Talking to the dead.

Nah, for the most part, punishments, up to and including the death penalty, have not been shown to be particularly effective as deterrents to crime (although there are a variety of conflicting results out there, depending on what factors are manipulated). Most people behave morally because it is the right thing to do, rather than out of fear of the consequences.

When you see a sign that says, "Please do not touch the artwork," do you instinctively think, "Or what??" or do you just not touch the artwork?

And by the way, I do have a Master's degree in Psychology.

Nah, for the most part, punishments, up to and including the death penalty, have not been shown to be particularly effective as deterrents to crime (although there are a variety of conflicting results out there, depending on what factors are manipulated). Most people behave morally because it is the right thing to do, rather than out of fear of the consequences.

When you see a sign that says, "Please do not touch the artwork," do you instinctively think, "Or what??" or do you just not touch the artwork?

And by the way, I do have a Master's degree in Psychology.

Yea why would you want to talk to the dead when you can talk to the living? If you call the deads phone they not going to pick up. You could be waiting a while....

I mean who would be silly enough to do that thinking the dead will answer?!

No. Necromancy is anything that has to do with the dead. Your talking about conjuring.
Going through boundaries to speak to a dead person. Been there, done that. Its dangerous territory and God says no

asking the Lord to say goodby to your wife of 50 years is necromancy? are you sure on that one? where can we confirm this one in scripture?

Samuel, supposedly, was called by the witch of En Dor, not Saul. As to what actually happened, no one can know for sure. What is clear, however, is that Saul consulting a witch was not a good thing, and not of God. Even if Samuel appeared, that doesn't justify trying to speak to our dead today. Also, Saul used a person forbidden by God's law to make the conversation possible. So I guess you could use a medium to talk to your dead today, but scripture doesn't support being able to talk to the dead without some kind of ungodly intercessor. Bottom line: Saul is a poor example to use to try and justify speaking to your dead loved ones.

Hi Jay Bird 69, if you are addressing your request to God himself, no that is not necromancy. It is communication from the dead to us that is forbidden. The text about under the sun, was written in the OT. As you know Revelation is progressive. In the text below we learn it is possible that the dead in heaven can see us when God permits it. We also, know that when others die, they can converse with those up there. And, that angels visit heaven daily from the book of Job. So, it is possible that your guardian angel can make a side trip to visit a loved one. This is just a theory. The text I can think of is below.

Hebrews 12:1-12 New International Version (NIV)

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.

4 The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. 7 Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”

“There is one in Endor,” they said.

8 So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. “Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”

9 But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”

10 Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”

11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”

“Bring up Samuel,” he said.

12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”

13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?”

The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure[a] coming up out of the earth.”

14 “What does he look like?” he asked.

“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.

Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

16 Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David. 18 Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. 19 The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”

20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and all that night.

21 When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. 22 Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”

23 He refused and said, “I will not eat.”

But his men joined the woman in urging him, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch.

24 The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it and baked bread without yeast. 25 Then she set it before Saul and his men, and they ate. That same night they got up and left.

And God sent a strong delusion so that they could beleive the lie.

The texts do not say it was a vision, but I see why you think that. But, even if it was a vision Jesus still had contact with the dead in that vision which is forbidden. Can you think of any other passages in Scripture where the dead appeared in a vision?

If you claim the dead can appear in a vision, then someone praying to God to say bye to someone who has died, then God can if he chooses to allow that person speak with them in a vision, right???

Is the dead appearing in a vision contrary to scriptures?

One thing we know for sure, the death penalty is a deterrent for those put to death. If they are dead, they can't re-offend!

NECROMANCY:





By: Joseph Jacobs, Ludwig Blau
Table of Contents

• In Talmudic Times.

Divination by aid of the dead is said to have been common among the Persians (Strabo, xvi. 2, 39, νεκυονάντεις), and at a later time among the Greeks and Romans as well (see passages in Winer, "B. R." ii. 26). The Israelites possibly borrowed the art from the Persians, and practised it extensively, so that the Bible repeatedly forbids it (Lev. xix. 31; xx. 6, 27; Deut. xviii. 11; I Sam. xxviii.; Isa. viii. 19). There were three classes of necromancers, "ob," "yidde'oni," and "doresh el ha-metim" (questioner of the dead), the first two usually being mentioned together. While the general meaning of "ob" and "yidde'oni" is clear, their etymology and exact connotation have not yet been determined. "Ob" is said to denote the soothsaying spirit (in this sense as early as Josephus, "Ant." vi. 4, § 2) or the ghost of the dead (Baudissin, "Studien," pp. 141 et seq.; Davies, "Magic, Divination," etc., pp. 86 et seq.). The Septuagint generally translates the word by ἐγγαστρίμυθος = "ventriloquist," deriving this meaning from the tone of voice adopted by the necromancer. Jewish tradition says: "Ob is the python, who speaks from his armpits; yidde'oni is he who speaks with his mouth" (Sanh. vii. 7; Sifra, Lev. xx. 27). According to the Talmud (l.c. 65b), the yidde'oni used a bone of the animal called "yaddua'" in his mouth, which is made to speak by magic. The "possessor of the ob" stooped while speaking, to make it appear as if the spirit spoke from his joints and arms (ib.). Two objects are mentioned by means of which the necromancer worked, one being a human skull (but see also Levy, "Neuhebr. Wörterb." i. 537b. s.v. ).
Paraphernalia. Although the Bible does not mention the apparatus used in necromancy, that some sort of paraphernalia was employed is clear from the mention of teraphim, etc. (II Kings xxiii. 24), and also from the expressions which designate the employment of the oracle (ib. xxi. 6; II Chron. xxxiii. 6; Lev. xx. 27 et passim). The Bible indicates still more clearly the manner of appearance and speech. Samuel was manifested to the witch of Endor as an old man covered with a mantle, so that she immediately recognized him as a man of God. Theshade invoked evidently assumed the same shape that he had had in life. The form, however, was visible only to the necromancer, while the questioner heard merely the voice (I Sam. xxviii. 13, 14). The latter sounded as if it came out of the earth, the speech of these necromancers being therefore called whispering and muttering (Isa. viii. 19, xxix. 4). The questioner prepared himself by fasting to be in a proper spiritual condition to receive the ghostly visitant (ib. verse 20; Sanh. 65b).
The fact that necromancy was classed with idolatry and all kinds of magic shows its connection therewith, and, probably, its foreign origin (Deut. xviii. 10, 11; II Kings xxi. 6, xxiii. 24; Isa. xix. 3 et passim). Necromancy, like idolatry and magic in general, was practised chiefly by women (I Sam. xxviii. 7). Saul, who applied in his distress to a female necromancer, had previously driven from the country all those who practised divination by aid of the dead (ib. 9). But Manasseh favored them as well as all other idolaters (II Kings xxi. 6); his elder contemporary, the prophet Isaiah, has in fact given the most explicit references to necromancers (Isa. viii. 19, xix. 3, xxix. 4). Josiah, who took for his guide the newly discovered book of the Law, destroyed them (II Kings xxiii. 24).
In Talmudic Times.
Nevertheless, even in post-Biblical times the necromancers persisted in practising their art, in spite of all measures directed against them, and notwithstanding frequent interdicts in the Torah. The principal passage of the Talmud referring to them has been given above. The teachers of the Talmud call magicians "those that dig up the dead" (B. B. 58a et passim) and "those who predict by means of bones of the dead." A Babylonian scholar declared the art and speech of osteomanty to be deceit and falsehood (Ber. 59a). In general, however, the veracity of the spirit was not doubted, since even the ghost of Samuel had been evoked, according to I Sam. xxviii. (see Shab. 152b). It was regarded as a rule that if the necromancer saw the ghost which he evoked, the questioner heard the voice; but if the latter saw the apparition, the necromancer heard the voice. To hear and to see at the same time was impossible (Sanh. 65; comp. Josephus, l.c.). When Onḳelos bar Kalonikos, nephew of the emperor Titus, was thinking of embracing Judaism, he evoked the spirits of Titus, Balaam, and Jesus in succession, and asked them for advice. The first two dissuaded him, while Jesus counseled him to carry out his intention (Giṭ. 56b-57b). Rab (d. 247), the foremost teacher of Babylon, "performed some ceremony in the cemetery, and ascertained that 99 out of 100 persons die from the evil eye and that only one dies a natural death" (B. M. 107b, above). A later Babylonian teacher says that the necromancer burned incense to the demon, and thus questioned him (Karet 3b).
A more innocent mode of necromancy was listening secretly to the conversation of the dead (Ber. l.c.). Some persons fasted and spent the night in a cemetery, in order that the "spirit of uncleanness" might visit them and enable them to find out the future or other hidden matters (Sanh. 65b; Ḥag. 3b), since the dead were supposed to dwell in an unclean place. This belief may be implied in Isa. lxv. 4 (comp. Acts xvi. 16). This kind of necromancy is perhaps meant in the expression "a consulter with familiar spirits" (Deut. xviii. 11). According to Jewish tradition, necromancy will be punished by God and not by man (Sanh. l.c. et passim).http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11411-necromancy

This explains much.

I talk to Deade sometimes.