"The key scripture is Deuteronomy 18:10-12. Saul knew this but went to the Witch at Endor anyway and died for it."

My response:

Stephen Yulish uses Deuteronomy 18:10-12 to justify his statement that Saul died for his encounter with Samuel, which does state, "There shall not be found among you... a consulter with familiar spirits". Stephen Yulish seems to ignore the beginning of the chapter where this event is described, which shows that Saul did exactly what the Deuteronomy 18:11 edict demands: "Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." (I Samuel 28:3) Surely, in spirit, Saul violated his own edict, but, again, this does not add weight to the incorrect implication that Saul died for any reason other than that stated by Samuel.

Stephen Yulish states:

"So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord because of the word of the Lord which he did not keep and also because he asked counsel of a medium making inquiry of it." 1Chronicles 10:13.

My response:

By implication, it would seem that Stephen Yulish is correct in his statement that Saul died, at least in part, because he visited the woman at Endor. Correct, that is, if you ignore the very next verse that Stephen Yulish leaves out: "And inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse." 1Chronicles 10:14.

There is a difference between the concepts of "commission" and "omission" and Stephen Yulish uses this difference, very effectively, to make his point. He claims that Saul died by "commission", because he went to woman at Endor. By ignoring the "omission" that Saul "inquired not of the Lord" he skillfully changes the concept completely. It can be clearly argued that, indeed, it was not the fact that Saul died because he visited the woman at Endor, to find out his fate, but, that he died because he did not turn to God for his answers. Arguing that Saul died solely because he made the inquiry of the woman at Endor is only effective, if one ignores the other reasons stated by Samuel in I Samuel 28 and Saul's failure to get his information directly from God.

Stephen Yulish states:

"Your discussion of ghosts in the Bible is negated I believe by Hebrews 9:27"

My response:

Hebrews 9:27 states: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:". Unless I am mistaken, using this verse, and no other reasoning, Stephen Yulish is saying we only die once and the very next thing experienced is the "judgment", with no experiences occurring between. Thus, any concept that there are spirits of the dead is not valid, as he states that all text presented on ghosts in the second installment of my article is "negated" by this verse.

In the section presented on ghosts, there are many aspects to the paradigm, which the concept "negated" that implies are invalid. They are as follows: