Are There Really Such a Thing as Ghosts?

Remember that old Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray movie, "Ghostbusters"? In a haunting way, the theme song to that movie remains stuck in my head to this day..."Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!" This morning on my live program here in Gaylord, Michigan, I talked about the topic, "Are there such a thing as ghosts?" After all, it is October and Halloween is right around the corner.

So, are ghosts real? Two weekends ago my wife I visited one of the Lighthouses on Lake Huron just north of Alpena that they call "The Ghost Light." Why do they call it that? They say that there is no bulb in the lighthouse and that all of the wires have been cut, yet, in the evenings at dusk the light in the lighthouse can be seen. Supposedly it has been seen by the US Coast Guard and the Air National Guard.

So, what does the Bible say? Are there really ghosts? Keep in mind that the spirit world is teeming with life. God Himself is a spirit. The third person of the Trinity is called the "Holy Spirit." God created countless numbers of spirit beings called angels. One of these angels, Lucifer (Satan), rebelled and one-third of the angels followed him and are what we call demons today.

People in Jesus' day, even the disciples, believed in ghosts. When Jesus came to the disciples walking on the water they became afraid because they thought it was a ghost (Matthew 14:25-27; Mark 6:48-50). When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection they were afraid thinking He was a ghost. Jesus told them to touch Him and He ate in front of them to show them He was not a ghost (Luke 24:36-40).

So, we know that the spirit world is teeming with life. But if ghosts really do exist, are they the spirits of humans who have died? Can past relatives who have long since been dead come back and talk to us, or worse, can they come back and haunt us like Jacob Marley coming back to haunt and warn old Ebeneezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' tale, "A Christmas Carol"?

I'll answer that question in tomorrow's blog posting.