God, Ghosts & Christians

I am among those who don’t believe in the popular theories and, if you allow me, would like to share mine: Ghosts are regretful, neutral and/or evil spirits who were cast out of heaven with Lucifer and sent to Earth, but they are not all demons. That is clearly the “short version” of my theory, and I invite you now to read and examine it in detail. The dialogue begins with this question: If ghosts are not the spirits of humans who have passed on, which is the most popular theory accepted by believers in ghosts, then who are they? Frankly, this has been a question rolling around in the back of my mind for many years. It’s clear that not all ghosts do bad things. We addressed that issue in Chapter 2 when we negated the “all ghosts are demons” theory. In fact, some of them are not only helpful but save lives and bring happiness to humans. Scripture eliminates the theory that human spirits are left here on Earth, as discussed in Chapter Four. And, finally, some ghosts are indifferent to the people around them, but they are not trying to destroy or steal our souls—more to come on that later. However, I’m positive ghosts exist, so where did they come from? It’s a dilemma . . . Having been raised as a Christian, I was taught the scriptures from the Bible about the war in heaven, which took place a long time ago. Perhaps these scriptures are just metaphorical or just the author’s attempt to make sense of why we are on Earth, but please bear with me while I take them literally. KJV, Revelation 12:7-12—7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. . . . Okay, so Lucifer and his rebelling host of angels were sent to Earth. My impression as a child was that this particular group of spirits (or fallen angels) was a very bad bunch of spirits and was all demons. I was wrong. Let me give you an example of why I feel this way. About a year ago, I decided to try to experience a ghost investigation in some haunted buildings. A group of investigators sold tickets and allowed people to come to a number of old buildings in Liberty, Mo. and participate in a late-night investigation. I was invited to come as a guest, so I went. We were to be divided into groups and an experienced investigator would lead us through the buildings and let us see if we would come upon anything paranormal. On the way to the investigation, I offered a prayer. “Dear Lord,” I said, “I don’t know who the ghosts are, but I’m trying to learn. Please protect me from any evil that might be there. Put a shield around me and help me understand what is happening.” When I arrived, I was assigned my group, and we headed out for our first investigation. We walked around this 100-plus, deteriorating brick building. It had long hallways, and we found ourselves standing in the center of the building. It was well into dusk outside, so there was very little natural light, but we could still see the many doorways down the northern and southern halls. The debris from the crumbling building was considerable, and most of the windows had been broken out. The seven of us in our group stood quietly for about five minutes and then began to talk softly to one another. Suddenly, at the very end of the south hall, a dark shadow walked across the doorway. The doorway was approximately 60 feet away, and the shadow had crossed it from the right to the left. I asked the people in the group if any of them had seen anything down the hall. One woman that I noticed had been looking that direction said, “I was afraid to say it, but I saw a dark shadow cross the doorway.” I asked, “Which direction did it go?” “From right to left,” was her answer. I confirmed this, “That’s exactly what I saw.” We watched a moment longer and then saw the head of the shadow lean out into the doorway as if looking at us. Simultaneously, we said, “There it is again.” This time, a few others saw it, but by the time the rest of the group had spun around to take a look, it had darted back into the room. Then the lead investigator began to invite the spirit to come closer to us. She talked to the spirit for at least ten minutes, trying to convince it to come to us. As she spoke, the Holy Spirit of God whispered to me and said, “It will not come. They cannot come near you.” And I knew that God was answering my prayer. He had indeed put a shield of protection around me, and the spirit was evil. After about 30 minutes, we had no other viewings or excitement, so we all headed back to the meeting room to allow the groups the opportunity to exchange their stories. Then we would switch and go into another one of the haunted buildings. One group came back with a story of how they had all heard children laughing in the building they had investigated. They had experienced a fun and exciting time and were anxious to continue on to the next building. But I knew, as a result of my prayer, that nothing bad would happen with my group the rest of the night . . .