Ghosts!

So do you believe in them?
I mean as Christians don't we believe when we die, we go to be with the Lord and the unsaved go to hades as mentioned in luke 16.

If that's the case what are ghosts?, demons, angels or are the souls of the departed?

I don't believe in ghosts. I've never seen anything personally to make me think differently, and never heard any believers say anything convincing that would make me believe.

Don't some Christian faiths believe in intermediate places for souls? And what do other faiths think about them? I've never heard this discussed before.

i could see how an angel or a demon could be confused for one...
i dont doubt people see the supernatural realm sometimes and a ghost is just a word they use for it.

thats my thoughts...

wow... does that make me seem like a totally weird ghost-believer-in-er?

I don't what they are but there is something.

maflynn wrote:

So do you believe in them?
I mean as Christians don't we believe when we die, we go to be with the Lord and the unsaved go to hades as mentioned in luke 16.

==Yep, that is 100% correct. When a person dies their spirit either goes to hell or to heaven. There is no hanging around in someone's attic shaking chains (though I could learn to enjoy scaring people ).

maflynn wrote:

If that's the case what are ghosts?, demons, angels or are the souls of the departed?

==Well, I have spent some time examining this issue. It seems to me, and this is just my opinion, that most reports of ghosts are nothing more than people's imagination or misunderstanding. We know what I mean by imagination, but what do I mean misunderstanding? Well lets say there is a lady who believes her house is haunted because she hears banging on her walls and feels like she is being watched when she goes into the laundry room. What she is understanding as supernatural is really natural. The banging on the walls could be caused by pipes, people in other rooms, something outside, or the house settling. The feeling of being watched probably means nothing more than she needs to call an electrician. People think they see a ghost in their bedroom at night. What they forget is that they probably are not totally awake or they may have been dreaming. Have you ever noticed how many ghost or alien sightings happen at night when people are in bed? The reason is that they are dreaming or not totally awake yet and thus think they are seeing all sorts of things. Ghosts, however, they are not seeing. I would argue that most ghost tales amount to little more than that kind of thing. Explanations are easy once the idea of ghosts is dismissed.

I don't believe that angels and demons hang around people's homes trying to scare them. Angels are real but they serve the Lord. So an angel haunting someone is out of the question. Demons are real and they can do real evil. However most of that evil has to do with people and not hauntings. So a demon can and may haunt a person by causing them to have wicked thoughts or worship false gods (etc).

Anyway, that is my two cents worth.

Martin.

Martin wrote:

I don't believe that angels and demons hang around people's homes trying to scare them. Angels are real but they serve the Lord. So an angel haunting someone is out of the question. Demons are real and they can do real evil. However most of that evil has to do with people and not hauntings. So a demon can and may haunt a person by causing them to have wicked thoughts or worship false gods (etc).

Anyway, that is my two cents worth.

Martin.

My thought on this is, ghosts are a tool from the devil and his demons because its so successful in taking peoples eyes and attention off of Jesus Christ.

Yes, you are correct about Angels, I threw them in there to help the conversation

I believe there are many unexplained events that cannot be explained by natural phenomenon, if those events seem counter to what the Bible teaches us about God and Jesus Christ then we can surmise that they're from the enemy.

Martin wrote:

I don't believe that angels and demons hang around people's homes trying to scare them. Angels are real but they serve the Lord. So an angel haunting someone is out of the question. Demons are real and they can do real evil. However most of that evil has to do with people and not hauntings. So a demon can and may haunt a person by causing them to have wicked thoughts or worship false gods (etc).

Anyway, that is my two cents worth.

Martin.

My thought on this is, ghosts are a tool from the devil and his demons because its so successful in taking peoples eyes and attention off of Jesus Christ.

Yes, you are correct about Angels, I threw them in there to help the conversation

I believe there are many unexplained events that cannot be explained by natural phenomenon, if those events seem counter to what the Bible teaches us about God and Jesus Christ then we can surmise that they're from the enemy.

I've never seen a ghost, but I've spoken to people who would swear to their death that they've seen them. Or demons walking, etc. Spirits, mediums, dunno... It's all pretty strange to me really. Sure as I say that I don't believe in them I will see one the next day, heh.

I think ninety five precent or more of supernatural, paranormal, intergalactic or whatever is our imagination and or our everyday ignorance of how nature works. I do wonder if surveys done on witnesses of paranormal events that indcate their greater tendency to fantasy don't have a point.

Having said that, there's that pesky five percent left. Some thoughts:

1. As a Christian I believe there is a spiritual, supernatural realm. But since the Bible says so little about it, I conclude that we aren't meant to know much about it.

2. Angels point to God. For us to know too much of angels, good and evil, is a distraction from God. Therefore I imagine even most genuine paranormal events that don't point directly to God are from the dark side. Hauntings, etc.

3. There are two kinds of revelation:
A. Public, that revealed in Scripture, incumbent on all to believe.
B. Private, which is not incumbent even on the recepient to believe, and which is almost always to be suspected as either self-delusion or infernal. Test not only the spirits, but the experiences as well.

4. A hunger for paranormal experience is wrong, because again, it is too easy a distraction from God and His beloved concern: our fellow human beings. God has plenty of angels to represent Him in the unseen realm. He only has you and I to represent Him in this world.

My wife and I found this footage of a real live ghost (or real dead ghost) on YouTube. The truth really IS out there.