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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

Spiritual Imposters

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

The Christians of the ancient Mediterranean world used catacombs, a network of subterranean chambers and galleries for burial.

But during times of persecution, the catacombs became places of refuge because burial grounds were guarded or sacrosanct by Roman law.

When churches above ground were destroyed by imperial order, worshippers met in catacomb chapels.

By AD 200, Christians had carved some 600 miles of tombs in the volcanic rock in and around Rome.

Eventually the catacombs expanded into honeycombs of galleries with staircases and multiple levels.

Romans preferred cremation but Christians followed the practice of interring the dead in catacombs, which they called kaiometria, or sleeping places, to suggest that for a Christian, death is merely a sleep before the resurrection.

Did you know that Jesus plainly taught that death is a sleep?

In fact, all of scripture confirms that it is an unconscious sleep until the resurrection at Christ's return.

So why is there so much confusion, even among Christians, over what happens when we die?

And how can you protect yourself against some of the potentially dangerous delusions about death in the last days?

Tonight's presentation is very important.

We always begin with kind of a historical, an allegorical, metaphorical Bible story that helps teach these theology points.

And just to give you a little background here, the first king of Israel was King Saul.

You've got 2 books in the Bible, 1 and 2 Samuel.

And when Saul was first chosen, he was a good man, had a good heart, had a humble attitude.

But after he was chosen to be king, you've heard that expression, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And after he met with some success and he gained some wealth and reputation.

Over the years, he became proud, and finally he sort of cast off God and began to grieve away the Holy Spirit, started brooding.

The Bible says an evil spirit began to torment him, and he'd get so mad that he'd throw a spear at David who's musician or is even his own son Jonathan.

He killed a number of the priests of God in a fit of jealousy and fear and finally near the end of his life he was facing a very big battle against the Philistines.

At this point, Samuel the prophet, who had always guided him earlier in his life, had died off.

And the Bible says God did not speak to him through the priests nor through a prophet.

And in desperation, looking for some guidance, going against this massive Philistine army, he said, well, find me a witch.

He says, find me a woman who is a medium that I might go to her and inquire of her.

That was absolutely forbidden in the Bible.

Well, his servants happened to know there was still somebody in the area of Endor, not too far away, that had the reputation of being a medium that can consult and conjure up dead spirits.

And so he went, he disguised himself because if she knew he was the king she'd probably be afraid to give him any information.

And she went through her incantations and whatever it was that she did, threw gunpowder in the fire or something, it went poof.

And then this apparition appeared that claimed to be Samuel the prophet come back from the dead.

And he gave an absolutely discouraging message to Saul saying you're gonna die and you'll be with me tomorrow and Israel is gonna die and they're gonna be defeated in battle.

And you know, the Bible tells us that 1 of the most important things in battle is to have courage.

You can read about that in the book of Joshua.

And the Bible tells us in Leviticus 19, verse 31, and chapter 20, verse 27, they were never to consult a witch or a medium.

In absolute disregard of that, that's what he did.

The next day in battle, the Philistines did overwhelm the discouraged soldiers.

And you've heard the expression, fall on your sword.

When he realized he had been wounded by the archers, he didn't want to be captured and tortured by the Philistines, he literally fell on his sword and his armor bearer fell on his sword and Saul and his 3 sons died that same day together.

But the big question people want to know, was the form that Saul saw actually Samuel the prophet?

I'm going to read you a verse that is not in our study guide.

And this comes to us from 1 Chronicles 10.

You not only find this story in 1 Samuel, you find it in 1 Chronicles 10.

They often cover some of the same history.

So Saul died for his unfaithfulness, which he committed against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and because he consulted a medium for guidance, but he did not inquire of the Lord.

So when he inquired of Samuel the prophet, the Bible says he did not inquire of the Lord.

That was not the Lord's counsel or the Lord's message to him.

It says that this was an apparition, a spirit that was conjured up by a witch.

You read in 1 Kings 22, verse 22, the Lord said to him, in what way?

So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.

This is when Micaiah the prophet was talking to Ahab and Jehoshaphat and he said there are lying spirits.

Look also again what we just read in Revelation 16 verse 14, for they are the spirits of demons performing signs and you can read in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan can create illusions and we need to understand what does the Bible say happens when a person dies.

Do dead people come back to converse with or to haunt the living?

Ecclesiastes 9, verse 5, Solomon wrote, for the living know that they will die, but the dead, what's that say up there?

And they have no more reward, meaning of in this life, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, their hatred, they're not loving or hating anybody.

You don't have to worry about ghosts haunting you because they're mad at you.

Never more will they have a share in anything done under the sun, meaning in this life.

It's appointed unto man once to die, after that the judgment.

You don't keep coming back and haunting people and meddling with what's going on down here.

Psalm 115, verse 17, the dead do not praise the Lord.

First thing I'd do if I died and I went to heaven, what would I do?

So the Bible says the dead do not praise the Lord.

Then you can read in Psalm 6, verse 5, in death there is no remembrance of thee.

People who die, they're not thinking of the Lord.

Job 7, Verse 10, it says, again, speaking of the dead, he will never return to his house.

He's not going anywhere to haunt anybody at that time.

And again, another verse in Isaiah 38, when Hezekiah was told by Isaiah the prophet, he said, put your house in order, you're gonna die.

Hezekiah began to pray and cry, and he said, death cannot praise you.

So the idea that as soon as you die, you're leaping up and down in the presence of the Lord, praising God, you don't find that in the Bible.

Psalm 146, verse 6, "...put not your trust in princes, neither in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help." His breath goes forth, and that very day his thoughts perish, his plans perish.

He's not thinking or planning anything, What it says.

Where do the dead people go when they die?

It says here in Job 21, 32, He is brought to the grave, He remains in the tomb.

All who are in their graves, When Jesus comes, this is John chapter 5, verse 28 and 29.

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Spiritual Imposters

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