BellaOnline Forums Family Christian Living Do you believe in ghosts?

What do you think? As a Christian, is there room for ghosts, hauntings, etc?

I believe that once we die, we are dead. One goes to either heaven or hell, and there one stays. I believe that ghosts are nothing more than demonic manifestations.

I agree with you. I have heard Christians tell me that there are no lost spirits wandering around but I have never heard anyone say that the hauntings are demonic manifestations.

This is what I have believed, although I don't have a biblical back up for it. It is the only way that I have to explain some of the weird things that happen.

I am a Christian but I do believe in ghosts because I've had some appear before me. Some were benevolent, some were tortured souls -- but none were evil.

I don't believe so much in the ghosts that geographical locations say are in and around a home - such as ghost walks and such near Oct.

What I have experienced is more related to energy - say battle fields, with an occasional (very rare) soul that just wants or needs to make sense of something they can't let go of. They can cross anytime to a more pure realm, free of physical manifestations.

I pretty much feel their realm and ours isn't so different, not like the Heaven & Hell I was taught of as a child in Catacism. It would be like separating all of the ingredients in banana bread. We are all, dead or alive, a part of a giant loaf

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Elleise
Clairvoyance Editor

Many people believe as you do, Sara and Elleise. It will be interesting some day when all questions are answered.

From what I read in the Bible, once a person dies, his soul does not stay here or come back (except when all the dead come back with Jesus when He comes.)

I have experienced unexplained activity that many would call ghosts or spirits that are not at rest. The only explanation that I have for it is Satan's demons attempting to distract us from the truth and get people to direct their thoughts away from Jesus.

I do believe that there are spirits/ghosts. The Bible talks about the evil spirits in the air.

Lynne,

Interesting thread! There seems to be an increase in the interest in the paranormal. Several people have asked me about ghosts and related stories of their loved ones appearing to them after they had died.

I agree with you. The Bible tells us that we die and are judged and that Satan and his demons masquerade as angels of light who will sometimes use truth to distract us.

Lynne, I have done a lot of research on this subject because of some experiences I've had. Everything that I read was Bible-based, referring to scriptures that I looked up myself. I even have a book I read that is about 500 pages, on spiritual warfare, all Biblically based.

The spirits we encounter on Earth are either demons or angels. When we die, God does not give us the option of hanging around here to "haunt" someone. Demons can take the form of anything or anyone, including angels of light (God's angels).

When people say they have seen their deceased loved ones, it is not the people who have passed. They are with the Lord, if they knew Him, or somewhere else if they didn't. There is no reason for demons to comfort anyone--their objective is to confuse, hurt, scare, or anger us. However, it makes perfect sense that God would send an angel to those who are hurting so much, in order to give them peace about a loved one's death, and to comfort them.

"Hauntings" are obviously demons that are attached to either places, things, or even people. When they appear as, or use the name of, someone who has passed, it is because they want to confuse us. Making us believe something that is a lie is one of Satan's favorite tools. He is the father of all lies and he especially enjoys it when Christians are deceived.

People who have lost loved ones desperately want to reconnect with them, so they believe they have, if they see something like that. I understand, as my father passed last year. Afterwards, some strange things happened in my home, but I know it wasn't Dad doing them. Demons enjoy kicking us when we are down, and what better time to go after someone than when they are grieving?

There are some things that give demons the right to stay in a place or attach to a person, such as unforgiven sin. Also, objects in a person's home can give them authority to be there--things such as pornography, objects such as statues of buddah or other "gods," movies or books which graphically depict murder, rape, etc. Anything that is related to sin in your home can give them the right to be there. And by "right to be there," I mean, you can cast them out and bind them all day long, but you can't make them leave if you've invited them into your home.

I lived in a home we call "The Devil House." There were several spirits in that home, and no matter how we tried, we couldn't get rid of them. The house was built on land that had once been a cemetery. The graves were supposedly moved, but that cursed the land. Every night we heard knocking in the walls, footsteps, and scary music. We also heard a little girl's voice, a man's voice, crashing of falling boxes (which hadn't fallen), things falling in the basement, and sometimes there was an overwhelming smell of death in the house. Other times, it was completely clean-smelling.

We had two pastors, and some others from local churches come over one night to try to cleanse the house. The day before, the spirits knew they were coming, and they went crazy! There was so much noise in the house, the smell was really bad, and while we were gone, something attacked our dog in the basement. She was limping, and there was paint poured on the top step that went into the basement. The can which had fallen wasn't anywhere near there. That can had been opened and poured onto that step, and in the process, our dog was hurt. There was no one in the house, and no one had access to get into it.

The night that the pastors came, the odor was so bad in the house, we had the doors and windows open, candles burning, etc. We were so embarrassed. But while they burned all kinds of books, movies, CDs, etc., and anointed the house with oil, the odor left the second that area of the house was anointed! It was amazing! The house was clean that night. No noise for the first time since we had moved in, almost a year earlier. But about a week later, we began to argue, and guess what happened--they came back! We invited them in by arguing. It happened every time. By the time we moved out, our marriage was a shambles! It didn't survive.