Elemental Spiritual Forces Threaten

 

In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns against "hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world." When we rely on these beliefs, cooked up out of our own fears, desires and prejudices instead of upon Christ as revealed through the scriptures, we set ourselves up to eventually create our own versions of a religion, one without any reliance on objective truth, but instead upon something they like to call "my truth."

I think this was the thing also that Ellen White warned us about when she cautioned against the rising influence of spiritualism. Here Paul warned us particularly against "elemental spiritual forces". The spiritualism we've been warned against is more than just some ghosts knocking on walls while little girls hold seances. Spiritualism, while it does range from Ouija boards to communicating with the dead, spiritualism as a whole believes that we have immortal souls that know more than we are aware of. and deceptive philosophy. Satan seeks to confuse us. Encyclopedia Britannica defines spiritualism as philosophy that embraces ideas including "the immortality of the soul, or the immateriality of the intellect and will. Less obviously, it includes belief in such ideas as finite cosmic forces or a universal mind, provided that they transcend the limits of gross Materialistic interpretation. Spiritualism as such says nothing about matter, the nature of a supreme being or a universal force, or the precise nature of spiritual reality itself." This leaves all kind of room for the "spiritual" man to find his own truth within himself. As a result, the spiritualist does not have to submit himself to any external law, truth or instruction that does not emanate from within himself. This allows one to toss aside any uncomfortable restriction on one's behavior that doesn't feel compatible with your own truth which you have discovered within yourself. It also allow you to jettison any commandments or Biblical advice you don't particularly feel comfortable with.

This current so-called spiritual movement tends to rejects "religion" in favor of being "spiritual" not religious. It has many of the trappings of Lucifer's plan for ruling as the Prince of this world. If it doesn't reject religion outright, it seeks to water it down to allow room for "spiritual" Christians (if they still retain the Christian identity at all), to believe whatever suits them. It's frequently called "my truth" by people who say they are "spiritual not religious." Spiritualism doesn't necessarily achieve this level of self-enlightenment all at once, but it certainly trends that way if taken to its logical ends.

Satan keeps coming back to the same plan with the same beliefs about obedience to self and to heavy handed government and it always results in a whole lot of death. God tends to get left out or gets used as an impersonal rubber stamp for whatever the ruling class is up to. Marxism is just the latest Satanic deceptive philosophy to be embraced by the powerful special (rich) folk of the world. Before we had "I'm spiritual" we had the divine right of kings, emperors, caliphs, etc..We peons knew our place and deferred to the special ruling class and were proud to do so. We were mightily deceived to accept our low station with a kind of pride. A few special powerful leaders always make the decisions and discipline the collective, the masses, the proletariat, peons, the workers, the plebs, the rabble, the great unwashed, riffraff, Labor, the proles or, my favorite, the hoi poloi and usually they discipline harshly.

Recent attempts to blend Marx's philosophy with spiritualism as its being worked out in contemporary philosophy, dwell on the problems of labor, the unconscious, artificial intelligence, and depression. By summoning up the idea of an immortal soul, Marxist/spiritualist apologists conceive of a kind of secret human being that dwells inside the body of any species (a Buddhist/Hindu idea) and thus is detached from “man” in its traditional sense. This allows us to disengage the human body from "spirit". No longer is the soul to be attached to individual humans, the body isn't absolutely necessary since the soul exists as this impersonal essence defined by an ambiguous concept of labor (regular raggedy folks). This convoluted philosophy supposes that this soul or essence is both alienated from things like religion and emancipated from reliance on anything outside the self like instruction from some arbitrary "God". Marxism it is posited, provides a way to achieve an Earthly Utopia without having to bother God for instruction about how to do that. Friedrich Nietzsche a cheerful Marxist and inspiration for the German Nazis, went so far as to proclaim "God is dead." What he meant was that we no longer need God because we are spiritual beings and everything we need is in our own immortal essence. It also allowed the Nazis to decide that murdering 15 million people didn't make much difference as their essences would simply go elsewhere so they wouldn't interfere with the establishment of the Third Reich's plans for an Aryan Utopia.

This kind of philosophy supports Satan's contention at the beginning of the Great Controversy that he had a better idea for how to govern humans so that he keeps all that free choice controlled. If we are paying attention it's not hard to spot cloven hoofprints all over this sort of spiritual Marxism. And always it winds up that a whole bunch of uncooperative human weeds need to be pulled up and incinerated.

Not religion but politics and progressive spiritualism is the hallmark of Satan's plans for ruling the Earth. Even religion, when co-opted for Satan's purpose, is at its heart political and involves a tyrannical powerful ruler or ruling class lording over the people who are assumed to be incapable (too stupid) to manage their own affairs. Sadly, many who claim to have once been among God's chosen people find themselves drifting away from the church. By adopting a more convenient sort of religion,  their advanced spiritual philosophy allows them to set themselves up in these last days as arbiters of their own more comfortable truth. But don't call this belief system a religion even though it is. That would hurt their feelings.

And since these spiritualists no longer need organized religion, spiritualism provides them an alternative to "assembling themselves together" in congregations of believers. The spiritual often prefer instead, things like going out into nature and being spiritual; getting in touch with the elemental spiritual forces that come from their own understanding rather than the Word of God. Or they can gather in chat rooms with other enlightened spiritual folk and discuss how this ever-shifting philosophy so admirably adapts itself to whatever new notion springs up among them.

 The deception is pernicious, pervasive and deadly. It allows the spiritual person to join a herd of fellow humans who are okay with infanticide, sexual perversion, and rejection of inconvenient Biblical commandments. "We don't do commandments anymore. What's the point?

Accordingly, we no longer need to be saved by God's grace, but are emancipated from all that by our own righteousness and superior philosophy." It soon follows, as one retired pastor told me that the spiritual man holds science and scripture as equals. The trouble is, that increasingly for my spiritual friends, science begins to weigh more heavily on their personal truth scales, especially the "science" that justifies the whole reliance on "my truth" rather than upon God's truth.

It explains why in the last days many of the brightest lights among us will go out; the victims of their own brilliance unsupported by a reliance upon God's Word. Beware for the devil our adversary prowls among us seeking whom he may devour.

(c) 2024 by Tom King