never understood the big deal with “communicating with the dead.” always seemed a bit odd to me when Jesus and Peter both raised people from the dead, Jesus had a discussion with Moses and Elijah, and catholics are encouraged to request intercession from deceased saints.
Calling on the dead is different then requesting saints in heaven pray for you. If you call upon a spirit, more then likely it will be an evil one. You are then inviting the evil spirit into your life.
Jesus can talk to the dead, because Jesus is God. If you raise people from the dead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they aren't dead anymore, you're free to talk.
But if you seek out the dead for guidance. Like King Saul sought out Samuel, then you are crossing a line that God has clearly drawn for the living in scripture.
Lev 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God.
Lev 20:6 'And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
Lev 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them.
Deu 18:10 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,Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. Deu 18:12 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. Deu 18:13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
1Ch 10:13 So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.
Isa 8:19 And when they say to you, "Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
One of the reasons I suspect that we are not to contact the dead or spirit world, other than God, is that look at some of the religions that have been started after doing that. Islam started after Mohammed contacted what he thought was an evil spirit, but his wife convinced him it was a good spirit. Mormonism started after Joseph Smith who was known to dabble in the occult, claimed he had been visited by an angel who denounced all of the christian denominations as abominations.
The catholic practice is supposed to be nothing different than going to a living Christian and asking for their intercessory prayer. Personally, I doubt that dead saints are omnipresent, so I doubt they can hear the prayers unless relayed by the Holy Spirit. And I've always thought it would be more efficient to go direct in prayer.
I cannot speak for the Latin church’s exact position, but the Orthodox understand that all mechanistic “magical” attempts to communicate with the dead, expecting answers, as oppose to merely asking intercessions, are demonic delusions.
While God can and does sometimes permit the saints to appear in visions to the faithful, and occasionally even to other witnesses, and indeed to communicate with the living, attempts at two-way communication with the dead inevitably are means to direct interaction, not with departed loved ones or the saints, but with demons.
Oh, and only Moses has died. Elijah was taken up into heaven and did not see death (like Enoch). Orthodox tradition is that Elijah and Enoch will be the two witnesses against Antichrist in the last days.