Do You Believe In Ghosts?

Do you believe in ghosts? 

If you do you’re not alone. According to a CBS pole, 48% of Americans believe in Ghosts. 22% of that 48% say they have actually seen ghosts. This isn't surprising, the Human mind seems to be wired to see apparitions. Our minds naturally try to make sense out the formless things we see. Ethereal wisps of smoke, a flash mark in a picture, or a burnt piece of toast are given recognizable human faces or forms when you look at them long enough.

Our brains will also take random sounds and try to turn them into recognizable words. Take an old record and play it backwords. The sounds you hear are formless and completely unrecognizable at first. But if you take one phrase and play it over and over again you will begin to recognize a word or two. It is how our brains work.

As a result, we can easily write off the majority of ghostly encounters as over active imaginations or wishful thinking. However there are those who have experiences that can’t be explained so quickly. A shove in the back when you are all alone, objects that move on their own, or fly off shelves for no apparent reason. These sorts of things defy reality and demand an explanation, begging the question; Are Ghosts real?

A Shapeless Black Mass

It was about 3:00 in the afternoon when Walter awoke. It had been a lazy Sunday afternoon, a perfect day for a nap. The room was bright and house was silent. He was looking at the clock next to his bed when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. At he foot of the bed, but off to the side, a thing that could only be described as a shapeless black mass was floating toward his open bedroom door.

“I was completely awake, “Walter said, “I raised my head off my pillow to see this thing disappear into the living room. It went through the doorway inch by inch, like a train going into a tunnel. ” Walter jumped off the bed to investigate further but he found that it was gone, vanished into thin air.

Walter had written the apparition off until he came across a video on You Tube a few years latter. The video showed a black mass that had been photographed in someone else’s room. “There it was plain as day.” Walter reports that he personally had never seen anything like it before nor sense. He was unwilling to call it a ghost but he believes it was a spiritual encounter. When asked why he thinks so, he replied “There was something foreboding about it. You just knew it was supernatural; there is nothing in nature like it. A cloud perhaps, but this wasn’t a cloud, more like a black moving void.

A Pastors Opinion

Ghosts, demons, angels, shadow figures, black mass entities, all the things that go bump in the night are the stuff of legends and movies. Are they real or imagined? According Pastor Kevin Rushing of Calvary Chapel in Winnemucca NV, the effect these apparitions have on people are real. Like the majority of Christian Pastors, he believes in the supernatural, but views experiences from a biblical perspective.

When it comes to Ghosts, he tends to be more skeptical then you would think, “People react to what they believe they are seeing” said Pastor Kevin, “It doesn’t have to be real, the problem is the fear and bondage that the experience engenders.” When asked if he believes in ghosts? His answered “no, at least not the way Hollywood portrays them.”

“Ghosts are not dead people that have remained to haunt homes or people.” He believes that the bible is clear. When a person dies, their spirit is taken, not left to wander and roam. (2 Corinthians 5:6) He points out, scripturally speaking; apparitions of dead people act more like visions, “Paul the Apostle had a vision of heaven that was so real that he couldn't tell if he was dead or alive. (2 Corinthians 12:3)” Pastor Kevin explained that the majority of apparitions are nothing more then a visual encounter. He believes that people may be shown visions of dead people, or black mass entities by satanic forces for any number of reasons. At the very least, they create fear and worry, and in some cases, they cause people to turn to the occult. If there is no actual physical contact or interaction, Pastor Kevin doubts that it is a manifested spirit.

Real Not Imagined

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Christianity promises freedom from demonic forces. If you or someone you love is experiencing physical manifestations such as objects moving about or something worse. Pastors like Kevin would tell you not to be fooled into thinking it is a dead relative. You are dealing with satanic forces designed to harass and enslave you. Forces that are determined to keep you from Christ Jesus and the freedom that is found in him.