Occult arts
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2. I have heard that some people have talked with their dead loved
ones during spiritualist séances. Is there some truth in what I heard? What
does the Bible say about spiritualist séances? |
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Those people have not
talked with their dead loved ones, but they have been deceived into thinking
that they talked with them. For spiritism – that is, the art of evoking the
spirits of the dead to let them talk with the living – is an art of
divination produced by the one who is the father of lies, that is, the devil.
Therefore spiritism is one of the wiles of the devil, through which he
deceives people. |
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Then, with whom did
those people talk, since they claim that they have talked with their brother
or their sister or their mother or their son? They talked with some evil
spirits (or demons), which are servants of the devil, which are able to mimic
or imitate very well the voice of the dead people who are evoked. If certain
comedians are able to mimic so well the voice of some important personages of
variety as well as of politics, that those who are imitated by these
comedians are astonished and full of amazement, I do not think it is very
surprising if certain evil spirits are able to do the same thing with the
voice of men. Of course the purpose of the evil spirits is to deceive the
living. |
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The Bible condemns
spiritism, in that it condemns mediums (those who evoke the spirits of the
dead) as well as those who consult them, for it is written: “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 [medium], or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who calls up the dead].
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 |
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King Saul was put to
death by God for consulting a medium, as it is written: “So Saul died for his
transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of
the LORD, which he kept not, and also
for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
and enquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom
unto David the son of Jesse” (1 Chronicles 10:13-14). |
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I conclude with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits [mediums],
and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto
their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall
come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and
curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the
earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be
driven to darkness” (Isaiah |