Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Apostle of Spiritualism

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

Somewhere in my teens I became very interested in the Sherlock Holmes stories. My brother and I read all that we could get our hands on and I even had a few books of my own. One day my dad bought two volumes by Arthur Conan Doyle for me at a yard sale because they had several Sherlock Holmes stories among the others. I read the Holmes stories, and then some of the other stories that were in the books. They turned out to be quite enlightening, but not in the sense that I was expecting. I was rather surprised at the "fiendish female" ghost stories as well as a bizarre "romance" with a weird conclusion and other strange tales. I don't recall the names of the stories now, but the Lord used those books to really wake us up to the fact that author was much more than slightly off. I'm sure He had already been prodding us on the subject, since there is content in the Sherlock Holmes stories themselves that is ungodly (such as his use of cocaine and tobacco), but those other stories goaded us into action. 2Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing... There was a reason for those strange stories, although at the time I did not know the depth of it.

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Arthur Conan Doyle's family lived in Scotland, but their heritage was Irish Catholic. His father was a drunkard. Doyle was educated up to his collage days in Jesuit schools in Britain and Germany, and he was known as a rebel for at least part of that time. He began working with a country doctor to pay his way through the German school, which eventually led to a degree in medicine. He later began writing to supplement his medical practice, but with success he became a full time author. At the end of his life he became a preacher of Spiritualism as well.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been called by some the "St. Paul" of spiritualism, and not without reason. His fascination with mysticism and things psychic, began as a young man. He is said to have started reading heavily into spiritualism (as well as Darwin and Huxley) in his mid to late twenties. He also became an agnostic somewhere around this time. He joined the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.) sometime after 1888 and performed "experiments" that convinced him telepathy was real. From there he moved on to investigate other areas, fully identifying himself to the movement in his late fifties when he wrote two favorable books on the subject. 1 Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

One of Doyle's main interests seems to have been attempting to prove that there was a "happy life" after death outside of Biblical salvation. This was undoubtedly because he was an agnostic and did not want to face a just and holy God on God's terms. His son died shortly after World War I and his interest in communicating with the dead intensified. After a devil convinced him through seances that he had heard and seen his dead son and mother, he became a committed slave of the devil in the area of Spiritualism. The Bible clearly tells us what God thinks of this kind of thing. 1Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; 14 And enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him...

Among other writings on the subject, Doyle wrote two volumes called The History of Spiritualism which are highly esteemed by the spiritualists themselves. He eventually became so devoted to Spiritualism that in 1918 he began to travel, preaching its' doctrines and justifying its' frauds both at home and abroad to anyone foolish enough to listen. He made a monkey of himself particularly in defeding the Cottingley Fairies hoax. He is estimated by some to have forfeited a tremendous amount of money that he otherwise might have earned from writing in order to promote his occult ideas. Ecclesiastes 10:3 Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

Doyle eventually split with the S.P.R. over conflicts about authenticity. He was nominated honorary president of the International Spiritualist Congress in Paris in 1925. Five years later he died very shortly after leading a petition to have the Fortune Telling Act modified in favor of the spiritualists. Thus ended the career of a man who willingly put himself into profound bondage to Satan. John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Now, in case any reader doesn't understand what all of the above means, let's bring it down to where the rubber meets the road. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle studied, "experimented" with, and finally became thoroughly devoted to the activities of devils. Spiritualism is the investigation of and obsession with devils. His writings reflect his religion, which was nothing more than a form of devil worship made socially acceptable in the late Victorian Era - a "parlor witchcraft" if you will. (The same era in which Westcott and Hort were dabbling in the occult and Queen Victoria was having seances to "talk"to her dead husband, by the way.) Although there were many that mocked at Spiritualism, it still had a wide following in the mid to late eighteen hundreds.

Doyle started his venture into it when he was a young man, long before he began to write the books that made him famous. It is little wonder then that in his stories we find such bizarre plots and subjects. He was certainly introducing his devilish preoccupation to the reader. Thus we conclude that anything written by Arthur Conan Doyle should not be in a Christian's home or library. God destroyed the people that inhabited Canaan before Israel for the very sins for which this man lived and died.

Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. 13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

1 Entitled The New Revelation and The Vital Message

Information for this article was obtained from:

http://www.fst.org/doyle.htm
http://fl.essortment.com/detectivestorie_rlow.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~Synergy_2/gateway/doyle.html
http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/cottfair.htm
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/doyle.htm

 

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