Modern Spiritualism

by Uriah Smith

4. Rev. 12:12: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

This scripture locates itself. It is when Satan knows that he has but a little time to work, and hence it must be in the last days. At this time he [pg 136] descends upon the world in an avalanche of wrath. “Wrath” is a misleading term. The words θυμόν μέγαν signify the strongest and most intense emotion of the mind. If the object is to accomplish some particular end, they would indicate the most intense, concentrated, energetic, and persistent efforts to that purpose, using every means, and bringing to bear every influence to reach the result in question. Satan, as we have seen, has an object in deceiving the human family, as far as possible, to their destruction, by signs and wonders. In this work, according to the prophecy before us, he will go to the extent of his power, and show his most potent signs. Bringing the supposed forms and features of the dead before living witnesses, is his most successful method at the present time. But as this work is, as yet, done largely in the dark, it gives more room for jugglery and imposition. The time will come, however, when, in open light, counterfeit materializations of the dead will swarm on earth, and deceive, if it were possible, the very elect—i.e., all who cannot meet the deception with the potent weapon—“It is written, The dead know not anything, neither have they any more a portion forever [in the present state of things] in anything that is done under the sun.”

5. Rev. 13:13, 14: “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.”

This prophecy relates to some earthly government represented by a symbol with two horns like a lamb. [pg 137] Verse 11. It is part of a prophecy beginning with chapter twelve, and ending with verse 5 of chapter fourteen. It is not the place here to introduce an exposition of this prophecy. It is only necessary to state that the position taken is that the lamblike symbol represents our own government, the United States of America.[4] And the great wonders that he does, apply to the marvelous manifestations of Spiritualism. It is a significant fact that Spiritualism arose in this country, thus fitting itself exactly to the prophecy. The climax of the wonders brought to view in the text, making “fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,” has not yet been reached. More is therefore to be developed. Yea, this wonder-working power is to go forward till that which, in the time of Elijah, was the test between the false god Baal and the Lord Jehovah, is brought to pass, and fire is made to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And the sad feature of this case will be that the multitudes, not perceiving the change of issue, will take the act down here to be a test of truth, as it was in the days of Elijah.

Taken in connection with other portions of the book of Revelation, this prophecy reveals clearly what the agency that works the miracles is. The dragon, representing paganism (Rev. 12:3, 4); the beast, representing the papacy (Rev. 13:1-10); and the lamblike symbol, representing Protestantism, [pg 138] or more specifically, Protestant America (Rev. 13:11-17), constitute the symbols of this prophecy. For convenience, let us designate them as A, B, and C; respectively. C works his miracles in sight of B; B and C are again brought to view in Rev. 19:20, and there C is called “the false prophet.” We know the false prophet here is the same as C, because he works miracles before B, the same as C does in chapter 13:14. All together, A, B, and C are brought to view in Rev. 16:13, and unclean spirits like frogs are said to come out of their mouths; and then verse 14 tells what they are: “For they are spirits of devils, working miracles.” This, then, not the spirits of dead men, is the agency that works the miracles of chapter 13:13, 14. We follow the subject so far, at this point, merely to identify the agency that works the miracles, and shall have more to say upon it. But before passing, we would remind the reader that here also the subject is connected with the second coming of Christ; for the prophecy of Revelation 13 ends with the redemption of the church which immediately follows. Rev. 14:1-5.

6. 2 Thess. 2:9-12: “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Here, again, we have the great fact brought out with still more startling emphasis, that there is to be a great outbreaking of Satanic power among men, just before and up to, the coming of Christ. And if we already see the preliminary and even far-advanced working of this power in Spiritualism, the world should stand aghast at the perils of the times in which we live. The coming of Christ is brought to view in verse 8, and verse 9 states that at that time Satan will be working with all power. The common version is calculated to obscure this passage. The words “even him” (verse 9) are wrongly and unnecessarily supplied. Literally rendered, the last clause of verse 8, and the first of verse 9 would read as follows: “Whom the Lord ... shall destroy with the brightness of his [Christ's] coming; of whom [Christ] the coming is, after [or at the time of] the working of Satan,” etc. The word “after” is from, the Greek κατα (kata), which when referring to time, as in this case, does not mean “after or according to,” but “within the range of, during, in the course of, at, about,” as in 2 Tim. 4:1, where it is rendered “at.”

So here is a plain declaration that at the very time when Christ comes Satan will be working in the hight of his power, by signs and lying wonders (wonders to prove a lie) to keep the people under falsehood and deception. Verses 10-12 tell who his victims are, and why they become such: they are those who preferred the pleasures of sin to the practice of righteousness, and so would not receive the truth, [pg 140] nor the love of it. In all such cases God's throne is clear. He always, as in this case, sets truth first before the people, gives them a chance, and calls upon them to embrace it, and be saved. But when men, as free moral agents, whom God will not force into his kingdom, refuse to receive the truth, shut their eyes, close their ears, and steel their hearts against it, and find their pleasure in unrighteousness, in going in just the opposite direction;—what can God do for them? We leave the skeptic himself to answer. For more years than Spiritualism, in its present phase, has been before the world, several religious bodies have made a specialty of the great Bible truth concerning the state of the dead, and life only in Christ, which effectually shields all those who receive it against the rapping delusion.

7. Rev. 18:2: “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”

Among the many predictions given in the word of God touching the last days, is one which foretokens a wide-spread and lamentable declension in the religious world. The phrase which embodies it, is the one just quoted, “Babylon is fallen.” The term “Babylon” is not intended nor used as a term of reproach, but rather as a descriptive word setting forth the very undesirable condition of “mixture” and “confusion” in the religious world. It is certainly not the Lord's will, who prayed that all his [pg 141] people should be one, that scores or hundreds of divisions and sects should exist within his church. That is owing, exclaims the Catholic, to the Protestant rule of private judgment. It is not. It is owing to that Pandora's box of mystical interpretation placed in the church by old Origen, that prince of mischief-makers. By this method, which has no method and no standard, the interpretations of God's word will ever be as various and numerous as the whims and fancies that may find a place in the minds of men.