What about occultic practices like seances? (Part 4)

Occult practices are very intriguing. Are things such as casting spells, predicting the future, and contacting the dead actually real? Are these practices against God’s will or not? Part 4 of this series examines seances and the contacting of the dead.

God forbids the contacting of the dead in Deuteronomy 18:9-13.  This is for two reasons.  First,  the dead face judgment immediately, so they are inaccessible.  According to Hebrews 9:27, “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”  For example, when Christians die, their soul returns to God and their body goes in the ground.  Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”  We can’t contact the dead since they are beyond our reach.

But the second reason God forbids contacting the dead is that demonic spirits are accessible and are willing to lead people astray.  1 Timothy 4:1 says, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”  Since there is a supernatural realm, God forbids contact with spirits because we will tap into the demonic, not the human.

In addition, there is a natural explanation for “spirits” being contacted by mediums.  It would be that these spiritists are fakes.  The magician Harry Houdini would challenge psychics and mediums to perform their “manifestations” on stage.  He would then reproduce the phenomenon that the mediums did since he knew all the tricks of the trade!  In a similar way today, James “The Amazing” Randi began offering $10,000 to anyone who could perform a genuine paranormal act under controlled conditions.  No one ever could.  He has since increased his offer to $1 million, and not one of the dozens who have attempted the feat has succeeded.

Jesus has defeated sin, death, and the devil.  He rose from the dead.  He is the one to contact.  Revelation 1:18 records Jesus saying, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

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  1. Miriam Wehling

    October 15, 2013

    I, too, thought that based on Scripture, the dead are judged immediately. If the dead are inacessable, why does the Bible say in 1 Sammuel 28 that Sammuel (who was dead) appeared & talked to Saul? Thanks.

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