Do you believe in ghosts? Matthew 14:26 does.

S

Santana Aug 8, 2007

Ok, just wondering...

1.) Why would the disciples say

...they were terrified, and said, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out in fear.

if ghosts didn't exist. I'm not talking about the silly Halloween white sheets or Patrick Swazye :-P What kind of ghosts are the disciples making reference to?

2.) Why is it sometimes refered to the Holy Ghost?

"Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." -Mat. 27:50

3.) And lastly, what about Samuel's ghost, that Saul made the witch of Endor bring up?

PS- I'm grateful there's a site I can bring my random questions to.

B

bat21win Aug 8, 2007

Well, you know. I was talking to someone at church the other day, and she did a pretty good job of summing it up.

She said that when she was going through training to be a missionary, she had one instructor tell her this:

"When you leave the United States and go into the more 3rd world countries, or even here, into area's less affected by civilization, you'll see things. Things that, if you were to write home about to your church, would probably get you cut off. Because they'll think that you've lost it."

Chances are the translation was a little skewed. What they probably meant was "spirit", instead of "ghost".

Demons can take on any form that they find most beneficial. Now, the Lord may have allowed Samuel to actually speak to Saul, but normally, when you attempt to contact a dead person, you are speaking w/ a demon masquerading as the person.

J

jordanamo Aug 8, 2007

Look at the context? Your in a fishing boat and you see a person on the water, maybe their glowing or something (Jesus possibly was)... what else would you think it was? It's also dark. So you see this glowing thing and...

"Oh, that's the Messiah!"

No.

"That's a ghost!"

Yes.

The disciples were human just like us, and reacted with human emotions. They were children then too, they hadn't yet really fully attained to an understanding of Jesus, and hadn't yet been baptized in the Spirit even. They were children.

So, this verse is not saying ghosts exist. That is viewing it out of its context and really is bad exegesis. Ghosts do not exist. That would be against the whole Bible. When you die, no one stays here on earth roaming around. Now, "spirits" do exist. That may be what the Greek here is saying, I don't know though. Only the Fallen Angels can roam the earth, not dead people's spirits or whatever.

Jordan

sermonindex Aug 8, 2007

I think this should be on the Scriptures and Doctrine thread. (It would make a nice change from endless discussion re Calvinism, or the mechanics of holiness!) :-)

The word for "spirit" is "pneuma"; but the word used in this passage is "phantasma", phantom, ghost.

But, as has been said, it's understandable that the disciples ~~[i]~~thought[/i] He was a ghost.

I read somewhere that there would probably have been a good moon that night, at least when the clouds didn't cover it. There wouldn't have been any need in that case for Jesus to glow or anything, though that's possible too.

Blessings

Jeannette

sermonindex Aug 9, 2007

There is also

Matthew 27
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

and

Mark 12
25 "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
26 "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the ~~[i]~~burning[/i] bush ~~[i]~~passage,[/i] how God spoke to him, saying, 'I ~~[i]~~am[/i] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
27 "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken."

In seventeenth century England, there was a move by some (not Christians) to say they didn't believe in life after death.

This was termed 'Sadduceeism' by a churchman called Joseph Glanvill, who preached fervently in favour of believing we can expect resurrection, and wrote a paper about it which he presented to the Royal Society, newly formed by the king, Charles II, whose members were interested in philosophy and science. Most were Christian, as it was illegal to miss church without a proper excuse. :-?