SPIRITUALISM AND THE
RESURRECTIONSIR
Sir Oliver Lodge, who as the
ablest Spiritualist of the nineteenth century and a man of deserved scientific
fame, challenged the Christian Faith with a challenge of life or death. “The body,”
Sir Oliver says, “is a nuisance to be got rid of. If people would get over that trouble about
interment, and about lying there for centuries waiting for a general
resurrection - all that kind of mediaeval superstitution - they could begin to
regard death as more like what it is, an adventure, an episode that is bound to
come, something that we may be ready for, welcome when it comes, and not Be
afraid of.” Resurrection is denied in toto, as never having occurred and as
utterly undesirable, by every Spiritualist.
“It is certain,- says the Rev.
Charles Twedale - one of the two to three hundred clergymen of the Church
of England who are now Spiritualists – “that Christ did not rise with his mortal flesh, bones, and all things pertaining to
the perfection of man’s nature: the Church’s doctrine of the Resurrection of the
Flesh is a fundamental error” (Present
Way Spirit Phenomena and the
Churches, pp. 7, 12). So the ghost of our Lord now appears (occasionally)
at the seance, while His body is dissipated in dust - so say the Spiritualists.
Now the facts reveal the
horror of Spiritualism; and the first fact, is its death-blow. The Old Testament prophecy specifically stated
that the flesh of the Lord was not only to rise, but was never even to see
corruption. “My flesh also shall dwell in safety: for thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol”
- that is, the Lord was actually to die, but
His soul was not to remain in Hades – “neither wilt
thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption” (Ps.
16: 10). So the Apostle records
the fact. “He whom God raised up saw
no corruption” (Acts 13: 37).
Therefore within three days, before
corruption had touched Him or could have touched Him, the grave was empty. “They entered in, and
found not the BODY” (Luke 24: 3).
If His enemies had stolen the body,
nothing could have prevented their showing it to the vast crowds at Pentecost,
and so striking Christianity dead at one blow. But the Apostle answers, “David spake of the
resurrection of Christ, that neither was he left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. THIS JESUS DID GOD RAISE UP” (Acts 2: 31); “who was declared to be the Son of God with power by
the resurrection of the dead”
(Rom. 1: 4). If Christ has been raised, - it becomes the one white-hot fact burning at the
heart of the universe.
Our Lord Himself carefully
counters the Spiritualist’s theory. “The disciples were terrified and affrighted, and
supposed they beheld a spirit” (Luke 24: 37). The Lord carefully counters the error. To doubting Thomas He says:- “See my hands and my feet
that it is I myself: handle me, and see; and when he had said this, he showed
them his hands and his feet” (Luke 24: 40).
Our Lord submits to careful bodily
examination so as to remove their terror that they were facing a ghost; and in
doing so He destroys the Spiritualist’s
theory for ever. He says:- “Why are ye troubled? for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, AS YE SEE ME HAVE” (Luke 24: 39).
Now we see the consequences
to the Christian Faith of the Spiritualist’s teaching. “If there is no
resurrection of the dead” – [i.e., of
those whose disembodied souls are now
in Hades, and whose bodies are lying
decomposed in their graves] - as Spiritualism
untiringly asserts – “neither hath Christ been raised; and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching
vain: yea, and we are found as false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of
God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised” (1 Cor. 15: 13). The Apostles are completely overthrown: they
are not mistaken witnesses,
but false witnesses: because “we witnessed of God” - saying we were empowered by the
Spirit of God, and attributing the falsehood of an empty tomb to an act of God,
“whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are
not raised.” The Apostles
were unanimous on the resurrection, (Acts 4: 33),
and if what they said they had seen
they had never seen, it could
only be a collective and deliberate conspiracy: yet who could believe that the
writer of 1 Cor. 13, who at last laid his
head on the block for Christ, lived a life of deliberate and systematic
falsehood? Christ Himself also would be
proved to be a liar, and the originator of the most gigantic deception of two
thousand years. On the contrary, our
Lord Himself says:- “The hour cometh, in which ALL THAT ARE IN THE TOMBS SHALL COME FORTH” (John 5: 28). The Lord Himself is only the first: all humanity is to come up from empty
graves.
Paul drives home afresh the
ruin of the Christian Faith which follows on a corrupted Christ. “And if the dead are
not raised” - Christ’s resurrection proves the ultimate resurrection of
all – “neither hath Christ been raised”; if no
grave can be emptied, it has never happened: “and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain” your faith has
never delivered you from the realm of sin, the guilt of sin, the corruption of
sin: “YE ARE YET IN YOUR SINS.” A dead Redeemer is no redeemer: if the Lamb is dead, so is the Atonement.
If He lies in His grave, I lie in my
sins: if He is in dust, I am in Hell. For
what produces death? Sin. “The wages of sin is death.” And what keeps a soul dead? Sin. Therefore
if Christ never rose, what keeps Him dead? Sin. Universal death means universal sin
unexpiated, unlifted, unforgiven, and Christ Himself is a sinner.
The Apostle closes with the
final tragedy. “Then
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ” - to ‘fall asleep’ is to make waking certain - “have perished”:
all the saints of all the ages, who closed their eyes in fancied salvation,
will open them in certain damnation. So
Christ Himself is bodiless, a homeless and wandering ghost; and all the good
and noble throughout the history of mankind have gone down to a common
ruin. “If in
this life only we have hoped in Chiist, we are of all men the most pitiable”:
we are the victims of the world’s greatest fraud.
One enormous consequence of
all this - and our main object at the moment - is the death-blow of Spiritualism.
All the spirits who communicate through Spiritualistic mediums, without
exception, deny all resurrection in toto: that is, all the spirits thus communicating, whoever they may be, are evil
spirits, opposed to God and Christ, and unceasing enemies of the Gospel. Spiritualism claims that they are the spirits of
the dead, come back to earth; the judgment of the Christian, based on Scripture
and on their constant failure to prove their human identity, is that they are
devils: in either case, their unanimous denial of our Lord’s empty grave proves
them to be evil spirits with whom all intercourse is forbidden.
If they are the dead, they are the wicked dead: if they are devils, they are the
seductive spirits prophesied. “The Spirit saith
expressly that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and
doctrines of devils, SPEAKING LIES
HYPOCRITICALLY [see Greek], branded in their
own conscience as with a hot iron” (1 Tim.
4: 1).*
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[*
Always keep in mind:- “Flesh and blood” cannot possibly ever inherit “the kingdom of God,” but “flesh
and bones” most certainly
can: and we must therefore wait for the time of RESURRECTION – not - (as is commonly believed today by multitudes
of regenerate believers) - for the time of Death. The ‘spirit’
which returns to God at the time of
death is the animating spirit of man; that is, the same ‘spirit’ common to all who are phically alive - whose
body, soul and spirit are now in unison:
(Luke 8: 55; Jas. 2: 26; Job. 34: 14; Eccl. 3: 21,
etc.) – Ed.]