As a writer, it takes a certain amount of courage to write on controversial topics. Especially when your conclusions break with the traditional dogma of the day. Such has been the case with these posts. Since I have written my conclusions on ghosts, my blog has suffered another big drop off. But such is the way at times when you are trying to get people to reconsider ingrained thinking that gets in the way of actually seeing the texts for what it is. Yet the blunt fact of the matter is that what I am saying in these articles on ghosts is not innovative, nor is it new. These views go way back in history, but they have been buried under the current dogma of the "demonic deception" hypothesis which has its roots in the second century church father Tertullian. Yet his view wasn't common. Even Augustine (fourth century) held to a belief in ghosts. In fact, he once stated, "Some can be sent to the living from the dead, just as in the opposite direction divine Scripture testifies that Paul was snatched from the living into paradise. Samuel the prophet, although dead, predicted future events to King Saul, who was alive..." (The Care to Be Taken for the Dead 15:18). As we have seen in our posts on Purgatory, just because people in church history believed it, doesn't necessarily make it true. But as we have examined Scripture, this belief is justified; which is why that worldview is carried over from the OT to the NT and to the early church. I write all this to simply encourage those of you who are still reading to stick with it. We have not even begun to tap into the world of psychic phenomena. If you thought this was fascinating, just wait!
A few posts ago, I stated that I would later tell you about the concept of the "ritual pit' in the Old Testament. That is what I am going to do in this post, as well as talk about the "Rephaim". In the post on "1 Samuel 28 and the Ghost of Samuel," I mentioned that the phrase translated "medium" meant "one who has a spirit of the dead." We also looked at the word 'ob, and saw that it basically meant "ghost". In most Ancient Near Eastern languages, the term 'ob is associated with what is called the "ritual pit." The ritual pit is that which enables ghosts and underworld spirits to be contacted. This idea is found in the Old Testament, not only in 1 Samuel 28, but in Isaiah's prophecy of the coming siege of Jerusalem, "Then you shall be low; you shall speak from the earth, and your words will be low, from the dust. And your voice will be from the earth, like a ghost, and your word will whisper from the dust (Is. 29:4). This text gives reference to ghosts whispering from the earth, and reflects Isaiah's knowledge of the practice which was used by the medium of En-dor to summon Samuel from a ritual pit in the ground.
As far as the term "Rephaim" is concerned, it is an often misunderstood word by many people who read the Bible. The confusion happens because the Pentateuch mentions a clan of giants knows as "Rephaim", which makes understanding the prophets' use more difficult. Scholars are pretty much united in agreement that the term has two uses. In historical texts, it denotes giants, while in more poetic or prophetic texts, it denotes deceased humans. One example of the poetic use is Isaiah 14:9-10. Here Isaiah describes the disembodied spirits as "rephaim" or "shades", which means "ghosts of the dead" or "inhabitants of the netherworld" which we know is Sheol. "Sheol below is getting excited over you, to meet you when you come; it arouses the dead spirits for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all of the kings of the nations from their thrones"(14:9). The phrase "the dead spirits" is "rephaim" and is used two other times in Isaiah (26:14; 26:19). It is also used this way in Proverbs (2:18; 9:18; 21:16), Psalm 88:10, and Job 26:5. In commenting on this term, John Walton (whom many of you will remember from my posts on Satan) says in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary vol 4, "The dead were not viewed as completely separated from the living. Their spirit could be summoned back (e.g. 1 Sam. 29:11-30). The emphasis here is the powerlessness of the shades on the living, in contrast to the royal power they used to wield. 'Spirits' or 'shades' are the same as the Ugaritic rapium, who represent the departed Canaanite ancestors. They parallel 'the dead' (Isaiah 26:14) and are at times beneficent spirits, like Samuel, invoked to visit and aid." (pg. 72). The context, then, implies that the deceased human beings are "rephaim", and they are to be associated with the realm of the dead, whether good or evil, and can indeed be summoned.
What I have mentioned in this post provides more evidence that ghosts as departed human spirits were definitely in the worldview of those in the Old and New Testament. These truths that I have relayed to you from Scripture are the very truths that convinced me that not only does the Bible make room for ghosts, it clearly speaks of them. For me, this meant that I needed to change my worldview from the "demonic deception hypothesis" to the "ghosts are real" teaching that is in the Bible. If I have failed to convince you that the Bible speaks clearly on the subject of ghosts (though some questions still remain about trapped human spirits) then it is because of one of three things. 1) I have failed in my communication, 2) there is a refusal to acknowledge what I have presented, 3) trying to find a way in which one can explain away the texts presented, thus scrambling for a different way to interpret them. I am of the persuasion that if you are not convinced, it is because of #1, although #2 is a close second. As for #3 I believe the case is so sound for the Biblical arguments, that one would have to resort to some sort of eisegesis in order to dismiss the evidence.
Why am I so "hung up" (as some would say) on this issue of ghosts? If I haven't explained it adequately enough in the beginning of this series, I will try this approach: It is time for a new apologetic. What do I mean by that? For the first time since the Enlightenment, naturalism is losing serious ground. The bent of our culture is no longer atheism, but spiritism. It is time to switch the majority of our apologetic focus. I am not saying that we stop debating the naturalists, nor am I saying that we throw science in the trash can. Those of you who know me, and have read other stuff on my site, know with what high regards I hold the field of science. In fact, I would venture to say that there is much work to be done in the church in dismissing the myth that modern science and religion are not compatible. But back to my point. It is time for us to stop throwing all our money and time at naturalism. There is a tidal wave coming, and it is the rise of belief in the paranormal, etc. And we, the church, are not prepared for it to hit. If the past teaches us anything, I imagine what will happen is that the tidal wave will hit, and the church will be unprepared. She will be scrambling around, and then, 20 years later, she will finally be answering the questions that were originally posed. But by that time, half a generation is lost to parapsychology and spiritism, because they are already prepared to answer the questions.
I also find it sad that many in the church are almost as anit-supernatural as atheists. Talk about God; even talk about Jesus. But talk about the Holy Spirit and sign gifts; talk about angels and demons; talk about ghosts and most Christians get really uncomfortable. Forget the fact that they are mentioned all throughout Scripture; to even bring this up for study brings forth the accusation of focusing on "fringe" subjects and getting the focus off Christ. Well, if the mention of angels, demons, ghosts, and sign gifts were avenues to get the attention off of Christ, then we must stand in accusation against God for mentioning them so much in Scripture. Granted, some can get caught up obsessively in these things, but keeping both Christ and sound exegesis in the forefront guards us from such things. We should not avoid looking into these things because some have abused them. All our ignoring of the supernatural, promotion of cessationism (the belief that all the supernatural sign gifts have ceased) all stem from a root of unbelief. The backlash against some of the abuses of the Charismatic Movement and the false teachings of the Word of Faith cult have caused many Protestants to become more anti-supernatural than many non-believers in our own culture. We, more than any, should be willing to embrace a supernatural and paranormal worldview. In fact, if we don't we are going to become more and more irrelevant in this discussion, thus losing a prime opportunity for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In closing out this section, I would like to propose my own theory on ghosts and the afterlife, and how science and Scripture can converge on this subject. Again, this is just a theory, and I am still going to subject it to more test. Though vestiges of this theory come from the ideas of others, as far as I know, this theory as a whole is new. I don't have a name for it yet, only the idea.
First, it has been confirmed that every living thing has an aura around it. In fact, one famous Russian scientist has even captured proof of this energy field leaving the body upon death. It seems that when consciousness leaves the body, so does this energy field.
Second, the debate between whether a person is divided into spirit, soul, and body; soul and body; or monism plays an important part in this theory. Many scholars today support the idea of monism. Monism says that in Scripture, human beings are presented as an indissoluble unity. What this means is that the body and soul are not separate components of a person, but rather two facets or the united whole. It is argued that this concept more closely represents Hebrew thought than the body-soul dualism of the Greeks. This also seems more consistent with the physicalist interpretations of neuroscience, which indicates that quantum fluctuations play a part in our consciousness. This does not deny an immaterial aspect of humans, rather, it says that all things are dependent upon one another and function as a unified whole.
Before we move on, let's combine the two things I have mentioned. Some Christians have proposed that the aura surrounding our body is some kind of "astral" or "eternal" or "spirit" body. This aura is what makes certain experiences such as Out of Body Experiences and Near Death Experiences possible (more on this when we get to the sections on the psychic). Because our consciousness is dependent on some type of quantum fluctuation, this "astral" body is a quantum body in which our "consciousness" or soul takes up residence in until the resurrection. Upon the resurrection, we get our new bodies. These bodies are bodies which are totally animated by the Spirit. The new heavens and the new earth will be a uniting of all these dimensions in one, and because our new bodies will be bodies animated by the Spirit, we, as embodied beings, will be able to experience all these dimensions at once, in an embodied state.
Third, string theory also plays a role in this. String theory, if correct, proposes that there exists many higher dimensions that we cannot see. We live in a four dimensional reality - a space time reality, or the physical reality in which we inhabit. Upon freedom from this physical reality, and the uniting of our consciousness with our "quantum body" or "astral body", we are now able to exist in these higher dimensions with these other higher dimensional beings- God, angels, demons, etc. In essence, this is when we become an "elohim" like we talked about in 1 Samuel 28. We become a resident of the spirit realm.
Fourth, I propose that the intermediate state is more of a state of existence than it is an actual place. As we have seen before, Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, hold to ancient cosmology. The ancients had a three tiered view of the universe. Heaven, the dwelling place of God, was above; earth was in the middle; and Sheol/Hades was under the earth. Modern science helps us understand that though these places exists, they don't exists in the way they are presented in ancient cosmology. God adapted his message and communicated with His people in a way they would understand, so he used their cosmology to communicate truths to them about creation and the afterlife. For example, we know that the earth is not flat, nor is there a dome above it in which the sun, moon, and stars are hung. Also, if we dig down in the earth, we won't find Sheol. We also know that if we go above the earth, heaven is not there. So, where are they? I believe they are not higher or lower physical places, but higher dimensions of reality that exists in and around us. The same can be said when we talk about the transcendence of God. When we say God is above us, we don't literally mean "He is way up there in the clouds," rather, we mean that He, as a being, is so far different from us, that the separation is unfathomable. He is above us in all that He is, not so much where He lives. Therefore, when we die, we go to this higher dimension- Hades for the wicked; Paradise for the righteous. In the dimension of Paradise, the righteous experience the presence of God and will be serving him. Also, based on what we have studied, they still have some knowledge of what is going on here.
Let me expand on this more: Based on Scripture, we have seen that God, angels, demons, and ghosts, even though being "elohims" in the spirit realm, are still able to interact with our four dimensional reality. This means that when the dead enter these higher dimensions, they still are able to both see and access our four dimensional reality, as God allows. But what does this mean for the wicked dead? In Scripture, we are told that the wicked dead do not stand before God until after the resurrection and at the final judgement. This means that if Hades is a state of existence more than an actual holding cell, and if the dead still are able to interact with the living at times, then 1) The wicked dead know they are existing in a state of judgment, waiting to be punished, even though they have not stood before God yet. 2) Part of their suffering may be to dwell in this higher dimension, while seeing life (like the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus wanting to go and interact with his family to tell them about this place of suffering) unfold before their eyes, knowing that they cannot go back. 3) In desperation, there are times in which they try to interact with four dimensional reality. Such interaction would be them going back to where they used to live, doing things they used to do, etc. This would explain the phenomena of trapped spirits. Yet to their dismay, they are not able to interact in this world as they used to. Helping a ghost "cross over" would mean helping it realize that it must accept its fate. That there is no coming back, and that the decisions made in life are both final, and have determined their eternal destiny. They must therefore no longer try and interact with the world of the living. Remember what we have previously discussed: Nowhere does the Scripture seem to present the dead as being absolutely quarantined from the living. Neither does if forbid the idea of wandering spirits of the wicked. It is certainly within the rights of God to sentence certain spirits to this type of punishment, and understanding Hades more as a state of existence than an actual holding cell allows for this.
I still have more work to do, but I believe this theory makes the most sense when we consider all the information we gather from Scripture, science, and parapsychology/paranormal investigation. Your critique on this theory is welcome. I haven't embraced it yet, and won't, until it can stand up to criticism.
Before we move on to discussing hautings, I am going to pause in my writing and take this next week to repost everything I have written so far in this series. This will allow some of you to catch up on any posts that you've missed thus far.