PSYCHIC ROULETTE–

PLAYING GAMES WITH THE SUPERNATURAL

From ARTICLES BY G. VANDEMAN - Edited  

8- Has Anybody Told Arthur Ford?

An actress jumped from the fourteenth-story window of a New York apartment building carrying a Bible, a crucifix, and a note that said, "Signing off for heaven."

Was she?

Where does a man go when he dies? Or does he go anywhere? Will he be calling back to leave his number? Do the dead come back? Do the dead communicate with the living? Are they aware of what is going on? Does Arthur Ford know that he has written a book since he died? Has anybody told him?

Everybody wants to know about the other side. That's why the séance is so popular. That's why men and women are so captivated with the idea of spirit communication. That's the pull, that's the allure of the psychic world.

That's why people buy books like Ruth Montgomery's. Here is a chance to get the answers from somebody who is there--wherever it is. So they reason.

Undoubtedly Mrs. Montgomery is sincere in her belief that the book originated with Arthur Ford. It is her settled conviction that communication with the dead is possible. And millions agree with her. You could fill a truck with books that promote, in some form or other, the idea that the dead do not die when they die, that they are alive somewhere, and that they can communicate with the living. That's the popular belief.

But here is our dilemma. There is one Book that disagrees. It is an ancient Book that we call the Bible. And what complicates our dilemma is this: This ancient Book, unlike the other books, claims to be inspired from start to finish. It claims to be the Word of God.

You will have to decide what it is to you personally. You may choose to call it a good book, but not an inspired Book. But strange as it may seem, the Bible cannot be simply a good book. Why? Because it claims to be inspired. It claims to have originated in the mind of God. If that is not true, then the Bible is a book of lies. And a book of lies is not a good book at all, but a very bad book.

If its credentials are genuine, then its batting average must be one hundred percent. There is no room for any misses at all, if the Bible is what it claims to be. It must be able to stand through the ages against every attempt to destroy it. It must be able to change behavior. Multitudes say it measures up. And tapping insistently at the minds of thousands more is the persistent question, Could it be that the Bible is right after all?

On the other hand, these other books on our shelves make no such claims as does the Bible. Ruth Montgomery claims that her book is written by a dead medium. Many a volume includes counsel and advice supposedly from the spirit world. Some books come from the minds of great theologians, and some from lesser lights. Some dazzle their readers with the wonders of psychic phenomena. Some profess to bring us the wisdom of men from other planets. And some relay messages allegedly from spacecraft hovering over our earth. All have one underlying concept--that men do not die; that men cannot die. But not one of these books makes any claim to be the product of the mind of God.

It would seem reasonable then, since the Bible makes the unique claim that it does, that any serious researcher would want to be aware of its side of the story. Can a man be satisfied with anything less-if he really wants to get to the heart of the matter? Is it a fair investigation that probes the one and not the other? Is it consistent to consult the books that lay no claim to inspiration, and completely ignore the one that claims to be God's special word to man? Do we really want to stake our eternal destiny on the words of a dead medium and never open the Book of books?

Who is tossing back our balls? The ancient Scriptures might yield some surprises.

I will never forget a certain Sunday a number of years ago. It was just two days after that memorable Christmas Eve when the astronauts of Apollo VIII read from the first chapter of Genesis while orbiting the moon. This Sunday evening I was watching the Joe Pyne show. And Bishop Pike was a guest. The bishop was promoting his new book The Other Side, and of course they were discussing the possibility of communication with the dead.

Now you may recall that Joe Pyne was not always as courteous to his guests as he might have been. But on this occasion he listened very attentively. And then finally he turned to his guest and said quietly, "Bishop, doesn't the Bible say somewhere that the dead don't know anything?"

The bishop, obviously taken back, replied, "I don't know." He reached for a pencil and said, "I'll go home and look it up."

A little later Joe Pyne opened the show to questions from the studio audience, and a young man stood in the dock. "And what is your question for the bishop?" "I don't have a question for the bishop," the young man replied. "I just want to tell him where the text is that he doesn't know is in the Bible. It is in Ecclesiastes, the ninth chapter and the fifth verse." And then he quoted it correctly from memory: "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything."

The verse that follows is also interesting, for it says, "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished." But evidently, all through his experience with the occult, the bishop did not feel it important to learn the Bible position on the matter.

You recall that he was very perplexed about the haunting of his Cambridge apartment. I wonder what his reaction would have been if he had returned to the flat one day and found in front of his nightstand a Bible open to Job, chapter seven, verses nine and ten—and perhaps marked in red: "He that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house."

But then, an apartment-haunter would hardly want to call attention to a scripture that says the dead do not come back to their house!

You recall that in his perplexity about what was going on in his apartment, he asked counsel from Canon Pearce-Higgins. And he was advised to consult a medium.

If, however, the bishop had turned to the Bible for counsel, the advice would have been strikingly different, especially if he had come across Isaiah, chapter eight, verses nineteen and twenty. Here it is in the wording of The Living Bible, Paraphrased: "So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting witches and mediums? Don't listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God? 'Check those witches' words against the Word of God!' He says. 'If their messages are different than Mine, it is because I have not sent them; for they have no light or truth in them.' "

One gets the impression that God is not on very good terms with the world of the occult.

And it is difficult to get away from the startling statement that the dead do not know anything. Certainly the dead would find it difficult to carry on an intelligent communication if they don't know anything.

But could this be an isolated statement? No, evidently it is not. It seems to be consistent with the rest of the Book--surprising as this may be to many who have thought otherwise. An equally strong statement is found in Psalm 146, verse four, which says, "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish."

According to this, when a man's breathing stops, so does his thinking.

Was Jim Pike really hovering near, and worrying about his father, after he died? Was Arthur Ford chatting with friends even before his funeral? Was Jack Kennedy working on some project somewhere? Was his peace being disturbed, wherever he was, by con­cern for his country and his brother Ted?

If you ask the Bible, the answer is No. "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Job 14:21,

But don't men go to heaven—or somewhere—when they die? Isn't that basic all through the Scriptures? Where else did people get this idea?

No. Surprising as it may seem, the Bible appears to have the dead, good and bad, simply sleeping in their graves until the resurrection of the last day. You may recall that Jesus of Nazareth spoke of Lazarus, when he was dead, as being asleep. And Lazarus, when he was called from his tomb four days later, seems to have had no story to tell about where he had been during those four days. Evidently he hadn't gone anywhere.

And did you know that the disciple Peter, on the day of Pentecost, said that David hadn't gone to heaven yet? He said, "Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. . . . For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29, 34.

David! Centuries after his death! And he hadn't gone anywhere yet!

Actually, this idea of going to heaven, or anywhere else, immediately at death, if we think it through logically, has some very serious problems. You see, the Bible speaks repeatedly of three future events to take place at or near the end of time. They are the resurrection, the judgment, and the second coming of Christ.

But why would a resurrection be needed if people through the ages, one by one, have gone to heaven or hell immediately after death? And why should Christ come back to get His people if they are already with Him? And why have a judgment at the last day if everybody has already gone where they are supposed to go?

 Are we to suppose that at the judgment, when all the facts are in, when every man's case is decided, an angel may have to be dispatched to tap someone on the shoulder, down in the hot place, and say, "I'm sorry. There's been a mistake. You've been in the wrong place all these hundreds of years. You're supposed to be in heaven."

I know what someone is thinking. Am I forgetting about the thief on the cross? Didn't Jesus tell the thief that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day?

Let us suppose that you are a writer, but that you use no punctua­tion whatever. And then, after you have passed from the scene, somebody comes along and puts the punctuation in. In some spots it may not be completely clear what you mean. He will have to punctuate it according to what he thinks you mean. And he may make some mistakes.

Well, that's what happened with the story of the thief on the cross. It was about twelve hundred years later that the punctuation was supplied by a man named Stephen Langton at the University of Paris. And he did the best he could.

Tell me. If you were in his place, and if you had always believed that people go to heaven immediately at death, wouldn't you place the comma accordingly?

Jesus was not saying, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise," as it reads in most Bibles in the twenty-third chapter of Luke, verse forty-three. He was saying, "Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

It couldn't be any other way for Jesus didn't go to heaven that day, because on Sunday morning He said to Mary, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20:17.

Evidently the thief knew when it would happen. It didn't look as if Jesus had much of a kingdom that dark Friday. But the thief looked far down the corridors of time to the day when Jesus would receive the kingdom that rightfully belonged to Him. And he said, Remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Jesus, cheered by his faith—the only expression of faith to reach His ears while He hung on the cross-replied, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.

Today, when even My own disciples have forsaken Me. Today, when My own people have crucified Me. Today, when it appears that I shall never have a kingdom. Today, when it looks as though I could never save anybody, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.

No, if we are to accept what the Scriptures say about death, we can only conclude that death does not mean to go to heaven. Death does not mean to go to hellfire. Death does not mean to go to purgatory. Death does not mean to go to the spirit world. Death does not mean to go anywhere. Death simply means a cessation of life until the resurrection.

Now the question. If the dead do not know anything, if they cannot think, if they cannot love or hate or envy, if they cannot come back to haunt their house, if they do not know anything about what is happening to their loved ones who are still living, then how can the dead possibly communicate with us in any way?

It can mean only one thing. It wasn't Jim who haunted the Cambridge apartment. It wasn't Arthur Ford who wrote the book. It isn't Uncle Joe who sends back messages from the unseen world.

But somebody is tossing back the balls!

9- Answering Service for the Dead

Is there some sort of psychic telephone by which we can talk with the unseen world? Yes, there is. But if an ancient Book is telling the truth, then the dead never hear the ring of the phone.

Nevertheless, the psychic lines are kept busy by those who prefer the evidence of their senses. Calls are getting through. But would they be shocked if they knew who was on the other end of the line?

They dial the other side. Someone answers. It sounds like a loved one. It looks like a loved one. They want it to be a loved one. They want it so desperately that the matter of credibility escapes them.

They may be talking to another world. And it may be the spirit world. But who is on the other end of the line? Who has picked up the psychic telephone? Who is taking the calls? Is it possible that someone is running an answering service for the dead? An answering service that the dead know nothing about? That is the question.

 Police departments suggest certain cautions. Don't open the door to a stranger. Keep a chain on the door. Watch out for suspicious actions. Don't believe all you are told. Don't be fooled by a uniform. Ask to see credentials. Keep in mind that credentials may be fraudulent.

A failure to observe cautions like these too often results in need­less crime and death.

Now you may keep a chain on the door of your apartment, and buy the most secure locks, and carefully check the credentials of strangers who come to your door. But what happens when some resident of the spirit world knocks at the door of your mind? Are you as careful then?

Did you know that the Scriptures suggest that we check the credentials of the spirits? Evidently some are not who they say they are. It says, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." 1 John 4:1.

But aren't they all the spirits of the dead? Doesn't the spirit leave the body at death and live on, even though the body dies?

That is the popular belief. However, the Bible says this, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7.

Here is the Bible description of what happens to a man when he dies. But what is this spirit that returns to God?

A New Testament scripture gives a clue. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26. The spirit, then, is what keeps the body alive.

Have you ever noticed the notes down the center of the page in some Bibles? In these notes, opposite this text in James, you will discover that the word "spirit" may also be translated "breath." For the body without the breath is dead.

The two words "breath" and "spirit" are used interchangeably in Scripture. Here is an example: "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils." Job 27:3.

The spirit that a man receives from God and which goes back to God when he dies is what God put into his nostrils. It will be interesting now to read from the record of man's crea­tion. What did God put into man's nostrils?

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" Genesis 2:7.

Evidently God breathed into man's nostrils at creation the breath of life. Then at death that spark or breath or spirit of life returns to God who gave it. The reverse of creation. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." Picture man as he came from the hands of his Creator. There he is—complete in every part. There is a brain in his head ready to think--but it isn't thinking. There is blood in his veins ready to flow-but it isn't flowing. There is a heart in his breast ready to beat--but it isn't beating. He is ready to live, to love, to act—but he isn't living, loving, or acting—yet.

Now listen. "And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" From that moment man possessed an identity, a personality, a character. Man became a living soul as the result of the union of the body with the breath of life.

Then when a man dies, according to Ecclesiastes twelve, verse seven, the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit of life, or breath of life, or spark of life, whether the man was saint or sinner, returns to God who gave it. The identity is not lost. The character is preserved. The personality is safe in the hands of God. But man is no longer conscious, because the life-maintaining union of body and breath has been broken.

In other words, if the union of the dust of the ground and the breath of life made man a living soul, what happens to that soul when these two are separated at death? It simply ceases to be a living soul until the Life-giver reunites the two on the morning of the resurrection. So the Bible has it.

Suppose that we have here a pile of boards and a pile of nails. That is all we have, just a pile of boards and a pile of nails. Now we take these boards and nail them together in a certain way. We no longer have a pile of boards and a pile of nails. We now have a box. Where did the box come from? It didn't come from anywhere. It is simply the union of the pile of boards and the pile of nails. Now let us suppose that we no longer want a box, so we pull out the nails and put them over here and place the boards back there. Now where did the box go? It didn't go anywhere. It simply ceased to exist as a box. The boards still exist. The nails still exist. But there can be no box until the two are united again.

Just so, in the beginning, Genesis tells us, God formed man of two things—the dust of the ground, and the breath of life. As a result of the union of these two, man became a living, loving, acting soul. When he dies the two separate. The living, loving, acting soul—the combination of body and breath--doesn't go anywhere. It simply surrenders its consciousness until the resurrection morning when body and breath are united again. The Bible does not have a man nonexistent between death and the resurrection. It has him sleeping.

So evidently, if we can believe this ancient Book, we do not go to our reward at death. Evidently death is simply a cessation of life until it is restored at the resurrection. And in between death and the resurrection a man doesn't know anything. He cannot think. He cannot communicate.

So when a spirit, any spirit, claims to be the spirit of a man who had died, that marks him immediately as a fraud, an impostor. Whatever and whoever that spirit is, he cannot be the spirit of a dead man. That is one thing he cannot be if we are to believe the Bible.

Incidentally, it seems that neither do people become angels when they die, as some have thought. No man or woman or child has ever become an angel. How do we know? Because angels existed long before ever a man had died, or even been created. Angels sang at the time of creation. And angels guarded the gate of Eden when man was shut out because of his rebellion. But not a single human being had yet died. Angels are evidently a special order of being created to inhabit heaven. David said, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." Psalm 8:4, 5.

So, according to the Bible, men become neither spirits nor angels. Between death and the resurrection they simply sleep, and know nothing of what is going on.

Then who is answering the phone on the other side? Who is writing on the slates? Who is transmitting messages through the typewriter? Who is making the pictures in the crystal balls? With whom are men playing these psychic games?

I would agree that the mischievous evil spirits that Ruth Montgomery talks about must be prime suspects. But she might be shocked if she knew that the very spirits she has considered genuine, the ones she meets at her typewriter, the ones she counts on to protect her, are impostors like the rest—only perhaps more clever.

The last book of the Bible has something to say about spirits that deceive. It says, "For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles." Revelation 16:14.

Miracles. Not tricks. We have no adequate conception of the cleverness, the subtle treachery, and the frightening power of these spirits that are bent on one purpose--to deceive and to destroy. Another scripture says, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:14.

Satan does not come to us as an uncouth being with hoofs and horns. He comes as an angel of light. And his helpers have learned their lessons well. They do not divulge their true identity. They come as comforters and helpers and protectors, gaining our confi­dence, the better to deceive.

A friend of mine was making Christian calls in Scotland. But in one home she was surprised to be met with cold and icy reserve. The conversation, however, seemed to invite the lady's confidence, and soon she explained her bitterness toward all religion.

It seems that during the World War I years she had received a cable from the government stating that her husband was missing in action. For many long months she waited with no word. Then well-meaning friends urged her to attempt to contact her husband through the séance, for they reasoned that no doubt he was dead.

She felt that a measure of comfort might be hers if she could make contact. And to her amazement she saw the likeness of her loved one. She recognized his voice. They talked over many personal things.

But months later her husband, alive and well, walked unannounced through the front door. He had never been dead or even seriously wounded.

Unfortunately, this disillusioned woman became bitter because of the evident deception, the shameless advantage taken of her sorrow by masquerading spirits.

Remember? "They are the spirits of devils, working miracles."

We must be kind. How could we have anything but understanding for those who have been sincere in their attempt to find comfort in the realm of the psychic? But evidently the powers behind these phenomena take unfair advantage of men and women. They come with caresses and words of love when we are weak and sorrowful. That is why I feel compelled to speak as I do.

Who are these spirits? Who are these clever impersonators that masquerade in the garb of those we have loved and lost? What is their background? How did they get here?

It is a drama of intrigue that could involve everyone of us.

10- Hijacked

While I was fighting traffic on my way home from a Washington television studio, a new kind of war was in progress on a remote runway at nearby Dulles Airport.

A disturbed gentleman had been angered over a recently lost job and the non-payment of nineteen days of sick pay from seven years before, along with the Internal Revenue's demand for $471.78. And now, further enraged by the failure of all his lawsuits to correct these supposed grievances, he had carried his appeal one step higher, into the skies.

Armed with a pistol and a razor and a can of gasoline, he had hijacked the sleek 727 just out of Phoenix, and demanded that the Supreme Court pay him a hundred million dollars. Airline officials scraped together a hundred thousand. But the hijacker ordered the plane back into the air and sent out the message, "Tell the President I don't like playing games. Somebody doesn't know how to count."

And now forty decoy money sacks stuffed with paper had been placed on a distant runway and the jet had landed a second time. Police sharpshooters shot out the tires, the rifle fire muffled by the whine of the jet engines. And when the hijacker sent two of the crew out to collect the money, FBI men crashed into the cockpit and overpowered the air pirate. You remember the story.

Just a disturbed mind? But it meant eight and a half hours of terror for fifty-seven innocent people.

But this was only the beginning.

 On September 6, 1970, the hijack war turned professional. Within a space of minutes, you recall that three jets were hijacked over Europe. A fourth attempt, on an Israeli jet, failed. Suddenly there was chaos in the skies.

The big Pan Am 747 was landed at Cairo and blown up only 47 minutes after the passengers, told that the fuse leading to the explosives had already been lighted, scrambled in panic down the escape chutes.

The TWA and Swisair jets were brought down on a lonely, sun­baked Jordanian desert, where they were joined on September 9 by a BOAC plane. One of the guerrillas boasted. "This is a very good airport. We will fill it with planes if Allah is willing."

Three days later, just after the passengers were removed, a chain of thudding explosions shook the desert shelf and the planes were a memory. But it was weeks before the battle of the hostages was over.

Here was a new kind of terror. Bargaining not with jets, but with the lives of innocent, uninvolved men and women and children. Where would it end? Had civilization itself been hijacked?

Yes, that was only the beginning. The war in the skies, with its ransom demands, its D. B. Coopers, its parachutes, its bombs, its threatened air lines, its toll of death, seems to have no end.

But while all this is taking place, there is another hijack war in progress—one of even greater consequence. Billions of people are riding a planet that has been hijacked-taken over by a defiant dissenter crazed with power. Ordered to fly his way—on his terms—at the point of his weapons. And now fuel is running low. The planet soon must make the critical passage from time into eternity. The cosmic keepers of the peace are waiting--and the hijacker knows it. Mad with rage and fear, he paces the planet like a roaring lion, threatening to destroy the passengers —down to the last man.

We are approaching disaster at 67,000 miles an hour, with the universe tracking our flight and cosmic escorts streaking beside us to shadow our course.

Hijacked! And millions wonder if rescue will come in time! The story begins with a war not on this planet.

"Then there was war in heaven; Michael and the angels under his command fought the Dragon and his hosts of fallen angels. And the Dragon lost the battle and was forced from heaven. This great Dragon--the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world--was thrown down onto the earth with all his army." Revelation 12:7-9, LB.

Why this war? What was it all about? The prophet Isaiah tells us something of the background of this first rebel: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: Isaiah 14:12-14.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us more: "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.  Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee." Ezekiel 28: 12-17.

Here is the picture. Lucifer-heaven's top angel officer--next to the Son of God—brilliant-intelligent-beautiful-but proud. Proud. That's how it started. Proud. Restless. Dissatisfied with his own high position. Wanting the place that belonged to the Son of God. And then—the universe had its first rebel. What was the issue? Authority. The authority of God's govern­ment. Evidently this proud leader thought that angels, those perfect and sinless inhabitants of heaven, an order of being a little higher than man, and created long before man—the rebel reasoned that angels needed no law. He thought he could improve upon God's government. And God said, Go ahead and try.

God must act. Rebellion must be dealt with. Heaven must be rid of its infection. But it must be done in a way that would not reflect upon the character of God. It must be done in a way that subjects of his kingdom, with no background or acquaintance with rebellion, could understand.

And so the charges were heard. God explained, the best He could without the laboratory evidence then still future, the sure results of Lucifer's strange revolt. The angels listened. They formed their opinions. They took sides. War followed. Lucifer, with his sympathizing angels, was cast out. Rebellion changed theaters.

Satan was cast out. The theater of conflict moved to the earth. And he was not cast out alone. The wording of Revelation twelve, verse four, suggests that a third of the angels were involved in this rebellion against God.

Think of it! Lucifer, son of the morning, has become the devil. And his angels--all brilliant intellects, powerful spirits of light­-have become demons of darkness. Little wonder that the apostle Paul warned, "We are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against. . . the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world: and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world." Ephesians 6:12, LB.

Here are the mischievous spirits. Here are the spirit impersonators. Evidently here are the lying spirits that answer the phone on the other side. They are angels turned demons, the fallen angels, the rebel angels that were cast out of heaven. These are the deceivers of the occult world. And they bring to their unholy career of deception the intelligence of former angels of light.

The idea that Satan is only a myth—or only a lone demon escaped from beneath—leaves us totally unprepared to confront the intelligent being he actually is. The Scriptures make it plain that the enemy of God and man has great power and that his activities have now been whipped into fury because he knows that his time is short.

"Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Revelation 12:12,

Hoofs and horns and pitchfork? No, that time-worn, misleading caricature out of the Dark Ages will throw you off every time. That isn't the rebel's background. He started out as an angel of light. He still operates that way. And so do his helpers.

But you ask, If Satan is a created being, is not God indirectly responsible for evil? Did He not create a devil?

At first thought it may seem so. However, the answer can only be, Certainly not. God created Lucifer a magnificent angel--perfect, the record says. It was Lucifer who made a devil out of himself. He corrupted his own way.

And why did not God destroy him when first he rebelled? I think you see why. There was only one way to handle the emergency. Lucifer must be given every chance--until he reached the point of no return, and until the watching universe understood all the issues involved. The results of his course of action must be demonstrated.

And what a demonstration it has been!

And so rebellion changed theaters. This world became the stage. Satan is cast out of heaven—with his sympathizers. What would he do now? Where would he turn up next? Earth had not long to wait. Banned to this planet. And he promptly hijacked it—with Adam's consent.

It is unfortunate that the tragedy related in the third chapter of Genesis is seldom taken seriously. The Garden of Eden, and Eve eating the apple—these have been consigned to the vocabulary of the facetious.

But when you read the story, you find no mention of an apple. And what happened that day in the Garden of Eden is no joke. Neither is it myth or legend. Rather it is the story of the hijacking of this planet—the most serious day this world has ever known.

Maybe we ought to be taking Genesis more seriously—at least if we are interested in knowing the real background of this planet's troubles.

Incredible as it may seem, the hijacking was carried out not by force or threat, but by subtle intrigue. While this spaceship Earth was hurtling through space at 67,000 miles an hour, Adam, the first man, in a moment of weakness, turned it over to the hijacker. And you and I were signed away in the bargain.

And so you and I are caught in the vortex of the rebel's multi­thousand-year experiment, his challenge of God's authority, his proposed improvement upon heaven's law and order.

I don't like it very well. Do you?

But God is not unaware of our plight. He knows the hijacker's schemes. There will be a confrontation at the right time.

Why does He wait? Why does He let the hijacker live? For the same reason that the United States did not go into Jordan to rescue by force the hostages held on that desert airstrip. Because the hostages might be endangered by such a maneuver.

That's why God lets the enemy live. Because of the hostages. Not the lives of the hostages in this case, but their understanding of God's dealing with rebellion. God knew that until rebellion had run its course, until it had convicted itself by its own fruit, millions might misunderstand. God is waiting to overthrow the hijacker in a way that not one mind can question. But act He will—and in time.

In fact, He has already taken the crucial action.

I find a parallel in the story of the ancient Queen Esther. You remember that she was called to the kingdom in an hour of crisis.

The ruthless Haman had maneuvered the king into signing away the lives of all her people. And she said, "So will I go in unto the king. . . and if I perish, I perish."

That's what Jesus did. He said, I will go into the cockpit. And if I perish, I perish. He walked up the hill to Calvary with all the guns of rebellion trained upon Him, and gave His life to pay the ransom for every hostage. And one day soon there will be a final confrontation. The hijacker will be overpowered at last. He has not brought God to His knees. Nor will he ever!

11- Flight Plan

Hijackers with disturbed, unbalanced minds often bungle the job. They play it by ear. They change their minds. They are not too sure where they want to go or what they wish to accomplish.

But the hijacking of this planet was not the work of a psychotic mind. It was strategy carefully thought out by a brilliant intellect. It was not to be played by ear. The hijacker, now banned from heaven, angry with God, sworn to enmity against the divine government, knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish, and how he intended to go about it. He had a flight plan for the planet over which he now claimed control.

And that flight plan was so carefully charted that it has not been basically changed in all these thousands of years. Its basic strategy, its general plan of attack, and its underlying philosophies, have worked so well through these millenniums that they have never been radically changed-only expanded and enlarged. His strategy today is more subtle, labels have changed, his deceptions have been tailored to fit the times, but his favorite lies have not changed since Eden.

This means, fortunately, that the man or woman who wishes to be aware of his devices, the better to avoid them, needs to read no farther than the third chapter of Genesis to discover not only the strategy but the basic philosophies that mark the work of the deceiver until this day.

You will see what I mean.

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2:16, 17.

Get the picture. In all the garden, man is forbidden access to only one tree. There must be a test of loyalty. Adam must have an opportunity to choose. Otherwise he would not be a creature of free choice. If there were no opportunity to disobey God, then how could obedience prove his loyalty? There must be a test. Adam could bring joy to his Creator by obeying, or he could play into the hands of the great rebel by disregarding a direct command of God.

Keep in mind that God could have made angels, and He could have made man, as He made the stars--without the capability of disobeying his laws. He could have made man a machine, an elaborate puppet. But no. God wanted man free. Therefore He gave man a mind and a conscience, with the power to think things through and decide for himself. God forces no one!

This means that when God created angels, when He created Lucifer, when He created man—He took a terrible chance. He took a tremendous risk when He made His subjects with the power of choice. There was always the possibility that someone, sometime, might choose wrong. But only with that risk could there be a kingdom where love is voluntary, where obedience is not by instinct, but by choice.

God, back in eternity, took the risk. Someone might choose to disobey. And Lucifer did.

And now Adam might. There must be a test of loyalty. There must be an opportunity to choose. And so God restricted but one tree. In His compassion, the test was not difficult. Just one tree. And man was sufficiently warned of the danger.

So now the stage is set. What would Adam do?

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:1-5.

Be careful, Eve. You shouldn't have wandered away from Adam. This is the tree God warned you about. You shouldn't be here. You'd better go back.

And if the rebel outcast had stood by the tree in his true character, obviously an angel recently shut out of heaven, certainly Eve would have fled in terror. But surely the enemy would not be speaking through this beautiful serpent. Think of it! A serpent talking!

Could it be that the serpent was right? Could it be that God didn't really mean what He said? Could it be that God really is withholding something good from you? Besides, would it be possible to die?

Be careful, Eve. You are doubting God's word. And that's the first step in being deceived. You can never be deceived without first doubting God.

But the serpent is eating the fruit. It isn't hurting him. It must not be poison. She touches the fruit. She hasn't died yet.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

She eats the fruit. She doesn't drop dead. For a few moments she feels the strange exhilaration of rebellion. Maybe she is entering into some higher existence. She hurries to Adam. And Adam eats. It is all over.

Adam and Eve didn't drop dead. There was nothing poison in the fruit. It was the poison of rebellion that meant death for the pair. At the moment they ate of the fruit, they were separated from God, the source of their life. N ever again would they be permitted to eat of the tree of life, the tree that would have perpetuated their existence. At the moment they ate, they began to die.

Eve was honestly deceived by the serpent. She really believed what he said. Her sin was not in being innocently deceived, but in first doubting God's word.

As for Adam, he was not deceived. He was struck with terror at what Eve had done. He knew she must have been talking with the very tempter against whom they had been warned. Why had he let Eve wander from his side? But now he ate, deliberately--because he could not bear the thought of being separated from his lovely companion, who now must die. He did not realize that the loving Creator who had given her to him in the first place, could provide another to replace her.

And so the deed was done. The whole human race has passed under the power of death. And there would have been no way out--if the Son of God had not consented to die in man's place.

But now. It is simply amazing how clearly outlined in what we have read is the overall plan of the hijacker.

From that day until now, Satan's basic strategy has been the strategy of disguise. He who spoke through the serpent has used countless mediums of communication through the ages. And the number and variety of these channels is constantly increasing. But always it is a strategy of disguise, covering up his true identity, pretending to be what he is not, masquerading as anything but the tempter he is.

And then, his basic philosophy is just as clear. The lies he told in Eden he is still telling today. They have worked so well that he has found no occasion to change them. The evidence of his success lies in the fact that he has almost the whole world believing his two favorite falsehoods in some form or other.

Those two basic lies are these: "Ye shall not surely die," and "Ye shall be as gods."

"Ye shall not surely die." A direct contradiction of God's plain statement, "Thou shalt surely die." Today that basic philosophy runs through many of the churches, all through the Eastern religions, all through the world of the occult. In one form or other it is always there-that man won't die, that he can't die, that he is immortal, that he will go on living somewhere, no matter what he does or is.

"Ye shall be as gods." Again, this basic idea crops up repeatedly--that man has a spark of divinity within him that needs only to be developed, that he is a part of God, or even that he is God. Watch for it. You will find it in the most unexpected places. The occult is riddled with it.

Why this strategy? Why these particular falsehoods?

 It is not difficult to see the strategy behind the idea that men will become as gods. It suggests that man can disobey God with impunity, without any fear of punishment. He won't die. He will become as God. He will move to a higher sphere. And this philosophy, of course, places man completely on his own, to work out his own progress, his own salvation, his own karma. It recognizes no need of a Saviour.

But what is behind the insistent claim that man does not die when he dies, that man can't die? It is simply this. If Satan can convince men that there is no death, that they can't die, that they go on living somewhere—then it is easy to suggest that communication with the dead is possible. And once men believe that communication with the dead is possible, then the enemy has a direct line to the minds of men.

 All he has to do is to impersonate some loved one, some dead philosopher, some medium who has passed on, and propagate through those unsuspected channels anything that he chooses. And never forget that he has but one motive--to deceive in order to destroy. He would lure the whole human race into the fires of destruction with himself, if he could.

Those high-sounding messages that come back from the spirit world are not so exalted as they seem. They are not meant to comfort. They are not meant to guide. They are not meant to protect. They gain men's confidence only that they may deceive and destroy. They mix truth with the error to make it more readily accepted. And they work best through whatever channels are least suspected. Their high-sounding phrases do not originate in any temple of wisdom. They originate in the mind of the evil one. So says the Bible.

Is it any wonder that God, from the earliest days, has expressly forbidden all contact with the occult?

 Listen to this: "Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone. . . that useth divination [fortune­teller], or an observer of times [astrologer], or an enchanter [magician], or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits [medium possessed with a spirit or a 'guide'], or a wizard [clairvoyant or psychic], or a necromancer [medium who consults the dead]. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

Is this an unreasonable restriction?

We cannot be too alert. The evil one and his helpers in the spirit world are never at rest. They are constantly practicing their unholy art of deception and seeking to find ways of making it more subtle, with labels that will make it more difficult to recognize.

"Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart." 1 Peter 5:8, LB.

This is what we face!

But is it a one-sided conflict? Have we no help? Have we no protection? Are we fated to be deceived, like it or not?

No. God and all His loyal angels are in this controversy too. The angels are assigned to protect us, so long as we want to be protected. God would sooner send every angel from heaven than to let one individual pass under the power of the enemy against his will. The good angels, the loyal angels, also operate in the invisible world. Sometimes they have appeared to men. Often they have miraculously protected us from danger, without our ever knowing it. They are constantly guarding us, so long as we keep off forbidden ground.

But while both good and evil angels operate in the invisible world, there is no need to confuse them. You will never find the loyal angels involved in the world of the occult. You will never find a loyal angel promoting doctrines of demons. They never lie. You will never find a loyal angel claiming to be the spirit of a dead person.

The hijacker still holds out for high stakes. But an ancient Book unmasks the enemy's strategy, with the telltale marks of his flight plan, for all to read who will.

12- The Wheel of Karma

The karma thing. One of the most fascinating games that people play with the unseen world. If life gets dull, or the conversation lags, it can do wonders to brighten things up. How can life be humdrum-now that you know that you were an English knight in a past life-or a princess?

 Your allergy to dust is no longer a mere nuisance-now that you have it explained. You were trapped in a coalmine last time around. Or that strange ache in your forehead? You were shot between the eyes in a past life. And you still feel the pain. And you don't need to feel guilty about spending so much on expensive clothes. What could your husband expect—if you were once Cleopatra?

It is no secret that we all have a little of the drum-major instinct within us. We like to lead the parade. We like to be important. Perhaps this is one reason that the idea of reincarnation appeals to so many. If we are just ordinary people here, then at least we can comfort ourselves that we were pretty important a life or two ago. The reason we are just ordinary folks today? We're working out our karma.

Ruth Montgomery was delighted to be told that she was once a Himalayan guru—and that Arthur Ford was the guru with whom she studied. More exciting, however, was the news that she had once been the sister of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and that Arthur Ford was their father. During meditation she saw herself as a girl of five or six watching some wise men arrive not far from their cottage in Bethlehem. She pleaded with her father to let her follow the crowd to see the baby bathed in a pool. And as she slipped her hand into her father's, she realized he was the same soul that would become Arthur Ford. By way of her typewriter she learned that as a young woman she had run away from her husband to follow Jesus, and that Jesus had sent her back home. She says that Arthur Ford explained, "We were not quite as high-minded as Lazarus and Mary and Martha, so they left us out of the Good Book."

Who says that isn't excitement?

The whole idea of reincarnation brings up certain questions.

How is it that there are so many more chiefs than Indians in these past lives? How is it that Arthur Ford was a Buddhist monk, a Dominican monk, an Indian guru, and the father of Lazarus, but never a street-sweeper or a worker in the mines? How is it that a young woman who visits a psychic is told she was a princess—not an ordinary unknown girl? Are the psychics, or the spirits that speak through them, simply appealing to human vanity?

How is it that so many people think they were Marie Antoinette? Jess Stearn says he has been told by life readers that he was the English writer Robert Browning in a previous life. He has also been told that he was the lesser writer Branwell Bronte. He finds this confusing, since both lived at the same time in Victorian England.

How is it, too, that out of all the billions of possibilities, some souls succeed in finding each other again and again, in life after life? Ruth Montgomery relays the information that the Kennedy brothers "have strong karmic ties and have been so close in many previous lifetimes that without the one the other seems less than whole. The close-knit family group was by prenatal choice, each wanting to share again his life with the others, for they were one family in early England in such pleasant surroundings that they pledged then never to be separated. Such pledges are not always easy to fulfill, but in the twentieth century by earth time they were able once again to find the proper vehicle so that all could again be one family in blood. Ethel [Kennedy] had been a part of that original family grouping, and when not able to come in this time to the same mother, there was never any question but that she and Bob by would find each other in the flesh again. They are as one soul, so close are they one to another since eons past. Jackie [Kennedy Onassis], was the outlander, but a queen whom they had known in England and were therefore able to pay homage to, while at the same time not accepting her quite as one of them."

One thing is certain. The spirit world knows how to produce best-selling reading! But one question demands an answer. Running all through Mrs. Montgomery's book is the claim that the spirit world is a very happy place. Yet also, repeatedly in her book, one gets the impression that these so-called happy residents of the spirit world are practically standing in line for a chance to come back to this life as real human beings. Some are granted the privilege right away. Others, seemingly as some sort of punishment, are made to wait.

I ask you, if the spirit world is such a desirable place, why are they so anxious to come back to the reality of this life?

Another question is most important. The East, which has long believed in reincarnation, considers this wheel of destiny, this coming back again and again, in life after life, a real burden. There is no happiness in it for them. The Hindus consider it a terrible ordeal, and would do anything to escape rebirth. The Tibetans, their lives through, wish that there were some escape from this eternal wheel of destiny. They find nothing glamorous in coming back again and again, endlessly working out their karma.

Why do we in the West want something that the East would be so glad to get rid of if it could? Why do we embrace something that to them is the inescapable burden of their lives? I wonder if the answer may be that the West, when it tires of the idea of reincarnation, when it ceases to be glamorous, when it is no longer good party conversation, can cast it off and take up with something else tomorrow. The East, because it really believes it, can't.

But doesn't the Bible teach reincarnation, or at least infer it? Doesn't it say that Elijah would come back?

The last few verses of the Old Testament do speak of the return of Elijah. The disciples of Jesus asked Him about it, and He said that Elijah had already come. They understood clearly that He was speaking of John the Baptist. Yet when John the Baptist was asked if he was Elijah, he said he was not. The key is in the words of the angel to the father of John the Baptist before he was born: "And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias [Elijah], to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:17.

The wording here is strikingly similar to that of the original prophecy in Malachi 4:5, 6. And the meaning is clear. John was to fulfill the prophecy. But he was not to be Elijah. Rather, he was to give a message of preparation-a message to prepare men for the first coming of Jesus to this earth. And he was to give that message "in the spirit and power" of Elijah. It was not the man, but the message, that would return.

In that sense Elijah will return again before the second coming of Jesus Christ. Just as the message of John the Baptist was given to prepare men for the first coming of Jesus, just so there would be a message, given in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare men for the second coming of Christ. But it would be the message, not the man Elijah, that would return.

Mrs. Montgomery, by way of the typewriter, was told that “Jesus was the greatest of a long line of embodiments of one soul created in the beginning and from time to time incarnating in human form. He was the Buddha, the Messiah, the all-in-all. . . God's son, to be sure, but aren't we all sons and daughters of God? . . . Today we speak of the various incarnations of that Christ whom we remember in the form of Jesus. He had been a number of different men before that incarnation. . . . Sometimes we forget that Jesus was a man like the rest of us."

No. Jesus never claimed to have been anyone but Himself. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed that He existed with His Father before the world was created. He claimed that as the Son of God He existed before Abraham. There is no reincarnation here. Jesus was not a wandering soul created in the beginning and touching down to earth occasionally as one man after another. He was the incarnate God. Nothing else—if we are to believe what He said.

Remember the counsel of the Scriptures? "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1.

And the next verses say: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."

Is it really difficult, with these scriptures as a guide, to assess the real origin of messages that would rob Christ of His divinity and make Him a man like ourselves?

You may be asking, What about these hypnotic regressions, these past lives that are remembered under hypnosis? How can they be explained?

We need keep only this in mind to answer that question. The mind that is under hypnosis has been yielded to another mind, another force, another power. That other mind, that other power, can feed into the hypnotized mind anything that it chooses. Then do such regressions prove past lives? Or do they prove only the clever­ness of the powers that are at work to deceive?

And this is relevant too. The whole idea of reincarnation fits in perfectly with the original Eden falsehood: "Ye shall not surely die." Many lives. Uncounted lives. But no death.

But now we come to the heart of this karma thing. What is really wrong with karma? What is wrong with the idea that we come back again and again, in life after life, to atone for our sins?

Simply this. It is another way of salvation—a way that is completely foreign to the way set forth in Scripture. Karma is a substitute for the cross of Calvary. It is a man-made way to salvation in which man saves himself. Christ and the cross are left out:

Man is naturally proud. He likes to think he can save himself. He would like to be saved any other way except the way of the cross. The cross means forgiveness. And forgiveness requires the admission of guilt. But man doesn't want to admit guilt. He is too proud.

Karma is a way to escape guilt by seeming to acknowledge it and yet not acknowledging it. He is willing to acknowledge guilt so long as he can take care of it himself--no matter how many lives it takes him to work it out. But he isn't willing to prostrate himself at the foot of the cross and admit that he is lost, forever lost, except for the death of the Son of God in his place.

Karma is also a way to escape responsibility. Whatever happens, whatever goes wrong, it can be blamed to failure in some past life--not in this. And if a man has faults, bad habits, sins in this life, he is under no compunction. He can work it out in some future life. He doesn't need to worry about it now. Karma is a way of putting off both responsibility and punishment. He can just go merrily along and let time repair it all. He can just keep coming back, as one of the Beatles suggested, until he gets it straight.

But can there be any substitute for forgiveness? Can there be any substitute for the miracle of the changed heart? Did Jesus die on the cross needlessly? Could man just as well save himself?

How must the Son of God feel? He died for man because evidently there was no other way. He paid for man's sins--all at once. They don't have to be atoned for over and over, in an unending pursuit of a mind at peace with God. All a man has to do is to accept the sacrifice made on the cross of Calvary. He can have forgiveness now, at this moment. He doesn't have to wait. He doesn't have to be burdened with the weight of a thousand lives over his head, a wheel of destiny that he cannot escape. There is a better way. Man doesn't have to seek salvation by the long, long road of karma. He doesn't have to keep trying, over and over, to do what Jesus has already done. That is the message of the Book.

But there are those who say, No, I'd rather pay for my sins myself, through ages and eons, even if the installments never end. What strange attraction could lead a man to make a choice like that?

13- Light Beams and Hearsay

The future life, as described by the spirit-controlled typewriter, is highly entertaining to read. But it would be boring beyond words--and sometimes terribly frustrating--to live.

Consider the man with the fish.

He arrives in the spirit world after a brief but severe illness. A wakening, he sees a grassy plain and a brook. It looks like good fishing. He wishes he had a fishing pole, and instantly he has one in his hand. He pulls in a beautiful fish, and then more and more until he has more than he and his friends can eat.

He wonders where he left his car. Where is he? How did he get here? He wishes terribly to be home. Instantly he is in his hometown, and sees strangers bending over his body. What are they doing? Giving him medicine? No. This is a morgue. What's wrong? He rushes home and sees his wife wearing black. Some terrible mistake. They seem to be mourning him. But he is right here waiting to show them the best catch of his life. He talks to his wife, but she won't answer. Nobody pays any attention to him or the fish. "I might as well be dead," he says. And instantly he is back on the grassy plain beside the brook.

Does that appeal to you?