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Anonymous
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Then that would lead me to this rhetorical question:

if the Bible says nothing definitive on the belief in ghosts, but the Church does, what is proper to believe?

I still stand on what I said earlier that I believe the Church cautions us, regardless of what may or may not be in scripture, against a belief in ghosts.

I checked the reference to Saul and Samuel’s ghost. Saul had banished all wizards and witches, but in an about face he called upon a witch who had a known “familiar” (witchcraft), to conjure up the ghost of Samuel, but it is Saul who “perceives” Samuel. Samuel tells Saul that God is displeased with Saul and Israel will fall into the hands of the Phillistines. The next day Saul falls on his own sword. 1 Samuel 28-31.

It my understanding the Samuel’s apparition is not a “given.”

This prediction also appears earlier in 1 Samuel 15 where Samuel (still alive) tells of God’s displeasure and rejection of Saul, the coming loss of Israel and Saul’s death by sword.

It may be that the entire sequence of the seance is a repeat of Samuel’s prediction while alive, because in both passages Samuel predicts that Saul will die tomorrow, after the loss of Israel — yet, the events are separated by days. The only difference is the method of Samuel’s repeat warning is a seance.