PUBLISHERS

WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A.

*

Abbreviations of translations of THE SCRIPTURES quoted or cited herein

AS -American Standard Version, by American Committee of Revision
AT - An American Translation, by J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Goodspeed
Da - The 'Holy Scriptures', a New Translation, by J. N. Darby
Dy - Translation of the Latin Vulgate made at Douay and Rheims
Le - The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures, translated by I. Leeser
LXX - The Greek Septuagint Version of the Hebrew Scriptures
Mo - A New Translation of The Bible, by James Moffatt
NW -New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
Ro - The Emphasised Bible, a New Translation, by J. B. Rotherham
RS - Revised Standard Version, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
Yg - The Holy Bible, translated by Robert Young

Any quotation not followed by any specific abbreviation is from the Authorized or King James Version.

Made in the United States of America

WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY
ABOUT
"SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH"?

"WE ARE O.K." "Don't grieve for us. We're the lucky ones. We've never been so happy as we are now." These were messages from the invisible, received during World War II. Yet they were not sorrowful messages, but seemingly messages to drive away grief and give comfort. From whom did such strange messages come? From men who died in the service of their country during that war! So averred the receiver of the messages in 1943, the retired Air Chief Marshal of Great Britain, Lord Dowding. He was wanting to spread good cheer to those who had lost friends and relatives in battle and to those who might yet die before the world conflict ended. Said he: "I have the largest number of messages from men who have passed over in this war. The fact I want to stress is that the tone of these messages is 'We are O.K.' and 'Don't grieve for us. We're the lucky ones. We've never been so happy as we are now.' " Lord Dowding continued: "There is a great organization of Air Force men on the other side and I receive frequent messages from them." He was thus reaffirming his belief in spiritualism by reading before a public audience in London a letter he believed was dictated by a dead seaman. The report of this was received from

London, September 1, 1943, by cable to the New York Times and published in its columns the following day, under the heading: "Dowding Says Dead Send Him Messages." Doubtless in the minds of many readers the questions were raised: Are those who die in war the lucky ones? Are we who survive the unlucky ones?
Somewhat over nine months later, at solemn mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York city, the following war prayer was offered by the Roman Catholic Father Thomas Lester Graham: "We pray these men making such heroic sacrifice for us will know we are walking with them every step on their way of the cross. We pray for their mothers, fathers, wives, sweethearts, that their burden may be lightened and that they may be reunited with their loved ones and never again separated by the disease of war. For those who have made the supreme sacrifice we pray that Almighty God may receive them into His kingdom as martyrs and grant peace to their souls." He urged prayer in church for "our martyr dead." -Reported by the New York Times the following day, Monday, June 12, 1944.
Both of these expressions, the message by the former commander of the British Royal Air Force and the prayer by the Catholic priest, were based on one belief held in common, "survival after death."
The common belief is that the human soul does not die but is deathless, deathproof, immortal; that since the human body is observed to die and crumble to dust, there must be some part of man that survives the death of the body and it must be an invisible, untouchable something called the "soul" or "spirit." Since it is believed to survive

the death of the body, it must be distinct from the perishable human body and must be separable from it. At the body's death it separates and, being invisible, it is no longer held down to inhabiting the human body but is free to move about in the invisible or spirit realm and to ascend to planes of life high above the earth. It enters into all the mysteries of the spirit world and so knows more than when it was hampered by the human body, and it will live in the unseen, immaterial world forever.
Religions of Christendom in general, including the Roman Catholic, hold that the soul and the spirit are many times used the one for the other. But spiritists make a distinction between the two terms: "In spiritualistic terminology 'SPIRIT' means the etheric body of an individual having all his characteristics. A clear distinction must be drawn and borne in mind between the terms 'SOUL' and 'SPIRIT.' The former is vague and intangible without any size or form while the latter is the exact counterpart of the physical portion of the individual." - Spiritualism in India - Theory and Practice, by V. D. Rishi, page 8, 2d edition of 1946.
Regardless of the distinctions drawn or not drawn between the terms "soul" and "spirit," the believers in survival after death hold that the dead are not dead at all but are more alive than ever, in a spirit world that we cannot see, the so-called "next world"; and we must not be deceived concerning survival after death by the visible death of the human body. Taken as a strong, unshakable proof of this is the widespread-ness and the ancientness of this belief. In recommendation of this belief Rishi, on page one of his above-mentioned book, says:

"The belief in the existence of the next world and the possibility of communication with the departed souls is to be found in almost all the sacred books of the East and West. Rig-Veda [or Veda of Verses] the oldest book contains reference about the Pitris [the departed forefathers; semidivine fathers and patriarchs]. In Mahabharata and Ramayana we read how the wives of the Kauravas [the 100 cousins of the Pandavas] had the pleasure of an interview with their departed husbands and how king Dasharath manifested himself after death to Sri Ramachandra. The Bible is full of references regarding survival after death and communion between the dead and the living.... To discredit all this testimony about survival after death is gross and rank materialism."

In all parts of the earth the belief in survival after death explains the conduct and acts of behavior of many persons, as when they set out food, flowers, incense or other gifts on little altars to saints or dead relatives, or as when, on September 3,1945, the Japanese emperor Hirohito, clad in ceremonial robes and attended by two younger brothers, worshiped at three sanctuaries in the Palace of Tokyo and personally "informed" the Imperial ancestors that Japan had lost the war. -New York Times.
Once the teaching of survival after death is accepted, a string of reasonable questions presents itself: Can we get in touch with the dead? Can we do anything for their benefit? Can they do us any good or harm? Can we get in touch with the "next world," or, Is there communication between the "two worlds"? Various religions answer these questions to agree with their other beliefs, but the religion known as "spiritualism" answers with a confident Yes. While some spiritualists claim that the Bible of Jews and Christians is based upon spiritualism or teaches and supports it, the

spiritualists do not put their main dependence upon the Bible or other reputed sacred writings. They positively assert that the proof of the spirit world and of human survival after death is found in actual hearable, seeable, feelable manifestations from the spirit world and by numberless, regular cases of where the living get in touch with the dead and receive messages from identifiable dead persons. Rishi, on page 7 of his book, lists among the principles of spiritualism this: "The possibility of communication, by mediums between the visible and the invisible, namely, between the living and the dead," and then adds: "It will be worth while to bear in mind that the above principles are not based on any text, tradition, or institution, but upon observed facts and phenomena."
Spiritualists, sure of themselves, have willingly let their spiritistic manifestations be investigated and put to the test by hardheaded, materialistic scientists of the day. While much that has passed for spiritualism commercially had been exposed as a fraud, science has come away from many investigations baffled by the results of their foolproof tests. It has been obliged to agree that there are living, intelligent forces in the realm of the unseen. In an article entitled "They Never Come Back" by Lester David he quotes Hereward Carrington, director of the American Psychical Institute, as saying: "Despite the illusion, fraud and superstition which have unfortunately associated themselves with this subject, there are genuine psychic phenomena which are unexplained by modern science." In the following paragraph regarding appearings or apparitions of the dead Lester David says: "The American Society for Psychical Research once received 30,000 replies

to a questionnaire it distributed on this phase. After studying the reports, it concluded: 'Between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connection exists which is not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proven fact.' "-Mechanix Illustrated, December, 1952, pages 166, 167.
As a result of its investigations modern science has discovered what it calls "ectoplasm," that is, human matter that streams forth from various parts of the spirit medium's body and that produces certain phenomena or takes certain shapes. Because it is protoplasm pushed out from the medium's body, Webster's dictionary defines ectoplasm as "exteriorized protoplasm." Marcus Bach, in his book They Have Found a Faith (1946), describes it on page 112:

"The reason for concealing the medium ... is because a red light is used during a materialization seance. Even a dim light interferes with the generation of the ectoplasm necessary in building spirit forms. The cabinet shields the medium during the time this force Is being assembled and then, when complete, the form can stand the light rays long enough to be seen outside the cabinet by the sitters - from thirty seconds to three or four minutes. The medium entranced is also sometimes disturbing to the spectators. It is not a pleasingly aesthetic sight - especially not during a materialization, for ectoplasm exudes from her mouth and body in the nature of gauzy, foggy, smokelike substance from which figures are formed by the spirit chemists."

Says Rishi (page 3 of his above-mentioned book):

"In Europe and America several scientists have made important discoveries in this science. Some persons are aware of the discovery of ectoplasm, a white snowy matter emanating from the body of the medium. However much the existence of this matter may be denied by ignorant persons and fraudulent people, it is weighed and analysed by great scientists." (Page 2) "The proof

regarding survival after death has been mainly obtained through the inherent psychic power of a medium and hence the phenomena of mediumship have been recognised as the one basic factor of modern spiritualism. It is impossible to define "or describe this power as it is not possible to define electricity or magnetism, although we all perceive their effects every day."

Mrs. Leonore Piper performed unexplainable things to make her one of the greatest mediums known. Researchers of psychic phenomena, including the American psychologist William James, Dr. Richard Hodgson, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. Walter Leaf and many others, made a study of Mrs. Piper for years. They even had detectives to shadow her to learn if she got her information by normal methods. In vain. They could find out nothing. Mrs. Piper would go into a deep trance and then start writing. She would impart information, such as names, dates and facts of all kinds, which she could not possibly learn by herself. William James wrote she knew things that she could not have acquired by the normal use of her eyes and ears and wits.
There are other evidences of secret or occult power, enabling ordinary persons to do things superhuman or ordinarily impossible for a human, that science is unable to explain or account for. In the practice of Voodooism (Vodun, as the Haitians call it) extraordinary feats have been performed. The French naturalist Descourtilz, for instance, awed by the manifestation of the occult, describes a woman who, under the seizure of her god, took a live coal in her hand without being burned. In the Gold Coast, Africa, the mediums are called woyei, and profess to act as mouthpieces of the gods and of the dead. There when a medium

becomes seized by the occult power, it is said, "she speaks with a voice not her own, and greater than that of any human being." Under possession of the mysterious power, a medium will jiggle and shake in every limb and will remain on her feet in continual motion for hours. She will often perform feats of endurance that are impossible for ordinary humans. -Religion and Medicine of the Gã People by M. J. Field.
Medical science is at a loss to explain such a feat as reported in the New York Times under the date line "Bombay, India, Feb. 19, 1950 (United Press Dispatch)":

"Huge crowds saw a 45-year-old yogi, Swami [Master] Ramdasji, dug out alive today [Sunday] from an 'airtight' cement crypt in which he had been 'buried' for eighty-seven hours [or three days fifteen hours] on a bed of nails. The mystic had been 'completely submerged' in water from 4 p.m. Saturday [Feb. 18] until his release at 7:30 a.m. today [Sunday]. He climbed into the wooden coffin at 5 p.m. Wednesday [Feb. 15]. He lay on a bed of nails and the sides of the coffin also had nails jagging into his flesh. The coffin was sealed inside an 8-by-8-by-6-foot cement crypt. Ramdasji's disciples then sat by the crypt day and night chanting Vedic prayers while keeping a sacred fire burning. Saturday [Feb. 18] his disciples bored a small hole into the crypt, pushed in a hose and immersed the air-starved Hindu in water. Thousands of spectators watched tensely as the disciples hacked the cement away with picks and lifted Ramdasji, still in a trance, onto a dais. The followers massaged Ramdasji's head, arms and body until he opened his eyes and smiled. Dr. Jal Rustom Vakil, a heart specialist, examined Ramdasji immediately. The doctor said Ramdasji's respiration was slow, but otherwise he was normal in every way."

According to medical science, such a feat would have killed an ordinary human within two or three hours.

Instances of fire walking, which have been observed in India and elsewhere, have generally been attributed to some occult influence or power, but science has been able to prove with some success that there is a trick about this, dependent upon ordinary laws of nature, thus removing this from the realm of the really occult. But the more science investigates the more it is faced with the evidences of a truly occult power, of invisible forces producing supernatural acts and happenings among men.
Whether superstitious or not, many people have a peculiar fascination for the occult, for powers with a hidden source, for happenings of a supernormal kind. There are also many sorrowful persons who crave to get in touch with dead loved ones. Naturally they are inclined to seek mediums who claim to be able to communicate with the dead, for the seeming comfort that this brings. Increasing numbers of persons are worried about the uncertainties of life or face great problems or are anxious about the outcome of political, commercial, sporting or other developments and desire some guidance for the future. They look to some higher, hidden power, unidentified though it may be, that promises to foretell the future and thus guide them, relieve them of fears, safeguard them from possible dangers or lead them to success. Hence there are many who do not ordinarily claim to be spiritualists or spiritists and who may be members of orthodox churches, yet who resort to spiritistic practices. In America, although some 131,100 profess to be spiritualists or members of spiritualist societies, yet there are far more who dabble with spiritism. An appeal to the spiritualistic or spiritistic has become the fashion, not only of the

grief-stricken, comfort-seeking ordinary man or woman or the superstitious theatrical people or the worried, success-seeking businessman, but also of high political circles, world-wide.

THE OCCULT IN POLITICAL CIRCLES

July 17, 1918, the date of Nicholas Romanoff's execution by the Bolsheviki, is not too long ago for us to remember the last of the Russian czars, Nicholas II. Of him The Encyclopedia Americana (volume 20, page 315) says: "His superstition was shown by his consultation of fortune-tellers, spiritualists, mystics and charlatans in his desire to secure a male heir, his first four children being all girls." He is all too well known for his connections with the notorious Russian monk Gregor Novikh, nicknamed "Rasputin," meaning "dissolute, profligate, libertine, licentious," because such he was. Rasputin came of a peasant family with an inherited gift of mesmerism. He started a new cult, in which dancing and debauchery were mixed in with mystical seances. He was introduced to the Russian Imperial Court, where for years he exercised a powerful influence with Nicholas II, who retained him in his court, even against the protest of others.
Today political science alone does not figure in running political government. Astrology does also. "Astrology" first meant the "science of the stars." Now it means the study of the stars to foretell human and earthly events by the aspect and position of the stars, as though stars exercised some hidden or occult influence upon the inhabitants of earth and upon the earth itself. Astrology was long ago practiced by the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and others. It developed from the belief in survival after death, and that the stars were notable humans who had been transported

after death to the position of the stars and planets, from there to exercise their influence upon earthly affairs.
In the thirteenth century A.D. priests from India introduced astrology into the Siamese court life, since which time both kings and the common people have hesitated to make a move without first consulting their horoscope or the position of the planets with regard to the twelve signs of the zodiac. As his consultant each Siamese king appointed a royal astrologer, with a rank of nobility. King Mongkut was the only monarch who refused the services of a royal astrologer. He was a noted astrologer himself and preferred to read his own horoscope. In 1932 the absolute monarchy over Siam was overthrown, but astrologers continued with even a firmer hold on political matters. Numerous legislators planned their political careers only after secretly consulting astrologers. From their own observations the Siamese say: "Politicians make the best astrologers, and astrologers become the most successful politicians." Due to spending so much time with the astrologers, such politicians develop the ability to read horoscopes. As a matter of course, by telling from the stars when to take up public activity, astrologers make a success in politics, so it is believed, and so it could be when practically all the people yield themselves to astrology. Astrology has a stronger grip on the Siamese or Thailanders than any science or religion.
Astrology exerts a power even on modern Western rulers and that, too, in the matter of waging war. The January, 1952, issue of Mechanix Illustrated had this to say: "One of the most amazing, and least-known facts of World War II is that the Allies actually waged a counter-astrological warfare against Hitler. Knowing that the Nazi leader took his horoscope mighty seri-

ously [while at the same time being a Roman Catholic], Britain established an agency known as the Psychological Research Bureau and placed at its head a noted astrologer, Louis de Wohl. Captain de Wohl plotted the horoscopes of Hitler and his chief aides, following as closely as possible the 'good' and 'bad' days. Britain thus knew at all times what Hitler's astrologers were telling him. It was the first time since the Thirty Years' War, De Wohl said later, that astrological warfare was waged." Not that this resort to astrology aided the Allies to win the war against the Nazis and Fascists and their axis partners, but that it shows the willingness, even by rulers who claim to be Christian, to consult the occult powers for selfish advantages. It reminds one of the ancient Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, when marching to conquest over Palestine six centuries before Christ. He came to a fork of the roads, one branch leading to Rabbah, capital of Ammon to the east, the other branch leading to Jerusalem, to the west. Says the Bible: "The king of Babylon stands at the parting of the ways, at the fork of the two roads, practicing divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the teraphim, he inspects the liver. Into his right hand falls the lot marked 'Jerusalem,' calling for slaughter, for the shout of battle, for the planting of battering-rams against the gates, for the throwing up of mounds, for the building of a siege-wall." (Ezekiel 21:19-22, AT) So Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jerusalem. It fell before him.
Americans now have on their silver dimes and on their postage stamps the slogan "In God we trust," but the prevalence of astrological fortunetellers and their present prosperity in America bespeak a disturbed and hesitating America. So John R. Saunders, at the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., has said. As the Associate Curator

of Education at the American Museum of Natural History he said, in 1946: "In Washington 10,000 customers weekly consult the capital's astrologers. . . . Some of our most prominent people have patronized fortune tellers of one kind or another. Evangeline Adams, the astrologer, made $50,000 a year. J. P. Morgan, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Mary Garden and Richard Harding Davis were among her clients. On a horoscope, the Duke of Windsor cancelled a trip, some years ago. Hitler [although a recognized Roman Catholic] kept at Berchtesgaden a teeming nest of fortune tellers. Mussolini, Napoleon, Hitler, Julius Caesar, Alexander [the Great] - each believed in and talked about his Star. It is still told in Washington how President Harding and his wife had a 'personal' seer forecast for them weekly at the White House." Fortunetelling, he continued, "flourishes now in Washington, D.C., where a number of our prominent legislators are reported to have their personal seers. One Congressman has his horoscope cast weekly at his office. By its dictates he votes for this bill, against that." -The American Weekly, July 21, 1946.
There is a widespread reliance of politicians on psychometry or the finding out of certain facts or hidden knowledge about an object or its owners by contact with that object or by nearness to it. On October 19, 1952, the New Haven (Connecticut) Register published this statement by its Fulton Oursler: "I have actually seen reports of psychometrists sent to key officials of our Government, and have been taken by wives of important lawmakers to seances."
Not altogether shocking, therefore, but quite to be expected comes the report of spiritism in the White House by the popular radio commentator Drew Pearson, in his column entitled "Washington Merry-Go-Round," published throughout the land. In newspaper editions of August 24,

1953, such as that of the Oregon Journal, columnist Pearson reported that a "renowned fortune teller" had been dropping in at the White House during that summer as well as spring equipped with a crystal ball, namely, Mrs. Jeanne Dixon, For ten years she had been telling the future for General Eisenhower's wife Mamie. So since Mamie moved into the White House, Mrs. Dixon has been called in at times to keep the first lady of the nation up to date on her future and she has even "done some crystal-ball gazing for the president, himself." Mrs. Dixon said she could use three psychic mediums - the crystal ball, palmistry and astrology. She pointed to a

Oregon Journal MONDAY, AUG. 24,1953

DREW PEARSON

WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND

Crystal Gazer

WASHINGTON - Her name hasn't appeared on the official calling list, but a renowned fortune teller has been dropping in at the White House during the spring and summer, carrying her (crystal ball. She is vivacious Jeanne Dixon, who foretold the Korean truce, forecast that Native Dancer would place in but not win the Kentucky derby and, for 10 years, has been telling the future for Mamie Eisenhower.
Since Mamie moved to the White House, the psychic Mrs. Dixon has been called in occasionally to keep the first lady up to date on her future. Furthermore, she has done some crystal-ball gazing for the president, himself
"I can use three psychic mediums - the crystal ball, palmistry and astrology," Mrs. Dixon acknowledged to this column. However, her usual procedure, she explained, is to touch the subject's fingertips and simultaneously peer over her shoulder into the crystal ball.
Asked what she saw in the crystal, she replied that the images varied - sometimes symbols, sometimes pictures. In the case of Native Dancer, for example, she saw a clear picture of the Dancer running behind an "unknown long-shot" Once she even saw a number in her billiard-sized crystal. She didn't know what the number meant, but a gambling friend won $10,000 playing it. To show his gratitude, be bought Mrs. Dixon a brand new $800 crystal ball.

starlike imprint on her own palm and explained it to be the mark of the "true psychic." However, her usual way is to touch the subject's fingertips and at the same time peer over her shoulder into the crystal ball. Mrs. Dixon refused to talk about the Eisenhowers or the rest of her clientele. Persons close to the White House, though, say she has amazed President Eisenhower by reading his golf scores in the crystal ball.
In the political field Mrs. Dixon forecast the partitioning of India, President Harry S. Truman's surprise victory over Thomas E. Dewey in 1948 and the Republican sweep in the presidential campaign in 1952 putting General Eisenhower into the White House. A real estate broker by profession, Mrs. Dixon does not charge for her psychic service. She takes no credit to herself for her occult powers, but says: "The Bible says that all events are foreshadowed. I am just the means of communication." The published report of the invasion of the presidential White House by spiritism by means of this psychic has never been disputed, denied or disproved.
Now cross America's northern border into Canada. There, too, spiritism has made inroads into the prime ministry. It was not generally known that the late W. L. MacKenzie King, onetime prime minister of Canada, was a secret spiritualist, although till his death July 22, 1950, a member of the Presbyterian church like President Eisenhower. In a biography of King entitled "The Incredible Canadian" by Bruce Hutchison (1953), the author lays open King's deep spiritualistic convictions. Even as prime minister of Canada King consulted spirit mediums, and felt sure of "direct communion with the dead." He approached every problem, personal and political, dominated by his belief in human immortality as taught by religion in general and now apparently

confirmed by spirit mediumship. As he neared death, he patronized mediumship, especially over in England, to consult the dead. At a seance a year after President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died, King made contact with the dead Roosevelt by a medium and was told to stay in political office and that Canada and the world could not yet spare him. But at his frequent seances King would not consult the spirits on the affairs of government and told the mediums that he preferred to decide government matters for himself. Yet his handling of political matters could not but be influenced by his private spiritualistic convictions. By his seeming contact with the dead he increasingly convinced himself by such kind of proof that his earthly journey was nearing its end but his real journey was only beginning and then he in his real self would be free to take on his true shape. When he died, says author Hutchison, King "had completed one pilgrimage to begin, as he believed, a second." -Pages 86-88, 423, 424, 450.
Though by no means everything has been told, yet from all the foregoing it is plain that spiritualism is spreading and already has a greater hold on human society than most people may realize. The groundwork for such spread of spiritualism still farther has been laid, as we shall show. Some spiritualists are very hopeful about their religion, as betrayed in the title of a book by Arthur Find-lay, "The Rock of Truth or Spiritualism the Coming World Religion." (Thirteenth impression, .1949) The spiritualists seem to produce the proof of their belief in their actual experiences and in the phenomena they are able to show, apart from all trickery. That they really get in touch with an unseen world and with intelligent spirits there can be proved by them and is not to be doubted. But the question arises, Is it really with the spirits of those who once lived on the earth and

died that they get in communication? Is it truly "survival after death" that their getting in touch with the spirit world proves? Does it uphold "immortalism," that is, the belief in and the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul? So is it possible for those living on earth to talk with the dead? Is it a genuine source of comfort for people who have lost loved ones, relatives or cherished friends, to go to spirit mediums in the hope of getting in touch with such dead ones or to make use of such other spiritistic means as table tipping or the planchette or the Yes-yes board or Ouija (Oui, French for Yes, and Ja, German for Yes)?
How shall we learn the safe, true and satisfying answers to these questions? By going to a book with ancient historical accounts and descriptions that are constantly being proved correct, a book of prophecy that has had its many marvelous predictions come true throughout the centuries and find fulfillment also in world events and conditions of our own day, particularly since A.D. 1914; by going to a book to which even spiritualists refer and in which many spiritualists claim to find support for their teachings and beliefs. What book is that? It is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures.
From Sweden we have the report: "Spiritists here seldom use the Bible to prove their belief; their 'experiences' are given as proof of what they claim as the death state." However, in the book Spiritualism for the Busy Man, page 14, W. H. Evans has the subheading: "Spiritualism confirms Biblical facts." V. D. Rishi, as already quoted, states: "The Bible is full of references regarding survival after death and communion between the dead and the living." Adding to such argument Ernest Thompson, in The Teachings and Phenomena of Spiritualism, pages 115-120, has this to say:

"All religions are based upon the conception of an 'after life,' for without the hope of a spiritual future, the idea of God would never have evolved in man's mind. The Christian Religion is based Upon the evidence of survival which is contained in the, Bible, particularly of course upon the evidence of the return of Jesus from the dead ... The principal figure in the New Testament is Jesus, ... his works can be classified as the achievements of a highly developed medium and healer. . . . Jesus was certainly the most remarkable medium that ever lived. From his period of 'trial' in the wilderness up to his resurrection his story is mainly impressive because of his 'supernormal powers.' The fact that he was clairvoyant and clairaudient was indicated when, 'angels came and ministered unto him.' He was not only clairaudient to the spirit people, but to those about him, for he often received their thoughts telepathically. . . . He apparently used Peter, John and James as materialisation mediums as in the instance of the materialisation of Moses and Elias. . . . Like D. D. Home, Jesus permitted himself to be levitated. 'In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea.' ... It is notable too that he made certain that his 'conditions' were favourable for the specific phenomenon desired.... Conditions in the upper room were favourable when, with the mediumistic aid of his disciples, Jesus 'appeared unto the eleven' after his crucifixion, and 'and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart.' "

WHY BRING IN THE SCRIPTURES?

Since spiritualist authors themselves bring the Bible into their argument and interpret it as they do, we are all the more compelled to turn to the Bible and examine directly the questions, Does it uphold spiritualism? May it be used as a handbook of spiritualism? Or does it hold out another hope and comfort for bereaved, sorrowing, distressed, perplexed, groping, imperiled mankind? We cannot get to the truth of the matter any quicker than by examining first and at once the really one foundation upon which spiritualist

teaching rests. What? Immortalism. As stated by Rishi: "The knowledge regarding life after death is commonly called Spiritualism. Its principles though as old as humanity are being proved by new methods. As affirmed by the International Congresses in Europe [of spiritualists] they are: - 1. Existence of God, supreme Intelligence and first cause of every thing. 2. Existence of the soul, linked during earthly life to the physical corruptible body by an intermediary element called perispirit or fluid body. 3. Immortality of the soul and its continual evolution towards perfection by successive stages. 4. The possibility of communication, by mediums between the visible and the invisible, namely, between the living and the dead." The question that faces us, then, is, Does the soul survive the death of the human body? Is the human soul immortal? What do the Holy Scriptures of the Bible say?
Take the first five books of the Bible. The prophet Moses wrote them. Whether as a prophet he was a spirit medium, as spiritualists claim of Bible prophets, we shall let our discussion go on to show. But right here we note that this Moses was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," because he was reared at the king of Egypt's court in the sixteenth century before the Christian era. He was acquainted with the wise men and wonder-working men of Pharaoh the king. When Moses appeared before Pharaoh with the demand that Pharaoh let the enslaved people of Jehovah God go free and backed up his demand by turning his shepherd rod into a big snake by God's power, then, as we read Moses' own account, "Phar'aoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and the magic-practicing priests of Egypt themselves also proceeded to do the same thing with their magic arts." When Moses later turned water into blood, these men seemingly duplicated the miracle. When Moses miraculously

produced frogs Pharaoh's men did the same. Ah, but when Moses turned the dust of Egypt into lice or into gnats, "the magic-practicing priests tried to do the same by their secret arts, in order to bring forth gnats, but they were unable. And the gnats came to be on man and beast. Hence the magic-practicing priests said to Phar'aoh: 'It is the finger of God!'" -Exodus 7:10, 11, 20-22; 8:6, 7, 17-19, NW*
So Pharaoh's wise men, sorcerers and magicians admitted that Moses was able by his God Jehovah to do wonders that they themselves with their secret or occult power were unable to do: Now it is this Moses who under the power of God's spirit or under inspiration gives us the first definition to be found in the Bible of the human soul. Also from the opposition between this Moses and the men of occult power in Egypt we can begin to form correct ideas as to whether Moses was a spirit medium or not.

WHAT THE HUMAN SOUL IS

Religious teachings of Christendom surround the human soul with mysteries that philosophers need to explore. Differently from them, Moses calls all the fish, birds and land animals that God created before making man "souls," "living souls." (Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, 30; 2:19, NW; Ro; Da) So, long before man's creation, billions of animal souls or earthly souls had died. Moses then tells how the first human soul came to be, saying: "Then Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul." (Genesis 2:7, NW; AS; Da) This flatly disproves what is stated about the where-from of man by the spiritualist author, Arthur Findlay, in advertising his book On the Edge of

the Etheric or Survival After Death Scientifically Explained. He states: "We retain in the Etheric, to which we pass at death, our bodily appearance, our memories, and our affections. . . . As we are now so shall we be hereafter; as we sow so shall we reap. We have come from the Etheric; we return to the Etheric. Our physical life is but a small part of our life, which, coming from the Etheric, returns to it at death. There it continues to function in a world both real and tangible." Moses says nothing about "the Etheric."
Nor does Moses' inspired account of the creation of the human soul agree with V. D. Rishi and say anything about an "intermediary element called perispirit [surrounding spirit] or fluid body." The Creator, Jehovah God, gave the first man just one body, made from the different elements in the dust of our earth. What made that material body come to life? It was God's blowing into man's nostrils, thus into man's lungs, the "breath of life." It was not by his breathing into man an invisible soul and connecting that soul with the material body by a fluid body or a surrounding spirit of the same form as the earthly body. God breathed, as it were, into the lifeless body his life-giving force, which was to be sustained by man's breathing. What resulted? The body came to life. What did that mean? It meant a soul, a visible, touchable, feelable human soul, came into existence. "The man came to be a living soul." That living soul did not come from "the Etheric," so called, for it had never existed before. By God's combining body and breath of life it now came to life. Thus the explanation of what a human soul is may be reduced to this simple, unmysterious "soul equation":
human soul = body + breath of life from God.
This is not just the thought of the pre-Christian Hebrews or Jews; it is also the true Christian

thought. The Christian apostle Paul, writer of fourteen books of the Bible, supports Moses' writings, saying: "It is even so written: "The first man Adam became a living soul.' . . . The first man is out of the earth and made of dust." (1 Corinthians 15:45,47, NW) Thus the first living human soul was the first man Adam. The living human soul is the living human creature. For that reason Young's English translation of the Bible (1862) uses the word "creature" instead of "soul" here.
The Bible is the final authority on the soul. In the Hebrew part of the Bible the word neph'esh (translated "soul") is found about 800 times; in the Christian Greek part of the Bible the word psy-che' (also translated "soul") is found 102 times. In each case the New World Translation renders this Greek word "soul." This yet uncompleted translation is also consistently rendering the Hebrew word neph'esh "soul." Thus the readers of the Bible may see how the Creator of the soul uses the word in his inspired Bible. Since the Bible recognizes and teaches that the living human creature himself is the human soul, it is perfectly reasonable that the Bible should state that the human soul has blood - "the blood of the souls of the poor innocents" (Jeremiah 2:34) - God himself saying: "Your blood of your souls shall I ask back." (Genesis 9:5, NW) In fact, God the Creator of souls shows the dependence of the human soul upon the blood stream to be so heavy that he says: "The soul of the flesh is in the blood." More than that: "The soul of every sort of flesh is* its blood." "The blood is* the soul and you must not eat the soul [yes, not eat the soul] with the flesh." (Leviticus 17: 11,14 and Deuteronomy 12:23, NW) Human souls

can eat blood and fat, but God's law forbids it: "For anyone eating fat from the beast from which he presents it as an offering made by fire to Jehovah, the soul that eats must be cut off from his people. Any soul who eats any blood, that soul must be cut off from his people." -Leviticus 7:25, 27, NW.
A human soul can also eat an animal body: "As for any soul that eats a dead body or something torn by a wild beast." (Leviticus 17:15, NW) The human soul craves material food: "Because your soul craves to eat meat, whenever your soul craves it you may eat meat." (Deuteronomy 12:20, NW) Also fruit: "You must eat enough grapes for you to satisfy your soul." (Deuteronomy 23:24, NW) Or a honeycomb. -Proverbs 27:7.
The human soul is the living, intelligent creature himself, the material, visible, tangible person, and not an 'invisible, untouchable, ethereal something inside the human body. Hence the human soul can tear its own self or can be torn by a lion, can be delivered from a threatening sword, can fall into a pit dug for it, can be brought back again from a pit, or can be brought out of a prison. (Job 18:4, margin; Psalm 7:2; 22:20; Job 33:18, 30; Jeremiah 18:20; Psalm 142:7) The human soul can be bought for money; it can be kidnaped and sold; it can be hunted like a wild beast. (Leviticus 22:11; Deuteronomy 24:7; Exodus 4:19, NW) After the creation of the first human souls on earth, Adam and Eve, all other human souls have been born. They have not come out of "the Etheric." They have come out of the bodies or loins of fatherly human souls and from the wombs of motherly human souls. Of Jacob's wife Leah we read: "In time she bore these to Jacob: sixteen souls. All the souls who came to Jacob into Egypt were those who issued out of his upper thigh, aside from the wives of Jacob's sons. All

the souls were sixty-six." (Genesis 46:18, 26, NW) "And all the souls who issued out of Jacob's upper thigh came to be seventy souls." (Exodus 1:5, NW) The soul is, therefore, not something separate and distinct from the human body that can leave the body in dreams and at death or that can transmigrate or pass at death into another body, to be thus reborn at death into another body.
Now a question: Does the Bible itself show a difference between body and soul? Indeed it does, and that right at the beginning, at Genesis 2:7, at man's creation. The man's body that Jehovah God formed out of the dust from the ground in Eden was not a human soul; it was just a lifeless, inactive body that neither saw, heard, tasted, smelled, felt or thought. To make the body live and use all its sense organs and powers, God combined the perfect human body with the breath of life that he blew into the body. Thus there came to be a living human soul that had never existed before. So the human body is a necessary part of the human soul, and the human soul cannot exist apart from the human body. Many times the Bible speaks of the life that we human creatures enjoy as "soul." Jesus said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate . . . even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26, NW) "He that is fond of his soul destroys it, but he that hates his soul in this world will safeguard it for everlasting life." (John 12:25, NW) "They did not love their souls even despite the danger of death." (Revelation 12:11, NW) "I am the right shepherd; the right shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep." -John 10:11, NW.
In harmony with this unseparableness of the soul from its body, when a speaker uses the expression "my soul," he really means "I myself," or, "me myself." Jesus gave an illustration of a

rich man, who, after storing up his increased good things, said: "I will say to my soul: 'Soul, you have many good things laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, enjoy yourself.' But God said to him: 'Unreasonable one, this night they are demanding your soul from you.' " Without soul or life as a human creature, how could the rich man enjoy the good things he had stored up? (Luke 12:16-21, NW) Even God himself uses the expression "my soul," saying: "Look! my servant whom I chose, my beloved, whom my soul approved!" (Matthew 12:18, NW; Isaiah 42:1) " 'My righteous one will live by reason of faith,' and, 'if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' " (Hebrews 10:38, NW) "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates." (Isaiah 1:14, R8) Likewise, the expression "your (thy) soul" is used to mean "you yourself," and "his soul," "him himself." For example, "Yahweh of hosts hath sworn by his own soul." (Jeremiah 51:14; Amos 6:8, Ro, margin) "So it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live." (Jeremiah 38:20; Isaiah 55:2, 3) Thus the word "soul" is used to refer to the person himself.
What the prophet Elijah said regarding the child whom he was used to restore to life is no Biblical proof that the human soul is distinct and is merely linked to the human body by some element called a "perispirit or fluid body," and that at death it carries on a separate, independent, outside existence in the immaterial, spirit world. We read: "The son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness came to be so severe that there was no breath left in him. And [Elijah] proceeded to stretch himself upon the child three times and call to Jehovah and say: 'O Jehovah my God, please, cause the soul of this child to come back within him.' Finally Jehovah listened to Elijah's voice,

and the soul of the child came back within him, so that he came to life." (1 Kings 17:17, 21, 22, NW) Does the Bible here say the child's soul was alive in an invisible, spirit world and that the child was lucky that it had died and that it had never been so happy on earth as it was then in the spirit world? No! Did the child's mother ask Elijah to act as a male medium and put her in touch with her dead son so that she could talk with the departed soul through Elijah? No! If the child was better off for having died, then it was an injustice and extreme selfishness for Elijah to pray as he did and for him to restore the child to life in the human body.
The same holds true for the Shunammite's son whom Elijah's successor, Elisha, restored to life. It holds true also for the dead whom Jesus and his apostles restored to life in the flesh on earth: Jairus' daughter, the widow of Nain's son, Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha, Dorcas (Tabitha) of Joppa, and Eutychus of Troas. (2 Kings 4:8-37; Matthew 10:1, 8; Luke 8:41-56; 7:11-15; John 11:1-44; Acts 9:36-41; 20:6-12) What the prophet Elijah really prayed for was, not for a departed soul to return from the spirit world into the child's body, but for the child's life as a human creature to return "by Jehovah God's power that his dead body might become alive again and the child might come to be a living human soul again. In agreement with this An American Translation reads here: "May this child's life return into him again." "So the LORD hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the life of the child came back to him again, so that he lived." " 'See, your son is alive,' said Elijah." (1 Kings 17:21-24, AT; also Mo) Hence it is no more difficult for us in English to say a human soul has soul than it was difficult for a Jew to say in Hebrew that a neph'esh has

neph'esh or that neph'esh is in a neph'esh ("soul"). -Leviticus 17:10-14, NW.

THE SPIRIT IN MAN

But in this case does not the scripture, Ecclesiastes 12:7, apply: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it"? Yes. And does not the report, at Luke 8:54, 55 (RS), of Jesus' raising Jairus' daughter to life say: "But taking her by the hand he called, saying, 'Child, arise.' And her spirit returned, and she got up at once"? Yes. Are we, then, to reason from this that, before Elijah raised the widow's dead son to life, and before Jesus raised Jairus' girl to life, their spirit was alive in a spirit world and that it had returned to God who gave it and was living with him? No; for the "spirit" is not, as Rishi describes it, "the etheric body of an individual having all his characteristics. .. . . the exact counterpart of the physical portion of the individual." According to the Bible the spirit (ru'ahh, Hebrew; pneu'ma, Greek) is God's invisible active force that causes life or makes alive.
As it is described in Revelation 11:8-11 (NW): "And their corpses will be on the broad way of the great city . . . And after the three and a half days spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet." Also as it is described in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones: "Thus saith My Lord Yahweh, unto these bones, Lo! I am about to bring into you spirit, and ye shall live; . . . And when I looked then lo! upon them were sinews, and flesh had come up, and there had spread over them skin above, but spirit was there none within them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the spirit, prophesy, Son of man, and thou shalt say unto the spirit, Thus saith My Lord Yahweh - From the four winds

come thou, O spirit, and breathe into these [breathless] slain that they may live. And when I prophesied as he commanded me, then came into them the spirit and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army." -Ezekiel 37:5-10, Ro; also Yg; Le.
Jehovah God is the source of the life-imparting spirit or invisible life-giving active force. Hence when the dead body returns to the earth as it was, that spirit or active force that animated that body returns to its source; it quits operating in that body. So the power to make that human creature live again rests with God, the Source of life. By the sentence of death that God pronounced upon Adam and Eve he has subjected all their offspring to condemnation and at the limit of their condemned lives he requires of them their life force, for they are condemned to death through inheriting sin from Adam and Eye. God's just law requires that life force or spirit of them, and thus it returns to him. When God lifts that condemnation or removes it, then he can make the relieved offspring of Adam live again by his spirit or invisible activating force. Hence the inspired Psalm says to God: "Thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed, thou withdrawest their spirit, they cease to breathe, and unto their own dust do they return: thou sendest forth thy spirit and they are created, and thou renewest the face of the ground." -Psalm 104:29, 30, Ro; also Yg; Le.
This life force sustained by breathing is what returned to Jairus' daughter when Jesus took her by the hand and commanded: "Child, arise." God heard Jesus and caused His life-imparting active force to make her body alive and breathe again and keep it from returning at that time to the dust of the earth. Jesus referred to such spirit or life force when, at his death on the stake at Calvary, he said to God: "Father, into your hands I entrust

my spirit." (Luke 23:46, NW) On the third day afterward God restored that spirit or life force by resurrecting Jesus from the dead. (Acts 2:22-28, 32-36) So Ecclesiastes 12:7 cannot be used to teach that immortal spirits of the human dead are in a spirit world enjoying greater life, knowledge and freedom than ever before and that they have all, good and bad alike, returned to God. Instead, it proves that all mankind are under condemnation of death and hence must grow old and approach death and that when they die the body will return to the dust, for God's righteous law requires their life force of them.
In this respect, mankind, because of the condemnation to death that they inherited from Adam, are like the lower animals that die, not because animals are condemned to die for sin, but because their Creator did not decree that they should live forever. Showing that thus man's spirit is just now like that of the lower animals, the inspired wise man says: "I said in my heart concerning the speaking of the sons of men, that God might make it clear to them, and that they might see that they by themselves are but beasts. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even the same thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one kind of spirit: so that the preeminence of man above the beast is nought; for all is vanity. Every thing goeth unto one place: every thing came from the dust, and every thing returneth to the dust. Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of man that ascendeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that descendeth downward to the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:18-21, Le; also Yg; Ro) We see, therefore, that the spirit or invisible, activating life force that makes animals live is the same as that which makes mankind live, and hence the only thing that can give man any pre-eminence

above a lower animal is God's decree or God's arrangement concerning man's future. By God's undeserved kindness man does enjoy such a pre-eminence over lower animals, for God has willed and provided that believing, obedient mankind may enjoy everlasting life in a righteous, death-free new world. So the enjoying of such life does not begin when the body returns to the dust at death, for the spirit that then returns to God is not an invisible, immortal counterpart of that mortal body, having all its characteristics. Such an idea of the spirit in man is simply an imaginary theory that spiritualists invent to support their teaching of "survival after death." Their "next world" is not God's righteous new world.

IS THE HUMAN SOUL IMMORTAL?

For a human soul to live there must be (1) a human body and (2) the invisible, active force or spirit from God combining with that body to make it breathe and live. The human creature thus brought to life is the human soul. (Genesis 2:7) Now since the human soul must breathe earth's atmosphere and must eat material food here on earth, and since it may be torn, be imprisoned and be laid in irons or be reached by the sword and may be brought down to the pit (Psalm 105:18, Da; Yg; Jeremiah 4:10; Luke 2:35), is the human soul death-proof, immortal? Spiritualism rests mainly upon the belief in the immortality of the human soul; it bases its teaching of "survival after death" upon the soul's immortality, and it says that the Bible is full of references to survival after death and the communicating between the living and the dead. Consequently the claims of spiritualism require us to examine the special question, Does the Bible teach the immortality of the human soul, making survival after death possible?

Immortality is of course mentioned in the Bible, but does the Bible say the human soul has it? Look it up and surprise yourself to find that the word "immortality" does not occur once in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible; and in the Christian Greek Scriptures the Greek word a-tha-na-si'a, which is translated "immortality," occurs only three times. Here are the three times:
"For this which is corruptible must put on incorruption, and this which is mortal must put on immortality. But when this which is corruptible puts on incorruption and this which is mortal puts on immortality, then the saying will take place that is written [at Isaiah 25:8]: 'Death is swallowed up forever.' " (1 Corinthians 15:53,54, NW) Here the apostle Paul is discussing the Christian resurrection from the dead and he shows how the faithful Christians are raised from the dead and with what body. He does not say they now have immortality any more than they now have incorruptibility, for in Romans 2:6, 7 he tells Christians that God "will render to each one according to his works: everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good." (NW) Incorruptibleness as well as immortality is a future reward that is to be bestowed upon faithful Christians at their resurrection from the dead. The apostle showed that this resurrection and putting on of incorruptibleness and immortality was not to take place at death but at the second coming and presence of Jesus Christ when he raises his faithful followers from the dead. "For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive. But each one in his own rank: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who belong to the Christ during his presence. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is

raised up in incorruption. . . . and we shall be changed." -1Corinthians 15:22, 23, 42, 52, NW.
Notice no mention here of the human soul. Instead of the inherent immortality of the human soul, the above two mentions of a-tha-na-si'a or immortality teach directly the contrary.
The remaining or third mention of a-tha-na-si'a or immortality is found in the following quotation: "Observe the commandment in a spotless and irreprehensible way until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. This manifestation the happy and only Potentate will show in its own appointed times, he the King of those who rule as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, the one alone having immortality." (1 Timothy 6:14-16, NW) The apostle Paul is here telling Timothy that of all the earthly potentates who rule as kings and as lords and who claim immortality none really have it, but the "happy and only Potentate" Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, has it exclusively since his own resurrection from the dead. We grant you that the pagan Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Hindus taught their heathenish doctrine of the inherent immortality and incorruptibility of the human soul. But Jesus Christ, who is the first one upon whom the immortal, 'incorruptible God' bestowed immortality and incorruptibility when raising him from the dead, is the first one that brought the truth concerning these to light by his preaching of the good news about God's kingdom. "Now it has been made clearly evident through the manifestation of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death but has shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news." -2 Timothy 1:10 and 1 Timothy 1:17, NW.
From this it is seen that this third Scriptural mention of a-tha-na-si'a or immortality flatly denies that any humans, even earthly potentates,

dictators, kings and lords, have inherent immortality of the human soul. In the Roman Catholic version of the Bible, in the apocryphal or deutero-canonical books of its "Old Testament," the words "immortality" and "incorruption" do occur, but even these references do not show or prove that the human soul is inherently immortal. For instance, Ecclesiasticus 17:29 (Douay) plainly says: "For all things cannot be in men, because the son of man is not immortal." See also Ecclesiasticus 6:16 and The Book of Wisdom 1:15; 2:23; 3:1, 4; 4:1; 6:19, 20; 8:13, 17; 15:1, 3, all of which, if showing anything, show that immortality is a prize to be gained in the future and is not possessed inherently.

DOES THE HUMAN SOUL DIE?

If, now, the Bible does not teach the inherent immortality of the human soul, it ought to say that the human soul is mortal, that it dies! Does the Bible do so? Directly so, in plain language that even a child can grasp. Since spiritualists, Roman Catholics and other religions of Christendom cannot produce one Bible verse saying or proving that the human soul is deathless, immortal, it ought to be enough if we produced just one Bible verse in witness that the human soul is mortal, dies. But we can produce many verses in witness, and the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which regularly translates the Hebrew word neph'esh and the Greek word psy-che' as "soul" from Genesis 1:20 onward, shows more fully than any other translation that the Bible says the human soul dies.
In the original garden or paradise of Eden the perfect human souls Adam and Eve did not have to die. Those two perfect human souls could have lived on forever in their earthly paradise. How? By sustaining their human, material bodies with

the natural food that Jehovah God there provided and by obediently nourishing their hearts and minds with the spiritual food that he provided when he talked to them out of the invisible. But God warned them that the human soul, despite its ability to live on earth forever by God's provisions, was mortal, able to die. Genesis, chapter two, after describing God's creation of the first human soul Adam, goes on to say: "And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it. And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: 'From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die." (Genesis 2:15-17, NW) If Adam the soul disobeyed God, then Adam the soul would die. If Adam the soul obeyed God and ate of all the trees in Eden except this forbidden one, then Adam the soul would continue living as long as his obedience kept up. This offered the opportunity for the human soul to live eternally, not in a spirit world, but in human perfection in the earthly paradise of Eden.
When God pronounced the sentence of death upon Adam after he disobediently accepted some of the forbidden fruit from the hand of his wife and ate it, God said: "In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17-19, NW) Note that God did not say to Adam, 'Your body will return to the dust but your spirit will be freed from the body and will live on consciously in the unseen world where I dwell, because your spirit is immortal and I cannot destroy it.' No, but God said, 'You [not your body, but you, the soul] were taken from the ground and to the ground you

will return, for you [the soul] are dust and to the dust you [the soul under death sentence] will return.'
As a living soul Adam was just some animated, quickened, enlivened or vivified dust molded together in a man's form, just the same as the other land animals. To put the death sentence into force God drove the man out of the paradise of Eden. Why? "Jehovah God went on to say: 'Here the man has become like one of us in knowing good and bad, and now in order that he may not put his hand out and actually take fruit also of the tree of life and eat and live forever, -' With that Jehovah God put him out of the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken [and to which he must now return]. And so he drove the man out and posted at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubs and the flaming blade of a sword that was turning itself continually to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:22-24, NW) God did not keep him away from the tree of life that Adam might die only as to his body but pass alive in spirit to a spirit world, beginning an immortal journey there, knowing more and being freer there and thus really benefiting by his having disobeyed his Creator and dying. God drove him out of the paradise of Eden away from the tree of life that the human soul Adam might not live at all anywhere but cease to exist, "positively die," just the same as a brute beast.
Because he fell from human perfection, the human soul Adam lived many centuries even on the cursed ground outside the paradise of Eden. "Meanwhile he became father to sons and daughters. So all the days of Adam that he lived amounted to nine hundred and thirty years and he died." (Genesis 5:4, 5, NW) On the very day that Adam sinned and God condemned him and

drove him outside Eden's paradise, Adam was dead from God's viewpoint and so was dead in sin. He became a father of disobedience and produced sons of disobedience. For this reason the apostle Paul told the Christians: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you at one time walked according to the system of things of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now operates in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:1, 2, 5, NW) From that standpoint, too, Eve as well as Adam was "dead though she [was] living." (1 Timothy 5:6, NW) Now being dead in sin was not the full measure of death for Adam and Eve, but when they ceased to breathe and when the spirit or life-causing active force returned to God who gave it to them, then the first two human souls, Adam and Eve, died. Adam lived seventy years less than a thousand years. So, if we take the apostle Peter's time measurement, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3: 8), then Adam as well as Eve positively died "in the day" that he ate from the forbidden tree. He died in the first thousand-year day of humankind's existence.
But where are the scriptures that say in so many words that the human soul dies? At Numbers 23:10 (NW) the prophet Balaam is inspired by Jehovah God to say: "Let my soul die the death of the upright ones, and let my end turn out afterward like theirs." Other verses (NW) on soul death read: "You must deliver our souls from death." "Our souls are to die instead of you people!" (Joshua 2:13, 14) "Zebulun was a people that scorned their souls to the point of death." (Judges 5:18) "His soul got to be impatient to the point of dying. . . . Samson proceeded to say: 'Let my soul die with the Philis'tines.' " (Judges 16:16, 30) "And he [the prophet Elijah] began to

ask that his soul might die and to say: 'It is enough! Now, O Jehovah, take my soul away, for I am no better than my forefathers.' " (1 Kings 19:4) Also: "Their soul dieth in youth, and their life among the defiled." (Job 36:14, Yg; Da; Ro; Le) "To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." (Psalm 33:19) "He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence." (Psalm 78:50) "Thou hast delivered my soul from death." (Psalm 116:8) "He hath poured out his soul unto death." (Isaiah 53:12) "Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?" (Ezekiel 13:19) "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." -Ezekiel 18:4, 20.
But did you ever hear of a dead or deceased soul? Here is where the Bible uses such an expression: "You must not make cuts in your flesh for a deceased soul." (Leviticus 19:28, NW) "For a deceased soul no one may defile himself among his people. And he should not come to any dead soul." (Leviticus 21:1, 11, NW; also 22:4) "All the days of his keeping separate to Jehovah he may not come toward any dead soul." (Numbers 6:6, NW; also 5:2; 6:11; 9:6, 7, 10) "Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must then be unclean seven days." -Numbers 19:11, also 13, NW; see also Haggai 2:13, where neph'esh ("soul") is generally translated "dead body."
The Bible does not contradict itself. With all those verses plainly speaking of soul death, no wonder you do not find any that says that the human soul cannot die or has immortality. But someone might remark, All those Bible verses are from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, but is the mortalness of the human soul taught in the Christian Greek Scriptures? For, in Matthew

10:28, did not Jesus say: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul"? Yes, but Jesus also said: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34) "They did not love their souls even despite the danger of death [or, souls until death]." (Revelation 12:11, NW, margin) "And a third of the creatures that are in the sea which have souls died." (Revelation 8:9, NW) "And every living soul died in the sea." (Revelation 16:3) Also Jesus' disciple James wrote: "He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death." (James 5:20) So Jesus and his disciples did believe in our soul's mortalness.
The usual way that clergymen try to uphold the teaching of the immortalness and indestructibleness of the human soul is by quoting only the first half of Matthew 10:28. Why? Because in the last half of the verse Jesus goes on to say: "But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." That is to say, fear Almighty God who can destroy the human soul as well as the human body, in Gehenna. This is the Greek word mistranslated "hell," it not being the same Greek word as hai'des and tar'ta-ros, which words the King James Version also translates as "hell."
Jesus at death went to Ha'des or mankind's common grave, but not to Gehenna, for his body was buried in the grave of Joseph the rich man of Arimathea. He was not pitched like a cursed criminal unworthy of a resurrection into Gehenna or the valley of Hinnom to the west and south of the walls of Jerusalem. (Acts 2:27-32, AS; NW) Had Jesus' religious enemies gotten ahold of his dead body first, they might have hurled it over Jerusalem's walls into Gehenna to be burned up there in the continual fires mixed with sulphur or to fall on a projecting ledge and be consumed in the

warmth of that fire by worms or maggots that would not die till they had left only his inedible skeleton. Those religious enemies certainly did not want Jesus to be resurrected from Ha'des, which was why they had Governor Pontius Pilate seal the stone-closed tomb and post a soldier guard there to prevent Jesus' body getting out. But, to symbolize that he was deserving of a resurrection from the dead, Jesus was fittingly laid in a memorial tomb; whereas people whose soul as well as body Almighty God destroys in Gehenna will never have a resurrection from the dead and hence will not live again as souls in God's righteous new world. God destroys their soul in that he hopelessly destroys all opportunity for those in the Gehenna state to enjoy life anywhere again by any means. God does not apply the benefits of Jesus' sacrificial death to them. -Matthew 27:57-66; 28:1-4, 11-15; Acts 4:1, 2; Isaiah 53:9; Mark 9:43-48, NW; Yg; Mo.
Jesus taught that the human soul is mortal and therefore destructible, killable. He said: "Is it lawful on the sabbath to dp a good deed or to do an injury, to save or to kill a soul?" (Mark 3:4 and Luke 6:9, NW) "Remember the wife of Lot. Whoever seeks to keep his soul safe for himself will lose it, but whoever loses it will preserve it alive." (Luke 17:32, 33, NW; Ro, margin) "He that is fond of his soul destroys it, but he that hates his soul in this world will safeguard it for everlasting life." (John 12:25, NW) The apostle Peter showed that Moses foretold Jesus, at Deuteronomy 18:15-19, and said: "Indeed, any soul that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people." (Acts 3:22, 23, AW) And at Hebrews 10:39 (NW) we read: "Now we are not the kind that shrink back to destruction, but the kind that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul."

In talking of the soul that way, Jesus and his disciples were in accord with the Hebrew Scriptures, where we read how Israel's judge Joshua acted as Jehovah's executioner of the pagan inhabitants of the Promised Land, as follows: "And Joshua captured Mak-ke'dah ... As for its king, he devoted him and every soul that was in it to destruction. . . . Jehovah gave [Lib'nah] also and its king into Israel's hand and they went striking it and every soul that was in it with the edge of the sword. They did not let a survivor remain." (Joshua 10:28, 30, 32, 35, 37, 39; 11:11, NW) Moses also said to the Israelite soldiers after they executed the enemy Midianites in war: "Everyone who has killed a soul and everyone who has touched someone slain, you should purify yourselves." (Numbers 31:19, NW) The wise man said: "Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul." (Proverbs 6:32) Other scriptures might be quoted, but enough have been quoted here to prove that both the ancient Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Greek Scriptures agree that the human soul is subject to destruction at the hands of Almighty God and his executioners.
What great fact now stands out beyond all contradiction? It is this: There is no survival of the human soul after death. That is why the apostle Paul said that, if there were no resurrection of the dead beginning with Jesus Christ, then "those who fell asleep in death in union with Christ perished. If in this life only we [Christians] have hoped in Christ,'we are of all men most to be pitied. However, now Christ has been raised up from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death. For since death is through a man, resurrection of the dead is also through a man. For just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive." (1 Corinthians

15:18-22, NW) There is a difference between "survival after death" and resurrection. In fact, it is because there is no survival after death that there must be a resurrection of the dead. Since there is no survival after death, there being no immortality of the human soul and there being no personality to the spirit in man, the dead in the graves are dead and, to live again in God's new world, they need to be resurrected from the dead. Thus the very foundation of spiritualism must be false and there can be no such thing as communication between the living and the dead. Spiritualism therefore offers a false, misleading comfort to bereaved ones. It subjects them to a deception. It endangers them, for it denies the fall of man into sin, it denies death as the penalty for sin, it denies the need of Christ's ransom sacrifice to remove mankind's sin and gain God's forgiveness of sins, it denies the need of God's kingdom to destroy this wicked system of things and to resurrect the dead and aid them to attain to everlasting life under God's kingdom in the earthly paradise of his righteous new world.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

This is not saying that spiritualists do not get in touch with an unseen, spirit realm. This is not saying that they do not have authentic phenomena, such as messages received from the invisible, predictions come true of future things, disclosures of knowledge not gained by ordinary means, supernatural movements of objects, and the shaping of ectoplasm from the bodies of mediums into human forms, and other experiences, upon which they chiefly base their belief and teaching. Admittedly such experiences and observed phenomena are a proof of something. Of what? Of an invisible realm with intelligent spirit creatures, but decidedly not of "survival after death" or of communication

between the dead and the living. In this respect spiritualism is a case of mistaken identity. By this we mean that spiritualists mistake the identity of the individuals in the spirit realm with whom they communicate by mediums and other means. They think these are human souls once alive on earth but now departed. For their own purposes the spirits do not reveal their true identity but assume an identity that is not theirs.
Who, then, are these spirits who communicate with spiritualists? They cannot be immortal souls or spirits of humans who have died. So since they pretend to be the invisible, living souls of the human dead and thus work a fraud and a deception, they must be lying spirits. They must be demons or devils, who are responsible for what the Bible calls "lying divination" and "lying signs and wonders." -Ezekiel 13:6, 7, 9; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, NW.
But, objects the spiritualist, the Bible itself gives an account of communication between the dead and the living, between the faithful prophet Samuel and King Saul of Israel before the battle between the Israelites and the enemy Philistines.
In order that we may examine the objection of the spiritualist with all the facts before us, we here publish the entire Bible account as given in the New World Translation:

"Now Samuel himself had died and all Israel had proceeded to bewail him and bury him in Ra'mah his own city. As for Saul, he had removed the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land.
"Subsequently the Phi-lis'tines collected together and came and pitched camp in Shu'nem. So Saul collected all Israel together and they pitched camp in Gil-bo'a. When Saul got to see the camp of the Phi-lis'tines he became afraid and his heart began to tremble very much. Although Saul would inquire of Jehovah, Je-

hovah never answered him, either by dreams or by the U'rim or by the prophets. Finally Saul said to his servants: 'Look for a woman who is a mistress of spirit mediumship for me and let me go to her and consult her.' Then his servants said to him: 'Look! there is a woman who is a mistress of spirit mediumship in En-dor.'
"So Saul disguised himself and clothed himself with other garments and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. He now said: 'Employ divination, please, for me by spirit medium-ship and bring up for me the one whom I shall designate to you.' However, the woman said to him: 'Here you yourself well know what Saul did, how he cut off the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land. Why, then, are you acting like a trapper against my soul to have me put to death?' Immediately Saul swore to her by Jehovah, saying: 'As Jehovah is alive, guilt for error will not befall you in this matter!' At this the woman said: 'Whom shall I bring up for you?' To this he said: 'Bring up Samuel for me.' When the woman saw 'Samuel' she began crying out at the top of her voice, and the woman went on to say to Saul: 'Why did you trick me when you yourself are Saul?' But the king said to her: 'Do not be afraid, but what did you see?' And the woman went on to say to Saul: 'A god I saw coming up out of the earth.' At once he said to her: 'What is his form?' to which she said: 'It is an old man coming up, and he has himself covered with a sleeveless coat.' At that Saul recognized that it was 'Samuel,' and he proceeded to bow low with his face to the earth and to prostrate himself.
"And 'Samuel' began to say to Saul: 'Why have you disturbed me by having me brought up?' To this Saul said: 'I am in very sore straits, as the Phi-lis'tines are fighting against me and God himself has departed from me and has answered me no more, either by means of the prophets or by dreams, so that I am calling you to let me know what I shall do.'
"And 'Samuel' went on to say: 'Why, then, do you inquire of me, when Jehovah himself has departed from you and proves to be your adversary? And Jehovah will do for himself just as he spoke by means

of me and Jehovah will rip the kingdom away from your hand and give it to your fellow man David. As you did not obey the voice of Jehovah and you did not execute his burning anger against Am'a-lek, that is why this is the thing that Jehovah will certainly do to you this day. And Jehovah will also give Israel with you into the hand of the Phi-lis'tines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Even the camp of Israel Jehovah will give into the hand of the Phi-lis'tines.'
"At that Saul quickly fell down his full length to the earth and became very much afraid because of 'Samuel's' words. Also there happened to be no power in him, because he had not eaten food the whole day and the whole night. The woman now came to Saul and saw that he had been greatly terrified. So she said to him: 'Here your maidservant has obeyed your voice and I proceeded to put my soul in my palm and obey the words that you spoke to me. And now, please, you, in turn, obey the voice of your maidservant, and let me set before you a piece of bread, and you eat/that power may come to be in you, because you will go on your way.' " -1 Samuel 28:3-22, NW.*

'There now,' says the spiritualist, 'the Bible says that it was Samuel that appeared after he died.' But is that what the Bible does say? No! It shows that King Saul did not see anything at this seance. It was the spirit medium that saw something by her occult powers. Saul merely yielded himself mentally to her that the seance might be successful. 'But,' says the spiritualist, 'what the medium saw and described King Saul himself identified as being Samuel.' True, but Saul wanted to believe that it was Samuel and he was willing to be deceived by appearances, by resemblances.
Resemblances do not, however, establish exact identity. Other important things have to be taken in account. In his article "A Case for ESP, PK and PSI" published in the magazine Life in 1954,

the well-known researcher into psychic things, Aldous Huxley, had this to say, on page 108:

"Another problem for the psi researchers of the future will be that of human survival after death. . . . Disquieting cases of mistaken identity turn up from time to time in the law courts. . . . Passports, social security cards and even fingerprints can be faked. And somewhere in the, world practically everybody has his or her double. (Stalin and Hitler are said to have employed half a dozen or more.) If it is so difficult, even here and now, to prove scientifically that I am I and you are you, how much harder must it be to demonstrate that the person speaking through the mouth of a medium is in fact the person he says he is, and not a projection of information acquired by means of ESP [extrasensory perception] and dramatized, more or less convincingly, by a dissociated part of the medium's subconscious mind." And then, under a picture of former U.S. president Harry S. Truman alongside that of his theatrical stage doubler Irving Fisher, the article says: "WHO IS WHO? . . . Since physical identity can be counterfeited, Author Huxley points out, it is doubly difficult to assess claims that specific dead people have been heard from in seances through mediums."

To author Aldous Huxley and other psychic researchers these are "old and still unsolved problems." But if we accept the full Word of God, the Bible, this case of King Saul and the medium is no unsolved problem. King Saul had previously killed off, not Jehovah's prophets, but the spirit mediums and professional foretellers of events from the land of Israel. Just as he tricked the spirit medium into practicing her unlawful business, so the spirit that caused the spirit medium to see a god coming out of the earth tricked her and also Saul by counterfeiting the dead Samuel's former living appearance. Samuel at his death left behind the sleeveless coat he used to wear or was buried in. So where did the spirit get the

sleeveless coat? The spirit counterfeited that coat as well as Samuel's oldness. That invisible spirit working through the medium knew how Samuel dressed in life and what he had said to disobedient King Saul on former occasions and how he had refused to see King Saul any more till his own death and what he looked like at his death. (1 Samuel 15:35) So the spirit could easily counterfeit all that, and he did. Whether it was the next day, or "tomorrow," that the Israelite army were delivered to the Philistines in defeat and Saul and his sons with him on the battlefield died, the Bible account does not plainly show. The spirit's expression "you and your sons" meant not necessarily all of Saul's sons but those in the camp with him; one of Saul's sons, Ish-bo'sheth, did not die in that battle but ruled as Saul's successor for a while. (1 Samuel 31:1-7; 1 Chronicles 9:39; 10:2-6) The spirit knew that Jehovah was against Saul and that Saul had displeased Jehovah further by consulting a spirit medium and was condemned to death for that and would not be favored by help from Jehovah in battle. So the spirit could reasonably predict defeat for Saul and death to him and his sons.
Whether the spirit's prediction came true or not, the spirit was a "lying spirit," for it made a prediction from a counterfeit or fraudulent background by pretending to be Jehovah's faithful Samuel and enacting the lie that the dead are not dead and that it is possible for the living to talk with the dead. Samuel was then a dead soul with the hope of a resurrection in God's new world. He had refused to communicate with Saul any longer after Jehovah had definitely rejected him for disobeying Jehovah in the matter of executing all the Amalekites and their livestock. Samuel had also refused to have anything to do with spirit mediums. Certainly, then, no condemned spirit

medium could force Samuel to do after death what he had refused to do during life. Furthermore, the lady medium could not raise the dead. The only one that can do this is "God, who makes the dead alive and calls the things that are not as though they were." (Romans 4:17, NW) "Jehovah is a Killer and a Preserver of life, a Bringer down to She'ol [mankind's common grave], and He brings up." (1 Samuel 2:6, NW) He did not accommodate a condemned medium and bring back Samuel for her.
For rebelling against obeying Jehovah's command King Saul was the same as one practicing spiritism, as Samuel said to him: "Rebelliousness is the same as the sin of divination, and pushing ahead presumptuously the same as [using] uncanny power and teraphim. Since you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he accordingly rejects you from being king." (1 Samuel 15:22, 23, NW) But now by consulting a spirit medium he was directly resorting to spiritism and deserved to die. By the medium he got in touch with a lying spirit but not Samuel. Consequently 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14 (NW) says: "Thus Saul died for his unfaithfulness with which he had acted faithlessly against Jehovah concerning the word of Jehovah that he had not kept and also for asking of a spirit medium to make inquiry. And he did not inquire of Jehovah. Consequently he put him to death and turned the kingship over to David the son of Jes'se."
The attempt by spiritualists to use Saul's experience as a proof from the Bible that there is survival after death and that the departed ones can communicate from the realm of the dead with those living on earth by spirit mediums miserably fails therefore.
Even the spiritualists themselves admit that the spirits with whom they have contact lie and de-

ceive. On page 162 of his book and under the heading "Intrusion by Undesired Spirits" Rishi confesses:

"In our endeavours to converse with our spirit-friends, we occasionally come across undesired entities, who interfere while others are communicating and even impersonate them. This is a great stumbling block in the way of some experimenters who are at times greatly harassed by annoying intrusions from the other world. For want of a good guide in the unseen regions they are much handicapped and feel helpless in the matter. It seems that these earnest persons are anxious to get rid of the undesired visitors, but no argument or prayers have any effect upon such denizens of the next world, whose intrusions are usually meant to harass those through whom they are communicating their thoughts."

But the late British psychic researcher, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is even more blunt as to the inclination of the spirits to lie. On page 72 of his book The New Revelation Sir Doyle said this concerning the spirits themselves:

"We have, unhappily, to deal with absolute coldblooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous intelligences. Every one who has investigated the matter has, I suppose, met with examples of wilful deception which occasionally are mixed up with good and true communications."

Expressing his fear as to the real identity of the spirits, an Egyptian spiritualist named Aly Abdel Galil Rady, professor of physics at the Faculty of Science in Ibrahim University, Cairo, has this to say on pages 277, 287-289 of his book The Invisible World, as translated from Arabic:

"The spirits who appear can be trouble-makers, liars, and perhaps from demons who can skillfully act as the spirits of the dead humans and can speak with their voice, appear in their image and materialize in their form. ... I can say, therefore, that all the

opinions made known by the spirits at their apparitions are questionable. It is true that some of them are right but the majority are wrong. . . . We should not forget that science is full of deceptive phenomena such as the mirage to which the thirsty person runs thinking it is water. Why, then, do we not investigate about the truth regarding the spirits speaking to us. I presume they are demons. And neither I nor those spiritists are sure."

Thus out of the mouths or from the pens of prominent spiritists themselves comes the damaging evidence or testimony. It is useless to try to defend spiritualism with the weak argument that there are good spirits and bad spirits and the intention of spiritualism is to get in touch with the good spirits. Spiritualism is founded on a great untruth, the lie of survival after death and of the immortality of the human soul. Therefore all spirits that would be willing to communicate with spiritualists on the foundation of that lie and try to make that lie appear true must be bad spirits, demons that try to give the lie to God and his Word. The Christian apostle Paul writes: "Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar." (Romans 3:4, NW) That statement includes every man that is a spiritualist and that gets in touch with these proved lying spirits.

WAS THE TRANSFIGURATION A MATERIALIZATION?

Still attempting to play all his cards in the game, the spiritualist will say: 'But was not the transfiguration of Jesus on the high mountain a return of Moses and Elijah from the dead and did not Jesus therefore use his three apostles Peter, James and John as mediums in their sleepy condition to bring about the materialization of those dead prophets?' To answer this, turn to the authentic record, as given at Luke 9:28-36 (NW):

"He took Peter and John and James along and climbed up into a mountain to pray. And as he was praying the appearance of his face became different and his apparel became glitteringly bright. Also, look! two men were conversing with him, who were Moses and Elijah. These appeared with glory and began talking about his departure that he was destined to fulfill at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep; but when they got fully awake they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. And as these were being separated from him Peter said to Jesus: 'Instructor, it is fine for us to be here, so let us erect three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah,' he not realizing what he was saying. But as he was saying these things a cloud formed and began to cover them protectingly. As they entered into the cloud, they became fearful. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying: 'This is my Son, the one that has been chosen. Listen to him.' And as the voice occurred Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet and did not report to anyone in those days any of the things they saw."
This was no materialization of the dead prophets Moses and Elijah by means of producing ectoplasm. There was no ectoplasm extruded from either Jesus or Peter or James or John. They were conscious and observed what was going on, for they were to be made witnesses of this transfiguration so as to make more firm the prophecies of the Bible, not the predictions of spirit messages. As Peter himself confesses, saying: "No, it was not by turning aside to follow artfully contrived false stories that we acquainted you with the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it was by having become eyewitnesses of his magnificence. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when words such as these were

borne to him by the magnificent glory: 'This is my son, my beloved, on whom I have set my approval.' Yes, these words we heard borne from heaven while we were with him in the holy mountain. Consequently, we have the prophetic word made more firm, and you are doing well in paying attention to it." (2 Peter 1:16-19, NW) This could not be a spiritistic materialization of Moses and Elijah, for they were both dead souls, and the time for their resurrection from the dead has not even yet arrived. -Hebrews 11:23-29, 32, 38-40.
This was a vision, like the vision that the apostle John had about sixty years after he witnessed the transfiguration and which vision was so real that John talked with those appearing in the vision. (Revelation 1:1, 2; 5:4, 5; 7:13, 14) Jesus himself pronounced it a prophetic vision, in which Moses and Elijah served as symbolisms of the offices that Jesus was to hold in order to do certain works: The apostle Matthew proves that the transfiguration was a vision when he writes: "And as they were descending from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, 'Tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is raised up from the dead.' " (Matthew 17:9, NW) The spiritualists are therefore authoritatively barred from using the transfiguration of Jesus in support of their teaching.
Immediately after coming down from the mountain of transfiguration Jesus healed a demon-possessed, lunatic boy. Concerning this we read: "Then Jesus rebuked it, and the demon came out of him; and the boy was cured from that hour." (Matthew 17:14-18, NW) This adds to the proof that the transfiguration had nothing to do with spiritism, which is carried on by the demons.
Jesus was not a spirit medium. He never yielded to the influence of demons or unclean spirits. His religious enemies accused him of being possessed

by an unclean spirit, a demon. (John 7:20; 8:48, 49, 52; 10:20, 21) But Jesus himself cast out demons and he empowered his disciples also to cast out demons. (Matthew 10:1, 8; Luke 9:1; 10:17-20) His enemies said he cast out demons by the power of the "ruler of the demons," Be-el'ze-bub. But Jesus said that this would mean that Satan was divided against him so that his kingdom could not stand. Well, then, does that mean that when spirit mediums and priests of false religion exorcise demons God is using them to cast out demons? No, but Satan is using them to do so. In his use of these Satan is not divided against himself, because these spirit mediums and false priests are on his side and are upholding his kingdom by the wonderful thing they are performing, and they are giving seeming support to Satan's religious lies. And so their expelling demons, even in Jesus' name as a magical name, does not prove that such mediums and false priests are not "workers of lawlessness" against God. (Matthew 7:21-23, NW; Acts 19:11-16) But Jesus himself was not on Satan's side. He was Satan's greatest foe on earth and what he taught and preached was directly against Satan's lies and kingdom. So Jesus' casting out demons was a proof that he was doing it by Satan's enemy, by the "finger of God," and it gave support to God's truth and kingdom. (Matthew 12:22-30) His faithful disciples likewise expelled demons by God's power, not by the Devil's. Power to do so back there in the first century was a miraculous "gift" of the holy spirit. But since Christ's twelve apostles died that gift has ceased among his faithful followers and is not possessed or exercised by them today. -1 Corinthians 13:8-11.
Jesus had nothing in common with the demons, and the demons themselves admitted that fact. One of them shouted out: "What have we to do

with you, Jesus you Nazarene? Did you come to destroy us? I know exactly who you are, the Holy One of God." Jesus "reproved it, saying: 'Be silent, and come on out of him!'" Jesus would not let the demons testify concerning him, as we read: "He expelled many demons, but he would not let the demons speak, because they knew him to be Christ." (Mark 1:23-25, 34, NW) Jesus' walking once on the Sea of Galilee to reach the storm-tossed boat of his disciples was no act of spiritistic levitation. (Matthew 14:24-32) When Jesus was baptized and then filled with God's holy spirit and spent forty days in the wilderness, Satan the Devil tried to induce Jesus to perform a levitation to mystify the Jews and win them over at the temple of Jerusalem. On a temple battlement the ruler of the demons said to Jesus: "If you are a son of God, hurl yourself down from here; for it is written: 'He will give his angels a charge concerning you, to preserve you,' and, 'They will carry you on their hands that you may never strike your foot against a stone.'" But Jesus refused, quoting the scripture: "You must not put Jehovah your God to the test." (Luke 4:1, 9-12, NW) His ascension from Mount Olivet forty days from his resurrection from the dead was no spiritistic levitation. It was his return to heaven and his entry into the presence of his heavenly Father with the value of his human sacrifice for the sake of sinful mankind. -Acts 1:9-12.

THE SCRIPTURES FALSELY ACCUSED

The Scriptures are therefore falsely accused of offering support to the claims of spiritualists. For mankind's protection and safe guidance into the truth the Scriptures expose spiritualism to be what it actually is, spiritism or demonism. Hence the law of Jehovah God to the Israelites forbade their having anything to do with spirit mediums

who pretended to put the living in touch with the dead. It commanded: "Do not turn yourselves to the spirit mediums, and do not consult professional foretellers of events, so as to become unclean by them. I am Jehovah your God." Those Israelites who resorted to. spiritism of any kind were to be killed. "As for the soul who turns himself to the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events so as to have unfaithful intercourse with them, I shall certainly set my face against that soul and cut him off from among his people." Spirit mediums were to be stoned to death. "As for a man or woman in whom there should prove to be a mediumistic spirit or spirit of prediction, they should be put to death without fail. They should pelt them to death with stones. Their own blood is upon them." -Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27, NW.
"There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah, and on account of these detestable things Jehovah your God is driving them away before you. You should prove yourself faultless with Jehovah your God. For those nations whom you are dispossessing used to listen to those practicing magic and to those who divine, but, as for you, Jehovah your God has not given you anything like this." Hence to indulge in such things would be certain to turn them away from the coming Messiah, the Greater Moses, who is Jesus Christ. -Deuteronomy 18: 10-19, NW.
What, though, if spirit mediums or fortune-

tellers or astrologers or users of Ouija boards or planchettes make predictions and those predictions come true? Still this does not prove spiritism or spiritualism true, the right religion. Why not? Because this goes contrary to Jehovah God's commandments and it turns those who rely on such spiritistic things away from God's approved means of giving hidden knowledge and of prophesying concerning the future. It also works in support of the great lie concerning Jehovah's Godship and concerning the dead, and so leads into error. God's law commands: "In case a prophet or a dreamer of a dream should arise in your midst and he does give you a sign or a portent and the sign or the portent does come true of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us walk after other gods, whom you have not known, and let us serve them,' " what then? "You must not listen to the words of that prophet or to the dreamer of that dream, because Jehovah your God is testing you to know whether you are loving Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul. . . . And that prophet or that dreamer of the dream should be put to death, because he has spoken of revolt against Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt and has redeemed you from the house of slaves, to turn you from the way in which Jehovah your God has commanded you to walk, and you must clear out what is evil from your midst." (Deuteronomy 13:1-5, NW) A prediction that conies true but that is used to turn you from Jehovah the only living and true God is a false disguise to throw you off your guard and to mislead you away from the divine source of life and truth. It is meant to bring you under the power of the "father of the lie," Satan the Devil, the "ruler of the demons." -John 8:44, NW.
Jehovah God knows who these demons are. He knows their methods of operation and the

destruction they cause to their victims. In his written Word he therefore warns his people and those who want salvation against these unseen wicked intelligences. To believe in the existence of demons is not superstition. It is not only Christian but also scientific to believe in the existence of demons and to believe in a spirit realm, for there is where the invisible Creator, God, who is spirit, dwells and he is certainly not alone in that vast, immeasurable spirit realm. Unknown time before he created our 4½-billion-year-old visible universe Jehovah God made his first creation. It was a spiritual creation, namely, his beloved "only-begotten Son," the "firstborn of all creation," who in due time came to earth and became the "man Christ Jesus." (John 3:16; Colossians 1:15, NW; I Timothy 2:5) Then by him Jehovah made other intelligent creations, also spiritual ones, namely, all the glorious, perfect, holy angels, and it was these spirit "sons of God" that "shouted for joy" at the creation of our earth for mankind's everlasting home. (Psalm 104:4; 103:20; Job 38:4-7) Thus the spirit realm existed before ever our material universe came into being. The marvelously designed, visible material creation testifies to the existence, power and intelligence of the great Spirit Creator, Jehovah God. Materialistic scientists are without excuse for their unbelief toward him. "For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world's creation onward, because they are understood by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable." -Romans 1:20, NW.
Mankind has not had to wait upon the rise of spiritualism for proof that the spirit realm exists. What spiritualism has really tried to foist upon mankind is the belief that the spirit realm is inhabited by the spirits or so-called "immortal souls" of the human dead and that there is survival

for mankind after death. Such a belief may have come from the Orient or the East, but it has not brought any enlightenment to mankind. Rather it has bedarkened their minds to the truth. The Occident or the. West has come under such darkness and so has no light to give. The teaching of "survival after death" is not light, and Shaw Desmond is unfortunately mistaken when he, in his book entitled "We Do Not Die," says: "Spiritually starved, Europe no longer looks to the East for light, for light no longer comes from the East but from the West. The East is still, though it will not always be indifferent to the light which it once gave to a darkened world, that light of the World, which in its ultimate analysis may be called the light of 'Survival.'" Spiritualism with its doctrine of "survival," has only come into existence since the flood of Noah's day in 2370 B.C.
The first man Adam knew the existence of the spirit realm and realized he was a product of it, and he taught his wife Eve so in the garden of Eden. Both Adam and Eve knew that the spirit realm existed, because Jehovah God talked with them out of the invisible, making his will known to them. They heard his voice, not by means of any spirit medium either, and they talked with him also. They knew they were not talking with any dead and "departed" person. Before Adam and Eve there were no dead humans. They talked, not with the dead, but with the living in the spirit realm, until they were driven from the paradise of Eden. Noah and his family of seven human souls survived the global flood, and they knew of the existence of the spirit realm. It was out of the invisible spirit realm that instructions came to Noah to build the ark of survival and to go into it just in time. It was out of the spirit realm that God spoke to them after the flood and blessed them and gave them instructions. Instead of dis-

covering or explaining and proving the spirit realm, spiritualism has twisted the facts about it and misled men into the clutches of the demons. -Genesis 5:32 to 9:17.

WHO MADE THE DEMONS?

Here now comes up a question with some readers. At Deuteronomy 32:4 (NW) Moses sings of Jehovah God, saying: "The Rock, perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, with whom there is no injustice; righteous and upright is he." That being so, he could not be the creator of demons. How, then, did demons come into existence? The very next verse of Moses' song gives us the clue, saying: "They have acted ruinously on their own part; they are not his children, the defect is their own. A generation crooked and twisted." (Deuteronomy 32:5, NW) That is to say, those now demons made themselves such, and this defect is their own and they are no longer God's children. The Bible also calls them "unclean spirits." (Matthew 10:1; 12:43; Mark 1:23, 26, 27; Luke 4:33, 36; Acts 5:16; 8:7) But Jehovah God created them as clean spirits, his heavenly sons, members of his spirit family. They were not created immortal, but mortal, yet with the opportunity to live everlastingly by continuing to be clean, holy, spirit sons of God. Otherwise, now that quite a number of these have become demons, they could not be destroyed from the universe.
The first one to make himself a demon became the "ruler of the demons," for he had other angels or spirits to make themselves like him. (Matthew 12:24 and Mark 3:22, NW) Because he was first in opposing God, in slandering or lying about God, in using deceit and in swallowing up his victims like a dragon, he was branded with four special titles, Satan, the Devil, the original Ser-

pent and the Dragon. (Revelation 12:9; 20:2, NW) This third title links him with the talking serpent in the paradise of Eden. "The serpent seduced Eve by its craftiness." (2 Corinthians 11:3, NW) It was Satan the Devil that obsessed that serpent and caused it to talk and seduce Eve, for a mere serpent could not talk and act out a seductive course of action itself. It was under invisible control. The invisible one that directed the serpent made himself Satan the Devil by the course of opposition and slander against God that he caused the serpent to take. This invisible spirit had been created a perfect, holy, spirit son of God. Being put in touch with the paradise garden of Eden and its human inhabitants, he saw an opportunity to make himself a mimic god and to capture control over mankind. (Ezekiel 28:13-17) Rebelling in his own heart against his very Creator, he mapped out his plan of action. He did not himself materialize, but used a serpent in Eden. By it he talked, not to the man Adam, but to the woman Eve, to turn her into rebellion against God and to use her to work on Adam to do the same thing.
"So it began to say to the woman: 'Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?' At this the woman said to the serpent [and thus to Satan the Devil]: 'Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But as for eating of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden [the tree of the knowledge of good and bad], God has said, "You must not eat from it, no? you must not touch it for fear you may die."' At this the serpent said to the woman: 'You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.'" -Genesis 3:1-5, NW,

By this statement Satan lied. He called God a liar, a deceiver, not almighty, so unable to carry out the punishment for the breaking of His law. Satan did not here promise Adam and Eve immortality after death, but said they would not die in the flesh as a result of eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. It in itself would not kill them and God would not or could not enforce the death penalty. Instead, they would be bound to be like God, not after death by a survival after death, but while alive in the flesh. They would be like God, not as to immortality, but as to knowing good and bad by their own increased knowledge to decide for themselves what is good and bad without following God's ruling or decision. So, not with any idea of dying and entering the spirit world and knowing more there than she ever did before in the material paradise of Eden, but with the idea of continuing to live in the flesh with increased knowledge and with independent self-determination, Eve listened to the Serpent rather than to the true God. She ate. Then she used her influence to induce her husband Adam to eat. They did get their eyes opened, but to see their own naked shame. They did not feel like a God of superior knowledge, but they feared Jehovah God and tried to hide from him. Instead of looking forward to living endlessly, everlastingly, in the flesh in the earthly paradise, they received God's sentence of dying without survival and were driven out of the Edenic paradise.
Not only were they sentenced to death, but the rebel spirit Satan the Devil the original Serpent was also sentenced to die, with his head crushed under the foot of the Seed of God's chosen woman. This showed that holy angels, such as Satan had been up till his rebellion, are not immortal, indestructible, but their living forever is hinged upon their perfect obedience to God. Thus a hu-

man's communicating with the spirit realm is no proof of the immortality of either spirit creatures or of human souls. -Genesis 3:15.
The wicked spirit Satan the Devil lived on after Adam and Eve died. He has lived till now by God's permission, looking to the settlement of the big question in dispute, Who rules the universe? Jehovah God will show that He runs the universe and dictates its laws and determines and decrees what is good and bad. To the Christian followers of the Seed of his woman God has said: "The God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." (Romans 16:20, NW) Jesus Christ his glorified Son is the one whom God will use to crush Satan the original Serpent and his seed, for this faithful Son is the one whom the Serpent bruised at the heel when he became blood and flesh like the children of Abraham. In proof of this it is written: "Therefore, since the 'young children' are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil, and might emancipate all those who for fear of death were subject to slavery all through their lives. For he is really not assisting angels at all, but he is assisting Abraham's seed." (Hebrews 2:14-16, NW) God healed the bruised heel of his woman's Seed by resurrecting him from the dead, restoring him to the spirit realm, but rewarding him with the prize of incorruptibility and immortality. (1 Timothy 6:15, 16) But Satan the wicked spirit still remains mortal.
In the Scriptures Satan the Devil is not named before the flood of Noah's day. He is first named in the life account of Job, which appears to have been written by the prophet Moses centuries after the flood. Spirit mediums together with inquiring of the dead are mentioned as first existing after the

flood, God's law through Moses warning against these agents of wicked spirits: "There should not be found in you . . . anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead." (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, NW; also Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27) After the flood these forms of demonism began with the city of Babylon founded by Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah. (Genesis 10:8-10) To Babylon the prophet Isaiah said: "These two things shall come upon thee in a moment, in one day, loss of children and widowhood; they shall come upon thee in full measure for [or, in spite of] the multitude of thy sorceries, for the great abundance of thine enchantments. Stand now with thine enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured [from when?] from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to turn them to profit, if so be thou mayest cause terror. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the interpreters of the heavens, the observers of the stars, who predict according to the new moons what shall come upon thee, stand up, and save thee." (Isaiah 47:9, 12, 13, Da, margin) The last book of the Bible foretells why modern Babylon must yet fall like ancient Babylon, saying: "Because your merchants were the top-ranking men of the earth, for by your spiritistic practice all the nations were misled." -Revelation 18:23, NW.
When did the other demons under Satan the "ruler of the demons" come to exist? There is no Bible record that any of the holy angels rebelled with Satan at the garden of Eden or shortly afterward. But the Bible record does show when other spirit creatures did become disobedient to God and thus become demons, imitators of Satan or the "seed" of the Serpent. When was that? At least in the last hundred and twenty years before the

flood of Noah's day. The inspired record by Moses says: "Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were bom to them, then the sons of God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking, and they went to taking wives for themselves of all whom they selected. After that Jehovah said: 'My spirit shall not act toward men indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount io a hundred and twenty years.' The Neph'i-lim proved to be in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God continued to have relations with the daughters of men and they bore sons to them, they were the mighty ones who were of that world, the men of fame. Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man had become great in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time." -Genesis 6:1-5, NW.
Those "sons of God" who married the "daughters of men" were spirit sons of God such as had sung together and shouted for joy when God laid the foundations for creating the earth. (Job 38:4-7) "For who in the skies can be compared unto Jehovah? Who among the sons of God is like unto Jehovah?" (Psalm 89:6, A8, footnote 2)* So Moffatt translates Genesis 6:2, 4 as follows: "The angels noticed that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any one of them that they chose. (It was in these days that the Nephilim giants arose on earth, as well as afterwards whenever angels had intercourse with the daughters of men and had children born to them; these were the heroes who were famous in the days of old.)" Here in Genesis 2:4 the Alexandrine Manu-

script of the Greek Septuagint Version also reads "angels of God" instead of "sons of God."
This explanation of who these "sons of God" were has nothing to do with the Slavonic version of the spurious Book of Enoch.
To marry the daughters of men and have sex relations with them those "sons of God" had to materialize as humans, as men. To live with their wives and enjoy their company night and day and raise their offspring those "sons of God" or angels had to remain materialized in the flesh for as long as they took part in such married life. The evidence is that they continued in this materialized state without interruption until the Flood. During all this time they were neglecting their God-given duties in the spirit realm, in order to enjoy the satisfaction of the passions of the flesh. This was disobedience to God, not only in this respect, but also in the mixing of what is spiritual or angelic with what is human for breeding purposes. The Creator Jehovah God purposed that the human race should be purely human, not a hybrid race by an unequal yoking of angels and women. That was the reason why he made Adam's wife Eve out of a rib from Adam's side. As regards all earthly creatures, God fixed it for each family kind to remain inside its own family boundaries. (Deuteronomy 22:9-11; Genesis 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25) Those disobedient sons of God were thus causing unnatural confusion and working contrary to God's law respecting mankind. Jesus Christ gives us to understand that, in the spirit realm, "neither do they marry nor are they given in marriage" nor do they thus produce angelic children. -Matthew 22:30, NW.
The natural result was that the offspring of such unnatural marriages were freakish hybrids called "Neph'i-lim." The Israelites compared them to the giants of Canaan, in fact, calling the giants

of Canaan "Neph'i-lim." (Numbers 13:33, NW) Being sons of disobedience, they were wicked. Being hybrids without power to reproduce, they made a name for themselves, not by raising families, but by violent deeds, setting an example for men in general to fill the earth with violence and to have the inclination of the thoughts of their hearts only bad all the time. They were called "mighty ones" or Gibborim and were worldly, "of that world." -Genesis 6:4, NW,
Leading such an improper, unspiritual life in materialized flesh over an extended period of time, with one or more wives each, those self-debasing "sons of God" who absented themselves from their God-appointed realm certainly were not keeping their original position but were making their dwelling place with sinful women outside the paradise of Eden. By taking this selfish, lustful, untheocratic course these spirit "sons of God" turned themselves into demons and put themselves on the side of Satan and they too deserve God's pronouncement of sentence against them the same as did Satan the Devil. It is unquestionably to these self-demonized angels that the disciple Jude refers in the following argument in his letter: "Jehovah, although he saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those not showing faith. And the angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling-place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day. So, too, Sod'om and Go-mor'rah and the cities about them, after they in the same manner as the foregoing ones had committed fornication excessively and gone out after flesh for unnatural use, are placed before us as a warning example by undergoing the judicial punishment of everlasting fire." -Jude 5-7, NW.

The original position of those "sons of God" was up in heaven in the spirit realm, where they were before the foundations of the earth were laid to provide a home, not for heavenly angels, but for mankind and lower animals. Their proper dwelling place was in the loftier invisible realm of the heavens in companionship with the other spirit angels of God and with direct access to God's face rather than down here on earth in fleshly companionship with sinful women as wives and as mothers of unnatural children. Adam followed Eve into sin and rebellion against God; these "sons of God" followed the "daughters of men" into sin and demonic rebellion against God. They are the angels whom Jude meant, for Jude compared Sodom and Gomorrah to them, in that these cities committed fornication excessively and went out after flesh for unnatural use, trying even to commit sodomy with the two angels that had materialized as men in order to visit Lot at his home in Sodom. (Genesis 19:1-11) The Israelites, too, committed fornication idolatrously with the flesh of heathen women outside their holy nation. (Numbers 25:1-9; 31:15, 16) The sin of the "sons of God" was similar.
For their sinful disobedience these "sons of God" who forsook God's heavenly service have been sentenced to death with Satan the Devil, as his "seed" or offspring. Jude's letter shows this, for he locates his reference to these fallen angels in between his mention of those Israelites who were once saved from Egypt but who were afterward destroyed for not showing faith in Jehovah and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that underwent the judicial punishment of everlasting fire for their filthy immorality. (Genesis 19:12-29) Jesus Christ, in his prophecy on the "time of the end" of this world, classed the anti-Christian goats in with these fallen angels, saying: "Be on your

way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels." (Matthew 25:41, NW) However, the sentence of everlasting destruction was not executed upon those disobedient angels even at the time of the flood. Their unnatural offspring, the Nephilim, were indeed destroyed at the flood, for they were merely human and were not admitted into the ark that Noah built for saving his family and specimens of the lower animals. The wives of the "sons of God," the mothers of the Nephilim, were drowned in the flood for they, too, were human and the "sons of God" could not take them with them when they dematerialized to escape the flood and return to the spirit realm.
What punishment, then, was inflicted upon those disobedient "sons of God" in this meantime before their coming destruction? Jude says that God "has reserved [them] with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day." The apostle Peter also describes their immediate punishment, saying: "God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tar'tar-us, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment; and he did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people, and by reducing the cities Sod'om and Go-mor'rah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come, and he delivered righteous Lot, who was greatly distressed by the indulgence of the law-defying people in loose conduct." (2 Peter 2:4-7, NW) Particularly from the Flood and to the judgment of the great day of Jehovah when he establishes his kingdom by Jesus Christ, the "angels that sinned" have been penalized with having to dwell in Tartarus, unable to return to their lofty "orig-

inal position." Tartarus (generally mistranslated "hell") is not the same as Gehenna and Ha'des (likewise mistranslated "hell"). Whereas Gehenna pictures God's arrangement for destroying wicked human souls forever and Ha'des is the common grave of mankind from which there will be a resurrection of the dead, Tartarus is where the "angels that sinned" are confined.
The Biblical Tartarus is not the Tartarus of the heathen mythologies, namely, the lowest of the lower regions, as far below Ha'des as the earth is below heaven. There the lesser gods, Cronus and the other spirit Titans, were imprisoned by the victorious god Zeus or Jupiter. It was a place of darkness and it enveloped all the lower regions the same as the heavens enveloped all that was higher than the earth. Comparable with the mythological meaning, Tartarus pictures a condition of deepest abasement and dense darkness, not for human souls, but for wicked spirits, rebels against God. In harmony with this, the Syriac version of 2 Peter 2:4 uses the expression "the lowest places" instead of Tartarus. These rebel spirits, i

WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY ABOUT"SURVIVAL AFTER DEATH"?