Listen to Nancy’s answer recorded live on Moody radio, here:
Scripture makes it very clear that we should never seek the help of necromancers or mediums to hear the voices or to see visions of the dead. The Old and New Testaments forbid us to seek out mediums, which Satan uses to practice witchcraft with people desperate to hear from those who have passed. Satan’s demons are deceivers and can relate false messages that sound like the voices of the deceased through seances or any other means. Our only hope of communicating directly with those who have died will come only to those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. All believers will reunite in Heaven for eternity!
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them” Leviticus 20:27
“There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:10,11).
Only one story, in particular, stands out with someone attempting to communicate with a dead judge — and the story doesn’t end well.
Saul. In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul knows that he is about to go into battle with the Philistine army that was much bigger than Saul’s army. The wise move was for Saul to go to God and ask for help. Because Saul did not hear directly from God, he wrongly assumed that God didn’t care what was happening. Saul decided to take things into his own hands and essentially turned to Satanic powers to help him plan his attack. He finds a medium to communicate with his friend, the prophet Samuel who had recently died. The witch appears to bring up Samuel, but it was no doubt some apparition of himself.
Along with several past transgressions, Saul trusted someone to communicate with the dead, something Scripture explicitly warns against, and he loses the battle against the Philistines. Because of this, Saul and his sons lose their lives.
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or cone who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).
“So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse” (1 Chronicles 10:13–14).
“Do not turn to mediums or seek out Spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31).
“When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19)
The Luke 16 parable of the wealthy man who dies realizes how horrible it is to live eternally in Hell. He begs Abraham, whom he sees in Heaven, to let him give a word of warning to his relatives to repent and turn to God. “Abraham replied: ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ ‘No, father Abraham,” he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'” (Luke 16:29-31).
Jesus makes it clear in his parable that those who have died cannot manifest in some way and warn us.
God is all we need. Thinking that we can find peace and hope in Satan’s playground is foolish and dangerous. We have an all-powerful, all-good, all-present, all-knowing, loving, and merciful God to trust in the good times and the bad. Our Lord is more than enough. God sent us the Holy Spirit to live in us when we trust in Jesus alone.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God“ (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).