Communicating with the Dead? By John D. Jess
II Corinthians 5:8; Isaiah 8:19 Can the living communicate with the dead?You might be surprised to know how many people, many of whom are well-known in professional circles, who believe the living can contact the spirits of the dead. But I'm not interested in the claims of men but rather in what God has to say on the subject. His Word is my supreme authority.
The Bible teaches that we here on earth are surrounded by a spirit world, both good and bad. God has His angels, but so has Satan. We're told in the Bible that God's angels minister to His people. Before the Bible was completed, they sometimes appeared in the form of men. We don't know how many of these ministering spirits there are. But we do know from Hebrews 1:14 that these good spirits are sent to serve those who will inherit eternal life.
Fallen angels. Conversely, there are legions of evil spirits who serve the cause of Satan. They have a strong influence on unsaved people. Moreover, they are capable of knowing much, if not all, about the unsaved dead so that, under certain conditions, they can imitate them. Knowing, as they do, the histories of the departed dead, they are able to possess and speak through certain people, usually mediums. Remember, it is not the dead who speak, but evil spirits who impersonate them.
These spirits are also able to move objects, and even materialize. Believe it or not, there are haunted houses! Satan's emissaries are very real and very active; and they possess super
natural powers.But now to return to our original question, "Can we communicate with the dead?" The Bible records only one such occurrencein I Samuel 28, where Saul seemed to have spoken to the departed spirit of Samuel called up by a medium. But Samuel was a believer, and for believers, God says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8). Obviously, Saul talked to an evil spirit impersonating Samuel.
If spirit mediums can actually communicate with the dead and know their present condition, how is it that they never describe the condition of those dead people? Also, why do mediums never profess to contact the departed souls of Christians? To me, this confirms the fact that evil spirits are doing the communicating and not the souls of the departed! Personally I have never known of a truly born-again Christian who ever communicated with the dead through a medium!
Of one thing we may be sure: these spirits never tell the truth. Why? Because they are servants of the one whom the Bible calls "the father of lies," and they've learned all they know from him! Hence, in Isaiah 8:19, God condemns the work of mediums, saying, "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?"
And God says in I John 4:1, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God."
I take this to be a warning against the lies of Satanís emissaries called demons. oRev. John D. Jess is the regular speaker of Family Life Radio, P. O. Box 35300, Tucson, AZ 85740.