An Egyptian mummy was found in his tomb after two thousand years. And clasped within his bony fingers was a bulb of a flower. Men wondered if this bulb would grow after 2,000 years. They could hardly wait to see. They planted the bulb in good soil in a sunny spot and watered it well. Then they waited. Their waiting was rewarded when one day a little green sprout started making its way up through the earth. And it grew into a beautiful flower that had not seen the sun for 2,000 summers. Friends, that is the way it is going to be on the resurrection morning. Even if your loved one has slept in the grave for two thousand years, when Jesus calls he will rise in the beauty of youth to live for eternity.
What a pity that Satan has polluted this beautiful truth into a lie that millions of church-going people have accepted. Satan says you don't have to wait for the resurrection. Satan says that when you die part of you just keeps on living. That you don't have to wait for the resurrection to go to Heaven. The Bible calls this the spiritism of the devil. Spiritism claims that these spirits that leave the body come back to this world to visit people at times and to bring messages.
But the Bible says that when a man goes down to the grave he will come back no more until the resurrection day. The Bible makes it clear that when the voice of Jesus calls, those in Christ who are asleep in death will come forth. David said when his little son died, "But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." 2 Samuel 12:23. David understood death. He didn't believe that you went right to Heaven when you died.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:5, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything...."
How can you believe that the spirits of the dead come and give advice and give messages to men and women if they don't know anything? It is impossible according to the Bible. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "...there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Verse 6 says, "Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished." When you die you don't love, you don't have wisdom or knowledge because you don't know anything. You are absolutely dead until the resurrection morning. Jesus said in John 5: 28,29, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth...." That is what the Bible teaches. The Bible certainly does not teach that the spirits of our departed dead come to visit us. Nor have they gone to Heaven or hell fire. They wait for the resurrection. Peter on the day of Pentecost as he was full of the Holy Spirit said in Acts 2:29,34, "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, ...For David is NOT ascended into the heavens...." Peter understood God's plan.
David understood God's plan too, that death is like a sleep and he must wait until the resurrection day. We read what David wrote in Psalms 17:15, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I AWAKE with thy likeness." David understood the sleep of death. He didn't believe like a lot of people do today that the moment a good person dies he immediately goes to Heaven. David believed God's way. That when he died he would sleep the sleep of death, then rise again on the resurrection morning. He rested in the assurance of the day coming when he would hear the voice of Jesus calling him from the grave to life again.
David said he would be satisfied on the resurrection morning when he saw his Saviour face to face.
Jesus too likened death unto a sleep. In the eleventh chapter of John it tells the story how Jesus' friend Lazarus became very sick and was about to die. A messenger came pleading for Jesus to hurry before His friend died. But Jesus didn't go immediately and Lazarus died. Jesus knew Lazarus had died but His disciples didn't, so He explained it to them. John 11:11-14, "...and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them PLAINLY, Lazarus IS DEAD." Jesus PLAINLY likened death unto a SLEEP until the resurrection day. Those closest friends and loved ones of Jesus were taught that you do not go to Heaven when you die but that you wait in the grave until the resurrection. After Lazarus had been dead four days, Jesus was talking to Lazarus' sister Martha. John 11:23-25, "Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the RESURRECTION OF THE LAST DAY. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
Martha understood that Jesus would raise Lazarus again from the dead at the resurrection in the last day (the Second Coming). And Jesus told her He would be the one that would be doing the resurrecting. That He had this power. Jesus also performed a special resurrection at this time for His friend. John 11:43,44 "...He crieth with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes..." Notice that Jesus didn't tell Lazarus to come down from Heaven because he hadn't gone there. He hadn't gone any place. He was dead in the grave, waiting for the resurrection. Jesus simply said "come forth" and there he was bound hand and foot just as he had been buried. Lazarus couldn't tell anything that had happened while he was dead because he hadn't been to Heaven or a spirit world or any place. The dead know not anything. The dead will live again only when they are resurrected.
This is a beautiful truth when you understand it God's way. John 14:1-3, "Let not your heart be troubled...I go to prepare a place for you, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Jesus says He has gone to prepare a place for us and if we are faithful to Him, He is coming again to receive us to take us to that place. At the resurrection, at His Second Coming.
I think of that dear lady who lost a daughter in a tragic accident. At the funeral she said the minister put her daughter in Heaven and then he put her in the grave and talked about the resurrection. And then he put her daughter in the spirit world. She said by the time the sermon was over she didn't know where her daughter was. The minister had said so many contradictory things that he had just confused her, and her mind was bewildered and her heart nearly broken. She wondered, "Now is my daughter in Heaven or is she in the spirit world or is she in the grave waiting for the resurrection? And why should Jesus come again at His Second Coming if she is already in Heaven?" You can see how this paganistic idea of death is so confusing. It is Satan's lie that you won't die. Later, when she heard the simple truth of death the way Jesus taught it, she said it was like a great burden was lifted away. And it made her so happy. Jesus says that her daughter will sleep in death until the resurrection. And then at the Second Coming the daughter will live again and be caught up in the air with her mother to go home to Heaven together. Isn't that lovely and simple, and wonderful. And most of all, it is true because it is God's way according to the Bible.
If the dead know not anything as the Bible says and if the dead don't go to Heaven when they die, or don't go into a spirit world, then who are these voices we hear that sound like our loved ones who have died? And who are these spirits that come and go and look like our departed loved ones? Let us turn to the Bible for the answer.
Revelation 12:7-9 tells about a rebellion in Heaven. Lucifer, or Satan, the rebel angel and those angels who sided with him against God were cast out. Where was Satan cast out to? To the worlds that God had made. And when this world fell into sin, Satan made it his headquarters. Notice that one third of the angels of Heaven were cast out with Satan when they rebelled against God's law.
The spirits of spiritism are not our departed loved ones coming back. They are not the spirits of dead men. They are not living people at all. They are not even people. According to the Bible, they are the spirits of devils. They are the spirits of evil angels who were expelled from heaven masquerading as the spirits of our departed loved ones. No wonder Revelation 12:12 says, "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."
Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." These spirits are not flesh and blood. They are not real people at all, they are the spirits of evil angels. That should answer some of your questions.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15, "And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."
How tragic it is that so many people rely more on feelings than following what the Bible says is right. Most people allow themselves to believe tricks of evil angels because they are unwilling to follow what the Bible says is truth. Even many people who claim to be Christians are more convinced by a miracle than by plain words from the Bible. They seem to completely forget that Satan can counterfeit miracles. Revelation 16:14, "For they are the spirits of devils working miracles...." If someone comes to town doing miracles, we must investigate his teachings to see whether he is from God or not.
If someone should come to your city and perform miracles, the multitudes would be there. And if that person appeared as an angel in white, he would be proclaimed as a servant of Christ. Let me warn you, the spirits of devils in these closing days of earth's history are going about this world with their miracle working powers deceiving millions. Revelation 13:14, "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those MIRACLES which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live." The Bible says that most people would rather believe a miracle of Satan or his angels than to follow what is truth. I suppose the most heartbreaking part of my ministry is to listen to people who say they love the Lord and say they have had an experience with Jesus but they refuse to follow truth even after they say they know it is right according to the Bible. They say, "Well, if the Lord shows me a miracle I will follow it." Oh friend, this is a terrible scheme of Satan. When the Bible tells us what is truth we must do it as soon as we can or we will be swept away with Satan's miracle working power.
Messages that Satan tries to make you believe come from departed loved ones may appear comforting and helpful. But remember, friend, the devil is a deceiver. He might send apparently good, encouraging messages in order to win your confidence. So that you won't feel a need to follow truth as it is in the Bible. He wants you to feel so saved and secure in falsehood that you will feel no need to follow revealed truth in the Bible. Satan wants us to say, "I've already had a good experience, surely Jesus will take me into Heaven even if I don't follow everything the Bible says." Satan knows that is a lie, that Jesus will never take you into His kingdom unless you follow all of the truth that you know is right. It is not safe to go on your feelings unless they always harmonize with what the Bible says. Proverbs 16:25 warns us, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." The Bible says that a lot of people who claim to be Christians but refused to follow truth will end in eternal death. They are proud of their own righteousness but will never enter into Heaven. Isaiah 8:20 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."
Dear friends, the cross of Calvary and an "It is written" from the Bible are our only safety. You must love Jesus with all your heart. And you must be willing to "follow every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" or you will be swept away with the multitude by Satan and his angels' lies and delusions. I ask you the questions, "How much do you love Jesus? And how much do you love every bit of truth in His Holy Bible?" Your response will mean eternal gain or eternal loss. If it is Jesus and His way, it is eternal life. If it is part Jesus and part error, you will surely be lost. Please, dear friend, love the truth as it is in Jesus with all of your heart. I want so much to go with you through the gates of the Holy City, New Jerusalem at the Second Coming of Christ, on that glorious day when the dead in Christ and the living in Christ are caught up in the air together to go home with Jesus.