In the chart
below we will present a brief summary in which we compare the spirits’
views from channeled literature with Bible teaching.
The Spirits
The Bible
God
The spirits
teach that God is ultimately an impersonal force (an "it"), like
electricity or a "personalized" universal energy that constitutes
everything. God is "infinite power," "all life," "universal
consciousness," etc. The consensus of "most channeled material" is that
"God is all that is" and that "the universe is a multi-dimensional
living Being," i.e.. God.1
Thus "Seth" teaches, "There is no personal God... in Christian terms."2
The Bible
teaches that God is a personal, holy, and loving Being who created the
universe distinct from Himself:
Genesis 1:1—In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
John 3:16—For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus
The spirits
teach that Jesus is an evolved spirit or a man just like us. Jesus was
the person who highly emulated the Christ spirit which is also part of
us all. The spirits say that Jesus has died and has now evolved to a
higher state of existence just like other people have. Thus, one spirit
confesses that Jesus was only a representative of the impersonal divine
force living in all men (the Christ spirit) and that Christians who
believe in the biblical Jesus "worship a dead Christ."3
The Bible
teaches that Christians worship a living
Christ, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is fully Man and
fully God in one Person. He is the only unique Son of God:
Luke 2:11—For
there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is
Christ the Lord.
John 1:1—In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
Romans 1:4—…and
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the
Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians
2:5-9—Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being
in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as
a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point
of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,…
Titus
2:13—looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior Jesus Christ,…
Man
The spirits
teach that man in his true nature is perfect
and one essence with God. "White Eagle" says to all men, "You too are
part of God."4 Another spirit teaches it is a "vicious
abomination" to teach men that they are evil or sinful.5
The Bible
teaches that man is a created being and not
part of God:
Genesis
1:27—So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created them. Man sinned by disobeying
God, resulting in his being separated from God’s fellowship:
Genesis
3:3-8—"but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it,
lest you die.’ " Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not
surely die. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will
be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she
took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he
ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the
garden.
Sin
The spirits
teach that sin is merely "mistakes," "an illusion," or ignorance of
one’s own deity, and that sin in a biblical sense is nothing God is
concerned with. As one spirit teaches, it is "talk of sin and guilt"
that is the true evil, even though it "may be camouflaged by the use of
religious buzz words such as ‘Jesus loves you’ or ‘praise the Lord.’...
If the minister or priest happens to be one who loves to rant and rave
about sin and guilt, the forces he draws in will be dark and ugly."6
The Bible
teaches that sin and guilt are real. Sin is disobedience to God’s law:
1 John 3:4—
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness;…
1 John 5:17—
All unrighteousness is sin,…
Apart from
repentance and faith in Christ, sin will result in God’s judgment:
John 3:16—For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life….
John 3:36—He
who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not
believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
Matthew
25:46—And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.
Salvation
The spirits
teach that "salvation" involves realizing that one is already part of
God. Each man must accomplish this for himself by practicing various
occult techniques.
According to
the universal teachings of the spirits, salvation does not occur by the
atoning death of Christ—which one spirit characteristically claims is "a
tragic distortion of the real nature of God’s love."7
The spirits
speaking through medium Carl Japikse teach that the Christian view of
the atonement is a great social and spiritual evil. Being "born again"
for salvation is a "hysterical belief" and an "escape from
responsibility."8 Believing in Jesus "does not serve the plan
of God."9 Accepting Christ as one’s Savior at a religious
gathering is like "a circus sideshow."10
Thus, man’s
"struggle is not between salvation and damnation," and Christians who
believe so are "ignorant fanatics" who prefer "spiritual darkness."11
The Bible
teaches that salvation involves receiving the
gift of forgiveness of sins from a loving God. Salvation has been
provided for man by God’s grace and is received by man through faith in
Christ’s death for us:
Ephesians
1:7—In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace…
Ephesians
2:8-9—For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
anyone should boast.
Death
The spirits
teach that at death there is no final judgment. It is merely transition
into the wonderful spirit world. "All ‘spirit teaching’ [agrees]....
There is no hell, no punishment."12
The Bible
emphasizes again and again that death brings
judgment and entrance either into an eternal heaven or hell:
Matthew
25:46—And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life.
Hebrews
9:27—And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the
judgment,…
Satan
The spirits
teach there is no devil. As one spirit argues, "There is no devil.... It
is utterly absurd to believe [in] a ‘prince of darkness.’"13
The Bible
teaches that Satan and his demons are real as Jesus Himself taught:
Matthew 4:1,
3, 5, 8-10— Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil… Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If
You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." … Then
the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the
temple,… Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain,
and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he
said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and
worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is
written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall
serve.’"
Matthew
8:16—When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were
demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all
who were sick,…
Matthew
17:18—And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child
was cured from that very hour.
Notes
1 Jon Klimo, Channeling:
Investigations on Receiving Information From Paranormal Sources
(Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1987), pp. 151, 173.
2 Jane Roberts, The Seth
Material (New York: Bantam, 1976), p. 270.
3 Robert E. Leichtman and
Carl Japikse, The Life of the Spirit (Columbus, OH: Ariel,
1987), Vol. 1, pp. 137-38, 146-53.
4 White Eagle Publishing
Trust, Wisdom From White Eagle (Liss, Hampshire, England:
1978), p. 26.
5 Leichtman and Japikse,
The Life of the Spirit, Vol. 1, pp. 83-84.
6 Ibid., pp. 138, 141.
7 Ibid., p. 149.
8 Ibid., p. 184.
9 e. g., ibid., pp. 83-87.
10 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 43.
11 Ibid., pp. 41-42, 67-69.
12 Colin Wilson, The
Occult: A History (New York: Vintage, 1973), p. 523.
13 Leichtman and Japikse,
The Life of the Spirit, Vol. 1, p. 67.