Even though “clairvoyant Christian” Troy Griffin uses his powers to talk to the dead in order to help the police solve “unsolvable cases where tracks had run cold,” Charisma News senior editor Jennifer LeClaire believes that what he is doing is wrong.
“The trouble with this type of prophetic ministry is that it violates Scripture. I have no doubt Griffin is talking to spirits—familiar spirits who know everything about the deceased person,” she writes for Charisma News. “Why these familiar spirits would cooperate in solving crimes, I do not know. What I do know is necromancy—which Merriam-Webster defines as ‘conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events’—is an abomination to the Lord.”
The Bible passage Deuteronomy 18:9-13 says that it is an “abomination to the Lord” for any person to use “divination, or use witchcraft,” or become “an interpreter of omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or a spiritualist, or an occultist, or a necromancer.”
Griffin argues that his “psychic calling” is a gift from God, so he uses Christian themes in his readings. “Many of the readings I do for private clients are for people who have lost children to suicide or to other tragic events, and this has caused them to lose or doubt their faith,” he said. “They’re looking to repair their faith and my religious background plays a role in helping them on that journey.”
LeClaire says Griffin’s statements are a “tragic deception” because Christians are not supposed to turn to psychics or prophets to get in touch with dead loved ones when they feel down, since the only one they should turn to is God.
“Prophets are not supposed to get prophetic words from any other source but God, yet in this hour we are clearly seeing these and other troubling trends emerge among those who call themselves prophetic,” she says.
She then warned Christians to “beware” of psychics, mediums, familiar spirits, tarot card readers, crystal ball readers, palm readers, and the like.
“They may claim to serve God, but they are tapping into the spirit realm illegally and offering false comfort and fearful predictions that probably won’t even come to pass,” she says.