And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, . . . should not a people seek unto their God? . . . To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isa. 8:19, 20.

Certain forms of encounter with the supernatural enjoy a high degree of popularity today. They promise the exciting and the sensational, unnatural phenomena that excite the mind. At the same time this kind of experience may require no deep repentance for sin and no obedience to the truth of God. It may affect a high degree of religion, but the Bible exempts no one from the claims of God's moral law by a promise of some glowing crescendo of emotion. The peril is that this inner subjective experience of the supernatural so involves the individual as to lead him to be indifferent to Bible truth.

In this sinning world we need salvation and deliverance from sin and error twenty-four hours a day, not just a few moments of professed encounter with the supernatural. Any religious system that fails to require obedience to the Word of God cannot meet either the moral law of God or the moral needs of sinners. All types of religious ecstasy, excitement, and euphoria are but a mockery if they do not bring men into harmony with God and with His truth.

Christ cast out demons, but He was no sensational, loud exorcist. He used no spells nor incantations. He spoke in clear words that called upon the demons and false spirits to release sinners from their bondage. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, yet gave way to no sensationalism or irrational bypassing of the mind. He aroused no excitement and emotion that silenced the restraints of reason, purity, integrity. He refrained from all expressions and types of ritual that would imperil the normal operations of the mind and the clear serenity of the soul.

Christ's appeal was always to the Scripture—"It is written"—and never to subjective experience. He gave priority to the Word of God. Experience involved hearing and obeying that Word. He claimed to be the Truth. The Scripture spoke of Him and witnessed to Him. He opened the minds of His hearers that they might understand the Scriptures and the truth from God.