Revelations of Another World?

“REVELATIONS” coming from ‘another world’ are simply too widespread to ignore. Commonly these communications are reputedly from dead persons with whom the living were acquainted as humans. In his diaries, W. L. Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada for over 20 years, claimed to receive such revelations. The Toronto Star of January 3, 1979, explains:

“His visions and seances kept him in touch with his long-dead adored mother, with Hitler and with United States president Franklin Roosevelt, among others.

“On Aug. 29, 1948, at Kingsmere, his home in the Gatineau Hills north of Ottawa, King wrote he had had a vision of German dictator Adolf Hitler walking on ‘something that looked like my bed quilt, making rows of button fastenings over the top.’

“All his ‘conversations’ and ‘visions’ were recorded in his diaries.”

James Albert Pike, a prominent Episcopalian bishop during the 1950’s and 1960’s, also received revelations from ‘another world.’ The communications, achieved with the assistance of a spirit medium, were reputedly from his dead son, Jim. In Look magazine, Pike reported the following conversation with Jim:

“‘Thanks, Jim,’ I replied. ‘. . . I’ll be calling your mother to tell her about what’s going on here now.’

“‘Good,’ was the response. ‘I want her to know—to know I really love her—that I’m alive.’

“‘She believes that, Jim,’ I responded reassuringly. ‘She did all along. By the way, about things in your new situation: are you . . . alone, or—’

“‘I have masses of people around me, and hands lifting me up, as it were,’ came through—and, after a pause, ‘I was so unhappy until I could make you know.’”

There are many reports of conversations such as these, even as there are similar reports from persons who have been revived from apparent death. Evidently, communications are being received from somebody. But they are not being received from the dead! The Bible is very emphatic about this when it says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Eccl. 9:5) Death is not a transition from life here to a life beyond.

Who, then, is responsible for these revelations from ‘another world’?

Promoters of First Lie

Do you recall what God told the first human pair would be their penalty for disobedience? “You will positively die,” God said. (Gen. 2:17; 3:3) But it was “the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” who told Eve: “You positively will not die.” (Rev. 12:9; Gen. 3:4) In view of this, should it really be surprising that the rebel angel Satan, and those angels who joined him in rebellion against God, would promote this lie that if people disobeyed God’s command, they would not die off the earth, but keep living as humans?

They have done this by teaching that, at the death of the human body, the “soul” lives on in a spirit realm. To support this, they provide sorcerers, spirit mediums and fortune-tellers with special knowledge that seems to originate with the departed souls or spirits of the dead. But Jehovah God has sought to protect his people from this evil deception. When the Israelites were about to come into the land of Canaan to possess it, he ordered them:

“You must not learn to do according to the detestable things of those nations. There should not be found in you . . . anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer, or one who binds others with a spell or anyone who consults a spirit medium or a professional foreteller of events or anyone who inquires of the dead. For everybody doing these things is something detestable to Jehovah.”—Deut. 18:9-12; Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27.

Yet, God’s servants have repeatedly been tempted by persons whom Satan uses to spread his lie of human immortality, as the Bible says: “People will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, ‘After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.’” But what does the Bible advise? “You are to answer them, ‘Listen to what the LORD is teaching you! Don’t listen to mediums—what they tell you will do you no good.’”—Isa. 8:19, 20, Today’s English Version.

However, someone may object: ‘Doesn’t the Bible itself promote the view that the living can consult the dead? Didn’t King Saul get information from the dead prophet Samuel?’ Let us examine this.

King Saul’s Inquiry of the Dead

Saul was well acquainted with God’s law about spirit mediums and fortune-tellers. Thus the account regarding his making inquiry of the dead is prefaced with the comment: “Now Samuel himself had died, and all Israel had proceeded to bewail him and bury him in Ramah his own city. As for Saul, he had removed the spirit mediums and the professional foretellers of events from the land.”—1 Sam. 28:3.

But a desperate situation arose in the 40th year of Saul’s reign. A mighty enemy force of Philistines came against the Israelite army camped at Mt. Gilboa in the valley of Jezreel. Saul was terrified. Because he had left Jehovah’s laws, Jehovah no longer responded to his appeals. Prior to his recent death, the prophet Samuel had refused to see Saul. So now, in this desperate situation, Saul sought a spirit medium for guidance.

Saul’s servants told him that such a medium lived in the city of En-dor, located some 10 miles (16 km) away, not far from the Philistines camped at the city of Shunem. So Saul disguised himself and with two of his men made the dangerous journey to En-dor under cover of night. The woman was found and, after receiving assurance that she would not be exposed for practicing her God-condemned art, she agreed to contact the dead Samuel. (1 Sam. 28:4-12) In the course of the séance, “Samuel” appears, as the spirit medium describes to King Saul:

“‘A god I saw coming up out of the earth.’ At once [Saul] said to her: ‘What is his form?’ to which she said: ‘It is an old man coming up, and he has himself covered with a sleeveless coat.’ At that Saul recognized that it was ‘Samuel,’ and he proceeded to bow low with his face to the earth and to prostrate himself.

“And ‘Samuel’ began to say to Saul: “Why have you disturbed me by having me brought up?’ To this Saul said: ‘I am in very sore straits, as the Philistines are fighting against me, and God himself has departed from me and has answered me no more . . . And ‘Samuel’ went on to say: ‘Why, then, do you inquire of me, when Jehovah himself has departed from you?’”—1 Sam. 28:13-16.

Is the Bible here teaching that this woman really did bring back Samuel in some spiritual form? Or did her demon-controlled mind visualize a representation of Samuel?

Samuel or Not?

Remember, God’s law condemned spirit mediums, saying: “Do not turn yourselves to the spirit mediums, and do not consult professional foretellers of events, so as to become unclean by them. I am Jehovah your God. . . . I shall certainly set my face against that soul and cut him off from among his people. And as for a man or woman in whom there proves to be a mediumistic spirit or spirit of prediction, they should be put to death without fail.”—Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27.

Clearly, Almighty God was strongly opposed to all spiritistic practices. And, as we have noted, God was also displeased with Saul because of his disobedience, and refused to communicate with him. So even if a spirit medium could get in touch with the dead, would that medium be able to force God to give Saul a message through dead Samuel? Is a spirit medium stronger than God?

Consider this too: God’s prophet Samuel strongly opposed spirit mediums while he was alive. As a follower of God’s law, he saw to it that they were put to death. So, then, would he, while he was dead, allow a spirit medium to arrange for him to meet with Saul? If Samuel refused to speak with Saul while alive, could a condemned medium make him do so after he had died?

Furthermore, why did God’s law label the practice of consulting the dead as something “unclean,” “detestable” and deserving of death? If the communication were actually with dead loved ones, why would a God of love designate this as a terrible crime? Why would he want to deprive the living of getting some comforting messages from the dead?

No, it obviously was not Samuel that the spirit medium of En-dor contacted. Samuel was dead, and at death, according to the Bible, a person “goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” (Ps. 146:4) Rather, the voice was that of a wicked spirit person, one of Satan’s angels, who was impersonating Samuel. These powerful, invisible agents of Satan have, by such methods, been promoting Satan’s lie of human immortality for thousands of years.

Source of the Knowledge

So when certain patients, revived from near-death situations, know about things that happened while they were “dead,” this may be due to dreams experienced, either when lapsing into unconsciousness or when coming out of it. Or, since the patients were not alive in some spiritual form personally to witness these things, they may have received such knowledge from the same source as did the spirit medium of En-dor. In their critical, near-death situation, as their life-forces were ebbing, the demons conveyed to them information that they could not receive by ordinary means.

We should not be surprised that Satan would operate in such devious ways. “Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light,” the Bible warns. In fact, God’s Word says: “The god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.”—2 Cor. 11:14; 4:4.

“Unbelievers”—persons, for example, who refuse to accept what the Bible says about death, choosing rather to believe pagan philosophies—will remain blinded to “the glorious good news.” You may still ask, however: ‘If, as the Bible says, death really is extinction, how will everlasting life be attained? How can life beyond the grave be enjoyed?’

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AS THEIR LIFE FORCES WERE EBBING, THE DEMONS CONVEYED TO THEM INFORMATION THAT THEY COULD NOT RECEIVE BY ORDINARY MEANS

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“His visions and seances kept him in touch with . . . Hitler and . . . Roosevelt, among others.”

W. L. Mackenzie King