Samuel in the Old Testament was a godly man; yet when the Witch of Endor consulted his spirit he was still referenced as a "ghostly figure" (1 Sam. 28:13).
Dead in body & alive in spirit still = consulting spirits, which in turn = consulting ghosts.
First "ghostly figure" is a mistranslation, and a fairly egregious one.
That is a perfect example, in fact, of a translator injecting his own personal bias into a translation.
Every other English translation renders the original Hebrew word (elohim) either accurately as "a god" or "gods" or inaccurately as "spirit" or "spirits" (the Hebrew word for spirit is nefesh, not elohim).
The modern sense of the term "ghostly" is completely alien to the text and was invented out of whole cloth by the NIV "translator."
This event occurred before Christ gave the righteous eternal life - the righteous Samuel, along with the other patriarchs at that time, was one of the "spirits in prison."
Emphasizing this is the fact that Samuel was summoned against his will.
When a Christian invokes a saint, he is not summoning a fellow saint to appear before him and commanding him to perform tasks against his will. He is asking a fellow believer to pray for him.
Thanks for bringing this particular piece of eisegesis up.
The communion of saints is a fellowship of believers embracing one another in heaven and on earth. It has nothing to do with witches or ghosts.