Continued…
Samuel and the Witch of Endor
Or
The Sin of Witchcraft
By J. N. Andrews
Let us see
if the second view is any less open to objection.
The fact
that this reputed Samuel arose out of the earth before this woman, as an old
man covered with a mantle, may be supposed to substantiate the idea that Samuel
was present with his own flesh and bones. Before disproving this view of the
case, several questions concerning it may well be asked: 1. Samuel was buried
in distant Ramah. See verse 3. How could he come out of the ground in Endor? 2.
Can it be believed that he was raised by God to talk with Saul upon the devil's
own ground? 3. Would such a man as Samuel, who held witchcraft as a heinous
sin, 1Sam.15:23, before beginning his message to Saul, first hold private
converse with this wicked woman in the midst of her incantations? 4. And what
became of this old man thus raised from the dead? Did he go through the pains
of a second dissolution? He might in such case well complain of being
disquieted and brought up by Saul, verse 15.
But there
is one important fact that settles this question of Samuel's resurrection. Had
Samuel been present in his own flesh and bones, and not as a matter of
enchantment or sorcery, Saul would have seen him as well as the woman. That
Saul could not see him is convincing proof that Samuel was not raised from the
dead. He must have been raised - if raised at all - by God or by Satan. But the
devil cannot raise the dead; and it is certain that the God of Heaven would not
raise his servant in answer to Satanic incantations.
We are
therefore brought to the conclusion that Samuel was not present either as an
immortal spirit from the third Heaven, or as resurrected from the dead. And
therefore the conclusion is inevitable that this Samuel is no other than the
familiar spirit personating the man of God.
Saul had
asked the God of Heaven to speak to him by his prophets; but for his wickedness
this was refused. This time he asks Satan to send him Samuel; and Satan was not
slow to answer the prayer by sending such a Samuel as he could produce. And now
let us hear what this Samuel, produced by Satan, had to say:-
"And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to
bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make
war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither
by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make
known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask
of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And
the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me; for the Lord hath rent the
kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David; because
thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon
Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover
the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines;
and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me; the Lord also shall deliver
the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway
all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel;
and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor
all the night."
The first words of this so-called Samuel are remarkable. He does
not wait to hear Saul's request, but asks Saul in a petulant manner what he had
disturbed him for, to bring him up. This is an acknowledgment on the part of
this reputed Samuel that he had come through Saul's act of seeking Satan. It is
not holy Samuel sent by God; but is that kind of Samuel that Satan could send.
And observe, he does not represent himself as coming down from the courts of
glory, but as coming up from the regions below. Those who think that Samuel was
actually present from the heavenly Jerusalem, may explain how wicked Saul could
be present with him the next day. Verse 19.
Saul relates to Samuel his sore distress. And now behold the
result of serving Satan, and then calling upon him for help in the day of dire
extremity. Satan flatters men during all the time in which they can repent,
telling them the path in which they are walking is the path of the righteous;
or, if it is not, it is just as good as that of the righteous, and will end at
last in Heaven; or, if it be not just right, there is plenty of time for
repentance, and that they may safely neglect it for many years. But when the
last hours of their probation are expiring, he comes upon his victims with
overwhelming power, telling them that it is now too late, and drives them to
despair by repeating the history of their sins, until, perhaps, they take their
lives with their own hands. Such was the case with Saul. Satan led him to
despise the warnings of the prophets, and to presume upon the mercy of God,
till the very hour of his extremity was upon him, and then, by rehearsing his
sins, and provoking him, with David's certain triumph over him, and
extinguishing every hope, both of this world and the next, he drives him to
utter despair and immediate suicide. He tells him,
The Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy; i.e., there is absolutely no hope in your
case.
The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to
thy neighbor, even to David. This was a keen thrust to such a man as Saul.
Your ruin was made sure by your sin in the memorable expedition
against Amalek.
Your army shall suffer a terrible defeat in the coming battle, and
yourself and sons shall be slain. And now let us follow Saul to the battle. We
cannot, indeed, say whether it came on the following day, but it was not
delayed long. His army was defeated with a terrible slaughter, his sons were
slain, and Saul, in utter despair, kills himself with his own sword. See 1 Sam.
31. Such was the result of his seeking to one that had a familiar spirit. But
before we take leave of this extraordinary case, let us hear what is said of it
by that sacred writer who makes the only other mention of it.
1 Chron. 10:13, 14: "So Saul died for his transgression which
he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept
not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire
of it; and inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the
kingdom unto David the son of Jesse."
It is worthy of observation that this passage names the familiar
spirit as the one that Saul conversed with and says not one word about Samuel,
in whose form and dress he came, and under whose name he completed the ruin of
Saul. It was the familiar spirit that he inquired of, and that held discourse
with him. This is made very manifest by quoting this text without the supplied
words: "For asking of a familiar spirit to inquire. And inquired not of
the Lord." It was the familiar spirit, therefore, and not the Lord through
Samuel, with whom Saul conversed.
The sin of witchcraft, or the dealing with familiar spirits,
consists, therefore, in holding intercourse with Satan under the name of
conversing with the dead.
And observe how completely, under such circumstances, men put
themselves under the power of Satan.
With hearts wounded and bleeding under some great bereavement,
they call up their dear departed. And when their peculiarities are exactly
reproduced, and when little tokens of friendship, which were known only to the
inquired and to the departed, are brought out, and matters best calculated to
awaken all the fond remembrances of the past are called up, so that the
inquirer becomes satisfied that he is conversing with his dearest friend, who
now knows a thousand times more than himself, he is not only thrown off his
guard, but captivated by Satan, and caused to believe the doctrine of devils;
for certainly, as he thinks, his dearest friend cannot deceive him.
V. But who are these familiar spirits?
To this question two answers have been returned.
1. They are the spirits of our dead friends. 2. They are the
fallen angels who imitate or counterfeit them. One of these answers must be
true; both of them cannot be; which, therefore, shall we accept as the
truth?
If we could believe the familiar spirits themselves, the first
answer must be true; for they profess to be the spirits of the dead, and they
claim to bring up any of the dead who are called for. But there are some
reasons for distrusting their testimony. 1. In the case which the Bible gives
at length, as a specimen of their works, the familiar spirit which consorted
with the witch of Endor professed to bring up the dead at pleasure, and to
enable them to speak; yet we have found this to be a false pretense; for the
familiar spirit did all the speaking, and dead Samuel had nothing to say. 2.
The Bible warns us against them all as wicked and deceitful. Deut.18. Their
testimony as to their own personality, therefore, is entitled to no weight.
But the doctrine that the familiar spirits are the spirits of the
dead, in ancient times rested upon the following propositions: 1. That the
spirits of the dead are now in a state of conscious existence. 2. That they are
now endowed with superior intelligence. 3. That they inhabit a region within
the earth itself.
In modern times, however, the same doctrine is supported thus: 1.
That the souls of men are immortal. 2. That death is the gate to endless joy.
3. That they enter upon their reward at death. 4. That they are in death
endowed with superior intelligence. 5. That they are ministering spirits to the
living, having their abode, either in Heaven or upon earth, at pleasure.
The modern doctrine is an improvement upon the theology of the
days of Saul. But the Bible sweeps away this cunningly-devised fable of ancient
days, and with it the doctrine that dead men can hold converse with the living.
Thus, that sacred volume teaches us:-
That God made man of the dust of the ground, and gave him life
from his own breath. Gen. 2.
That he warned him that for transgression he should be deprived of
life, and turned again into dust. Gen. 2:17.
That all men are now under the sentence of death, and are both
mortal and corruptible. Heb. 9:27; Job 4:17; Rom. 1:23.
That those who seek immortality shall receive it at the
resurrection, from Him who is its only source. Rom. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:51-55; 1
Tim. 6:15, 16.
That death came into the world by sin; that it is the last enemy;
that Satan has had the power of it; and that death and Satan shall both be
destroyed in the lake of fire. Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:26; Heb. 2:14; Rev.
20.
That in death there is no remembrance of God. Ps. 6:5.
That in the day of death the thoughts perish. Ps. 146:4.
That the dead know not anything; and that their love, and envy,
and hatred, is now perished. Eccl. 9:5, 6.
That the dead do not praise God. Ps. 115:17.
That sheol, or hades, the under-ground abode of the dead, is a
place where there is no work, device, knowledge, nor wisdom; a place of
silence, secrecy, darkness, corruption, and death. Eccl. 9:10; Job 14:10-15;
17:13-16.
That the righteous are not to be with Christ till he comes back
after them. John 14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:32; 1 Thess. 4.
That men are neither rewarded nor punished till they have first
been judged. 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 22:12; Matt. 16:27.
That the dead, both righteous and wicked, are now asleep. Dan.
12:2; Job 14:12; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 20.
That the keys of death and hades are not in the hands of familiar
spirits, but in those of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rev. 1:18.
These facts are certainly sufficient to show that the familiar
spirits do not come from the dead themselves, and that they do not, and cannot,
bring up any of the dead. Who, then, are the familiar spirits?
We need not deny their existence, nor can we without denying the
Bible. Nor should we pronounce it an inexplicable mystery that our dead
friends, whose very thoughts have perished, and who sleep quietly in the silent
dust, are by them apparently made to speak in so wonderful a manner. There is
an agency competent to do this work. That the familiar spirits are the fallen
angels will appear from the following facts:-
The Scriptures inform us that Satan, who was once an obedient
servant of the God of Heaven, long since raised the standard of revolt against
him. John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Eze. 28.
That a large body of the angels joined in this revolt. 2 Pet. 2:4;
Jude 6; Rev. 12:7-9.
That these wicked spirits are not now in torment, but they await
the day of Judgment, when with wicked men they shall be sent into everlasting
fire. Jude 6; Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20; Matt. 8:29; James 2:19.
That this vast body of fallen angels have been engaged during the
whole history of our race in the most mighty efforts to involve mankind in
ruin. 1 Pet. 5:8, 9; Job 2:2; Luke 22:31; Rom. 8:38, 39; Eph. 6:12.
That hypocrisy, deception, and fraud, have been the chief of the
ways in which they have ruined mankind. 2 Cor. 11:14, 15; Gen. 3; John 8:44;
Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 8.
The Old Testament plainly teaches that the work of the familiar
spirits is false, deceitful, and ruinous. The New Testament shows who they are
that deceive, seduce, and ruin, mankind. It is the fallen angels, with Satan at
their head.
We cannot, therefore, avoid the conclusion that the familiar
spirits of the Old Testament are the fallen angels of the New. And hence it is
that the "seducing spirits" of Paul, and the "unclean
spirits" of John, are called devils, or spirits of devils. 1 Tim. 4:1;
Rev. 16:13. We need not, therefore, think it strange that the Scriptures warn
us so faithfully against seeking knowledge at their hands.
TO BE CONTINUED!
*******
This study is very pertinent to us today, why? Because of this…
Explosive
growth in witches….today.
This
study will be given in a few parts, not all at once. Please pray and read, we
need the Holy Spirit to guide us in all we do. The closer it gets to our Lord's
return, the more and more Satan will work. Please, Father, may we not be
deceived, guide us to Your truth, and live in us working Your truth in our
lives! All in the Savior's name, through His sacrifice!
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