In his book, “The Challenging Counterfeit”, Raphael Gasson tells about his own experiences as a spiritualist. Gasson had many experiences within spiritualism, but was later converted to Christ. When writing as a Christian, he says that the outward forms of so-called “Christian” spiritualism can appear very similar to a Christian meeting. The form of the meeting includes singing of hymns, prayer and Bible-reading interspersed. The medium (the person who is channelling the spirit) will take part and give a demonstration of clairvoyance (supernatural knowledge) as a conclusion.
According to Gasson, it is not enough for people to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God in order to distinguish genuine Christians from “Christian” spiritualists. The latter also believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and that He is born of a virgin according to the predictions of the Bible, as well as His being the Messiah of the Jews. 8
When the apostle Paul met a girl at Philippi who had a spirit of divination, she actually had a confession that was theologically correct. She said: “These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the message of salvation!” (Acts 16:17.) What she said was totally true, but Paul was able to distinguish between the spirit of divination and the Spirit of God. The question is whether we, in the Christian church today, are able to do the same. My own painful experience shows that we have sometimes been sadly lacking in this area.
Footnotes
8. Raphael Gasson, “The Challenging Counterfeit.” p 61.
