If prophet Samuel resurrected (2 Sam. 28: 3-12; 2 Sam. 28:11-15), why the saying: Jesus is the only one defeated death?

Question

Is the resurrection of Jesus as exceptional as the man in the pulpit claims it to be if the prophet Samuel also rose from the dead (1 Sam. 28:3–12; 1 Sam. 28:11–15)?

Given the preceding Scriptures, why is it said that Jesus was the ONLY one who defeated death? If Samuel's resurrection was spiritual, so will be Jesus', and if Jesus' resurrection was literal, the same could be said about prophet Samuel.

Answer 1

Samuel was not resurrected.

All other humans resurrected before and after Jesus did so into mortality and corruption where they will die again, but Jesus resurrected into immortality and incorruption where he will never die again.

Jesus conquered the power of death by taking it upon himself on the cross and being brought back to life again into a heavenly body by God's Spirit. All who believe in him will share in the immortal resurrection on the Day of Christ.

Answer 2

There are two matters in this question:

A. Who or what was Samuel in 1 Sam 28. That is, does the narrative in 1 Sam 28 really mean that Samuel rose from the dead? In the appendix below, it is shown that the what Saul saw, at the commend of the witch, was not Samuel at all but a demonic delusion. Therefore, Samuel was not raised from the dead.

B. Apart from Samuel, there were others who rose from the dead in the OT such as

• the resurrection of the widow’s son in Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17–22)
• Resurrection of the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:18–37)
• Resurrection of the man thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:20)

So, what is so important about Jesus' resurrection? There are three amazing things about Jesus' resurrection:

1. It enabled all other resurrections of everybody else to eternal life, including all saints at the end of time in the Great Resurrection, 1 Cor 15:12-19, John 5:28, 29, 6:54, Dan 12:2. That is, without Jesus' resurrection, there could be no other resurrections to eternal life.
2. According to John 2:19-22 and John 10:18, Jesus resurrected Himself from the dead. [Yes, I know, other places say The Father did it, Rom 6:4, Gal 1:1, Eph 1:17-20; and others say the Holy Spirit was also involved, Rom 1:4 & 8:11, 1 Peter 3:18; but that is not to deny that Jesus also did it as well.]
3. Jesus' resurrection was qualitatively different from all of the other recorded resurrection in both the OT and the NT. Jesus was raised to eternal life, while all the other recorded resurrections, including Lazarus and the widow's son, later died of old age or other causes.

Thus, the resurrection of Jesus is the central most important doctrine of Christianity because Jesus defeated death (1 Cor 15:50-55) for all people and enabled us to inherit eternal life, 1 John 5:11, 12, John 3:36, 17:3, Titus 1:2, etc.

APPENDIX - Who/What was Samuel in 1 Sam 28?

In answering this question we have at least two possibilities:

1. The Samuel that Saul saw was real

If the Samuel that Saul saw was real, ie, a spirit or soul of Samuel in heaven, then,

• according to this chapter, God and heaven are under the earth (See Eccl 12:7) because, the text repeatedly says that Samuel was "brought UP' out of the earth, V8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15; and the spirit at death returns to God who gave it (Eccl 12:7)
• an illegal witch (Lev 19:31, Deut 18:9-12, Isa 8:19, 29:4) can command the presence of a dead prophet. Necromancy and witchcraft was strictly forbidden in Israel.

2. The Samuel that Saul saw was a demonic trick to deceive Saul

By contrast, if what Saul saw was a demonic trick, apparition to deceive him, then Samuel's prophecy is simply stating what was rather obvious - Saul would die in battle the following day.

It did not take divine intelligence to be able to predict this.

Further, according to Jesus, (John 3:13) - "No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man."

Therefore, the second option above is correct - what Saul saw was a demonic trick/apparition to deceive Saul and so was not Samuel at all.

Answer 3

Is the resurrection of Jesus as exceptional as the man in the pulpit claims it to be if the prophet Samuel also rose from the dead (1 Sam. 28:3–12; 1 Sam. 28:11–15)?

Even if we accept that the apparition conjured by the medium in 1 Sam 28 was in some sense genuinely Samuel, the episode is not an example of a person rising from the dead. Samuel did not return to life. Saul was merely enabled, briefly, to communicate with his spirit. Jesus, on the other hand, was resurrected to life in his physical body.

If Samuel's resurrection was spiritual, so will be Jesus', and if Jesus' resurrection was literal, the same could be said about prophet Samuel.

I've no idea where you get that or how you justify it. A plain reading of the relevant scriptures contradicts it.

Nevertheless, Jesus was not the first or only person to return to life after having been dead. For example, the Bible documents Elijah raising the dead son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17), Jesus raising Lazarus (John 11), and Peter raising Tabitha (Acts 9). Jesus was unique, however, in being resurrected directly by a sovereign act of God, without the involvement of a living human agent -- or even more unique if you cast it as him rising from the dead by his own power and will.

Given the preceding Scriptures, why is it said that Jesus was the ONLY one who defeated death?

Jesus's resurrection is not what him "defeating death" means. He defeated death by fulfilling God's Law on our behalf, thus freeing us from the inevitability of spiritual death.

Answer 4

@Dottard has given a good answer about the uniqueness of Jesus' resurrection, and I won't repeat those points. I do want to respond specifically to the reasoning, "(A) If Samuel's resurrection was spiritual, so will be Jesus', and (B) if Jesus' resurrection was literal, the same could be said about prophet Samuel." (I inserted the A and B for reference.)

1. (A) might be possible if the Bible said that Samuel was resurrected, and merely meant that his spirit appeared on earth. But the Bible doesn't say Samuel was resurrected. The people present talked about "bringing him up," but it was only his spirit: The witch said she saw a spirit, while apparently Saul couldn't even see that. Since there is no biblical claim of resurrection for Samuel, it doesn't apply as a parallel to the many clear claims about the resurrection of Jesus (for example 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

2. (B) also doesn't apply, for similar reasons. In the case of Jesus, he was clearly physically raised. Witnesses attest that they saw and touched him; he encouraged them to do so, and he also ate fish, to show them he was not a ghost (John 20:24-29, 1 Corinthians 15:5-8; Luke 24:36-43). No one claimed to have touched Samuel, or seen him eat, or seen him at all except as a spirit.

Other differences between the two cases:

• Jesus predicted his resurrection (and the manner of his death). He clearly taught his disciples beforehand that his death and resurrection were foreordained (e.g. Luke 9:21-22). Neither Samuel nor anyone else predicted their own personal resurrection.
• Samuel's appearance ("bringing up") was clearly illegitimate; the actions of Saul and the witch in bringing this about were detestable to the Lord. It was against God's commands which forbid necromancy and consulting of spirits (as Dottard mentioned in his answer, Leviticus 19:31 and Deut. 18:9-12). Jesus' resurrection, on the other hand, was according to the will and plan of God. God alone has both authority and power to legitimately raise the dead. He not only raised Jesus, but highly exalted him (Acts 5:30-31).