And Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
Saul answered, “I am exceedingly distressed, for the Philistines are making war against me, and God has turned away from me and no longer answers me; not by prophets nor by dreams. So I have called you to make known to me what I should do.”
“Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” The record here in 1 Samuel 28 is consistent in saying that Samuel is being brought “up.” Samuel was not in heaven, he was dead, sleeping in the earth, and a demon impersonated him. But the fact is that Saul, the medium who conjured the demon, and the demon itself all agreed that Samuel came “up.” The Bible says that when a person dies they are dead in every way and not alive in any form or place, and they are awaiting the resurrection when God will again bring them to life. [For more information on what happens when a person dies, see Appendix 4, “The Dead are Dead.” For more on the soul not living on after a person dies, see Appendix 7, “Usages of ‘Soul’”].
