What does the Bible say about ghosts / hauntings?

[Garland-Green]

Is there such a thing as ghosts? The answer to this question depends on what precisely is meant by the term “ghosts.” If the term means “spirit beings,” the answer is a qualified “yes.” If the term means “spirits of people who have died,” the answer is “no.” The Bible makes it abundantly clear that there are spirit beings, both good and evil. But the Bible negates the idea that the spirits of deceased human beings can remain on earth and “haunt” the living.

Hebrews 9:27 declares, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.” That is what happens to a person’s soul-spirit after death—judgment. The result of this judgment is heaven for the believer (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23) and hell for the unbeliever (Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:22-24). There is no in-between. There is no possibility of remaining on earth in spirit form as a “ghost.” If there are such things as ghosts, according to the Bible, they absolutely cannot be the disembodied spirits of deceased human beings.

The Bible teaches very clearly that there are indeed spirit beings who can connect with and appear in our physical world. The Bible identifies these beings as angels and demons. Angels are spirit beings who are faithful in serving God. Angels are righteous, good, and holy. Demons are fallen angels, angels who rebelled against God. Demons are evil, deceptive, and destructive. According to 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, demons masquerade as “angels of light” and as “servants of righteousness.” Appearing as a “ghost” and impersonating a deceased human being definitely seem to be within the power and abilities that demons possess.

The closest biblical example of a “haunting” is found in Mark 5:1-20. A legion of demons possessed a man and used the man to haunt a graveyard. There were no ghosts involved. It was a case of a normal person being controlled by demons to terrorize the people of that area. Demons only seek to “kill, steal, and destroy” (John 10:10). They will do anything within their power to deceive people, to lead people away from God. This is very likely the explanation of “ghostly” activity today. Whether it is called a ghost, a ghoul, or a poltergeist, if there is genuine evil spiritual activity occurring, it is the work of demons.

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.

Interest in the paranormal is becoming increasingly common. There are individuals and businesses that claim to be “ghost-hunters,” who for a price will rid your home of ghosts. Psychics, séances, tarot cards, and mediums are increasingly considered normal. Human beings are innately aware of the spiritual world. Sadly, instead of seeking the truth about the spirit world by communing with God and studying His Word, many people allow themselves to be led astray by the spirit world. The demons surely laugh at the spiritual mass-deception that exists in the world today.

gotquestions.org  

[Aquatic_blue]

Hmm, I'm not sure if I exactly understand what the whole explanation is saying since there is so much about spirits, and the spiritual world is so complex that it can be beyond our understanding. I believe there is an in-between and spirits can roam around on the physical realm. Spirits that are deceased human beings aka ghosts could possible exist even though they have been judged - I believe it's possible that they are stranded in a certain place and thinking of your physical and spiritual self is stranded - it can be a form of eternal suffering as well. Longing with a purpose that will never be complete. There's a better possibility of other spirits taking on the image of a person who is deceased in order to fool others.

Considering there is warnings about necromancers as well, it's not impossible for them to pull the spiritual into the physical realm for a purpose, and usually pay a great spiritual price for it.

The stuff is all so complicated, I suppose it can't all be explained in a few paragraphs because a lot of it we won't ever understand.  

[kdke]

The bible makes it clear that once you die, your soul goes straight to judgment. Or, if you're Catholic, your soul goes into purgatory to be purified before entering heaven, or goes to hell. Whatever the case, scripture is very straightforward that there is no plane where the spirits of humans (or animals) wander around on earth. Anyone trying to communicate to spirits through divination and/or necromancy is only asking for trouble.

There was one particular case in the bible, though, where a human spirit does come down to speak to someone; however, considering the reasons and circumstances, I do believe it was only by the will of God that this happened at all. I can't remember which book it was from, but the gist of the story was that this man was consulting with a woman who "communicated with spirits." She tried to summon a familiar spirit, but this other spirit of a man showed up instead. (I say "a familiar spirit" because I remember that in the story, she was surprised when she saw this unfamiliar spirit. Either it was that or she was a sham and didn't expect any spirit, lol.) But see, the man's spirit came with a message directly from God for this living man. Thus, I believe it was the one time where God allowed, for this particular situation, for a human soul to come down to earth as a "ghost." I really want to say this story is in 1 Samuel, but I can't really remember. It's in the bible, though, for sure.

Saying all of that, I think any "ghost" wandering around on earth, causing distractions and messing with people, is the result of the evil one. I think any kind of spirit that distracts people from the truth is an evil spirit, a fallen angel itself. That's why I'm very adamant in encouraging people to not mess around with any kind of spirit causing a ruckus, because the last thing they need is for that spirit to start messing with them directly. Ouija boards, seances, rituals to invoke demons/spirits/pagan gods/goddesses = big trouble.  

[real eyes realize]

I agree that "ghosts", of the haunting variety, must be the deceptive, disembodied spirits who do interact with human beings, even in the form of possession. Satan doesn't have a body either, he's the prince of the air, and he can come as an angel of light. That leads me to believe other disembodied spirits could take the form of a deceased person and play tricks on us; they could re-enact moments of that persons' life or their moment of death. I think that's one of Satan's tactics to get us off the narrow path; he wants us to pursue alternative explanations since the bible refutes that human spirits stay on earth, yet here we are seeing a "ghost" in the form of a human. Human souls have a definite place they go to, a place where they can't communicate with us, otherwise the Rich Man himself would've tried to communicate with his household instead of asking Abraham to send back a resurrected person (Luke 16:19-31).

& actually, it doesn't say souls go to heaven. The verse says we go to "paradise"—otherwise what would be the point of the resurrection if we go to the Kingdom of Heaven upon death? The Kingdom of Heaven will be on Earth, hence the resurrection. Paradise must be the comforting side of Sheol then, where Lazarus went; the other side being torturous.

About judgment: The only "judgments" I hear about are (1) The Great White Throne judgment, for the second resurrection group, which takes place after the heavens and earth passes away (Rev 20; jn 5:28-29). The same ol' Heavens and Earth are still here, so this hasn't happened yet and (2) upon Yeshua's return, a judgment on the living who haven't died yet; those who will take part in the first translation/resurrection get rewarded but those who are not loyal to the Creator go into punishment for an eternity ("an age" according to the Greek in Mt 25). But before his return and before the second resurrection, the bible is silent on any actual "judging" that takes place when a person is thrown into Paradise or Hell. Don't we stand condemned already for not believing? (John 3:18 ) For us, it's believing in Jesus; for them it was believing in Moses and the prophets (Luke 16:29-31)—in either case, believing in YHWH's message. Moses and the Prophets (I include Job and David in there too), spoke about Sheol, that information was there. The Rich man's ignorance of "Sheol" had no excuse.

The incident with the medium occurs in 1 Samuel 28. King Saul wanted to consult the dead prophet Samuel since God refused to talk with King Saul and Saul got desperate. Samuel's soul came up out of the ground, not down from the sky (1 Samuel 28:3-20). Another indicator that he is in Sheol, not the same place Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus ascended up into (since Enoch and Elijah didn't die, and Jesus was resurrected; unlike them, Samuel hasn't been "translated" yet, Heb 11:5 KJV).  

[kdke]

real eyes realize

Ah, yes. I remember reading about Abraham's bosom and its correlation to the doctrine of it being a place for souls before they can enter into heaven (to say it simply). That's something I'd have to read up on more, only because I'm not very familiar with it, but it's been popping up here and there in other places for me. It's on my list of readings. 3nodding  

[Ratsah]

I use to not believe much in Spirits and unexplained occurrences before I was saved, until I personally was involved with my first girl friend.. She was into some New Age Beliefs and her neighbor and her were into Spirit ism of a recently deceased channeler. (Keep in mind I didn't know much the first few years until I got closer to her and wasn't involved with any of their practices because frankly I thought it was stupid.).

About 9am in the morning I remember sitting in her bed by myself with my legs dangling from the end of the bed. I felt a presence kind of like you feel when someone is standing by the door. . It was unpleasant and still. I shrugged it off thinking it was my imagination or her cat. I rested my head down back on the pillow trying to get comfortable and then felt a jolt simultaneously pop my ankles arching me up a bit. I turn around to catch whoever did it, and come to find my gfs cat staring wide eyed at my displeasure. I started praying...but felt guilty because I didn't much care for religion at the time. A few other occurrences happened where the light would flicker and there be no tungsten light bulb and plug being unplugged in. A couple years later we finally decided to end it and never had these occurrences happen to me again. I did go through some depression as I slowly crawled my way to God but overall it was worth it..

I think their are entities of demons/fallen angels that do commune with people and misguide, scare, and confuse us to misdirect us away from truth and the Love of our Lord Jesus. I also want to add that my gf had her name screamed in her hear when she was around 5 so it wasn't just me who was experiencing these things. I believe it was a familiar spirit, one that gets to know a family and plays roles like, 'deceased cat, relative, etc' as a false form of comfort...