Spiritualism

NECROMANCY
2002
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Necromancy (attempting to contact the dead) was a common practice in religions of the Ancient Near East. God strictly and repeatedly prohibited His people from seeking mediums or spiritists, those who trafficked in ghosts and spirits.

Lev 19:31 Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.

So strongly does God despise such activity that He prescribed the death penalty for those guilty of it.

Lev 20:6 As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.... 27 Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.

To underscore the seriousness of this offense, God groups it with other practices He despises, including child sacrifice and witchcraft.

Deut 18:10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.

Several rulers of God's people were guilty of necromancy and incurred His wrath. Saul, the first king, lost his life as well as his dynasty. Rulers of the Northern Kingdom of Israel encouraged their people to adopt the practices of their pagan neighbors, which eventually resulted in the Assyrian exile. Manasseh, Judah's most wicked king, caused such apostasy that God sent the nation into the Babylonian exile.

1 Chr 10:13 So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry [of it], 14 and did not inquire of the LORD. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.

2 Kgs 17: 17 [The people of Israel] made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. 18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.

2 Kgs 21:6 [King Manasseh] made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking [Him to anger].... 12 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am bringing [such] calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.

The primary reason God condemns necromancy is that it turns people from Him. Instead of seeking His counsel, they look elsewhere. Rather than turning to the one who is ever living, they look to those who are no longer living.

Isa 8:19 When [the people of Judah] say to you [Isaiah], "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? [Should they] [consult] the dead on behalf of the living?

Moreover, there is no evidence that the spirits people supposedly reach are really those of the relatives or acquaintances they once knew. Those who are deceased may observe events in this realm, as "a cloud of witnesses surrounding us" (Heb 12:1), but they do not interact with this realm.

What, then, of those who claim to contact the dead? Many are probably charlatans, preying on the weaknesses of those who want knowledge that is otherwise unavailable to them. Some may, indeed, be in touch with the spirit realm, but those contacts are demons not people, minions of Satan whose intent is to deceive and lead astray even as they appear to offer hope and truth.

John 8:44c Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature], for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1 Tim 4:1 ...in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

God may not tell us everything we would like to know. He may even keep from us information we think we should know. But He will always tell us what, in His great wisdom, we need to know, and we can be sure that (unlike Satan) whatever He tells us is true, for He is the "God of truth" (Ps 31:5).