What Does the Church Think of Ghosts?
Halloween approaches and, whether you celebrate or not, the iconography, legends, and themes of the season will nevertheless make their way into your mind and likely into your imagination to some extent. In our Christian Church there are two predominant reactions to Halloween and its association with Ghosts and ghouls: The first, “phooey! That’s all nonsense!” And the second, fear or confusion. I know there are others, as you yourself, dear reader, likely do not embody wholly either one of these responses. They are, however, an accurate mean of LCMS Christians’ reactions to the secular feast and its cult (cult here means the way in which a thing is celebrated).
The above reactions are weak because they are not drawn from a sincere knowledge of the Scriptures or the Church’s teachings on two related topics: the life of individuals after death and the activity of the devil’s angels prior to and after his and their fall. These are perennially confusing topics in the church because media has amplified the voice of culture and we’ve been submissive cattle who obediently wheel in larger and louder TVs every year or spend our substance on smaller and smaller super computers to leave, radiating away, in our pockets everywhere we go.
God has disclosed to us enough information about the supernatural world around us for the Church to teach clearly and certainly about Ghosts and the dead. In fact, we have a certain cosmology (understanding of the universe) with which to address the phenomena that purportedly proves the interaction of the deceased with the living or the ability of individuals to control or manipulate “familiar spirits.” So, let’s look at some of these phenomena together in order to come away with a Christian understanding of these images presented to us at this spookier time of year.
I am going to base this article on Theodore Graebner’s book Spiritism: A Study of Its Phenomena and Religious Teachings, an excellent volume published in 1919. Briefly, Graebner was a Lutheran pastor and professor at the Saint Louis seminary. He lived from 1876-1950.
What Happens to Dead People?
This is always an interesting question to discuss in Bible studies and, those who have been regular attendees of my studies at Zion will remember the first few months of both the Sunday study and Thursday morning study when we addressed the subject not a few times. Of course we want to know what happens to us when we die; we think that we’ll care as much about it then as we do now! But, that certainly won’t be the case for Christians, Christ has guaranteed that! Here I will address the question only very briefly, do not think that this is a full answer by any means! If you desire to know more, please talk to me.
At death, the soul is separated from the body and enters “death.” Or, you could use the Old Testament word Sheol – the pit. For the Christian, this isn’t bad at all. They were/are members of God’s Kingdom which is His Church which is Christ’s Body and, so, they are with Christ in the grave, still very much connected to the Church on earth, and awaiting the resurrection of their immortal bodies. Those who are outside of the Church go to the “same place” but are without Christ and begin the conscious experience of separation from life and God (who is life).
The passage of the Gospel that comes to mind immediately for most, when asking this question, is Jesus’ excellent parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus the beggar who piously wishes to eat the food that falls from that Rich Man’s table and who is comforted by the licking of the hounds which wander the city. Jesus says of death in the parable, “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.”1 Now, the parable goes on to describe a conscious existence for both in the afterlife. But, when you read the parable again, you’ll notice that Lazarus says nothing and the Rich Man continues to beg (that’s Jesus irony…). Lazarus has been received into heaven with Christ his savior and is experiencing complete satiety within the life of the Trinity and the Rich Man now experiences the true lacking he has always, in fact, suffered.
From this line we learn that the soul is conveyed to the afterlife by the angels of God when they are to be united by Faith in eternity with Christ. No such mention of the angels’ service is made in reference to the Rich sinner who never repented of his sin.
This raises a question: Because they are conscious, could they communicate with the living? Abraham, the speaker of God’s Word in the parable does not say no, per se, but instead says that God will not allow it. “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”2
Can I talk to Dead People?
No. Don’t even try! It is an interesting question though. Could the dead communicate with the living? This is where the second interesting Bible narrative comes into play. I’m sure you’ve heard the Witch of Endor’s story but if you need a refresher, it can be found in 1 Samuel 28.
Taking this section alone certainly gives the impression that the Witch was able to or allowed to summon the ghost of Samuel the prophet up from the depths of the grave in order to converse with him. It’s notable that the narrator calls the ghost “Samuel” in verse 15. However, a passage that sheds greater light onto our subject and the question at hand is found in 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14: Saul’s suicide was brought about because of “his transgression … and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit.” We learn from this that it was not Samuel after all but a familiar and lying spirit given to deceive the foolish ones gathered in ritual together.
Should you try to contact a dead person it may well appear that you have succeeded – especially if you are employing someone with some professional experience in the matter! However, it should be noted that the appearance of success does not always prove success! As Graeber points out, “Either these phenomena are what the Spiritists claim them to be, caused by the spirits of the departed; or they are intrusions of the demon world upon our own, are caused by what the Bible calls evil spirits, are demoniacal in origin, are Satanic.”3 The Spirits, as we will see, have been deceived and love the deception. The souls of the departed cannot communicate with the living and the demons have provided a convincing deception.
It is quite impossible for the spirits of the dead to interact with the living world for a few simple reasons. Human souls were not constructed to exist without a body, it requires a body for a human soul to interact with the physical world, and the human soul is bound to the place of death once it has passed from this life to the next.
For these reasons, when Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah could be present and seen. Moses and Elijah both possessed their bodies even in death. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire prior to his mortal perishing (the separation of body and soul) and Moses’ body was returned to his soul as he awaited the resurrection in Christ.4 But, please notice, Moses and Elijah neither acknowledge nor converse with the disciples on the mount of transfiguration.5 The dead cannot have conversation with the living — as in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, a deep and impassable chasm is spread between the living and the dead, the dead and the damned.
Some of the readers may remember that necromancy is forbidden by Old Testament Law. Passages such as Lev. 19:31 bear this out: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God,” and Deut. 18:10-12: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or daughter to pass through the fires, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer; for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.” Necromancy comes from a Greek compound word of “dead body” and “divination.” Necromancy is simply divining by the power of the dead.
So, when a Christian hears that Ghosts are the spirits of the departed or watch videos of ghost hunters going into abandoned buildings or haunted locations (much like our local buddhist meditation center once called Father John’s in Bryan) and supposedly contacting spirits of departed humans, what are they to make of this? The simple and unsatisfying (but true, nevertheless) answer is that these spirits contacted are just demons masquerading as humans.
Graeber has a helpful section on this phenomena in his book. He writes, recording a Mr. Raupert’s report, “I had a striking experience of spirit-impersonation many years ago. A spirit, claiming to be a departed personal friend of mine and intimately acquainted with that individual’s life history, was, after many months, discovered in a falsehood and then freely and boastingly admitted that he had managed to trick us so successfully by drawing the information required from our own subconscious memories. Indeed, the evidence available to-day fully demonstrates the fact that the main sources of information of these spirits are the subconscious minds of the living, although it can not be claimed that these are their only sources of information. They have probably access to knowledge by methods wholly unknown to us and quite beyond our power of imagination.”
I will offer a few words of correction to Mr. Raupert’s statement. Mr. Raupert continues to make the mistake of believing the spirit that was just caught in a lie! Why would you believe that a spirit has access to your subconscious? They do not. Hear what the Scriptures say, “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”6 Omniscience, the power of knowing everything can be ascribed only to God. Demons are not omniscient! Demons can, however, watch. Demons can watch you, they can watch your friends, and they can watch your family. They can’t be everywhere at once but they can be wherever they wish immediately. And, because they are more ancient than our civilizations, they have become very skilled in reading people. But, Mr. Raupert remains a fool to believe that they have access to information beyond our power of imagination!
Perhaps, they can read your body, the subtle movements of your eyes, the way you begin to sweat when someone offends you, etc.. However, they do not have access to your thoughts or your subconscious mind: only the Spirit within you does. That means, only your soul or, if you are a Christian, the Holy Spirit.
It is certainly convincing when a spirit arises and manifests themselves, taking the role of a departed loved one. However, this is designed to convince you that such a relationship is possible.
Why Would a Demon Try to Convince You that They are Your Grandma?
Demons and their lord the devil desire several related things. They desire to remove blood from human bodies, the more innocent the blood, the better. They desire to incarnate themselves in the bodies of humans. And, of course, they desire to keep people away from faith in Christ or to remove those who have faith in Christ from their faith and the protection of God in the Church. If they can convince someone that their dead relative is waiting to communicate with them, they have a huge advantage in this struggle.
The spiritists of yester-century and our current century, when they contrive a religion, always contrive a religion of works. That is, a religion where the individual, through living well, merits a pleasant afterlife. Hear some examples: When describing the afterlife, Spiritists make the claim, “after death, if the spiritual life is kind and gentle and good, the grosser elements of the spiritual body are eliminated, leaving the body more refined and spiritual; so that it can rise into a higher zone, which, in its turn, is composed of the more refined and spiritualized elements eliminated from this higher zone, and the third zone is composed of the still more refined and spiritualized elements from the second and so on.”7 That is, kindness and gentleness and goodness in this life make the elevation of the spirit in the afterlife quicker and easier. Further, to receive a better afterlife, spiritists teach, “‘if a man would be good, he must do good; if he desires to increase in knowledge, he must continue to strive after it; if he would progress to more spiritual states, he must live more spiritually.’ ‘People who have been very wicked here suffer in the next world in a remedial, and not in a vindictive, sense.’ ‘there are states or planes to which wrong-doers pass, coinciding with their demerits, and comparable to the conception of purgatory. In them the process is one of purifying, and until that has been fully accomplished, they can not hope to pass to higher and happier conditions.’”8 You’ll notice that the doctrines of universal salvation and moralism are present in this demonic teaching. If you do good, you get good. Everyone will be entered into the state of bliss after they have been purified. Neither of these teachings reflect the grace and forgiveness promised and required by God in the Scriptures.
The Spirits continue, Graebner summarizes the medium’s report of spiritistic religion like this, “[The spirits] will first convey the most exalted teachings about human duty and a pious life, but in a number of cases carefully investigated by Mr. Raupert, after habitually introducing itself by prayerful aspirations of the most elevating kind, the spirit ‘was in the end discovered to be a masquerading intelligence and, on its own confession, keenly intent on working the moral and physical ruin of its victims.’”9 Here the two false teachings of demons are united. First we have the grand moralism that blinds the individual to their need for grace and forgiveness – essentially damning them – and the confession that the demon was, after all, not human! What better way to work the moral and physical downfall of a person than to convince them that they are speaking to a departed loved one who, after experiencing the afterlife, is convinced that Christianity is all fake and useless dogma, the afterlife is won by good living, and a relationship with Christ serves them very little. Then, once the individual is in the demons grasp they can begin the real torment and get what they actually desire.
The demons move from deception to harm very quickly in these relationships. Mr. Raupert reports that the termination of contact between the demon and the medium is, in many instances, “only accomplished after the physical constitution of the victim has been completely ruined; in others the termination of the experiment is reached in the asylum or in some institution for the cure of nervous disease,”10 you’ll have to forgive the archaic expressions, but the point is made.
Other examples of such harm include this anecdote of a repentant spiritualist, “For seven years I held daily [meetings] with what purported to be my mother’s spirit. I am now fully persuaded that it was nothing but an evil spirit; an infernal demon who, in that guise, gained my soul’s confidence and led me to the very brink of ruin. We read in Scripture of demoniac possession, as well as abnormal spiritual action. Both facts exist, provable to-day. . . I emphatically deny the statement [that there are no evil spirits]. Five of my friends destroyed themselves, and I attempted it, by direct spiritual influences.”11 Graebner records the story of a father and his two daughters who began to play with an ouija-board. The father was ruined by this experience. “He heard voices, and things so preyed on his mind that he became insane, and died in three months [after the initial experience], raving mad.”12
The demons want to destroy you. A spiritist, M. A. Oxon declared, “Sin is remediable by repentance and atonement and reparation personally wrought out in pain and shame, not by coward cries for mercy, and by feigned assent to statements which ought to create a shudder.”13 Of course, Oxon is comparing personal atonement to the atonement of Christ; the “feigned assent to statements which ought to create a shudder,” a mocking of the Christian faith.
The demons are so good at convincing people of their doctrines that, “very seldom has a full fledged Spiritualist been able to comprehend the necessity and blessedness of the religion of Jesus Christ, and to withdraw from the morbid conditions into which he has fallen.”14 Their job is done, their end is accomplished, when the hope of heaven seems locked out of a person’s mind so completely that they don’t even desire heaven!
Conclusion
What does the Church think of Ghosts? They’re demons, plain and simple. Our beloved, departed saints are resting with Christ; the souls of the unrepentant are in the pit, neither have access to this world any longer. The demons who, with satan, were cast down on the earth (which serves as their pen until it is cast into the lake of fire) roam around and try to pull as many humans into hell with them as possible. Don’t be scared of Ghosts, as the hymn says, “one little word can fell him!”15 They do desire your harm, but they cannot harm those who are claimed by Christ and who have received the name of God on their forehead and on their heart in the waters of Holy Baptism. They can only lie, like their father, and scheme. The word of God does not allow the Christian to consult with evil spirits for their protection and safety. Christ drives far from the Christian home every snare of the devil. Keep your guard up and remember the words of the Scriptures.
Peace,
Pr. Spangler
1Luke 16:22, KJV.
2Luke 16:31, KJV.
3Theodore Graebner, Spiritism: A Study of its Phenomena and Religious Teachings, (Concordia: St. Louis, MO, 1919), 79; emphasis mine.
4Ibid., 81; Jude 1:9.
5Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9.
61 Cor. 2:11, ESV.
7Graebner, Spiritism, 24.
8Ibid., 26.
9Ibid., 84.
10Ibid., 84.
11Ibid., 97.
12Ibid., 107.
13Ibid., 120.
14Ibid., 85.
15LSB 656:3.
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