In spiritism, it is believed that there can be contact with the deceased. People strive to get in touch with the dead, using various methods to ‘summon’ the dead. We have seen in the previous blogs that the dead are not alive, not even in another place. In death there is no communication, only silence.
the dead are silent
But there are indeed experiences in which people who summon the dead seem to get in touch with the dead. We also find an example of this in the Bible, which we will discuss later. But the dead are silent (Ps. 31:17; 115:17), so in spiritism, the deceased is not really spoken to, but demons who pretend to be the dead. Scripture therefore strongly condemns the pursuit of speaking with the dead.
Leviticus 19
31 Do not turn to mediums or psychics, do not seek them out to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God
spirits of the dead
What is translated here as mediums, is translated in the NBG as spirits of the dead and in the Revised Statenvertaling as necromancers. Clairvoyants are also mentioned, who are soothsayers.
Whoever wants to speak with the dead is looking for something that man cannot do, the dead are no more and are a thing of the past. And a person cannot say anything sensible about the future either. Whoever strives for that, becomes defiled, says this verse. I am YAHWEH, your God, is then stated behind it. There is only One who can and will raise the dead to life and there is only One who is able to speak about the future, and that is God (Isa. 46:10).
Deuteronomy 18
10 There shall not be found among you any man (…) that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,
11 a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a consulter of the dead.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD…
idolatry
Death in the Bible is really death and hence the sharp rejection of Scripture when it comes to consulting the dead. The spirits that are called up are lying spirits, demons. And that is equated with idolatry: that is an abomination to YAHWEH.
Remarkable in this connection is that the Greeks referred to their gods as demons. When people in Athens ask who Paul is, they say: he seems to be a proclaimer of strange gods (Acts 17:18). What is rendered in most translations as gods is the word daimonion, which is almost always translated as demons (Matt. 9:33; 12:24). Idols are demons (compare also: 1 Cor. 10:20). Spiritism and idolatry can both be traced back to demons.
Israel was delivered from Egypt and God brought them into the land of Canaan. There lived peoples who served idols and even offered child sacrifices. Apparently these people also practiced spiritism, because when the people received the law, it contained provisions about consulting the dead and soothsayers, and this is also condemned later in Scripture (Lev. 20:6; 20:27; 1 Chron. 10:13; Isa. 8:19; Ezek. 20:31)