We have shown through Scripture that the only possible explanation for the "ancestral spirits" is that they are demons. But, does the Word of God directly address this issue? I believe that it most certainly does and that these deceiving spirits have been up to their evil deceptions for thousands of years. In fact, when God brought his people Israel into the land of Canaan, the people of the land were responding to the spirits in much the same way people today do. The Lord had to warn his people about this awful practice and instruct them to have nothing to do with it.
In Lev. 19:3131Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:31) he told them, "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God." Familiar spirits were those spirits who would attach themselves to a particular person or people and impersonate the dead. Today, they act in much the same way in coming to people and pretending to be a deceased ancestor. The way they work is like this. Suppose there are a father and son who spend many years together in a close family relationship. There are many things that they share together that no one else on earth is aware of. Now, suppose that the father dies and the son is left alone. Sometime later the son has a dream and sees his father who is telling him that he is the spirit of the father and can prove it to him. The spirit then relates some of the experiences that only the father and the son shared and knew about. This is very convincing and the son becomes sure that it is really his father's spirit. But is it? Did the father and son really share those experiences alone? No, they didn't. The familiar spirit was there as well, even though they couldn't see it. Such is the deception and they were to have nothing to do with those that had familiar spirits. It is obvious that they also were not permitted to have anything to do with the familiar spirits themselves. Nor were they to seek after wizards either. Wizards were those who cast spells for either "good" or evil purposes. If they had anything to do with them, they would be defiled.
Lev. 20:66And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6) is even stronger and says, "And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." Verse 27 says that the one having a familiar spirit or a wizard was to be put to death by stoning. This is very strong language and shows how God felt about these practices at that time. In Deut. 18:9-139When 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. 10There 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, 11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12For 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. 13Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. (Deuteronomy 18:9‑13), we are told, "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. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God." Here, in addition to the consulter with familiar spirits and wizards, several other "abominations" are listed. Divination, the practice of using some object or non-scientific method for determining the future or diagnosing an illness, was absolutely forbidden. So was the witch or witch doctor. A charmer was one who made objects that had power to protect those who wore them. If placed at certain locations at a house (such as buried beneath the doorway), they could protect the inhabitants of that house. But there were to be no such persons who made these objects and it follows that the objects themselves were absolutely forbidden. Later on, we find that Israel's first king violated these strict prohibitions and died "for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it" (1 Chron. 10:1313So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; (1 Chronicles 10:13)).
Now, what does the New Testament have to say about these things? In 2 Cor. 11:13-1513For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13‑15) we find that Satan and his ministers (demons) can transform themselves so that they appear to be an "angel of light" or "ministers of righteousness." So it is no surprise that these lying, deceiving, familiar spirits can appear to be someone well known to a living person. We also find that God does not change with respect to His view of evil. We will take this up more in Chapter 4 where we look at the Scriptural teaching of light and darkness.
In Acts 19:1919Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. (Acts 19:19), we are told what the early Christians did shortly after they believed. There it says, "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." There are several important points to notice here. First, we see that they recognized that their books of magic belonged to that which God hated and must be destroyed. Second, it says that they burned them before all men. Their involvement with these practices had been public and so was their renunciation. All men would include those in the world who were still doing those things and who wouldn't understand. It didn't matter, they wanted everyone to know that they were done with the works of evil and therefore they made a public declaration of it. The third thing mentioned is that there was a great cost involved in destroying those things. So it will be for anyone who will be faithful today— there will be a real cost involved in publicly giving up the works of evil. But was it worth it? Most certainly, for the fourth thing mentioned is, "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." This is the reward—and we should mention that the reverse is also true. As long as the Lord's people continue on with any of these practices, there will be no spiritual growth.
Now, let us go back to that verse we looked at earlier in Isa. 8. If we read starting from verse 19 we will see that it was specifically referring to this issue. Here are the two verses:
Here, God is warning his people that they would come with reasonable sounding arguments, just like people do with regard to this subject today. They would say, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards." But what is the answer? Should not a people seek unto their God? Absolutely we should! It is wrong to go to familiar spirits and wizards for answers. God wants us to go to Him and have nothing to do with them. Should the living go to the dead just because they are on the other side of the grave and therefore possibly closer to God? Certainly not, and Scripture forbids it! Many of these things may at first seem like perfectly reasonable sounding arguments. But are they right? God says, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." When we go to the Word, we find that these arguments are all false and completely against the will of God. In fact, the practice puts evil beings between God and us. Not only that, but, as we will see in Chapter 6, God desires to have a direct personal relationship with each one of us with nothing in between. And so, the practice of going to familiar spirits has the result of robbing Him of that relationship and, even worse, inserting demons as intermediaries between us and Him. Let us go to His Word and examine these things in its light.
Summary: God's people are to have nothing to do with familiar spirits, wizards, divination, charms or anything else like this not specifically found in His word.