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Episodes
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
Wednesday Feb 07, 2018
4. Spiritualism:
How Do Spiritualist Treat The Bible?
By Jim Allis
Beliefs
Spiritualism sums up its teaching in the following seven points: Spiritualists mainly agree on seven points: 1. The fatherhood of God 2. The brotherhood of Man 3. The communion of spirits and the ministry of angels 4. The continuous existence of the human soul 5. Personal responsibility 6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for all good and evil deeds done on earth 7. Eternal progress open to every human soul I will not write down in detail all they believe but will point out where in particular they differ from the Bible and Christianity.
Question 1. : On what basis are we allowed into Heaven ?
What Spiritualists say: The home that awaits us in the spirit world depends upon the life we have led on earth. If we have honestly tried to do the best we can, then we need have no fear of death. We have fitted ourselves for the result which is automatic; a better, happier life where we are reunited with our loved ones and friends. If, on the other hand, there has been more selfishness than goodness and service in our lives, we will automatically have to pay the price. This is part of the law of sowing and reaping, which is another way of saying that effect must follow cause. It is perfectly summarised in the sixth principle of spiritualism, which says that hereafter there is compensation and retribution for all good and evil done on earth. Acts of service that we have performed will naturally increase our spiritual status. Sins of omission or commission will just as naturally retard it. There is, however, no hell in which its inhabitants are condemned for eternity. What the Bible says “For by grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast” Ephesians 2:8. Grace is the operative word here. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Heaven cannot be earned. God has made a way whereby we may enter heaven.
- Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16;
- The gift of God is eternal life” John 3:36;
- “There is none righteous no not one” Romans 3:10;)
- Jesus said “IFor God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by Me.” John 14:6;)
- “There is no salvation in and through no one else For there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12;)
Question 2 : What do Spiritualists say about Jesus?
“We do not believe in vicarious atonement as preached in some orthodox religions. We regard Jesus as an exemplar, not a saviour. Man has no saviour but himself. We are each personally responsible for our sins and must atone for them here and hereafter. It is far more moral to acknowledge our sins and try to make amends than to try to place them on the shoulders of another. We believe that Jesus was Divine, but only in the sense that we are all divine. There is a difference of degree but not of kind.”
What does the Bible say concerning Jesus? People have needed a Saviour ever since Adam and Eve broke the first commandment....”You shall not take of the tree in the centre of Garden if you do you will surely die” (Genesis 3) The Bible goes on to say that every person entering the world after that were born separated from God by their sin and needing someone to come and save them from their sin and that Person is clearly seen in our Bibles to be Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God.
Paul writing to Timothy writes “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”(1 Timothy 1:15;) Romans 3:23” says We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
An atonement was required in order to redeem sinners. The Redeemer is Jesus and through His sacrifice all who believe on Him and repent of their sin are delivered from their sin and receive the gift of eternal life. It needed a perfect Saviour to save us and only Jesus was fit for that task,. He remained sinless through all His thirty three years upon earth and He alone could atone as he surely did upon a cross of wood over 2000 years ago. The proof of the success of that atonement is that the grave could not hold Him and he rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion took place. this present time Jesus is in Heaven preparing a place for all believers and one day will come again into this world to take into heaven all who have trusted in Him for their salvation to join with those who are already there arriving after they had died upon earth. It doesn't just happen God made it clear from the beginning that the soul that sins dies and has no hope apart from an awakening by The Holy Spirit (Third member of the Trinity).
We come into the world biased towards sin and we need to be changed and for that purpose Jesus died to remove our sins and The Holy Spirit imparts spiritual life to the believer. He is “born again to newness of life” He could not achieve this by himself. Spiritualists believe they don't need a saviour and say that they have to save themselves. Only perfect beings can arrive in heaven and we can only be made perfect through being in union with Christ and receiving the newness of life in Him.
This clearly is seen in (2 Corinthians 5:17-18; (Amplified Bible) “Therefore if any person is (engrafted) in Christ, the Messiah, he is (a new creature altogether) a new creation; the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, behold the fresh and new has come! But all things are from God, who through Jesus Christ, reconciled us to Himself.
Spiritualists teach that Jesus was nothing more than a medium, He was not divine as unique from us who are mere mortals. They say He is an advanced spirit in the sixth sphere and his death was only a martyrdom heroic devotion to humanity. Oh! How they have missed out on who He really is. The Son of God the third member of the Trinity. His mission accomplished was to deliver man from his sins. I say accomplished for when he died he gave up His own life it was not taken from Him. He gave up His life unto death so that when all was concluded the triumphant words rang out from that cross “It is finished” or “Tetalesti!” as it is in the Aramaic.
Finally they say “Hell does not exist” but that is one of the prime reasons Jesus came to deliver us from hell and bring us safe into Heaven. The authority of my words are with God Himself in His written Word the Bible.. His Word is Perfect (Psalm 12:6); His Word is Truth (John 17:17;) Test everything by The Bible. May I encourage you ‘Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy’.
** Disclaimer: The author of this article, Jim Allis, is a guest podcaster and Partake Ministries may or may not agree with his opinions and writings, either in their entirety or part thereof.
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Wednesday Jan 31, 2018
Wednesday Jan 31, 2018
3. Spiritualism:
What Takes Place In Seances?
By Jim Allis
A seance is a meeting at which mediums try to communicate with the dead. During Séances people who seek to communicate with loved ones are often startled to hear familiar voices supplying details about one's life which no one else present could know. In addition to impersonating the voice of the dead these may well be the voices of the unclean spirits who actually lived within the person during their lifetime. After wondering in dry places (Job 30:3-8) and being called forth to return by the séance, they are in a position to re-enter the family.
The opening is provided by seeking information from the demonic realm for them to gain a new "house." This might also explain why, after a time, these spirits can no longer be summoned in séances; they have entered a new victim and are no longer homeless. Evil spirits cannot enter people as easy as some believe. If they could they would, so that in every situation where demons were present, there would be no protection, and all could be subject to them. There must be legal grounds or legal holds to open a person to attacks. A willingness from the person to want such a spirit to live within themselves through some wrong activity they engage in such as prostitution or drugs. It is thought by some that a great many come in through family background, curses and inheritance. Even habitual sin enables a demon to enter aided by inherited family weakness and inclinations. Perhaps when habitual sin does allow the entrance of a demon it may be easier to dislodge, comparatively speaking, the same demon in a person who has an inherited opening in his family line.
Can The Dead Make Contact With The Living?
The Bible says no, No! If there is any supernatural activity in the séance, it is most certainly not the spirit of the departed one speaking through the medium. It is not possible according to the Scriptures to contact the spirits of the dead. Jesus made this very clear with the account of the rich man and Lazarus. In Luke 16: 19-31 we read, “there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury everyday. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire."
But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them.' "No, `father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'" He said, to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'
Two things need to be pointed out in this passage:
a. There is a great gulf fixed between the places of the righteous and unrighteous dead which no one can cross. The dead, in other words, are unable to change from one side to the other. They are fixed for eternity.
b. The rich man was refused permission to warn his five brothers of their impending fate if they did not repent. The passage indicates, along with the rest of the Scripture, that the dead are not allowed to speak to the living on any matter. The response in this case was that the brothers needed to believe what God had said in the Scriptures to escape their doom rather than a voice from the dead. Jesus declared that those who harden their hearts against the very words of God through Moses and the prophets would not listen even if one did return from the dead. This is proved by those who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ today. Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and yet people still refuse to accept what is written in the Bible concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
** Disclaimer: The author of this article, Jim Allis, is a guest podcaster and Partake Ministries may or may not agree with his opinions and writings, either in their entirety or part thereof.
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Wednesday Jan 24, 2018
Wednesday Jan 24, 2018
2. Spiritualism: Is It All Trickery?
By Jim Allis
The destiny of a king who called up the spirit of the dead (1 Samuel 28;7ff)
We read in the Old Testament about Saul the first king of Israel, a God fearing man, who at one time killed all the witches and sorcerers. However, when he did wrong, God turned His face away from him. When Saul wanted to fight with the Philistines, he sought God's counsel, but He did not answer Saul.
Instead of soul searching and repenting from his sins in the presence of God, Saul asked a woman (sorcerer) to call the spirit of Samuel (who was a great prophet of God, and was dead at the time). The woman called Samuel's spirit for the king to counsel. When Samuel's spirit was called, he said: Why have you called and distressed me? (This false spirit was an evil one that had showed himself as Samuel's spirit.) Mediums or sorcerers absolutely have no access to call the spirits of dead people, any manifestation belongs to evil spirits and their job is deceiving the people and bringing them under the curse of God to get control over them and their offspring.
However these demons are described in our Bibles as “deceiving spirits’. Did not something similar taker place in the Garden of Eden when Eve was DECEIVED by Satan, the Commander in Chief of evil spirits. From that time to this present day their character doesn't change. Many are deceived today into believing they actually make contact with their loved ones. It happens in séances and necromancy. Coming up tomorrow: Part 3 - What Happens In A Séance?
** Disclaimer: The author of this article, Jim Allis, is a guest podcaster and Partake Ministries may or may not agree with his opinions and writings, either in their entirety or part thereof.
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Wednesday Jan 17, 2018
Wednesday Jan 17, 2018
1. Spiritualism: Right or Wrong?
By Jim Allis
Introduction
Picture a wonderful scene... ”There is a beautiful scene of happiness all around us. There are marvellous buildings of grandeur, blue lagoons, clear lakes of warm water and luscious green grassed meadows. The colours of the birds are of magnificent shades of blue red green and yellow as never seen before. Here there is also a sense of peace as never experienced before and such a peace as you never want it to end. All, yes all is so peaceful here” You might well imagine this to be the introduction to a holiday brochure but it is not. It is the description of the ‘other side’ to which Spiritualists say we go when we leave this present world. The words I have referred to are in fact words supposedly given to a medium by a departed spirit for the comfort of living relatives and friends of their departed loved ones.
Where And How Did It Begin?
Spiritualism began in a tiny home in Hydesville,USA To be more precise, spirit messages began to be received by a family of three girls on 31st March 1848. These young ladies were experimenting when suddenly they said they heard rapping noises from a spirit who claimed to be a murdered peddler. Kate, Margaret and Leah Foxe became very fascinated by it. However in 1880 Margaret Foxe admitted it was fraud and delusion. Some have said she only said this because she was envious of her sister. Leah who became famous in this movement. Since that time of course many fraudulent mediums have jumped on the band wagon faking supernatural noises and apparitions to make money. Some people will do almost anything to gain money as I am sure you my readers would agree. Leah Foxe is supposed to have received this message from the spirit world, ‘Dear Friends, you must proclaim this message to the world. When you do your duty, God will protect you and good spirits will watch over you.’ Within only a short space of time there were over a hundred mediums practicing in New York alone.
Since that time Spiritualism has grown into an international organisation throughout the whole World. Various groups under the one main heading but each have peculiar differences. However with Spiritualism there is one common ground on which they all stand. They all proclaim with one accord that ‘one can communicate with the dead.’ Spiritualism was mainly a middle- and upper-class movement, and especially popular with women. U.S. spiritualists would meet in private homes for séances, at lecture halls for trance lectures, at state or national conventions, and at summer camps attended by thousands.
The movement was extremely individualistic, with each person relying on her own experiences and reading to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organisation was therefore slow to appear, and when it did it was resisted by mediums and trance lecturers. Most members were content to attend Christian churches, and particularly Universalist churches harboured many Spiritualists..) During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini undertook a well-publicised campaign to expose fraudulent mediums. He was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains."
Despite widespread fraud, the appeal of Spiritualism was strong. Prominent in the ranks of its adherents were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many attend to this very day who are grieving the loss of a loved one and can’t bear the separation and so seek out a spiritualist medium who can bring them into contact again with the deceased. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organized séances in the White House which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln. The surge of interest in Spiritualism during and after the American Civil War and World War I was a direct response to the massive casualties. Coming up tomorrow, our second study, entitled "Is it all Trickery?"
** Disclaimer: The author of this article, Jim Allis, is a guest podcaster and Partake Ministries may or may not agree with his opinions and writings, either in their entirety or part thereof.