All Articles For Trying The Spirits

Many men in the church who would be known as sound, historic, orthodox Protestants, who therefore would avoid any such designations as “Modernist” or “liberal”, but nevertheless detest the label “Fundamentalist,” and regard the term “conservative” as too openly implying the compromisers they are, call themselves neo-evangelicals. They prefer mightily not to be recognized as Fundamentalist, as separatist, as holding the strict practice of coming out from Babylon and being separate from Belial.

About ten years before he became, or knew anything about being Protestant Reformed, this writer came across a tiny book in the library of his maternal grandparents, entitled, “The Heidelberg Catechism.” On page 7 of this little book a question is asked, “What sort of a mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?” The answer given is: “For one who is very man, and perfectly righteous; and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also very God.” Since we are to seek such a mediator, is there such a mediator to be found? Holy Writ assures...

As to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has all power and wisdom. As to His humanity, He is limited and finite. As the second person of the trinity, He said, “I and the Father are one,” (John 10:30) As the Mediator, He said, “My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) He said this in His humanity, in His humiliation, when He had made himself of no reputation.

The Roman Catholic Church claims to be exclusively the true church of Christ. All churches other than the Romish are the false church. No man may know Christ unless he is willing to learn that this church, than which there is no other, is not a thing of evil, but instead the one only hope of the world, and, indeed, an extension of Christ Himself. So that haters of this church hate Christ and crucify Him afresh.

A common feature of many false cults is that the founders of them are women. Ann Lee was the founder of the Shakers. Mary Eddy was the founder of Christian Science. Theosophy was cast upon the world by Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant. Spiritism in this country goes back to the Fox sisters, Margaret and Kate. Astrology enshrines its Evangeline Adams, Myrna Kingsley and Nella Webb. Baha’ism “is a ladies’ cult like Christian Science.” And Seventh-Day Adventism has its leader and prophetess in Ellen G. White. 

The office in general to which our Lord was delegated was that of Mediator between God and men. It is to be noted that “the office is essentially one, not three. We may indeed distinguish the one office into three aspects of it that are denoted by the terms prophet, priest and king; but these may never be I separated. They are not three separate offices, but rather three different aspects or functions of the one office. There is one fundamental thought in them all, one idea that lies at the basis of all three.

“How doth Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executeth the office of a priest in His once offering Himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to be a reconciliation for the sins of His people; and in making continual intercession for them (LC, 44).” This function of His office was settled in the secret counsel of God. For He was “set forth (foreordained) a propitiation (Rom. 3:25),” an atoning sacrifice, for the sins of His people.

Since it claims to communicate with the spirit world, the above title is a more correct term for this doctrine of demons, than that of the misnomer “Spiritualism,” for there is nothing spiritual about “spiritism,” and, since it seeks departed spirits independently of God, very little that is religious. 

The founder of this chimerical cult was Emanuel Swedberg, a name which he later changed to the more resonant Swedenborg. Born in Stockholm in 1688, he was said to have lived and died a Lutheran. If so, one wonders whether his denomination, not far past the mighty Reformation, made any efforts to correct or discipline the pedantic heretic. Early he claimed the ability to see and converse with spirits and angels. Thus the religion he schematized became a predecessor to the Spiritism of today. Contact with the spirit-world is fundamental to the cult.

Christ is King in a double sense. As God, the second Person of the trinity, as God equal with God, He has an absolute, inherent sovereignty over the entire universe. This dominion is natural, independent underived. As the Mediator He was appointed a King by the authority of the triune Godhead. His mediatorial dominion is official, derived, given Him as a reward for the faithful accomplishment of His redemptive work (Phil. 2:7-11).