COMMUNICATION WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD OF GOD, It's Law and Purpose BY Johannes Greber (chapter taken from the 1932 original book)

- please get a solid copy for yourself. Websites don't last forever, but your own book does !

Inquiring of God According to the Holy Writ (chapter)

“Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and
his Maker: Ask me of things that are to come!’
Isaiah 45:11.

GOD is the fountain of truth. Whosoever
shall draw from it will receive the truth
and will be preserved from error. A
knowledge of this led the faithful of olden times to
enter into communion with God when seeking the
truth. They did not expect this communion to come
about and to bring conviction by way of inner
illumination, but by way of revelations of the truth
received from without, and sent by the Lord in a
manner perceptible to the human senses. They inquired
of God by means of human expedients, and were
answered by Him through the same channel.
“They were well aware that the good spirit-world in the
service of God is the agent of His will, and that to
consult the spirit-beings of God’s kingdom is
equivalent to inquiring of God Himself.
“They were equally well aware that there is such a
thing as an evil spirit-world, and daily experience had
taught them the possibility of communicating with this
also.
“At all times before the birth of Christ and in the early
days of His era, the godly made liberal use of the
privilege of inquiring of God. The writings of the Old
and the New Testament abound in instances in which it
is related that the faithful, when desirous of learning
the truth, ‘inquired of God’ and received their answers,
transmitted to them through God’s spirits.
“If you will open your Bible and carefully read through
its Books one by one, you will find my statement
confirmed.
“You will find mention made of ‘inquiring of God’ in
one of its very early chapters, it being related of
Rebekah, the wife of Isaac, who feared that she was
barren: ‘Twins were struggling in her womb and she
said: ‘Why has this befallen me’? So she went to
consult the Lord’. (Genesis 25:22.) The manner in
which she ‘consulted the Lord’ is not recorded, nor yet
the way in which she received the answer which was
vouchsafed to her, but the casual way in which the
story is told shows that inquiring of God was not an
unusual practice.
“After the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, the
people daily appealed to Moses to ‘inquire of God’ on
their behalf. ‘And when Moses’ father-in-law saw all
that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing
that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself
alone, and all the people stand about thee from
morning unto even? And Moses said unto his father-in-
law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God:
when they have a matter, they come to me; and I judge
between a man and his neighbor, and I make them
know the statutes of God, and his laws. (Exodus 18:14-
16.) Here also nothing is said to show the method by
which the inquiries were addressed to God. Not until
later, when Moses at God’s command had built the
tabernacle, do you find a more detailed account of the
means by which ‘inquiries of God’ and the answers
thereto were made possible: ‘it came to pass, when
Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud
descended, and stood at the door of the Tent: and the
Lord spoke with Moses.... And the Lord spoke unto
Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And
he turned again into the camp: but his minister Joshua,
the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the
Tent’. (Exodus 33:9-11.)
“The essential parts of this account are already familiar
to you from my former teachings. but now you will
probably notice also that there is a difference between
the manner in which Moses inquired of God, and that
in which it was done by the people. To the solemn
inquiries addressed to God as here related, Moses, as
the representative of all the people, is answered by the
Lord through the pillar of cloud, whereas when
individuals of the people inquired of God, their answer
came, not through the pillar of cloud but through
another channel, which, although not clearly defined in
this passage, is sufficiently well indicated to leave no
doubts on that score in the mind of anyone familiar
with the subject. You learn that Joshua, the servant of
Moses, was not allowed to leave the Tent; evidently,
therefore, there must have been a reason for his
constant presence there. This reason was directly
connected with the practice of inquiring of God, Joshua
having been especially appointed to act as a medium
for those of the people, who desired to inquire of God
concerning their private affairs. It is expressly stated
that ‘every one that sought the Lord went out unto the
tent of meeting’. No fixed hours for ‘inquiring of God’
having been set, Joshua was obliged to be present in
the Tent at all times, so that he might be available to all
as a medium for transmitting the Lord’s answers. He
was employed as an instrument by God’s spirits, in the
same manner in which they employ the mediums of
today.
“After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of
God: ‘Who shall go up for us first against the
Canaanites, to fight against them? And the Lord said,
Judah shall go up: I have delivered the land into his
hand’. (Judges 1:1, 2.)
“When the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in,
they sent five men to spy out the land. These came to
the house of Micah where they met a Levite who lived
there as a medium. ‘And they said to him, Ask counsel,
we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our
way which we go shall be prosperous. And the priest
said to them, Go in peace: Before the Lord is your way
wherein you go’. (Judges 18:5, 6.) In this chapter there
is also a detailed account of the manner in which the
Levite inquired of God. It is related that Micah had
caused a founder to make him a ‘graven image’ and a
‘molten image’, as your translators express it, not
knowing the true meaning of the term and even
assuming that these images were ‘idols’. As a matter of
fact they were made in imitation of the breastplate of
judgment worn on the garments of the High Priest and
so called, as you know, because it was used for
inquiring of God.
“Imitations of the High Priest’s breastplate of judgment
were used whenever the people of Israel consulted the
Lord in matters of private interest. These imitations
corresponded perfectly to what is now called a
‘planchette’ and consisted of two parts: a lower,
stationary part, generally cast as a plate and engraved
with the letters of the alphabet or other symbols, and an
upper part, light and handsomely carved and provided
with a pointer. The cast plate was either set upon a
table or fastened to a base or a pillar, and was highly
polished to allow the upper part to slide over it with
ease. Whenever counsel was sought of God, the
movable upper part was sent upon the plate, and the
medium laying his hand on it, waited for it to be moved
by the spirit-beings to the letters on the plate with the
aid of his own odic power. If this happened, the pointer
indicated in the proper order the characters which,
when combined into words and sentences, spelled out
the answer returned by God. It was, therefore,
substantially the same thing as the High Priest’s
breastplate of judgment.
“The imitation of that breastplate was even carried to
the extent of having precious stones engraved with
characters, set into the cast plate by expert jewelers,
large sums of money being spent for the purpose. And
precisely as the High Priest wore costly robes when
seeking counsel of God, similar garments were
provided for the private mediums who attended the
Communication with the Spirit World God
Page 64 By Johannes Greber
breastplate of judgment. Thus we read of Micah: ‘And
he made an ephod and a breastplate of divination, and
consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest’.
(Judges 17:5.)
“Gideon also made the spoils taken from the
Midianites into an ‘oracle’ of the kind described, and
‘put it in his city, even in Ophrah’, where it could be
consulted by all. But before long it was used by the
people to consult evil spirits. (Judges 8:27.)
“Gideon had caused it to be made for the use of
inquiring of God only, but it was misused by the
people, who employed it to inquire of the ‘dead’ or, in
other words, to communicate with the evil spirit-world,
and who thereby fell into idolatry.
“However, those among the Israelites who observed
God’s commandments made use of private channels for
communicating with Him only in emergencies. In
matters of great importance they still preferred, when
inquiring of God, to repair to the spot which He
Himself had appointed for the purpose in the days of
Moses. They used to go to the ‘tent of meeting’ where
the High Priest inquired of God for them by means of
his breastplate of judgment. Thus when the Israelites
went up to Bethlehem they ‘asked counsel of God:
Who shall go up for us first to battle against the
children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall
go up first’. (Judges 20:18.)
“When Saul wanted to pursue the defeated Philistines
by night and to destroy them utterly, and his people
were willing to follow him, the priest said: ‘set us
consult God here. So Saul asked God: Shall I go down
after the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into the
hand of Israel? But God did not answer him that day’.
(1st Samuel 14:36, 37.) God did not answer Saul on
that day because Saul’s son had violated a command of
the Lord, Who intimated by His silence that He would
answer only those who obey Him.
“David almost invariably inquired of God through the
breastplate of judgment. His medium was Abiathar, the
priest. ‘...but David strengthened himself in the Lord,
his God, and David said to Abiathar, I pray you, bring
me the ‘ephod’ (breastplate of judgments). And
Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David
inquired of the Lord saying, If I pursue after this troop,
shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue;
for you will surely overtake them, and will without fail
recover all’. (1st Samuel 30:7, 8.)
“Only those will God allow to inquire of Him who put
their whole faith in Him and who look to Him for help.
But ail those who hold communion with the Evil One
and who look for help to the spirits of the Abyss, God
will reject. ‘These men have taken the idols into their
heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity
before their face: should I be inquired of at all by
them’? (Ezekiel 14:2.)
“It is not the half-hearted, not those who today turn to
God and tomorrow to Baal, not those who today attend
church and devote tomorrow to wickedness, whose
appeals for counsel God will answer. This was true in
olden times and it is true today. Of such, God has
drawn a true picture through the mouth of Isaiah the
Prophet: ‘Yet they ask me daily, and delight in
knowing my ways: as a nation that did righteousness,
and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of
me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near
God... Is not this the fact that I have chosen: to loose
the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the
yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you
break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover
him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
and thy healing shall spring forth speedily... Then thou
shalt ask, and the Lord will answer’. (Isaiah 58:2-9.)
“There were many different ways in which God
manifested Himself to the faithful who sought His
counsel in their troubles. The story of Saul relates the
manner in which this prince, the first of the Kings of
Israel, was answered by the Lord while he was still an
obedient servant of the Lord. On the day before the
battle of Gilboa, Saul, who because of his disobedience
had been deserted by God’s spirit, ‘inquired of the
Lord’ but ‘the Lord’ answered him not, neither by
‘Breams’ nor by the ‘Urim’, nor by the ‘prophets’. (1st
Samuel 28:6.) This indicates that on previous
occasions Saul had been answered in one or another of
these ways. What your Bible translators express by the
word ‘dreams’ is spirit-sight, or a vision, in which a
person sees the truth in an unmistakable picture. Such
visions are vouchsafed only to those who have
mediumistic powers of clairvoyance. The spirit-world
therefore finds it necessary, in selecting the way of
delivering its messages, to take into account the
receptivity of those to whom these messages are
directed.
“When use was made of the ‘Urim’ or ‘breastplate of
judgment’ God’s answers were given in collaboration
with a medium, as have already explained to you.
“As for the ‘prophets’ who figure so frequently in the
Bible as bearers of messages from God, they were
‘speaking mediums’ who in not a few instances were
capable of receiving God’s words either by
clairvoyance or by clairaudience, and who then
transmitted them.
“Wherever in the Scriptures you find a reference to
‘inquiring of God’, you will also find confirmation of
the truth that God will send His answer in some way
that men can understand, to all those who turn to Him
confidingly and who appeal to Him for counsel.
What is meant in the Bible by
“Inquiring of the Dead”
“Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Communication with the Spirit World God
Page 65 By Johannes Greber
Consult the message and the counsel of God!”
Isaiah 8:19.

"WHEN you of the present generation
speak or write of the ‘dead’ you are
referring to those who have departed
from the earth and whose bodies are at
rest in the churchyard. You put no other meaning upon
the word ‘dead’. ‘Death’, therefore, signifies to you the
severance of the spirit from its earthly body.”
“The Scriptures constantly refer to ‘death’ and to ‘the
dead’, but rarely to designate thereby corporeal death.
‘The dead’ of whom the Bible speaks are not those
whose days on earth are over. When the Bible
mentions ‘death’ it does not mean the separation of the
spirit from the body, but the separation of the spirit
from God. To be united with God and to belong to
Him, is ‘life’. To be severed from God is ‘death’.”
“This teaching recurs throughout the Old and the New
Testament.”
“The ‘dead’ are those who are severed from God, the
‘spiritually dead’, be they spirits in the Beyond or
passing through life on earth as men who have forsaken
God.”
“The very first reference to ‘death’ in the Bible
signifies separation from God, for when God forbade
the first people, dwelling in Paradise, to eat of a certain
fruit, He added the warning: ‘For on the day you eat
from that tree you shall die’. (Genesis 2:17.) It was not
the death of the body that was meant by these words,
but separation from God, for, as you know, the first
people suffered not bodily, but spiritual death when
they had violated His Command. By their
disobedience, they went over to the side of Evil, and
thereby severed themselves from God.”
“When Moses, as his life on earth drew to an end, bade
farewell to the people, he gave them this admonition:
‘...I have put life and death before you, the blessing
and the curse: Choose life, than, that you and your
children may live, by loving the Eternal, your God,
obeying his voice and holding fast to him...’
(Deuteronomy 30:19, 20.)”
“It was not terrestrial life nor bodily death that he had
set before the people, but spiritual life, which should
endure while they held fast to God, and spiritual death,
which would ensue at the instant of their forsaking God
and severing themselves from Him. ‘He that keepeth
the commandment keepeth his soul; but he that is
careless of his ways shall die’. (Proverbs 19:16.)
‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my word,
he shall never see death’. (John 8:51.)”
“The sin of apostasy from God, therefore, carries with
it spiritual death. ‘Do you not know that you are the
servants of him whom you obey, either the servants of
the sin which brings to you the spiritual death, or
servants who obey the call of righteousness’? (Romans
6:16.) ‘What fruit had you to show in those days? Was
it not of which you are now ashamed? Is not the end of
it all spiritual death? But now, being rid of sin and
having become God’s children, you have fruit which
makes for your sanctity, and which in the end leads to
the life hereafter. For the wages of sin is the spiritual
death but God’s gift of grace is a life to come...’
(Romans 6:21, 23.)”
“Not all sin leads to separation from God, but ‘only the
sin when it is full-grown brings forth death’. (James
1:15.) It is not the stumbling and falling of those who
believe in God and seek unto Him that bring forth
spiritual death, for the stumbling is through human
weakness, and the falls are suffered on the road God-
ward. But to abandon God, to turn your back upon
Him, and to live as though there were no God, that is
the sin which bringeth forth spiritual death.”
“The ‘dead’ are God’s enemies. They have placed
themselves under the rule of the spirits of Evil. ‘They
have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt
treacherously against me’. (Hosea 6:7.) They have
deserted their colors and serve the Prince of Darkness.
They have chosen him as their god. That is the
meaning of the word ‘whoredom’ which occurs so
often in the Holy Writ. ‘Their doings will not suffer
them to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredom
is within them, and they know not the Lord! (Hosea
5:4.) And because of this spirit they are not ripe for a
return to their God. ‘Will I ransom them from the
power of Sheol; will I redeem them from death? O
death, where are they plagues? O Sheol, where is thy
destruction’? (Hosea 13:14). Plagues and destruction
are the punishments which God visits upon apostates
through the spirit-powers of evil.”
“It is natural that God, who wants only what is good in
spiritual life, should have strictly forbidden all
intercourse with the ‘dead’ as being His enemies.
There is nothing good, there is no truth and no virtue,
that can be learned of them.”
“Appalling indeed were the consequences of the
dealings held by the nations of old with the evil
apostate spirits through the agency of low spiritism, to
which the Bible refers as harlotry or idolatry. There
were no abominations in which the ‘dead’ did not lead
the misguided people through their human mediums.
Not only did the people eat the flesh of the offerings
that had been dedicated to the demons, in token of
fellowship with the latter; but they did not shrink from
sacrificing their sons and daughters to the evil spirits
and from committing the most shameful excesses at the
sacrificial rites. All of these practices were instigated
by the Powers of Evil, once the people had entered into
communion with them. ‘They joined themselves also
unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the ‘dead’.
(Psalms 106:28.) ‘Yea, they sacrificed their sons and
daughters to demons’. (Psalms 106:37.)
“The consequences of idolatry are thus pictured in the
Wisdom of Solomon: ‘For whilst they slew their
children in sacrifice, or used secret ceremonies, or
made reveling of strange rites; they kept neither lives

Communication with the Spirit World God

Page 66 By Johannes Greber

nor marriage any longer undefiled: but either one slew
another traitorously, or grieved him by adultery. So
that there reigned in all men without exception blood,
manslaughter, theft, and dissimulation, corruption,
unfaithfulness, tumults, perjury, disquieting of good
men, forgetfulness of good turns, dealing of souls,
changing of kind, disorder in marriages, and shameless
uncleanness. For the worshipping of idols not to be
named is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all
evil. For either they are mad when they be merry, or
prophesy lies, or live unjustly, or else lightly forswear
themselves’. (Wisdom 14:23-28.)
“When you read of these things you may be led to
conclude that those people acted thus because they
were no longer in their right minds. They were,
nevertheless, as normal as you are today. But such is
the power of evil, and so subtle are its ways of
misleading men, that those who have once fallen into
its snares find it almost impossible to extricate
themselves from them. Of all the weapons of the
Powers of Darkness, the mightiest is a mixture of truth
and falsehood.”
“They convinced those who communicated with them
by ‘inquiring of the dead’ that animals, the sun, the
moon and the stars were the embodiment of mighty
spirits which had great power over men, and could
shape their fortunes for good or ill, and that, in
consequence, these beasts and heavenly bodies must be
worshipped in order to ensure worldly well-being and
to avert calamity. They taught, furthermore, that
communication with them could be had by means of
sacrifices, particularly by the sacrifice of children.”
“This doctrine was true to the extent that it taught that
spirits are incorporated in all material things, and also,
that communication can be had with these spirits
through sacrificial offerings. The fatal underlying
falsehood was, that the spirits of the Lower World were
powerful benevolent spirits, having the good of their
worshippers at heart. Once the evil spirits had
impressed their adherents with this belief, the step to
human sacrifice was a short one. The parents of a child
marked for sacrifice were told that after its death, its
spirit would constantly hover about them and bring
them good fortune, but that both they and their child
were doomed to the direst misfortune should they
refuse to allow it to be offered to the idols. Obsessed as
they were, they always gave way in the end.”
“You need not wonder at this, for during the rites
performed before the idols and at idolatrous gatherings
generally, the evil spirits announced these doctrines
through their trance-mediums and supported them by
the exhibition of miracles which accompanied their
discourse. Not infrequently, the idols themselves
spoke. Such speech was a ‘direct voice’ produced by
the low spirit-world with the aid of the od of the
offerings and that of the mediums in attendance.”
“The cause of apostasy from God was then, as it is
now, the craving for worldly success and prosperity,
but in those days all of the prerequisites for
communicating with the spirit-world were well known,
while today they have fallen into oblivion.
Consequently, apostasy manifested itself in those times
not only in inward defection from God, but in
deliberately fostered, palpable, communication with
the evil spirit-world, held through spiritistic idol-
worship. ‘Seeking unto the dead’was as much a part of
the daily lives of the worldly minded, as was seeking
unto God an integral part of the worship of the
faithful.”
“The messages sent by the ‘dead’ through their
mediums were such as to flatter the human foibles of
the recipients, who heard nothing but what was
agreeable to them and who had no desire to listen to
God’s instruments, the good mediums. ‘For it is a
rebellious people, lying children, children that will not
hear the law of the Lord that say to the seers, See not;
and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things,
speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits, get you
out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the
Holy One of Israel to cease from before us’. (Isaiah
30:9-11.)
“It was only what would please them that they wanted
to hear, especially such things as would further their
worldly interests, as Saul when consulting the witch of
Endor summoned the spirit of Samuel. Good spirits
will not allow themselves to be summoned at the whim
and pleasure of men. They come of their own accord
with God’s sanction, or, in certain cases, at His express
command. But they come only to those who seek unto
God, in order that they may point out the way to Him.
Which particular one of the good spirits is to manifest
itself is not for man to determine, but rests with the
good spirit-world. It is also true that of the evil spirits,
not always those whose visit people desire are allowed
to appear, for they too may communicate only by
permission. They will, however, invariably claim to be
the ones that were summoned, whether or not this is
true, for they are spirits of falsehood whose only
concern is to tell their adherents what these would like
to hear.”
“It is, therefore, an act of great folly for people to agree
among themselves that whoever dies first will let the
survivors know whether or not there is a future life.
Whoever enters into such an agreement and makes his
belief in a future existence contingent upon the
fulfillment thereof, will invariably fail to receive the
evidence he desires, for agreements of that kind are
proof in themselves of an absence of belief in God, and
the fate in store in the Beyond for those who die
unbelieving is such that they are in no position to
communicate with the living. The spirits of the lowest
spheres remember nothing of life on earth or of any
agreements which they may have made there; even if
they did remember, they could not leave the place to
which they are confined because of their
transgressions. But whosoever believes in God will be
able, without any such agreement and without any

conscious effort on his part, to communicate during life
with the spirits of his dear departed, if these too have
been believers. In this case also the words of Christ
hold true: ‘Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things
shall be added unto you’.” (Matthew 6:33.)
“But there was no seeking of the Kingdom of God by
those who associated with the low spirit-world. It was
not in them to seek unto God; they considered their
worldly well-being only, and for this reason they
desired no connection with the good spirit-world. As
has been the case in all ages, the truths which they
heard from the good spirit-world were too harsh and
unpalatable for people who had given themselves up to
the indulgence of their passions. The utterances of God
they regarded as an oppressive burden, even going so
far as to describe the reprimands, warnings and threats
pronounced by the prophets at God’s command by the
blasphemous phrase of the burden of the Lord ‘What is
the burden of the Lord’?, was the usual question,
whenever men desired to know what the Lord had
caused to be proclaimed. It was for this that God sent
them the message: ‘When a layman or a prophet or a
priest asks you: ‘What is the burden of the Eternal’s
oracle’? tell them this from the Eternal: ‘Burden’! you
are the burden, and I mean to throw you off. Any
prophet or priest or layman who talks of the ‘Eternal
oracle’ or of ‘what the Eternal says’, I will punish that
man and his household. No, this is what every man of
you must say to his fellow, to his brother: ‘What is the
Eternal’s answer’? ‘What is the Eternal’s message’?
You must never again mention the Eternal’s ‘burden’.
(Jeremiah 23:33, 38.)
“Whoever, therefore, aspired to belong to God’s
people, might not have relations with that spirit-world
which had forsaken Him. Nor might they ‘inquire of
the dead’, for to do so was to commit high treason to
God and to desert the truth. For truth was not to be
found among the ‘dead’. ‘The dead know nothing’.
What they speak is falsehood and imposture, calculated
only to lead the faithful astray.
“Hence God thus admonishes His people: ‘Ask me of
the things that are to come; concerning my sons, and
concerning the work of my hands, command me ye’.
(Isaiah 45:11.) ‘I am the Eternal, your God, training
you for your good, leading you by the right way.’
(Isaiah 48:17.) ‘When they tell you to consult mediums
and ghosts that cheep and gibber in low murmurs, ask
them, if people should not rather consult their God.
Say, ‘Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Consult the message and the counsel of God’! (Isaiah
8:19.) ‘You befoul yourselves like your fathers, you
break your troth with me for their detestable impieties,
and you befoul yourselves with all your sacrifices to
idols -- burning your sons alive -- down to this very
day! And I am to be consulted by you, O Israel? By my
life! Says the Lord, the Eternal. No, I will not be
consulted by you’. (Ezekiel 20:30, 31.)”
“The Israelites had acquired the practice of seeking
unto the ‘spiritually dead’ while dwelling in Egypt and
had to a great extent adopted idolatrous customs there.
Hence among the first injunctions laid upon them by
the Lord after their exodus from that country was the
one forbidding them to inquire of the dead. ‘You shall
not practice augury nor practice witchcraft’. (Leviticus
19:26.) ‘Never go to a medium or a wizard, never
defile yourselves by consulting them. I am the Eternal’.
(Leviticus 19:31.) ‘Any person who consults a medium
or a wizard, deserting me for them, I will set my face
against that person and outlaw him from his kinsfolk’.
(Leviticus 20:6.) These passages show that the men
and women who had familiar spirits or who were
wizards, were mediums through whom the evil spirits
spoke. These mediums were themselves responsible for
their evil associations from which they could have kept
aloof had they turned confidingly to God and sought
communion with the good spirit-world. Their
punishment was, therefore, amply deserved.”
“Besides the mediums, there were persons engaged in
communicating with the evil spirit-world through
‘clairvoyance’.”
“References to the ‘blood-guilt’ of the wizards do not
mean that these had committed actual bloodshed or
physical murder, but relate to the slaying of souls, or
the estrangement of spirits from God. They had indeed
incurred blood-guilt in the sense that they had brought
those who went to them into communication with the
spirits of evil, in that way leading them away from God
and becoming the cause of their spiritual death.”
“The contamination to which those who associate with
wizards expose themselves is not of a physical nature,
but proceeds from the vicious od which they absorb
from the contact and which defiles their own od,
making it a hotbed for the activities of evil spirit-
beings.”
“There occurs in the Bible at least one detailed account
of a case of necromancy, namely that of Saul’s visit to
the witch of Endor.”
“When Samuel had died, all Israel had mourned for
him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Now
Saul had cleared the mediums and wizards out of the
country. But when the Philistines mustered and went
into camp at Shunem, and when Saul mustered all
Israel to encamp at Gilboa, Saul was afraid, and, his
heart trembling with terror at the sight of the Philistine
army, he consulted the Eternal, but the Eternal would
not answer him either by dreams or by the sacred lot or
by prophets. Then Saul said to his courtiers, ‘Find me a
witch, that I may go and consult her’. His courtiers
said, ‘There is a witch at Endor’. So Saul, disguising
himself and changing his clothes, went with two men to
the woman by night; he said to her, ‘Inquire for me as a
medium; bring me up the ghost of some one whom I
name to you’. The woman said to him, ‘You know
what Saul has done, cutting mediums and wizards out
of the country! Why, then, are you laying a trap for my
life, to have me put to death’? Then Saul swore to her
by the Eternal, ‘By the life of the Eternal, this will not
Communication with the Spirit World God
Page 68 By Johannes Greber
involve you in any guilt’! So the woman said, ‘Whom
shall I bring up for you’? ‘Bring up Samuel’, he said.
The woman looked at Saul and screamed; the woman
said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are
Saul’! The king said to her, ‘Have no fear! What do
you see’? The woman said to Saul: ‘I see a god coming
up out of the earth’. He said to her, ‘What is he like’?
She said, ‘It is an old man coming up; he is covered
with a mantle’. So Saul knew it was Samuel; he bowed
with his face to the ground and did obeisance. Then
Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by
bringing me up’? Saul answered, ‘I am so distressed
the Philistines make war against me and God has
abandoned me; he answers me no more, either by
prophet or by dreams; so I have called you to tell me
what to do’, But Samuel said, ‘Why ask me when the
Eternal has abandoned you, to side with your rival?
The Eternal has treated you as he declared by me that
he would; the Eternal has torn the kingdom out of your
hand and given it to David, your neighbor. It is because
you did not obey the voice of the Eternal, because you
did not carry out his fierce anger against Amalek, that
the Eternal has done this to you today. And the Eternal
will put Israel along with yourself into the power of the
Philistines, and tomorrow shall you and your sons be
with me’. (1st Samuel 28:3-19.)
“There is much in this account which you will find
hard to understand and which ought, therefore, to be
explained to you.”
“Does it not strike you as singular that Saul should
have trembled at the sight of the Philistine host? That
was not at all like Saul, who was a brave man and had
been in countless battles always facing death fearlessly.
Why then this sudden attack of faint-heartedness? Here
you find one of those strange occurrences with which
you so often meet in life. It is what you call a
‘premonition of death’. The expression is not well
chosen; it would be more correct to speak of an
‘assurance of death’. At the very first sight of the army
of the Philistines, something within him told Saul that
the hour of his death was at hand. That hour is indeed
appointed for all, by fate. But what was the nature of
the inner voice that caused Saul to feel sure that he
would meet death in the coming battle? It was the same
kind of a voice as that which called to so many of your
soldiers in the Great War: ‘You will not live through
the next attack’, or ‘You will not live through the day’,
or, ‘This is your last leave of absence; you will never
again see your family and friends’. Why did so many
soldiers who had often been home on leave before, find
it so hard to return to the front on the occasion which
proved to be their last? In the case of Saul as in that of
all others who know to a certainty that their death is at
hand, it was the guardian spirits that announced this
hour, the most momentous one in a man’s life. During
your lifetime their voice has often warned you of
impending danger. Again and again they have
intervened to save you from peril, but when the
inevitable moment approaches, these friendly spirits
shake your inmost being so violently that the striking
of the hour of your death sounds in your ears too
loudly to pass unheard. Then you know that your time
has come. Not in every case are the spirits allowed to
sound this warning; when they are, it is a special mark
of Divine favor, granted to give the person to whom
this warning is issued, time to make his peace with God
and implore His help at the moment when the fateful
step must be taken.”
“With Saul also it was the last appeal by the Lord’s
spirit-messengers urging him to return to that God to
Whom he had become faithless. But Saul, although he
knew he was about to die, so far from turning inwardly
to God and renewing his oath of fealty to Him,
contented himself with the outward formality of calling
upon God through mediums and of asking for help in
his worldly troubles. He sought no inner communion
with the Lord in repentance of his past behavior.
Because of this, God did not answer the questions
inspired by worldly interest, and Saul, fearing for his
earthly existence, sought out the necromancers. When
he used the words: ‘I am sore distressed’, he was
speaking of the foreboding of death that weighed upon
him.”
“At this point I wish to speak briefly of the many other
ways in which the approach of someone’s death is
foretold. As you know, it is a popular belief that the
howling of dogs, the appearance of certain birds, the
turning white of plants, and other occurrences are signs
of an impending death. This is not superstition, as your
scientifically enlightened age pronounces it to be: it is
true, and even if such signs fail to point out the person
for whom they are meant, everyone familiar with them
should take them to heart and pause to reflect upon his
own state. These signs are the calling of your spirit-
friends, to remind you of the reckoning which you will
have to render after you leave this life upon earth. They
are the manifestations of the spirit-world given through
those animals, causing them to do things that you
regard as omens. As I have told you repeatedly,
animals also may be used as mediums by either the
good or the evil spirit-world. The same is true of plants
and flowers, but the spirit-world employs such signs
only for the benefit of persons able to read them, for it
does nothing without a purpose. That is all I need tell
you regarding this point.”
“Coming back to the necromancer of Endor, it may
appear strange that Samuel should have answered her
summons at all. He was not one of the ‘dead’, not one
of those who had departed from God. He was not one
of the spirits of the Abyss with which that woman was
in the habit of communicating. He was one of God’s
good spirits. This fact the woman herself recognized
from the godlike appearance of Samuel’s ghost. It
came as a judgment of God, to punish Saul for his
offense of consulting the Powers of Evil. If in Samuel’s
place an evil spirit had come, it would not have
predicted truthfully the terrible fate awaiting Saul, but
would have beguiled him with some acceptable
falsehood. Hence it was God’s will that the good spirit
Communication with the Spirit World God
Page 69 By Johannes Greber
of Samuel should appear before the clairvoyant, who
was likewise clairaudient, and through her announce to
Saul what the coming day held in store for him. To
learn this so long in advance was the hardest part of
what Saul had to bear. ‘Tomorrow shall you and your
sons be with me! The Lord will deliver the host of
Israel also into the hand of the Philistines’. This
prediction was the beginning of Saul’s death agony,
which tortured his inmost soul unto the hour of its
fulfillment. Hence, on receiving the fatal message, ‘he
fell his full length upon the earth, and was sore afraid’.
What he had hoped to hear from the necromancer,
namely, advice as to how he could best overcome his
enemies, was not given him: in its stead, the terrible
fate, which he had not come to learn, was revealed to
him as a punishment. In Saul was fulfilled the prophecy
pronounced by the Lord through Ezekiel: ‘For every
one of the house of Israel or of the strangers that
sojourn in Israel, that separate himself from me, and
takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling
block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a
prophet to inquire for himself of me; I the Lord will
answer him by myself: and I will set my face against
that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a
sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the
midst of my people; and you shall know that I am the
Lord. (Ezekiel 14:7, 8.)”
“The necromancer’s recognition of Saul when Samuel
appeared was due to her power of clairaudience, which
enabled her to hear Saul’s name when it was uttered by
the spirit of Samuel.”
“When Samuel further told Saul: ‘Tomorrow shalt thou
and thy sons be with me’, this is not to be construed as
meaning that Saul and his sons were to share Samuel’s
lot in the Beyond. All that Samuel intended to convey
to Saul was, that he and his sons were doomed to die
on the following day, and that Samuel would be
present to await them as they passed over into the other
life. For the spirits of the dying are received and
greeted at the deaths bed by those of their beloved ones
who have gone before, and are instructed and advised
by them until they reach the place to which their lot has
assigned them. That, for the spirit-world, is an
invariable a rule as it is for you to meet your friends on
their arrival at some foreign port to which you have
preceded them, regardless of any difference, however
great, between their ultimate destination and yours.”
“The necromancer of Endor held communication with
the ‘dead’ both by clairvoyance and by clairaudience.
She could tell those who consulted her only what she
herself saw and heard. Other necromancers were true
mediums who passed into a trance while the strange
spirit was speaking through them.”
“Finally, when you read that the spirit of Samuel ‘came
up out of the earth’, you must make allowances for an
optical delusion. To render itself visible, a spirit
requires a cloud of od, and it procures this od from the
odic radiation of the persons in its immediate
proximity. The cloud of od does not evolve suddenly,
but develops little by little, generally increasing in size
from below upward and thus giving the impression of a
body which is rising. Samuel’s appearance in the form
of an old man, wrapped in the robe which he used to
wear while on earth, was so designed for the purpose
of making him recognizable. Spirits habitually show
themselves in an odic form bearing all of those
distinguishing marks by which they were known during
their terrestrial existence. Precisely as you are able to
choose your material manner of dressing at will, so
spirits can give to their garments of od the character
which they consider the best adapted to their
purposes.”
“Inasmuch as the laws governing communication with
the evil spirit-world are the same as those which apply
to intercourse with good spirits, you find, according to
the Scriptures, that the same means were employed in
consulting the dead that were used when inquiring of
God. In both cases you read of mediums acting as
bearers of the odic force, whether they were prophets
of Baal or prophets of God. In both cases beasts are
sacrificed and incense is burned to increase the odic
power. In both cases spots are selected, immune from
any disturbing element, at which the unfavorable
influences of light and heat upon the condensation of
the od have been eliminated as far as possible. On this
account the Bible pronounces anathema alike upon
idolatry and upon the places at which communication
with evil spirits was held. ‘My people ask a piece of
wood to guide them, a pole gives them their oracles!
For a harlot-spirit has led them astray, they have left
their God for a faithless way; they sacrifice on
mountain heights and offer incense on the hills, below
the oak, the terebinth, the poplar -- so pleasant is their
shade’. (Hosea 4:12, 13.)”
“Everything that you learn of the ‘dead’ from the Bible
points to the fact that the ‘dead’are the Powers of Evil.
Whoever joins these powers, departs from God and
suffers spiritual death. ‘When Ephraim spoke, there
was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel but when he
offended in Baal, he died’. (Hosea 13:1.)”
“It must not be supposed, however, that the worship of
Baal consists only of the making of tangible idols by
man and deliberately sought association with the evil
spirit-world, as was the general custom in ancient times
and as occurs today among pagan peoples. Rather,
idolatry is any state of mind that excludes God from
our daily lives; that turns wholly to temporal affairs,
and that, under the influence of Evil, ignores God for
worldly considerations.”
“Mankind of today is not less idolatrous than were the
people of whom the Bible speaks, even though in what
you call enlightened communities, idols of wood or of
stone are no longer erected. But there are other idols,
set up within the hearts of people; money, fame and
success. And to these idols as many victims are
sacrificed today as were offered to the tangible idols of
millenniums ago. It is to these modern idols that
millions of adults, millions of children, are sacrificed

each year. The evil spirit-forces of the ‘kingdom of the
dead’hold sway even today over by far the greater part
of mankind, and what the prophet Micah said of the
generation of his time is equally true at present: ‘The
devout have vanished from the land, not an honest soul
remains; everyone lurks for bloodshed, each man preys
upon his fellow; they have quick fingers for foul play;
the judge must handle a bribe; the high official acts as
he pleases, and between them they baffle justice. The
best of them are no better than briars, the straightest
are like thorns twisted in a hedge. Their hour of
punishment is coming; it will be wrack and ruin. Never
trust your fellow, never confide in a friend; keep your
secret close from the wife of your own bosom. For sons
insult their fathers, girls defy their mothers; daughters-
in-law defy their mothers-in-law, and a man’s
household are his enemies. As for me, I will look out
for the Eternal, I will await my savior God: my God
will aid me.’(Micah 7:2-7.)”
“But even to mankind of today the Lord will be
merciful. He will so order it that men shall enter into
communication with the good spirit-world and thereby
be raised from the dead. ‘And it shall come to pass
afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see
visions: and also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit’.
(Joel 2:28-29.)