Gray Spiritism and the Fallen Angels

Gray Spiritism and the Fallen Angels is a 12 chapter work on spiritism and their connection with the demons, fallen angels, and various discoveries about this.

Gray Spiritism and the Fallen Angels is a 12 chapter work on spiritism and their connection with the demons, fallen angels, and various discoveries about this.

Spiritism and the Fallen Angels in the Light of the Old and New Testaments

by James M. Gray, D.D.
Dean of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago

Author of “Synthetic Bible Studies.” “The Christian Worker’s
Commentary,” “A Text Book on Prophecy,” “The
Antidote to Christian Science,” ‘Progress
in the Life to Come,” “Bible
Problems Explained,” etc.

New York Chicago
Fleming H. Revell Company
London and Edinburgh

Copyright 1920 by Fleming H. Revell Company
New York: 158 Fifth A venae
Chicago: 17 North Wabaih Ave.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 75 Prince* Street

CONTENTS of Gray Spiritism and the Fallen Angels

I. The New Attack of Spiritualism and How to meet it. 9
II. The Modern History of Spiritism ……16
III. Satan, Or Spiritism at Its Source …. 17
IV. Angels and Demons, Or Spiritism’s Personnel 39
V. Spiritism Before the Flood ;., 46
VI. “Sons of God” Marrying the “Daughters of Men” . 57 –
VII. Abominations of the Canaanites……66
VIII. Spiritism in Israel and Judah . 80
IX. Early Christianity and the Black Art …. 90
X. Teaching of the Apostolic Epistles…..102
XI. Teaching of the General Epistles…..119
XII. Teaching of the Apocalypse . 135

Excerpt from the Work

Abominations of the Canaanites VII

ABOMINATIONS OF THE CANAANITES i

IN introducing the theme of this chapter we return for the moment to Genesis VI, 4, which was under consideration in the two immediately preceding. That verse read,

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and alio after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare chfldren to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
We have seen that “giants” is in the Hebrew, “Nephilim,” which means the “fallen ones,” or the “fallen angels,” identifying them, as we think correctly, with the “sons of God.” Others indeed would identify them with the “mighty men,” the “men of renown” also mentioned in the verse as the offspring of the marriages of the “sons of God” with the “daughters of men.” But for our present purpose it is not essential which applica66

Abominations of the Canaanites 67

lion is made as we are chiefly interested in the phrase, “and also, after that.”

Some would limit this phrase to the antediluvian age, and interpret it as meaning that after the first irruption of the fallen angels and the warning of God concerning it, others also occurred with like results during the 120 years of respite, until it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth and He determined to destroy him.

Others, however, would say that it had a postdiluvian application, and that the word and the fact for which it stands come to light again in the history of the Canaanities whom Israel dispossessed, as illustrated in Numbers XIII, 33. At that chapter and verse some of the spies whom Moses dispatched to bring a report of the land returned with the story that all the people were men of great stature; “and there we saw the giants (Nephilim) the sons of Anak, which come of the giants (Nephilim); and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” _

In this instance the same word seems to be used for the “fallen ones” and their offspring both of which were “giants” or “nephilim”; and the circumstance of their presence in that land seems to account for God’s command to extirpate the Canaanites much as the greater judgment had fallen upon the whole race at the flood.

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II

The above, however, is merely introductory to a consideration of the general teaching of the Old Testament on the subject of Spiritism and its related phenomena following the flood.

To quote the author of The Vital Choice: Endor or Calvary, “the existence of mediums—individuals who, having discovered that they had certain gifts, made a practice of communicating with the spirit world—is taken for granted in the Bible, where they are referred to as wizards, witches, necromancers, etc. The details of their methods are not given to any extent, but what we do know about them leads us to suppose that, with the possible exception of automatic writing, there is no material difference in their methods from those now in vogue.”

Indeed, even this excepton may be unnecessary. For example, a certain class of the magicians both in Egypt and Babylon were known as “sacred scribes” (Genesis XLI, 8, margin), the root Hebrew word meaning a “style” or pen, and signifying those members of the priestly caste whose magic was somewhat concerned with writing.

Pember thinks they may have been identical with the writing mediums of our day, whom he speaks of as divided into five classes:

(1) Those whose passive hand is moved by the
Abominations of the Canaanites 69
spirit without any mental volition of their own;
(2) Those into whose mind each word is separately insinuated at the moment of its inscription;
(3) Those who write from the dictation of spirit-voices;
(4) Those who copy words and sentences projected before them in letters of light; and
(5) Those in whose presence spirit-hands, visible, or invisible, take up the pen and write the words.

Of course the attitude of the Bible, or rather the attitude of God, for the Bible is the revelation of His mind and will, is that of absolute and unsparing condemnation of all these things, not only because the glory of His Name is involved, but also the highest and eternal welfare of the race which He has created and redeemed.

A few illustrations of this attitude are given:

Take for example, the command at Sinai, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18). This can not be concerned with mere superstition or deception, there must be reality behind it, real and wilful fellowship with the powers of evil, or such a penalty would not follow.

And this suggestion is strengthened by the repetition of the command in Leviticus (XX. 27) “A man also, or a woman, that hath a familar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death;

70 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels

they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”

The Hebrew word for “familiar spirit” is pronounced “ob” or “ohv”, and means the same as “necromancer”, one who professes to talk with the dead or with Satan. This shows conclusively that the inhabitation of any one with an “ohv” must have been the result of voluntary acquiescence, since God would not thus punish that which was involuntary.
“Wizard” is a different word, but its significance is not essentially dissimilar, viz., a knowing person, one instructed in the art of holding intercourse with demons.

It may be of interest to explain that the word “ohv” originally signified a skin bottle, i.e., a skin filled with wine, and hence inflated and tumid. This tumidity being a characteristic of those in whom a demon or an “ohv” dwelt, the word came to be applied both to the person thus a fleeted and to the spirit that caused it. Parkhurst, in his Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, quotes a passage in Virgil which describes the swollen and altered form of the Pythoness or demon-possessed woman, and adds, “this shows what the heathen meant in speaking of their diviners being pleni deo, full of the god.”

III.

We now come to the remarkable passage in the

Abominations of the Canaanites 71

eighteenth of Deuteronomy which gives the title to this chapter. It is part of Moses’ farewell to Israel before his departure out of this life, and just prior to their entrance upon Canaan, under Joshua:
“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou ihah not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 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 charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits or a wizard, or a necromancer.”‘

L Let us study the meaning of these terms:

Passing “through the fire” has been taken by some to mean the worship of Moloch referred to in Leviticus 18:21. Moloch was a god of the Phenicians, whose worship embraced human sacrifice of the most terrible nature, for example, the passing of live infants through the folded arms of the image heated to a white heat.

But that application in the present case is now considered incorrect, and it is thought that the words really mean “a sort of purification by fire, or, a fire baptism, by which the worshippers were consecrated to the god, and supposed to be freed from the fear of a violent death.” It was a kind of charm or spell, and hence classed here with sorcery or witchcraft.

Occasion has been taken in the earlier chapters to warn readers against playing with the sem-

72 Spiritism and the Fallen Angels

blance of these wicked things because of their subtle and alluring power, and another occasion offers itself at this point. It is suggested in a footnote of Pember’s, Earth’s Earliest Ages (p. 258), where he affirms that this practice is still kept up in parts of Christendom by the midsummer fires of St. John’s eve. He quotes a Wesleyan minister as saying that, at Midsummer, on many of the hills of Herefordshire, England, fires were burning, while the peasantry danced around them; and the ceremony was not completed until some of the young people had passed “through the fire.”

A second command is against using “divination”, which the Revised Version renders “practising augury.” This, however, does not clear up the meaning of the word very much, since “augury” is defined as the art of foretelling by signs or omens, a species of modern fortune-telling in which alas I not a few professing Christians are guilty of indulging.

“An observer of times.” The English rendering of this would indicate a diviner by the clouds, but the Hebrew simply suggests such observation as requires the use of the eye in minute inspection, and might apply to the entrails of victims. Pember however finds in it the meaning of a fascinator with the eyes, or in modern language, a mesmerist, one who throws another into a magnetic sleep and obtains oracular sayings from him.

Abominations of the Canaanites 73

“Enchanter” is not regarded as an accurate translation of the Hebrew, which simply seems to denote quick observation of some kind, either of the eye or car, and then of divining. The observation may be that of the singing or the flight of birds or other aerial phenomena.

“Witch” or “wizard” is translated elsewhere “sorcerer”, and means “to pray”, but its application shows that the prayer is directed to false gods or demons.

“Charmer”, “consulter with familiar spirits”, “wizard”, “necromancer”, are the words used in verse II, on which Benjamin Wills Newton, another English author, remarks: “Comparing verse n with verse 10, the last-named treats of those kinds of divination in which demons are not immediately addressed, but consulted by the intervention of signs or enchantments, while verse ii implies a more direct appeal to evil spirits.”

Thus the first word “chapner”, literally means to bind or join together, and applies to one who by incantations and invocations seeks to bring demons into association with himself. Some seances are opened with the chanting or singing of hymns for this object, which leads Mr. Newton to say, very properly, “let no one who sings hymns in spiritualistic seances and thus invokes demons ever dare to sing unto God, for he is not a worshipper of God, but of Satan.”

The remainder of the words in this verse so

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approximate the others in meaning as to make it unnecessary to enlarge upon them.

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