A FLANK CHARGE by G. V. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 7, 1879

“A FLANK CHARGE.”

By G. V. Kilgore

A BITTER opposer not long ago made what he thought was a heavy charge on our left flank, supposing we were wholly unprepared for it. But we have a mighty pivot gun with us, and when it is turned against such foes they do not long stand the fire. This pivot gun is the Bible. The opposer made a charge with the artillery of Lucifer under King Saul. He rushed with fury at our position on immortality while we were on another subject. But his guns not having been used for years (as he had not preached for so long) were too rusty to work well, and his ammunition burst his own guns, killed his men, and wounded himself.

To show that the ancient Hebrews believed in the conscious existence of spirits after death, he took the following position, it being the only one he took which is not commonly used:—

King Saul requested the woman of Endor to call up the spirit of Samuel. I do not say that Samuel actually came; but this I do declare: that the record here (1 Sam. 28) shows positively that Saul, and consequently all the Hebrews, believed that disembodied spirits existed, and could come back and converse with us. Would he call for Samuel if he did not believe Samuel was alive somewhere? He would not; therefore he believed that Samuel’s spirit was conscious although his body was dead.

To people who have always believed in the immortality of the soul this may seem like a strong position. But they can no more sustain it, when the Bible is brought against them, than the soldier can stand against the discharge of the cannon. Now let a few texts from the word of God open fire upon this position. 1. The Lord had forsaken Saul, and would not answer any of his requests. 1 Sam. 18:12; 28:6. 2. Saul had given up the faith that he professed when he was in good standing among his Hebrew brethren. Before this he “had put away those that had familiar spirits,” etc., but now he said to his servants, “Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.” 1 Sam. 28:3–7. 3. These spirits, to which Saul in his fallen state resorted, were not accepted by the people of God as spirits of the dead, and they did not believe in them; for they did not allow them in their midst. Deut. 18:10, 11. They were evidently the spirits of devils to which the Gentiles did sacrifice. The Gentiles thought they were the spirits of the dead, but God’s people said they were devils. See Num. 25:1–3; Ps. 106:28–37; 1 Cor. 10:20.

Saul inquired of these spirits because the Lord would not answer him. This in itself is sufficient to show that God’s people did not believe in these spirits. When men forsake God, and God forsakes them, they are then certainly led by Satan. This was the case with King Saul. His only hope of getting information, as he wished, was in these spirits, for God would not answer him. He had before denounced them as wicked spirits, as God commanded him; but now he left the commandment of the Lord, he left the truth,—went contrary to the belief of the ancient Hebrews, and inquired of these spirits. And for this sin, with others, he died. 1 Chron. 10:13, 14.

“But does not the record say that Saul called for Samuel, and that Samuel came? Would the record say so if that spirit was a devil, and not Samuel?” Saul called for Samuel the same as I would ask a spiritualist to call up George Washington to-day, if I should resort to a medium; and in giving an account of it any one would say that George Washington came; for that is what the medium would call the spirit, if any came. It would not be because I or the historian believed it was George Washington, but only because spiritualists regarded it as such. Speaking in their language it would be George Washington. That is the way the Bible calls that spirit Samuel. This must be true, because the Bible says positively that the dead know not anything; that their love, envy, hatred, and memory are perished; and that in the place where the dead go there is no work, device, wisdom, nor knowledge. Eccl. 9:5–10; Ps. 6:4, 5; 146:4.

It is plain that Samuel could not come from a place like this except by a resurrection from the dead; and certainly God, who had commanded that a person with a familiar spirit should not live among his people, and who forsook Saul because of his sins, and would not answer him at all, would not bring up good old Samuel by that witch to converse with wicked King Saul.

G. V. KILGORE.