Mediums and psychics offer access to a realm that is not readily available to most people. They may contact a loved one who has passed away or find clues to recovering a missing person or answer questions regarding a crime which would assist in solving an important case.
Two questions immediately come to mind. Is this type of activity really possible? And, why not try it? I will attempt to provide Biblical answers to each of these questions and provide a Christian alternative to these activities.
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Is Contact with the Dead Possible?
The Bible offers multiple examples of contacting the dead. Jesus spoke to Lazarus and told him to come out of his grave. Lazarus heard and rose to life and exited his tomb. (John 11:1-44) There are a number of other similar resurrections of the dead performed by prophets, disciples and apostles. These were all performed by either Jesus or his followers or Godly prophets. Most Christians accept these resurrections as true and accurate. The people were raised to life and then lived out their natural lives and later died like normal as all people do. They will be raised to life at some point in the future as Christ initiates the end times sequence of events. Jesus also told of an account of another Lazarus who had died and had a conversation with Abraham. Jesus repeated the exchange and confirmed its truth and accuracy. This is a unique situation where we learn that the dead can communicate with each other, at least at times (Luke 16:19-31). Jesus also died and entered the realm of the dead to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to all who had died prior to Christ. He vindicated the believers who had died and revealed the truth of judgement to all unbelievers who had died prior to Christ. After three days, Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven (1 Peter 3:18-22).
The Bible does offer at least one example of a medium who was not acting as an agent of God who contacted the dead. The setting is during the reign of King Saul after the Prophet Samuel had died. Saul desired to contact the departed spirit of Samuel and found a medium to accomplish his desire. It was successful except Samuel had terrible news that Saul and his sons and the entire Israelite army would die the following day because of Sauls prior disobedience. So it worked but it didn’t work out well (1 Samuel 28:7-19).
The Old Testament High Priest would use the Urim and Thummim to inquire of God and receive answers to questions. Sometimes God would answer and other times he would withhold his answer because of some sin. When the sin was confessed and repentance/sacrifice was completed, God would answer. We don’t know exactly what the Urim and Thummim actually looked like except that it fit in the pouch of the ephod. They were first mentioned in Exodus 28:30 and used extensively as recorded in 1 Samuel and other places.
God communicated in many various ways during the Old Testament times. He spoke directly with Noah and others. He appeared as an Angel of the Lord and had exchanges with certain individuals and suddenly disappeared. He assured Gideon with the fleece. He withheld rain as punishment. He gave rain as a blessing. He sent enemy armies to attack and oppress for years. Also he would give victory to Israel as a blessing. God has performed many supernatural things to communicate with his people. At the same time, there are several instances which confirm that ungodly people performed supernatural acts. Sometimes they charged for their services. But in reviewing the Biblical record, we would have to conclude that these ungodly people were successful with their activity as mediums, psychics and various acts of divination.
In short, if you believe the Gospel and affirm that the Bible is true and accurate, you must believe in the supernatural. At a minimum, we believe God became man in the flesh, died and rose again. We also believe that we will live eternally even though we may suffer death in our bodies. The Trinity consists of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer ever since the events in Acts 2. We pray. We utilize our spiritual gifts. These all affirm our belief in the supernatural.
The Christian Alternative
As Christians, we have become one with Christ and have no authority and should have no desire to seek supernatural assistance from any source other than God through Christ or the Holy Spirit. We don’t seek to communicate with the dead. We don’t practice divination of any sort. We learn to love the Lord our God and trust that he will grant us every need. He gives us peace regarding death and those who have died. He gives us hope for the future. He gives us grace to live a life of love in serving others. As we live our godly lives, use our spiritual gifts and demonstrate love to others, we find that we have no room for divination from other sources.
We have the Bible. We have the Holy Spirit. We have church leaders to help us. What we have is more than enough to provide for all our needs through life. To look elsewhere is akin to idolatry. God hates idolatry.
To be clear on the Bible’s teaching, I’ll list some references which include witchcraft and divination as evil and ungodly.
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.
Deuteronomy 18:9-11
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Galatians 5:13-26
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? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
Isaiah 8:19-20
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Revelation 21:6-8
Summary
God has revealed himself to us as God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. As believers we should limit our supernatural sources to our all powerful, all knowing and all present God. Because we are in Christ, we have all we need.
What God has offered is greater by far than anything we can get from any other source. What mediums, sorcerers and those who practice magic arts offer is darkness and death.
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
