Can we communicate with the dead? A lot of people seem to think so. They go to graves, make social media posts to deceased loved ones, perform rituals, and worship ancestors.
Christians should know that direct communication with the dead is impossible. Trying to do so is sin against God (Lev. 20:6; Deut. 18:10-11; 1 Sam. 28:3). But what if I was to tell you that in a certain sense, the dead can speak, and we can listen?
How, you ask? Through the medium of reading their writings.
Old Books and Communing with the Dead
There are ways to commune with those who have gone before. We can listen to the voices of those who have passed beyond this world through their writings or recordings. There are the Scriptures, those writings directly inspired by God. But there is more that God uses. When we read the works of faithful Christians, we can fellowship with them around the unchanging Truth that challenged and shaped them. When we know their acts of faith and the overall tenor of their life, we can approach these voices of the dead and expect to be encouraged in our own life journey!
Books written by now long-dead believers may be just what we need. Let’s not fall into the trap of thinking that books written for Christians in different times aren’t for us today. Yes, there are some real issues with reading older books. You may have to deal with reading archaic language at times. There are vastly different cultural contexts represented. Denominational differences held by some writers can also be distracting. Having said this, don’t miss out on what godly writers in days past have left for us (like Richard Baxter)!
Sometimes we can allow our present life and ministry context to lull us to sleep. Some areas of our theology become dormant. Devotionally, we walk in circles. Reading sermons and books from believers of other times, especially when those writers have endured much for the sake of the Gospel, can be used of God to re-kindle our hearts.
I would like to draw your attention to two books that I have recently read that have stirred my soul about evangelism. The Lord knew I was desperately in need of this emphasis, so He led me to read some older works that have greatly helped revive me, including these two.
Words to Winners of Souls
Horatius Bonar was a Scottish preacher who lived through times of spiritual revival. He lived from 1808-1889. Bonar was well-known in his time as a preacher of God’s Word and leader in the Free Church of Scotland.
He was also a prodigious writer of books and hymns. He wrote over 140 hymns, including some more well-known titles, one of which is “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.” I have seen him referred to as “the prince of Scottish hymn writers.”
Many of his books can be found free online, even as audiobooks. His book that I recently read which has blessed my soul is Words to Winners of Souls, first published in 1859. This little book’s 52 pages pack a powerful soul-searching exhortation. His burden here was to call upon God’s people, and pastors in particular, to a Biblically sound and fervent ministry of the Gospel. As evidence, I will share Bonar’s concluding paragraph in the book below.
“We are not in earnest either in preaching or in hearing. If we were, could we be so cold, so prayerless, so inconsistent, so slothful, so worldly, so unlike men whose business is all about eternity? We must be more in earnest if we would win souls. We must be more in earnest if we would walk in the footsteps of our beloved Lord, or if we would fulfill the vows that are upon us. We must be more in earnest if we would be less than hypocrites. We must be more in earnest if we would finish our course with joy, and obtain the crown at the Master’s coming. We must work while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.”
It would be hard to read this book without being movingly stirred to repentance as needed. Only a stone-cold heart could read it without a renewed commitment to evangelism and faithful service to Jesus Christ.
How to Bring Men to Christ
Another recent read that God has used in my life to “fan into flame the gift of God which is in me” (2 Timothy 1:6) is R.A. Torrey’s How to Bring Men to Christ: What the Bible Tells Us About Fruitful Evangelism to Unique Individuals.
R.A.Torrey was an American Congregationalist preacher that lived 1856-1928. He was greatly used of the Lord as an evangelist, pastor, conference speaker, Bible college dean and president, and editor of the classic The Fundamentals. He wrote over 40 books. I recently read How to Bring Men to Christ and found that it met me where I needed spiritual guidance.
The book was written to urge God’s people to have a love for souls and to help those whom God’s Spirit has awakened to personal evangelism. Torrey continually proclaimed Christ through preaching, evangelistic meetings, as well as many thousands of personal conversations. He was a man immersed in God’s Word. Decades of experience dealing with countless individual men and women of all sorts, make his insight valuable.
This is much more than devotional reading. It provides a wealth of information about what Scriptures can be most helpful to use when dealing with people struggling with various thoughts, fears, sins, excuses, or states of heart when they are confronted by the claims of Christ. Reading these words gives us a hunger to be a man or woman of the Word. It urges us to memorize those many verses most helpful in evangelistic conversations. As Torrey says,
“If we desire to work together with God, the Bible is the instrument upon which we must rely and that we must use in bringing people to Jesus.“[1]
Still-relevant practical tips about working with unbelievers are all throughout. While I don’t understand or apply the “filling of the Spirit” as Torrey did, most of what he says about it is helpful.
Evangelistic Unction
“It takes evangelistic unction to make orthodoxy function.”
Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.
Few believers in Jesus Christ today, if any, live in similar contexts to those in which Horatius Bonar or R.A. Torrey lived. And yet, we can read books written by such men in far different times and be blessed in ways we may otherwise not have been. Praise the Lord for allowing such men to speak to us still today, encouraging us to reach higher for God’s glory.
The goal in reading these men’s writings is not to imitate them but to imbibe their spirit, their zeal for the Lord. We should not long for other days or covet the widespread influence such men had. We should, however, long to be useful to God in our day. A renewal of faith in what God can do is constant need.
“It takes evangelistic unction to make orthodoxy function” as Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say. If your orthodoxy lacks evangelistic unction, it will cease to function. Allow God to use the words of these men of former days to encourage you to revive or maintain earnestness in evangelism for His glory.
[1] Torrey, Reuben A.. How to Bring Men to Christ: What the Bible Tells Us About Fruitful Evangelism to Unique Individuals (p. 4). Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.
