Board index ‹ Resurrection of Christ

[J Lord]

Do Christians believe in ghosts? And if not, what evidence would be required in order to match the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? What sort of evidence would make you as certain about ghosts as you are about the resurrection?

[jimwalton]

Belief in ghosts is a tricky question. First of all, people who are dead can't come back and visit earth as ghosts. I don't believe that one bit. I think (maybe) that ghosts do actually show up on the planet on occasion, but I think that they are demons posing as the people. Mediums and spiritists who call up the dead are cavorting with demon powers, not with the souls of the dead, in my opinion. I've seen those documentaries on TV about spectres and ghosts. They look interesting, but really hard to believe but convincing at the same time. I also have a very good friend who is a photographer and videographer, and she is FASCINATED about ghosts, has gone ghost hunting, and claims that she has seen some. It's hard to know what to think.

There is one time in the Bible a bonafide ghost showed up. It's in 1 Sam. 28.13-14. In this case I think God specifically sent Samuel back (just as he did Moses and Elijah on the Mt. of Transfiguration) to give a prophetic message to Saul. But this was a one-time-only deal.

As far as the resurrection of Jesus, it's a completely different phenomenon. People were able to touch Jesus: he had a material, corporeal body. He ate food, and was as seemingly as real of flesh and blood after the resurrection as you and me. He was also different, though, in that he could walk through the door as if it wasn't even there. The description in John gives the idea that it was the door that was less real than Jesus, and not that Jesus was some kind of smoky apparition.

[J Lord]

> First of all, people who are dead can't come back and visit earth as ghosts. I don't believe that one bit.

Why do you dismiss eye witness evidence on this point?

[jimwalton]

Because the Bible teaches that after people die they go to their eternal destiny and don't have the option to wander the earth or appear here. As I said, when "ghosts" do "appear" here, I believe it's demonic impersonation, so if someone saw a "ghost," their eyewitness evidence could be valid, but it's not really a "ghost" of a person who is back here to haunt, communicate, or wander.

[J Lord]

> Bible teaches that after people die they go to their eternal destiny and don't have the option to wander the earth

I didn't know the bible said this. Specifically the part about not having the option to wander the earth.

[jimwalton]

In every parable Jesus told pertaining to the afterlife, the people enter the afterlife immediately after death. There is no wandering around, or any temporary state.

Paul in 1 Cor. 15 speaks of the earthly physical body and the spiritual body of the afterlife, but not of any ghostly kind of possibility.

Hebrews 9.27 says,"People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment." At least one of the ideas in here (and there are several) is that after death we are judged and enter our eternal destinies.

There is never any notion or hint or parable or allegory or ANYTHING in the Bible that mentions anything about wandering the earth.