PART IV
  AN ANGEL OF LIGHT

2 Cor 11:14-15 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

ILLUSTRATION #1

EDGAR CAYCE

Edgar Cayce was born on a farm near Hopkinsville, Kentucky on March 18, 1877. He died in Virginia Beach, Virginia on January 3, 1945. In between he was an agent for Caligastia.

When a young boy, not more than seven or eight years of age, he came home from a walk one day to report that he had seen a vision. It was his habit to take his Bible with him on walks in the fields and woods. This day he was reading the vision of Manoah, Judges 13, in a secluded nook when the experience took place.  
 

"Suddenly there was a humming sound, and a bright light filled the glade where he usually hid to read the wonderful stories. As he looked up, he saw a figure in white, bright as the noonday light, and heard a voice: 'Your prayers have been heard. What would you ask of me, that I can give it to you?' The boy was not startled. Even then it seemed natural to see visions. 'Just that I may be helpful to others,' he replied, 'especially to children who are ill, and that I may love my fellow man.' It seemed almost as if somebody besides himself were speaking. The figure silently disappeared."

 

His parents received the report with extreme skepticism; they assigned it to the influence of strong revivalist fervor then going on around the countryside.
 

The next day his extraordinary experience prevented him from attending to his class work. He bungled his spelling lesson and was ordered to write the word "cabin" five hundred times on the blackboard. That evening he was so distracted he could not concentrate on his lessons. There seemed to be an invisible barrier between his eyes and the book. His father told him he would have to stay up until he had his lessons completed. As the evening wore on, long past his bedtime, he began to nod over his books. He heard a voice, the same one he had heard in the woods, say "Sleep, and we may help you." He fell asleep for a few minutes and awoke to discover that he knew every word in his spelling book by rote.
 

Soon thereafter, when struck by a baseball, he suffered a bad head injury. In a semi-stupor he told his parents to prepare a poultice which, when applied to the base of his brain, astonishingly cured him by the next morning.
 

This was the beginning of a life career of devising "psychic cures" for people. As an adult his technique was to loosen his tie and collar, lie down on a couch, fold his hands across his stomach, and prepare to go into a "trance." At a certain point a "bright light" would flash across his closed eyes, and his eye lids would flutter. If, at that point, someone asked him a question about the health problem of another person, regardless of geographical distance, he would pronounce "cures." He could often describe their personal circumstances and private affairs. He had amazing success with this technique. During his life he gave over 14,000 "readings" for more than 6,000 people. If no questions or problems were posed when he saw the "light" he would fall into a natural sleep state, and would not awaken until he was ready. Later, curious individuals posed many other kinds of questions to him, about ancient history, about their concerns for the future, about Jesus, and about an afterlife. This led to his prediction of great geophysical events, and his nickname of the "Sleeping Prophet."
 

But his "psychic" powers were not limited to the "sleep state." Hugh Lynn Cayce, his son, reported that one time he named correctly the sequence of a deck of fifty-two playing cards, sight unseen.
 

He continued to have "visions" at various periods in his life.
 

"One bright summer day in June, 1936 he was hoeing in his garden, when he heard a noise like a swarming of bees. He looked up, startled, and there in the sky saw a chariot, drawn by four white horses. He heard a voice saying, 'Look behind you.' He turned and saw a man, with a shield and helmet, knee-guards and a cape, but no weapon of any kind. His countenance was like the light, his armor of burnished silver. He raised his hand in salute, and said, 'The Chariot of the Lord and thy horsemen thereof.' Then he disappeared."

 

Many of us might take these reports and conclude that Cayce was a true prophet, that his experiences were from God. And, indeed, they were from "God," the god of this age. He can appear as an angel of light. He can present himself in many different forms. But only to those who are open to him. Cayce was suited to such contact; otherwise it would not have occurred. The "psychic" constitution of Cayce made it possible for this god to appear to Cayce. His is not an isolated case.
 

Part of Cayce's many "readings" dwelt on the theme of reincarnation. Those remarks denigrated Jesus. Cayce might have been a Bible-totin' man, but his trance statements were blasphemous.

"He, our Lord, was the first of those who put on mortality that there might be the opportunity for those forces that had erred in spiritual things . . . He came, this soul we know as Jesus, in many different ages, as a spokesman to 'manifest the first idea.' These incarnations (or those of the incarnations mentioned in the Bible) were given as Melchizedek, Joseph, Joshua, Jeshua, and finally Jesus."


Consider the blasphemy of this statement. Jesus was the first to reincarnate. He came in many previous ages, because of "those forces that had erred in spiritual things." In other words Jesus had erred spiritually. To provide Jesus an opportunity to correct his errors he lived other lives. Thus in previous lives he was Melchizedek, Joseph, etc.
 

Another phase of Cayce's pronouncements which enchanted many people were his predictions of great earth changes. He stated that California would slide into the ocean "in '68." If this was meant to be 1968 his prediction was a gross failure. In a reading dated 1932 he stated that world political turmoil would result
 

". . . from the shifting of the equilibrium of the earth itself in space, with those consequential effects on various portions of the world." "The wars, the upheavals in the interior of the earth, and the shifting of the earth by the change in the axis as respecting the portions from the polaris center."

 

In addition to his other "powers" Cayce sometimes spoke in foreign languages while in trance.
 

How did Cayce possess such powers? The "powers" displayed by Cayce did not originate in his unaided mind. They came from another mind which entered his mind. Thus he "knew" the circumstances and conditions of distant persons.
 

"Through merging his own subconscious, his followers felt, with that of a Universal Consciousness that had existed since the beginning of time, recording everything that had ever happened. And he remembered so well, his followers insisted, because he had lived in all these ages, his soul ever recurring in a new body."
 

The "Universal Consciousness" was none other than the devil's consciousness, a mind that has meticulous memory of every human mortal, of every moment, of all planetary time since he arrived here to rule this world. He could easily describe other people in other places, either living at the moment, or at any time or place in the past. He could diagnose their condition, and prescribe "cures" because he is so thoroughly familiar with human ailments and their causes. He knows all world languages inside out and could speak them through Cayce's body when he usurped mind control. He could estimate great earth changes because he is intimately familiar with the past cataclysmic upheavals of the earth; he knows the weak points of the earth's crust. Furthermore, he has a sickness about past lives. He greatly desires to capture a time when he was still loyal to God. He would love to return to that time. But he made an irrevocable decision. He brought trouble and woe to untold millennia of time. And he cannot forgive his Creator for the sentence pronounced upon him. He has vengeance in his heart. He will do anything, regardless of cost, and with the utmost cost he can devise, to ruin the plans of his Creator. Cayce was only one of his many attempts.
 

Contrary to the common notion of a mild-mannered Bible-totin' Christian, Cayce was a chain smoker, with a volatile temperament. In many fits of rage he fired his personal secretary, only to reinstate her hours later. He also was unable to maintain himself financially throughout his life. When his boys were small the family had no income. In one case they had no wood to heat their home; electric lines-men sawed up a line pole and gave it to them. Around that time they had accumulated an $86 bill at the local grocer, who stopped supplying them. Someone gave them the money, but Cayce went out and bought fishing gear. At another time Cayce was arrested in New York for fortune telling.
 

At one period in his life he received considerable attention. A New York financier gave him the funds to build a hospital in Virginian Beach. But the man lost his wealth in the 1929 stock market crash, and Cayce had to close the hospital.
 

During World War II, fueled by the fervor of national crisis, Cayce intensified his efforts to help others. He would give several "readings" a day, thus exhausting his personal reserves. During this period he often entered into a state of involuntary trance; the "spirit" source would take over without Cayce's conscious permission.
 

With faith in such a man, and with such performances, many foolish and ignorant individuals committed their eternal careers.

ILLUSTRATION #2

SUN MYUNG MOON

"On Easter morning in 1936, Sun Myung Moon was deep in prayer on a Korean mountainside when Jesus Christ  appeared to him and told him that he had an important mission to accomplish in the fulfillment of God's providence. He was then sixteen years old . . ."

 

The Holy Spirit Association of the Unification of World Christianity, (HSA-UWC), has produced several books showing the teachings of Sun Myung Moon. Moon does no writing of his own; his spoken words are recorded by his disciples and then put into printed form.
 

Moon was converted to Christianity as a youth and studied the Bible intensively until Korea was liberated from the Japanese at the end of World War II. At that time he began a public ministry, teaching those principles he had gleaned from his deep study, and as revealed to him from his "psychic" and "visionary" experiences. Korea was soon partitioned into north and south, with the Communists taking over in the north where Moon was then ministering. The Communists were determined to stamp out the "opium of the people." Because of Moon's aggressive evangelism and his large following he came to the attention of the Communist authorities. He was arrested and thrown into jail, where he was beaten and left for dead. He survived but was soon placed into a forced labor camp at Hung-nam, of such strenuous physical labor and with little food, that most inmates died. He again survived, bolstered by his belief that he was a special emissary to the world, and, after two years and ten months, was even give an award for his outstanding work record.
 

When the Korean war began Moon survived bombardment of Hung-nam and was freed by United Nations forces on October 14, 1950. He became part of a large exodus over mountain trails to South Korea where he formally began the Unification Church in 1954. He engaged in many preaching tours, and was soon traveling around the world. The church grew by leaps and bounds until, in 1975, there were headquarters in more than forty countries, and centers in more than 120 cities in the United States. His fame was sufficient, and his public statements on morality and the values of family life of such merit, that he came to the attention of many world leaders and was given audience by President Eisenhower. His more notable public events were mass marriages. In 1968 he married 430 couples in one ceremony in Seoul. In 1970 he married 777 couples from ten different countries and later married as many as 2,000 couples in one ceremony. He emphasized the value of the present industrial age, and the physical aspects of the coming "Kingdom of God." He believed the United States was God's instrument to save the world, and that Communism was the true Antichrist of this age.

 

Meanwhile Moon accumulated considerable personal wealth. His church engaged in massive financial and real estate investments, including such enterprises as the Washington Times newspaper and Insight magazine. After great controversy over his recruiting techniques in the late 1970's, and his arrest for income tax evasion in the early 1980's, the church experienced a steady decline.
 

Moon's teachings show the origin of his "psychic" and "visionary" experiences.

 

"Moses performed even greater miracles than Jesus did."
 

"If God had wanted His son to be crucified, He did not need 4,000 years to prepare the chosen people. He could have sent Jesus to a tribe of barbarians, where he could have been killed even faster."
 

"John the Baptist unconsciously witnessed to Jesus when he was moved by the spirit, but he did not dream of Jesus really becoming the Lord or savior."
 

"Jesus was less than John in many ways. John was highly educated. Jesus was a carpenter's assistant. John was highly esteemed, and was recognized as a great prophet. Jesus was ignorant of academic knowledge."

 

Moon believed himself as the "Lord of the Second Advent" because Jesus failed his mission. Moon was to be the "physical" Messiah while Jesus, because of his failure, was the "spiritual" Messiah.

"Jesus came to establish a perfect world in his lifetime, not over a period of centuries. The Second Coming was made necessary only by lack of fulfillment at the time of the first coming."

Moon believed he held a status equal to that of Jesus.  

 

"Just as Jesus revealed himself with the new truth, the Lord of the Second Advent will reveal himself with God's new truth in our time."

He also believed he might suffer crucifixion as did Jesus.  

 

"At the same time they may be in the process of trying to crucify the Lord of the Second Advent himself if he appears in a manner different from their own experiences.

 

"Then, may I ask, what would you do if the Lord returned to earth as a man of the flesh? What would you do? I am telling you, the Lord of the Second Advent will in fact appear as a son of man with flesh and bones."

Thus we see the high status he held for himself.
 

These "revelations" came out of his "visionary" experiences.

 

"I learned them from Jesus. Yes, I learned them from God."
 

"I am going to speak about some new revelations from God which are very vital to the understanding of all Christians . . . I am only bearing witness to the truth. Sometimes testimony to the truth is a painful task. Yet it is my duty to fulfill.
 

"You may ask again, 'With what authority do you say these things?' I spoke with Jesus Christ in the spirit world. And I spoke also with John the Baptist. This is my authority."

 

"The mission of the Messiah is a physical, realistic one. As a man he must come up from the bottom of human misery. He must come from the most miserable nation and lift the human status from the slave position, to the servant position, to the adopted child position and to the direct child position by physically putting together the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. That is the mission of the Messiah."

Moon's perversions are a blend of his visionary experiences, and their driving influence upon him, his handicapped recognition of New Testament teaching, his lack of perception of Old Testament prophecy, and his concentration on the physical rather than the spiritual. He is unable to recognize the true Kingdom of Heaven. And that lack of perception is rooted in his experience of Caligastia as an angel of light.
 

Jesus warned us that many would come in his name, claiming to be the Messiah. Moon is only one of many who make such claims today.
 

But how are we to judge between visions provided by the rebel Prince, and those which come from God? What is the essential difference between Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, and those of Cayce or Moon?
 

We are now in a position to answer those questions more precisely. The difference lies between those phenomena which do not enter human mind, and those which do. When Jesus appeared to Paul he came external to Paul, presenting himself upon Paul's exterior senses. The appearance of Caligastia depends on the manipulation of neural currents, invading the mind of his human targets.
 

Without question those experiences had profound effects on those men. Both Cayce and Moon were driven to extraordinary lengths by their psychic experiences. And both fell prey to the diabolical enticements of a spirit entity who did not have their well being as his concern.

 

 

These are examples of the types of phenomena that will shortly break out upon our world in more amazing display.

For references see:

Edgar Cayce

1. Edgar Cayce, The Sleeping Prophet, Jess Stearn, Doubleday and Company, New York, 1967

2. Edgar Cayce on Jesus and His Church, Anne Read, under the editorship of Hugh Lynn Cayce, Coronet Communications, Paperback edition, New York, 1970.

Sun Myung Moon

3. A Prophet Speaks Today, W. Farley Jones, Ed., HSA-UWC Publications, New York, 1975.

4. Crazy For God, Christopher Edwards, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1979

5. God's Warning To The World, Moon's message from prison, edited by Chung Hwan Kwak, HSA-UWC, New York, 1985.