Post by Sheila on May 12, 2024 9:32:17 GMT -5
There's one simple truth, ghosts and what a lot of people believe about them isn't true. All of the various theories thrown around by so-called paranormal experts about what ghosts are and why they manifest in various places are, pardon the pun, dead wrong. If you're not a Christian, go ahead and believe whatever you choose to about ghosts, poltergeists, residual haunts, and all of that other nonsense. If you're a Christian, you need to learn the truth and understand what you're seeing or experiencing if you ever face a "paranormal" being or event.
The first thing you may toss up as an argument for the existence of ghosts is the fact that ghosts are mentioned in the Bible. The most commonly used example is that of Samuel appearing to Saul and giving him a message when he's called up by the witch (medium) at Endor. This is, in fact, the only time ever mentioned in the Bible when the spirit of a deceased person appears to be visible to anyone. Did Samuel's ghost really appear and talk to people? He certainly wasn't visible to Saul and Saul never heard a voice. The witch described the apparition in a way that convinced Saul it was Samuel and relayed the message she supposedly heard. Did she really see and hear Samuel or did she just make it up? It should become apparent by the end of this article that Samuel never appeared or talked to anyone. As for other ghosts being mentioned in the Bible, they were always described as clouds or vapors and never interacted with the living. Just because someone said they saw a spirit, doesn't mean they did. The following information will explain why these encounters weren't the spirits of the deceased.
As mentioned, there are various explanations about what ghosts are and why they manifest to the living. Each of these will be addressed, starting with the always popular theory that ghosts are the spirits of loved ones who return to bring comfort to those who are grieving over their death, to help the living by giving them advice, and so on. This isn't possible. "As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more" (Job 7:9-10). This not only means the person doesn't return physically, it also means they don't return in any form. To say the person never returns to their house again, doesn't mean they can appear somewhere else. It means that once the person is dead, their spirit doesn't have the ability to appear anywhere.
There are also the ghosts who are said to be the souls of the dead that, for one reason or another, got lost on the way to heaven and so are wandering around on earth until they either find their way or someone helps them. If we remember where the human spirit came from, we'd realize this can't be true. "The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). While the physical body lies in the grave, the spirit immediately returns to God. Because God is in charge and wants the spirit to return to him, do you think he would sit there and let the spirit find its own way back? The answer is no. The soul doesn't have to rely upon its own spiritual GPS system to find its way and end up getting lost if the GPS stops working. God leads it back. This applies to the souls of the saved as well as the unsaved.
Then there are the ghosts of the people who had unfinished business when they died. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anyone gets to stick around any longer on the earth in order to finish up some project or task they didn't have time to finish while they were alive. There's a saying about the dates on grave markers and how the dates don't matter, it's what you do during the dash between the dates. In other words, do what needs to be done during that dash because that's all the time you have. If it wasn't accomplished in life, it won't get finished by the person after they die.
And what about the ghosts who appear so they can relay messages from God or warn people about bad things that are about to happen to them? That's the job of angels and angels don't take on the form of the deceased so the living won't be scared or may be more willing to accept the message from someone they trusted in life. All of the appearances by angels in the Bible tend to, at least at first, frighten the person to whom they were sent and they never take on the appearance of someone, either living or dead. While it's true that both Satan and his demons can appear to the living as "angels of light" (1 Corinthians 11:14-15), there's no mention of them taking on the form of a deceased person. That said, there's no reason they couldn't. Great care must be taken when dealing with these spiritual beings because some come into the lives of the living in order to lead them astray. "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1).
So, if ghosts really exist, what are they and why do they appear? Even if they take on a more solid form and look like a deceased person or if they only manifest as a voice that sounds like a human, they're not the spirit of someone who was once a living, breathing human being. The Bible emphatically states that as soon as a person dies, their spirit returns to God. Regardless of the message, they aren't angels because, face it, angels don't come when called by humans and they certainly won't perform tricks for them such as banging on walls, ringing bells, or moving items from one place to another. God sends angels as he sees the need and they relay the message he wants them relay. From a Christian perspective, anything other than angel is either wishful thinking on the part of the observer or a demon from the pits of hell. Their job is to oppose God by relaying false teachings or, as is most often the case, to serve as a distraction to take our minds, time, and effort away from God and to put them on something which is meaningless and a waste of time.
Paul reminds us through his second letter to the Corinthians that "as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord" (5:6) and we should "prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (5:8). There isn't a middle ground. Our spirits are either within our bodies or returned to God. Our souls don't get lost along the way, they're not allowed to remain long enough to finish a job, and they don't get sent back to pass along their own personal messages or messages from God to the living. Forget about going on ghost hunts or trying to contact the dead. If you test the spirit and know it's not an angel, know it's not the ghost of a dead person and send it back to the pits of hell through the name of Jesus.
* All quotes are from the New International Version of the Bible.
The first thing you may toss up as an argument for the existence of ghosts is the fact that ghosts are mentioned in the Bible. The most commonly used example is that of Samuel appearing to Saul and giving him a message when he's called up by the witch (medium) at Endor. This is, in fact, the only time ever mentioned in the Bible when the spirit of a deceased person appears to be visible to anyone. Did Samuel's ghost really appear and talk to people? He certainly wasn't visible to Saul and Saul never heard a voice. The witch described the apparition in a way that convinced Saul it was Samuel and relayed the message she supposedly heard. Did she really see and hear Samuel or did she just make it up? It should become apparent by the end of this article that Samuel never appeared or talked to anyone. As for other ghosts being mentioned in the Bible, they were always described as clouds or vapors and never interacted with the living. Just because someone said they saw a spirit, doesn't mean they did. The following information will explain why these encounters weren't the spirits of the deceased.
As mentioned, there are various explanations about what ghosts are and why they manifest to the living. Each of these will be addressed, starting with the always popular theory that ghosts are the spirits of loved ones who return to bring comfort to those who are grieving over their death, to help the living by giving them advice, and so on. This isn't possible. "As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more" (Job 7:9-10). This not only means the person doesn't return physically, it also means they don't return in any form. To say the person never returns to their house again, doesn't mean they can appear somewhere else. It means that once the person is dead, their spirit doesn't have the ability to appear anywhere.
There are also the ghosts who are said to be the souls of the dead that, for one reason or another, got lost on the way to heaven and so are wandering around on earth until they either find their way or someone helps them. If we remember where the human spirit came from, we'd realize this can't be true. "The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). While the physical body lies in the grave, the spirit immediately returns to God. Because God is in charge and wants the spirit to return to him, do you think he would sit there and let the spirit find its own way back? The answer is no. The soul doesn't have to rely upon its own spiritual GPS system to find its way and end up getting lost if the GPS stops working. God leads it back. This applies to the souls of the saved as well as the unsaved.
Then there are the ghosts of the people who had unfinished business when they died. Nowhere in the Bible does it say anyone gets to stick around any longer on the earth in order to finish up some project or task they didn't have time to finish while they were alive. There's a saying about the dates on grave markers and how the dates don't matter, it's what you do during the dash between the dates. In other words, do what needs to be done during that dash because that's all the time you have. If it wasn't accomplished in life, it won't get finished by the person after they die.
And what about the ghosts who appear so they can relay messages from God or warn people about bad things that are about to happen to them? That's the job of angels and angels don't take on the form of the deceased so the living won't be scared or may be more willing to accept the message from someone they trusted in life. All of the appearances by angels in the Bible tend to, at least at first, frighten the person to whom they were sent and they never take on the appearance of someone, either living or dead. While it's true that both Satan and his demons can appear to the living as "angels of light" (1 Corinthians 11:14-15), there's no mention of them taking on the form of a deceased person. That said, there's no reason they couldn't. Great care must be taken when dealing with these spiritual beings because some come into the lives of the living in order to lead them astray. "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God" (1 John 4:1).
So, if ghosts really exist, what are they and why do they appear? Even if they take on a more solid form and look like a deceased person or if they only manifest as a voice that sounds like a human, they're not the spirit of someone who was once a living, breathing human being. The Bible emphatically states that as soon as a person dies, their spirit returns to God. Regardless of the message, they aren't angels because, face it, angels don't come when called by humans and they certainly won't perform tricks for them such as banging on walls, ringing bells, or moving items from one place to another. God sends angels as he sees the need and they relay the message he wants them relay. From a Christian perspective, anything other than angel is either wishful thinking on the part of the observer or a demon from the pits of hell. Their job is to oppose God by relaying false teachings or, as is most often the case, to serve as a distraction to take our minds, time, and effort away from God and to put them on something which is meaningless and a waste of time.
Paul reminds us through his second letter to the Corinthians that "as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord" (5:6) and we should "prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (5:8). There isn't a middle ground. Our spirits are either within our bodies or returned to God. Our souls don't get lost along the way, they're not allowed to remain long enough to finish a job, and they don't get sent back to pass along their own personal messages or messages from God to the living. Forget about going on ghost hunts or trying to contact the dead. If you test the spirit and know it's not an angel, know it's not the ghost of a dead person and send it back to the pits of hell through the name of Jesus.
* All quotes are from the New International Version of the Bible.
Copyright © 2024 by Sheila Rae Myers