The Spirit of Spiritualism

Mark Finley: How can we keep from being deceived in the last days? By loving the truth, by loving God's word, and by loving the author of truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Guest (Male): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, the spirit of spiritualism. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com. And now Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: What does the Bible say about death? Can the dead communicate with the living? Is it possible for once a person has died to come back to their house again and speak to their loved ones? And what will the ultimate result of the devil's deception of spiritualism be in the light of the last days of world history? One of Satan's greatest deceptions is spiritualism. Down through the centuries, he has used spiritualistic manifestations to deceive millions of people. Who are the spirits of spiritualism? Can the dead communicate with the living? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Englishman, spiritualist said this. He said, there is no question that the dead still live because I talk with them. There is no death in the graveyard. Was Doyle right when he made that statement? If you have an apparition and a dead loved one appears to you, is that of God to encourage you? It is of the is it of the devil to deceive you? Or is it simply a figment of the imagination? The devil used spiritualism in the Garden of Eden to deceive Eve. You remember that he spoke through a serpent to deceive her. Modern spiritualism began in 1848 in the United States. Three sisters living in Hyde Park, New York with their parents, they were called the Fox sisters. Heard when they went to bed at night some strange rappings. There was a rumor that the house that they had purchased was haunted. And as they heard these strange rappings knock knock knock knock, they developed a system of communication with these rappings. And they termed the being on the other end that was communicating with them old Mr. Split Foot. Was simply another name, of course, for Satan. And they continue to communicate with this old Mr. Split Foot. The three sisters eventually became spiritualists. And based on that foundation of spiritualism, spiritualism has grown by the thousands. There are tens of thousands of spirituals, really hundreds of thousands throughout the United States and the world. But what does the Bible say about spiritualism? What does the Bible say about death? Can the dead communicate with the living? Is it possible for once a person has died to come back to their house again and speak to their loved ones? And what will the ultimate result of the devil's deception of spiritualism be in the light of the last days of world history? Let's jump right into our topic based on the Bible. I love that old poem. What says the Bible, the blessed Bible to me? The teachings of men so often mislead me. But what says the Bible, the blessed Bible to me? First thing that we want to set out very clearly is that once a person dies, it is impossible for that individual to communicate with the living. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 5. For the living know that they will die. What do the living know? What does every living human being know? It knows that they will die. But the dead know nothing. How much do the dead know? The Bible says the dead know nothing, not one thing, as would say in Spanish, nada. They know nothing. For they have no more reward. The memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hatred, their envy, these are emotions have now perished. Verse 10. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going. So the Bible says the dead know nothing. The Bible presents death as a sleep in 53 different places. It calls death but a rest. You remember when Jesus' friend Lazarus died, Jesus said, I go to wake him up out of sleep. His disciples said, if he's sleeping, he's going to do well. And Jesus then, the Bible says in John chapter 11 verse 11 to 14, Jesus spoke of his death. So in the Bible, the dead know nothing, they don't know anything, and death is but a sleep. Is it possible then in the light of that for a dead person to return to their house and talk to their living relatives? The book of Job answers that question very powerfully, very clearly for us, Job chapter 7. When we look at what scripture says, we are preserved from the deceptions of our day. Job chapter 7 verse 7 and on. Oh remember that my life is a breath. Mine eye will never see never again see good. Wow, mine eye will never again see good. Once I die, I'm not going to come back to the world to see good or evil. The eye of him who sees me will see me no more. Well Job says, once I die, the eye of him who sees me is going to do what? See me no more. As the cloud, verse 9, as the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house nor shall his place know him anymore. Could the Bible make it any plainer? He who goes down to the grave, what does it say? Does not come up. And then scripture says that he will not return to his house. Well, does that mean that the grave is the ultimate end? Does that mean when you die, you go into the grave, it's a dark hole in the ground, a long night without a morning? Is that what that means? What does it mean when it says he come up no more? When would he come up if he came up? Job answers that question in Job chapter 14. And we're just developing a brief outline of death and so we can understand spiritualism. Job the 14th chapter verse 12. So man lies down and does not rise. So he doesn't rise until when? Next phrase. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep. Oh that you would hide me in the grave, that you would conceal me until your wrath is passed. That you would appoint me a set time remember me. If a man dies, shall he live again? Now notice that's the question, isn't it? If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait till my change comes. You shall call and I will answer you. You shall desire the work of your hands. So when a person dies, they cannot return to their house. They don't come out of their grave until Job says the day of the appointed time of the glorious resurrection of Christ. So according to scripture, death is a sleep until the return of Jesus. And you remember in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 51 to 54 the Bible says the Apostle Paul writing talks about the day that Christ will come. Talks about the day that the dead will be resurrected. Acts, Romans, Corinthians, New Testament, 1st Corinthians chapter 15. Listen to the word of the Lord starting with verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. He's saying I tell you a mystery, but it's a mystery that's solved in the Bible. We shall not all sleep. Remember death is but a what? Sleep until when? Till Jesus comes. We don't rise, we don't go back to our house until Jesus comes. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. When? In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. So according to scripture, when we die, we rest. We cannot return to our house. The dead do not appear to the living and we rest if we are righteous and believers until the day that Jesus comes and the dead are resurrected. 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 16 and 17 says, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a what? Shout with the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. So we rest until the glorious day of the Second Coming of Christ when the dead are resurrected and the living righteous are changed and together with their immortal bodies, with the dead that have been resurrected, they're righteous, and the living that are righteous are caught up to meet Christ in the sky. Understanding this saves you from a thousand errors and deceptions. One night I was preaching in the Philippines and a typhoon came and it was dark and the wind was blowing, water was flowing through the streets and rain was pelting down and we were to have a meeting that night and I went to the auditorium, made our way there, but a few people were in this darkened auditorium. I had to dismiss them and go home. I was preaching in fact on the thousand years, the millennium of thousand years of darkness. And I said, we can't have the meeting tonight. And they said, Pastor, we have to have it because you announced the topic a thousand years of darkness and we think it began tonight. I ensured them that it didn't, but I spoke shortly, sent them home. The next night or two after the meeting, one of the participants in the meeting came to me. He had been in the Philippine army. And he was a ranking officer in fact in the Philippine army. And he came to me and he said, Pastor Mark, let me tell you this story. You remember the other night when the typhoon came? Yeah, I sure do. He said, I was sleeping. The wind was blowing, rattling the windows in my house, rattling the house. And he said, I woke up. Now his wife had died some years before and he said, I woke up and I looked up and I saw the form of my wife, young, no wrinkles, beautiful. And she reached out her arms and she was coming toward me. And as I saw her, she called me, she beckoned and come, hug me. She said, I looked up. And I remembered Pastor Mark what you said. I remembered what the Bible said, the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything. The dead cannot return to their house, Job 7. We shall wait and sleep until the resurrection, Job 14. And he said, when I saw that form of my wife, he said, I cried out, Jesus, Jesus, this is not my wife.
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Mark Finley: This is a demon. This is a evil spirit masquerading as my wife. In the name of Christ, be gone. And he said, Pastor Mark, the form of my wife turned to a hideous demon and disappeared. Knowing what the Bible says protects us from the wiles of Satan and the deceptions of Satan. In the last days of world history, Satan is going to use spiritualism in an attempt to unite church and state. He will use false miracles. He will use signs. He will use wonders. The spirits of demons will go out to the political leaders of the world to try to bring them together. Look at a few texts that are very clear on this. Revelation, the 16th chapter and the 14th verse. Revelation 16 verse 14. Here the Bible is talking about Earth's final war, the battle of Armageddon. And it says in Revelation 16 verse 14, then I saw three unclean spirits come out of the mouth of the beast, the mouth of the the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing signs or miracles which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. So here you have a clear Bible passage that in the last days Satan's going to use spiritualism. That's why it's so important to know the truths of the Bible. And he is going to deceive multitudes through spiritualism. He's going to get the kings of the earth, the political leaders of the earth to form a religious political alliance and the people of God who do not go along will be persecuted. Now Revelation 18 describes this union. Look, Revelation chapter 18 verse 2 3. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Babylon is a symbol of false religion, false It has become a habitation of demons. Who lives in Babylon? Demons, spiritualism, a prison of every foul spirit, a cage of every unclean hated bird. For all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication. What's fornication? It's an illicit union. So what happens? The religions of this world except God's faithful true people will ultimately unite with the political powers of the world and the merchants of the world. And they'll have this triple triumvirate of error, political leaders, financial leaders, religious leaders. And they will again be dominated by spiritualism. Look, for all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Fornication is an illicit union. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. With whom? With Babylon, this false religious movement. And the merchants of the earth, who's that? The financial leaders have become rich through the blood abundant of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people lest you partake of her sins lest you receive of her plagues. What kind of a picture do we see there? The picture that we see there is that the devil uses spiritualism. Dead loved ones appear. Beings like angels appear. False miracles take place. Signs and wonders take place. And this is all to deceive as many people as possible, to get them ready to take the mark of the beast so that they will be in opposition to God's people and eventually in rebellion and disobedience to God be ultimately lost. About this time in a book called Great Controversy page 588 and 589 says, through the true great through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul. What's that, the immortality of the soul? That's the idea the soul leaves the body at death. In Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. Now next paragraph. As spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles be wrought, the sick will be healed, many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will perform profess faith in the Bible and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power. So here's the picture. At a time of unusual crisis in the world, earthquake, famine, fire, flood, war, conflict, strife, economic disaster, where our money is worth very little at a time that total chaos in the world, the devil will begin to work. He'll work through spiritualism. There'll be false miracles. There'll be false signs, false wonders. So called dead will appear. It could even be that some will masquerade James and John and some will masquerade things like Daniel and Jeremiah. They will lead a people away from the Bible truth. They will lead people to unite with this political, religious, financial power block. They will say the world must come together in unity. But it's not a unity based on truth. Remember what Jesus said in John 17 17, sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth. Now you might be wondering, how can I keep from this overwhelming delusion? How can I keep from being deceived by the spiritualism of the last days? Well, number one, understanding death will help a great deal. But there's something else that's extremely important. Isaiah chapter 8 describes how we can keep from being deceived in the last days of world history. Isaiah chapter 8. We're looking at verse 19. When they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter. People seek their God. Should not they seek the dead on behalf of the living? So what is it saying? It's saying they're going to there's going to be this great spiritualistic movement, but then it says to the law, to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, there's no light in them. No light. If they don't speak according to God's law and part of the Ten Commandment law, the fourth commandment is what? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Written on tables of stone with God's own finger. God says, if you want to keep from being deceived in the last days of Earth's history, number one, know what the Bible says about death. The death is but a rest. That the dead can't return to their house. That the devil can masquerade as dead loved ones. 2nd Corinthians 11 14. He is masquerading at times as an angel of light. So he tries to deceive through spiritualism. So understand that death is but a rest of the coming of Jesus. Secondly, the Bible says, don't go after some movement that leads you away from the law of God when the fallen church, when the state powers, when the financial powers unite and enforce a decree to keep us from obeying the law of God, the Bible says to the law to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, there's no light in them. Doesn't say there's no power because the devil can work with power. Doesn't say there's no love because the devil can use an emotional form of counterfeit love. It says there's no light. And what's light? Light is what we follow. How can you keep from being deceived by loving the truth? Notice what the Bible says in the book of Thessalonians here. Scripture is speaking in Thessalonians about the Antichrist. And when the Antichrist appears and how he will tempt to deceive the multitudes and it tells us how we can keep from being deceived. Look. 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7 and on with the mystery of lawlessness. See the mystery of lawlessness, Paul says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So already in Paul's day you have lawlessness taking place, a departure from the law of God, a disobeying of the commandments of God. Grace never leads us to disobedience. It always leads us to obedience. The scripture says, the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way. The lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth, destroy with the brightness of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with power, signs, and lying wonders. What's that? Power, signs, lying wonders. It's spiritualism. And with the unrighteous deception among those who perish, why did they perish? They did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. For this reason, God will send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. How can we keep from being deceived in the last days by loving the truth, by loving God's word, and by loving the author of truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. As I love Jesus, I love his word. As I love Jesus, I love his teachings. As I love Jesus, I love his truth. To love Jesus is to love the things that Jesus taught and want to live in harmony with them. The devil will deceive multitudes in the last days. But you and I need not be deceived because we have the sure word of truth that shines like a light in the darkness of this word. Embrace it, follow it, live in harmony with it. And by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will take you by the hand and lead you to eternity. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how thankful we are for the word of God that protects us in the last days of Earth's history from the wiles of Satan and spiritualism. Keep us faithful to you. Keep us trusting you. Help our eyes be fixed upon you. And may the words of Christ, I am the way, the truth, and the life be burned into our hearts. Help us to know that to the law to the testimony, if they keep if they live not according to his word, there is no light in them. Help us to follow your principles of your law with Christ enshrined in our hearts and the Holy Spirit strengthening us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at hopelives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to hopelives365.com/donate. And now a final thought from Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: This is why the New Testament mentions the resurrection 300 times. Christ's resurrection is the evidence that his power over death and Satan is real. It is the eternal guarantee that sin in the grave cannot hold us. It is the assurance that because he lives, we can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. We love it when you send in questions. We love to answer your Bible questions and God touches your heart and you make a decision for Christ and you send that into us. We really appreciate that. If you have any questions, we'd love to answer them at info at hopelives365.com. That's info at hopelives365.com. Look forward to your questions.