Voices From Beyond

Voices From Beyond A. It is not uncommon for people (including professing Christians) to affirm that they have heard some form of speech from the invisible realm of God, spirits or the afterlife. 1. Some affirm that God “speaks” to them in dreams to convey information to be heeded. 2. Some affirm that God “speaks” to them spiritually by way of an innate sense whereby they feel His guiding presence in a decision, etc. 3. Some affirm that they have been spoken to by an angel, which lends the message divine authority. 4. Bible believers should know: a. God in times past did speak by angels, prophets, dreams and visions. HEB 2:2; 2PE 1:21; NUM 12:6 c/w ACT 2:17-18. b. The culmination of God speaking was Jesus Christ (HEB 1:1-2) Whose Spirit spoke to and through His apostles for final revelation and authority. JOH 16:13; 1JO 4:6. c. God speaking thus sufficed until the perfect revelation of Christ had come. 1CO 13:8-10. d. Any “speaking” by God that is a valid inward sense in a believer may be attributed to the soul having been sufficiently informed outwardly of spiritual truth which has been written or hidden in the heart. HEB 8:10-11; PSA 119:11. e. All “speaking” of information from beyond must be according to Scripture, particularly the N.T. gospel (ISA 8:20; 1PE 4:11; GAL 1:8-9) and therefore we have in Scripture all that God intended us to know. 2TI 3:15-17 c/w ACT 13:27. f. Satan also speaks from the invisible beyond. B. Ezekiel once prophesied against Egypt and Pharaoh about their overthrow. EZE 32:11-12. 1. Dead sinners in hell would “speak” to Pharaoh and Co. EZE 32:18-22. 2. This was kind of a morbid welcoming committee when hell opened her mouth. c/w ISA 5:14; 14:9-10. C. Our Lord instructed us about the rich man and Abraham after death. LUK 16:23-25. 1. Here was intelligent dialogue in the great beyond. 2. Mind that the only way we know of this speaking was the living Word Who knows all things declared the event. None of the dead in the account spoke to the living. 3. Scripture is replete with condemnation of the notion of the living being in communication with the dead. DEU 18:9-12. a. necromancy: The pretended art of revealing future events, etc., by means of communication with the dead; more generally, magic, enchantment, conjuration. b. The witch at Endor who had a familiar spirit was very shocked when God actually allowed Samuel to exceptionally appear from the dead and speak to King Saul. 1SAM 28:7-14. c. (ISA 8:19) And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? d. Palm-readers, fortune-tellers, astrologers, psychics, apparitions, post-apostolic prophets, etc. are all variations of the same scheme of extra-scriptural information from the great beyond. The godly will steer clear of such “hidden” knowledge. COL 2:18; DEU 29:29; ACT 1:7. D. It may be said that Satan speaks out of the midst of hell and his voice is heard in this world. 1. This happens indirectly by false prophets and false teachers under his influence. 1TI 4:1-2 c/w JOH 8:44. Voices From Beyond 12-22-22 Page 1 of 2  2. This happens subtilly, craftily, and is not limited to grotesque agents. 2CO 11:13-15. 3. Satan’s speech is highly effective when it is smooth (ISA 30:10), light (JER 23:32; ZEP 3:4), good words and fair speeches (ROM 16:18), great swelling words that promise liberty (2PE 2:18-19) or promises of peace when there is no peace (JER 6:14). 4. The most dangerous wolves look like sheep but bleat like hell. MAT 7:15. E. Jonah in the terrors of death said, “...out of the belly of hell cried I...” (JON 2:1-6). 1. He did not physically die and enter the realm of hell but he experienced the stuff of hell: darkness, punishment for sin, separation from God, soul-oppression and corruption. 2. Christ’s soul also temporarily experienced hell’s misery but His body saw no corruption. ACT 2:27. 3. Jonah died in figure and rose again as a pre-Christ sign to Ninevites of resurrection power which urges repentance. LUK 11:30 c/w ACT 17:30-31. 4. Christ, like Jonah, spoke from hell. MAT 27:46. F. Another form of “speaking” from beyond is the legacy of a strong faith in God. HEB 11:4. 1. Abel’s commitment to proper worship according to the word of God speaks a message of hope that one is righteous. c/w 1JO 3:7; ACT 10:35. 2. Abels’ faith and obedience which God honored still speaks to us to worship God according to His appointed means and to prove our faith by action. JOH 4:23-24; JAM 2:24. 3. Conversely, Cain’s message from beyond is quite different. 1JO 3:11-12 c/w JUDE 1:11. G. The best speaking from beyond excels Abel’s. 1. In our service to God we come unto “...Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (HEB 12:24). 2. Abel had another posthumous speech, as God told Cain, “...the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground” (GEN 4:10). c/w REV 6:10. a. Abel’s blood cried for justice and God heard the cry for then and later. b. The immediate response to Abel’s blood’s speaking was the punishment of a curse and separation from God’s face for Cain. GEN 4:11-14. c. The later response to Abel’s blood’s speaking came upon the wicked Jews. MAT 23:35. d. Abel’s blood speaks of God’s longsuffering of the wicked but also of their certain and awful judgment. It does not speak of redemptive deliverance by its shedding for it could not do so. That required the blood of God (Christ). ACT 20:28. 3. Christ’s blood speaks from heaven, not the cursed ground. HEB 12:24. a. It speaks a message to those who believe it was for their sakes He was slain: redemption, forgiveness, justification, good resurrection, everlasting life, eternal glory. But it does not do so to the unbeliever. 2CO 2:15-16. b. Best of all, this message doesn’t come from a dead sinner in the world beyond, but from the living Christ: “...we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe” (1TI 4:10), the One Who was very much alive when He spoke to Saul of Tarsus. ACT 9:4-5. c. When we pray to Jesus Christ for information, it is not a matter of “...the living to the dead...” (ISA 8:19) but the quickened dead to the Living God Who points us to His inspired words recorded by men, who, being dead, yet speak. Voices From Beyond 12-22-22 Page 2 of 2