Spiritualism has been a weapon of choice in the Devil’s arsenal against God’s people since his very first temptation in the Garden of Eden. This message unravels his discreet spiritualistic sophistries by analyzing how spiritualism works and revealing just how insidious it is.

<p>Spiritualism has been a weapon of choice in the Devil’s arsenal against God’s people since his very first temptation in the Garden of Eden. This message unravels his discreet spiritualistic sophistries by analyzing how spiritualism works and revealing just how insidious it is.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alistair Huong: The Virus of Spiritualism

Alistair Huong

1. The Speaking Serpent: A Pandemic of Spiritualism

Father in heaven, I pray that you will guide us and speak to us and teach us from your word about the devil and his strategies in his war against the saints at the end of time.

I pray that the Holy Spirit might fill us and teach us that which we need to know.

So be with us now as we open your word together online here.

So the title of our study today or this morning is The Speaking Serpent, a pandemic of spiritualism.

So we are going to be talking about spiritualism so let's get a definition up on the table right off the bat.

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, Spiritualism is defined as a system of belief or religious practice based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead especially through mediums and I think we are familiar with this notion of spiritualism interacting with the dead and spirits of the dead and that type of thing.

But as Aventists, I think for many of us, we have an auto-translate feature that goes on in our heads.

Meaning, whenever we read the spirits of the dead, there's an automatic translation in our minds, oh those are evil angels or spirits of demons because we understand the doctrine of the state of the dead.

The biblical understanding of it which is the soul sleeps until the resurrection.

And so we don't really believe that these are literal spirits from the dead that are speaking to us, but rather these are spirits of demons masquerading as the spirits of the dead.

And so whenever I mention the phrase even in this presentation about talking to the dead, I think you understand that's what we're talking about, engaging with the evil angels.

But this passage also, or this definition I should say, also highlights that spiritualism happens especially through mediums.

And this is an important concept that is going to come into play as we go forward.

So Turning to the Bible now, I want to begin our study in Genesis 3, verses 4 and 5.

And it says this, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And it is, in this study we're going to be really focusing on just the highlighted section, the bolded text, which is verse 4 of Genesis chapter 3.

And then this afternoon we are going to be studying verse 5.

But we're going to be focusing on the first half of this passage.

It says the serpent, it talks about the serpent in the garden at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil speaking with the woman and communicating this lie that you shall not surely die.

Well to break it down a little bit further, what we have just read there is the first spiritualistic encounter in all of human history, and certainly the first time it is recorded in the Bible.

So to divide that concept up, there are actually 2 ways to look at spiritualism.

They can be categorized into 2 ways 1 is overt spiritualism and then discrete Spiritualism.

Overt spiritualism refers to when people knowingly engage with the supernatural.

So it is things like, you know, demon possession or voodoo and witchcraft and the occult, right?

These types of things we think of as overt spiritualism and all of it is based on this lie about ye shall not surely die.

It's based on this idea of the immortality of the soul, that lie of the devil in the garden.

And over and over in the spirit of prophecy, whenever we read about spiritualism, it is always referenced, this doctrine of the immortality of the soul is frequently referenced as the foundation for modern day spiritualism.

So There's a great deal of information here that we can continue to study.

But to just break this down just a little bit further, overt spiritualism definitely has the pagan form, which is what we reference, ancestral worship, demon possession, black magic, necromancy, voodoo, witchcraft, ouija boards, seances, all of these types of things we associate with paganism, pagan form of spiritualism.

But there's also a Christian form of spiritualism that the Spirit of Prophecy has a great deal to talk about as well.

And that is this idea that we can talk with the dead.

So believing people go straight to heaven when they die and so you know, oh I heard grandma and the spirit of grandma came back and comforted me last night when I was you know praying.

Or I had a out-of-body experience when I was on the operating room table and I saw the light and I saw Jesus and he told me this, that and the other thing.

That's the Christian version of spiritualism.

Both of them have the same root foundation in this doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

And it is the primary form of spiritualism whenever we read about it in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.

Whenever it's mentioned, that's the primary form, the overt type of spiritualism.

I don't want to leave the impression that that's not important, except to make this disclaimer that for our study, the purposes of our study today, this morning, and this afternoon, we're going to be primarily focusing on the second form of spiritualism which is the discrete form of spiritualism.

Discrete spiritualism represents that form of spiritualism when The human agent is influenced by evil angels and by Satan without them knowing that they are engaged with the supernatural.

And this is represented by the very serpent itself.

Satan speaking through the medium of a serpent to the woman represents a discreet form of spiritualism in so far that Eve did not know that she was talking with the devil.

She did not know that she was engaging with the powers of darkness from the realm of the supernatural.

So this is really going to be the primary focus of our study today.

In Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 and then we're skipping down to verse 17, we read that the great dragon was cast out.

That old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world.

He was cast down to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

So Satan is referenced in the book of Revelation as the old serpent.

And so at the end of time we should be aware that the devil is going to be employing the same or similar tactics that he used in the Garden of Eden.

That's because a serpent represents spiritualism.

That's what the serpent, you know, that's what the serpent did.

And so we continue reading here that the dragon, also called the serpent in the verse we just read, was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So, we should expect spiritualism to be in the arsenal of the devil in his end-time war against the remnant.

And to make this point even clearer, I want to take a look at several other passages in the book of Revelation, which will highlight that spiritualism, we should expect it to sweep over the world like a global pandemic.

So the first passage in Revelation chapter 16 verse 13 and 14 it says, For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." And that battle, of course, we're talking about the battle of Armageddon.

This is the sixth plague right before Jesus comes.

And John the Revelator describes the scene as spirits of demons or devils working miracles going around the world deceiving the kings of the earth and the whole world.

So it gives us the idea of a global pandemic type of situation.

Another passage is in Revelation 18, verse 23, And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee, speaking of Babylon the great.

And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee.

For thy merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Sorceries.

That's simply another word for spiritualism.

Babylon, at the end of time, 1 of their hallmarks of Babylon is that it uses spiritualism or sorceries to deceive all nations or the whole world.

And so we are talking about a worldwide flood of Spiritualistic activity at the end of time We should expect it.

And it's interesting to think that even in the wider world, anecdotally, I believe we can see this to be true.

It's hard to believe, but it was 20 years ago, or more than 20 years ago, maybe, when I was canvassing in California that I met a remarkable number of people who would openly with a straight face, look me in the eye and say oh I'm a pagan or I'm a Wiccan and I'm you know I was flabbergasted the first few times it happened because you know I'm standing here selling Bible story books or spiritual books and they just openly admit, oh yeah, I'm a pagan, I don't believe that.

I believe in the, you know, I'm part of the Wiccan religion.

And just recently I found out that Wicca is 1 of the fastest growing religions in America.

And so all of this just tells me that overt spiritualism, like just flat-out pagan spiritualism, is on the rise.

And it is common in the society around us, and of course in our popular culture and in the media, the idea of witchcraft and wizardry and magic and supernatural, these types of things have been commonplace for a long time.

But back to our question, what about discrete spiritualism?

What about that form of spiritualism where people are under the influence of evil angels without even knowing it?

Is that also a problem that we need to be aware of?

Is spiritualism even a threat to the church?

Because I used to think that spiritualism is just a deception for those ignorant heathens out there.

It's for the people who aren't enlightened as to the truth like we are.

We know that the dead, you know, the living know that they shall die and that the dead know not anything, we know that when a person dies they go to sleep.

So because we understand the state of the dead, I sort of thought that's a non-factor.

Spiritualism would not affect us because after all if someone pretending to be you know a spirit of a dead person comes to us we would just automatically know right like okay you're an evil angel so we're not gonna talk to you we're not gonna listen to you like It seems so obvious or at least so simple.

And then plus we know that at the end of time Satan himself will be transformed into an angel of light.

He will actually in the final act of the great drama we're told he will impersonate Jesus himself and we're like well we're Seventh Day Adventists of all people we must understand how Jesus is going to come the second time.

He's not going to touch the earth, he's going to come with the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first, we shall meet him in the air, all the holy angels come with him.

There's no way, right, that we as Adventists would fall for a spiritualistic deception like Satan personating Christ.

2. You Shall Be as Gods: Spiritualism’s End-time Deception

Father in heaven, thank you so much for being with us today, for the blessing of the Sabbath, and for the blessing of the Word that you have given to us to instruct us, to reprove and rebuke us and admonish us into holy living.

And Lord, as we discuss this solemn topic, serious topic, about spiritualism and the devil's end-time deceptions, we pray that your Holy Spirit will illumine us, give us clarity of thinking, give us spiritual eyesight to see, for spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

So hear this prayer and guide us now in this study we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

So to review just a few points from our morning discussion, we talked about the first spiritualist encounter found in the Bible, and that is when Eve encountered the serpent in the Garden of Eden at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

And we broke this experience down into overt and discrete spiritualism.

Overt spiritualism is dealing with the idea that we can engage with the supernatural and the foundation of this belief comes from the lie that the devil told at the tree that ye shall not surely die.

So the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

And it leads into various beliefs like paganism and witchcraft and the occult.

And also the Christian flavor of it would be the idea that the soul goes to heaven right when we die and that we can commune with those people who have passed away.

And I know that Halloween is coming up soon and I didn't mention it this morning but I'm sure it crossed many of your minds.

And speaking about spiritualism in the overt sense you can see the comfort level, the popularity of spiritualism and the supernatural and ghouls and goblins and ghosts and things like that every time Halloween comes around.

And I just want to mention on AudioVerse last week we posted an excellent message by Dr.

Eric Walsh, also I know a friend of Avan Hope, entitled Bewitched Halloween and the Rise of Spiritualism and he does an excellent job breaking down the trends of spiritualism and I would say the overt flavor of spiritualism that we see in our society today.

It's very good and I think it actually is an excellent pairing with the series of studies that we're doing this week, today, with you here at Ab and Hope.

But the second part of that spiritualistic encounter is what I call discrete spiritualism and it is represented by Satan speaking through the medium of the serpent to an unwitting woman.

Eve did not know that she was speaking with the devil.

And so discrete spiritualism represents that type of spiritualism where people are encountering the supernatural without knowing it.

And this morning, as well as this afternoon, this presentation now, we're going to be focusing, emphasizing particularly on the discrete form of spiritualism.

We also read this quote in Great Controversy page 516 That says, none are in greater danger from the influence of evil angels than those who, notwithstanding the direct and ample testimony of the scriptures, deny the existence and agency of the devil and his angels.

So long as we are ignorant of their wiles, they have almost inconceivable advantage.

Many give heed to their suggestions while they suppose themselves to be following the dictates of their own wisdom." And so we saw here that this described a class of people who are the most susceptible to the influence of evil angels.

And these are people who are the non-superstitious, if I could call them that, or the more common term is the secularists, people who don't believe in the supernatural.

We're told that they are the most at risk to be influenced by spiritualism.

And this is a very key point for where we are going with our study this afternoon.

And it talks about brilliant people, smart people, who think that the ideas that they have originated from themselves, but in actuality, unknowingly, they have been influenced by the devil himself.

So this is the very important key idea we want to keep in mind.

And the passage continues, the same paragraph.

This is why, as we approach the close of time, when Satan is to work with greatest power to deceive and destroy, he spreads everywhere the belief that he does not exist.

It is his policy to conceal himself and his manner of working.

And again, this ties right into what we were just talking about.

Satan, we frequently associate with overt spiritualistic manifestations.

We think that The devil is at his most powerful when he's possessing people through demon possession, or through mysticism, or through the occult, or magic, or voodoo, or these types of things.

But in actuality, according to this passage, Satan has a different preference.

He prefers a secular environment in which he does not factor into the consciousness at all, in which he's just ruled out as superstition and that he, you know, is not a threat.

Now, we also looked at this passage from Great Controversy 556.

It says, "...the very name of witchcraft is now held in contempt.

The claim that men can hold intercourse with evil spirits is regarded as a fable of the dark ages.

So again, we're talking about a climate in society in which a belief in the supernatural, especially evil spirits and the devil and demons, is viewed as silly superstition, as hocus pocus, you know, it's like believing in Santa Claus.

But we continue reading, But spiritualism, which numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, which has made its way into scientific circles, which has invaded churches, and has found favor in legislative bodies and even in the courts of kings, this mammoth deception is but a revival in a new disguise of the witchcraft condemned and prohibited of old." And so yes, spiritualism may exist in the sense that there are, you know, secret societies and there are individuals that are in touch with the spirit world while they hide it to the viewing public.

But nevertheless, the way that this passage is constructed about how there are millions of spiritualists around the world and that they seemingly hold witchcraft and and this belief in evil spirits in content.

It seems to suggest that there are plenty of people who actually are under the influence of spiritualism without knowing it, and without knowing it all the while in a culture of secularism.

And also, you know, this also highlight, to highlight this point is the idea that it has found its way into scientific circles, which we discussed this morning, by its very definition nowadays, is a naturalistic type of realm of study, and it just precludes the existence of the supernatural.

And then also even in the area of legislation, of bodies of government, and also the courts of kings, and we're going to be dealing with that a little bit as well this afternoon.

And then we also read this passage from 1 Timothy 4 verse 1, it says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

So the Bible warns us in no uncertain terms that in the end times there will be those in the church who will leave, who will apostatize because of spiritualism.

And so to review what we've talked about basically here's the summary of what we went over this morning at least some of the points from this morning that will lay the foundation for where we're going this afternoon, and that is spiritualism may be manifested overtly or discreetly.

Spiritualism affects especially those who don't believe in the supernatural, And spiritualism is pervasive in all levels of society.

And finally, spiritualism is the means to transmit the doctrines of devils.

And this idea of the doctrines of devils is a good transition to the heart of what we're going to discuss this afternoon.

And that is this morning we were using the metaphor of a pandemic to illustrate how spiritualism is communicated, how it is spread throughout society.

But we never really dove into the question of what is it transmitting, right?

We know the means of transmission, but what's the actual virus, right?

So if you think of it this way, spiritualism is merely the mechanism by which ideas and beliefs are communicated.

And we saw this morning that there's first degree, second degree, third degree, you know, there's community spread, asymptomatic spread, you know, all of those things we discussed already of how spiritualism spreads.

But now we want to talk about what's the actual pathogen, what's the actual virus that's being communicated or transmitted through spiritualism.

And to answer that question we need to go right back to our theme text, the foundational text for our study today.

And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die for God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God's, knowing good and evil.

We talked about verse 4 this morning and discussed that, So now we're going to focus on verse 5.

But we need to really think about this, the context of what happened or the context in which this exchange occurred in Eden.

Satan was restricted from harassing Adam and Eve.

There was only 1 place in the entire universe where Satan has access to mankind.

And it was at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Eve came alone to the tree and she engaged the serpent in dialogue.

Now in Satan's mind, this might have been the only chance that he had to influence Eve.

This might be the only opportunity he has to enact his grand plan to make humans fall.

So he must have concocted and thought through with his Luciferian intellect, what's the most potent deception I can, you know, I can use here to deceive Eve?

And of course, you know, we talked about spiritualism, Yi Xia Na Shi Li Dai, that certainly is a core aspect of this.

But what is the lie in the second half of this passage?

Well, the core of it is simply, you shall be as gods.

That's the core of the message of what Lucifer was trying to communicate to Eve.

That's the bait that he was baiting his hook with.

And so he supplements this with a few other ideas, right?

He knows that if you eat this, you're going to be like him.

So it questions, you know, undermines God's character, but it's because of the potential for Eve to be as God's.

And then, knowing good and evil, it cannot simply merely mean you will then know what good and evil is on an intellectual or academic level.

Eve was intelligent, she had a perfect unfallen mind, she could intellectually understand good and evil.

But what is, What is Satan actually saying?

He's saying, you shall be as gods insofar that you no longer need God as the arbiter of right and wrong.

You can determine what's good and evil for yourself.

And that ultimately is what Lucifer says is the essence of being as God.

So the deception, the core deception that Satan was communicating through the spiritualistic encounter here at the tree was that mankind can usurp their creator.

And for all of you Bible scholars out there, you must be thinking, that sentiment sounds familiar.

And if that's what you're thinking, you are absolutely correct because of what we read in Isaiah chapter 14, verses 12-14.

It says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations?

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will be like the Most High." Satan believed the same thing.

So what Satan was trying to convince Eve of was merely the same lie that he fell prey to himself.

He believed that he could be like the Most High, to usurp the Creator, that he can be the moral arbiter of right and wrong for himself and he no longer needs to be under the authority of God and his moral standard and his moral law.

To confirm this, this is what it says in Great Controversy page 554.

Satan beguiles men now as he beguiled Eve in Eden.

Notice carefully, the deception that Satan used for Eve, he's still using it today.

Series

Alistair Huong: The Virus of Spiritualism

1. The Speaking Serpent: A Pandemic of Spiritualism

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Channels

55m

Apologetics

Sunday Law and the Mark of the Beast

1h 10m

Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life

How to Meet the Enemy - Part 4

58m

Living Today

Mainstream Spiritualism: The Rise of the Occult

1h 5m

Unto the End

53m

Going the Distance

1. Not Far

43m

Why Am I a SDA?

1. Does the Truth Really Matter?

35m

Revelation Made Simple

2. The Angels of Revelation at War

47m

The Big Three

How to Know God’s Leading in Your Life

42m

Plenary

By Every Word

1h

Keys of Revelation

4. God on Trial

59m

The Power of Perspective

Two Covenants

57m

Sound Doctrine