The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 558
spirits make no difference between righteousness and sin, between the
noblest and purest of the apostles of Christ and the most corrupt of the
servants of Satan. By representing the basest of men as in heaven, and
highly exalted there, Satan says to the world: “No matter how wicked
you are; no matter whether you believe or disbelieve God and the Bible.
Live as you please; heaven is your home.” The spiritualist teachers
virtually declare: “Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the
Lord, and He delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?”
Malachi 2:17. Saith the word of God: “Woe unto them that call evil
good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.”
Isaiah 5:20.
The apostles, as personated by these lying spirits, are made to
contradict what they wrote at the dictation of the Holy Spirit when on
earth. They deny the divine origin of the Bible, and thus tear away the
foundation of the Christian’s hope and put out the light that reveals the
way to heaven. Satan is making the world believe that the Bible is a
mere fiction, or at least a book suited to the infancy of the race, but now
to be lightly regarded, or cast aside as obsolete. And to take the place of
the word of God he holds out spiritual manifestations. Here is a channel
wholly under his control; by this means he can make the world believe
what he will. The Book that is to judge him and his followers he puts in
the shade, just where he wants it; the Saviour of the world he makes to be
no more than a common man. And as the Roman guard that watched the
tomb of Jesus spread the lying report which the priests and elders put into
their mouths to disprove His resurrection, so do the believers in spiritual
manifestations try to make it appear that there is nothing miraculous in
the circumstances of our Saviour’s life. After thus seeking to put Jesus
in the background, they call attention to their own miracles, declaring
that these far exceed the works of Christ.
It is true that spiritualism is now changing its form and, veiling some
of its more objectionable features, is assuming
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