Eschatology
|
7. Do the dead see and hear us? |
|
The dead neither see us nor hear us because it is written that they
“know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Therefore, whether they are in |
|
In the days of Isaiah, the Israelites said to God: “But you are our
Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us” (Isaiah
63:16 – NIV); and in the book of Job we read the following thing about the
wicked that is put to death by God: “You overpower him once for all, and he
is gone; you change his countenance and send him away. If his sons are
honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it”
(Job |
|
When king Saul went to En-Dor to inquire of a woman who had a familiar
spirit (she was a medium), that woman, by the will of God, brought up Samuel
(who was in the bosom of Abraham, which was a place of rest in the hereafter
where the souls of the righteous people went after death), and when Samuel
appeared to Saul he said to him: “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me
up?” (1 Samuel 28:15 – NIV). If Samuel had been able to see and hear Saul, he
would not have asked Saul that question. |
|
What shall we say then about all those paranormal phenomena which take
place during the spiritualist séances, during which people talk with or see
their dead loved ones who tell them certain things about them which prove to
be true, and thus their dead loved ones demonstrate that they know certain
things about the living? We shall say this: their ‘dead loved ones’ are
nothing but evil spirits which disguise themselves so well that the living
believe that they are their dead loved ones (these evil spirits are expert at
mimicking departed human souls). Therefore we are not surprised by the fact
that these spiritual entities tell to the living certain things about their
present life which are true, for we know that the evil spirits which are in
the air can see and hear us. |
|
Therefore, the dead know nothing, and they must not be consulted.
Remember that to consult the dead on behalf of the living is a practice
condemned by the Word of God as it is written: “Give no regard to mediums and
familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the
Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31 – NKJV), and also: “When thou art come into
the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after
the abominations of those nations. 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, Or a
charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
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” (Deuteronomy
18:9-12). And remember also that Saul was put to death by God for this reason
also: because he consulted a medium, as it is written: “So Saul died for his
unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he did not
keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for
guidance. But he did not inquire of the Lord; therefore He killed him, and
turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse” (1 Chronicles |
|
I conclude with the following words written in the book of Isaiah:
“When men tell 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? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according
to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will
roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and,
looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look
toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and
they will be thrust into utter darkness” (Isaiah |