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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
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1 | what happened to souls BC? | Bible general Archive 1 | skip | 58646 | ||
What happened to the souls of righteous people before Christ? 1 Samuel 28:19, "tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me": Where was the spirit or soul (is there a difference between the two here?) of Samuel coming from, and if Saul and his sons were not living in obedience to God, how could they go to the same place? Also, when the Bible speaks of people who were "gathered to their fathers" when they died, where did their souls go? |
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2 | what happened to souls BC? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sean | 58647 | ||
This is an awkward one as this whole episode has been interpreted in one of three ways. Either 1) God allowed Samuel to appear to the woman, 2) she was actually in contact with an evil spirit in the form of Samuel who deceived her, or 3) through telepathy/clairvoyance she discerned Saul's thoughts and pictured an image of Samuel in her own mind which Saul would identify with. In any case, the fact Saul consulted a medium in violation of Lev 20:27 ("Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death.") would imply it would be unlikely be case 1 since God forbids using mediums, but who knows the Mind of God? The key for your question is that the Hebrew word translated as "spirit" in the NASB is the plural form of "eloheem" which was used for rulers, judges, divine ones, angels or gods according to Strong's Hebrew dictionary. This is backed up by Albert Barnes' Notes on the bible which uses the word "gods" not "spirit" and states that eloheem "is here used in a general sense of a supernatural appearance, either angel or spirit. Hell, or the place of the departed (compare 1Sa 28:19; 2Sa 12:23) is represented as under the earth Isa 14:9-10; Eze 32:18." - so probably not the soul of Samuel. Either way it was fulfillment of the words given by Samuel 1 Sam 15:26 'But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel."' and 1 Sam 15:28 'So Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you."' As for the place where they were going, this would depend on which thought you followed. As one exposition of the Bible put it: "and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me" seems to be a lie of the devil, and at best an ambiguous expression. If an evil spirit, it could not be true of Saul and all his sons, that they should be with him in hell, especially of Jonathan who appears throughout the whole of his life to have been a good man. If he was Samuel, the idea Saul being with him in heaven is a great stretch of charity, since Saul was a wicked a man, and who died in the act of suicide (though some belive that his sins were pardoned, and he was saved.) The final conclusion is that Saul and his sons will be in the state of the dead. (It should be noted that not all the sons of Saul fell in that fateful battle, as the expression seems to suggest; for there were Ishbosheth, and his two sons by Rizpah, which survived him; nor was it true of Saul and his sons that they were cut off, and that they died the next day; for the battle was not fought till several days after this. Thus "tomorrow" signifies some future time, and not strictly the next day, this shows the ambiguity of the expression used, and the insignificance of it to the present purpose; for who knew not that Saul and his sons would die some time or another? So when finally Saul and some of his sons died, they went to heaven or punishment just like any of us. Phrases such as Jesus saying "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43 cf. 2 Cor 5:8, Heb 12:23) support the view that when we die, our souls go straight to God's presence, or to eternal punishment (cf. Lazarus and the rich man - Luke 16:24-26). We are only returned to our bodies after the Second Coming before the Final Judgment. The fact they died before Christ meant they would judged on the Jewish Laws as stated by God. Abraham, Joseph , etc. had already died and were with God. The point to remember is that God is a fair judge. As Peter put it, we call "address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work." (1 Pet 1:17) Hope this helps. |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Bible general Archive 1 | Author | ||
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Keilah | ||
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dave4him2002 | ||
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skip | ||
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Sean | ||
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Ron | ||
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ldi | ||
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Bill H | ||
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kjone2 | ||
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jstwndrng | ||
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Mae64 | ||
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Mike7 | ||
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Mike7 |