The True Meaning of "Inquiring of the Dead"

      Isaiah proclaimed, "Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  Consult the message and the counsel of God."  (Isaiah 8:19)

      When you speak or write of the "dead" you are usually referring to those who have departed from the Earth and whose bodies are at "rest" in the churchyard.  You put no other meaning upon the word dead.  Death signifies to you the severance of the spirit from its Earthly body, or to the most ignorant it refers to the end of all existence. 

      The original Holy Scriptures constantly refer to "death" and to the "dead", but rarely to designate corporeal death.  The dead of whom the Bible speaks are not those whose days on Earth are over.  When the Bible mentions death it does not mean the separation of the spirit from the body, but the separation of the spirit from God.  To be united with God and to belong to Him is life.  To be severed from God is death. 

      This teaching recurs throughout the Old and the New Testament. 

      The dead are those who are severed from God, the spiritually dead, whether they are spirits in the Beyond or passing through life on Earth as men and women who have forsaken God. 

      The very first reference to death in the Bible signifies separation from God, because when God forbade the first people, dwelling in Paradise , to eat of a certain fruit, He added the warning, "For on the day you eat from that tree you shall die."  (Genesis 2:17)   It was not the death of the body that was meant by these words, but separation from God, because as you know, the first people did not suffer bodily death, but spiritual death when they had violated His Command.  By their disobedience, they went over to the side of Evil and thereby severed themselves from God. 

      When Moses, as his life on Earth drew to an end, said farewell to the people, he gave them this powerful advice, " . . . I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, that you and your children may live, by loving the Eternal, your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to Him."  It was not terrestrial life, nor bodily death that he had set before the people, but spiritual life, which should endure while they held fast to God, and spiritual death, which would ensue at the instant of their forsaking God and severing themselves from Him. 

      He that keeps the commandments keeps his soul, but he that is disobedient and careless of his ways will die. 

      The sin of apostasy from God carries with it spiritual death.  The Apostle Paul said, "Do you not know that you are the servants of him whom you obey, either the servants of the sin which brings to you the spiritual death, or servants who obey the call of righteousness?  What fruit had you to show in those days?  Was it not of which you are now ashamed?  Is not the end of it all spiritual death?  But now, being rid of sin and having become God's children, you have fruit which makes for your sanctity, and which in the end leads to the life hereafter.  For the wages of sin is the spiritual death but God's gift of grace is a life to come."  (Romans 6:21,23)

      Not all sin leads to separation from God, but as James said, " . . . only the sin when it is full grown brings forth death."  (James 1:15)   It is not the stumbling and falling of those who believe in God and seek Him that bring forth spiritual death, because the stumbling is through human weakness and the falls are suffered on the road Godward.  But to abandon God, to turn your back upon Him, and to act as though there were no God, that is the sin which brings forth spiritual death. 

      The spiritually dead are Gods enemies!  They have placed themselves under the rule of the spirits of Evil.  They have deserted their colors and serve the Prince of Darkness.  They have chosen him as their god.  That is the meaning of the word "whoredom" which occurs so often in the Holy Writ.  Hosea proclaimed, "Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them and they know not the Lord!  And because of this spirit they are not ripe for a return to their God.  Will I ransom them from the power of Sheol (Hell); will l redeem them from death?  0 death, where are thy plagues?  O Sheol, where is thy destruction?"  Plagues and destruction are the punishments that God visits upon apostates through the spirit powers of evil. 

      It is natural that God, Who wants only what is good in spiritual life, should have strictly forbidden all intercourse with the "dead" who are His enemies.  There is nothing good, there is no truth and no virtue, that can be learned from them. 

      Appalling were the consequences of the dealings held by the nations of old with the evil apostate spirits through the agency of low spiritualism, to which the Bible refers to as harlotry or idolatry. 

      There were no abominations in which the "dead" did not lead the misguided people through their human mediums. 

      Not only did the people eat the raw flesh of the animal offerings that had been dedicated to the demons, in token of fellowship with the latter; but they sacrificed their infant sons and daughters to the evil spirits and committed the most shameful sexual perversions as well as excruciating torture and murder of "chosen" adults at their sacrificial rites.  All of these practices were instigated by the Powers of Evil, once the people had entered into communion with them. 

      David in the Psalms said, "They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead.  Yea, they sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons."

      The consequences of idolatry are pictured in the Wisdom of Solomon with these words, "For while they slew their children in sacrifice, or used secret ceremonies, or made reveling of strange rites; they kept neither lives nor marriage any longer undefiled; but either one slew another traitorously, or grieved him by adultery.  So that there reigned in all men without exception blood, manslaughter, theft, and dissimulation, corruption, unfaithfulness, tumults, perjury, disquieting of good men, forgetfulness of good turns, defiling of souls, changing of kind, disorder in marriages, and shameless uncleanness.  For the worshipping of idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all evil.  For either they are mad when they are merry, or prophecy lies, or live unjustly, or else lightly forswear themselves."

      When you read of these things you may be led to conclude that those people acted in that manner because they were no longer in their right minds.  They were, nevertheless, as normal as you are today.  But such is the power of evil, and so subtle are its ways of misleading people, that those who have once fallen into its snares find it almost impossible to extricate themselves from them.  Of all the weapons of the Powers of Darkness, the mightiest is a mixture of truth and falsehood! 

      The evil spirits convinced those who communicated with them by "inquiring of the dead" that animals, the sun, the moon and the stars were the embodiment of mighty spirits which had great power over men, and could shape their fortunes for good or ill, and that, in consequence, these beasts and heavenly bodies must be worshipped in order to ensure worldly well-being and to avert calamity.  They taught, furthermore, that communication with them could be had by means of sacrifices, particularly by the sacrifice of children. 

      This doctrine was true to the extent that it taught that spirits are incorporated in all material things, and also, that communication can be had with these spirits through sacrificial offerings.  The fatal underlying falsehood was that the spirits of the Lower World were powerful benevolent spirits, having the good of their worshippers at heart.  Once the evil spirits had impressed their followers with this belief, the step to human sacrifice was a short one.  The parents of a child marked for sacrifice were told that after its death, its spirit would constantly hover about them and bring them good fortune, but that both they and their child were doomed to the direst misfortune should they refuse to allow it to be offered to the idols.  Obsessed, as they were, they always gave way in the end. 

      You need not wonder at this, because during the rites performed before the idols and at idolatrous gatherings generally, the evil spirits announced these doctrines through their trance-mediums and supported them by the exhibition of miracles that accompanied their discourse.  Frequently, the idols themselves spoke.  Such speech was a "direct voice" produced by the low spirit world with the aid of the spiritual energy of the offerings and that of the mediums in attendance. 

      The cause of apostasy from God was then, as it is now, the craving for worldly success and prosperity, but in those days all of the prerequisites for communicating with the spirit world were well known, while today they have fallen into oblivion.  Consequently, apostasy manifested itself in those times not only in inward defection from God, but in deliberately fostered obvious communication with the evil spirit world, held through spiritistic idol-worship.  Seeking unto the "dead" was as much a part of the daily lives of the worldly minded, as was seeking unto God an integral part of the worship of the faithful.  The messages sent by the "dead" through their mediums were meant to encourage the human vices of the recipients, who heard nothing but what was agreeable to them and who had no desire to listen to God's instruments, the good mediums. 

      It was only what would please them that they wanted to hear, especially such things as would further their worldly interests, as King Saul wanted when consulting the witch of Endor who summoned the spirit of the prophet Samuel.  Good spirits will not allow themselves to be summoned at the whim and pleasure of men.  They come of their own accord with God's sanction, or in certain cases, at His express command.  But they come only to those who seek unto God, in order that they may point out the way to Him.  Which particular one of the good spirits is to manifest itself is not for man to determine, but rests with the good spirit world.  It is also true that of the evil spirits, not always those whose visit people desire are allowed to appear, because they too may communicate only by permission.  They will, however, invariably claim to be the ones that were summoned, whether or not this is true, because they are spirits of falsehood whose only concern is to tell their listeners what these would like to hear. 

      It is therefore an act of great folly for people to agree among themselves that whoever dies first will let the survivors know whether or not there is a future life. 

      Whoever enters into such an agreement and makes his or her belief in a future existence contingent upon the fulfillment thereof, will invariably fail to receive the evidence they desire, for agreements of that kind are proof in themselves of an absence of belief in God, and the fate in store in the Beyond for those who die unbelieving is such that they are in no position to communicate with the living.  The spirits of the lowest spheres remember nothing of life on Earth nor of any agreements which they may have made there; even if they did remember, they could not leave the place to which they are confined because of their transgressions. 

      But whosoever believes in God will be able, without any such agreement and without any conscious effort on their part, to communicate during life with the spirits of their dear departed, if these too have been believers.  In this case also the words of Immanuel hold true, "Yet seek you His kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you."  (Matthew 6:33)

      But there was no seeking of the Kingdom of God by those who associated with the low spirit world.  It was not in them to seek God; they considered their worldly well being only, and for this reason they desired no connection with the good spirit world.  As has been the case in all ages, the truths that they heard from the good spirit world were too harsh and unpalatable for people who had given themselves up to the indulgence of their passions.

      The words of God they regarded as an oppressive burden, even going so far as to describe the reprimands, warnings and threats pronounced by the prophets at God's command by the blasphemous phrase of "the burden of the Lord."  "What is the burden of the Lord?" was the usual question, whenever people desired to know what the Lord had caused to be proclaimed.  It was for this that God sent them this message through the prophet Jeremiah, "When a layman or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the Eternal's oracle?"  "Tell them this from the Eternal, "Burden", you are the burden, and I mean to throw you off!  Any prophet or priest or layman who talks of the "Eternal oracle" or of "what the Eternal says", I will punish that man and his household.  No, this is what every man of you must say to his fellow, to his brother, "What is the Eternal's answer?"  "What is the Eternal's message?"  You must never again mention the Eternal's "burden". 

      Whoever aspired to belong to God's people could not have relations with that spirit world which had forsaken Him.  Nor might they "inquire of the dead", because to do so was to commit high treason to God and to desert the truth.  Truth was not to be found among the "dead".  "The dead know nothing."  What they speak is falsehood and imposture, calculated only to lead the faithful astray. 

      For that reason, God rebuked His people through the prophet Isaiah, "Ask me of the things that are to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command me you.  I am the Eternal, your God, training you for your good, leading you by the right way.  When they tell you to consult mediums and ghosts that cheep and gibber in low murmurs, ask them, if people should not rather consult their God.  Say, "Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  Consult the message and the counsel of God!"  And through the prophet Ezekiel God said, "You befoul yourselves like your fathers, you break your troth with me for the detestable impieties, and you befoul yourselves with all your sacrifices to idols, burning your sons alive, down to this very day!  And I am to be consulted by you, O Israel?  By my life!  Says the Lord, the Eternal.  No, I will not be consulted by you." 

      The Israelites had acquired the practice of seeking unto the spiritually dead while dwelling in Egypt and had to a great extent adopted idolatrous customs there.  Consequently, among the first injunctions laid upon them by the Lord after their exodus from that country was the one forbidding them to inquire of the dead.  Moses wrote, "You shall not practice augury nor practice witchcraft."  "Never go to a medium or a wizard, never defile yourselves by consulting them.  I am the Eternal."  "Any person who consults a medium or a wizard, deserting me for them, I will set my face against that person and outlaw him from his kinsfolk." 

      These passages show that the men and women who had familiar spirits or who were wizards, were mediums through whom the evil spirits spoke.  These mediums were themselves responsible for their evil associations from which they could have kept aloof had they turned confidingly to God and sought communion with the good spirit world.  Their punishment was amply deserved.  Besides the mediums, there were persons engaged in communicating with the evil spirit world through clairvoyance. 

      References to the "blood-guilt" of the wizards do not mean that these had committed actual bloodshed or physical murder, but relate to the slaying of souls, or the estrangement of spirits from God. 

      They had indeed incurred blood-guilt in the sense that they had brought those who went to them into communication with the spirits of evil, in that way leading them away from God and becoming the cause of their spiritual death. 

      The contamination to which those who associate with wizards expose themselves is not of a physical nature, but proceeds from the vicious spiritual energy which they absorb from the contact and which defiles their own spiritual energy, making it a hotbed for the activities of evil spirit beings.  There occurs in the Bible at least one detailed account of a case of necromancy, namely that of King Saul's visit to the witch of Endor.  When the prophet Samuel had died, all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah .  Now Saul had cleared the mediums and wizards out of the country. 

      There is much in this account which you will find hard to understand and which should be explained to you. 

      Does it not strike you that Saul should have trembled at the sight of the Philistine army?  That was not at all like Saul, who was a brave man and had been in countless battles, always facing death fearlessly.  Why then this sudden attack of faintheartedness?  Here you find one of those strange occurrences with which you so often meet in life.  It is what you call a "premonition of death".  The expression is not well chosen; it would be more correct to speak of an "assurance of death".  At the very first sight of the army of the Philistines, something within him told Saul that the hour of his death was at hand.  That hour is indeed appointed for all, by fate.  But what was the nature of the inner voice that caused Saul to feel sure that he would meet death in the coming battle?  It was the same kind of a voice as that which called to so many of the soldiers in the Great Wars, "You will not live through the next attack", or "You will not live through the day", or "This is your last leave of absence; you will never again see your family and friends."  Why did so many soldiers who had often been home on leave before, find it so hard to return to the front on the occasion which proved to be their last?  In the case of Saul as in that of all others who know to a certainty that their death is at hand, it was the guardian spirits that announced this hour, the most momentous one in a man's life. 

      During your lifetime their voice has often warned you of impending danger.  Again and again they have intervened to save you from peril, but when the inevitable moment approaches, these friendly spirits shake your inmost being so violently that the striking of the hour of your death sounds in your ears too loudly to pass unheard.  Then you know that your time has come.  Not in every case are the spirits allowed to sound this warning.  When they are, it is a special mark of divine favor, granted to give the person to whom this warning is issued, time to make his peace with God and implore His help at the moment when the fateful step must be taken. 

      With Saul also it was the last appeal by the Lord's spirit messengers urging him to return to God to Whom he had become faithless.  But Saul, although he knew he was about to die, was so far from turning inwardly to God and renewing his oath of loyalty to Him, that he contented himself with the outward formality of calling upon God through evil mediums and of asking for help in his worldly troubles.  He sought no inner communion with the Lord in repentance of his past behavior.  Because of this, God did not answer the questions inspired by worldly interest, and Saul, fearing for his Earthly existence, sought out the necromancers.  When he used the words, "I am sore distressed" he was speaking of the foreboding of death that weighed upon him. 

      At this point I wish to speak briefly of the many other ways in which the approach of someone's death is foretold.  As you might know, it is a belief that the howling of dogs, the appearance of certain birds, the turning white of plants, and other occurrences are signs of an impending death.  This is not superstition, as the "scientifically" enlightened age pronounces it to be.  This is all true, and even if such signs fail to point out the person for whom they are meant, everyone familiar with them should take them to heart and pause to reflect upon his own state.  These signs are the calling of your spirit friends, to remind you of the reckoning that you will have to render after you leave this life upon Earth. 

      They are the manifestations of the spirit world given through those animals, causing them to do things that you regard as omens. 

       As I have told you, animals also may be used as mediums by either the good or the evil spirit world.  The same is true of plants and flowers, but the spirit world employs such signs only for the benefit of persons able to read them, because it does nothing without a purpose.  That is all I need tell you regarding this point. 

      Coming back to the necromancer of Endor, it may appear strange that Samuel should have answered her summons at all.  He was not one of the "dead", not one of those who had departed from God.  He was not one of the spirits of the Abyss with which that woman was in the habit of communicating.  He was one of God's good spirits.  This fact the woman herself recognized from the godlike appearance of Samuel's ghost.  It came as a judgment of God, to punish Saul for his offense of consulting the Powers of Evil.  If in Samuel's place an evil spirit had come, it would not have predicted truthfully the terrible fate awaiting Saul, but would have beguiled him with some acceptable falsehood.  Therefore, it was God's will that the good spirit of Samuel should appear before the clairvoyant, who was likewise clairaudient, and through her announce to Saul what the coming day held in store for him.  To learn this so long in advance was the hardest part of what Saul had to bear.  "Tomorrow shall you and your sons be with me, the Lord will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines."  This prediction was the beginning of Saul's death agony, which tortured his inmost soul unto the hour of its fulfillment.  That is why, on receiving the fatal message, "He fell his full length upon the Earth and was sore afraid."  What he had hoped to hear from the necromancer, namely, advice as to how he could best overcome his enemies, was not given him.  Instead, the terrible fate, which he had not come to learn, was revealed to him as a punishment. 

      In Saul was fulfilled the prophecy pronounced by the Lord through Ezekiel, "For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separate himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to inquire for himself of me; I the Lord will answer him by myself, and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord."

      The necromancer's recognition of Saul when Samuel appeared was due to her power of clairaudience, which enabled her to hear Saul's name when it was spoken by the spirit of Samuel. 

      When Samuel further told Saul, "Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me", this is not to be construed as meaning that Saul and his sons were to share Samuel's place in the Beyond.  All that Samuel intended to convey to Saul was, that he and his sons were doomed to die on the following day, and that Samuel would be present to await them as they passed over into the other life.

      Because the spirits of the dying are received and greeted at the deathbed by those of their beloved ones who have gone before, and are instructed and advised by them until they reach the place to which their life has assigned them.  That, for the spirit world, is an invariable a rule as it is for you to meet your friends on their arrival at some foreign port to which you have preceded them, regardless of any difference, however great, between their ultimate destination and yours. 

      The necromancer of Endor held communication with the "dead" both by clairvoyance and by clairaudience.  She could tell those who consulted her only what she herself saw and heard.  Other necromancers were true mediums who passed into a trance while the strange spirit was speaking through them. 

      Finally, when you read that the spirit of Samuel "came up out of the Earth", you must make allowances for an optical delusion.  To render itself visible, a spirit requires a cloud of spiritual energy, and it procures this energy from the energy radiation of the persons in its immediate proximity.  The cloud of spiritual energy does not evolve suddenly, but develops little by little, generally increasing in size from below upward and giving the impression of a body that is rising.  Samuel's appearance in the form of an old man, wrapped in the robe that he used to wear while on Earth, was so designed for the purpose of making him recognizable.  Spirits habitually show themselves in a form bearing all of those distinguishing marks by which they were known during their terrestrial existence. 

      Precisely as you are able to choose your material manner of dressing at will, so spirits can give to their garments of spiritual energy the character that they consider the best adapted to their purposes. 

      Inasmuch as the laws governing communication with the evil spirit world are the same as those which apply to communication with good spirits, you find, according to the Scriptures, that the same means were employed in consulting the dead that were used when inquiring of God.  In both cases you read of mediums acting as holders of the spiritual energy force, whether they were prophets of Baal or prophets of God.  In both cases beasts are sacrificed and incense is burned to increase the spiritual energy power.  In both cases spots are selected, immune from any disturbing element, at which the unfavorable influences of light and heat upon the condensation of the spiritual energy have been eliminated as far as possible. 

      Because of this the Bible pronounces an intense dislike upon idolatry and upon the places at which communication with evil spirits was held.  The prophet Hosea wrote, "My people ask a piece of wood to guide them, a pole gives them their oracles. 

      For a harlot spirit has led them astray, they have left their God for a faithless way; they sacrifice on mountain heights and offer incense on the hills, below the oak, the terebinth, the poplar so pleasant is their shade."

      Everything that you learn of the "dead" from the Bible points to the fact that the "dead" are the Powers of Evil.  Whoever joins these powers, departs from God and suffers spiritual death. 

      It must not be supposed, however, that the worship of Baal consists only of the making of tangible idols by man and deliberately sought association with the evil spirit world, as was the general custom in ancient times and as occurs today among pagan peoples.  Rather, idolatry is any state of mind that excludes God from your daily lives, that turns wholly to temporal affairs, and that, under the influence of Evil, ignores God for worldly considerations. 

      Mankind of today is not less idolatrous than were the people of whom the Bible speaks, even though in what you call enlightened communities, idols of wood or of stone are no longer erected.  But there are other idols, set up within the hearts of people: money, fame and "success".  And to these idols as many victims are sacrificed today as were offered to the tangible idols of millenniums ago.  It is to these modern idols that billions of adults, billions of children, are sacrificed each year. 

      The evil spirit forces of the "kingdom of the dead" hold sway even today over by far the greater part of mankind, and what the prophet Micah said of the generation of his time is equally true at present, "The devout have vanished from the land, not an honest soul remains, everyone lurks for bloodshed, each man preys upon his fellow.  They have quick fingers for foul play, the judge must handle a bribe, the high official acts as he pleases, and between them they baffle justice.  The best of them are no better than briars, the straightest are like thorns twisted in a hedge.  Their hour of punishment is coming; it will be wrack and ruin.  Never trust your fellow, never confide in a friend, and keep your secret close from the wife of your own bosom.  For sons insult their fathers, girls defy their mothers, daughters-in-law defy their mothers-in-law, and a man's household are his enemies.  As for me, I will look out for the Eternal.  I will await my savior God, my God will aid me."

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