Section 3
Spiritism
Many years before Michael came to this earth as Jesus Christ, Satan had gained authority over men and women by seducing Adam and Eve into disobedience.
In his first temptation he had spoken to Eve through the medium of a serpent saying, “Yea, hath God said, ‘Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ and Eve replied, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die’.” Genesis 3:2.3.
With subtlety and cunning, the devil continued, “Ye shall not surely die.” Genesis 3:4.
Imagine the sarcasm in his voice. Satan knows perfectly well what disobedience has done to him and one third of the angels, but in contempt for the authority of the God’s Son, he is determined to bring as many to ruin as possible.
Sadly, Eve falls for his lie.
And then Adam.
This simple beginning began the cancer of sin on this earth, all because of Satan’s hatred for the Son of God, and his desire to be supreme.
To deceive men and women into disobeying God, the devil has invented every possible falsehood he could devise, including false religious worship. Some of those methods deceptively use the words of God, but give them a completely different meaning.
One of these false religions began after the flood. While men and women were building the tower of Babel, Satan devised the cult of the Secret Mysteries.
This idolatrous worship began with Nimrod, which means in Hebrew, ‘we will rebel’. He was looked upon with such devotion as to be a god upon the earth, however, it was not until his death that he was deified in the eyes of the world. (Nimrod was murdered while still a young man, believed to have been by his grandfather’s brother, Shem, to try and stop the evil religion. Two Babylons p276)
Semiramis, his beautiful widow, seized the opportunity to deify her husband, and impress upon devotees the image of her own depraved mind. It was through her that the religion of Babylon took upon a mysterious form, although not every Babylonian understood the hidden meanings of the symbols and blasphemous rites.
This adored woman became the great Mother goddess, and her illegitimate son, Tammuz – (purporting to be conceived by the dead Nimrod, believed to be the sun-god after his death) – he was the god of the Secret Mysteries.
Later this mystery religion was incorporated into the religion of Babylon. It was a ‘mother and son’ religion that soon spread through the whole world under many different names. In Egypt the Mother and Child were worshipped under the names of Isis and Osiris; in India as Isi and Iswara, and also as Devaki and Krishna; in Asia as Cybele and Deoius; in Rome as Fortuna and Jupiter; or Irene and Plutus; in China as Shing Moo and her child.
In this miraculous conception (celebrated anciently on March 25), Semiramis deified herself by giving birth to the ‘sun god’ (celebrated on December 25), who she claimed was Nimrod, both father and son. Thus the child was given the title, ‘Husband of the Mother’, and Semiramis became known as the ‘Virgin Mother of God’. Two Babylons. Alexander Hislop p77. (March 25 - Feast of Ishtar (Easter), December 25 - Feast of Yule [meaning ‘infant’], the birth of the Sun or Baal)
Both Semiramis and Nimrod were involved in the Secret Mysteries, although the involvement of the husband-son was through the mother, who bewailed with her devotees the untimely death of Nimrod while supposedly slaying the serpent.
The Babylonian Madonna has been called ‘Myrionymus’, the goddess with ‘ten thousand names’, for Satan’s religion has many disguises. He creates deceptions for the heathen that are inhuman and gross, but he has others that are so close to the truth, only those with “spiritual discernment” can understand.
It was also a sun-worshipping religion where the sun-god was depicted as a bull or goat, hence the hoofs, horns, tail of the false devil today. One of his titles was Bel or Enlil, meaning ‘Lord of demons’. This was Babylon’s chief god, taking on different names around the world. In Egypt he called Ra; in Medo-Persia it was Mithra; in Greece, Zeus; in Rome, Jupiter and Serapis. Serapis means ‘Sun-bull’ and considered the ruler of the zodiac. All the gods of the east were imported into Rome. The Trail of the Serpent. Merle Vance p8.9.
Rather than having men and women worship the Son of God, Satan turned their minds to the sun in the heavens. He also gave honour to the first day of the week as the day of the sun, contrary to God’s blessed and sanctified seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord. Genesis 2:1-3. Exodus 20:8-11.
The devil’s religion takes many forms -- Sorcery, Necromancy, Astrology, Witchcraft, Theosophy, Taoism, Wicca, Suffiism, Satanism, Voodoo, Pantheism, New Age, with unnumbered Satanic practices, such as channeling, crystal energy, rune reading, tarot cards, fortune-telling, horoscopes, divination, the zodiac, yoga, transcendental meditation, astral travel, magic, hypnosis, metaphysical phenomena, remote viewing, The list goes on and on, with every deception imaginable.
Pantheism says, “All that exists is God; God is all that exists. This leads naturally to the concept of the divinity of the individual, that we are all Gods… God is at once the entire universe, and transcends the universe as well. Since all is God, then only one reality exists, and all religions are simply different paths to that ultimate reality.
“The universal religion can be visualized as a mountain, with many sadhanas (spiritual paths) to the summit. Some are hard; others easy. There is no one correct path. All paths eventually reach the top.” http://www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htm
How Satan has undermined truth.
“Spiritualism is now changing its form and…. is assuming a Christian guise. …. Even in its present form, so far from being more worthy of toleration than formerly, it is really more dangerous, because a more subtle, deception. While it formerly denounced Christ and the Bible, it now professes to accept both. But the Bible is interpreted in a manner that is pleasing to the unrenewed heart, while its solemn and vital truths are made of no effect…. Christ is verily denied as before; but Satan has so blinded the eyes of the people that the deception is not discerned.” The Great Controversy p558.
What does Spiritism think of the Son of God?
1. It denies the deity of Christ.
2. It claims He had no existence prior to His advent into the world.
3. It denies His relationship to His Father.
4. It denies His divine character.
“None who hold this error (of Spiritualism) can have a true conception of the character or the mission of Christ, or of the great plan of God for man’s redemption.” The Great Controversy p524. (No 1-4 above from same quotation)
Jesus Christ is believed to simply be a man, albeit a prophet or an advanced medium. “Christ himself was nothing more than a medium of high order… He is now an advanced spirit in the sixth sphere.” Weisse, Demonology or Spiritualism p.141.
Theosophy says, “Jesus lived. Whatever name he may have had, the individual known as Jesus (the Hebrew name being Yeshua or Yoshua) was an actual man, a great sage. He was, furthermore, an initiate into the secret doctrine of his period; and around him, after his death, grew up legends and tales which were woven in later days -- say a century after his death -- into the so-called Gospels…. we nevertheless discern the sublime figure of a great Teacher -- not the only great Teacher in the annals of history, but nevertheless a grand and sublime teacher of men… and who finally passed away, according to the Gospel theory, by suffering the death penalty of crucifixion.” Jesus – Man or Myth? Theosophical University Press Online Edition. (Brackets in the text)
Jesus is just a man in tune with the Divine Consciousness, and not the Christ. He is “one of many Saviour Christs who at different times have come to the world to lighten its darkness.” The ABC of Spiritualism Q17.
“And many shall follow their pernicious ways." (2 Peter 2:1, 2) Here the apostle has pointed out one of the marked characteristics of the spiritualist teacher. They refuse to acknowledge Christ as the Son of God.” Patriarchs and Prophets p686.
Who says God has no Son?
Spiritism in all its forms
Who Says God has No Son?
Section 2