Of all the distinctive doctrines held by Seventh-day Adventists, it is probably fair to say that our understanding of the state of the dead has suffered the least open attack either from current or former church members. The sanctuary, the authority of Ellen White’s prophetic gift, the remnant church theology, even the Sabbath, have been much more popular targets for the skepticism and disbelief of marginal or former Adventists.
But very recently, an article on a theologically liberal Adventist website has presumed to raise doubts regarding our Bible-based teaching on humanity’s condition in death. Focusing on the story of Israel’s King Saul and his encounter with the witch of Endor just before he died (I Sam. 28:3-25), the article seeks to cast doubt on the classic Adventist understanding of this narrative, insisting from the start that “few biblical passages are more controversial” than this story [1].
If indeed this assessment is true, it is not because of a lack of clarity in the Bible regarding either the state of humanity in death or the source of the experience described in Saul’s meeting with the woman of Endor and the supernatural being that claimed to be the dead prophet Samuel. In fact, the collective witness of the Bible is exceedingly clear regarding what happens to human beings when they die, and regarding the substance of the tragic episode that marked the final hours of life for the first of Israel’s kings.
The Bible on the State of the Dead
This may seem elementary to those Adventists intimately familiar with their beliefs and the Biblical basis thereof, but in truth it never hurts to review our core convictions and refresh our minds with the evidence of their validity. Soon our faith will be tested and tried before the world, and we need to be ready when that happens. Ellen White has written that “God will arouse His people; if other means fail, heresies will come in among them, which will sift them, separating the chaff from the wheat” [2].
Nothing is quite so effective in causing us to better understand and appreciate our faith as when that faith comes under challenge. When Desmond Ford publicly attacked the sanctuary doctrine during my sophomore year of college, my fellow students and I (along with countless others) came to recognize like never before the significance and indispensable nature of our classic sanctuary theology. When our distinctive message is attacked, regardless of the issue, the end result will be greater awareness and commitment on the part of the diligent and truly consecrated.
Despite the belief held on this subject by the great majority of professing Christians, the Bible is indisputably clear about what happens to people when they die. Such passages as the following must never leave the forefront of the faithful Adventist mind:
But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep (Job 14:10-12).
For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? (Psalm 6:5).
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence (Psalm 115:17).
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. . . .
There is no word, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest (Eccl. 9:5-6,10).
It is significant what the apostle Peter said about King David, over 1,000 years after the latter’s death:
David . . . is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. . . . For David is not ascended into the heavens (Acts 2:29,34).
Both the Old and the New Testaments are clear that the righteous and the wicked receive their reward at the end-time resurrection, not when they die:
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:1-2).
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice,
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28-29).
Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (I Cor. 15:51-53).
For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thess. 4:16-17).
Saul and the Witch of Endor
As so often occurs when challenges to our distinctive teachings are entertained, the article in question tries to make complicated what the Bible presents as very simple. Speaking of the narrative in First Samuel 28 regarding Saul and the witch of Endor, the article states:
The passage is unique. Nowhere else in Scripture do we read of a medium or necromancer successfully communicating with the dead. Further, the raising of Samuel is a significant challenge to the traditional Adventist view concerning the state of the dead. The dead, as we know, rest in their graves until the resurrection day. But here, apparently, Samuel awakes and is brought up to the realm of the living by the medium. This is a problem not only for Adventists but for Jews and Christians in general, for attempts to communicate with the dead are condemned throughout the Old Testament. Historically, there have been three main understandings of this passage.
· First, that the medium genuinely raised Samuel from the dead.
· Second, it was God who did so in a unique act, and being sovereign he is free to do so.
· Third, and the most popular solution, the raising of Samuel was a delusion perpetrated by the powers of darkness.
This last position is the one taken by Ellen White, but she was far from being the first to suggest it. Typically, Adventist engagement with the passage has started with the assumption that the event must have been a delusion because otherwise it would contradict our fundamental belief about the state of the dead. The downside to this approach is that most of the time there is little engagement with the narrative itself. Rather, so the argument frequently goes, since the dead know nothing, the medium could not have raised Samuel, so she didn’t [3].
The problem with the above statement is that the author himself engages little with the narrative itself, not to mention other Bible passages which shed light on the story—and I don’t simply mean those passages cited earlier which tell what happens to people when they die. The problem with the above commentary, like so much these days that passes for Biblical “exegesis,” is that it fails to recognize the collective voice of Scripture and the need to consult the total witness thereof when studying any passage or subject.
The fact is that the story found in First Samuel 28 is not the only Bible reference to this particular incident. We find another in First Chronicles, which effectively identifies the source of the message given to Saul in First Samuel 28:
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 enquire of it;
And enquired not of the Lord (I Chron. 10:13-14).
This passage effectively rules out the option stated above that “it was God who [raised Samuel] in a unique act, and being sovereign he is free to do so” [4]. If Saul “enquired not of the Lord” (I Chron. 10:14) when consulting the witch and asking her to “bring me up Samuel” (I Sam. 28:11), only one other power could have been responsible for the encounter in the witch’s cave, and that’s the one described by the apostle Paul in Second Corinthians 11:
And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works (II Cor. 11:14-15).
Returning to the narrative in First Samuel, the inspired author is clear that God had refused to communicate with Saul by prophets, by dreams, or by Urim (I Sam. 28:6,15). It is inconceivable that God would have bypassed these divinely-ordained means of communication in favor of an agency He had expressed forbidden to His people and condemned as an abomination (Deut. 18:10-12).
Moreover, the nature of the message given to Saul by the apparition claiming to be Samuel is likewise evidence of its demonic origin. Its object was not to lead Saul to repentance, but to urge him on to despair and ruin. No appeal to the wayward monarch to forsake his rebellious course and return to God is found in this message (I Sam. 28: 16-19). God doesn’t operate this way, but Satan most assuredly does.
The article in question raises the possibility that “the medium genuinely raised Samuel from the dead” [5]. But at no time in Biblical history did anyone but God or His servants ever raise someone from the dead. God is the only Creator of life. The devil, by contrast, can deceive, but he can’t create. Nothing in the Bible story lends credence to the notion of satanic agencies performing an act of genuine creation.
The article goes on to compare preceding chapters in First Samuel, suggesting that perhaps these parallels might offer a clue as to what actually happened in the story of Saul and the witch [6]. But the comparisons drawn give no such clue, and the article doesn’t even suggest any. Contrary to the author’s suggestion noted earlier, it isn’t classic Adventism that has failed to engage with the narrative in this chapter, but rather, the article’s author is the one failing to do this. Both the content of the chapter in First Samuel and other relevant Bible passages considered in the present article are ignored by the article in question.
Ellen White, without referring to the classic Adventist doctrinal stance on the state of the dead (which she obviously shared), offers the following explanation as to what happened between Saul, the witch of Endor, and the being purporting to be the dead prophet Samuel. The reader will note that her arguments are based not on dogmatic pronouncements of her own, but on the Bible itself:
The Scripture account of Saul’s visit to the woman of Endor has been a source of perplexity to many students of the Bible. There are some who take the position that Samuel was actually present at the interview with Saul, but the Bible itself furnishes sufficient ground for a contrary conclusion. If, as claimed by some, Samuel was in heaven, he must have been summoned thence, either by the power of God or by that of Satan. None can believe for a moment that Satan had power to call the holy prophet of God from heaven to honor the incantations of an abandoned woman. Nor can we conclude that God summoned him to the witch’s cave; for the Lord had already refused to communicate with Saul, by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets. I Samuel 28:6. These were God’s own appointed mediums of communication, and He did not pass them by to deliver the message through the agent of Satan.
The message itself is sufficient evidence of its origin. Its object was not to lead Saul to repentance, but to urge him on to ruin; and this is not the work of God, but of Satan. Furthermore, the act of Saul in consulting a sorceress is cited in Scripture as one reason why he was rejected by God and abandoned to destruction. “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 enquire of it; and enquired not of the Lord; therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.” I Chronicles 10:13,14. Here it is distinctly stated that Saul inquired of the familiar spirit, not of the Lord. He did not communicate with Samuel, the prophet of God; but through the sorceress he held intercourse with Satan. Satan could not present the real Samuel, but he did present a counterfeit, that served his purpose of deception [7].
Experience-Driven Theology
While Ellen White informs us that the doctrine of natural immortality “lays the foundation of spiritualism” [8], other premises lie at the basis of this edifice of delusion. Permitting our own experience to trump the Word of God is also fundamental to spiritualism. Ellen White explains how this was so in the initial deception that took captive the mother of the human race:
Eve was beguiled by the serpent and made to believe that God would not do as He had said. She ate, and, thinking she felt the sensation of a new and more exalted life, she bore the fruit to her husband. The serpent had said that she should not die, and she felt no ill effects from eating the fruit, nothing which could be interpreted to mean death, but, instead, a pleasurable sensation, which she imagined was as the angels felt. Her experience stood arrayed against the positive command of Jehovah, yet Adam permitted himself to be seduced by it [9].
She goes on to say, in the context of the above statement:
In the face of the most positive commands of God, men and women will follow their own inclinations, and then dare to pray over the matter, to prevail upon God to allow them to go contrary to His expressed will. Satan comes to the side of such persons, as he did to Eve in Eden, and impresses them. They have an exercise of mind, and this they relate as a most wonderful experience which the Lord has given them. But true experience will be in harmony with natural and divine law; false experience arrays itself against the laws of nature and the precepts of Jehovah [10].
This principle of experience-driven theology lies as much at the foundation of spiritualism as the belief in the immortality of the soul. In his dialogue with Eve, Satan—through the medium of the serpent—used experience as a means of contradicting God’s Word. God told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would die. The serpent countered God’s statement by noting that he had eaten the fruit and continued to eat it, and he wasn’t dead. As a result, God’s Word was set aside in favor of experiential evidence.
We see this principle at work today, even in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Bible teaches clearly that both justifying and sanctifying righteousness (Eph. 1:7; II Thess. 2:13), both Christ’s work for us and His work in us (II Cor. 5:21; Titus 3:5), represent the means of our salvation, and that through sanctifying grace men and women can gain total victory over sin in this present life (e.g. Psalm 4:4; 119:1-3,11; Zeph. 3:13; Rom. 8:4; I Cor. 15:34; II Cor. 7:1; 10:4-5; Eph. 5:27; I Thess. 5:23; I Peter 2:21-22; 4:1; II Peter 3:10-14; I John 1:7,9; 3:2-3; Jude 24; Rev. 3:21; 14:5). But some in contemporary Adventism cite their personal experience, years of alleged failure in their quest for this goal, and their longing for an assurance of salvation not dependent on practical holiness, as proof that this victory is unachievable here on earth.
The Bible is clear that while women have an important role to play in guiding the gospel community and giving heaven’s message to the world, their role in doing this is not identical to the role given to men (I Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-25; I Tim. 2:12-13). Yet there are women who justify their pursuit of a spiritual role identical to that of men on the basis of what they describe as the “called experience”—God supposedly calling them to responsibilities denied to them by the written Word.
The Bible condemns without qualification any sexual intimacy between persons of the same gender (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; I Cor. 6:9-10; I Tim. 1:10). Yet we find professed Christians, including some Adventists, who attest to a personal and spiritual fulfillment in the gratification of such desires, which they seem to think overrules what the Bible plainly teaches.
These, and other examples we could cite, represent a form of spiritualism. Like Eve at the forbidden tree, those who embrace the above theories and practices ignore the Word of God and choose experience in its place. Little wonder that Ellen White, in describing the “Christianized” form of spiritualism, speaks as follows of one of its principles:
Love is dwelt upon as the chief attribute of God, but it is degraded to a weak sentimentalism, making little distinction between good and evil [11].
In another statement she writes, speaking of the broader principles behind spiritualism:
By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself [12].
Those in Adventism who have grown accustomed to permitting their experience to supersede God’s written counsel in Scripture and the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, are setting themselves up to the thoroughly taken in by the impersonation of dead relatives and the original apostles at the end of time by Satan’s demons [13]. Ellen White explains how emotion will be the driving force when these experiences take place:
Many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved relatives or friendsand declaring the most dangerous heresies. These visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies and will work miracles to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything, and that they that thus appear are the spirits of devils [14].
Those in Adventism today who permit the pull of the heart to dislodge the anchor of the mind will find themselves helpless in the face of these deceptions. When faced with the choice between objective truth based on the much-maligned “proof text” method of Bible study, and a message that fondles their heart-strings and satisfies what they hold to be their deepest spiritual longings, the great adversary will take them fully captive.
Conclusion: Could Seventh-day Adventists Be Duped by Spiritualism?
The article in question seeks to blur what the Bible presents as exceedingly clear. Both the narrative in First Samuel 28 and the remaining relevant evidence from throughout Scripture are ignored in favor of suggesting baseless doubts. The collective witness of the Bible is clear as to the source of both the supernatural presence and the message encountered by Saul in the cave of the woman at Endor. The article in question offers yet another example of the confusion that results when Bible passages are studied superficially and without regard to other passages relative to the subject in question.
In sum, there is no more reason for Adventists to “revisit” the story of the witch of Endor than there was legitimate reason for Saul to visit her in the first place! Such suggestions merely prepare vulnerable minds to receive the great delusions of the last days (Matt. 24:24; II Thess. 2:9-11; Rev. 16:14), further weakening their hold on the written Word. Such pseudo-scholarship is a curse to the church and the means whereby countless souls will be led to the kingdom of hell.
Could Seventh-day Adventists be duped by spiritualism? It’s happening already. And the worst is yet to come.
REFERENCES
1. Laurence Turner, “Revisiting the Strange, Controversial Witch of Endor,” Adventist Today, July 7, 2021 https://atoday.org/laurence-turner-revisiting-the-strange-controversial-witch-of-endor/
2. Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 707.
3. Turner, “Revisiting the Strange, Controversial Witch of Endor,” Adventist Today, July 7, 2021 https://atoday.org/laurence-turner-revisiting-the-strange-controversial-witch-of-endor/
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 683.
8. ----The Great Controversy, p. 588.
9. ----Counsels on Health, pp. 108-109.
10. Ibid, p. 109.
11. ----The Great Controversy, p. 558.
12. ----Acts of the Apostles, p. 474.
13. ----The Great Controversy, pp. 557,560.
14. Ibid, p. 560.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan