thatkidakayoungguy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 23, 2018 10:19 pm
Saul had the Witch of Endor consult Samuel from the realm of the dead, and she was actually frightened and Samuel said stuff like he would in life. Plus he said he was disturbed.
So this is an exception to the rule, how can we tell if there are more exceptions to the rule that the dead can't come back?
1 Samuel 28:7 reveals that Saul sought out a woman that had a 'familiar spirit'.
That's how we know the spirit the witch conjured up was not really the dead prophet Samuel, but her familiar spirit acting as Samuel.
1 Kings 22:20-22
20 And the LORD said, "Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?" And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, "I will persuade him."
22 And the LORD said unto him, "Wherewith?" And he said, "I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." And He said, "Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so."
KJV
That 1 Kings 22 example does away with a lot of the hoopla about demons, evil spirits and ghosts. Some Churches believe that all mention of the Biblical 'spirit' means a demon, not so. In 1 Peter 3, he said Jesus went to hell and preached to the "spirits in prison", which was prophecy from Isaiah 42:7, with leading out prisoners from the prison house and those who sat in darkness. It represents our Lord Jesus during His resurrection preaching The Gospel to the departed spirits of men that lived and died prior to His crucifixion.
In the next 1 Peter 4 chapter, Peter explains why The Gospel was preached to those "spirits in prison":
1 Peter 4:5-6
5 Who shall give account to Him That is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
KJV
If one listens to Jewish traditions about our God-created makeup and what happens after flesh death, it will be a somewhat fleshy vs. ghost system of belief. But our Lord Jesus opened up more understanding of the matter to us, His Church, via His Apostles, like here with what Peter taught above, and especially by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.
Eccl 12:5-7
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
KJV
The above is misunderstood in Jewish traditions, which has trickled over a lot into Christ's Church. Their idea is that "spirit" is like some substance that merely animates a flesh body, even the bodies of all living things. They believe the soul only manifests by that animate spirit in a living fleshy body. That's not what that's actually about though.
Matt 10:28
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
KJV
Eccl.12:5-7 is actually showing us that the "spirit" which goes back to God Who gave it includes our 'soul', which is about our 'person', our self, our ID you might say. So it's not simply animate spirit, like what even animals have.
Paul in 1 Cor.15 taught that the resurrection is to a "spiritual body". He also said as we have borne the "image of the earthy", we shall also bear the "image of the heavenly", and that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. We must put off these flesh bodies, just as Eccl.12 revealed, the flesh going back to the earthy elements where it came from. But our spirit (with our soul person) goes back to God Who gave it.
To further cement this idea, Solomon being blessed by God with wisdom, mentioned in that Eccl.12 passage about a "silver cord" being severed at flesh death, with flesh going back to the elements of the earth, and our spirit going back to God. That suggests there is some kind of invisible 'cord' that keeps our flesh and spirit/soul together while alive on this earth. And when it is severed, the two parts go their separate ways.
Per what our Lord Jesus showed in Matthew 10:28, it is one's soul and body that goes into the future "lake of fire" at the very end. But what kind of body?
Here or There, A Body Is Needed:
Body refers to likeness, an outward image, outward appearance. When Paul said "image of the earthy" that's about our outward flesh appearance, a flesh body, a body of corruption. When he said "image of the heavenly", that means an outward image of the angels, a body of incorruption. What image is that? The image of man, because all angels and flesh men were created in God's Own Image likeness, which is that of a man. So whether we are alive in the flesh, or in the heavenly having put off our flesh, we still need an outward image body. And the body "image of the heavenly" is the "spiritual body" Paul taught in 1 Cor.15.