Unfortunately what LeGrand Richards meant is not being understood here. There is a passage of Scripture that the lds church says substantiates the coming forth of the BoM. It is Isaiah 29:4. "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." Compare this with what LeGrands Richards wrote: “Now, obviously, the only way a dead people could speak ‘out of the ground’ or ‘low out of the dust’ would be by the written word, and this the people did through the Book of Mormon. Truly it has a familiar spirit, for it contains the words of the prophets of the God of Israel.” The Hebrew word pronounced ‘OV’ or ‘OB’, means a necromancer and is translated in the Bible as ‘familiar spirit. In Deut. 18:11 it is used with ‘the dead’ as the direct object. To follow after the dead is translated as ‘necromancer,’ which is communication with demons.’ "Familiar spirit" according to the Holy Bible always refers to demons, since the Bible is clear that the dead do not return as disembodied spirits roaming the earth. LeGrand Richards, as do most lds, believe that this familiar spirit is God-given and positive affirmation that the BoM is truly scripture from God. But the Holy Bible never speaks positively of “familiar spirits” and God never uses “familiar spirits” to confirm His presence or authenticate His Word. The Holy Bible tells us that “familiar spirits” are spirit persons who are familiar or intimate with humans and speak to them through a witch or a spirit medium! In every case the person who has the “familiar spirit” is condemned by God. The point is Richards showed a complete misunderstanding of the usage of familar spirit. There are at least 15 Old Testament references to ‘familiar spirit’, and all of them deal with witchcraft.