Sunday, May 15, 2016
The Bible constantly warns us not to participate in any type of channeling, which requires one to open his or her mind to these spirits.
The Bible constantly warns us not to participate in any type of channeling, which requires one to open his or her mind to these spirits.
Most have heard of the term channeling.
It has become increasingly popular on TV and radio, especially with the arrival
of the “New Age” movement. This is a modern version of mysticism with roots in
Hinduism, Buddhism and occultism. Some famous actors and actresses have
promoted this new take on some very old religious practices.
Those who do the channeling claim
they are receiving information or commands from a divine or unknown source. In
effect, they say, they are like a radio receiving a signal from a transmitter.
The channeler, or medium, has one or more spirits enter
his mind, and then he becomes the “mouthpiece”. Through the medium, the spirit
then offers information, advice or predictions on almost any subject
imaginable, from the present condition of a departed loved one, to medical
counsel, financial advice or even how to improve one’s love life.
Who is speaking through the
channeler? The spirits claim to have varied identities. Some say they are the
spirits of the dead, sometimes of famous persons, such as Napoleon, Winston
Churchill, the so-called Virgin Mary and even the Lord Jesus Christ. Others claim to be
aliens of extraterrestrial origin.
In reality, there is not much that
is new about the “New Age” movement. Mediums were used to attempt to consult
with the dead from the dawn of history. They were used in Babylon, Egypt,
India, China, Asia Minor, Greece (which had the famous oracle at Delphi) and
even by the native North and South American Indians. Yet as Scripture informs
us, the dead are not allowed to communicate with the living (see Luke 16:19-31).
Although some of the so-called
channelers clearly are frauds—and the famous magician Harry Houdini spent 30
years exposing such fakes—in other investigations researchers could not detect
any fraud. The late Lord Dowding, who commanded the British Air Forces during
the Battle of Britain in World War II, conducted many rigorously supervised laboratory
experiments with psychics and found that some indeed passed the tests as being
genuine. Yet genuine channeling means contact with demons.
This is why the Bible constantly
warns us not to participate in any type of “channeling”, which requires one to
open his or her mind to these spirits. Instead, the Scriptures say, “Gird up
the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13)—this imagery implying that we should
have a tight hold on our minds in preparation for how we use them. Instead of
exposing our minds to foreign sources, we should keep the natural barriers of
our minds well protected from any outside spirit influence except that of God.
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