This year has marked the 150th anniversary of modern spiritualism whose official birthday was March 31 1848 at Hydesville, New York State, in the family of the Fox sisters. How do we now assess that movement in the light of Scripture and history?
Although the craze, like so many, began in America, spirit messages were already quite common among mesmerists in France and elsewhere in the 1840s. In fact, mediumship may be as old as the Fall, and there is, of course, one seance in Scripture, King Saul's visit to the woman of En-Dor.
There can be no doubt that attempts to communicate with those who have died are condemned in Scripture. The relevant texts have been published in hundreds of Christian responses to the modern movement, which was early seen by Adventists as itself a sign of the End.
