Here is a different link to the pdf
if you want the footnotes, you can download the book there.
pdfcoffee.com_biblical-demonology-a-study-of-merrill-f-unger-pdf-free.pdf
The internet wayback machine that keeps a history of the internet got hacked and was down most of last week. Thats where the other link to download a pdf version of this book was.
AI is changing your history right in front of you. Why else would the internet wayback machine get hacked?
Enjoy.
Love yall.
Peace.
NECROMANCY
NECROMANCY IS not a demonological phenomenon distinct in itself, but merely a particular aspect and mode of divination. However, its widespread practice among heathen nations of antiquity, its persistence throughout the centuries, and its present-day appearance in the modern spiritualistic revival, entitle it to an important place of special consideration by itself.
Divination embraces all attempts to obtain clandestine information from the denizens of the spiritual world, so that necromancy is to be classified under it, and as a phase of it. Its distinguishing mark is that the knowledge desired is sought from the spirits of deceased persons. The word itself is very expressive of the sphere it embraces, and denotes literallydivination (manteia) by consulting the dead (nekros).
A. BIBLICAL INSTANCES OF NECROMANCY
Examples of consultation with the spirits of the departed dead are not numerous in the Bible, for Scripture invariably condemns this practice as completely at variance with the true spiritual worship of God. But among various nations of antiquity it was not only allowed, but abetted, and widely practised. Among many ancient people, like the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, the diviner stood in the service of the states
(Who funds your "scientist" today?)
and was consulted before important decisions were made, or wars waged.'
That certain classes of pagan prognosticators were
categorized as illegitimate, and prohibited from exercising their calling, was not because their
occultism clashed with heathenism, but rather because they were supposed to be in league
with the gods of other and hostile nations. Since, in the beliefs of the time, the gods of a
particular nation were the protectors of its people, and the deities of rival nations were its
enemies, any one suspected of alliance or intercourse with these hostile gods was under rigid
governmental prohibition.
1. THE OLD TESTAMENT BAN AGAINST NECROMANCY
But in a theocracy like Israel, there was no such distinction as legitimate and illegitimate occultism. It was all under inflexible interdict, and traffic in it was, in all cases, viewed as flagrant apostasy from Jehovah and as a crime punishable by the severest penalties. Hence the Mosaic injunctions: "Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am Jehovah your God" (Lev. 19:31). "And the soul that turneth unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards, to play the harlot after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people"(Lev. 20:6). "There shall not be found with thee . . . a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer" (Dent. 18:10-11).
The "familiar spirit" ('ob) is the divining demon present in the body of the conjurer. "A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit(literally, `in whom there is a divining demon'), or a wizard, shall surely be put to death: theyshall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them" (Lev. 20:27). The term "familiar" is applied to the foreboding demon,2 it would appear, because it was regarded by the English translators as a servant ("famulus"), belonging to the family ("familiaris"), who was on intimate terms with, and might readily be summoned by, the one possessing it. The significance of the Hebrew term is disputed. It is not impossible that it might be related to the Arabic root awaba ("to return"), with reference to the spirit who periodically comes back. The commonest view, on the other hand, associates the fundamental etymological significance with the idea of "something hollow," as a "leathern bottle," or "wine skin" (Job 32:19).
("Hollowed out shell of a human being" is EXACTLY how I have described my encounters with Satan and his henchmen. an "empty vessel" as it were they would choose to use from time to time >)
Assuming the fundamental notion of "hollowness" to be in the word, various explanations are current as accounting for it, such as calling the spirit 'ob because of the hollow tone of its voice, which indicates a sound that might be expected to issue from any hollow place, or because the divining spirit was regarded as speaking out of a cave or opening in the ground. Among the Greeks and the Romans, oracles depending on necromancy were situated among the deep caverns, which were thought to communicate with the spirit-world.3 Davies quotes W. R. Smith as of the opinion that divination by the 'ob was connected with this ancient superstition. Just as 'ob, meaning "a divining spirit," came to denote the person in whom the spirit resided, so by a similar metonymy-the contained for the container and vice versa-the hollow cavern came to be used for the spirit that spoke out of it.4 Gesenius suggests that the connection between "bottle" and "necromancer" probably arose "from regarding the conjurer, while possessed by the demon, as a bottle, i.e., vessel or case, in which the demon was contained.""
The "wizard" (yidoni) is properly the "knowing or wise one," as the English word connotes, as well as the Septuagint gnostes. Like "the familar spirit" ('ob), it means, in the first instance, the alleged spirit of a deceased person (really the divining demon). Then it came to mean him or her who divines by such a spirit. Thus both terms mean, first, the divining spirit, second, the medium through whom the spirit divines. The two concepts, the divining spirit and the divining medium, are frequently so closely identified as to be thought of as one, as in Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6, where the original "unto them that have familiar spirits" is simply "unto the familiarspirits" (el ha'ovoth). The same is true of the term "wizard." Implicit in its meaning is the thought of the wise and knowing demon, and the clever and cunning medium, who is adept in occult science because the intelligent spirit is in him. It is the superhuman knowledge of the spirit inhabitant of his body that makes him a "wizard."
("adept in occult science"
Aint nowhere near here.
Don't even go there,
you know better.
Powered by the Holy Spirit.
Period.)
Attempts have been made to distinguish trenchantly between the terms 'ob and yid `oni in
their reference to the divining spirit, but it is doubtful whether any rigid differentiation can be
successfully maintained, in view of the paucity of data available.6 If the two expressions
actually refer to different spirits, the "wizard spirit" (yid `oni) certainly points to spirits characterized by superior knowledge. The "familiar spirit" ('ob) would then seem to be any ghost that is called up from the spirit-world to answer questions put to it (I Sam. 28:7-8). The "wizard spirit" seems always to speak through a medium, while the "familiar spirit" ('ob) may evidently speak directly out of the spirit-realm (I Sam. 28:15). Some passages, at first sight,
might seem to suggest that the 'ob was the "divining demon" in distinction to the yid `oni, the
medium possessed by this spirit. But this distinction does not hold, for Saul is said to have put
away "those that had familiar spirits (ha'ovoth) and the wizards out of the land" (I Sam. 28:3, 9)
; this could scarcely have been the case, if the former were merely spirit agents.
May not the two distinct terms describe two different aspects of the same spirit? So regarded, the 'ob would convey the idea that the spirit has come back from the other world, while yid `oni would suggest that the demon so returned possesses super physical knowledge, and, therefore, would be capable of giving occult information. Indicative of this view is the fact that in all the eleven cases in which yid `oni occurs, it consistently follows 'ob, strongly suggesting that it is interpretive of it. The 'ob, in contrast, frequently occurs alone (I Sam. 28:7-8; I Chron.10:13).
Very likely the two characters are essentially one, and the conjunction joining the two,as in Deuteronomy 8:11, is of the nature of a hendiadys: "he who seeks a departed spirit that is knowing" (shoel 'ob weyid 'oni). The remaining expression, "necromancer" (doresh elhammethim, "a seeker among [unto] the dead") is obviously a general and comprehensive necromantic term, and includes 'ob and yid `oni. The whole expression, then may be rendereda follows: "He who inquires of the departed spirit that is knowing, even he who seeks unto the dead." This rendering is in harmony, too, with the usages of Hebrew parallelism.
The illegality and wickedness of all necromantic art in Israel appears, besides in the stern and
inflexible Mosaic injunctions directed against it, in such passages as describe how "Saul had put
away them that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the land" (I Sam. 28:3,9), how later he
died for his persistent disobedience, "and also for that he asked counsel of one that had a
familiar spirit to enquire thereby" (I Chron. 10:13) , and how Josiah, in his thorough and far reaching purge of paganism, cleansed away the pollution of spiritistic mediums, and occultists of every description (II Kings 23:24). A considerable portion of Manasseh's guilt, in his abominable idolatrous orgy, is traceable to his traffic with familiar spirits and wizards. "He had intercourse with divining demons and wizards" (asah 'ob we yid `onim ), that is trafficked in divining mediums and wizards (II Kings 21:6; II Chron. 33:6).
That outcroppings of the practice of necromancy were frequent in Judah up to the time of the captivity and were an unfailing index of the low spiritual ebb of the apostate nation and a contributory cause of their exile, there can be no doubt. Isaiah sternly upbraids the occultists of his day for seeking unto mediums and wizards "that chirp and mutter." Reprovingly he denounces all necromantic divination as wholly opposed to Jehovah and his worship: "Should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?" (Isa. 8:19).
(I mean it just doesnt make any sense...in any context.)
The common Septuagintal rendering of "familiar spirit" ('ob ) is "ventriloquist" (eggastrimuthos), one who so speaks out of his in most being that people are made to believe that a ghost spoke through him, as a result of his throwing his voice into the ground, where the spirit was supposed to be ( I Sam. 22:7-8; 8:19; 19:3). This is precisely the rationalistic explanation of necromantic phenomena promulgated by Lenormant, Renan, and others. But despite the fact that ventriloquial jugglery and imposition were often resorted to by the ancients for the purpose of magic and clever charlatanry, as is also the case with many modern spiritistic tricksters, nevertheless, genuine traffic in occultism was practiced then, as now, and Scripture presents this species of divination, not as mere quackery, but what it was really claimed to be-an actual display of demonism and the operation of real powers of evil supernaturalism.7
But mediumship and spiritism are closely connected with the ventriloquial whispers and
mutterings, which the seducing demons employ in their human agents in subtle imitation of the
utterances of the dead, in order thoroughly to deceive and win over their ready dupes. Isaiah,
warning Judah and Jerusalem of impending suffering, says they shall "be brought down" . . . and
their voice shall be "as of one that hath a familiar spirit" (ke'ob, literally, "like a shade out of the
ground") and their "speech shall whisper out of the dust" (Isa. 29:4). The prophet's reference is
clearly to the "ghost" (demon) evoked, who, aping the deceased, evidently speaks directly out
of the ground, and "chirps and mutters" (cf. Isa. 8:19) out of the dust." The ancients actually thought the souls of the departed returned, and could be communicated with. They little comprehended demonic deception, and did not realize that the supposed "shade," or spirit of the deceased, was not some loved one, or friend returned from the other world, but merely an impersonating demon." Multitudes in modem times are likewise deluded in the clutches of spiritistic error.
2. THE CASE OF SAUL AND THE MEDIUM OF ENDOR
The episode of Saul's visit to the spiritistic medium at Endor (I Sam. 28:1-25) is not only the most prominent and detailed case of necromancy in Scripture, but it stands unique and unparalleled,9 as not only a glaring expose of the fraudulency of spiritism, but also as God's unequivocal condemnation of all traffic in occultism, and His sure punishment of all who break his divinely ordained laws in having recourse to it. It is evident that such an account of a wicked occult practice so sternly forbidden any Israelite, and yet so in vogue in heathenism in general, and among the Canaanitish nations in particular, would never have been accorded so much space, nor given such a place of prominence on the pages of divine truth, unless it had a momentous ministry to fulfill and a stern duty to perform, in once for all revealing the complete duplicity of spiritism, and in solemnly warning against the dire destructiveness of all intercourse with evil spirits.
(Its relevant today, think about it a second.)
That the woman of Endor was identical with the modem medium appears in Saul's command to
his servants to seek him out "a woman that hath a familiar spirit," ('esheth ba`alath 'ob literally
"a woman controlling, or mistress of, a divining demon") (I Sam. 28:7), that he might inquire of
her, and also in his initial request to the medium herself, "divine unto me ... by the familiar
spirit" (ba'ob "by means of the divining demon") "and bring me up whomsoever I shall name
unto thee" (v. 8).
Saul asked that Samuel be brought up, because he knew there was none like the venerable prophet and judge who knew so well God's mind and future events. The woman doubtless began to make her customary preparations, expecting, as usual, to lapse into a trance-like state, and be used by her "control" or "divining demon," who would then proceed to impersonate the individual called for. The startling thing, however, was that the usual occult procedure was abruptly cut short by the sudden and totally unexpected appearance of the spirit of Samuel. The medium was consequently transfixed with terror, and screamed out with shock and fright, when she perceived that God had stepped in, and by His power and special permission, Samuel's actual spirit was presented to pronounce final doom upon Saul.10 The sight of Samuel was the proof of divine intervention, and was indubitable evidence that the man in disguise was Saul. The medium's terrified conduct, and her complete loss of poise at the appearance of a real spirit of a deceased person, constitutes a complete and irrefutable Scriptural disclosure of the fraudulency of all spiritistic mediumship.
The woman, to be sure, had the power to communicate with wicked spirits, as do modern mediums of spiritism and psychical research. These deceiving demons represent themselves to their mediums, and through them to their clients, as the spirits of the departed dead, but actually their messages do not emanate from the deceased at all, but from themselves as lying spirits, who cleverly impersonate the dead.11
The return of Samuel from the spirit-world, though actual, is unique and exceptional, under any consideration. To begin, it is not the case of a medium bringing back the spirit of a deceased person. The woman's "divining demon" had nothing whatever to do with Samuel's sudden appearance. She and her spirit accomplice were completely sidetracked at the presence of Samuel, and had nothing more to do with the proceedings. Evil spirits may impersonate the dead, but they cannot produce them. Only God can do that, as He did in this case. Moreover, the incident is the only example in all Scripture where God permitted a deceased person to come back, as a spirit, to hold communication with the living. Others have come back from the dead, albeit not as spirits, but as raised persons, such as Jairus' daughter, the widow of Nain's son, and Lazarus of Bethany. They did not receive resurrection bodies, nor did they, we may confidently believe, retain any consciousness of the spirit-world, and they afterward died again. But Samuel's spirit was not re-embodied, and, therefore, he was not disqualified from relating information from the other world. The case of our Lord, and those who came "out of the tombs after His resurrection" and "appeared unto many" in Jerusalem (Matt. 27: 52-53), were resurrected persons, not spirits (Luke 24:49), nor in any sense examples of spiritism. The same is true of the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. They, too, were present not as "spirits," but in their glorified bodies.
Samuel's return in spirit form from the realms of the dead is, then, altogether unparalleled and unprecedented, both in manner and purpose; in manner, because it was by special divine power and permission; in purpose, because it was for the unique intent of divine rebuke and warning to all who resort to occultism, and particularly, to pronounce immediate sentence on Saul for this, his final plunge into ruin (I Chron. 10:13).
After the medium is exposed, and her craft is laid bare as a fraud and a deception by her unseemly fright at the appearance of Samuel, whom she was professing to call up, the whole proceeding quickly passes over to a colloquy between Samuel and Saul. It is manifest that at first, at least, Samuel's spirit was visible only to the woman, whom she described as "a god (elohim) coming up out of the earth" (I Sam. 28:13). The expression is difficult and unusual, in that it is the same word for "God" or "gods." But that the particular reference in this passage is neither to Jehovah, nor to heathen deities, or demons, is evident from Saul's immediate query, "What form is he of?" (v. 14). Hence, the term "god," as used in this specific instance, refers, in accordance with a well established Hebrew usage, to a "judge" or "prophet," as those "unto whom the word of God came" (John 10:35; Ps. 82:6), and whom God consequently dignified with authority to bear His own name (Exod. 21:6; 22:8). The deignation was pre-eminently apropos of Samuel, the last and greatest of the judges, and the first of the prophets.
After the woman's further description of Samuel, as "an old man" coming up, "covered with a robe" (I Sam. 15: 27), Saul seems to have glimpsed the spirit of Samuel also, for "he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance" (v. 14), and the conversation proceeded directly, without any further employment of the woman. Samuel's pointed and stinging rebuke to Saul is added evidence that his spirit actually appeared, and that it was not an impersonating demon. Most purported communications from the dead are vague and cryptic, couched in abstruse language calculated to deceive, and withal, to leave a favorable impression. This was far from the case with Samuel. In severest terms, he announced that the Lord had wrested the kingdom from Saul, and that tomorrow Saul and his sons would die (v. 16-19).
Samuel's manner of speech in describing Saul's death has occasioned much confusion. When he said, "Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me" ('immi) (v. 19), it is not necessary to suppose that this, the rendering of the Massoretic text, is perhaps, not the correct reading, but that the translation of the Septuagint (Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus)is to be preferred, "Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons with thee be fallen" ('immeka nophelim). This, although solving an imagined difficulty that bothers some, is obviously a weakened version. There is no reason why Saul and his sons should not have gone at death to be where Samuel was, in the Paradise section of Hades, where all the spirits of the righteous dead were in Old Testament times (Luke 16:19-31) It must never be forgotten that Saul is not a type of unbeliever, but of a child of God, albeit disobedient and under the divine discipline. His last act of lawlessness, in resorting to necromancy, resulted in his untimely end on the battlefield of Mount Gilboa, which is typical of the believer's "sin unto death" (I John 5:16), and his being delivered "unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (I Cor. 5:5).
That Samuel was in Paradise, which was before the resurrection of Christ, in the underworld, and not, as now, in the third heaven (II Cor. 12:2-3), explains the reason why his spirit is represented as coming "up out of the earth" (I Sam. 28:13-14), and not as coming down from heaven. Samuel disclosed nothing as to the state of those in the unseen world, except a hint as to the condition of the righteous dead, which, he clearly implied is that of rest and quietness, and that Saul had disturbed his tranquility by calling for him. In this statement is contained a revelation of the state of the righteous dead in Paradise between death and the resurrection of the body.
If it is forbidden in the Scripture for a child of God to resort to a "familiar spirit," then it is equally wrong for the departed dead, either godly or wicked, to communicate with the living. By so doing, both infringe upon the law of God. If the persuasive pleading of the rich man in Hades could not effect the sending back of the spirit of Lazarus to the earth to warm his brothers, how can a medium, through the agency of demonic power, prevail upon spirits of the dead to return? And what need is there for our communication with the dead?
(HELLO?
Anybody Home?)
We have Moses
and the Prophets, yes, and Christ and the Apostles, with a full revelation concerning the
circumstances of both the saved and the unsaved dead. If the episode of Saul's recourse to
occultism has any lesson at all, it shows the folly and duplicity of traffic with necromancers.
B. NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT
The terms "witch" and "witchcraft" have in reality no proper place in our English Bible, inasmuch as the superstitious ideas popularly associated with these expressions, are not found in Scripture. As a result of the extravagant and fanciful demonology of the Middle Ages, the word "witch," which seems to denote etymologically "one who knows," came more and more to denote a woman who had formed a compact with the devil, or with wicked spirits, and, as a result of this league with evil, and complete abandonment to the powers of darkness, became able to cast many kinds of spells, and cause untold mischief of every description to both people and things. "Witchcraft" in modern English denotes the arts and practices of such women.
1. THE BIBLE AND SORCERY
The term "witch" occurs twice in the Authorized Version, and in both cases has been correctly rendered by "sorcerer" or "sorceress" by the Revisers of 1884. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch(R.V. "sorceress, mekashshepah) to live (Exod. 22:18). "There shall not be found with thee . . . a witch (R.V. "sorcerer," mekashshepah (Deut. 18:10). The Hebrew participles, in each case, denote one who practices magic by using occult formulas, incantations, and mystic mutterings. The feminine ending of the participle in Exodus 22:18 may merely denote one of a class, or even a collection of units, rather than the strictly feminine connotation of "sorceress."12
The term "sorcerer" is therefore, a better translation of the Hebrew words because it avoids the superstition time has attached to the designation "witch," and is manifestly sufficiently elastic in scope to comprehend the broader range of demonological phenomena categorized under it. Although the etymology of the expression "sorcerer" (from the Latin, "sors," a "lot," "one who throws or declares a lot"), would assign it initially the more circumscribed sphere of augural prognostication, it is evidently commonly employed to include the whole field of divinatory occultism. As such, it embraces and includes the necromancer, who may, accordingly, be classified as a certain type of sorcerer. The appellation "witch" has persistently clung to that which is more accurately a sorceress, sometimes, a necromancer. For example, the phrase "the witch of Endor" occurs widely in literature, and particularly in common parlance, but it is not found in the Bible. The epithet has come from the misleading heading and summary of the Authorized Version. This character is defined in I Samuel 28:7 as "a woman who is mistress of a divining spirit." She was, therefore, a sorceress, more precisely a spiritistic medium or necromancer, not a "witch."
The Revisers partially recognized the inappropriateness of the terms "witch" and "witchcraft" in the English Bible, and remedied the situation by eliminating the term "witch" entirely. However, for some incomprehensible reason, they strangely clung to the expression "witchcrafts" (keshaphim) in II Kings 9:22; Micah 5:12; and Nahum 3:4, but in all these instances, a proper rendering would be "sorceries" or "magical arts," and not "witchcrafts," which term is inaccurate and misleading. The translation "sin of witchcraft" in I Samuel 15:23 is correctly "the sin of divination" (qesem). The phrase "used witchcraft," employed of Manasseh, is correctly translated by the Revisers "practiced sorcery" (II Chron. 33:16), as the word denotes "to practice magic," and is the same verb from which the participles translated "sorceress, sorcerer" in Exodus 22:18 and Deuteronomy 18:10 are derived.
The expression translated "witchcraft" by the Authorized Version in Galatians 5:20 (pharmakeia) is the common Greekword for "sorcery," and is so recognized by the Revisers, though it more literally denotes the actof administering drugs, and then of giving magical potions. It naturally came to designate the magician's art, as in the present passage, and in Isaiah 49:7, where the Septuagint renders keshaphim by pharmakeia ("sorceries"). The verb "bewitch" (baskaino), in Galatians 3:1,contains the idea of bringing mischief upon anyone by the blinding effect of the evil eye, and hence has, perhaps, an occult reference. But it has nothing whatever to do with the fantastic notions attached to "witch" or "witchcraft." Sir Walter Scott deftly exposes the error of the deluded believers in witchcraft and the witch-baiters of medieval and modern times who professed to draw their base superstitions and inhuman cruelties from the Bible.13 Although ambiguously employing the term "witch" when referring to the medium of Endor and other female spiritistic traffickers in necromancy in the Old Testament, Scott is nevertheless careful to point out that this class of diviners was entirely different from the European "witch" of theMiddle Ages. The so-called "witch of the Hebrews" did not rate higher than a fortune teller or a divining woman. Notwithstanding, hers was a crime deserving of death (Exod. 22:17). Not, however, because she was a hideous creature, the distorted product of Medieval imagination firmly believed in by multitudes, who could transform herself and others into animals, raise and allay tempests, frequent the revelry of evil spirits, cast spells, destroy lives, blight harvests, upset Nature, and cause multitudinous other daily calamities, but because her occultism involved a rejection of Jehovah's supremacy, in that it was a bold intrusion upon the task of the genuine prophet of God,
(It's offensive to him.
Believe it.)
through whom God's Spirit
at that time regularly
spoke to make known the divine will.14
Sir Walter Scott's summary of the Biblical teaching respecting witchcraft expresses the truth succinctly: Whatever may be thought of other occasional expressions in the Old Testament, it cannot be said that, in any part of the sacred volume, a text occurs indicating the existence of a system of witchcraft, under the Jewish dispensation, in any respect similar to that against which the law-books of so many European nations have, till very lately, denounced punishment; far less under the Christian dispensation-a system under which the emancipation of the human race from the Levitical law was happily and miraculously perfected.15
2. A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WITCHCRAFT
It is accordingly quite evident that the terms "witch" and "witchcraft" have no proper place in our English Bible, inasmuch as the superstitious ideas popularly associated with these expressions are not found in Scripture and are furthermore completely at variance with the lofty demonology of both the Old and the New Testament. These superstitious ideas, however, are found from ancient times in heathen thought. The priests (or priestesses) of the ancient oracles, whether of Apollo at legend-haunted Delphi, or of horned Hammon amid the sandy wastes of Libya, or phallic Baal upon the lonely heights of Peor in Moab, were all sorcerers.
According to Montague Summers:
They delivered oracles; they chanted incantations . . . they directed, they expounded, they advised, they healed, they dispensed noxious draughts, they pretended to lord it over nature by their arts, they tamed wild beasts, and they charmed serpents . . . they controlled the winds just as the witches of Lapland and Norway were wont to do, they could avert the hailstorm, or on the other hand they could cover a smiling sky with the menace of dark clouds and torrential rain.... These priest-sorcerers had, moreover, the power to turn human beings into brute animals.16
In addition, ancient sorcerers were often necromancers. One of the earliest and most significant scenes of necromancy in Greek literature occurs in The Odyssey (Book XI), wherein Odysseus is advised by the evil Circe, to take counsel of the shade of Tiresias in the underworld. The Greek goddess of necromancy and all witchcraft was the mysterious Hecate. Both Greekand Roman sorcery abound with necromancy and every possible variety of demonological phenomena.
However, it remained for priest and peasant of the Middle Ages, in the period of woeful apostasy and spiritual declension, so thoroughly to mix pagan superstition with Christian demonological concepts that imps and hobgoblins, and witches who were the very epitome of all the evil powers of ancient sorcerers, and more, were the result. The poor victim accused of witchcraft was considered to have made a pact with the devil, to practice infernal arts and to obey his every command. The pact was believed to have been signed with the victim's own blood, her name enrolled in the devil's "black book," and the agreement solemnly ratified at a general meeting presided over by the devil himself.17 The witch was bound to be obedient to the devil in everything, while the other party to the pact delivered the witch an imp, or familiar spirit, to be ready at call to do whatever was directed. The most terrifying evil powers, to cast spells, to hurt, and to kill were delivered to the witch, who became a creature utterly dangerous and unfit to live.18
Since the thirteenth century the word "witch," which seems to denote etymologically "one who knows," has come to refer to such imaginary grossly wicked creatures. From that time until well into the eighteenth century, church and state joined hands to torture and burn witches. Persecution of witchcraft was not abolished in England and Scotland until 1736, in t the reign of George II. All the American Colonies had laws against witchcraft similar to those in England" and from the first there were occasional witch trials and executions. The Salem outbreak near the end of the seventeenth century did not run its course until fifty-five persons had suffered torture and twenty had been put to death.20
The fantastic lengths to which extravagance ran is shown by the widespread idea of general assemblies of witches called "Witches' Sabbaths." To these annual gatherings the witches were believed to come riding on broomsticks, pokers, goats or hogs, the devil himself in the form of a goat taking the chair. Here they did homage to their master, offered sacrifices of young children, and practiced all sorts of license until dawn. Here neophytes were initiated and received the mark of the devil on their bodies, the sign that they had sold themselves to him.21 The age of enlightenment and the rise of scientific rationalism in Europe in the Eighteenth century together with far-reaching religious revivals in Europe and America practically abolished witchcraft in the modern civilized world, although it still prevails today among savage and semi-savage races.
(This was published in 1952.
Wicca has since then returned.)
C. NECROMANCY AND MODERN SPIRITISM
The distinguishing feature of modern spiritism, frequently misnamed "spiritualism,"22 is its purported intercourse with the spirits of the dead. In this, it is identical with ancient necromancy. Although much that passes for present-day spiritistic manifestation is pure chicanery, nevertheless, that real communications from the spirit-world are at times received, cannot for one moment be doubted, if both Scriptural and non-Scriptural evidence is to be given credence.
Facts are not lacking to indicate that modem spiritism is nothing more nor less than ancient sorcery revived, with particular emphasis on communication with the supposed spirits of the dead, which are really deceiving, impersonating demons, so that the phenomenon is basically demonism. Its modem claim of being a "new dispensation," ushering in a wholly new advance in communication with the spirit-sphere, is entirely without factual basis. So far from spiritism being anything new, it dates from the most ancient times.
1. NECROMANCY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Traffic in the realm of evil spirits goes back in most ancient times to the antediluvian world. Illicit intercourse with spirit beings was the underlying cause of the flood. The earliest history of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Graeco-Roman world is replete with examples of the cultivation of the demoniacal arts.23
(Thats:
"Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Graeco-Roman world"
so far.
Later we will add:
"Ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian"
and also added later will be:
"As Oesterreich notes: "The exorcisms are so numerous that they constitute the major part of cuneiform religious inscriptions; and they must certainly date back beyond the purely Babylonian tradition to the Sumerians."
Which is extremely significant for all the Anunnaki
types out there to understand.
And just like with the megalithic structures etc?
One source,
seems much more likely
than them developing their own
demonical arts independent of each other.
Which would have been impossible anyway.
They all needed teachers.
"Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Graeco-Roman world"
"Ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian"
It makes much more sense logically
and its much more probable.
So where did all
"the demoniacal arts"?
come from then?
They didn't develop them on their own.
They came from somewhere.
An entity of beings
that knew
how things were created
seems likely
These, to which man's religious history bears eloquent witness, fall into three classes. First, there is the divination by signs, omens, and forbidden sciences, evidently under demon manipulation, to indicate the desired course to take. Secondly, there are ceremonies, incantations, and spells to enlist the spirit forces (demons) to give their aid to accomplish the desired course. Thirdly, there is the employment of every method of direct communication and co-operation with the demon forces. The actual direct intercourse with the demon spirits is, in reality, the domain of so-called necromancy. But since the intercourse is, in reality, not with the spirits of the departed dead, but with lying, seducing spirits (the widely used term "necromancy" being a misnomer and the prevailing idea of communication with the dead being a delusion), all the phenomena involving actual traffic with evil spirits, whether purporting to come from the spirits of the deceased or not, is properly included under this category. This being the case, ancient history contains innumerable instances of what is today termed "spiritualism," for demons, pythonesses, sybils, augurs, and soothsaying men and women are constantly encountered in the records of ancient history.
Ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian historical records literally swarm with demons; and clay tablets, containing countless incantations, spells, omens, exorcisms, magic rituals, and evidences of spirit traffic, have been dug up by the modern archeologist from the mounds of buried Mesopotamian cities. As Oesterreich notes: "The exorcisms are so numerous that they constitute the major part of cuneiform religious inscriptions; and they must certainly date back beyond the purely Babylonian tradition to the Sumerians."24
Likewise, in the records of ancient Egypt, magical texts, charms, and incantations abound. A. V. Harnack says that the priests of Egypt were "celebrated exorcists from very remote times."25 The religious innovator, Ikhnaton, effected a temporary reformation, however, about 1380 B.c. In his reign the tomb of the deceased "was no longer disfigured with hideous demons and grotesque monsters which should confront the dead in the future life; and the magic paraphernalia necessary to meet and vanquish the dark powers of the nether world, which filled the tombs of the old order at Thebes, were completely banished."26 Old Testament notices, connecting Egyptian learning with occultism (Exod. 7:11, 22; 8:18; et al.), show the prevalence of magic and divination of every conceivable sort in the nations surrounding Israel and stress the ever present peril to Israel of this traffic in spirits (Deut. 18). As noted in the foregoing, the spiritistic medium of the
Canaanites was under rigid ban in Israel (Lev. 19:31; 20:6, 27), and the account of Saul and the
medium of Endor is the Bible's once-for-all condemnation of mediumistic traffic.
Greek and Roman antiquity also furnishes abundant evidence of intercourse with the world of evil spirits.27 In Homer's Odyssey there are clear references to necromancy.28 Pagan antiquity took pride in its renowned oracles-for example, those at Claros, Trophonius, and the most famous of all at Delphi, where trance-mediums received messages from the gods (demons).
(Fallen angels,
just like the Anunnaki,
just like the Hindu gods...
Refer back to Genesis 6.)
Healing mediums were also numerous. Such episodes as Vespasian's remarkable experience in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, Egypt 29- where he evidently glimpsed a spiritistic materialization-furnish pictures in the Graeco Roman world of phenomena now known to occurin modern spiritism.
Spiritistic phenomena are recounted in the early Christian centuries. Clement of Rome makes mention of the practice of calling up a soul from Hades "by the art which is termed necromancy" for the purpose of consulting it "upon some ordinary matter."30Tertullian makes a remarkable allusion to the same thing that modern mediums profess to do (and do, if abundant evidence is to be given credence) : namely, producing apparitions and trafficking in spirits of men who are now dead (really impersonating demons) 31 Augustine again and again ascribes the inspiration of Greek and Roman oracles and soothsayers to evil spirits, and recognizes their powers of prediction. He believed demons had power to produce appearances and visions, as they do through modem mediums.32
The Dark Ages of medieval superstition and popery with its magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and mediums produced levitations, apparitions, spirit communications, and miraculous cures quite similar to those of modern Spiritism, Christian Science, and other similar cults. The fearful prevalence of spiritistic phenomena in England, and the survival of heathen superstitions could not be more plainly demonstrated than in the ecclesiastical and the civil laws against all types of sorcery, extending from the seventh to the eleventh centuries.33 Up to the threshold of the modern era similar conditions prevailed in all medieval Europe.34
2. SPIRITISM IN THE MODERN WORLD
With the far-reaching revival of spiritism in the nineteenth century, old foes of Christianity appeared in new forms.
(As they always do.)
The strange psychic experiences of the Shakers at New Lebanon, New York, in 1843, and especially the famous "spirit-rappings" in the family of John D. Fox in 1848 at Hydeville, New York, excited wide attention; and as a result, mediums through whom these manifestations were said to occur, were multiplied very rapidly all over the country. The seances of the Fox girls, before the Civil War, attracted many prominent people in both Europe and America. Spiritualistic societies were organized (The Society of Psychical Research in England in 1882, and in America in 1888), seances became common, and a prolific literature began rolling off the press. Men of science began subjecting its purported phenomena to severe scientific scrutiny, and some, like Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge, the physicists, became its adherents.
A whole complex of phenomena, purportedly tried and proved, was advanced as the result of the widespread activity in psychical research and experimentation with mediums: such as telepathy, spirit-rapping, trances, luminous apparitions, automatic writing, inspiration, clairvoyance, oral and written spirit communications, mediumistic drawings, materializations, levitations, physical healing, and others, and these form the basis of the new belief in spirits. Says Oesterreich, "In various periods and circles, now one and now another phenomenon prevails and is, so to speak, in fashion."35 Certain states of trance are commonly conceded to be closely related to demon possession 3s Spiritism received a new impulse after World War I, especially in England where there was hardly a home from which a son had not been lost. Such prominent men as Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir A. Conan Doyle alleged that they had had communication from their boys and their comrades who had perished on the battlefield. The result was a widespread recourse to mediums, where people were deceived by lying spirits impersonating the departed dead. In no case, it must be concluded, was there what there was purported to be: namely, actual communication of the living with the dead, either with the souls of the righteous or the unrighteous. Spiritism is based on a lie, howbeit a most craftily concealed one, and has its source in him whom God's Word says is "a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44).
A remarkable case, that of a Mrs. Piper, 37 was reported in five different volumes of the proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research, and is said to offer the best mass of scientific evidence extant in support of possible spirit communication. It was through this case that Sir Oliver Lodge was finally convinced that the dead may speak to the living. The Bible, however, contradicts his conclusion. James Gray correctly summarizes the evidence thus: It reveals the possibility of materializations, but not the actual talking with the dead. By materialization in this case we mean the assumption of a material and bodily form by evil angels or demons, who wickedly personate the dead and deceive the living, but nothing more S8 It must be remembered that the calling up of Samuel from the spirit-world (I Sam: 28:7-25) was by God himself, as a test case to pronounce divine condemnation on the whole forbidden traffic with evil spirits. The medium in this case had nothing to do with the procedure.
3. THE DOCTRINES OF MODERN SPIRITISM
Inasmuch as present-day spiritism is basically the demonism practiced in hoary antiquity, those who embrace the modern variety do not go forward to something new in Christianity, but backward to that which is as old as fallen man himself-to demon inspired and demon-impelled paganism. The teachings of this cult would accordingly be expected to be "doctrines of demons" (I Tim. 4:1). And in the light of God's Word, such they are, especially as spiritists have no official creed,39 and their general tenets are based largely on the pronouncements of mediums under a controlling demon at a séance. Spiritists have a pantheistic idea of deity
(Physical Constants of the universe anybody?
Kinda disproves pantheism yo.
Ever been in a building that hasn't been built yet?
If the building is the universe?
Then something outside of it
had to create it.)
and generally abrogate the idea of a personal God.40 They deny the foundation doctrine of the deity of Christ, making him only a "Master Medium,"41 and His miraculous conception is to them "merely a fabulous tale."42 They reject the Bible doctrine of atonement, alleging that "one can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice, nor in the God who could be placated by suchmeans."43 They scoff at man's depravity, insisting "never was there any evidence of a fall."44
(They are either idiots, or willfully blind, name me one thing ever created by man that hasnt been polluted, diluted or corrupted. They don't see any of that?)
In their thinking, "Hell... drops out altogether" as an "odious conception, so blasphemous in its view of the Creator" and "as a permanent place does not exist. "45 Spiritists regard the Christian church as a deadly enemy and as an impediment to true spiritual progress. One of them writes: Step by step the Christian church advanced, and as it did so, step by step the torch of Spiritualism receded, until hardly a flickering ray from it could be perceived amid the deep darkness . . . For more than 1800 years the so-called Christian church stood between mortals and spirits, barring all chance for progress and growth. It stands today as a complete barrier to human progress, as it did 1800 years ago.46 Fully conscious of the irreconcilable antagonism between their cult and Christianity, they say: If the latter (Christianity) lives, Spiritualism must die; and if Spiritualism is to live, Christianity must die. They are the antithesis of each other .. . Modern Spiritualism has come to give its coup de grace; and those who would hold back that flow are the enemies of spiritual truth 47
In the following statement Wilbur M. Smith correctly evaluates the followers of this cult: "If they are true spiritualists they are the sworn enemies of the Christian faith."48 No cult so blatantly sets aside the Word of God at will or so unashamedly confesses that many of its tenets are in open opposition to the Scriptures. It is obvious, in their Outlines of Spiritualism, (Feb. 1, 1952) that spiritists consider the teaching of the divine inspiration and the authority of the Bible as thoroughly untenable and misleading to the public.
(Sounds like these guys versions of the origin of life if you ask me
"...thoroughly untenable and misleading to the public.")
Although modern spiritism has performed a beneficial service in calling attention to the supernatural spirit realm (albeit evil)
(How in the world can a person believe in Satan and demons and not believe in God? When the very things they profess to believe exist do believe in God?
James 2:19
Thou believest that there is one God;
thou doest well:
the devils also believe, and tremble.
It's simply not coherant logic.)
in a grossly materialistic era, extremely skeptical of anything purporting to transcend the purely natural realm, yet that it is a pagan, anti-Christian heresy, characterized by the most direct demonic deception, is thoroughly obvious. Its roots strike deep into demonism, and its fruits bear all the traits of Satan, the deceiver and the destroyer 49
No comments:
Post a Comment