Spiritual Mediums by Dr. Lynd

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Dec 13, 1853

Spiritual Mediums.

By Dr. Lynd

THE following texts will show what the Bible teaches in regard to spiritual mediums.

In Ex. xxii, 18, God says: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

In Lev. xx, 6, it is written: "The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and I will cut him off from among his people."

In Deut. xviii, 9-12, the Lord says: "When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee."

These passages show the fact that a class of persons such as are named, have existed.

Witches were persons who professed that they had familiar spirits of the invisible world, with whom they were in communication, and through whom they were able to exercise supernatural knowledge and power.

There are nine different kinds of divination mentioned in Scripture. One of these is, by consulting spirits to foretell future events. It is known by the name Python. They were all, however, condemned, as involving an idolatrous departure from the true God.

Necromancy means divining by means of the dead. They professed the art of raising up the ghosts of deceased persons, to get information from them. Those who practised the art, were, by the law of God, to be put to death. (See Lev. xx, 27.)

The Scriptures teach us that God is the only true God; that the revelation of invisible and future things in his word is worthy of all honor; and those who profess, by means of familiar spirits, or by calling up the departed spirits of men, to gain information, and those who seek them as mediums of such knowledge, are an abomination to the Lord, and are seduced from their allegiance to the only true God, and from suitable veneration for his word.

It makes no difference whether the profession is justified by the facts or not. It makes no difference whether it be done professedly, by means of a league with the powers of darkness, or by science, the whole is unlawful and abomination in the sight of God.

He has placed a barrier between us and the spirit world, which, even if we could, we attempt to pass at our peril. Under the Levitical dispensation, it was punishable with death. Under the present dispensation, it will receive its appropriate punishment, not by legal statute, but by the hand of God, through the physical laws that govern the universe. No man can violate the laws of heaven, physical or moral, with impunity. DR. LYND.