Saul Talked to (Dead) Samuel

Prolog

First I would like to say this concerning the study of Scripture: when considering the meaning of any word or passage of Scripture, it is important to understand the context of what one is reading. Primarily, context includes the Scriptures that come both before and after the passage we are considering, and the context provides the meaning of any certain word or phrase.

Since Jesus, the Son of God, is the ultimate author of all Scripture, the things revealed in the New Testament, especially Jesus’very words, often give us a fuller understanding of certain passages in the Old Testament.

Contrary to the Adventist understanding of inspiration, all Scripture is composed of the exact words God placed into the “mouths” of his chosen prophets—a process described in this passage where God is speaking to the prophet Jeremiah:

Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth…” (Jer. 1:9).

Therefore I can can know and trust the word of God to mean exactly what he intends for me to know and understand. 

Another important qualification in understanding the word of God is to be indwelt and led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit would guide His people into all truth. However, only those who have trusted Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord have received Jesus’ promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is important to understand that the gospel of our salvation is centered on nothing more nor less than the than the death of Jesus at Calvary for the full, complete atonement of our sins, followed by His burial and resurrection three days later.

Since salvation is totally and only a work of Jesus Christ, I have long since rejected the word of Ellen G. White. Furthermore, while atonement for the sins of the world was completed at Calvary by Jesus Christ, that mark of our salvation called sanctification is currently an ongoing work of His—not of us—for those whose sins have been covered by His shed blood (Rom 7:21-25).

In my morning devotional, I read sequentially word for word a portion of Scripture each day, not neglecting or skipping past any one part of Scripture, even if it might seem to be unimportant. When I come to the end of Revelation, I simply return to Genesis and begin again. There is always something new to learn, either in my own personal study, or in being led by a gifted Bible teacher, or with a group of fellow born-again Christians. Recently I came across this passage that impacts one of Adventism’s cherished false doctrines:

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel (1 Sam. 15:34-35).

As I write this blog with the above passage of Scripture as the theme, my intention is to focus on the question of Soul Sleep. As I thought about this subject, I realized that it would take me to the Adventist Fundamental Belief #26, “Death and Resurrection”. While there are other issues in this doctrinal statement of Adventism that could be challenged, I am restricting this blog to the way the statement falsely alters the condition of the righteous dead by the use of deceptive wording.

Background

Hidden from the casual reader, the Adventist Fundamental Belief #26 is built upon the false doctrine deceptively called “soul sleep”. Following is this official statement; I have underlined the reference to Soul Sleep:

The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. (Rom. 6:23; 1 Tim. 6:15, 16; Eccl. 9:5, 6; Ps. 146:3, 4; John 11:11-14; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:1-10.)

If we look more deeply into Adventist belief, though, we find explanations in their book Seventh-day Adventists Believe which gives commentary on their doctrines. In the chapter discussing the seventh Fundamental Belief, the nature of humanity, the authors describe human life as merely breath, similar to electricity. This is how they explain it:

This breath of life is “the breath of the Almighty” that gives life (Job 33:4)—the spark of life. We might compare it with the streams of electricity that, when they flow through various electrical components, transform a quiet, gray panel of glass in a box into a pulsating splash of color and action—when we flip the switch on a color TV. The electricity brings sound and motion where once there was nothing (SDAs Believe, 2018 ed., p. 93).

In the same book in the commentary on Fundamental Belief #26, we read:

The Bible…does not teach that humans comprise two separate parts…The soul has no conscious existence apart from the body, and no scripture indicates that at death the soul survives as a conscious entity (SDAs Believe, 2018 ed., p. 395). 

In other words, Adventism does not believe anything of a person survives death except in the memory of God. They believe the essence of a person is “soul”, the thing they say comes into existence when a person breathes. When they cease to breathe, that “life force” goes away, and the soul dies. Life ceases, and the body decays. God remembers the person, but nothing immaterial or material remains. 

First Samuel, however, challenges the Adventist out-of-context defense of the non-biblical doctrine of “soul sleep”. In fact, 1 Samuel 15:34-35 compared with 1 Samual 28 shockingly contradicts the Adventist worldview.

Samuel speaks to King Saul from the grave

In 1 Samual 15:34-35 we are told Samuel would not see Saul again until the day of his death. These words proved to be prophetic:

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel (1 Sam. 15:34–35).

The grammar above is important. In the second sentence we read, “Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death.” Grammar dictates that a pronoun (his) must refer to the last noun named—Saul. This is a consistent rule of grammar; the word “his” cannot refer to the name Samuel, because the name Saul is the noun that immediately precedes the pronoun. In technical terms, “Saul” is the antecedent of “his”. In other words, we could accurately read this sentence, “And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of Saul’s death.”

Another point about this sentence is that the word “until” implies a specified time. The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “until” this way: “used as a function word to indicate continuance (as of an action or condition) to a specified time: //stayed until morning.” In other words, Samuel continued not to see Saul until the day of Saul’s death when the lack of seeing ceased—and Samuel saw him.

That final “seeing” is described in 1 Samuel 28. Ironically, however, Samuel died before Saul died. In fact, 1 Samuel 28:3 tells us that “Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city.” 

As we read 1 Samuel 28, we learn that on the night of the very day Saul died (Jewish days began at sundown and lasted until the next sundown), he went to the medium of Endor and asked her to “bring up” Samuel who had already died. The context suggests that Saul believed that if the medium of Endor really did call up Samuel, it would actually be the prophet speaking from the grave. 

The chapter tells the story of Samuel appearing, to the witch’s shock and fear, and delivering the prophecy to Saul that he would die “tomorrow”. Samuel said, 

Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines (1 Sam. 28:19).

Saul did die during the battle with the Philistines before the next sundown, fulfilling 1 Samuel 15:34-35. Samuel, who had already died, nevertheless saw Saul on the day of Saul’s death. In fact, he not only saw him, but he prophesied to him and let him know that he would die in a battle with the Philistines that Israel would lose. 

Adventists say that Saul saw an evil spirit impersonating Samuel. This interpretation, though, denies the words of Scripture. Furthermore, only God could have known the day of Saul’s coming death. An evil spirit would not have given an accurate prophecy; it had to be God’s prophet Samuel speaking from the grave the infallible words of God.

Furthermore, when one studies the whole of 1 Samuel 28, the passage never suggests that Samuel had any personal, direct knowledge of what was currently troubling Saul. Samuel simply told Saul the message God gave him to say.

Lessons affirmed

Since Jesus is the living Word and the source of all recorded Scripture (Jn. 1:1-4), we should look to the New Testament to find a more complete understanding of the things recorded in the Old Testament. After all, the New Testament is where Jesus expands our understanding of Old Testament shadows.

Adventism, however, has done the extreme opposite. It has attempted to alter Jesus’ own descriptions of the conscious state of the dead by giving false, unbiblical interpretations of the Old Testament in an attempt to obscure what the New Testament has clearly stated.

The statement in 1 Samuel 15:34-35 that Samuel would not see Saul until the day of Saul’s death serves notice that when King Saul met with Samual via the medium of Endor, it really was Samuel delivering God’s message to the king.

Furthermore, in Luke 16:16-31 Jesus describes a real place occupied by the dead called “Hades”. In it the wicked dead are in torment, separated by “a great chasm” from the righteous dead who are comforted by Abraham. While totally unaware of what those living “under the sun” are doing (Eccl. 9:1-6), they are fully aware of circumstances in Hades. Significantly, there is no suggestion in 1 Samuel 28 that Samuel had any personal contact with or knowledge of what was happening to Saul or of anyone else still living in the flesh, alive “under the sun”.

Also, when the thief on the cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”, Jesus responded by saying; “Truly I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:42-43). Paradise is real, occupied by real people who are the righteous, conscience dead.

We commonly recognize that King David’s recorded words in Scripture are an “oracle” of God (see 2 Sam. 23:1-2). When the first son born to him by Bathsheba dies, David is no longer is mourning for him. Instead he says; “…But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). David knew that in his own death he would be with his dead son with a real existence. David’s certainty exposes the Adventist lie of death’s being nothing more than being remembered in the memory of God”.

In Rom. 8:31-39 we learn that nothing, not even death, can separate the righteous from the love of their Savior Jesus Christ. The death of the righteous is far more than being “in the memory of God”.

Finally, the Apostle Paul describes death as something to be welcomed as he would then be with Christ who is not dead:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Phil. 1:21-23)

Summary

1 Samuel 15:34-35 is a prophetic passage that was fulfilled to the day when King Saul went to the medium of Endor to enquire of God via Samuel. Knowing God had forsaken him, he defied the Lord and consulted the medium to learn his fate in the war with the Philistines. Yet it was Samuel who spoke to King Saul, telling him a message that could only have come from God: before that day was out, Saul and his sons would be with Samuel in the grave. Samuel thereby proved that the grave is a literal, real place where the dead do exist. 

The witch was not responsible for this meeting between Samuel and Saul. It occurred only because God allowed it to happen. In this small but profound Old Testament story, God confirmed that Samuel was far more than a memory of God when he spoke to King Saul. Samuel had not ceased to exist although he was dead; God allowed him to appear and to speak a truthful prophecy that only God could have known—a prophecy that came to pass exactly as Samuel said it would. 

Through the obedience of His prophet Samuel, God gave Old Testament evidence that Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:9–10 are true:

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

(All biblical quotes taken from the ESV)

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Phillip Harris

Phil Harris and his wife Janeane have been married 57 years and have three children, six grandchildren and 6 great grand children. Phil dropped out of Adventism at age 16 and didn't learned the biblical gospel until 10 years later. After 3 years in the Marine Corps he spent 25 years as a Shipfitter followed by another 23 years in a local food processing plant. He and Janeane now live quietly on two-and-a-half wooded acres on Puget Sound, Washington, where Phil gardens and writes for Proclamation! and for BibleStudiesforAdventists.com.

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