This article of ghosts was inspired by a question from a visitor to www.bible-uk.com who asked:
“Dear Andrew,
I was just wondering if there's no such thing as "ghosts" in the Bible, then why did Peter think that our Lord Jesus Christ was one when he
saw Him walking on water? I guess what I’d like to say is that if there's no such thing as a personal
literal devil, then where does "paranormal activity" like ghosts, apparitions or
poltergeists come from? Does it come from God or one of his Angels? If so, then why does God want to
scare people? Please kindly enlighten me regarding this matter. Thanks again!
Alfred”
This prompted me to do a bit of digging and come up with the following answer from the Scriptures:
It does seem that certain people in the Bible believed in ghosts, particularly in the New Testament,
although the accounts of the vision of Saul, and Jesus walking on the water are the only specific
occurrences mentioned. There is one main point that we can be sure of: the Bible teaches that the
dead are unconscious and that the soul does not live on after the body dies.
Eze 18:4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the
soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any
thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is
forgotten.
Therefore, we can be clear that whatever people saw or thought they saw, it
was not the disembodied spirit of a dead person floating around!
I think that in 1 Samuel 28, the vision of Samuel was sent by God to punish
Saul. Other visions may also be sent by God for a specific purpose.
We can see from the gospel accounts that Peter was quite an impetuous guy
and was often jumping to wrong conclusions. There's nothing to indicate
whether Peter had seen ghosts before. My guess is that when he saw someone
floating above the water, he thought "that must be one of those ghosts
I've heard about!" and of course it wasn't, it was Jesus!
The simple answer to ghosts and the paranormal is that if it is not covered in the Bible,
then it is not necessary for our salvation to know about it, as
intriguing as it may be. Scientists cannot explain "paranormal activity"
either, but I have heard that poltergeist activity usually happens where a
young upset child is present and one school of thought says that the
emotions of the child trigger a part of their brain not normally used,
which in turn has an effect on the physical world around them. Each and
every one of us only uses a small part of our brain and scientists are
still trying to tie down which part of the brain controls which function.
There is much that we do not know. As it says in Psalm 139:
“I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.”
Things that seem evil from a human perspective CAN come from God either
directly or through his angels, but I imagine that God has better things
to do than scare people just for the sake of it!
The danger is that we can become so engrossed with hunting down and
explaining the paranormal that we neglect our study of God's Word, the
Bible and jeopardize our salvation.
Rather, we should prepare for the day when we will meet the Lord Jesus and all these puzzling questions will either be answered for us or compared to the Glory of the Kingdom, become so insignificant as to be immediately forgotten.
Isaiah 65:17
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall
not be remembered, nor come into mind.
