Recognising the Hand of Judgment. Ch.10

 

“Spiritualism”, and “Enlightenment”.

Karl Marx and Charles Darwin

 

     Throughout  all  the  ages of man,  there has been a  tendency  to intrude into matters "invisible". Man's latent curiosity has often been aroused to know about,  and to try to contact,  those who have  "passed on".  The Bible records much evidence in the Old Testament of groups of people devoted to practices of this kind,  and the Lord gave Moses dire warnings  for  the  children of Israel,  that should  anyone  be  found indulging in such practices, they would be under penalty of death.

 

     Let  us  hear  the actual words,  found in  Deuteronomy  18:10-12. "There shall not be found among you one - - that uses divination, or an observer of times,  or an enchanter,  or a witch,  or a charmer,  or  a consulter of familiar spirits,  or a wizard,  or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord."

 

     To  study the original Hebrew words used in those verses is a real eye-opener,  and  worth  the effort.  But this cannot be  part  of  our present study lest it become cumbersome and lose direction.

 

     The   main  point  for  us  at  this  moment  is  to  record   how "spiritualism"  suddenly  burst  into the western world  in  1848,  and created the modern scene,  with its millions of adherents. We shall see throughout  this  study that after the dark day of 1780  God  began  to plant  seeds  of a new work in the earth.  And every time He planted  a seed, the Devil dropped a tare, so as to confuse the message. Hence one must  appreciate  what has been occurring "behind the  scenes",  so  to speak,  in  order to understand the movement of events in  our  present world.

 

     The event that triggered off the modern craze began in Hydesville, New York,  on March 31st 1848, in the house of John Fox. For some while his  two young daughters had listened to strange tapping noises  during the  night,  and  wondered  what they were.  They  had  eliminated  the possibilities of rats, mice, or wind. But on this particular night they light-heartedly  attempted to play a game with the noises.  They  began tapping out noises themselves,  and were surprised to find an answering pattern! They had established a dialogue with "something" or "someone". They  began  in  earnest to find out who was  behind  the  noises,  and invented  a progressively complex code of taps and answers.  It  turned out  to be the "spirit" of someone who had died,  and was buried  under the floor. Eventually this was confirmed by digging up the remains.

 

     The  event naturally caused a sensation,  and neighbours from  all around came to hear the noises, and be convinced that communication was taking  place between the living and the dead.  Man's natural curiosity was  once again aroused,  and this time in no small measure.  The  news travelled far and wide,  and within a short space of time was the prime investigation  of millions of people.  The modern "spiritualist"  scene had taken off with a vengeance. It's amazing how strongly and rapidly tares grow! One small event with two little girls produced a spiritual earthquake across the globe!

 

     The  phenomenon was investigated,  not only by the rank and  file, but  by  some who were well-known in society,  for example  Sir  Arthur Conan  Doyle,  the  author and creator of the  fictional  character  of Sherlock  Holmes,  and Sir William Crookes,  the English physicist  who worked on the nature of electrical discharges in vacuum tubes.

 

     Gradually  more sophisticated techniques were found for contacting those on "the other side", such as the seance (French for a "sitting"), and the Ouija Board, (French and German for "Yes"). In the 19th century seances  became the rage in fashionable society throughout  Europe  and America.

 

     Coming  down  to the present day,  one finds sadly that the  Ouija Board  is often found in toy shops as just another "game" for  children to  play.  In my teaching years,  back in the 1960s,  I found  students playing this game,  and they came to me in a frightened  state,  having learned from their devilish device that their lives were in peril. Only by  prayer  and commanding the evil spirits did they have their  sanity restored.  But  more than that,  it became the means whereby they  were introduced to the Saviour of mankind, the Lord Jesus Himself. Satan had overstepped himself!

 

     The famous stage magician Harry Houdini (1874-1926) spent no  less than  30  years  pursuing  people who ran seances,  and  in  quite  the majority of cases he proved that they were frauds, using darkened rooms with clever gadgets to bring about effects that seemed supernatural. He declared  that  he  had “not found one incident that  savoured  of  the genuine.”  However,  for  all  the good work he did  in  unmasking  the tricksters, who were hauling in large dividends on the credulity of the public  mind,  there  still  remained the hard core of  real  spiritual darkness  that God had spoken about in Deuteronomy.

 

     Most of the genuine effects of spiritualism come about as a result of demonic activity,  spirit guides,  and fallen angels,  and these are real  enough.  Many Christians in the world today are having  continual evidence,   and  sustained  battles  against  these  unseen  forces  of darkness.  We  ourselves have from time to time had to war against  the principalities and powers of darkness, but this is not the place or the time  to  give further details.  Let it suffice to say that the new  surge  of spiritualism began in 1848, and has blossomed throughout the world like  stinking weeds ever since.

 

     Just  as the word "spiritualism" suggests something good,  whereas in fact it should be "spiritism",  so also another word arose in  those early   days  which  is  a  verbal  charlatan.   I  am  speaking  about "enlightenment".  This  word was coined to describe the  mainly  French brand  of  philosophy that grew up in the years immediately  after  the dark day of 1780. Based upon the writings of those who had gone before, a  new  brand  of idea was promoted,  and its origin has  already  been ascribed to Adam Weishaupt and the Illluminati.

 

     The  earlier  philosophers such as Rene Descartes  in France (1596-1650),  Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626)  and John  Locke  (1632-1704)  in England, combined with the gargantuan work of Denis Diderot (1713-1784) in  France,  with his ENCYCLOPEDIE of 28 volumes of  "philosophy,  art, science,  and  other matters",  published in 1777,  laid the ground for this period of "enlightenment",  which in fact from a Biblical point of view  was  quite  the  opposite,  being  far  more  like  the  darkness experienced in 1780.

 

     In  that  great Encyclopedie,  the first of its kind  ever  to  be published,  was  written the ideas of men like  Voltaire,  Montesquieu, Rousseau, Count Buffon, Turgot, Quesnay, and others, all of whom strove to  overthrow  the Biblical concepts of life in favour of  rationalism, the  elevation of the human mind as being the greatest factor in  human life.

 

     Taking  Rousseau  as  an example,  he wrote a  book  entitled  "Du Contrat Social" (The Social Contract) containing his political thought. He  wrote of man in a state of nature as a "narrow stupid animal."  His well-known  opening remark "Man is born free,  but everywhere he is  in chains" continues,  "One man thinks himself the master of  others,  but remains  more  of a slave than they are." But Rousseau didn't think  of his ideal society as putting men in chains,  on the contrary,  he  said that  man is chained by his own passions and ignorance until he  enters this  society  and submits to the general will of the population  as  a whole.  But,  as Voltaire saw, a number of men might feel freer outside such  a society and prefer not to submit to it.  Rousseau's answer  was that  such  men must be "forced to be free",  and forced to accept  and appreciate  "their true moral nature." The "body politic" as he  called it,  should  have  "absolute power over all its  members"  and  whoever "refuses to obey the general shall be forced to do so."

 

     During the French Revolution Rousseau's ideas were used to justify both  the  pursuit  of  liberty,  and also the use  of  oppression  and tyranny,  in the ultimate interests of the people.  It is little wonder that he has been acclaimed as both the founder of modern democracy  AND the forerunner of modern totalitarianism.

 

     The  German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a man of  action as  well  as  a  theorist.   Basing  his  thinking  on  all  that   the "enlightenment"  had  thus far produced,  he worked together  with  his friend  Friedrich Engels to produce a document for the working class of industrialised Europe,  preparing them for revolution. The document was entitled  THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO,  and it was published in  1848,  the same year in which "spiritualism" first appeared.

 

     We must stop here for a moment and investigate this man's life  in a  little  more  detail.  In doing so,  I am indebted to  a  little booklet  written  by  Richard Wurmbrand,  entitled  "Was  Karl  Marx  a Satanist?"

 

     It  may come as a surprise to learn that in his early  youth Marx  was  a  Christian.  He was born of Jewish parents, who had decided on changing their religion, and becoming Baptists. His father was a lawyer of some repute and standing in society. Karl’s first extant written work is called,  "The union of the faithful with Christ." In this,  we read the following words. "Through love of Christ we turn our hearts at the same time  toward our brethren who are inwardly bound to us and for whom  He gave  Himself  as  a sacrifice." And a bit later in the  same  writing, "Union  with Christ could give an inner elevation,  comfort in  sorrow, calm trust,  and a heart susceptible to human love, to everything noble and  great,  not for the sake of ambition and glory,  but only for  the sake of Christ."

 

     Such great beginnings as a youth,  suddenly became shattered by an experience  wholly  unknown and mysterious as to  its  origin,  because about  the  time  he  reached  manhood,  a  new  Marx,  profoundly  and passionately anti-religious began to emerge.  He writes in a poem about that time,  "I wish to avenge myself against the One who rules  above." Why?  No  one knows.  There is nothing in all his writings to give  us  the  faintest  clue.  It could not  have  been  to  do  with deprivation,  because he belonged to a relatively well-off family,  and lacked  nothing  of a material nature.  Listen to the words of a  short poem he wrote, entitled, INVOCATION OF ONE IN DESPAIR.

 

So a god has snatched from me my all

In the curse and rack of destiny.

All his worlds are gone beyond recall!

Nothing but revenge is left to me!

 

     Whatever  caused  this  great  reversal  must  have  been  a  most traumatic event. He goes on in the poem a bit later –

 

I shall build my throne high overhead,

Cold, tremendous shall its summit be.

For its bulwark - superstitious dread.

For its Marshall - blackest agony.

 

     These  lines  remind  one of Lucifer's boast "I will  ascend  into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." (Isa.14:13)

 

     It becomes clearer as he proceeds that his dramatic reversal is so powerful  that he becomes involved in Satanic ritual.  He wrote a  poem called OULANEM,  which is a reverse anagram of Emanuel,  God with us. This is a standard practice of Satanists to take holy things and  invert them, read them backwards, desecrate them, or otherwise twist them into something  foul.  Hence  Marx was already beginning to do  this  hardly before he had started his twenties. The poem OULANEM takes as its theme his own quest to drag all humanity down into the abyss with him, whilst he laughs.

 

     When  did this change occur?  The only clue we have comes  from  a letter which he wrote to his father on November 10th 1837,  when he was 19  years  of age.  "A curtain has fallen.  My Holy of holies was  rent asunder and new gods had to be installed." His father,  in referring to this when writing to a friend,  said, "I refrained from insisting on an explanation  about  a very mysterious matter,  though it seemed  highly dubious."  What was this "mysterious matter"? No one knows.     In 1841 George Jung,  a friend of Marx at the time,  wrote - "Marx will surely chase God from His heaven and will even sue him. Marx calls the Christian religion one of the most immoral of religions." This was because he had from somewhere obtained the impression that Christians of former times had slaughtered men and eaten their flesh.

 

     It  was  in that year that Marx met Moses  Hess,  (1812-1875)  the German Jewish Socialist,  and was converted to communism.  Later he met Engels  in Cologne,  and wrote to Hess saying "He parted from me as  an over-zealous  communist.  This is how I produce ravages." Hess was  the force behind the writing of The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. But after the publication of this document,  Hess broke with them,  and gave his energies to the founding of Zionism of a most diabolical kind. We shall later see how Theodore Herzl produced another kind of Zionism. There is a tomb in Israel today on which one can read the words, "Moses Hess,  founder of the German Social-Democrate Party." Such evil men  as these  may  be seen as the tares that Satan sowed amongst the wheat  of God's new work in the earth.

 

     One other factor about Marx must be stated here,  and it will lead us on to the last section of this chapter about new philosophies.  When Charles Darwin published his "Origin of Species" in 1859,  Marx was one of those who read it with relish. He wrote to a friend about it, saying "God  has been given the death blow." And with enthusiasm he  wrote  to Darwin,  asking  permission to dedicate Das Kapital to him.  But Darwin refused,  saying  that he didn't want to be associated with attacks  on religion.

 

     At the same time Conway Zirkle,  in his book, "Evolution, Biology, and the Social Scene," said,  "Evolution of course,  was just what  the founders  of  communism needed to explain how mankind could  have  come into  being  without the intervention of any  supernatural  force,  and consequently  it  could  be used to bolster the  foundations  of  their materialistic philosophy."

     So what about Charles Darwin?  Like Marx, he began as a Christian, and went to Cambridge in 1827 to prepare for Holy Orders in the  Church of England.  Because of lack of interest he didn't last out the course, deciding  rather  to  become an adventurer and sail the  high  seas  in search  of interesting specimens.  This led to his theory of evolution, which  was not his own brain-child (as many have thought) but based  on the writings of Count Buffon,  (whose ideas were expressed in Diderot's famous Encyclopedie),  August Werner (1749-1817),  William Smith (1769-1839),  Georges  Cuvier (1769-1832),  James Hutton  (1726-1797),  Jean-Baptiste  Lamarck  (1744-1829)  and eminently to the  writings  of  Sir Charles  Lyell  (1797-1875)  in his "Principles of  Geology".  He  even borrowed ideas from his forebear Erasmus Darwin.

 

     Darwin was a man of great intellect,  but of a certain weakness of mind.  It  is doubtful whether he would have published "The  Origin  of Species" had it not been for two factors. First, the forceful nature of his  friend the Biologist Thomas Huxley,  the "bulldog" who pressed him to publish, and second, the fact that another adventurer by the name of Alfred  Russell  Wallace  had  written  to  him  expressing  an  almost identical evaluation of his findings, and might at any time publish his own work,  and Darwin's own self-esteem prompted him to yield the  more rapidly to Huxley's goading.

 

     Reading  from some of Darwin's works,  one can see what  happened. Let me quote here from "The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin."

 

     "I had gradually come by this time,  that  is 1836 to 1839, to see that  the Old Testament was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindus."

 

     "The Gospels cannot be proved to have been written  simultaneously with  the  events.  They  differ in many  important  details,  far  too important, as it seemed to me, to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eye-witnesses, and by such reflections as these - - I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation."

   

     "I was very unwilling to give up my belief; I feel sure of this. - - Unbelief  crept on me at a very slow rate,  but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress."

 

     In  Marx's  case  it was something very  sudden  that  turned  him violently  against  the Christ of his earlier years.  But  with  Darwin there was an almost imperceptibly slow decline in belief. It was almost as  though  he  was acting out his own theory of evolution  during  his life.  He  was always talking about "imperceptibly slow  processes"  in nature.

 

     This  chapter has been about "philosophies." Later on we shall see that  God  spoke  to  a  Russian  monk,  saying  that  these  so-called philosophies were none other than "spirits from hell."

 

     In  our  lifetime  we have seen how the theory  of  evolution  has become  established  as "fact" the world over,  even though to  men  of discernment  it is still but a theory,  and one which cannot stand  the rigorous  tests of scientific analysis.  As Malcolm Muggeridge said  at one of the Paschal Lectures in Ontario,  Canada, "I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution,  especially the extent to which it's been applied,  will  be one of the great jokes in the history books  of  the future.  Posterity  will  marvel  that so very flimsy  and  dubious  an hypothesis  could  be  accepted with the incredible credulity  that  it has."

 

     Professor D.M.S.Watson has declared, "Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists,  not because it has been observed to occur - - or can be proved by logical coherent evidence,  but because the only alternative, Special Creation, is clearly incredible."

 

     This  hits the nail on the head,  and Watson speaks out what  many others would not be willing to admit, in other words that evolution has no  grounding in true science whatsoever,  and is just another  "spirit from hell" sent by Satan to lead men and women away from God.

 

     We have recently seen the demise of Russian communism,  but as yet there  seems  to  be  no  sign of  the  death-blow  to  evolution  that Muggeridge speaks about.  But God will have His way,  when the time  is right.