Mediums and clairvoyance

[Angelina1239]

As a Christian I warn friends and acquaintences whenever I can not to go to see these kinds of people. Yet some will not listen, they are fascinated by spiritual stuff and think it is harmless fun.
Yet it is not. I've heard of frightening stories from some who used Ouija boards or went to seances. I stay well away but can only advise. It is hard because these people are often very accurate, either through clever conning and psychology or getting help from unholy spirits.
These things and spiritualist churches are not good places to go. What can we do to combat their influence on the gullible?

 

[tango]

As a Christian I warn friends and acquaintences whenever I can not to go to see these kinds of people. Yet some will not listen, they are fascinated by spiritual stuff and think it is harmless fun.
Yet it is not. I've heard of frightening stories from some who used Ouija boards or went to seances. I stay well away but can only advise. It is hard because these people are often very accurate, either through clever conning and psychology or getting help from unholy spirits.
These things and spiritualist churches are not good places to go. What can we do to combat their influence on the gullible?

This is the sort of thing where you can't stop someone from going - at the end of the day people are free agents and all we can do is warn them.

Sometimes people can be accurate because they do have divination abilities. Sometimes people are well versed in speaking things that are generic, letting the visitor pick up on some of it and fill some extra details to help them home in on something. Some people who visit a medium are skeptical while others are desperately wanting something, anything, and will suspend disbelief if they get even a hint that the medium knows something.

Unless someone is at least loosely minded to believe the Bible has any value in their life it's unlikely to help much to point out what the Bible says. I wouldn't be interested if a Muslim pointed out to me that the Quran forbids something I want to do, and wouldn't expect a non-Christian to have any more interest in the Bible's prohibitions. That's not to say you shouldn't explain the Biblical reasons why you choose not to do something, just to note that the non-Christian probably won't care that the Bible says "thou shalt not".

Where mediums are concerned perhaps point out how many of them are frauds, or even fall back on asking whether the person truly wants to know the information they are seeking. If someone wants information about the future it might be worth considering whether that information is going to be helpful. If they are trying to contact a deceased relative, what if that relative isn't "OK" - would they be OK with finding out?

 

[Angelina1239]

I agree with what you say. All we can do is warn. Also quietly ask what business the living could ever have with the dead? They are gone and have no part in our lives. Which is I hope what the Bible advises, though I forget the exact verses

 

[Lamb]

I agree with what you say. All we can do is warn. Also quietly ask what business the living could ever have with the dead? They are gone and have no part in our lives. Which is I hope what the Bible advises, though I forget the exact verses

I agree. It's foolish to try to communicate with the dead because the demons are deceptive and try to trick men into thinking they're talking to lost relatives/loved ones. Demons want us to think that we won't be with God when we die.

 

[tango]

I agree with what you say. All we can do is warn. Also quietly ask what business the living could ever have with the dead? They are gone and have no part in our lives. Which is I hope what the Bible advises, though I forget the exact verses

Some people turn to that kind of thing looking for comfort. If a loved one dies and someone is uncertain what they believe about whether there's anything beyond death it's easy to see why they might "just want to know that (whoever) is OK". In some ways it doesn't seem all that far removed from people who "talk to" deceased relatives when they visit a grave.

We might believe that there is no link between the living and the dead but obviously others are open to believing that there may be a link, especially when they see what looks like evidence that the link is there. The kind of charlatan medium who gleans bits of information from someone who is vulnerable, only to feed it back more overtly as they "hear it from the other side" is probably also the kind of person who will quite happily take someone's money over and over and over again while feeding back information they have gleaned or found in the obituaries column.

One sad reality is that desperate people resort to desperate measures. Often I wonder whether the church as a whole would be better off providing a clear alternative that invites people, rather than laying down a list of "thou shalt not" statements that come from a book many people don't even see as being relevant. The only people Jesus was quick to judge were the Pharisees.