9. Is it likely that the apparition really was the spirit of the dead Samuel?
NOTE: ‘Was Samuel really there as an immortal soul, a disembodied spirit, or as one raised from the dead? No; because (a) immortal souls do not come up out of the ground, wrapped in mantles, and complain of being disquieted and brought up; (b) Samuel was a holy prophet, and if he was conscious in the spirit world, he would not present himself at the summons of a woman who was practising arts which God had forbidden; (c) God, having departed from Saul, and having refused to communicate with him on account of his sins, would not now suffer His servant Samuel to grant him the desired communication through a channel which He had pronounced an abomination; (d) Samuel was not present by a resurrection, for the Devil could not raise him, and God certainly would not, for such a purpose; besides Samuel was buried at Ramah, and could not be raised at Endor; (e) It was only the woman’s familiar spirit, personating Samuel as he used to appear when alive, an aged man clothed with a mantle. His object was to make both the woman and Saul believe it was Samuel, when it was not, just as communicating spirits to-day try to palm themselves off for what they are not.’ Uriah Smith: Modern Spiritualism, page 52.
10. What did the apparition pretending to be Samuel tell Saul that reveals that it was not Samuel’s immortal soul come down from heaven? 1 Samuel 28:19. Consider also verses 13-14.
NOTE: ‘This pretended Samuel told Saul that he and his sons would be with him the following day. Verse l9. If he was an immortal spirit in glory, how could Saul, whom God had rejected for his sins, go to be with him there?’ Uriah Smith: Man’s Nature and Destiny, page 120.
‘The appearance which the woman saw came up out of the earth. Was that Samuel’s immortal soul? Are these souls in the earth? We supposed (that is, are we not told?) that they are in the heavenly glories of the world above. Is it said that, as the form came up out of the earth, Samuel had a resurrection? Then the conscious-soul theory is abandoned. But if this was a resurrection of Samuel, how could he come up out of the ground here at Endor, near the sea of Galilee, when he was buried in distant Ramah (verse 3), near Jerusalem?’ Uriah Smith: Man’s Nature and Destiny, page 120.