Going Behind Borders Ministry
Can We Communicate with the Dead?
Can we communicate with the dead? A lot of people try. They've even got TV programs where folks sit around, and someone who's supposed to be channeling with the dead, he's telling them all kinds of things about their loved ones that only they would know. Of course, the devil knows, doesn't he? The devil will reveal these little secrets about their departed loved ones. He'll say, ''Yeah, and they always had this favorite shirt with flowers on it that they always wore." ''How did you know?'' They're telling you a message right now, "You don't need to worry about this or that," and people get sold.
We miss our loved ones, don't we? Sometimes we wished that, "You know, I miss my family, I wish I could talk to my brother." But you know what? I can't talk to him, he's dead. If anyone appears to me with red hair, and freckles and claiming to be my brother, as much as I miss my brother, it's not my brother. Either my mind is playing tricks on me, or it's a devil. I might have dreams that my brother's talking to me, and the Lord might tell me something through those dreams. My brother doesn't know he's talking to me, he's asleep.
You understand what I'm saying?
People say, ''But I felt their presence. I know that they've been visiting me.'' Well, your mind might be playing tricks on you. When you live with someone-- My grandparents were married 70 years. Can you imagine being with somebody 70 years, you really become one flesh after that much time. When my grandmother died my grandfather he just felt her presence everywhere. Why? Because his whole life, his mind, his brain was filled with her memories. He just sensed her everywhere. That's normal. But grandma was asleep, and now grandpa's asleep. God willing, they'll both be reunited. Don't be deceived by this.
The Bible says in Job chapter 7:10 "When a person dies, he shall return no more to his house." If that's clear say ''Amen.'' Again, job 14 verse 12 speaking about this subject ''So man lieth down, and he rises not; till the heavens be no more.'' We already used this one, right? "They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." You might go to see a channeler, or some medium, they cannot raise them. Again, it says in Job 14:21 "They don't know what's happening to their family. Their sons come to honor, and they knoweth it not; they are brought low, they perceive it not of them."
The Bible again says Ecclesiastes 9 ''There is no work, or device, or knowledge, or wisdom in the grave where you go. Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Nothing going on there, they're asleep, it's quiet, they're unconscious." Again, I told you there's no such thing as a Grateful Dead. Psalm 115:17 "The dead praise, not the Lord." First thing I do if I died and I was in the presence of the Lord, wouldn't you praise? If the dead don't praise the Lord, then how can they go right to heaven?
Again, Psalm 6:5. Hundreds of scriptures on this, and you're probably thinking how can the church be so confused on this subject. "In death, there is no remembrance of thee."
Again, Isaiah 38:18 "Death cannot celebrate thee." How has the devil been able to bamboozle the Christian Church? Why has he put so much energy into deceiving the church on this subject? Because he's going to use it. Another verse Psalm 146:4 "A person dies, his thoughts perish."
What about consulting the dead? Isaiah 8:19 "And when they say to you, "Seek unto those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper-- they peep and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?"
Now, in Ecclesiastes, it tells us that it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. It's good to remember what our end is. You know why? It says, "For the living will take it to heart." Never in that passage does it say the dead know anything about it. It says the reason that we honor the dead is not for the dead. When people go to the cemetery on Monday, do the dead know anything about it?
One reason you might go is it may give you some encouragement, it might revive or refresh some memories for you, it may bring back some sweet memories. You might just need to grieve and weep a little for healing. It's for you, it's for the living. The living lay it to heart. It doesn't help the dead at all, they don't know anything about it. They may know in the resurrection, "Hey I understand you went to my grave 50 times, thank you very much." They don't know it then no, see what I'm saying?
First Timothy 4:1 "Some shall depart from the faith--" Speaking of in the last days and boy has this ever happened. "Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." The idea that you can communicate with the dead is a doctrine of devils.
What happens when the righteous rise? How is it going to be when the Lord does come? It says in 1st Corinthians 15 "We'll all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead are raised incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality." That's when it happens, when Jesus comes.
Again, you know this verse, 1st Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first." When? When the Lord comes.
Now, there are several times that Jesus made it very clear that the resurrection is on the last day, and that's when they rise. John 5:28 and 29 Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves, will hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, the resurrection of life, that's the first resurrection; they that have done evil, the resurrection of damnation, that's at the end of the 1,000 years.
Again, John 6:39 and 40 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that all that He has given Me I should lose nothing, but I should raise it up, say those bold words with me, the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me." That's twice that we've read that.
Let's look at a third time. Again, John 6:39 and 40 "That everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life--" And when do they get that? I will raise him up at the--" Say this "The last day." These are the words of Jesus. Again, John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
The Mystery of Death
Any study of the nature of death begs an important foundational question: Why must things die in the first place? Indeed, death is a grand mystery. Throughout time, every major religion, philosophy, and spiritual train of thought has sought to explain this mystery. It is a subject that touches the life of every man and woman, uniting the entire human race under a cloud of inevitable mortality. The rich and the poor alike meet the same end; the black and the white both go to the grave; the powerful and the humble all leave this planet eventually. Interestingly, scientific research into single-celled organisms reveals that the nature of life, on a cellular level, does not automatically include a self-destruct mechanism for death. In other words, it appears that death is an unnatural part of life. Yet despite this, everything on earth eventually dies. Many lines of religious thought simply accept the inevitability of death and instead try to offer better alternatives that await the faithful in the afterlife. These ideas bring comfort to many people who have lost loved ones or are facing death themselves, but they leave others wondering, “Why must death exist? Wouldn’t an all-powerful God eradicate death? Shouldn’t all life inherently live forever?” So the question of the nature of death also brings profound implications about the nature of God. Maybe, some reason, God is not as powerful as He says, since the problem of death remains. Maybe God numbs our sensibilities after death, if we are promised happiness in paradise despite the horrors unfolding on our loved ones who are still alive. Maybe, if living a bad life truly results in eternal torment afterward, God is not really as loving as so many people claim. Maybe there are actually many pathways to God, or many such gods, and the mystery of death will be solved differently for each person, depending on their philosophies in life. Maybe there is no such thing as death, but instead a continual rebirth through reincarnation. Maybe, according to a train of thought that has grown in popularity since the 19th century, life is nothing more than a biochemical accident, and death brings with it a never-ending state of nothingness; the most common conclusion drawn from this line of thinking is that there is no God at all. The mystery of death is so profound that, despite the millennia of religious doctrine, mythology, scientific research, and the many theories and explanations that exist on the subject, people today are more confused than ever about it. Even within individual religious groups there is often a stark difference of opinion on the nature of death. To see this, walk around a cemetery and note the different inscriptions on the tombstones. Clearly, the only way to decipher this profound mystery is to find an authoritative source of truth that will expose all error and remove the need for speculation. Are we fortunate enough to have such an authority? We believe so.
If the dead don’t immediately go to heaven, how did Moses and Elijah appear at the transfiguration?
Texts in question: Luke 9:29, 30; Matthew 17:1–3; Mark 9:3, 4
“As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His
robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked
with Him, who were Moses and Elijah.” Proof texts: 2 Kings 2:11;
Jude 9 One of the most powerful stories in the Gospels is that of
Christ’s transfiguration. In the sight of Peter, James, and John,
Jesus temporarily shed His earthly form and allowed them to see
His divinity. The Father’s voice then pierced the sky, saying He
was well pleased with Jesus, His son. The experience was so
powerful to those who saw it that Peter affirms its validity in
his epistle, 2 Peter 1:16–18. The text might be troubling, however,
to those who otherwise understand that people go to sleep at death
to await a bodily resurrection at Christ’s return. How can Moses and
Elijah have been present at the transfiguration if they are waiting for
the resurrection? To make sense of this, we must first understand two
important principles. The first is that, while the general resurrection of
God’s people will happen at the end of time, there have been individual resurrections recorded in the Bible. Christ’s resurrection, for instance, was not part of the general one. Neither were those of the saints who came forth from the grave after Christ’s resurrection (see Matthew 27:52, 53). The prophets Elijah and Elisha both performed resurrections during their ministries (see 1 Kings 17:17–22 and 2 Kings 4:32–35). Individual resurrections throughout history do not invalidate the general resurrection when Christ returns. The second principle to understand is that some people have left the earth without dying, and therefore are not in need of a resurrection. Moses and Elijah each fit one of these two categories. The story recorded in 2 Kings 2 tells us unmistakably that Elijah was taken to heaven without first dying. Verse 11, specifically, says he was caught in a heavenly whirlwind and taken to heaven in sight of Elisha, his successor. Appearing with Christ at the transfiguration would not have posed a problem for Elijah; he had already spent much time with Jesus in heaven before His human birth in Bethlehem. Moses, on the other hand, died in the wilderness before the Israelite people entered into the Promised Land. The story of his death, as recorded in Deuteronomy 34:5, 6, reveals something extraordinary. The Bible says that God Himself buried Moses, and that none of the Israelites were ever aware of his gravesite. This is the first biblical hint that something special awaited Moses after death. The New Testament, however, gives us more information. In Jude 9, we’re told that the archangel Michael contended with Satan over the body of Moses. In other words, Satan claimed Moses as his own, worthy of death just like everyone else. Michael, however, thought differently. As the archangel, He has the power to resurrect God’s people. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:16; the voice of the archangel raises the dead in Christ at Christ’s return.) Moses was not meant to stay dead. Indeed, he was resurrected from the dead and has been living in heaven since that time. Truly, he has already experienced life after death. Therefore, the presence of Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration does not answer the question “What is death?,” because neither one was dead! Elijah never tasted death at all, and Moses was given a new life at his resurrection, just like Christ’s people will receive at His return. While the transfiguration doesn’t directly give us information on the state of the dead, it retains theological significance nonetheless. When Peter recounted his experience in 2 Peter 1:16–18, he writes that he witnessed Christ’s coming at that time. In other words, he understood the experience to represent the return of Jesus Christ. Moses and Elijah represent the two classes of God’s people who will be present at that miraculous event: Moses represents the “dead in Christ” who rise to new life, and Elijah represents “those who are alive and remain” who will be translated to heaven and eternal life without ever experiencing death in the first place (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Understanding that the transfiguration is a representation of the second coming of Christ also helps us understand Christ’s promise that “some standing here … shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God,” spoken a few days before the transfiguration (Luke 9:27). When we understand the profound significance of this event in light of what Moses and Elijah represent, we can gain an understanding of the nature of death as a result. There would be no need of a bodily resurrection if everyone immediately went to heaven to live in Christ’s presence at death; similarly, translation to heaven would have no special significance because everyone would go to heaven immediately upon death. Moses and Elijah act as evidence that death brings a sleep of unconsciousness while the sleeping saints await the return of Jesus Christ.
