Right, he called it detestable because it's possible to do.
He called it detestable because it was communicating with demons.
The idea that it doesn't make sense for God to prevent us from talking to departed loved ones is ludicrous, there's lots of things people want to do that God doesn't want them to do. Like eating pork. Or drinking blood. Or wearing mixed fabrics. What if I really love 50% Cotton 50% wool mixtures?
You are welcome to hold that position. The fact remains that speaking with spirits of ANY description is wrong.
So yeah, you haven't proven that whatsoever and you apparently are not familiar with any of the Midrash, which was not at all influenced by Hellenism.
I am no expert on Judaism by any means. I only know what I have read.
Perhaps you may want to check out this site.....
Immortality: Jewish Belief in a Bodiless Existence - My Jewish Learning
myjewishlearning.com said:
"The idea that humans are made up of two substances, a body that perishes and a soul that lives on after death, is not found in the Bible. The Hebrew words later associated with the soul--nefesh, neshamah, ruah- in the Bible mean "breath" and sometimes (as in Genesis 2:7, nishmat hayim) refer to the animating spark of life. But there is no sense that this spark is an essential entity that exists independent of the body. The concept of immortality entered Judaism sometime between the first century BCE and the first century CE. Reprinted with permission of The Gale Group from Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, edited by Arthur A. Cohen and Paul Mendes-Flohr, Twayne Publishers.
The doctrine of immortality normally refers to the immortality of the soul-‑in contrast to the mortality of the body.
This doctrine, as has often been pointed out, is not Jewish in origin but Greek. "
A great example of how you can make up anything you want to say and make up any interpretation you want to fit what you want it to say without going into what the text clearly reads when read plainly. This is a JW argument by the way, this concept NEVER existed until the JWs. Are you JW by chance?
Of course.
The text reads as clearly as it does when you strip away the false beliefs. The serpent said man would not die if he disobeyed God's command.....God said that they would...so who lied? God or the serpent? Who benefits from belief that a person continues to live after death? God said no such thing. He simply told Adam that he would die and return to the dust, period.
I hope you realize that this is an entirely new, unscriptural extrapolation. To write off all the Jewish midrash that clearly believes in the existence of souls and Spirits as Hellenistic is just mind boggingly ignorant.
Are you in denial about the origin of the doctrine Shermana? Even Jews say it is not a Jewish doctrine, but Greek. It is not as mind bogglingly ignorant as you assume. :sad:
I repeat, there is NOTHING that remotely supports this view in the text or in any Jewish tradition (Or Christian), and involves severe twisting of the text to make it say something it doesn't say whatsoever. If you believe that the Ghost of Samuel was just a Demon in disguise, you're just proving how you can believe anything you want about anything without regard to any boundaries of interpretation.
The "ghost of Samuel" was not seen by Saul. Nor was it heard by him. Only the woman who called up the spirit saw it and heard its words, which she relayed to Saul.
The predictions made did not come true in the detail.
Not tomorrow, as the demon incorrectly said, but a number of days later King Saul and three, not all, of his sons fell in battle at Mount Gilboa. King Saul, wounded by a Philistine arrow, hastened his own death by falling on his sword. (1 Sam. 28:4-25; 31:1-13)
In Isaiah's day, the prophet said...
In case they should say to you people: Apply to the spiritistic mediums or to those having a spirit of prediction who are chirping and making utterances in low tones, is it not to its God that any people should apply? Should there be application to dead persons in behalf of living persons? (Isaiah 8:19)
All of this was going on in Judah despite the fact that Jehovah had forbidden the practice of spiritism. Under the Mosaic Law, it was a capital offense. (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27; Deuteronomy 18:9-12) So serious that the death penalty applied.
And of course, all the things Jesus mentions like "Fear him who can destroy body AND SOUL" you can just snip out as well.
For a Jew, destroying the soul meant destroying the person. It carried the idea that they would be left in sheol forever with no resurrection. Adam was told he would 'return to the earth from which he was made'...nothing more. No afterlife of any description is mentioned for him or his wife. They would not see life again.
An immortal soul cannot be destroyed. The word "immortal" itself means "the power of an indestructible life." Immortality is granted only to the ones "called" to life in heaven. These will be resurrected first in the position of kings and priests to assist Christ as king in his kingdom. (Rev 20:6)
Kings need subjects to rule over and priests needs sinners for whom to perform their priestly duties. Who will these be then?
With that said, I don't see how anything else you said backs what you claim.
And with that said, are you ready to go into all the references to the afterlife in the NT?
You are entering a whole new ball game with Christianity. Jesus tried to tell his Jewish apostles that he was going to die and return to heaven to prepare a place for them, but they could not comprehend what he was trying to tell them. Even after his death and resurrection, as he ascended to heaven, they wanted to know if he was establishing the kingdom to Israel at that time. (Acts 1:6) They believed Messiah's kingdom would be earthly.
They had no notion of life as anything but humans. Now the holy spirit would have to educate them about life in heaven by implanting a desire in their hearts to go there to be with their Lord.
No one had gone to heaven before Jesus but his death opened the way for others to follow later. (John 3:13; John 14:2, 3; Hebrews 9:24; 10:19, 20)
Why did Paul say that it's good to die for Christ?
Why did it say that the Sea spat out its dead, and the dead will be judged according to their works? Are you aware of how much explicit reference to souls and the afterlife is in Revelation?
Would you like to explore these things Shermana? They have wonderful reasonable, logical explanations.
The "afterlife" is not quite what most people imagine.
