Posted June 12, 2005

Hi Mike,

I hope you are doing well. I want to thank you for answering my previous emails concerning Mr. Eby’s comments about God not being in charge, God’s anger and the trinity. Your e- mails also, were right on target. I could and did identify with them and I really appreciate you both taking the time and effort. E- mails like these take lots of time.

If you could help me again, it would mean a lot to me. I am stumped.

I understand that when we die we are dead. (At least I think I partially understand it.) Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It should be a simple matter, right? Now, I have questions of course. 🙂

1Pe 3:19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

It appears that the spirits that Jesus was preaching to are dead. How is this possible?

1Pe 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

The dead people in verse 6, are they physically dead or what is going on here?

In 1Sa 28 we have Samuel – who is dead – being called up by a woman with a “familiar spirit” for Saul. What got called up?

We also have psychic detectives, etc.

If you could help, please do. I am at a loss.

Thanks so much. Peace,

S____

Hi S____,

Thanks again for your question. It is always good to hear from you.

Your questions about ‘spirits in prison’ will be answered in an email entitled Fallen Angels… elsewhere on the website.

Your next question concerns I Pet. 4:

1Pe 4: 6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

The ‘gospel’ was first preached to Adam and Eve. It has never ceased to be preached. Here in Genesis is the first mention of the gospel:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This promise that the “seed… [ of] the woman” will bruise the head of the “seed… of the serpent” is the first promise of the coming of the Messiah.

This coming was promised along with the promise that “he [ the serpent] will bruise your heel.” It is revealed right up front that the serpent was predestined to afflict man’s walk. How true that has always been. But when all is said and done in each of us, “he [ the seed of the woman] will bruise your [ the serpent’s] head. Christ is promised to prevail in the lives of all men. That promise is made “from the beginning.” It was this same message that Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years.

It is only the lies of orthodox Christianity which make us think that Christ went to preach to spirits in prison while he was in the grave. These lies, one and all, stem from the first lie ever told; “Thou shalt not surely die… [ Why, in reality you are an immortal spirit having an earthly experience]. It is upon this lie that mankind was created an immortal triune being, that the lie of the trinity is based. After all, if man is an immortal triune being as the serpent told Eve, then she must be just like the God who created her. Therefore, that God must also be an immortal triune being. Be sure to read Free Moral Agency, The Trinity And The Fall Of Man in Archive six. That is an in- depth discussion of the origin of the lie of the ‘fall of man.’

Getting back to your question, it should now be obvious that “the gospel was preached to them that are dead” has no more to do with the period of time Christ spent in the grave than for me to say that the gospel was preached to the apostles who are now dead.

The fact that people die after the gospel is preached to them, in no way infers that I am saying that it was while Christ was in the grave. Such a statement flies in the face of all scripture:

Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

And again:

Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

That is the simple Truth of scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished

The dead are all “fallen asleep.” They would remain so forever were it not for a resurrection of the dead. Without a resurrection from the dead, “the dead… are perished.” This certainly includes Samuel when king Saul went to the witch of Endor. You ask:

In 1Sa 28 we have Samuel – who is dead – being called up by woman with a “familiar spirit” for Saul. What got called up? We also have physic detectives etc. If you could help, please do. I am at a loss.

“What got called up” was a “familiar spirit.” That is exactly what God had commanded His people to avoid and to destroy:

Deu 18:9 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
Lev 20:5 Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
Lev 20:6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Lev 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

God does not approve of his people associating themselves with such wickedness. What Saul saw was exactly what the apostles saw on the mount of transfiguration. It was “a vision.”

Mat 17:9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

Enoch and Elijah were never really on that mount with Jesus. But it sure didn’t look like a vision to James and Peter and John when they saw Enoch and Elijah there talking with, and humbling themselves before Christ. So it was with king Saul. The only difference was that what the apostles saw was to reveal the Truth of who Christ was, while what king Saul saw was to deceive him and millions since him to believe a lie.

God has always spoken to His people through dreams and visions. That is His prerogative. It is also His prerogative to insist that those who ‘name His name’ stay as far away from those with ‘familiar spirits’ as they can. Just because the familiar spirit told the truth does not justify Saul’s disobedience. The Truth of the matter is that God had simply sent Saul ‘strong delusion.’ And just as the strong delusion of today includes “healing the sick and casting out demons,” it is all for the purpose of “sending them strong delusion… [ which would] deceive the very elect if possible.” Strong delusion consists of partial obedience and the ability to perform miracles. This is what king Saul was subjected to here at the hands of the witch of Endor:

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

What minister do you know who believes the truth of the words of Christ which command us to “love thine enemy?” They are few to none!

I will close with a cut and paste of the scriptures that affirm the statements made above of how God uses real miracles to deceive His enemies, just as he used a true prophecy to deceive king Saul and all those who choose to follow in his rebellious steps:

Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall knowthem.
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Rev 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

I hope the letters I have referred you to and this letter have answered your questions. Be sure to read Strong Delusion if you have not done so already.

Mike