- 129 - but communication with demons, carried out under the same natural laws that apply to communication with good spirits. Hence, there was no need for Paul to instruct the Corinthians regarding the laws by which spirit communication can be brought about; he could confine himself to telling them of the benefits of the influence of the good spirits, as contrasted with that exerted by the evil ones. • Chapters 12 and 14 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians contain everything relating to communication with the good spirits that any devout, God-seeking person need know about that. Unfortunately, your present generation no longer comprehends the teachings imparted to the Corinthians by the apostle in those chapters. This is due first of all to the fact that you are generally ignorant in matters relating to spirit communication. Also, a great part of the blame must be placed upon the incorrect translations you have of the Bible and upon the erroneous explanations offered to Christians on the strength of those incorrect translations. Because of the importance of the subject, I shall go through Chapters 12 and 14 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians with you, and give you the correct explanation thereof. According to the translation you have, Chapter 12 begins with the words: ‘About spiritual gifts, dear brothers, I do not want to leave you in uncertainty. You know from when you were pagans, how you were drawn with irresistible force to dumb idols.’ Already the very first words, ‘About spiritual gifts’, contain a misleading error in translation. The reader can construe them only as meaning that the gifts in question are gifts bestowed by God on man’s spirit, whereas the Greek text at your disposal says something quite different. Translated literally, it says: ‘About matters relating to spirit communication, I do not want to leave you in uncertainty.” Today we should put it more briefly and say: ‘I do not want to leave you in uncertainty about “spiritism”.’ Also, the original text did not say ‘dumb idols’ but ‘dead gods’, the latter term being universally understood to mean the ‘demons’, or spirits severed from God, which are always referred to in the Bible as the ‘dead’. The correct translation of the whole passage would thus be: ‘About “spiritism” I do not want to leave you in uncertainty. You are familiar with it from the time when you were still heathens, when you went to the spirits who had fallen away from God, spirits to whom you felt yourselves irresistibly drawn.’ In what follows, there are two sentences missing in the Greek text now available to you. They said: ‘Thus you became companions of the evil spirits, who do not recognize Jesus as their Lord. But now that you belong to Christ and are subject to his rule, you are in communication with holy spirits.’ These sentences, which have been omitted in the Bible translation you have, were directly followed by Verse 3, which in your translation reads: ‘So I tell you: No one speaking through the Spirit of God can say: “Cursed be Jesus” – and no one can say, “Jesus is the Lord”, except through the Holy Spirit.’ But also, in the translation of this Verse 3 there is an error that obscures the meaning. The Greek text does not say through the Spirit of God and through the Holy Spirit, but rather through one spirit of God and through one Holy Spirit. It is not God Himself Who directly brings about the various effects, but the spirits serving Him, who accomplish His will among His creatures with the aid of His power.
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