Choose your poison:
Scripture says it can be done. King Saul did it. The
spiritist at En-Dor put him in touch with the prophet/judge Samuel, who had made Saul king
many years earlier. This spiritist was apparently renown as an
extra-large among the area's mediums. This was no fake Samuel she reached, either;
it was the real Sam. The real Sam was none too happy about being
contacted, though. He
(and Scripture) treated the contact as the last straw in a long series of
betrayals of the Covenant on the part of Saul. Very shortly thereafter,
Saul would find out first-hand about being dead.
The laws of Moses strictly forbade contacting the dead, and for good
reason. It's a way of trying to get an edge on the rest of the living, to attempt to
learn things about death so that one can have the illusion that there is
nothing to fear in it due to what one 'knows'. This is the Gnostic way, the
way of the inside track and the spiritual secret.
Let's put aside for the moment
the Devil's great ability to manipulate what comes from beyond the grave -- a
big problem, but not the crucial one. Let's also put aside the vast array of
phonies who con people out of mondo bucks -- they are not the issue. The
issue is why one would want to go to a medium in the first place.
The notion of actually knowing about being dead leads as a matter of
course to thinking that this knowledge can
help make for a good death or even for bypassing the ugliness of death. But
knowledge can't do the trick. Noone has even been made perfect or sinless
or complete or even good by
mere knowledge. Knowledge cannot change a person's nature; it can however
help us to
create a mirage of where this life will lead. Ultimately, if we have the knowledge,
we will rely on the knowledge, and it will fail us. The only thing that will
not fail us is God. The 'secret' to death is that we are to live life
as God would have us live it, through the Holy Spirit, and then
trusting that this same God who loves us in life will also love us in
death, and, by
mysteries that no seer has ever explained well, through the work of
Christ, bring us through it to a new life with God. But that's no secret.
That's the Good News, the gospel.
I just spoke under the presumption of an honest (though misguided) search for truth. But not everyone is so honest. Many of those seeking to reach the dead do so with the wicked dishonesty of King Saul. Saul was seeking a way out of a predicament that he himself had created by being disloyal to God and foolish toward his own soldiers. He was hoping that Samuel could in some way intercede for him before God, or perhaps clear up the problem himself. But Samuel told him that his problem was with God, not Samuel, and that he had just made it worse by using a form of divination (occultic means to discover the unknown), forbidden by the Law and punishable by death. Many people today look toward mediums and spiritists for help in getting out of the binds they put themselves in. Again, knowledge does not help. And things are made much worse by seeking an evasion of what one has to do. That kind of living is quite far from living in the Spirit.
back to topSome of these mysterious things aren't really such a big deal. Yeah, they're 'mysterious' and 'numinous'. And most of these can be explained without recourse to the occult (though they rarely are). But what good is it even if they are legit?
For instance, levitation. So a body gets to lift off the ground. Do they use it to get to work? Feed the poor? Clean the environment? And when you're with someone you love, it only feels like you're floating on air. Or, take the moving or bending of objects by mind power. Perhaps it can be used to hide the car keys or pretzelize a spoon; but can they mentalistiscally move the stuff in a room to help serve their dying parents? Has anyone stopped a dictator's bullets with it? Or, try auras. There are so many different kinds of auras, so many explanations, ranging from life-force glow to soul seepage to having had too much garlic. Yet, why is it so hard to develop effective medical treatments that use knowledge of auras? And why are aura measurements and photographies used far more to track the ghosts of the dead than to help the living? Or, mental time travel. Has it taught us even one thing about history? Or given us even one medicine from the future? Or recovered even one lost form of music?
The big question on some of these mysterious works is 'why bother?' Even if these mysterious works are real (something I doubt, but am open about), they are done without even the intent of a lasting benefit. They amount to mysterious entertainment. If so, then they are no more meaningful than pro wrestling or Gilligan's Island. If so, they are not a part of the spiritual search, they are a diversion from it. Worse, they are a trivial use of some very deep, potent, and hazardous (even toxic?) powers which are not to be toyed with -- this is not Beelzebub Bingo. The toxicity come in the idea that we can have these things at our command. We can then become as masters, not only of our own fate, but of those of others. Yet, the Bible says that God calls us to serve, not to control. When Paul spoke of gifts, he says they're given to build up other people; when the Gospels speak of miracles, it says they were provided, at least in part, to show that God was at work causing the world to become like the Kingdom. Now there's a purpose for you!
back to topCopyright (c) 1996 Robert Longman Jr., all rights reserved.
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