Posted on 06/10/2009 12:42:32 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
There appear to be two kinds of stories in the bible about people being heard from after they died. One is the sort of thing you read in the little ghost story in 1 Samuel about King Saul, the prophet Samuel, and the "witch of Endor". In that case, a person who most assuredly was deceased i.e. Samuel, appeared to living people and the experience was utterly indistinguishable from that had the person arrived in flesh and blood. [excerpt]They knew they were getting a spirit.
And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
And he said unto her, What form [is] he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he [is] covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it [was] Samuel, and he stooped with [his] face to the ground, and bowed himself.
1st Samuel 28:13,14
The other sort of story involves two or three people who Jesus brought back from the dead and in those cases, one in which a girl had died minutes aforehand, the body was still servicable and Jesus somehow brought the spirit and body back together. In other words, the second kind of story is similar to what we now call near death experiences. [excerpt]Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been [dead] four days. —John 11:39
The story about Jesus being seen for a period of 40 days after he died has to be an example of the first kind of story. Jesus body was quite definitely no longer servicable. [excerpt]Samuel's body stayed in the ground, Christ's did not.
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