If you are, or ever have been, an Evangelical Christian, at some point you’ve probably been told that spirit guides/spirit helpers and communicating with the dead are unbiblical. You may have also been told that the dead folks and spirit guides that people claim to be in contact with are actually demons.

I was content to hold these views for a long time because ultimately, it didn’t affect me.

Until I realized, it did.

I decided to probe a little deeper into this topic and I was surprised to discover that these things weren’t quite as unbiblical as I was led to believe.

Here’s an incredibly brief summary of some Biblical examples of spirit helpers and communicating with the dead.

Spirit Guides / Spirit Helpers

In the Bible, there are many instances of an angel appearing to someone with a message from God. The angel and human talk and interact with one another. The angel is sent by God to instruct, guide, and help the human.

Is that not the very definition of a “spirit helper”?

Spirit helper = angel.

I’m not saying an evil spirit/demon can’t or won’t disguise itself as an angel of light. Maybe they can and do. But we at least have to admit that the concept of a spirit being interacting with us for our own good is absolutely supported by scripture.

Communicating with the Dead

Can we talk to dead people? First, is it even possible? And second, is it permissible?

Let’s just look at the life of Jesus Christ Himself. Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-3, Mark 9:2-4, Luke 9:28-31). While it is said that Elijah never actually died but was instead raptured into heaven, Moses definitely died. He’d been dead for over 1,200 years. He was very very dead.

And yet there was Moses, dead for more than a millenium, with Elijah, hanging out with Jesus as three of the disciples looked on.

This is a clear example of the dead interacting with the living in a positive setting. So obviously, according to the Bible itself, talking to the dead is both possible and can even be good. You can’t tell me it’s impossible or demonic if the Good Lord himself did it.

But, you may ask, What about that verse in the Torah fobidding communication with the dead?

And I would reply, What about the hundreds of other commands in the Torah that you completely disregard because supposedly Jesus did away with the Law?

Christianity as a whole does not believe the Torah has any authority in the life of a born-again Christian so there’s no point getting hung up on that one verse/command.

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In closing, I’d like to share that it’s taken me about three years to feel comfortable with any of this. I haven’t had much of a choice. I have had lots of spirits, including dead people, hanging around me for a long time. I’ve tried avoiding them and denying their very existence, but they are definitely real and they definitely aren’t going away (and I don’t think they’ve appreciated me calling them demons and trying to cast them far away from me). And while I’m no idiot to believe they all mean well, I’d be an idiot to deny that many of them are trying to help me.

God can and does speak to us through many types of messengers (angels, dead people, donkeys, burning bushes, disembodied hands writing on walls…). We would be wise to pay attention.