SPIRITISM IN ISRAEL AND JUDAH

I

IN previous chapters it has been said that the spiritistic medium does not bring back the dead, but that the "familiar spirit" who controls the medium appears able to personate the dead. Satan knows very much, some would say he knows all, about the life of every human being, for he ever goes "about seeking whom he may devour." At least information could be procured with lightning speed from the demons which had watched the life of the person invoked, and then communicated to the "control" in any given case.

But while we say that the dead do not come back, it is known to readers of the Bible that some apparent exceptions must be made. Take the case of the transfiguration of Christ, when "Behold, two men talked with him, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke IX. 30, 31).

Take the crucifixion, when "the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many" (Matt. XXVII. 52, 53).

And then there were Lazarus and the son of the widow of Nain, but these are instances of the raising of the dead where there was a second occurrence of death. In the others the dead saints appeared only for a little while and then immediately vanished, not appearing again.

With the exception of Samuel of whose case this chapter treats, there is no similar record of the dead returning to this world. And in no case except his, did the dead speak to or in any other way communicate with the living.

Moses and Elijah spake with Christ but did not speak to the disciples. The saints rising at His resurrection was a special testimony to that fact. As another expresses it, "When Christ died, the graves were opened to show that there was power in His death to open the graves of believers; and when three days later, He arose, they arose with Him to show that there was power in His resurrection to bring them forth."

They appeared unto many, but so far as we know they did not speak to a single person.

II

Samuel's case is unique. Saul, the king of Israel at the time, had professedly put the necromancers out of Israel at the Divine command, being urged to do it doubtless, by Samuel himself.

But now the glittering helms and spears of an invading army surrounded him, and his heart trembled with gloomy forebodings. The Spirit of the Lord no longer came upon him, and the phantoms of past sins floated continually before his eyes taking away rest and all steadfastness of purpose. Samuel who had so long borne with and entreated for him was dead. He tried to pray, but iniquity was in his heart and the Lord would not hear him. He was answered no more neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the prophets. No voice answered to his despairing cry.

Then he yielded to the evil thought, and perhaps stifling his conscience with the plea that it was a prophet of the Lord with whom he would converse, he appeals to the powers of darkness.

He asks his companions "if they knew of any surviving dealer with demons." Yes, they know of one, proof doubtless, that they had been in the habit of consulting her themselves, and in the shelter of the night Saul goes forth with two of them to a slope of Mount Hermon.

Entering into the cavern, dimly lighted by a fire of wood, and addressing the medium, he says: "I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee."

The medium, suspicious at first, is re-assured by an oath that no harm would befall her, and being requested to call up Samuel commenced her preparations.

But the usual procedure is cut short by a sudden interference, and the medium is affrighted by her discovery, communicated through the familiar spirit no doubt, that her inquirer is the king; and still more affrighted by the apparition of a being with whom she had neither part nor lot. The explanation of this last remark is that the real Samuel had appeared instead of the personation which the medium had expected, the real Samuel, whom God, in wrath, had sent up as the bearer of a fearful message of doom to the wicked king (i Samuel XXVIII).1

The rest of the story we need not follow. The words of Samuel, the despair of Saul, his return to camp, his suicidal death the next day, and very especially the declaration in I Chron. X. 13, that he "died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, * * * and for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it."

The view of Pember, thus quoted, that it was indeed the real Samuel who came up, and not a personated Samuel, is that of the present writer also, (Synthetic Studies page, 43, Christian Worker's Commentary, page 166).

But it is necessary to emphasize the point that it was not the witch of Endor who brought up Samuel. Matters got out of her hands apparently, as indicated in her screams. God brought up Samuel, and the fact that Saul saw and spoke directly to him is another feature which is uncommon in Spiritistic lore.

The incident, therefore, is a special one, and affords no evidence as to the genuineness of other communications purporting to come from individuals who have left this world. It is no proof whatever that the spirit of any particular individual can be summoned by a medium or 'control', or that the spirits which respond are those of the individuals they purport to be. (The Vital Choice: Endor or Calvary.)

And yet it is only right to say that there is another view to be taken of this transaction. It is one that gives no more comfort, perhaps not even as much, to the votaries of Spiritism, and would not be mentioned here at all, except as a matter of additional interest.

The Rev. William H. Clagett in his brochure, "Modern Spiritualism Exposed," presents it cogently in speaking of the occurrence as the first séance of which the world has any record.

That record plainly shows, he says, that this spirit was not Samuel's. He thinks it came from the wrong direction, "up" not down. Again the spirit says, "Why hast thou disquieted me?" He does not think that any of God's servants could be disquieted by a witch. Still further, the spirit says, "Tomorrow, thou shalt be with me." Samuel was a saved man, Saul a lost man, and between the two a great impassable gulf was fixed. How could Saul be with Samuel?

Furthermore, Dr. Clagett believes that if this spirit had been Samuel he would have told Saul to repent and call upon God, instead of which he makes an argument to drive Saul to despair, declaring that God had departed from him and become his enemy, and that he would be defeated and slain, etc.

Notwithstanding what Dr. Clagett says however, and though there are others who agree with him, the simple reading of the record impresses one that the real Samuel is before us.

An answer to one of Dr. Clagett's objections, and the most serious one, is ready. The Jews regarded the place of the dead as composed of two realms, one for the righteous and one for the unrighteous. Tomorrow Saul might have been with Samuel in that he was in the realm of the dead, and yet not with him in the sense that he was in the company of the righteous dead.

Yet omitting this particular factor, we have here indeed, as Dr. Clagett says, a picture of modern Spiritism drawn by the finger of God three thousand years ago. The whole thing is laid bare before us, the medium and her character, the supposed "control", the circle, Saul and two men with him, the time, night, the claim, "whom shall I bring up?", the supposed materialization, and the same arrangement of things in the house, and the same vagueness and uncanniness about the whole proceeding.

Ill

After the period of Saul little is said of Spiritism in Israel until we reach the defection of Baal-worship in the time of King Ahab and the prophet Elijah (i Kings XVII-XIX); where the supposition is a reasonable one that the false prophets were mediums inspired by the agents of Satan.

For this cause, let the reader be duly impressed with the awful story in i Kings XXII, especially verses 20-23, where a lying spirit is permitted, in Divine judgment, to seduce the king so that he is led away to a disgraceful death.

Later comes the story of Naaman the leper (2 Kings V), who was indignant because God's servant Elisha did not "wave his hand over the place and recover the leper." Was he thinking of the mesmeric healing of the pagan priests? If so, it enables us to appreciate why Elisha bade him instead, to go "wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean."

These are instances of the coupling of sorcery and idolatry in the history of the ten tribes, but the same is found in Judah too. Was it in Jotham or Ahaz' day, that Israel cried to Jehovah: "Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines" (II. 6)?

When a century afterwards, Manasseh is on the throne, "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. * * * And he made his son to pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards" (2 Kings XXI).

In consequence of these practices there follows a fearful prophecy of woe. Such evil would be brought on Jerusalem and Judah as would cause the ears of him that heard of it to tingle. The city would be wiped "as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down." Moreover Manasseh himself was permitted of God to be taken in chains by the king of Assyria and carried to Babylon.

Happily however, Manasseh offers an answer to the question as to whether it is ever possible for a soul entangled in Spiritism to be delivered and restored, for we read in 2 Chronicles XXIII. 12, 13, that when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him. As a result he was heard of Him Who brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God."

Manasseh's godly successor, Josiah, put away the abominations and removed the mediums from Judah, but they soon were permitted to return alas! as we judge by Jeremiah's denunciation of them up to the very moment almost of the Babylonian captivity.

"Hearken not ye to your prophets," he exclaims, "nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your mesmerizers, nor to your enchanters, which speak unto you, saying, ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish" (XXVII. 9, 10).

The Jews learned many things as the result of their Babylonian captivity, but one thing they did not learn, and that was to put the false prophets and the diviners away from them forever. We are assured of this because of the warnings they receive in the post-captivity prophets.