Deuteronomy 18:12, commentary and pictures

All dealings with familiar spirits, wizards, necromancy, divination, sorcery and seeking messages from the dead are an abomination to the Lord, and it was because of these abominations that He drove out the nations before Israel. Israel was forbidden on pain of death to adopt their divinations and superstitious practices as a snare, but was to learn God's will through His appointed prophets instead, a warning that remains profitable today. Modern Spiritualism with its mediums, séances, wonders and claimed communication with the dead only revives that condemned witchcraft of Ekron and Endor in a new and more pleasing disguise, including Christian Science, Theosophy and other Oriental mysticism. Attempting to communicate with the dead opens a channel for Satan through fallen angels appearing as messengers from the spirit world, and turning to clairvoyants, fortune-tellers and such healers for knowledge or cures makes them channels for his power. To consult these agencies is to worship at Satan's shrine and refuse light from God's word, bringing divine displeasure, deception and bondage of body and soul, so that even investigation from mere curiosity fastens the inquirer in the deceiver's toils, and the only safety is in trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of God's word.

Forbidden Practices and Judgment

Dealing with familiar spirits and wizards, necromancy and seeking messages from the dead, divination, sorcery, and consulting mediums and spirit communicators are an abomination to the Lord. Claimed communication with the dead, calling on the dead to appear and claiming to see and speak with them, and the disclosures, wonders and mysteries of mediums and séances are modern forms of those same forbidden arts. Sorcery and the other occult practices stand condemned as abominations that bring judgment.

These abominations were the reason the Lord drove the nations out from before Israel. Israel was forbidden to adopt the nations' divinations and superstitious practices because they were abominations and a corrupting snare to His people. God would make His will known through His appointed prophets, so Israel had no need to consult diviners or soothsayers but was to hear Him through them instead. That instruction to be kept from such practices remains profitable today.

Under the Mosaic law these practices were forbidden on pain of death, with the sentence of death pronounced against all who practice their unholy arts. Apostate Jews nevertheless secretly practiced sorcery. Saul had full knowledge of this character of necromancy and had commanded that all wizards and those with familiar spirits be put to death, yet in rash desperation he resorted to that condemned oracle and sought a woman with a familiar spirit to inquire of her at Endor. That seeking was necromancy expressly forbidden as an abomination, and the woman had entered into covenant to yield herself to Satan's control to fulfill his purposes, in return for which the prince of evil wrought wonders for her and revealed secret things to her.

Modern Spiritualism Exposed

Dealing with familiar spirits is an abomination to God for which the nations were driven out, and it was forbidden in Israel under penalty of death, yet Spiritualism with its claimed communication with the dead revives that condemned witchcraft in a new disguise. Its mediums, séances, disclosures, wonders and mysteries are the modern forms of the heathen oracles, magicians and mysteries of Ekron and Endor, and calling on the dead to appear and to see and speak with them is heathen superstition. Those who speak with scorn of the magicians of old yet eagerly receive the disclosures of modern mediums are guilty of the same things condemned of old continued under a different form.

Attempting to communicate with the dead is an abomination because it is a channel through which Satan works for his purposes by fallen angels who do his bidding and appear as messengers from the spirit world professing to bring the living into communication with the dead. The belief that the dead are conscious, admitted to the presence of God and holy angels with greater knowledge, prepares the way to accept their return to enlighten the living as divine light from glorified spirits, and that sacred-regarded communication is a bewitching influence by Satan. Turning from God to Satanic agencies for knowledge of the future or for healing through clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, and those who claim to cure disease by electricity, magnetism and sympathetic remedies makes them channels for Satan's power. The woman at Endor had entered into covenant with Satan to yield herself to his control to fulfill his purposes, and in return the prince of evil wrought wonders for her and revealed secret things to her.

Consulting these agencies is worshiping at Satan's shrine as verily as did the king of Israel who inquired at Ekron, refusing light from the word and Spirit of God and yielding to Satan's arts just as verily as idolaters of old. It brings divine displeasure and punishment that none can disregard with impunity, wandering from the right path, falling under Satan's deception and spell over body and soul, while faith in the sure word of prophecy decreases. The condemnation covers séances, secret associations, sorcerers, more pleasing forms of spiritism, and those led astray by the teachings of Christian Science and by the mysticism of Theosophy and other Oriental religions. Those who shrink from consulting spirit mediums yet are attracted by more pleasing forms are guilty of the same things, as are believers in spiritism who accept modern mediums while scorning the magicians of old.

Even investigating Spiritualism from mere curiosity, with no real faith and no intent to become mediums, is venturing on forbidden and dangerous ground. Those who venture become fast in the toils of the deceiver and in the power of one who makes the most abject slaves of his servants, and nothing can deliver them but the power of God. The only safety is in trusting implicitly and following faithfully the instruction of the word of God, for the Bible is the only chart that marks out the narrow path which shuns the pitfalls of destruction.