I’ve thought about writing about ghosts ever since I wrote about the apparent differences between fallen angels and demons. It’s an interesting topic because we often hear about sightings and so many people believe in their existence. Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time to write something about them until now. Today I’ll share my view on what ghosts actually are in this blog post.
Before I begin let’s have a common understanding of how a ghost is defined. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a ghost as: “a disembodied soul; especially: the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness”.
This definition has two key elements:
- A ghost is traditionally understood to be a soul rather than a spirit.
- The soul is traditionally associated with a person who once lived.
The Bible suggests that there cannot be disembodied souls of humans who once lived roaming Earth because souls cannot remain on Earth after a person dies. Where the soul goes after a person dies is debated by Christians, but the commonality between each side of the debate is that the soul does not remain on Earth.
- One group believes that the souls of believers goes immediately to Heaven to be with Christ while the souls of non-believers are sent to a temporarily place before they receive eternal judgement.
- Another group believes that the soul goes to Hades (Hebrew: Sheol) after a person dies for a temporary period of time. People who believe this cite Luke 16:20-25 as evidence that Hades contains a good compartment and a bad compartment. The good/believers are sent to the good compartment while the wicked is tormented in the bad compartment. Eventually the good will go to Heaven while the wicked will end up the Lake of Fire.
Regardless of what side of the debate you support, it is important to recognize again that neither argument states that it is biblically possible for the soul to remain on the physical Earth surface to haunt houses or to communicate with living people. This implies that there are no such thing as “ghosts” in the traditional way that Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines them as. However, this rebuttal does not mean that every “ghost-sighting” is a hallucination. People who claim to have seen a “ghost” are most likely seeing something else…
What Might A Person Really Be Encountering?
I believe “ghosts” are actually evil spiritual beings who simply do not have good intentions. Whether or not "ghosts" are just fallen angels, demons, or both in disguise is hard for me to be dogmatic about. However, one example in the Bible gives me the impression that demons can pose as "ghosts".
Some people are afraid of visiting a cemetery or spending too much time at one because they are afraid it might have a ghost. The Bible suggests that it is possible for something spiritual to have a presence at cemeteries but it’s not a disembodied soul of an individual buried there. Mark 5’s account about a man living at a tomb suggests that demons can have a presence at cemeteries.
- Mar 5:1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
- Mar 5:2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
- Mar 5:3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
- Mar 5:4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
- Mar 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
- Mar 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
- Mar 5:7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
- Mar 5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
- Mar 5:9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
- Mar 5:10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
- Mar 5:11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
- Mar 5:12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
Perhaps the “ghost” sightings at cemeteries are actually demon sightings. However, one could also argue that fallen angels might be capable of posing as a "ghost" since they have the ability to transform (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Again, I cannot be dogmatic about this…
There are people out there who claim they talk/communicate with "ghosts" and even offer advice on how you can do the same. However, the Bible specifically warns people to not communicate with spirits, especially the “dead”.
- Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
- Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
- Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
The Bible warns people to not attempt to talk with the dead for a very good reason. A person cannot actually communicate with the “dead”… The person will end up communicating with an evil spiritual being pretending to be a dead individual.
The experience of former NORAD officer Stanley Fulham, who defied the Bible’s warnings and contacted spiritual beings, suggest that these spirits are capable of providing people with enough truthful information to convince them that these spirits are who they claim to be.
- Fulham noted in a recent interview that he was skeptical about communicating with spirits until he spoke with the Transcenders, a group of “old souls” from the spirit world, who showed him that they knew everything about him to stunning detail. It is the factual information that these evil spirits gave him which convinced Fulham that the Transcenders were who they claim to be. Now Fulham relies solely on them for this spiritual information, information which tends to contradict the Bible.
Fulham’s experience and other experiences (like Kenya’s Mary Akatsa) suggest that the spiritual forces of evil possess the ability collect and distribute information about individuals. I’m not exactly sure how they collect information about people, but I would assume they monitor people somehow. How else could the spiritual beings that communicated with Fulham know so much about him?
Therefore, a person is likely communicating with an evil spiritual being that has access to information about a family member or relative when they communicate with a spiritual being who claims to be the ghost of a relative or a family member.
The evil spirit interacting with a living individual has incentive to provide them with enough factual information that they gain the living individual’s trust. A couple of potential reasons why a spiritual being would want to gain the trust of a living individual is that by gaining their trust they can later lead the person astray or perhaps make the person more susceptible to possession. The Christian Q&A website “Got Questions” describes the process:
“What about instances in which “ghosts” act in “positive” ways? What about psychics who claim to summon the deceased and gain true and useful information from them? Again, it is crucial to remember that the goal of demons is to deceive. If the result is that people trust in a psychic instead of God, a demon will be more than willing to reveal true information. Even good and true information, if from a source with evil motives, can be used to mislead, corrupt, and destroy”.
Perhaps a reason why the spiritual forces of evil might want to increase people’s awareness in the potential existence of “ghosts” through something like a haunting or a strange noise in the attic is that it makes people aware of the spirit world. By making people aware of the spirit world, the spiritual forces of evil might be able to gain access to people who are curious enough to explore the spirit world further (i.e. get in contact with beings in the spirit world).
If you believe that a “ghost” is really an evil entity posing as a disembodied soul of a human, I suggest you say Christ’s name as an act of defense if you encounter one. If a "ghost" is really an evil spiritual being then they will hate it when you say Christ’s name.
