasseh king of Judah was that he was a spiritualist, and thus provoked God to anger (2 Kings 21:1-2; 2 Kings 21:6). Saul lost his kingdom and his head for consulting a medium. We read in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 : “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”
Nearly all so-called modern spiritualism is a fraud. The tricks of the mediums have been exposed time and time again, but probably it is not all fraud. After all has been explained that can be explained by sleight of hand and natural causes there is still a remnant that points to supernatural origin in some of the manifestations of modern spiritualism. But because it is supernatural it does not prove that it is right or true. According to the teaching of the Bible there is a real unseen world, a world of spirits, but some of the spirits are bad, emissaries and agents of the Devil (Ephesians 6:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). The fact that a man or woman can do things and make revelations that we cannot explain by natural causes, things and revelations that seem to show they are peculiarly in contact with the supernatural world, does not prove that they are in league with God. It may rather prove that they are in league with the Devil. It may be that spirits do manifest themselves, but it does not follow that they are the spirits of our departed friends, or other good and wise people who have left this world. There is good reason for believing that these spirits who come to us pretending to be the spirits of our loved ones who have departed, are demoniacal spirits. A prominent medium, who was at that time operating in Chicago, once came to me and said:
“Mr. Torrey, these things are not all sleight of hand and trickery. There are spirits, but they are demons. I was tormented all last night by the demons through whom I do my work.”
I asked him why he did not renounce the whole business. He replied that he was making a splendid living through it, and knew of no other way in which he could do so well. A friend of mine who dabbled in spiritualism and developed unusual powers as a medium was afterwards led to renounce the whole business. He went into it thinking it was all right, but he had not gone far before he found it was demoniacal. Many instances of the same thing have occurred.
Even if the spirits manifested are the spirits of our departed loved ones, we are commanded in the Bible not to seek knowledge in this way (Isaiah 8:19-20), and whoever dabbles in spiritualism at all enters the Devil’s territory and disobeys the most explicit commandments of God. The spiritual and moral influence of spiritualism is ruinous. Sooner or later it leads to the renouncing of Jesus Christ, and to all kinds of free love and other immorality. When we lose our loved ones the temptation often becomes strong to seek communication with them, and thus well-meaning people are led into spiritualism, but it is a snare of the Devil and leads to the eternal ruin of the soul.