To many, death is a mysterious subject that is associated with fear, mourning and loss. Some believe that their deceased loved ones are not dead but instead live with them in another heavenly dimension. So, in an effort to reconnect with their dead, they seek the help of mediums and psychics.
But the teaching that the spirits of the dead are heavenly angels, or ghost like entities that can be contacted, is not Biblical. The Bible teaches that humans are souls that die (Ezekiel 18:4). Man is mortal (Job 4:17). God “only hath immortality” (1 Timothy 6:15, 16). And only at the second coming, will the righteous receive immorality (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). For this reason the Bible often refers to death as an unconscious sleep (Psalms 13:3; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 27:52; John 11:11,14; Acts 7:60; Job 14:12; 1 Corinthians 15:18,51).
After death a person: returns to dust (Psalms 104:29), possesses no mental powers (Psalms 146:4), knows nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5), has nothing to do with people on earth (Ecclesiastes 9:6), does not live (2 Kings 20:1), waits in the grave (Job 17:13), and continues not (Job 14:1, 2) until the Resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
So, if the dead are sleeping unconsciously, who do the mediums and psychics contact?
When psychics claim to be contacting spirits of the dead, they are actually connecting with Satan’s fallen angels. The Lord warned us, “And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:19, 20).
The devil has worked powerful miracles through the ages by people who claim to receive their power from the spirits of the dead (examples: Magicians of Egypt – Exodus 7:11, Woman of Endor – 1 Samuel 28:3-25, Sorcerers – Daniel 2:2, The damsel – Acts 16:16-18). The angels who were cast out of heaven with Satan (Revelation 12:7-9) work supernatural acts to deceive people (Revelation 16:13, 14). They use “all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) to achieve their evil purposes.
For this reason, God commanded Moses that witches, wizards and others with “familiar spirits” (who claimed to be able to contact the dead) to be put to death. This shows how God regards the false teaching that the dead are alive (Leviticus 20:27) and those that promote it.
But the good news is that the dead will be resurrected at the Resurrection Day to receive their rewards (heaven or hell) (Revelation 22:12). There would be no purpose in a resurrection if people were taken to heaven at death . “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).
