The Teachings of the Spirit
| By: Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon; ©2005 |
| The first episode of NBC’s mini series Revelations raised some questions: Does God speak through occult means such as automatic writing? If He did, what would He say? This chart contrasts messages that come from God with those that come from deceiving spirits. (See also companion article: Biblical Warnings Against Occult Involvement) |
Contents
The Teachings of the Spirit
In the chart below we will present a brief summary in which we compare the spirits’ views from channeled literature with Bible teaching.
The Spirits The Bible
God
The spirits teach that God is ultimately an impersonal force (an “it”), like electricity or a “personalized” universal energy that constitutes everything. God is “infinite power,” “all life,” “universal consciousness,” etc. The consensus of “most channeled material” is that “God is all that is” and that “the universe is a multidimensional living Being,” i.e.. God.[1] Thus “Seth” teaches, “There is no personal God… in Christian terms.”[2]
The Bible teaches that God is a personal, holy, and loving Being who created the universe distinct from Himself:
Genesis 1:1—In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
John 3:16—For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus
The spirits teach that Jesus is an evolved spirit or a man just like us. Jesus was the person who highly emulated the Christ spirit which is also part of us all. The spirits say that Jesus has died and has now evolved to a higher state of existence just like other people have. Thus, one spirit confesses that Jesus was only a representative of the impersonal divine force living in all men (the Christ spirit) and that Christians who believe in the biblical Jesus “worship a dead Christ.”[3]
The Bible teaches that Christians worship a living Christ, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is fully Man and fully God in one Person. He is the only unique Son of God:
Luke 2:11—For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Romans 1:4—…and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 2:5-9—Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,…
Titus 2:13—looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,…
Man
The spirits teach that man in his true nature is perfect and one essence with God. “White Eagle” says to all men, “You too are part of God.”[4] Another spirit teaches it is a “vicious abomination” to teach men that they are evil or sinful.[5]
The Bible teaches that man is a created being and not part of God:
Genesis 1:27—So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Man sinned by disobeying God, resulting in his being separated from God’s fellowship:
Genesis 3:3-8—“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Sin
The spirits teach that sin is merely “mistakes,” “an illusion,” or ignorance of one’s own deity, and that sin in a biblical sense is nothing God is concerned with. As one spirit teaches, it is “talk of sin and guilt” that is the true evil, even though it “may be camouflaged by the use of religious buzz words such as ‘Jesus loves you’ or ‘praise the Lord.’… If the minister or priest happens to be one who loves to rant and rave about sin and guilt, the forces he draws in will be dark and ugly.”[6]
The Bible teaches that sin and guilt are real. Sin is disobedience to God’s law: 1 John 3:4— Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is
lawlessness;…
1 John 5:17— All unrighteousness is sin,…
Apart from repentance and faith in Christ, sin will result in God’s judgment:
John 3:16—For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life….
John 3:36—He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
Matthew 25:46—And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Salvation
The spirits teach that “salvation” involves realizing that one is already part of God. Each man must accomplish this for himself by practicing various occult techniques.
According to the universal teachings of the spirits, salvation does not occur by the atoning death of Christ—which one spirit characteristically claims is “a tragic distortion of the real nature of God’s love.”[7]
The spirits speaking through medium Carl Japikse teach that the Christian view of the atonement is a great social and spiritual evil. Being “born again” for salvation is a “hysterical belief” and an “escape from responsibility.”[8] Believing in Jesus “does not serve the plan of God.”[9] Accepting Christ as one’s Savior at a religious gathering is like “a circus sideshow.”[10]
Thus, man’s “struggle is not between salvation and damnation,” and Christians who believe so are “ignorant fanatics” who prefer “spiritual darkness.”[11]
The Bible teaches that salvation involves receiving the gift of forgiveness of sins from a loving God. Salvation has been provided for man by God’s grace and is received by man through faith in Christ’s death for us:
Ephesians 1:7—In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…
Ephesians 2:8-9—For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Death
The spirits teach that at death there is no final judgment. It is merely transition into the wonderful spirit world. “All ‘spirit teaching’ [agrees]…. There is no hell, no punishment.”[12]
The Bible emphasizes again and again that death brings judgment and entrance either into an eternal heaven or hell:
Matthew 25:46—And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Hebrews 9:27—And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,…
Satan
The spirits teach there is no devil. As one spirit argues, “There is no devil…. It is utterly absurd to believe [in] a ‘prince of darkness.’”[13]
The Bible teaches that Satan and his demons are real as Jesus Himself taught:
Matthew 4:1, 3, 5, 8-10— Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil… Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” … Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,… Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Matthew 8:16—When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,…
Matthew 17:18—And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
NOTES
- ↑ Jon Klimo, Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information From Paranormal Sources (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1987), pp. 151, 173.
- ↑ Jane Roberts, The Seth Material (New York: Bantam, 1976), p. 270.
- ↑ Robert E. Leichtman and Carl Japikse, The Life of the Spirit (Columbus, OH: Ariel, 1987), Vol. 1, pp. 137-38, 146-53.
- ↑ White Eagle Publishing Trust, Wisdom From White Eagle (Liss, Hampshire, England: 1978), p. 26.
- ↑ Leichtman and Japikse, The Life of the Spirit, Vol. 1, pp. 83-84.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 138, 141.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 149.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 184.
- ↑ e. g., ibid., pp. 83-87.
- ↑ Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 43.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 41-42, 67-69.
- ↑ Colin Wilson, The Occult: A History (New York: Vintage, 1973), p. 523.
- ↑ Leichtman and Japikse, The Life of the Spirit, Vol. 1, p. 67.
