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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Ron du Preez: The 'Day' that Changed the World

Ron du Preez

The Rapture or Ripoff: What Got Left Behind in 1844

The Babble About the Bible: Versions, Diversions, or Perversions

From God to Godzilla: The Scholars vs. the Scriptures

Teenagers and Trances: Mediums in the Media

Bible Translations Question and Answer Session

From Telegraph to Tell-A-Vision: Sharing a Sanctuary with Sinners

This session called Teenagers and Trances, Mediums in the Media.

Now my wife and I, Linda and I, we worked as missionaries.

And after that, we also went to the South American continent.

We were there in Peru for a short while learning Spanish.

Please don't ask me questions in Spanish.

I learned, as I tell people, un poquitito.

I've even gone to un poquitito, create my own word, just a tiny bit.

The 1 thing I did learn is it's a fascinating language and it makes so much sense.

I didn't learn to speak it, but I loved the grammar.

My wife couldn't speak it, but she hated the grammar.

So anyway, she was born and raised in El Paso.

So some of it, I think, was able to come back.

But when we came back from the mission field, I turned on television 1 day.

In the middle of the day, 02:00 in the afternoon, there was a man, John Edward, who claimed to be channeling messages from beyond the grave.

And then later on, James Van Praagh said, this is here in the United States, daytime television, having what we used to call seances.

The website of John Edward says, John Edward is an internationally acclaimed psychic medium who can communicate with the world beyond.

I'm quoting, John's extraordinary gift has opened a window to the spirit world.

He explains how to communicate with the other side.

Unlike spiritualists of yore, of the past, who typically plied their trade in darkroom seances, Edward and his ilk often perform live before live audiences and under the glare of television lights.

James Van Praagh similarly is recognized as 1 of the world's foremost mediums in the world and they're on television, communicating messages from the grave, I'm quoting, and he is able to bridge the gap between the 2 planes of the living and the dead and is providing evidential proof of life after death.

Of course there are books out there promoting all of these kinds of things nowadays.

Psychic readers, past, the present, and the future.

All kinds of things that are being promoted now.

Of course, all having to do with messages from beyond the tomb.

And you've heard of the Marian apparitions, especially the 1 in Medjugorje, the 1 in that what 10 or 15 million pilgrims have visited, 15 million pilgrims over the past 10 years.

All of these things have 1 thing in common.

All of them have 1 major thing in common, the belief that you're alive once you die.

We got to go now in history briefly back to this here.

Originally, they came from the mother country.

Even before this became the United States, mother Ann Lee brought over her group of believers called the Shakers and they established a community and this is what they used to do, shake.

Okay and it's very interesting the major movements of the Shakers.

According to the historian Ernest Sutherland Bates, he says, the Shakers had always been spiritualists in theory, but they were not deeply affected until between 1838 and 1845.

A wave of visionary enthusiasm swept over their communities to such an extent that during those 7 years their villages were closed to outsiders.

Bates continues, their religious meetings were turned into seances where the spirits of the dead etc vied with each other.

And they said in their, what are their beliefs?

We are thoroughly convinced of spirit communications, spirit guidance and obsession.

Our spiritualism has permitted us to converse face-to-face with individuals once mortal, some of whom we well knew, others who were born before the flood, what they claim.

Then they added, listen to this, we are confirmed infidels, in other words, we don't believe the foolish bodily resurrection theory of Jesus.

We don't, that's untrue, We Don'T Believe The Atonement Doctrine That Jesus Died For Our Sins And We Don'T Believe The Trinity.

Yet They Claimed To Be Of Course Believers.

1838 Until 1845 is when these things were happening.

In fact there was so much stuff happening they closed their communities so that nobody else could come in because of all these things that were happening.

Fascinating stuff happening right there at that very very time we're talking about here.

Now at the same time, in 1844, I give you the actual date because this is no need history, March 15, 1844, a New York cobbler by the name of Andrew Jackson Davis, He went into a country graveyard at the age of 18, cobbler, on his own just out there roaming around.

And while he was in this country graveyard, 18 year old Andrew Jackson Davis claims he had a vision, a trance.

Yeah, I thought you medical students would have heard of him.

3000 years ago I think it was, he was a Greek physician etc.

And this guy claims he actually talked with him and this is 1844 by the way the same year in a house later to be occupied by Maggie and Katie what is their last name yes but in 1844 there were wrappings in that very same house.

The Fox sisters were not already living there, but it is historically recorded that the wrappings began.

It didn't go on from there, but 1844, same year that Adams and Jackson Davis had that vision, so he called in this country graveyard.

You know it's interesting that how these teenagers were actively involved.

I call this session teenagers and trances intentionally because here is another teenager.

At the age of 14, Joseph Smith says he had a vision.

There are 9 different versions of that vision.

I used to teach world religion so I had to study a little bit about Mormonism in order to teach what this religion is about and Joseph Smith 14 years of age claims he had a vision and he then started in 1830 the very year that William Miller was studying the prophecies, the year before he began to preach, that's the year that Joseph Smith founded what?

The Mormon Church, the official name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, official church.

Okay, now we're not going to spend a lot of time on Mormonism and the theories.

I've done some study, I've written some material up on that.

You can check, there's a lot of material out there.

Now, the Mormon Church began 1830, all right?

That was the year that Joseph Smith was killed.

What they claimed, they put him in prison.

Make a long story short, June 1844, a mob attacked the prison and Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram were murdered.

And you know what, as I was studying to teach world history I found actual documentation that goes this way listen carefully now Mormons believe that when Joseph Smith died his shed blood provides atonement for them.

So that when faithful Mormons die they, men, sorry women, men can inhabit new worlds but the women are included because this is a fact.

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Series

Ron du Preez: The 'Day' that Changed the World

Teenagers and Trances: Mediums in the Media

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

The Rapture or Ripoff: What Got Left Behind in 1844

52m

The Babble About the Bible: Versions, Diversions, or Perversions

43m

From God to Godzilla: The Scholars vs. the Scriptures

46m

Teenagers and Trances: Mediums in the Media

32m

Bible Translations Question and Answer Session

18m

From Telegraph to Tell-A-Vision: Sharing a Sanctuary with Sinners

41m

Sound Doctrine