3/1/1970

Spiritualism Today

Part Three

In another article, it tells about the history. And this is fantastic because Trinity College in England is where the great respectability of this came to pass. And you know who the most active members of this particular original group that brought it great respectability? Who these were. The one was the Reverend B. F. Wescott. We use a critical Greek text of the 11 or 12 critical Greek texts. And one of those critical Greek texts was put together by the name of two men, Wescott and Hort. This is the Wescott of the Wescott and Hort who was head of the spiritualist society at Trinity College in England. What do you think he might do occasionally when he gets into the critical Greek text to show us what the original Word was? You see why you don’t sell me on critical Greek text. I know them, I love to study them and look at them. But we’ve got to have a lot more accurate knowledge on getting back to truth than critical Greek text or Aramaic or anything else. Remember the individual Word has to do what? That’s right. Carry it all through. The only way. This is that Wescott of Wescott and Hort who did one of the critical Greek texts and was it this text that was followed by the revision committee in 1960. Was it Wescott and Hort? I think it was.

The other one is J.B. Lightfoot. He was the Bishop of Durham. A very prominent man. E. W. Bullinger mentions Lightfoot in one of his papers or articles. And Kenyon in a book on how we got the Bible, mentions Lightfoot. The other one was E. W. Benson the Archbishop of Canterbury. Do you know that was? Top brass. He is the pope of the Anglican church. The Archbishop of Canterbury. What the Pope is in Rome to Roman Catholicism, the Archbishop of Canterbury is in England.

These are the men who front spiritualism. You talk about academic acceptability, you talk about having the perfect front. They got it. The four founders of the society for psychical research are all four sons of clergymen. Barrett, Gurney, Myers, and Sidgwick. And if you know anything about the history, which I knew of course before I saw it in this particular magazine, but one of the outstanding Americans was a Methodist minister by the name of Dr. Watson. Well, it’s really a great day isn’t it? Names the Roman Catholic clergy who are involved in spiritualism and they are all top brass. William McDougall, the great Harvard psychologist was head of the American branch of psychical research. Reverend George Douglas, the vicar of Trinity Church, and the Canon of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Every time I go past St. John the Divine, I spit on that place. That’s right. People are so impressed by it because they say it is the most beautiful Gothic architecture in the world. It’s been all these years in building it. Every time I go by it, I can’t help…………. or when I see it in a picture, I think of always the Ephesus, the old Diana of the Ephesians temple. There’s plenty of money to do that stuff. The devil sees to it because the devil’s got his people working. Really something.

Spiritual healing. The true spiritual healer has to merely be an agent through which the force or the energy can flow. He must recognize this power, not so much in the sense of using it as of quote “as of being used by it.” Like the advanced class all over. How long until we just take a stand for the greatness of God’s Word? Now he talks about Ambrose Warroll, the two Methodists operated healing, under devil spirits which they thought was the true spirit. Was it a Methodist church in New Jersey or someplace? Maryland? I’ve been by the church, never in. But these are people that are on the speaking platform of CFO. Brother Mandus, from England, out and out spiritualist, CFO platform. Camps Farthest Out. Louis Mobley of the Department of Public affairs of IBM has just set up with another man who is the vice president of some big corporation. A study group called Life Energies Research Incorporated financed by IBM. Man, we’re dealing with top echelons. Well, it’s a fight. It’s a real fight. They’ve got the credibility on their side. They got leading businessman, they’ve got professional men, they’ve got scientists, they’ve got philosophers, they’ve got psychologists. Well, God just got us and maybe we haven’t got a lot of scientists, a lot of philosophers, a lot of this and a lot of that. But we’ve got a lot of the Lord Jesus Christ and a lot of the true God.

And I want to tell you something. When there was a day that I could read back in Acts chapter 2, there were men like Peter, and John, and Matthew and the old internal revenue service collector, you know. They said they were unlearned and ignorant men, is what the society said. And yet God gave those men the privilege to carry the greatness of the Word. Maybe that’s why we’re a unique bunch today, I don’t know. And I haven’t got too many years to find out anymore. But I’m convinced of one thing, that our ministry must be the most unique ministry in the world today. That God allows us to be these calm and ordinary just plain simple folk who again are digging the Word, we’re letting this Word gel, within our life, we’re starting to move, we’re believing that Word. Well, if he can change a Peter, he can change anybody today, too can’t he? If he can take a Mary, and change her, he can change any lady today. By the freedom of our wills. It’s really something.

The concluding of this particular article on healing. There are three important factors which must be recognized in all spiritualist healing. Number one is the factor of love. I told you they smother you with that stuff. Number two: the acknowledgment that there is only one power, God. One power, God. They just forgot to say which God because there are how many Gods? But they want you to say there’s only one. If there is only one God, then that same God has to be the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - has to be to the same God that’s producing all of this other stuff, death included. Boy, I told you there’s a lot to do. And the third is one basic technique. One factor which is love. One power which is God, one technique which is meditation.

Meditation. Boy oh boy. Gerald Heard was one of the great exponents of meditation. Still is, I guess. And in that meditation, all you do is get quiet and give yourself over to the spirits. That’s meditation. The Bible teaches about meditation. Do you know what meditation it teaches? Put this Word in your mind. Meditate, it says, on the Word day and night. You just don’t go blank. Because the moment you go blank and open to the spirits, you opened the trap door to every devil spirit that wants to come in. But you discipline your mind, you decide what you’re going to think about. You meditate on the Word. In the Old Testament, didn’t God tell them to write it on their foreheads? And they were supposed to teach it to their kids, get them to meditate upon that, the Word. You don’t go blank.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. -- I Timothy 4: 15

That’s why I teach in the ministry of healing in the advanced class and you people, when I teach you how to minister healing, you don’t stand and wait on God, He’s been waiting on you since a Coons age. You don’t have to wait on God, to know He’s there, right? You don’t say, Oh Lord God, what you have for me today? I open myself, no I never open myself. I already received Him. God is interested. He’s more anxious to answer prayer then we are to pray it at some place, right? Boy, I don’t wait around in meditation and hoping God is going to give me something. He either gives it or He doesn’t. Right now. You sit around and you meditate. We all take a half hour off to get in a circle, you know. Now we all get quiet and we meditate. What you are going to meditate about is the important thing. You’ve got to meditate on the Word. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. That’s what we have to stay our mind on. The Word, that’s the renewed mind, that’s the discipline. Well, they want love, they want power of God, they got one technique, meditation. It sure works.

There is a new book out called No Shortcuts to Heaven. You gotta die to get there. You know, right now. And a beautiful book entitled Do You Know Jesus? These are just publications, right now. Your Mysterious Powers of ESP. Another book. Do You Know Jesus? - 64 pages sells for three bucks. And I hear some people complaining about my lifetime work on the Holy Spirit field selling for five. 300 and some pages. 64 pages - three bucks. It’s really something, isn’t it? Out Of the Mouth of Babes is a new spiritualist book. It’s good biblical words aren’t they? Beyond the Tears of Grief. Another book. The Great Reality. Boy oh boy.

It says we came to the gripping reality and conviction of the vital facts that we are surrounded by a host of unseen personalities. All those who have been convinced of survival know that once we gain this conviction that we are surrounded with a whole bunch of alive spirits. Our entire outlook on life changes. The author asked his sister Bertha whether those on her plain were in contact with Jesus. And she said, not what you call personal contact. But we’re sort of aware of his presence, occasionally. Listen to this. The author asked: most religion has affirmed that Jesus after the crucifixion arose in his physical body, is this true? No brother, came the answer. There was no resurrection. This is not true. Jesus’ resurrection was purely of a spiritual nature because the soldiers burned the body of Jesus at the command of Herod. Now wait a minute. What about Romans 10: 9?

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. -- Romans 10: 9

In the fourth chapter of Acts, the fifth chapter of Acts, when they preached the Word of God, the one central subject was always what? The resurrection. They threw them in a jail because they preached the resurrection, it says in Acts. Direct from heaven. No Jesus fellow directly here. And he never did rise…………. Now somebody’s got to be wrong. However as a minister, listen to this, who has always accepted the gospel account and taught it. And knowing that translating scholars have often idealized advanced and inserted their own interpolation, this reviewer is willing to admit such an explanation as a theoretical possibility. The minister did it, you see he said it’s a theoretical possibility. He said he’s always believed the gospel. He’s a liar. If he ever believed God’s Word, he’d be out of that, wouldn’t he? People, the last page is another great truthful statement. All life is spirit. All life is spirit and I thought to myself how close again to the truth. Exactly what I teach in the class. All life is spirit, but not all spirit is eternal life. Are we in a fight? Sure, we are in a fight. A good one.

Look at Luke 4. People, I don’t think I have ever taught you like I have tonight in any of these fields. I taught you more many times, but not in the same way. But the burden of our times is weighing me down. The time is short. The days are short. And it just seems like even the best of Christians just put up with everything and we keep going along hoping that nothing is going to upset the apple cart too much. I just don’t know how to teach it any plainer and how to get people to walk. I just don’t know. I don’t know how to bleed your heart out anymore. I just came back out of three weeks of the hardest teaching I ever had in my life in California. Come right back home and get involved and it’s heavier here than it was in California.

Well, what do you expect, it’s the headquarters. Some of the people here complain half the time because they say, we’re working too hard. I want to go down to Vietnam and stand on the front lines. That’s right. But, what do you expect? People say sometimes, boy, I wish I could live at headquarters. Do you? You think things are tough at your place, come on over here a while. That’s right. We battled this thing week after week and we stand. A little group comes in on Thursday night - it’s just like water in an oasis. Boy, we get together and have a little prayer and fellowship and get geared up. During the day, we have to meet with someone, we pray with someone, it’s the only way we keep going. Well, why shouldn’t he take a crack at headquarters? Because if he can kill this place, if he can stop the Word here, he’s got it stopped almost any place across the country. Well I’ll let him in on a secret, he ain’t stopping it as long as I live. Boy, by the grace of God, I stand for that Word. It’s the only way you get power coming down anyways.

And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. -- Luke 4: 5

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. -- Luke 4: 6

So just because a man demonstrates power, does that mean anything? Can Satan give power? Why sure. All you have to do is worship him. All you have to do is believe in the Trinity. He’ll be happy to give it to you. That’s right. Just bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, verse eight:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. -- Luke 4: 8

You see people, only one way you can live and that is that you’ve got to take a stand on God’s Word and declare what the Word says. In II Corinthians 4: 4, it says that Satan is the god of this world. That’s right.

In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. -- II Corinthians 4: 4

And in Ephesians 4: 27 it says:

Neither give place to the devil. -- Ephesians 4: 27

Could Jesus have given him place? He couldn’t have if he had been God. Because God cannot be tempted, the Bible says. Yet Jesus was tempted in all things like as we are. And Satan offered it to him, offer him all the kingdoms of the world. And all the power, and all of glory. If he would do just one thing, worship him. Do you know why I have had such a tough time over all these years raising enough money to move the Word? You know why? Because Satan doesn’t support the outfit. If I just knuckle under, if I would just declare certain things that Satan would like me to declare, he’d pour money in here by the barrel full. Well he can just keep his lousy money because unless my people believe God’s Word and they put in not their tithe, that’s peanuts. But every thing they can possibly make me on it. George Jess said something this week Thursday night, just blessed my soul. Brother Harry quoted the verse to him: God supplied all of our need. And George Jess said he’s got to do better than that or else I won’t have anything to give. And I thought, boy that shut us up.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. --- Philippians 4: 19

That was right. God says He will supply all our need – – that’s the least common denominator. But most people, it’s like the film class. We set up four as the minimum. They have set it up as the maximum. So when they got four people, they call up, send us your $2 million film. We want to use it, we got four people. That was the minimum, but Satan’s got us to thinking that’s the maximum. Whenever we got four, we’re ready. George Jess said, how can I give if He only supplies my need? Right? You ain’t got anything left if He just supplies your need. That’s the least common denominator. He can never do less than that. But He can do abundantly more. Don’t you see it? And in that abundance is where the ministry has to live. I don’t know one outfit, half sold out to the devil, who doesn’t have a material abundance coming in. I’ve been ministering faithfully in this Word through many, many years. But the light I have, added light as I get it issued. I’ve never had one single denominational church taken an offering for this ministry. Not one. I’ve never had a board of missions of any denomination send us $.10. Well, I don’t expect it tomorrow it will be here either. But if we’d sell out, we’d sell out, if we just sold out, if we just gave up a little on the Word, the abundance would flow in. But don’t you ever give on the Word, you can give on anything else, but never give on the Word. That Word has to stand if nobody believes it. It’s the Word of God that’s the Will of God. And if you have to walk alone in your community, walking with the Lord is a lot better than walking with the devil’s people on every hand. And you and I are the ones who have to make up our minds whether we want to really walk with Him. May I close with a reference from James 4: 6, 7? That’s not known as well as the one from Ephesians 4: 27.

But he giveth more grace, Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. -- James 4: 6

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. -- James 4: 7

This submitting you do by the freedom of your own will. You make up your mind to serve the true God. Then you do something else. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Jesus said to the devil, get out of here. Go fly a kite. Don’t tempt the Lord your God. Get out of here. He resisted him. But if you bid the devil welcome and you sort of encourage him and you open up to him through the Ouija boards and all the rest of the little card games and all that other baloney stuff, before you know it, you haven’t resisted him, he takes control at will. It says in verse 8:

Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners; and purify your hearts ye double minded. -- James 4: 8

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. -- James 4: 10

Isn’t that fabulous? It is our God who has to lift us up. It is He who has called us in our lives, people. And this ministry is not in our lives and in our midst just by accident. It is here because people, it must be an hour when God’s Word again must live. And God just doesn’t have any people except His people to carry that Word. And if it’s too tough for you, sorry, it’s just a tough fight. We’re just now getting to the place in the season again when we’re headed for the state finals. That road towards the state championship is not an easy one. I want to tell you something. You may be a top-notch basketball team but you have one bad night from here on out, you’ll never be in the state finals. A number of teams found that out this week. Because they just had one bad quarter, they never got through the games. You and I just can’t afford to have a bad quarter. We just can’t afford to let Satan defeat us. We can’t afford to put this any other place than where God put it. The Bible says He set His Word above all His name. That’s where we have to hope.

Conclusion

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