What About Christians Who Believe In Ghosts?

            Years ago, I met a person whose home was haunted. He had not slept for many days and asked me if I could help him. He told me that a ghost was not allowing him to sleep even for a moment. I went to his house, which was nothing but a hut with a thatched roof. I prayed, and by the grace and the power of God, whatever was haunting him, left him. A couple of days later, he told me that he was sleeping peacefully.

            Are ghosts for real? A ghost is defined as “the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons.”¹

            Do spirits of dead people roam the earth? No, they do not.

            How do I know that? Because the Bible says so (Hebrews 9:27)!

            I believe in the Bible because the Bible is trustworthy. (For a more detailed explanation as to why anyone should believe the Bible, please read “Why Believe The Bible?”²)

            So ghosts are not real (if the term ‘ghost’ refers to the souls of the dead people roaming the earth). 

            If dead people’s spirits do not roam the earth, then is it true that we cannot see or talk to our loved ones who have passed on? Yes, we cannot speak to them or engage them in any mode whatsoever because the spirits of the dead people cannot visit or roam the earth.

            What about King Saul seeking the spirit of Prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 28: 3-20)? An article “Do You Believe In Ghosts?” explains this incident well, “…this passage doesn’t suggest that séances work, and it absolutely doesn’t condone witchcraft. Some scholars believe that God sent Samuel on this unique occasion.³ But others believe a demon was impersonating the prophet based on the fact that he made some false claims. For example, commentator John Gill notes that the apparition warned that all of Saul’s sons would die on the next day, but some survived.⁴ Either way, the emphasis is that Saul had sunk so low that he tried to dabble in the occult, which God condemns. The next day Saul died.”³

            If spirits of dead people do not roam the earth, then what was it that haunted the man who asked for my help? Is haunting even true?

            Yes, haunting is true because evil spirits inhabit the earth. The Bible provides us with many instances of evil spirits coming into contact with mankind (Mark 5:1-20; John 10:10; 2 Corinthians 11:14-15; 1 John 4:1; 1 Timothy 4:1–3). Evil spirits can haunt vulnerable people.

            What about apparitions (a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost)? Legend has it that the famous reformer, Martin Luther, threw ink at the devil to chase him away, “When the monk, who was totally absorbed by his work, heard a scratching and chafing, he valiantly grasped the ink pot and threw it right at the devil's grimacing face, in order to chase away the perpetrator, who had disturbed his task of translating the Holy Scripture into German. This is how a blue ink stain next to the oven is said to have originated. Today, there is only a hole. But nobody can tell what exactly has happened at that time in the guest room on the Wartburg. Although Luther has reported many events from his life on the castle, he did not say anything about the alleged ink stain.”⁴

            It is impossible to see &/or communicate with a dead person. But it may be possible to see a fallen angel/demon provided God allows for such an event.  

            Can evil spirits impersonate the dead? The answer is an unambiguous yes:⁵

No evidence has produced a single fact that should sway a Christian into believing that the spirits of deceased people can loiter on earth. In light of the Bible, the only conclusion is that ghost sightings are either the figments of overactive imaginations, or else they are demons.

In his book The Truth Behind Ghosts, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena, Christian author Ron Rhodes states, “People sometimes genuinely encounter a spirit entity—though not a dead human. Some people encounter demonic spirits who may mimic dead people in order to deceive the living (see 1 John 4:1; 1 Timothy 4:1–3). Many who claim to have encountered such spirit entities have some prior involvement in the occult.”5

But why would demons want to deceive the living by impersonating the dead?

As servants of Satan and enemies of God, they would have every reason to cast doubt on God’s Word and its warnings about future judgment. Getting people to believe in ghosts automatically forces them to reject key Bible verses (see Hebrews 9:27).

Do you believe in ghosts? The question is huge. Coming to a wrong conclusion about the afterlife has eternal consequences, and the wrong choice on this side of the grave can condemn a soul to eternal agony on the other side.

            What about those Christians who believe in ghosts?

            If you, being a Christian, believe that the souls of the dead people roam the earth, then you have not read and understood your Bible properly. If you have had an apparition or a séance, then you would have encountered an evil spirit/demon.

Endnotes:

¹https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ghosts

²https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-believe-bible.html

³https://answersingenesis.org/angels-and-demons/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/?fbclid=IwAR2J7yxKFaCl4K5G4u0diwVb57byQSKAV3lyfZcA4uSK1ezWZ4YmgLEIPG0

⁴https://www.luther2017.de/en/martin-luther/history-stories/the-throwing-of-the-ink-pot/

⁵https://answersingenesis.org/angels-and-demons/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/?fbclid=IwAR2J7yxKFaCl4K5G4u0diwVb57byQSKAV3lyfZcA4uSK1ezWZ4YmgLEIPG0

Websites last accessed on 31 October 2018.