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5.—SAMUEL AND THE WOMAN OF ENDOR

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · May 5, 1885

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 18

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5.—SAMUEL AND THE WOMAN OF ENDOR.

By Roswell Fenner Cottrell

BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
1. WHAT is said of Samuel?
“Now Samuel was dead.” 1 Sam. 28:3.
2. Have the dead knowledge?
“The dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9:5.
3. Are the dead aware of the condition of the living?
“His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14:21.
4. Are they, then, guardian angels to the living?
5. Did Saul in his distress inquire of the Lord?
“And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.” 1 Sam. 28:6.
6. Then what did Saul say?
“Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit.” Verse 7.
7. What had God said about such persons?
“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them.” Lev. 19:31.
8. How does the Lord regard such persons?
“All that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.” Deut. 18:12.
9. What is the prophet’s reply to those who propose to seek to familiar spirits?
“Should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Isa. 8:19.
10. Are the revelations from familiar spirits reliable?
“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Verse 20.
11. What was one of the counts in the indictment for which Saul was slain?
“For asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it.” 1 Chron. 10:13.
12. Since the Lord would not answer Saul in his own appointed way, is it to be believed that he would answer him through an agency which was an abomination to him? and was not Saul doing the very thing that God had forbidden?
13. What did Saul request of the woman?
“Bring me up Samuel.” 1 Sam. 28:11.
14. Did she get a real communication?
“And when the woman saw Samuel, she . . . spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.” Verse 12.
15. Did he see anything? or did he have to ask her what she saw?
He asked, “What seest thou?” Verse 13.
16. What did she reply?
“I saw gods ascending out of the earth.”—Ib.
17. Was he obliged to ask how the apparition looked?
“And he said unto her, What form is he of?” Verse 14.
18. He saw nothing. How did he “perceive that it was Samuel”?
“She said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle.”—Ib.
19. Saul “stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.” Was it before the real or a bogus Samuel?
“And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?” Verse 15.
20. Did those sinners have power to disturb the repose of the man of God? Did his body really come out of the grave? or was it his spirit which came up out of the earth? In those ancient times, did the people understand that the dead were sleeping in the dust?
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Dan. 12:2.
21. Did Paul teach that the dead in Christ are asleep?
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” 1 Thess. 4:14.
22. What does the apostle mean by this?
“The dead in Christ shall rise.” Verse 16.
23. Now which is the more reasonable, that those sinners, engaged in that which God had expressly forbidden, really disquieted the sleeping prophet and had him present with them, thus favoring their nefarious work, or that a fallen angel, a demon, was there personating and counterfeiting Samuel, and saying what he supposed he would say were he present?
24. Did the communicating spirit truly relate Saul’s past course, and truly predict his death on the morrow? See 1 Sam. 28:17–19.
25. Can the spirits of devils work miracles when God permits?
“They are the spirits of devils working miracles.” Rev. 16:14.
26. If Samuel went to heaven at death, according to modern current theology, what good promise did he make to Saul and his sons?
“To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.” 1 Sam. 28:19.
27. Where were they with Samuel the next day?—In the state of death. The prediction proved true.
“So Saul died, and his three sons, . . . that same day.” 1 Sam. 31:6.
28. If familiar spirits tell some truth, and work miracles, are we bound to believe all they say?
“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20.
29. In case signs and wonders verify the predictions of a prophet, should we follow his teachings without bringing them to the test of God’s law?
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.” Deut. 13:1–4.
30. Will great signs and wonders be wrought to deceive?
“There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matt. 24:24.