Spiritism Made Respectable (5 of 8)

Now to return to the merger of Spiritism and Christianity.

Until recent times, Spiritism was generally discredited.  Its alleged phenomena were ridiculed and its mediums denounced as impostors.  All this has now changed.  The practice of Spiritism in some form or other has now become acceptable in society, but even more, its emergence in the tongues speaking section of the Church has actually made it respectable.  The way is thus being prepared for new ever-widening spheres of demonic activity and for the supply of new and more efficient human channels through whom these deceiving spirits may operate.  Someone has well said that the partition between the natural and the supernatural is wearing thin in places.  Such is indeed the case.  With the emergence this century of the tongues movement with its powerful emotional hype and its psychic healings, Satan has now created for himself a new source of authority and these teachings, having now gained respectability, open the door very wide for other "doctrines of demons." 

I feel it is highly important that readers should fully understand the strange alliance that has been formed between Christianity and Spiritism.  Any offspring resulting from this union will of course be a hybrid and a demonic one at that, and as I mentioned earlier, Satan would have to be the mastermind behind such massive deception as this.

THE EMOTIONAL HYPE

Another point that I find of interest in this:  after some years of counselling in this field, I have observed that for some mysterious reason, women are more susceptible than men to spiritistic influences.  In view of this fact, I would warn all Christian women to be exceedingly careful and to regard with suspicion every religious movement that is accompanied by an overpowering emotional hype.  Some people, no doubt, will be offended because I have labelled present-day speaking in tongues as Spiritism.  I owe it to such people to give such reasons for doing so.  People who have this supposed "gift of tongues" claim that this is the Holy Spirit speaking through them.  After counselling large numbers of tongues speaking people, I have observed that in about 95% of cases, it is a spirit speaking through them, but it is definitely NOT the Holy Spirit.  The other 5% have proven to be psychosomatic.  Both Scripture and research show that the Holy Spirit does not work in the manner claimed by Charismatics.  Because this is the crucial point on which everything stands or falls, I will endeavour to state it in terms which I hope will be understood by all.

In the spirit realm, there are TWO LAWS, by which spirits operate and when working through human channels: 

1. The Holy Spirit always requires the active cooperation of the mind.
2. Evil spirits require passive submission of the mind.  To put this in another way, evil spirits encourage the person to temporarily relinquish control of their mind in order that they can take it over!

It should be pointed out here that we are specifically commanded in Scripture to "gird up the loins of your mind" (1 Pet. 1:13) never to 'let them go blank' or leave them unguarded, as is encouraged by those who promote speaking in tongues.

Many of us when testing tongues have heard blasphemy and filth.  This is to be expected because the spirit speaking through people in today's so-called 'tongues' is a blasphemous spirit.  Evil spirits are of course very careful to conceal their true identity from Charismatic people.  If uncovered, their whole diabolical plan would be doomed to failure.

I am aware that some people are going to think "surely this cannot be so, because many tongues-speaking people are most sincere and they seem so loving and caring" - "surely they couldn't be demon controlled!"  It should be pointed out that demon possession is vastly different in Australia from what it is in, say India or Africa.  In those countries, it is more obvious, but in countries like Australia it is far more sophisticated.  Unless a counsellor is highly experienced, he will not detect it.

It should be borne in mind that demons do not necessarily reside in a person all the time.  After having gained access to a person, they can then come and go if they so desire.  This is clearly shown in Matt. 12:43-45.  We see in this passage that the demon was resident in the man, then left of its own accord, but later returned and brought seven others back with him.  This is precisely what happens with tongues-speaking people.  In their case, relinquishing control of the mind is the door that gives the demons entrance.  However, after having entered, they are then free to come and go as they please.  They are, of course, resident when the person is engaged in tongue speaking but they may then flit off to another deluded soul and utter their filth and blasphemies through him.  Counsellors call these 'shared' demons because they are shared between a number of persons. In a biker gang, the demons are more likely to be resident all the time.

DUAL PERSONALITY

The Lord has also graciously shown us in our research that in many cases of supposed Schizophrenia, it is not a case of split personality but dual personality.  In other words, there are two personalities in the one body, that of the person and also that of one or more resident demons.

There are times when the person is in control and exercises his will but at other times, he is overpowered by a demon who then takes control and exercises his will. 

Non-Christian psychologists who do not believe in the existence of demons and therefore do not understand their workings often mistakenly conclude that the problem is all in the personality of the person.  They sum up most cases of this nature as schizophrenia or split personality, but the correct diagnosis in a very high percentage of cases would be dual personality or demon possession.  It naturally follows from this that there are many people in our mental institutions who should not be there.  Their problem has not been correctly diagnosed and, because of this fact, they are administered mind-bending drugs which only create more misery for the person.

SUBSTITUTED PERSONALITY

Philip Mauro in his book "The Number of Man" (Morgan & Scott Limited, 1910) when speaking of Spiritism describes it as substituted personality.  In the case of tongues-speaking people, we would I think, understand the problem better if I used this term.  What is meant by this is that the true personality of the person is temporarily set aside and replaced by that of a spirit.  Displaced or substituted personality is the essential characteristic of Spiritism.  Now this is exactly what is happening in the tongues movement.  The personality of the man or woman who is the subject of this tongues-speaking experience is temporarily set aside and is replaced by an evil spirit or invisible intelligence which can then exercise varying degrees of control over the mind and the body of the person concerned.