A friend of mine recently asked me what the bible says about ghosts. Honestly I had some opinions, but really didn't have a whole lot of solid scripture at the tip of my tongue for him. This did make me desire to do a study on it and this following blog is what I have concluded:
We have all seen the movies like Ghost, no doubt starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore along with countless other movies about the afterlife like The Sixth Sense, and more. I want to assure you that nobody is running around in a train station in the afterlife and the bible is indeed very clear about our afterlife. To see my perspective it will help you to understand first that I consider the Holy Bible to be absolute authority, therefore I must mold and build my beliefs around its central truth and make it my foundation.
Mankind was created for an endless existence, but according to the bible it is in one place or another. We will either accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus obtained for us through His death on the cross or we will reject it and spend eternity separated from Gods presence and in an eternal torment in Hell. Our spirit does not remain upon this earth. Note these verses:
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and
the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 3:21
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward?
The questions remain.
What the heck are these apparitions we keep seeing on earth? Are they ghosts or are they just figments of our imagination?
If they do exist then what are they if not dead people?
The fear of ghosts has been around for a long time. Even Jesus disciples were afraid of ghosts:
Mark 6:49,50
When they saw him walking on the water they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.
Perhaps we can cut out some of this confusion if we realize that that the word ghost is an Old Saxon word for spirit and comes from the translation process of the bible into English. Because these two words actually mean the same thing we often see the Holy Spirit referred to also as the Holy Ghost. This is the same one Person of the Trinity and not two.
Now that we have narrowed it down to the fact that a ghost is a spirit there is more to consider.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and the people who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
God is a Spirit, His angels are spirit beings, Satan is a spirit being, and so are his demons. We also are spirit beings, but now inhabit earthly, physical bodies, and live in a physical dimension. The spirit realm is invisible to us, but I believe we sometimes get glimpses that are often unintentional and unexplainable to us. Also unfortunately, for as long as there have been an awareness of these manifestations there have also been those who try to intentionally make contact with the spirit realm. This opens up a wide door for demonic possession and attack and usually the people who dabble in it are unaware of the dangers because of the facade of a dead loved one presented by a familiar spirit. If you are considering exploring these areas then just do not! Not because I said so, but because God did!
Leviticus 20:6
The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.
The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.
About Familiar spirits
Eastons Bible dictionary says the following:
Sorcerers or necromancers, who professed to call up the dead to answer questions, were said to have a "familiar spirit" (Deut. 18:11; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chr. 33:6; Lev. 19:31; 20:6; Isa. 8:19; 29:4). Such a person was called by the Hebrews an 'ob, which properly means a leathern bottle; for sorcerers were regarded as vessels containing the inspiring demon. This Hebrew word was equivalent to the pytho of the Greeks, and was used to denote both the person and the spirit which possessed him (Lev. 20:27; 1 Sam. 28:8; comp. Acts 16:16). The word "familiar" is from the Latin familiaris, meaning a "household servant," and was intended to express the idea that sorcerers had spirits as their servants ready to obey their commands.
My Conclusion:
I want to now point out yet another familiarity these demonic spirits have. They have a familiarity with people and more than likely these demons are a highly organized network of evil. Is it any wonder that you can call Cleo or other psychic hotlines and let them tell you what color uncle Freds hair was? The person calls the psychic, the psychic consults the familiar spirit (demon) and the demon asks another demon that knows (is familiar with) one of your family members. The familiar spirit knows everything about the person or persons they are assigned to, so relaying the information is easy. If the psychic tells you something about yourself then it only makes the relay of information an even shorter one. These familiar spirits can even say things the dead loved one may have said to you and have it relayed to the psychic's familiar spirit, who tells the psychic, who then tells the caller. It can be intimate things that only the two of you knew while the deceased person was upon the earth.
The purpose with Satan is always to deceive. If he can convince someone that uncle Fred (or Bob, Jim, Joe, etc) is smiling down on them from heaven or from another pleasant existence then he can actually discredit a persons need for salvation. What if uncle Fred never accepted Christ or was even an atheist? The person calling the psychic is left with what they feel is tangible proof that Fred is ok, when quite the contrary from what the Bible teaches us, he would in fact be damned! Can you see Satans opportunity to corrupt our thoughts about salvation in Christ? This is, I believe, his sole motivation for ghosts and when the demonic side of the spirit realm manifests visibly, of course it only pays to have them look like someone we knew and maybe loved.
I am certainly not saying that if you have seen an apparition of a loved one that they are in hell. It could be that they are in fact in heaven, but rest assured, there is no in between according to the bible.
In Summary:
I believe the bible offers us enough of the puzzle pieces to this mystery that we can conclude these apparitions we consider to be dead people are not anything more than Satans attempts to deceive us into doubting the afterlife that Gods word tells us about.
