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the dead "know not anything", and that there is no knowledge in the grave. At death, the
body returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it. There is no
consciousness between death and resurrection. If it should be objected that on the Mount
of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah were most certainly present, we would reply that
both were special cases. Moses is specially mentioned in Jude as one over whose body
Michael and the Devil contended (showing that he was bodily present on the Mount), and
in the case of Elijah, we know that he was caught up to heaven by a whirlwind, so that he
cannot be compared with the generality of men. Samuel had died and had been buried in
Ramah. When Saul said "Bring me up Samuel", we do not know whether he really
expected Samuel himself to appear, for he had gone by design to one that had a "familiar
spirit", and had previously said, "Divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring him up
whom I shall name unto thee". The general attitude of the Scriptures towards the diviner
is one of unreserved condemnation, together with the assurance that he deals in lies:
"That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad" (Isa. 44: 25).
"Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your
dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers . . . . . for they prophesy a lie unto
you" (Jer. 27: 9, 10).
"Let not your . . . . . diviners deceive you" (Jer. 29: 8).
"Diviners have seen a lie" (Zech. 10: 2).
Turning to the N.T., we read, in connection with Saul's great antitype, the Man of Sin:
"After the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish . . . . . God shall send them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie" (II Thess. 2: 9-11).
Here we find that, while Satan is said to work with lies and deception, God can and
does sometimes intervene, and ensure that certain people shall be made to believe a lie.
On one occasion we read of a "lying spirit" being sent by the Lord in punishment
(I Kings 22: 21-23; II Chron. 18: 19-24), and it is obvious that if this could also be
done to fulfil the word of the Lord concerning Saul. In the case of Ahab, we are not told
that he deliberately set out to consult with one that had a familiar spirit, but in Saul's case
we know that he did. In the law of the Lord, which was familiar to Saul, we read:
"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by
them. I am the Lord" (Lev. 19: 31).
"The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a
whoring after them, I will even set My face against that soul, and will cut him off from
among his people" (Lev. 20: 6).
We are distinctly told that, when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord "answered him
not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets" (I Sam. 28: 6). In these
circumstances it is difficult to believe that, when Saul turned to the power of darkness,
the Lord actually answered him by raising the prophet Samuel from the dead. The fact
that the message given to Saul through the witch was true does not in any way prove that
Samuel himself was present. The young girl who cried after the apostles in Acts 16:
used words that were quite true, but she was nevertheless under the control of an evil
spirit (Acts 16: 16-18).