I know it’s been months, but as soon as I posted those first two entries, I found some work that kept me busy. Also, as of Oct. 20, I am employed! 
I’m a full-time reporter at the Thomasville Times in Thomasville, N.C. Even though this leaves me with even less free time than before, I’ve been wanting to pick this blog back up for a while now. I figure that, if nothing else, I can start working through the questions my lovely readers have asked of me!
In response to my first entry, Adam asked (a bit sarcastically, maybe) if a belief in ghosts is compatible with a faith in Jesus Christ. I thought this would be a good issue to explore for Halloween.
Christianity allows for – and even requires – a good bit of faith in the supernatural, beyond God Himself. Angels, fallen angels a.k.a. demons (including Satan), possessions, visions of the future, horrible plagues, wonderful miracles, and even communication with and resurrection of the dead are all mentioned in the Bible. If Christians believe in all of that, are ghosts really that much of a stretch?
A Christian view of the afterlife usually consists of heaven and hell, though there are other terms in the Bible that may refer to other places where the dead reside. The Catholic concept of purgatory must also be considered – a place where some souls go after death to be purified. This is the reason that Catholics believe in praying for the dead, while Protestants generally do not.
Jesus seems to acknowledge the existence of ghosts, or at least the idea of them (Luke 24:36-40). There are also instances of the disciples and others thinking that they had seen a ghost, but it’s never written that they actually saw one.
I have found an interesting Web page on GotQuestions.org that attempts to answer this question from the Bible called “What does the Bible say about ghosts/hauntings?” It doesn’t give a direct answer, and I don’t either, but it does explore more aspects of the topic than I can here.
No mainstream Christian conception of the afterlife that I can find presents spirits of the dead that wander the Earth and disturb the living. As shown in the Bible, spirits of the dead and even demons are ultimately under God’s command. I’m no theologian, though, so if anyone reading this has some insights on this, feel free to comment and share! I tend to be a skeptic when it comes to these things, but I don’t want to be too quick to dismiss other people’s experiences.
The Bible does warn against getting involved activities like witchcraft, sorcery, divination, consultation of the dead, etc., outside of God’s direction and power (Deuteronomy 18:9-11). This is probably because if God and angels aren’t involved, it’s believed that Satan and demons are.
Some Christians think that ghost sightings and similar encounters are real but demonic, and they have a strong negative reaction to anything claiming to involve these occurrences. Others reject the paranormal entirely. A recent study by Baylor University actually found that Christians are significantly less likely to believe in “superstition” or “pseudoscience” than atheists are.
Of course, this leads into today’s Halloween festivities. The holiday has both Christian and pagan roots. According to a Web page by American Catholic called “Halloween and Its Christian Roots”, it is thought to originate partially from the Celtic festival called Samhain which celebrated the end of the harvest and the start of the new year.
The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. During this festival, Celts believed the souls of the dead—including ghosts, goblins and witches—returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires.
All Hallows’ Eve takes place the day before All Hallows’ Day or All Saints’ Day. “Hallowed” means holy, blessed or sanctified – think “hallowed be thy name” from the Lord’s Prayer – and “Hallows” can refer to saints or sacred objects. In Catholicism, All Saints’ Day is a holy day to honor the saints, especially those who don’t have a festival of their own.
Interestingly, this means that churches who host or sponsor “Harvest Festivals” are being more true to the pagan origins of the holiday than if they just called it Halloween! 
I believe that Christianity and Halloween celebrations are compatible, as long as the Christian isn’t carelessly delving into the paranormal. People don’t have to celebrate the demonic in order to observe this holiday. Children – and even adults – can dress up in costumes, eat candy, and enjoy Halloween activities without doing anything forbidden by the Bible. Even some “spooky” costumes and traditions can be seen as a celebration of Jesus Christ’s victory over death and God’s inevitable victory over evil (1 Corinthians 15:54-55 and Romans 8:38-39).
Christians can also observe All Hallows’ Eve as a time of preparation for All Saints’ Day, according to American Catholic.
The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the “communion of saints,” which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.
What do you think? Is a belief in ghosts compatible with a belief in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in ghosts? Do you have any good ghost stories to tell this Halloween?
5 Comments
November 1, 2008 at 6:34 pm
So the idea is that ghosts can be summoned by a medium or directed via a supernatural being, yet the modern concept of “haunted houses” is likely untrue?
This kind of ties into the discussion, I suppose, about whether or not we go to a “holding place” when we die rather than going directly to our final destination. I don’t understand why someone would be pulled out of heaven for a ghost session with an earthly being if they don’t have to deal with bad things. :p
I think what you said about Halloween is interesting… coming from the background of “it’s evil!”, it’s kind of funny that it’s actually based around a Christian celebration while it is Christmas that has pagan roots.
November 1, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Basically, yeah. I don’t think there are ghosts of the kind that just sort of… wander around and terrorize people because they’re not “at rest.” According to the Bible, they don’t have that kind of freedom.
I’ve never had anything like a ghost encounter of my own, though, so maybe that would change my mind!
Also, you’re right – people sometimes conveniently ignore the pagan traditions and symbols that are a part of modern Christmas celebrations. Both Halloween and Christmas have a mix of influences, so it’s a mistake to assume that Halloween is all one and Christmas is all another.
November 8, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Well, we know that seance-like behavior is possible because of the story of Saul using the witch to contact Samuel. Nothing in the passage indicates that it’s not literally Samuel she’s talking to. http://bible.crosswalk.com/OnlineStudyBible/bible.cgi?word=1+Samuel+28%3A6-20§ion=0&version=nas&new=1&oq=&NavBook=1sa&NavGo=28&NavCurrentChapter=28
Also, the fact that such things are forbidden in scripture implies that they are possible. Why forbid something that isn’t real? The only explanation I can think of is that you wouldn’t be contacting the dead by doing so, but contacting something far worse. At any rate, this is one of those things that is declared a sin in the Bible because it’s just a really, really bad idea and God wants us to not screw up our lives unnecessarily.
RE: “I don’t understand why someone would be pulled out of heaven for a ghost session with an earthly being if they don’t have to deal with bad things. :p” — I don’t have an exact answer for this either, but I have some ideas. First of all, there are two kinds of heaven that we unfortunately get confused about often: the place where believers currently go when they die, and the New Heavens (and New Earth) where they will be with God for eternity. “Mommy is in heaven now” is not a reference to our eternal destination, though if you end up “Heaven 1″ you will be in “Heaven 2″ by all orthodox accounts. The point I want to make is that being in “Heaven 1″ in this current age may not feature all the traditional aspects of a painless paradise that we expect from “Heaven 2.” Take resurrection, for example: if believers are whisked away to permanent and eternal bliss when they die, wouldn’t resurrection be an awkward and torturous reversal of all that? I’m sure “Heaven 1″ is nice, and I’m sure it’s not just some glorified purgatory, but logic dictates that it must have some transitional properties.
The other option is that the Samuel story was possible because the Old Testament era had a different heaven system than the church age. I have heard scriptural evidence for this, which I can’t remember off the top of my head, except for the parable of the poor man sitting in Abraham’s bosom and the poor man in hell and able to talk to them. It’s dangerous to build doctrine from parables, but they can’t be completely dismissed either. So perhaps the “Heaven 0.5″ of the OT was extra-accessible as well.
Personally, I don’t find it hard to attribute modern “hauntings” to demonic activity or hallucinations. I tend to be paranormal-friendly. I’ve heard enough about witchdoctors and older societies to believe that there is something else going on out there, and just because academic western WASPS have outgrown belief in it doesn’t mean that these phenomena don’t happen to those who accept it. There is a balance between devil worship and complete naturalism.
November 8, 2008 at 1:03 pm
that would be…
*the rich man in hell
:-p
December 15, 2008 at 1:03 am
I think the Catholics have something called “Pergatory” which could be likened to ghosts walking the earth. It is the place between heaven and hell.
I’m not really a theologian either though, so I could be wrong.
On the other hand – I am a Christian, and I do believe in ghosts. The idea only makes sense really. We all have a spirit, why can’t that spirit get stuck if it has unfinished business upon our death?