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Chapter 3, Section 1

Who really controls the tongue?

To a Christian, the existence of an invisible adversary, a devil who is determined to destroy humanity with superhuman power, is a reality. That this same being was also the first to ignite the spark of evil in the heavenly courts is also a matter of inspired record.

More than that, however, Christian theology accepts as factual the Biblical concept that the resulting agonizing encounter between good and evil is to last until the final days of human reckoning.

It is precisely this cosmic war that has necessitated the introduction of inspired prophets on the world scene to act as relay points for the constant stream of heavenly communications directed at the earthbound sinner; for it is here, on earth, that the final battle between the two opposing powers will reach its dramatic climax. And all of the universe will be there to watch it.

One of the greatest prophets of all times, John the Revelator, was especially entrusted with a dramatic disclosure of the stupendous prophecies affecting suffering mankind. Amidst scenes of glory surpassing fantasy, symbolic prophecies describing threatening judgments were beamed at John. Frightening and severe are Jesus' revelations of the momentous events to take place under the seventh seal. Under this seal, seven angels are entrusted with specific tasks, and when the sixth angel (Revelation 16:12) pours out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, it happens!

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet," John faithfully relayed. "For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Revelation 16:13, 14.

Who are these spirits? Some interpreters of Revelation regard them as manifestations of spiritualistic power, working through the three great religious divisions of mankind, paganism, Roman apostasy, and apostate Protestantism.

But, you may say, We have not as yet reached the time reserved for the seventh seal—and you are right! We are, in fact, still laboring under the handicaps of the sixth; but it is now, during this last segment of the sixth seal that the devil power of the spirits is beginning to make its initial inroads into the three religious groupings.

Says Uriah Smith, in his Daniel and the Revelation, a classic commentary of these books of the Bible, "The agencies which Heaven designs to employ in the accomplishments of certain ends go through a process of preliminary preparation for the part which they are to enact. Thus, before the spirits can have such absolute authority over the race as to gather them to battle against the King of kings and Lord of lords, they must first win their way among the nations of the earth, and cause their teaching to be received as of divine authority, and their word as law. This work they are now doing, and when they shall have once gained full influence over the nations in question, what fitter instrument could be employed to gather them to so rash and hopeless an enterprise?"—1944 rev. ed., page 699. (Italics supplied.)

And indeed, since the beginning of the modern reintroduction of spiritualistic power in the 1840's in Hydesville, New York, a new unwholesome influence has rekindled the dying flames of paganism and superstition throughout the world. One of the movement's own leaders tells us why.

The Plain Simple Truth of Modern Spiritualism

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