1. The Bible claims to be the word of God. Those who wrote it assert that they wrote as they “were moved by the Holy Ghost;” and they append to what they utter, a “Thus saith the Lord.”

2. If it is not what it claims to be, it is an imposture invented by deceivers and liars.

3. Good men would not deceive and lie; therefore they were not the ones who invented the Bible.

4. If, therefore, it was invented by men at all, it must have been invented by bad men.

5. All liars and religious impostors are bad men; but—

6. The Bible repeatedly and most explicitly forbids lying and imposture, under the threatening of most condign punishment.

7. Would, therefore, liars and impostors invent a book which more than any other book ever written, denounces lying and imposture, thus condemning [pg 035] themselves to the severest judgments of God, and at last to eternal death?

8. If, then, the Bible is not the invention of good men,—because such men would not lie and deceive; nor of evil men,—because such men would not condemn themselves; nor of good or evil angels, for the same reasons, who else can be its author, but he who claims to be, that is, the living God?

9. If, therefore, from the very nature of the case, it must be God's book, why not believe it, and obey it?

To return: Appeal is therefore made to the Bible; and the object is to learn what the Bible teaches about Spiritualism. When the claim is put forth that it is the disembodied spirits of dead men who make the communications, the Bible reader is at once aware of a conflict of claims. In times when the Bible was written, there were practices among men which went under the names of “enchantment,” “sorcery,” “witchcraft,” “necromancy,” “divination,” “consulting with familiar spirits,” etc. These practices were all more or less related, but some of them bear an unmistakable meaning. Thus, “necromancy” is defined to mean “a pretended communication with the dead.” A “familiar spirit” was “a spirit or demon supposed to attend on an individual, or to come at his call; the invisible agent of a necromancer's will.”—Century Dictionary. Spiritualists do not deny that their intercourse with the invisible world comes under some, at [pg 036] least, of these heads. But all such practices the Bible explicitly forbids.

Deut. 18:9-12: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.” Lev. 19:31: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” See also, 2 Kings 21:2, 6, 9, 11; Rev. 21:8; Gal. 5:19-21; Acts 16:16-18; etc. Thus plainly in both the Old and New Testaments, are these practices forbidden.