Inquiring of the Dead?
The Watchtower Society has always
forbidden Jehovah’s Witnesses from trying to communicate with or gather
information from those who have died.
However, the Society seems to have made some exceptions to their teachings over
the years. In its book, Revelation – It’s Grand Climax is at Hand, p. 125, we
read the following statement: “From the time of the Apostle John and onto the
Lord’s Day, the anointed Christians were puzzled as to the identity of the Great
Crowd. It is fitting then that one of the 24 elders representing the anointed
ones already in heaven should stir John’s thinking by raising a pertinent
question. (Rev. 7:13, 14) Yes, that elder could locate the answer and give it to
John. This suggests that the resurrected ones of the 24 elders group may be
involved in the communicating of divine truth today. (italics added)
More recently, the January 1, 2007 issue of The Watchtower makes the following
assertion: “It seems that resurrected ones of the 24 elders group may be
included in communicating divine truth today.” In other words, those who were
once living, but who are now dead, are communicating with us today.
However, this teaching clearly contradicts the Society’s own statements from the
past. In its well known book, Reasoning from the Scriptures, p. 103, the Society
makes the following statement: “Certain customs reflect beliefs that man has an
immortal soul that survives death of the body, and so is aware of what the
survivors are doing.” In response, the Society contends, “But the Bible says:
‘The dead are conscious of nothing at all. Ecclesiastes 9:5’”
In fact, the Society has written numerous other articles over the years
espousing the fallacy of the communicating with the dead. In practically every
article, the Society contends that those who communicate with the dead are
actually communicating with demons.
More importantly, the Bible not only contradicts the idea of communication with
the dead, but it flatly condemns it. Consider the following:
Luke 16:26-31 teaches that the dead are in a location where communication with the living is impossible.
In Isaiah 19:3, the LORD pronounces judgment on Egypt and states that He will confound their strategy “so that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead.”
Isaiah 8:19 says, “When they say to you, ‘Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?”