The Danger of Spiritualism

The Bible plainly states the dead are asleep and not disembodied spirits or souls floating about heaven, looking down on the living.

The dead in Christ will be raised at His second coming to join Him in the air and live with Him for eternity (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18).

The redeemed will sit in judgment of the lost during the millennium (Revelation 20:4–6). The wicked will be raised, following that millennium, to face judgment and final destruction in the lake of fire that cleanses the earth (Revelation 20:11–15).

Until Christ’s second advent, all those who have died rest in the grave, awaiting either the first resurrection of the righteous (v. 6) or the second resurrection of the wicked (vv. 12, 13). “The teaching that the spirits of the dead return to communicate with the living is based on the belief that the spirit of man exists in a conscious state after death, that indeed this spirit is the real man. The Bible does teach that the spirit [the breath of life], at death, returns unto God, who gave it (Eccl. 12:7), but the OT [Old Testament] emphatically denies that this spirit is a conscious entity (Job 14:21; Ps. 146:4; Eccl. 9:5, 6).

The NT [New Testament] teaches the same doctrine.

Jesus pointed forward to His second coming and not to death as the time when the believer will be reunited with his Lord (John 14:1–3). . . . In speaking solace to those who had laid their loved ones to rest, Paul significantly declared that there was to be no precedence on the part of the living over the dead, but all would be reunited with their Lord at the same moment (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). . . . “Although much of the phenomena of spiritistic séances involves trickery and sleight of hand, not all phenomena can be explained on this basis.” Since it is clear the dead cannot communicate with the living, who is impersonating them? Scripture reveals Satan and his angels have the ability to impart familiar information and change their appearance (Matthew 4:1–11; 2 Corinthians 11:13, 14). “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence” (Psalm 115:17).