Necromancy
Any Greek or Hebrew translations are quoted from
New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D.
Thomas Nelson Publishers 1990 edition
Many Christians believe they can communicate with their dead loved ones, or dead saints. A lot of people, including Christians, participate in an abomination known as All Saints Day (a pagan ritual). They carry food to the grave of a dead loved one and eat at the gravesite – also bringing food for their dead loved one. Necromancy (attempting to communicate with or to make contact with the dead) is forbidden by God! Deuteronomy 18:10-12: 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 you. Leviticus 19:31: Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. Special Note: I understand that people try to contact their loved ones who have passed away because of tremendous grief; however, Jesus Christ is the only one who can take away our grief. No matter how hard we try to keep this person in our life we cannot. We cannot go forward in our own life by hanging onto the past. That is like trying to read a book backwards. Our loved ones who have died in Christ are in our future and if we give our hearts to the Lord we will see them again in heaven! For those of you who are not sure whether your loved ones went to heaven, I hope you can find comfort in knowing that God will try until a person takes their last breath to save their soul. We never know the last thoughts and moments of a person’s life, but God knows! The person may have silently cried out to God in their last dying breath and God saved them! Do not give up that hope! I Thessalonians 4:13-18: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even to them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Though scripture forbids necromancy a very well known television evangelist goes to the cemetery to pray, and will spend hours at the grave of his Christian mentor. He believes this grave carries an anointing – but He is deceived. He tries to justify his regular prayer visits using scripture in II Kings 13:21 about a dead man who was brought back to life after he was cast into Elisha’s tomb. In this portion of scripture the men carrying the dead man to his burial place were frightened by another group of men, whom they thought would harm them, so they hastily threw the dead man into Elisha’s tomb. The dead man was brought back to life. This evangelist believes he too can receive a blessing by visiting his Christian mentor’s gravesite, which he thinks is anointed, because of what happened at Elisha’s tomb. However, the man who was cast into the sepulcher of Elisha was not coming for a prayer visit – the man was dead. Any person who is alive that goes to a grave to pray with the dead believing it to be some spiritual act of God is deceived. The dead man in II Kings 13:21 who was cast into Elisha’s sepulcher was not coming there to pray, he was coming there to stay! It was God’s decision to raise him from the dead. Nowhere in scripture does God tell His people to go and hang out at cemeteries to pray, or to bring food to the dead. We are not supposed to pray, or try and communicate in any way, with the dead. The only one we are to pray to is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; who is no longer dead, but is alive! Luke 24:1-7: NOW upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. Saying, the Son of man must be delivered unto the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Saul is the perfect example of how attempting to communicate with the dead will destroy a person’s life, both spiritually and physically. Saul went to a woman who had a familiar spirit and asked her to summon Samuel from the grave, so that Samuel could give Saul guidance. I Samuel 28:7: Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. I Chronicles 10:13: So Saul dies 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. Also see Deuteronomy 18:10-11 and Isaiah 8:19. Note: The Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ in I Samuel 28:7 and I Chronicles 10:13 is “owb, obe; …a mumble …skin (from its hollow sound); hence, a necromancer (ventriloquist, as speaking from a jar)… bottle… familiar spirit”. Owb, obe is also the same Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ in Isaiah 29:4: And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. (Isaiah 29:4 accurately describes the voice of ventriloquism! For more information about ‘ventriloquism’ see my document on ventriloquism.) Whether, or not, she really called up Samuel scripture does not really elaborate on. However, this event took place before Jesus died and He took the keys of hell and death away from Satan. Prior to Jesus birth, death, and resurrection; Satan held the keys, and he also had limited power over these keys (after Adam and Eve’s sin). Jesus Christ has now taken the keys away from Satan – and Jesus holds the keys! Revelation 1:18: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Whether the lady in I Samuel,who had a familiar spirit, really had the power (through Satan) to call up the real Samuel or not does not matter – the fact is, she was not supposed to try. Today, because Jesus now holds the keys, the only thing that Satan and his evils spirits can do is attempt to imitate our dead loved ones – as if they are being called up from the grave. Today when a person practices necromancy they are NOT really talking to their loved ones who have passed away but are talking with evil spirits pretending to be their loved ones. People ignorantly participate in necromancy by trying to contact the dead, when necromancy is (and always has been) a practice the Bible warns against. Deuteronomy 18:10-12: 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 you. Isaiah 8:19: And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead. Isaiah 8:19 New Living Translation reads: So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting mediums and psychics? Do not listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God? Some people may not be praying to their dead loved ones but are praying to statues and images of what they believe represent Mary, Jesus, saints, and angels. This is necromancy and idolatry! Ezekiel 8:12: Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth. Necromancy and idolatry are both forbidden by God! Deuteronomy 18:10-12: 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 you. Ephesians 5:5: For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Revelation 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
(Also see my documents on ‘ventriloquism’, ‘familiar spirits’, ‘stigmata’, ‘witchcraft’, ‘voices of deception’, and ‘shamanism’)
