- 53 - child would experience the most dreadful things if they refused the idols this sacrifice. Obsessed as they were, they always gave way in the end. You need not wonder at this, for during the rites performed before the idols and at idolatrous gatherings generally, the evil spirits announced these doctrines through their trance mediums and supported them by the exhibition of miracles that accompanied their discourse. Not infrequently, the idols themselves spoke. Such speech was a ‘direct voice’ produced by the low spirit world with the aid of the od of the sacrificial offerings and that of the mediums in attendance. • God permitted this because he allows complete freedom within the limits that have been set also for those who are evil. The cause of apostasy from God was then, as it is now, the craving for worldly success and prosperity. Only in those days the prerequisites for communicating with the spirit world were well known, while today they have fallen into oblivion. Consequently, apostasy manifested itself in those times not only in inner defection from God, but in deliberately fostered, humanly perceptible communication with the evil spirit world through spiritistic idol worship. ‘Inquiring of the dead’ was a daily need of the worldly minded, as inquiring of God was an integral part of the worship of the faithful. The messages sent by the ‘dead’ through their mediums were such as to flatter the human passions of the recipients. Everything they heard was pleasant, and so they had no desire to listen to God’s instruments, the good mediums. What the latter had to communicate to them at God’s behest was too bitter for them. Isaiah 30: 9-11: ‘For it is a rebellious people, with children who turned out badly, who will not hear the commandments of the Lord. They say to the seers, “Do not see”, and to God’s prophets, “Do not prophesy the truth for us. Prophesy pleasant things, prophesy deceits, leave the right way, depart from the righteous path. Don’t bother us with ‘the Holy One of Israel’!” They wanted to hear only pleasant things, especially such things as would further their worldly interests. They wanted to communicate with specific spirits, as Saul wanted the spirit of Samuel to appear when he consulted the ‘witch of Endor’. • Good spirits will not allow themselves to be summoned at the whim and pleasure of men. They come of their own accord with God’s sanction, or, in certain cases, at His express command. However, they come only to those who seek God, in order that they may show them the way to Him. Which good spirit manifests itself is not for man to determine; the decision rests with the good spirit world. Also, from the evil spirit world not always those come whose visit people desire, for they, too, may communicate only with permission. • The low spirits will, however, invariably claim to be the ones that were summoned, whether or not this is true, for they are spirits of falsehood whose only concern is to tell their adherents what they like to hear. It is, therefore, an act of great folly for people to arrange among themselves that whoever dies first will let the survivors know whether or not there is a Beyond. Whoever enters into such an agreement, and makes his belief in a future existence contingent upon the fulfillment thereof, will invariably fail to receive the evidence he desires, for agreements of this kind are proof in themselves that these
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