October 6: PERCEPTION

There shall not be found among you anyone who…practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer…a sorcerer…a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before your God. Deuteronomy 18:10-13

From the book of Genesis to the present, and all the way through to the second coming of Jesus Christ, the devil’s most successful deception against us is spiritualism. The idea that “you shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4) lays the very foundation of Satan’s battle plan all the way through to the final showdown between God and the devil. The devil’s argument is based upon the false premise that souls cannot die (see Ezekiel 18:4,20). God’s people are called to make a clear and wide distinction between His plan to restore His people into His image – to preserve us alive (Deuteronomy 6:24) – and Satan’s plan to lead us into sin (that terrible thing that leads to death) by making sin appear harmless. Disobedience to the LORD is never harmless.

Saul was the chosen king of Israel… for a time. Before he turned away from God (1Samuel 15:11), Saul had run the mediums and the spiritists out of the land (28:3), understanding the LORD’s wish to protect the children of Israel from idolatry (yes, idolatry and spiritualism are intertwined). After Saul turned away from following God, God directed Samuel to anoint David as king (16:12-13). Note: Saul had considered himself obedient to God when he was, in reality, disregarding Him (15:13,20). It wasn’t until later that the Holy Spirit, with great sadness, finally departed from Saul (16:14), because Saul’s ignoring of Him had grieved Him away.

After Samuel died, the Philistines gathered to fight against Israel and Saul was greatly distressed. Saul inquired of the LORD [but] the LORD did not answer him. Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her” (28:6-7). Many people cite this story as “confirmation” that it is possible to speak to the dead, claiming that there is real power in spiritualism. They will say that Saul went to a witch and she called up Samuel, and they communicated. Notice that Saul perceived that it was Samuel (v.14). In reality, he did not perceive that it was a demon. People will argue that Saul’s experience was real. That is exactly the point! The deception is so real, so believable, that many will look at a story that God shows to warn us against involvement in occultism, and use it to promote, support, and normalize the idea that we can communicate with the dead. But, beloved, know this: demons are capable of personating those who have died in tremendous, believable detail, even down to a person’s accent. The enemy of souls exploits our emotions. Those involved with the occult are opening the door for spiritually dangerous demonic activity.

Though unbiblical, the belief that the dead are not really dead—that they go straight to heaven or hell at death—has been cultivated for so long that it’s firmly entrenched. Spiritualism is at the heart of Satan’s plan to take the world captive. But Jesus, by His grace, His Spirit, and the power of His word, is able to set every captive free from Satan’s deceptive plan.

For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Revelation 16:14