With the Halloween season in full swing and many people participating in spooky traditions, Pastor John Piper spoke against a common practice that some Halloween participators consider “fun”- communicating with dead spirits. The discussion came up as part of Piper’s “Ask Pastor John” series. While many Halloween participants may be familiar with the ideas of seances or Ouija boards being a common form of speaking with the dead, Piper fielded a question from a member of his international audience from South Africa. The caller identified himself as Thokozani, “from the Gauteng region of South Africa.” Thokozani referred to the common African practice of “ancestral consultation.” He noted that it is a common belief, even among Christians, that spirits of deceased relatives do not go straight to God but must be fetched by family members with a tree. Only then can the person’s body be buried; however, it is common to build a shrine to that individual and consult the spirit in order to receive dreams or visions. Since even many African Christians continue this practice, Thokozani asked Piper what the Bible has to say about communication with ancestors. 

Piper responded unequivocally that “God is dishonored by the practice of seeking messages from the dead” and that “Therefore, Christians should not do it.” He stated there were four principles Christians needed to know in reference to why such communication is prohibited: souls are removed immediately after death, the Bible forbids consulting the dead, God’s revelation is already sufficient for all, and God’s providence is for our good. In addressing the belief that human souls do not linger after death, Piper pointed to Jesus’s words to the thief on the cross in Luke 23:43- “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Piper said there was “no intermediate state, no roaming around Jerusalem.” He referred to Isaiah 8:19 to show that “God explicitly forbids consulting with the dead.” Isaiah 8:19 says, “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?” He connected this verse with his third point that God’s revelation is sufficient. He pointed to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” “So, seeking messages from ancestors, the Bible teaches, is a dishonor to God, who has communicated so lavishly with us about all the things we need to live the way he wants us to live,” Piper concluded. In his last point, Piper noted that God gave us all things (Romans 8:32) because “God’s providence, his purposeful sovereignty, is absolutely, pervasively in control of all things. So, there’s nothing that messages from the ancestors can do that would make it safer or better than what our heavenly Father is pledged to do for us because Jesus died for us.”

Piper’s words are timely as millennials and Gen Z turn more and more to occult practices such as consulting mediums, tarot cards, and astrology. Tarot and medium readings grew particularly at the advent of the pandemic. Mediums state they tap into ancestral spirits to offer people “clarity” in their lives. “Everybody has the capacity to connect with spirits. It’s just dependent on what your upbringing was and whether or not you’re open to your intuitive or psychic gifts,” said diviner and medium Tatianna Morales. She has gained quite a following on Instagram for her Tarot readings. There has even been some encouragement of “tarot evangelism,” with Christians offering “Christian” tarot readings for New Agers. But Piper offered no room for compromise, concluding his segment, “So, the biblical position is this: Don’t pursue communication with the dead, because pursuing messages from the dead is evidence that biblical truth about God is either not understood or not believed. And in either case, God is dishonored.”