A survey conducted in the USA revealed a majority of people who believe in the presence of the deceased and also in their contact. A spiritistic misconception from ancient times and actively supported in many areas, above all by the Roman Catholic Church. Unfortunately, this error has long since become a mass phenomenon, even far outside the Church of Rome.
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Worship of saints presupposes immortal soul
Adorations to the dead are traditional in Roman Catholic Church circles. And “tradition is above the Bible,” according to an overarching doctrine of this institution. In this church, the direct adoration of “saints” who have died long ago is often put into perspective as “commemoration of them during prayer” or just “simply conducted conversations”, because the violation of God’s first commandment is then too obvious. But this excuse also does not help to hide the fact that pure spiritualism is an integral part of the Catholic catechism. Ignatius von Loyola, the co-founder of the Jesuit order that was recently thrown out of Nicaragua, also repeatedly refers to the practice of dealing with the “souls of the deceased” in his widely acclaimed “Spiritual Exercises”.
Ignatius V. Loyola spelled it out
The “Spiritual Exercises” written by Loyola already contain the following statement at the beginning, point 3:
“Since in all the spiritual exercises that follow we engage the mind in reflection and the will in the emotions, we must note that in the acts of the will, when we converse orally or spiritually with God our Lord or with His saints, greater reverence is required on our part than when we use our minds to see”
In the chapter “Rules on the ecclesiastical attitude” you will find the following request at point 6:
“One cherishes the relics of the saints by showing veneration to them and offering prayers to the saints. Praise the visits to the station churches, the pilgrimages, the indulgences, the jubilees, the bulls of the Crusades and the lighting of candles in the churches.”
“Saints”: supplication, intercession, worship – Transgression
The matter is at hand. It is not only a matter of “conversations” and intercessions, but prayers are also to be addressed directly to the “saints”. We are not talking here about the saints of the gospel, but about long dead men and women who were very useful to the Church of Rome. One of the popes later declared them “Holy” as part of a defined protocol. But this openly practiced spiritualism not only violates the first commandment of God, but also the second commandment. That commandment which was removed from the catechism without further ado and appended to the first commandment as an unnoticed minor matter(fake commandments – More Infos).
Church of Rome simply defies
However, the Roman Catholic Church is also aware that, according to the Gospel, there can be no “listening, intercessing and helping saints”. This can be seen from her own statement in “New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13, from page 335”. “But what does it matter? We teach our own thing”, also in Catechism pos. 366(more Infos). In the Bible, on the other hand, there are numerous indications that an “immortal soul” that separates from the body after death is completely excluded(Infos).
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 is clear here:
“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”
Anyone who conjures up the dead, worships them or “only” asks for their assistance should be aware that it cannot be a “soul of a deceased person”, but only the angels who fell with Satan, i.e. demons.
Belief in immortal soul is spiritism
The belief in an immortal soul and its “swirling around” in a possible sphere between the here and the hereafter alone is already spiritualism. A matter which is an abomination to God and which finally became the undoing of King Saul(see 1 Samuel 28).
However, the (erroneous) belief in an immortal soul is not a monopoly feature of the Church of Rome. The Hellenistic “mastermind” Plato and, more recently, the diligent efforts of many Catholic clergymen such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ and Paul Francis Knitter ensured this. They were instrumental in the manifestation of New Age philosophy.
Majority of people believe in dead people present
Based on the extensively taught untruth about an “immortal soul”, it is not surprising that a significant proportion of people take the presence or accessibility of the dead as a matter of course in their everyday life. Many even make (supposed) contact with the deceased, according to a recent survey by the US polling institute “Pew Research Center“. According to this, the proportion of respondents who spoke in some way with the deceased is 28 percent. More than half (53%) of those surveyed had at least one dream in which a deceased family member was visiting.
The proportion of Catholics who believe that the dead can be reached is 67 percent. The proportion of the so-called mainline Protestants was also very high at 58 percent. Other evangelicals believed 42 percent in souls or spirits of the dead.
The difference between people with a church affiliation and people without a “certain faith” is actually non-existent. The proportion of people without a specific faith who have already made contact with the deceased is 58 percent. Among the declared agnostics, the proportion was one third (34%) and among the atheists 26 percent.
The proportion of those adults surveyed who had “the feeling” at least once in the past year that the deceased was present is 44 percent.
In summary, the survey institute found that Americans with moderate religious commitment “wanted to have felt” the presence of a deceased family member more often than Americans with low or high religious commitment. This refers to mere presence or making contact.
Say goodbye to misconceptions
Anyone who describes himself as a believing Christian should also stand on the pedestal of the gospel. It is clear from the Word of God that the dead have no opportunity whatsoever to be present anywhere, in any way, let alone to make any contact with the living. (Earthly) death can be compared to a sleep of the soul. Just as Jesus Christ also described it in connection with Lazarus, so in John 11:11-14:
“These things said he: 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.”
Precisely for this reason, the term “resurrection” only makes sense if the soul, which represents the entire, living human being, is not haunted in any spheres, but has been put to sleep, as it were.
Bible verses from King James Version
