Hello everyone! I pray all of you had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year. As always.
I’ve been asked this question at least a couple hundred times in the last 10 months. I can’t give a definitive answer because we can’t even prove the Supernatural exists. I feel however, it’s a very good possibility obsessing over something enough it could very well be created by your own obsession. Just like a poltergeist. But on the other side of that coin sometimes I feel if enough people give something enough of the right attention could very well possibly ‘Will’ it to life. I did a lot of researching in addition to just my humble opinion. There isn’t a whole lot of information but I am sharing what I found.
FYI: Another McKamey Blog coming soon. This TORTURE TRAP (as many call it) will never go away. Just switches to a new dump.
Speaking negatively can take a toll on you. You might hear “Oh I'm not as good at work as Susie.” so I should beat myself up because that voice starts messing with you. The human mind is the devils playground. Don’t allow him to drag you down. Take authority In Jesus name. Command them to flee at once. Stand your ground.
When one is for lack of better words having trouble, negative self talk is said to be one's inner thoughts you have with yourself. It’s not healthy either. Any bad thoughts will hinder you through life. that diminishes you and confidence in your ability to do so. Because of this, negative thoughts of yourself just get worse. It’s easier said than done.
Tulpa (Wiki)
“Something related to this subject is called a Tulpa. It’s said an entity created in the mind, acting independently of, and parallel to your own consciousness. They are able to think, and have their own free will, emotions, and memories. In short, a tulpa is like a sentient person living in your head, separate from you. It’s currently unproven whether or not tulpas are truly sentient, but in this community, we treat them as such. It takes time for a tulpa to develop a convincing and complex personality; as they grow older, your attention and their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs.
“You’ll create a tulpa by imagining a person in your head, and treating them as a person. The exact mechanism is unknown, but as you give a tulpa attention, and believe it can be a sentient person, it will grow into one, and act independently of you. At first, you will be narrating to your tulpa—speaking to it, and visualizing it in your mind—and with time, you’ll be able to communicate through various methods, which will be described in the next section. Keep in mind that when a tulpa starts talking, it doesn’t mean that they are complete, or finished by any means. Like any person, a tulpa is never “done”, and you shouldn’t be going for a finished tulpa, when you make one. You should be focused on nurturing and teaching your tulpa, and allowing them to grow as a person with you, while at the same time you learn about yourself, and grow as a person in turn. It takes time and effort to make a tulpa into a self-sufficient and balanced individual, and their independence and personality will grow and flourish over time, like any regular human being’s. Creating a tulpa means committing to raising and living with another person.” I could go further into it but I’ll do another blog on Tulpas. It was very interesting.”
So can we will something into existence? I do not know? I can’t answer that however, nothing would surprise me. I’ve seen a lot in my life so I’m not surprised but it’s too dangerous. We need Jesus. In his name we are safe. Not everyone has bad intentions. Some just don’t realize there is a supernatural world that really exists.
Remember imaginary friends? Some of that has been a bit more to it. Is the law of attraction working in this particular manner? You give something enough attention and you can’t control it will become very dangerous because you just don’t know what is really lurking. There’s nothing Jesus Christ can handle.
Until next time may your days be bright and your thoughts be bright.
Written By Jennifer Auld
Looking inside the spiritual & literary worlds
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Who is the Holy Spirit and What does He Do?
By Reverend Mark Hunnemann
Many Christians can relate easily to Jesus because He is human, as well as God—and also being called the ‘Son’ is easily grasped on an emotional level. But the Holy Spirit, not to mention the Holy ‘Ghost’ (due to cold, paranormal connotations for some), seems to be less understood.
But once we are saved (through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit), what happens between our salvation and the time of our death? That is a long time…and the Holy Spirit is indispensable for the living of the Christian life. It is imperative that we understand what He does during our stay on earth. And certainly one of the greatest gifts of the New Covenant is the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers—I say ‘full’ because, in order to be saved in the OT, they had to have some measure of the Holy Spirit.
In our discussion of the Trinity, we talked about the full deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. What I want to focus on in this segment is what He does. I am going to put His work under four headings: empowerment, purifying, reveals, and unifies.
1. Empowerment: The great Cappadocian Father, Basil (330-379) stated that the Holy Spirit was ‘Christ’s inseparable companion.’ When Mary wondered aloud as to how she might get pregnant the Lord said: 35And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be borne will be called holy—the Son of God. (Luke 2:35) His virginal conception is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus throughout His entire ministry and life.
As we shall see, from womb to tomb, the Holy Spirit was indeed Jesus’ constant companion. During the ‘hidden years’ we may assume that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus always. From the same psalm in which we have the terrible cry of dereliction, which Jesus screamed from the cross are these words, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” (Ps 22) We see a continuity of intimacy with God (through the Holy Spirit) throughout His life.
When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove, and then Mark tells us that the Spirit ‘drove’ Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. But the Spirit did not leave Him alone during this trial. And when He had defeated Satan, Luke says that He came out from this ordeal in the power of the Spirit and began His public ministry. (4:14)
Indeed, at Jesus’ first sermon He quoted from Isaiah 61: 1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;a
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound”
So, a defining trait of the coming Messiah, as foretold by Isaiah, would be that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. We are told in the gospels that He drove demons out by the Spirit of God, revealing that the Kingdom had arrived. Finally, when Jesus rose from the dead we are told that the Spirit played a significant part in this as well.(Rom.1:4) And in His discourse in John 14-17, the coming of the Holy Spirit in His fullness was to be viewed as a gift. Jesus was the original Paraclete but He would send another, and He told His disciple (and us) that it was to our advantage that He leave, in order for the Holy Spirit to come in fullness—which occurred at Pentecost. I once had a case in which there was a mighty rushing of wind which shook the house but it was an unholy mimicry of Pentecost in my view.
If Jesus’ life was empowered by the Holy Spirit, then how much more does our life need to be empowered by Him! As Jesus said in John 15, without Him we can do nothing—nothing to please God that is.
“but be filled with the Spirit”, (Eph.5:18) This present participle indicates that though we receive the Holy Spirit definitely at conversion, there is an absolute need to continually keep being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ to be empowered to bear fruit.
We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is a Person (who can be grieved or pleased). That He empowers us does not mean that He is a celestial battery from which we gather energy—He is intensely Personal because he is the third Person of the Trinity. We commune with Him existentially (moment by moment).
Christ has baptized us by the Spirit into the Body of Christ in which we celebrate the diversity of Spirit given gifts because we need each other.(1 Cor. 12:13) And we too have access to the power of God in our lives and ministries. Through the Spirit and the work of Christ we have power over the demonic and Satan himself. God Himself dwells within believers! Do you consciously rely upon the Holy Spirit?
2. Second, the Holy Spirit purifies us. He makes us increasingly holy. Surely it is very significant that His name is the HOLY Spirit! He Himself is utterly morally pure, as well as being transcendent or set apart.
But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.(John 16:8-11)
In John 3:3-6 (Eph. 1-2) the Spirit awakens dead sinners to see their need of a Savior. He regenerates them and gives us the ability and desire to believe and repent. Without the work of the Holy Spirit applying the work of Christ, there would be no believers. But after initially purifying us through faith, He continues His role of sanctifier by changing us from one degree of glory to the next. (2 Cor. 3:18) Becoming more Jesus-like is the Spirit’s goal in our lives.
Over a period of time we should see change in our character. The fruit of the Spirit should become increasingly evident in our lives—an observable love which testifies to the Holy Spirit within. Problems with anger and bitterness should gradually be broken.
It is important that we pray before we make decisions, even for ministry opportunities or we may get there and a sense a deadness. Suppose you are in a situation in which you have made a commitment but something else important comes up and you are confused as to what to do. Instead of stressing out, say something like: ‘Father, I know that you have some resolution to this problem. Please reveal it to me.’ And wait to see what happens. It is easy to get stressed out and this one single bit of advice could change your life. Discerning the Spirit is a habit that takes trial and error for us to learn over time. I have made quick decisions which I wished later I had prayed more about. Is there anything in your life that needs purifying? We will all be ‘under construction’ until the Holy Spirit brings us home—He is the seal and guarantee of our glorification.
3. Thirdly, the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal. “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”(2 Pet.1:21) Peter is saying that the OT prophets were guided by the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s mind and purposes to us. Many Christians are canonically challenged: meaning that they do not read the OT much. But every major doctrine in the NT finds its origin and foundation in OT, and probably within first 3 chapters of Genesis—and then expounded in more detail as OT progressed. I think we grieve the Holy Spirit when we do not read these books which is said to have been written by men ‘carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Regarding the revealing of God in NT Jesus says: 12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-14)
This is sometimes misapplied by Christians because clearly the primary meaning of this text is Jesus preparing His apostles for their foundational role in the church as being agents of revelation. Meaning that the primary focus of this text is the prediction of the coming NT—God’s written revelation.
So, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit we need to be men and women of the Word because the Holy Spirit speaks to us primarily to us through His Word.
When it comes to personal guidance by the Holy Spirit there are two opposite errors to avoid. The first is to be too subjective: ‘The Holy Spirit told me to do this, and He told me to do that.” There is a strong over-reliance on feelings to the neglect of the brain God gave us, and His Word (along with counsel of other people) I have seen the craziest things said and done all in the name of what people felt God had told them to do. It is interesting in the council of Acts 15 that there was a lot of discussion first, before coming to a conclusion: and they said that it ‘seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” The Holy Spirit usually does not bypass the brain in guiding us in specific situations.
The other error is to be too rational—relying too much on the brain to the neglect of the feelings/emotions and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. Often after spending time in the Word and praying for a matter, and then waiting on God, a solution will come that ‘feels right’ and from the Lord. It is difficult to express this in words, but if we pray and wait upon the Lord, and not flip out when problems arise, then He will guide us. But this often comes in the form of advice from godly friends. Again, if you find yourself in a mess of a situation, then pray: ”Lord, I believe that You have a good solution to this.” And wait to see what happens—perhaps some new factor will arise or God will make it clear though His providence.
4. The Holy Spirit works to bring unity to believers. In the High Priestly prayer in John 17 Jesus actually says that the loving unity of believers is the final apologetic: an observable, costly love from Christians (especially to other believers) will testify to the truth of our faith. The world often separates over differences, but the diversity in the Body is God ordained and we need each other. God gives different passions and gifts to us as individuals, all within the unity of the Body.
Some evangelical leaders are compromising on the gospel by allying with Roman Catholics (whose view of salvation is seriously wrong) or rejecting penal substitution. The point is that in seeking unity, it must not be done at the expense of truth and the holiness and purity of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we have to set aside non-essential differences in order to give glory to God through the unity of believers. Some folks will call anyone ‘heretic’ who does not believe in every jot and tittle of their belief system. We have to rely on common sense and the leading of the Holy Spirit to know when to say ‘when’. Certain issues are non-negotiable and God the Holy Spirit does not want us to waffle on those in an attempt to have a shallow unity. Grace and truth, holiness and love—we need both to be bold and effective witnesses and to please the Holy Spirit.
Of all the Persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the most intimate with believers because He actually indwells us (and through Him, the Trinity). It should be our passion to walk moment by moment, keeping in step with the Spirit.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Many Christians can relate easily to Jesus because He is human, as well as God—and also being called the ‘Son’ is easily grasped on an emotional level. But the Holy Spirit, not to mention the Holy ‘Ghost’ (due to cold, paranormal connotations for some), seems to be less understood.
But once we are saved (through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit), what happens between our salvation and the time of our death? That is a long time…and the Holy Spirit is indispensable for the living of the Christian life. It is imperative that we understand what He does during our stay on earth. And certainly one of the greatest gifts of the New Covenant is the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers—I say ‘full’ because, in order to be saved in the OT, they had to have some measure of the Holy Spirit.
In our discussion of the Trinity, we talked about the full deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. What I want to focus on in this segment is what He does. I am going to put His work under four headings: empowerment, purifying, reveals, and unifies.
1. Empowerment: The great Cappadocian Father, Basil (330-379) stated that the Holy Spirit was ‘Christ’s inseparable companion.’ When Mary wondered aloud as to how she might get pregnant the Lord said: 35And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be borne will be called holy—the Son of God. (Luke 2:35) His virginal conception is accomplished through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus throughout His entire ministry and life.
As we shall see, from womb to tomb, the Holy Spirit was indeed Jesus’ constant companion. During the ‘hidden years’ we may assume that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus always. From the same psalm in which we have the terrible cry of dereliction, which Jesus screamed from the cross are these words, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” (Ps 22) We see a continuity of intimacy with God (through the Holy Spirit) throughout His life.
When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove, and then Mark tells us that the Spirit ‘drove’ Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. But the Spirit did not leave Him alone during this trial. And when He had defeated Satan, Luke says that He came out from this ordeal in the power of the Spirit and began His public ministry. (4:14)
Indeed, at Jesus’ first sermon He quoted from Isaiah 61: 1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;a
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound”
So, a defining trait of the coming Messiah, as foretold by Isaiah, would be that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. We are told in the gospels that He drove demons out by the Spirit of God, revealing that the Kingdom had arrived. Finally, when Jesus rose from the dead we are told that the Spirit played a significant part in this as well.(Rom.1:4) And in His discourse in John 14-17, the coming of the Holy Spirit in His fullness was to be viewed as a gift. Jesus was the original Paraclete but He would send another, and He told His disciple (and us) that it was to our advantage that He leave, in order for the Holy Spirit to come in fullness—which occurred at Pentecost. I once had a case in which there was a mighty rushing of wind which shook the house but it was an unholy mimicry of Pentecost in my view.
If Jesus’ life was empowered by the Holy Spirit, then how much more does our life need to be empowered by Him! As Jesus said in John 15, without Him we can do nothing—nothing to please God that is.
“but be filled with the Spirit”, (Eph.5:18) This present participle indicates that though we receive the Holy Spirit definitely at conversion, there is an absolute need to continually keep being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ to be empowered to bear fruit.
We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is a Person (who can be grieved or pleased). That He empowers us does not mean that He is a celestial battery from which we gather energy—He is intensely Personal because he is the third Person of the Trinity. We commune with Him existentially (moment by moment).
Christ has baptized us by the Spirit into the Body of Christ in which we celebrate the diversity of Spirit given gifts because we need each other.(1 Cor. 12:13) And we too have access to the power of God in our lives and ministries. Through the Spirit and the work of Christ we have power over the demonic and Satan himself. God Himself dwells within believers! Do you consciously rely upon the Holy Spirit?
2. Second, the Holy Spirit purifies us. He makes us increasingly holy. Surely it is very significant that His name is the HOLY Spirit! He Himself is utterly morally pure, as well as being transcendent or set apart.
But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.(John 16:8-11)
In John 3:3-6 (Eph. 1-2) the Spirit awakens dead sinners to see their need of a Savior. He regenerates them and gives us the ability and desire to believe and repent. Without the work of the Holy Spirit applying the work of Christ, there would be no believers. But after initially purifying us through faith, He continues His role of sanctifier by changing us from one degree of glory to the next. (2 Cor. 3:18) Becoming more Jesus-like is the Spirit’s goal in our lives.
Over a period of time we should see change in our character. The fruit of the Spirit should become increasingly evident in our lives—an observable love which testifies to the Holy Spirit within. Problems with anger and bitterness should gradually be broken.
It is important that we pray before we make decisions, even for ministry opportunities or we may get there and a sense a deadness. Suppose you are in a situation in which you have made a commitment but something else important comes up and you are confused as to what to do. Instead of stressing out, say something like: ‘Father, I know that you have some resolution to this problem. Please reveal it to me.’ And wait to see what happens. It is easy to get stressed out and this one single bit of advice could change your life. Discerning the Spirit is a habit that takes trial and error for us to learn over time. I have made quick decisions which I wished later I had prayed more about. Is there anything in your life that needs purifying? We will all be ‘under construction’ until the Holy Spirit brings us home—He is the seal and guarantee of our glorification.
3. Thirdly, the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal. “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”(2 Pet.1:21) Peter is saying that the OT prophets were guided by the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s mind and purposes to us. Many Christians are canonically challenged: meaning that they do not read the OT much. But every major doctrine in the NT finds its origin and foundation in OT, and probably within first 3 chapters of Genesis—and then expounded in more detail as OT progressed. I think we grieve the Holy Spirit when we do not read these books which is said to have been written by men ‘carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Regarding the revealing of God in NT Jesus says: 12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12-14)
This is sometimes misapplied by Christians because clearly the primary meaning of this text is Jesus preparing His apostles for their foundational role in the church as being agents of revelation. Meaning that the primary focus of this text is the prediction of the coming NT—God’s written revelation.
So, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit we need to be men and women of the Word because the Holy Spirit speaks to us primarily to us through His Word.
When it comes to personal guidance by the Holy Spirit there are two opposite errors to avoid. The first is to be too subjective: ‘The Holy Spirit told me to do this, and He told me to do that.” There is a strong over-reliance on feelings to the neglect of the brain God gave us, and His Word (along with counsel of other people) I have seen the craziest things said and done all in the name of what people felt God had told them to do. It is interesting in the council of Acts 15 that there was a lot of discussion first, before coming to a conclusion: and they said that it ‘seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” The Holy Spirit usually does not bypass the brain in guiding us in specific situations.
The other error is to be too rational—relying too much on the brain to the neglect of the feelings/emotions and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. Often after spending time in the Word and praying for a matter, and then waiting on God, a solution will come that ‘feels right’ and from the Lord. It is difficult to express this in words, but if we pray and wait upon the Lord, and not flip out when problems arise, then He will guide us. But this often comes in the form of advice from godly friends. Again, if you find yourself in a mess of a situation, then pray: ”Lord, I believe that You have a good solution to this.” And wait to see what happens—perhaps some new factor will arise or God will make it clear though His providence.
4. The Holy Spirit works to bring unity to believers. In the High Priestly prayer in John 17 Jesus actually says that the loving unity of believers is the final apologetic: an observable, costly love from Christians (especially to other believers) will testify to the truth of our faith. The world often separates over differences, but the diversity in the Body is God ordained and we need each other. God gives different passions and gifts to us as individuals, all within the unity of the Body.
Some evangelical leaders are compromising on the gospel by allying with Roman Catholics (whose view of salvation is seriously wrong) or rejecting penal substitution. The point is that in seeking unity, it must not be done at the expense of truth and the holiness and purity of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we have to set aside non-essential differences in order to give glory to God through the unity of believers. Some folks will call anyone ‘heretic’ who does not believe in every jot and tittle of their belief system. We have to rely on common sense and the leading of the Holy Spirit to know when to say ‘when’. Certain issues are non-negotiable and God the Holy Spirit does not want us to waffle on those in an attempt to have a shallow unity. Grace and truth, holiness and love—we need both to be bold and effective witnesses and to please the Holy Spirit.
Of all the Persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the most intimate with believers because He actually indwells us (and through Him, the Trinity). It should be our passion to walk moment by moment, keeping in step with the Spirit.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Haunted Objects: Residual Energy - Part 5
By Reverend Mark Hunnemann
The series so far:
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 1
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 2
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 3
Distinguishing Between Intelligent Haunts & Residual Haunts - Part 4
In this chapter we are going to expand our analysis of residual energy/haunts to alleged residually haunted objects—objects which are haunted with residual energy. There is no doubt that some objects, like some homes, are ‘odd’—they are purchased and bad things start to happen—too many to explain away as coincidence. Can objects retain negative energy much like the environment in which there is an alleged residual haunt? The only difference it would seem is that the alleged residual energy is localized in the object itself. Perhaps you have heard of John Zaffis and his show “The Haunted Collector”? I watched several episodes and often he would refer to objects ‘absolutely’ would retain the negative energy of the people and events associated with them. A few of the more well known haunted objects are: the Dibbuk box, Annabelle the doll, and the mirror at Myrtles Plantation.
Speaking of John Zaffis, Lisa Hix says: “What parapsychologists refer to as a ‘haunting’ is like what you and I would think of as a recording. Residual energy is trapped in whatever object it is, and it replays itself. There’s nothing intelligent about it. It just plays the same thing over and over.” Lisa Hix
Several things I want to say.
1. There seems to be a general consensus by paranormal investigators that objects can be haunted either by ghosts or residual energy but we are going to focus on residual energy being retained in an object. Humans MUST go before the Sovereign Judge of heaven and earth immediately after death, so they cannot haunt an object or a house, but that is topic for another day. ‘Seeing Ghosts through God's Eyes’ is my analysis of the ghost issue. The question is this: can a traumatic event associated with an object cause that object to retain the negative energy of that event? For example, if a sword was used to murder someone could it retain that energy? Could this object become a place memory—a recording tape of this event by storing its energy?
2. The short answer is an emphatic NO! Everything I said re residual energy/haunts applies directly to this issue because the exact same phenomenon is said to happen, except it is localized in a single object and not entire surroundings of home/office.
If..if there was a transfer of energy during this murder, what kind of energy is it? Electrical, thermal, chemical? Second, whatever energy was emitted from the event when the blade struck its victim, this energy would immediately dissipate into the atmosphere. Imagine putting a drop of food coloring in the ocean. Is it destroyed? No, but it might as well be because it is so watered down that it is virtually gone-- thousands of miles of ocean. Same with emitted energy-it must dissipate into the earth's atmosphere 100 miles high surrounding the earth. I have a space heater in front of my chair in which I am writing. It will warm up this small area but it will not heat the entire room--why not? The thermal energy dissipates. Neither will the heat coming out of it make a bee-line for an object in my room and store there and keep in hot indefinitely. An object like this sword or an antique cannot retain energy any more than your room will stay warm once you turn the heat off. Energy is energy and cannot remain clustered in an object any more than a drop of food coloring will stay clustered together if you drop it in the ocean/glass.
As long as ice melts in liquid warmer than it, then the second and third laws of thermodynamics are absolutely valid. One man tried to argue that it had questions raised recently but I’ve studied the literature and in the real world it is still absolute.
My point is that an object cannot be haunted by residual energy because energy cannot remain stored in the object. To state otherwise is to contradict one of the most basic, absolute laws of science-God’s laws in nature. Remember, I am not disputing an object can be ‘haunted’—I’m just saying, as I did with residual haunting in general, it cannot be caused by natural forces. If you have not read my earlier chapters on residual energy, please do because I don’t want to repeat myself, and I need to address another question. How do you distinguish between an object haunted by ghost and residual energy? That encounters the same insuperable problems associated with intelligent and residual haunts.
3. If it is not residual energy causing the object to be haunted what is? Well, first it is not ‘haunted’? Nor is it possessed—only conscious beings can be possessed. A doll cannot be possessed. However, demons are very territorial and for various reasons they do attach to objects just as they attach to homes and people. Some people and many animals are sensitive to the presence of the demonic attached to an object. They will stare or bark at it for hours.
Lisa Hix states the following: On his FAQ at the Museum of the Paranormal, Zaffis agrees that such phenomena are all about energy, but he has a different theory about how the energy got there. “With most of the items in the museum, they have been used in rituals, usually when spells are being cast,” he writes. “Although the items are not ‘possessed,’ … items can hold energy within or around them, and it is usually the result of the energy being sent to the object by an individual.”
He is half-way right there. What I thought instructive is that this expert in occult objects recognizes that there is a common theme or back-story to these objects—ritualistic activity, spell casting or curses being sent by an individual are attached to an object. The curse or ritual summons a demon who then is all too happy to attach to this object; giving it a legal right to attach and attack its owners. Demons, not negative energy, haunt objects. It is pure evil and we need to stop calling it negative energy.
Contrary to what the well known psychic Sylvia Browne said: “There’s no such thing as a curse. That’s just a goofy fortune-teller’s way of getting money.” No ma'am..you are wrong. Dead wrong.
Just as demons attach to dead idols that people worship (1 Cor. 10, etc.), so they can attach to objects that have been presented in an occultic ritualistic fashion. An example might be the sword of a Freemason. My dear friend Laura Maxwell told me today of a lovely piece of jewelry that was given to her, but she got weird vibes off it. She later discovered that it was a Hindu object, and she got rid of it. This is instructive because it illustrates how common this problem is, and how anybody may be affected by it. Much artwork or furniture or jewelry was crafted by pagans with pagan intentions or occultic symbolism. And as Zaffis reminds us, most of the infested/cursed objects are due to some form of rituals in which spells are being cast; that kind of activity is precisely what opens doors to demonic. That is a very significant point and fits hand in glove with our premise of demonic intervention. If you curse something, then it is an open invitation for demonic attachment; ‘legal rights’ have been granted to it/them.
Or take the sword we talked about earlier used in a murder: that MAY cause a demon to become attached to it because it took the life of God’s image bearer—thus an attack on God Himself. On one case, my client’s husband had been in special forces and was dispatched to Iraq. He was a sniper and he had this tiny troll doll he put on his gun barrel, which was used to kill many people, and he brought it home and was obsessed with it. He placed it here, and then he placed it there, and then it started moving on its own. In addition, he also brought home objects from Saddam Hussein’s palace (one of them)—pictures—one of the dogs playing cards….others more occult looking. Due to all the murder, torture, sexual uncleaness, and madness that took place in his palaces, it’s no wonder that they are infested, and the objects in them. No doubt these were part of the reason this woman’s home was being terrorized.
She had been having sex with her boyfriend and he started experiencing problems due to his close connection to the infestation. I instructed them to stop but they didn’t listen, and he became partially possessed—eyes turned black, loss of memory, and aberrant behavior; and a minor exorcism had to be performed. So, ‘haunted objects’ can cause one’s life to turn into a living nightmare; even something as small as a one-inch troll doll. When we went through all of his ‘stuff’ and either tossed it or blessed it, a shadow demon was seen fleeing from the storage building.
So, the source of an objects ‘haunting’ is the demonic and not residual energy.
4. How is obtained? It seems that antique stores are especially vulnerable because you have old objects and you have no idea what kind of people previously owned it. Also, if they had demonic activity in their home, it also may attach to particular objects in the home. Care must be taken when buying antiques or even used items or clothes.
Don’t be paranoid because junking is supposed to be fun! You just need to be familiar with occult symbols. Be especially aware of items that might have some connection with a fraternal organization, like Freemasonry. If it feels weird, better safe than sorry.
And if activity begins in your home after buying an object then the best thing to do is get rid of it.
5. How do I get rid of it? Get rid of it! Don’t do EMF readings or especially do not do EVPs—that will make it worse. Don’t do like Zaffis and now Zak Bagans and start your your own haunted museum! I used to collect items I took from people’s homes but I learned that it was better to just throw it out…which is what I did. If it is a very expensive item, you may try expelling the demon or getting help to do so. But if you are confident the object is cursed then the best thing to do is dump it in the trash, burn it, or bury it. The bible has examples of godly people doing all three with occult objects. Pray the blood of Jesus to bind the demons…and to forbid them from following you home. For example, it is needed to ‘close’ a Ouija Board before you burn it or it will just leave the object and possibly attach to you.
Once again, if someone has mis-identified the nature of the problem with the object then it could cause serious problems. If you are told that it is merely residual energy and not harmful, and you decide to hang onto the item, then your life may turn into a wide-awake nightmare. Whatever demon/s associated with the object, will eventually begin to turn upon its owner. They do not care as much about things as they do wrecking and breaking people down, and pulverizing them. So, whether the ‘spiritual cancer’ is in the home or attached to an object, it will wreck havoc in a multitude of ways. Get rid of it!
If you have been exposed to a demon attached object then it has had an affect on you. Realize that just because you were baptized does not mean you are saved. Nor does a simple belief in the existence of God and Jesus save you. First step is to ask Christ to save you if you haven’t already: confess that you have fallen short of His holy laws and need to be forgiven…ask Christ to forgive you and turn from your self centered life to having Jesus as the leader of your life. Open up your empty hands of faith and accept God’s free gift of salvation which Christ earned for you—and bow before the finished work of Christ on the cross. As Jesus to forgive your sins and He will—past, present and future. And eternal life is a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
The series so far:
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 1
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 2
Residual Energy And Haunts by Mark Hunnemann - Part 3
Distinguishing Between Intelligent Haunts & Residual Haunts - Part 4
In this chapter we are going to expand our analysis of residual energy/haunts to alleged residually haunted objects—objects which are haunted with residual energy. There is no doubt that some objects, like some homes, are ‘odd’—they are purchased and bad things start to happen—too many to explain away as coincidence. Can objects retain negative energy much like the environment in which there is an alleged residual haunt? The only difference it would seem is that the alleged residual energy is localized in the object itself. Perhaps you have heard of John Zaffis and his show “The Haunted Collector”? I watched several episodes and often he would refer to objects ‘absolutely’ would retain the negative energy of the people and events associated with them. A few of the more well known haunted objects are: the Dibbuk box, Annabelle the doll, and the mirror at Myrtles Plantation.
Speaking of John Zaffis, Lisa Hix says: “What parapsychologists refer to as a ‘haunting’ is like what you and I would think of as a recording. Residual energy is trapped in whatever object it is, and it replays itself. There’s nothing intelligent about it. It just plays the same thing over and over.” Lisa Hix
Several things I want to say.
1. There seems to be a general consensus by paranormal investigators that objects can be haunted either by ghosts or residual energy but we are going to focus on residual energy being retained in an object. Humans MUST go before the Sovereign Judge of heaven and earth immediately after death, so they cannot haunt an object or a house, but that is topic for another day. ‘Seeing Ghosts through God's Eyes’ is my analysis of the ghost issue. The question is this: can a traumatic event associated with an object cause that object to retain the negative energy of that event? For example, if a sword was used to murder someone could it retain that energy? Could this object become a place memory—a recording tape of this event by storing its energy?
2. The short answer is an emphatic NO! Everything I said re residual energy/haunts applies directly to this issue because the exact same phenomenon is said to happen, except it is localized in a single object and not entire surroundings of home/office.
If..if there was a transfer of energy during this murder, what kind of energy is it? Electrical, thermal, chemical? Second, whatever energy was emitted from the event when the blade struck its victim, this energy would immediately dissipate into the atmosphere. Imagine putting a drop of food coloring in the ocean. Is it destroyed? No, but it might as well be because it is so watered down that it is virtually gone-- thousands of miles of ocean. Same with emitted energy-it must dissipate into the earth's atmosphere 100 miles high surrounding the earth. I have a space heater in front of my chair in which I am writing. It will warm up this small area but it will not heat the entire room--why not? The thermal energy dissipates. Neither will the heat coming out of it make a bee-line for an object in my room and store there and keep in hot indefinitely. An object like this sword or an antique cannot retain energy any more than your room will stay warm once you turn the heat off. Energy is energy and cannot remain clustered in an object any more than a drop of food coloring will stay clustered together if you drop it in the ocean/glass.
As long as ice melts in liquid warmer than it, then the second and third laws of thermodynamics are absolutely valid. One man tried to argue that it had questions raised recently but I’ve studied the literature and in the real world it is still absolute.
My point is that an object cannot be haunted by residual energy because energy cannot remain stored in the object. To state otherwise is to contradict one of the most basic, absolute laws of science-God’s laws in nature. Remember, I am not disputing an object can be ‘haunted’—I’m just saying, as I did with residual haunting in general, it cannot be caused by natural forces. If you have not read my earlier chapters on residual energy, please do because I don’t want to repeat myself, and I need to address another question. How do you distinguish between an object haunted by ghost and residual energy? That encounters the same insuperable problems associated with intelligent and residual haunts.
3. If it is not residual energy causing the object to be haunted what is? Well, first it is not ‘haunted’? Nor is it possessed—only conscious beings can be possessed. A doll cannot be possessed. However, demons are very territorial and for various reasons they do attach to objects just as they attach to homes and people. Some people and many animals are sensitive to the presence of the demonic attached to an object. They will stare or bark at it for hours.
Lisa Hix states the following: On his FAQ at the Museum of the Paranormal, Zaffis agrees that such phenomena are all about energy, but he has a different theory about how the energy got there. “With most of the items in the museum, they have been used in rituals, usually when spells are being cast,” he writes. “Although the items are not ‘possessed,’ … items can hold energy within or around them, and it is usually the result of the energy being sent to the object by an individual.”
He is half-way right there. What I thought instructive is that this expert in occult objects recognizes that there is a common theme or back-story to these objects—ritualistic activity, spell casting or curses being sent by an individual are attached to an object. The curse or ritual summons a demon who then is all too happy to attach to this object; giving it a legal right to attach and attack its owners. Demons, not negative energy, haunt objects. It is pure evil and we need to stop calling it negative energy.
Contrary to what the well known psychic Sylvia Browne said: “There’s no such thing as a curse. That’s just a goofy fortune-teller’s way of getting money.” No ma'am..you are wrong. Dead wrong.
Just as demons attach to dead idols that people worship (1 Cor. 10, etc.), so they can attach to objects that have been presented in an occultic ritualistic fashion. An example might be the sword of a Freemason. My dear friend Laura Maxwell told me today of a lovely piece of jewelry that was given to her, but she got weird vibes off it. She later discovered that it was a Hindu object, and she got rid of it. This is instructive because it illustrates how common this problem is, and how anybody may be affected by it. Much artwork or furniture or jewelry was crafted by pagans with pagan intentions or occultic symbolism. And as Zaffis reminds us, most of the infested/cursed objects are due to some form of rituals in which spells are being cast; that kind of activity is precisely what opens doors to demonic. That is a very significant point and fits hand in glove with our premise of demonic intervention. If you curse something, then it is an open invitation for demonic attachment; ‘legal rights’ have been granted to it/them.
Or take the sword we talked about earlier used in a murder: that MAY cause a demon to become attached to it because it took the life of God’s image bearer—thus an attack on God Himself. On one case, my client’s husband had been in special forces and was dispatched to Iraq. He was a sniper and he had this tiny troll doll he put on his gun barrel, which was used to kill many people, and he brought it home and was obsessed with it. He placed it here, and then he placed it there, and then it started moving on its own. In addition, he also brought home objects from Saddam Hussein’s palace (one of them)—pictures—one of the dogs playing cards….others more occult looking. Due to all the murder, torture, sexual uncleaness, and madness that took place in his palaces, it’s no wonder that they are infested, and the objects in them. No doubt these were part of the reason this woman’s home was being terrorized.
She had been having sex with her boyfriend and he started experiencing problems due to his close connection to the infestation. I instructed them to stop but they didn’t listen, and he became partially possessed—eyes turned black, loss of memory, and aberrant behavior; and a minor exorcism had to be performed. So, ‘haunted objects’ can cause one’s life to turn into a living nightmare; even something as small as a one-inch troll doll. When we went through all of his ‘stuff’ and either tossed it or blessed it, a shadow demon was seen fleeing from the storage building.
So, the source of an objects ‘haunting’ is the demonic and not residual energy.
4. How is obtained? It seems that antique stores are especially vulnerable because you have old objects and you have no idea what kind of people previously owned it. Also, if they had demonic activity in their home, it also may attach to particular objects in the home. Care must be taken when buying antiques or even used items or clothes.
Don’t be paranoid because junking is supposed to be fun! You just need to be familiar with occult symbols. Be especially aware of items that might have some connection with a fraternal organization, like Freemasonry. If it feels weird, better safe than sorry.
And if activity begins in your home after buying an object then the best thing to do is get rid of it.
5. How do I get rid of it? Get rid of it! Don’t do EMF readings or especially do not do EVPs—that will make it worse. Don’t do like Zaffis and now Zak Bagans and start your your own haunted museum! I used to collect items I took from people’s homes but I learned that it was better to just throw it out…which is what I did. If it is a very expensive item, you may try expelling the demon or getting help to do so. But if you are confident the object is cursed then the best thing to do is dump it in the trash, burn it, or bury it. The bible has examples of godly people doing all three with occult objects. Pray the blood of Jesus to bind the demons…and to forbid them from following you home. For example, it is needed to ‘close’ a Ouija Board before you burn it or it will just leave the object and possibly attach to you.
Once again, if someone has mis-identified the nature of the problem with the object then it could cause serious problems. If you are told that it is merely residual energy and not harmful, and you decide to hang onto the item, then your life may turn into a wide-awake nightmare. Whatever demon/s associated with the object, will eventually begin to turn upon its owner. They do not care as much about things as they do wrecking and breaking people down, and pulverizing them. So, whether the ‘spiritual cancer’ is in the home or attached to an object, it will wreck havoc in a multitude of ways. Get rid of it!
If you have been exposed to a demon attached object then it has had an affect on you. Realize that just because you were baptized does not mean you are saved. Nor does a simple belief in the existence of God and Jesus save you. First step is to ask Christ to save you if you haven’t already: confess that you have fallen short of His holy laws and need to be forgiven…ask Christ to forgive you and turn from your self centered life to having Jesus as the leader of your life. Open up your empty hands of faith and accept God’s free gift of salvation which Christ earned for you—and bow before the finished work of Christ on the cross. As Jesus to forgive your sins and He will—past, present and future. And eternal life is a personal relationship with God through Jesus.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Christianity vs. Paganism
By Reverend Mark Hunnemann
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (ESV, but partially personally translated..Romans 1:18-25, bold added)
There is a visceral yearning to know that life is meaningful and has a basis for universal morals-the 2 are connected.And countless young people are seeking meaning in paganism. This is not merely an academic debate. In our spiritual quest for meaning, some of you are deeply confused or struggling…
Fundamentally, there are only two worldviews, and they are mutually exclusive: one based on the ultimacy of creation, which is paganism, and the other is based on the ultimacy of the self-existent Creator, which is Christianity. Paganism is not just another religious rival to Christianity, it is its antithesis or opposite because it denies the duality at the heart of all things (not dualism)—the transcendent Creator and His creation. As Camille Paglia put the difference: In the beginning, God vs. In the beginning, Nature.
From the text in Romans, pagans are guilty of the ‘great exchange’ (which is not so great) because they suppress the knowledge of the true God, and exchange it for the lie (definite article in Greek)-- which is worship of nature. As you can see from the text, this displeases God immensely.
I realize that paganism is an eclectic religion with many beliefs under its wide umbrella, but I trust that I express the hallmark of paganism accurately.
First, let me state emphatically that pagans do not worship Satan; they worship nature. Many don’t even believe in Satan. Lucifer factors in for many, but I don’t have time to pursue that.
“Paganism sees the world as self creating (or perpetually existing) and self-explanatory. Everything is made up of the same stuff, whether matter, spirit, or a mixture. There’s one kind of existence, which, in one way or another, we worship as divine (or of ultimate importance) Though there is apparent differentiation and even hierarchy, all distinctions are, in principle, eliminated, and everything has the same worth. This is “Homocosmology”, a worldview based on sameness. The classic term for this is ‘paganism’. Worship of nature.”
”The only other option is a world that is the free work of a personal, transcendent God, who creates ex nihilo (from nothing). In creating, God was not constrained by or dependent on any preexisting conditions. There is God, and there is everything that is not God—everything created and sustained by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This worldview celebrates otherness, distinctiveness. We only worship as divine the distinct, personal, triune Creator, who placed essential distinctions within the creation. (male/female, right/wrong, humans/non-humans, etc.) This is “heterocosmology”, a worldview based on otherness and difference. This is Christianity. (Peter Jones, The Other Worldview)
The Triune God structured the fabric of the cosmos on a principle of distinctions within unity, reflecting the very nature of the Trinity…answering the One and Many (unity and diversity)problem philosophers have argued about for millennia. Something you can see as soon as you step outside and see the astonishing diversity but underlying unity of nature. The interpersonal communication between the members of the Trinity gives meaning to human communication. Paganism lacks this.
I say this gently, but Paganism does not have any evidence to support its veracity—unless you count its antiquity and experience as evidence. But in the Garden of Eden, the first humans, Adam and Eve, were monotheists. It was soon afterwards that the ‘great exchange’ became exceedingly common. Nevertheless, the evolutionary theory of religion has been debunked, which is precisely what the Word of Truth reveals happened. This is a crucial point but I can’t address it in detail. Perhaps a part 2…
And its vast variety, which is seen as paganisms strength, is actually its weakness. Celtic, Nordic, Egyptian gods-which gods do you choose? It is like a spiritual smorgasbord in which WE determine what god exists for us. What kind of god is it that depends on our belief to exist? And are these gods strong enough to put all your weight on for meaning….especially in trials?
In Christianity, there is a consistent and persistent insistence that the Living God is the only God that is really there—who has spoken to us true truth in human language in the bible—not exhaustively, but truly. But there are no agreed upon sacred texts in paganism to subject to scrutiny to see if they are historically reliable, as there are in Christianity. The Old and New Testament documents have been subjected to intense and rigorous analysis— have been shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be reliable and trustworthy regarding historical details, and without contradiction or error, and supported by the archaeological evidence in astonishing detail. Albright and other archaeologists state that no findings in archaeology have ever contradicted the bible—and many findings confirm the astonishing accuracy of biblical record.
Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies…Dozens of fulfilled prophecies of Jesus (e.g. when, where He would be born)which will blow your mind-one in trillion 13th power as one converted Jew estimated…convincing evidence for the resurrection, evidence of the reliability of gospel narratives, evidence of design and personal Creator ect..If you are interested in this evidence, there are many lines of evidence to support Christianity (see Lee Stroebels books ) for honest seekers to pursue. Christianity is logic on fire, eloquent reason-an adequate basis for meaning, without unscrewing your head. No other religion claims God has entered space and time and left “footprints”. Certainly paganism can’t claim this.
One pagan wrote, in response to overwhelming evidence for Christianity:”the value of a religious faith is not how much it can be factually proven, but in the way it nurtures and facilitates a relationship between the worshipper and the divine. That is a metric that can only be evaluated by the people involved”. In Christianity, it’s not an either/or. Rather we can confidently embrace the Lord with all of our heart because we know in our minds it’s true, because of the evidence.
Experience is a form of evidence—does it work? Christianity ‘works’ because it’s true, not vice versa. Numerous folks I know, like Laura Maxwell (please see her Facebook page, “A Spiritual Quest”), used to be pagans and relied on their spirit guides and practiced various forms of divination, but when they began to question what they believed, they were attacked by these same entites, which God calls demons, and were freed by the saving power of Jesus of Nazareth, the God/man who died to set us free from demonic oppression. I have helped dozens of families with hostile haunts. It is through the name of Jesus, and only through the name of Jesus, that unclean spirits are forced to leave—I’ve seen this with my own eyes many times. Pagan tools or means of cleansing houses is at best a temporary solution. My friend Dana Emmanuel has written an excellent article on faulty, pagan cleansing methods. She used to head a well-known paranormal investigation group.
Sage and other Spiritual Cleansing Techniques by Ex Paranormal Investigator – Dana Emanuel November 16,
https://exposingtheenemy77072127.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/spirit-communication-a-demonic-invitation-1/ this article has to do with all forms of spirit communication
It grieves me to say this, but the vast majority of hauntings can be causually traced back to various forms of pagan divination—tarot cards, EVP's, Ouija boards, etc.; this is empirically verifiable. When you attempt contact with spirit realm, which God lovingly forbids, then you are jumping into a diabolical domain. And you will be oppressed, whether you realize it or not. I ask this lovingly, but how many of you who are pagans have paranormal activity in your home? All paranormal activity is demonic activity.
If you accept the Big Bang, then the scientific principle of Occam's Razor shaves away any notions of polytheism, and leaves us with one Creator. And Darwinism has faltered in the face of concrete facts and hard reason.
The only adequate pre-condition for meaning and morals is the triune God who has spoken true truth to us in the bible. As the great philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein cried out in despair that Nature was silent regarding the most basic questions-meaning. Nature cannot be self-explanatory as pagans assume. Nothing is big enough or personal enough to give us an “outside perspective”. How can we know something as basic as the meaning of life, unless Someone outside and above Nature communicates with us? The universe, as physicists tell us, is not infinite and neither are the finite pagan gods…and nature is fundamentally impersonal. We NEED revelation from our Infinite/personal Creator to find meaning. Otherwise we are self-referential…trying to give ourselves meaning. If we are merely the products of evolution-impersonal plus time plus chance, then we are personal warts on the face of an impersonal universe. Impossible to find meaning in that scenario.
If you saw a pool of spilled milk on the kitchen floor, you wouldn’t ask the spilt milk how it got there. You would ask a PERSON how it got there. I say this gently, my contention is that pagans (in a sense) ask the spilled milk how it got there when they look to Nature to explain nature and the meaning of life and morals. Like a pool of milk, Nature is not a Person nor is it infinite—it does not have the transcendent, Personal perspective to explain to us the “spilt milk”—the meaning of life and guidance in morals…and divination of nature and the universe is the same thing. Starting from ourselves and the universe we live in, our perspective is so severely limited, we are left painfully clueless. Why look to astrology or divination of nature when you can talk to the all-powerful, all-loving Creator of Nature for guidance or comfort? Besides, God condemns divination, in all forms. (Deuteronomy 18).
In the homo-cosmology of the pagan system, there is no qualitative difference between humans and the animals or even between humans and the grass…because all is one, and there are no creational distinctions, and all is equally endowed with the divine. There is no basis for a unique human dignity. Yet each of us knows deep down that there is a profound distinction between us and animals., not to mention the grass. Ironically, with its focus on nature, paganism is profoundly unnatural because its contrary to everything we existentially know about ourselves and nature.
Pagan gods and nature are finite. However, as Jean Paul Sartre, the atheistic French Existentialist, stated that “if a finite point does not have an infinite reference point, it is meaningless and absurd.” Everything is a finite point. You are..I am…From the finite, expanding universe to finite humans, we are ultimately absurd in pagan system, because there is no infinite reference point to give any of reality meaning. Nothing is big enough—not their gods, nor the universe…nothing is personal enough either. But the Christian God is infinite and personal, on the high order of Trinity…the only sufficient reference point to give life meaning. He is both transcendent and immanent, as opposed to paganism where all is immanent.
The Living God has spoken to us regarding the meaning of life-love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…and your neighbor as yourself. Simple, but simply profound and life-changing. An existential walk with the Creator of the universe who is too great NOT to care about all of our needs and fears.
Perhaps one will herald science as supportive of paganism, but Christianity is a necessary pre-condition for science.
Both AN Whitehead and Oppenheimer, neither who were Christians, stated that modern science could only have arisen in a Christian millue because the early modern scientists presupposed that a reasonable God created a reasonable universe, whereby man (who is created in His image) by use of his reason could discover God’s reasonable scientific Laws. In other words, there is meaning.
They agree that paganism and its view of nature and reality, could never have given rise to modern science.
What about morals? You may express moral outrage at what Christians and their God have done. And Christians have acted horribly at times, and for that I’m sorry. But does the pagan system of homo-cosmology (sameness, fusion of opposites, as Jung said) have a sufficient basis for objective truth or morals? In this case, pagans are adamant that objective, absolute truth does not exist. Truth/morals is relative and subjective. I ask,” Are you Absolutely certain that absolutes do not exist”-that is a self destructive statement. In that system, right and wrong are human constructs. If that is the case, then the Marquis de Sade is correct…as is Dostoevsky…what is, is right.
Nature, for all its beauty and alleged divinity, is red in tooth and claw..full of cruelty. Natural disasters kill millions every year. The survival of the fittest is the credo of nature. Nature can’t be our guide. Without objective,moral absolutes, all we are left with are sociological or statisitical averages, or preference…morals as morals cease to exist…and who could say that Hitler was wrong, in a pagan system? And yet nobody lives this way because they can’t. If one cannot live with the logical ramifications of their belief, then something is wrong. Some cultures have embraced pedophilia, cannibalism, polygamy…what if they claimed it helped them find self-realization and helped psychologically to embrace the divine within, who could say definitively they are wrong? The 20th century was the bloodiest in history because the tyrants denied the reality of real morals. It leads to a horror of great darkness.
For the Christian, morality is permanently revealed in the bible, and is based on the unchanging character of the Triune God. Hence, moral absolutes exist and we can make ethical evaluations and distinctions. I add, they are given as a loving guide from a loving Father: Like tracks for a train to run on. What would happen if one day the train said that it was fed up with the constraints of the tracks, and jumped off the tracks? It would quickly wreck because it was MADE to run on the tracks…finds freedom within the form of the tracks.
Pagans are explicit in insisting on their autonomous freedom by jumping off the very tracks that were meant to guide and protect us from wrecking. I know from talking to pagans that the desire to cast off all exterior moral constraints is central to the pagan mindset.
However, like the train, humans find freedom within the form of the tracks of normative biblical ethics, as well as security and protection. We punch ourselves in the face when we sin. God’s moral laws are woven into the very fabric of nature, as well as our conscience. Pagan ethics are unnatural because they ignore the God who created both humans and nature. Is it wise to brush away your Maker and then worship what He made?
In the bible the infinite/personal God communicates with finite/personal creatures and tells us what we couldn’t discover on our own. He alone can explain the spilled milk…give meaning and moral direction to our lives.
Please read the gospels and ask God to reveal to you who Jesus really is. He is your Creator and will give you eternal life if you bow before Him as your Savior and Lord.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (ESV, but partially personally translated..Romans 1:18-25, bold added)
There is a visceral yearning to know that life is meaningful and has a basis for universal morals-the 2 are connected.And countless young people are seeking meaning in paganism. This is not merely an academic debate. In our spiritual quest for meaning, some of you are deeply confused or struggling…
Fundamentally, there are only two worldviews, and they are mutually exclusive: one based on the ultimacy of creation, which is paganism, and the other is based on the ultimacy of the self-existent Creator, which is Christianity. Paganism is not just another religious rival to Christianity, it is its antithesis or opposite because it denies the duality at the heart of all things (not dualism)—the transcendent Creator and His creation. As Camille Paglia put the difference: In the beginning, God vs. In the beginning, Nature.
From the text in Romans, pagans are guilty of the ‘great exchange’ (which is not so great) because they suppress the knowledge of the true God, and exchange it for the lie (definite article in Greek)-- which is worship of nature. As you can see from the text, this displeases God immensely.
I realize that paganism is an eclectic religion with many beliefs under its wide umbrella, but I trust that I express the hallmark of paganism accurately.
First, let me state emphatically that pagans do not worship Satan; they worship nature. Many don’t even believe in Satan. Lucifer factors in for many, but I don’t have time to pursue that.
“Paganism sees the world as self creating (or perpetually existing) and self-explanatory. Everything is made up of the same stuff, whether matter, spirit, or a mixture. There’s one kind of existence, which, in one way or another, we worship as divine (or of ultimate importance) Though there is apparent differentiation and even hierarchy, all distinctions are, in principle, eliminated, and everything has the same worth. This is “Homocosmology”, a worldview based on sameness. The classic term for this is ‘paganism’. Worship of nature.”
”The only other option is a world that is the free work of a personal, transcendent God, who creates ex nihilo (from nothing). In creating, God was not constrained by or dependent on any preexisting conditions. There is God, and there is everything that is not God—everything created and sustained by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This worldview celebrates otherness, distinctiveness. We only worship as divine the distinct, personal, triune Creator, who placed essential distinctions within the creation. (male/female, right/wrong, humans/non-humans, etc.) This is “heterocosmology”, a worldview based on otherness and difference. This is Christianity. (Peter Jones, The Other Worldview)
The Triune God structured the fabric of the cosmos on a principle of distinctions within unity, reflecting the very nature of the Trinity…answering the One and Many (unity and diversity)problem philosophers have argued about for millennia. Something you can see as soon as you step outside and see the astonishing diversity but underlying unity of nature. The interpersonal communication between the members of the Trinity gives meaning to human communication. Paganism lacks this.
I say this gently, but Paganism does not have any evidence to support its veracity—unless you count its antiquity and experience as evidence. But in the Garden of Eden, the first humans, Adam and Eve, were monotheists. It was soon afterwards that the ‘great exchange’ became exceedingly common. Nevertheless, the evolutionary theory of religion has been debunked, which is precisely what the Word of Truth reveals happened. This is a crucial point but I can’t address it in detail. Perhaps a part 2…
And its vast variety, which is seen as paganisms strength, is actually its weakness. Celtic, Nordic, Egyptian gods-which gods do you choose? It is like a spiritual smorgasbord in which WE determine what god exists for us. What kind of god is it that depends on our belief to exist? And are these gods strong enough to put all your weight on for meaning….especially in trials?
In Christianity, there is a consistent and persistent insistence that the Living God is the only God that is really there—who has spoken to us true truth in human language in the bible—not exhaustively, but truly. But there are no agreed upon sacred texts in paganism to subject to scrutiny to see if they are historically reliable, as there are in Christianity. The Old and New Testament documents have been subjected to intense and rigorous analysis— have been shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be reliable and trustworthy regarding historical details, and without contradiction or error, and supported by the archaeological evidence in astonishing detail. Albright and other archaeologists state that no findings in archaeology have ever contradicted the bible—and many findings confirm the astonishing accuracy of biblical record.
Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies…Dozens of fulfilled prophecies of Jesus (e.g. when, where He would be born)which will blow your mind-one in trillion 13th power as one converted Jew estimated…convincing evidence for the resurrection, evidence of the reliability of gospel narratives, evidence of design and personal Creator ect..If you are interested in this evidence, there are many lines of evidence to support Christianity (see Lee Stroebels books ) for honest seekers to pursue. Christianity is logic on fire, eloquent reason-an adequate basis for meaning, without unscrewing your head. No other religion claims God has entered space and time and left “footprints”. Certainly paganism can’t claim this.
One pagan wrote, in response to overwhelming evidence for Christianity:”the value of a religious faith is not how much it can be factually proven, but in the way it nurtures and facilitates a relationship between the worshipper and the divine. That is a metric that can only be evaluated by the people involved”. In Christianity, it’s not an either/or. Rather we can confidently embrace the Lord with all of our heart because we know in our minds it’s true, because of the evidence.
Experience is a form of evidence—does it work? Christianity ‘works’ because it’s true, not vice versa. Numerous folks I know, like Laura Maxwell (please see her Facebook page, “A Spiritual Quest”), used to be pagans and relied on their spirit guides and practiced various forms of divination, but when they began to question what they believed, they were attacked by these same entites, which God calls demons, and were freed by the saving power of Jesus of Nazareth, the God/man who died to set us free from demonic oppression. I have helped dozens of families with hostile haunts. It is through the name of Jesus, and only through the name of Jesus, that unclean spirits are forced to leave—I’ve seen this with my own eyes many times. Pagan tools or means of cleansing houses is at best a temporary solution. My friend Dana Emmanuel has written an excellent article on faulty, pagan cleansing methods. She used to head a well-known paranormal investigation group.
Sage and other Spiritual Cleansing Techniques by Ex Paranormal Investigator – Dana Emanuel November 16,
https://exposingtheenemy77072127.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/spirit-communication-a-demonic-invitation-1/ this article has to do with all forms of spirit communication
It grieves me to say this, but the vast majority of hauntings can be causually traced back to various forms of pagan divination—tarot cards, EVP's, Ouija boards, etc.; this is empirically verifiable. When you attempt contact with spirit realm, which God lovingly forbids, then you are jumping into a diabolical domain. And you will be oppressed, whether you realize it or not. I ask this lovingly, but how many of you who are pagans have paranormal activity in your home? All paranormal activity is demonic activity.
If you accept the Big Bang, then the scientific principle of Occam's Razor shaves away any notions of polytheism, and leaves us with one Creator. And Darwinism has faltered in the face of concrete facts and hard reason.
The only adequate pre-condition for meaning and morals is the triune God who has spoken true truth to us in the bible. As the great philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein cried out in despair that Nature was silent regarding the most basic questions-meaning. Nature cannot be self-explanatory as pagans assume. Nothing is big enough or personal enough to give us an “outside perspective”. How can we know something as basic as the meaning of life, unless Someone outside and above Nature communicates with us? The universe, as physicists tell us, is not infinite and neither are the finite pagan gods…and nature is fundamentally impersonal. We NEED revelation from our Infinite/personal Creator to find meaning. Otherwise we are self-referential…trying to give ourselves meaning. If we are merely the products of evolution-impersonal plus time plus chance, then we are personal warts on the face of an impersonal universe. Impossible to find meaning in that scenario.
If you saw a pool of spilled milk on the kitchen floor, you wouldn’t ask the spilt milk how it got there. You would ask a PERSON how it got there. I say this gently, my contention is that pagans (in a sense) ask the spilled milk how it got there when they look to Nature to explain nature and the meaning of life and morals. Like a pool of milk, Nature is not a Person nor is it infinite—it does not have the transcendent, Personal perspective to explain to us the “spilt milk”—the meaning of life and guidance in morals…and divination of nature and the universe is the same thing. Starting from ourselves and the universe we live in, our perspective is so severely limited, we are left painfully clueless. Why look to astrology or divination of nature when you can talk to the all-powerful, all-loving Creator of Nature for guidance or comfort? Besides, God condemns divination, in all forms. (Deuteronomy 18).
In the homo-cosmology of the pagan system, there is no qualitative difference between humans and the animals or even between humans and the grass…because all is one, and there are no creational distinctions, and all is equally endowed with the divine. There is no basis for a unique human dignity. Yet each of us knows deep down that there is a profound distinction between us and animals., not to mention the grass. Ironically, with its focus on nature, paganism is profoundly unnatural because its contrary to everything we existentially know about ourselves and nature.
Pagan gods and nature are finite. However, as Jean Paul Sartre, the atheistic French Existentialist, stated that “if a finite point does not have an infinite reference point, it is meaningless and absurd.” Everything is a finite point. You are..I am…From the finite, expanding universe to finite humans, we are ultimately absurd in pagan system, because there is no infinite reference point to give any of reality meaning. Nothing is big enough—not their gods, nor the universe…nothing is personal enough either. But the Christian God is infinite and personal, on the high order of Trinity…the only sufficient reference point to give life meaning. He is both transcendent and immanent, as opposed to paganism where all is immanent.
The Living God has spoken to us regarding the meaning of life-love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…and your neighbor as yourself. Simple, but simply profound and life-changing. An existential walk with the Creator of the universe who is too great NOT to care about all of our needs and fears.
Perhaps one will herald science as supportive of paganism, but Christianity is a necessary pre-condition for science.
Both AN Whitehead and Oppenheimer, neither who were Christians, stated that modern science could only have arisen in a Christian millue because the early modern scientists presupposed that a reasonable God created a reasonable universe, whereby man (who is created in His image) by use of his reason could discover God’s reasonable scientific Laws. In other words, there is meaning.
They agree that paganism and its view of nature and reality, could never have given rise to modern science.
What about morals? You may express moral outrage at what Christians and their God have done. And Christians have acted horribly at times, and for that I’m sorry. But does the pagan system of homo-cosmology (sameness, fusion of opposites, as Jung said) have a sufficient basis for objective truth or morals? In this case, pagans are adamant that objective, absolute truth does not exist. Truth/morals is relative and subjective. I ask,” Are you Absolutely certain that absolutes do not exist”-that is a self destructive statement. In that system, right and wrong are human constructs. If that is the case, then the Marquis de Sade is correct…as is Dostoevsky…what is, is right.
Nature, for all its beauty and alleged divinity, is red in tooth and claw..full of cruelty. Natural disasters kill millions every year. The survival of the fittest is the credo of nature. Nature can’t be our guide. Without objective,moral absolutes, all we are left with are sociological or statisitical averages, or preference…morals as morals cease to exist…and who could say that Hitler was wrong, in a pagan system? And yet nobody lives this way because they can’t. If one cannot live with the logical ramifications of their belief, then something is wrong. Some cultures have embraced pedophilia, cannibalism, polygamy…what if they claimed it helped them find self-realization and helped psychologically to embrace the divine within, who could say definitively they are wrong? The 20th century was the bloodiest in history because the tyrants denied the reality of real morals. It leads to a horror of great darkness.
For the Christian, morality is permanently revealed in the bible, and is based on the unchanging character of the Triune God. Hence, moral absolutes exist and we can make ethical evaluations and distinctions. I add, they are given as a loving guide from a loving Father: Like tracks for a train to run on. What would happen if one day the train said that it was fed up with the constraints of the tracks, and jumped off the tracks? It would quickly wreck because it was MADE to run on the tracks…finds freedom within the form of the tracks.
Pagans are explicit in insisting on their autonomous freedom by jumping off the very tracks that were meant to guide and protect us from wrecking. I know from talking to pagans that the desire to cast off all exterior moral constraints is central to the pagan mindset.
However, like the train, humans find freedom within the form of the tracks of normative biblical ethics, as well as security and protection. We punch ourselves in the face when we sin. God’s moral laws are woven into the very fabric of nature, as well as our conscience. Pagan ethics are unnatural because they ignore the God who created both humans and nature. Is it wise to brush away your Maker and then worship what He made?
In the bible the infinite/personal God communicates with finite/personal creatures and tells us what we couldn’t discover on our own. He alone can explain the spilled milk…give meaning and moral direction to our lives.
Please read the gospels and ask God to reveal to you who Jesus really is. He is your Creator and will give you eternal life if you bow before Him as your Savior and Lord.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
10 Reasons Why Infinite Alternative Realities Are Not Possible
By Reverend Mark Hunnemann
Recently I was communicating with Laura Maxwell regarding a discussion she had with a man who stated that he was ex-New Ager, but he believed in alternate realities or universes. Numerous insights shared here came from Laura, The idea is that there are allegedly infinite incarnations of each of us in every conceivable situation, in infinite universes. Infinite means infinite, not just a whole lot. What are the ramifications of this belief, and are they compatible with Christianity? Does the bible have any insights on cosmology, and how many universes there are?
First, let’s lay the foundation. The bible/Proverbs says that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of both wisdom and knowledge. Though these two are closely tied together in Proverbs, “knowledge” tends to focus on correct understanding of the world and our place as creatures, while “wisdom” is the acquired skill of applying that knowledge in a way that pleases God. May God enable us to please Him in our pursuit of accurate understanding of the totality of His creation and our place in it.
Again, the idea is that there are infinite realities and some see these universes as bubbles, and each one may have different scientific rules and moral codes.
This notion is common in occult/New Age circles, and is used to express New Age concepts, such as quantum jumping. However, mainstream theoretical physicists and cosmologists are championing this idea on print and on TV frequently. Our concern is that this notion is becoming quite common amongst professing Christians as well. Just as some drugs may act as gate-ways to more serious drugs, so some beliefs are gate-way beliefs which often to lead to a slippery slope down into the darkness of occultic beliefs and practices. And that is my concern about Christians embracing this concept of multiverse.
I need to affirm that of all people, Christians should let their imaginations soar to the stars because we have a solid foundation to distinguish between reality and fantasy. So, anything I say here should not be construed as a squashing of a PROPER use of our imaginations. Positing infinite universes as fact (and not in fiction) is not a proper use of reason, the Word, or imagination.
A new word appeared in cosmology literature—multiverse…instead of universe. Here are my reasons for challenging it:
1. Multivese or infinite universes is a contradiction in terms because the universe is supposed to include everything.
Definition of ‘universe’—all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. By definition, the universe contains everything there is. Hence, the notion of infinite universes is infinitely absurd and internally self-contradictory.
You cannot have multiple/infinite everythings. Most physicists and cosmologist are not Christians and have non-biblical presuppositions which guide how they interpret the data/phenomena—and it’s NOT the fear of God. You can look at the same evidence and different presuppositions will lead to radically different conclusions (e.g. cosmic background radiation). Arguments for infinite realities/universes are often circular in nature…assuming the very thing to be proved.
Some scientists appeal to the Anthropic principle, and state that we ‘create’ universes by existing to observe it. However, creating reality through our minds is classic occult belief. We cannot create anything from nothing, much less a universe, which is something only God can do.
We believe in the basic reliability of the sense perceptions because, the same God who made the external world also made our 5 senses to accurately perceive God’s world. There is a correspondence between what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell and the external world, because God created both. Immanuel Kant dropped a bombshell on modern man with his distinction between noumena (thing in itself) and the phenomena (what we observe), and never the twain shall meet. But the Christian has no such problem!
2. Occam's razor (principle of preferring simpler explanation)would clearly prefer the simplicity of a single universe, which easily and comprehensively explains the phenomena. The notion of infinite universes raises more questions than it answers, and unbelief was the assumption that gave rise to it. It adds infinite complexity and confusion, which is contra Occam’s razor principle.
3. The teaching is that there are infinite variations of all of us. If there are infinite Mark’s, then which one will be judged? The absurdity of it would be humorous if it weren’t so tragic. Hebrews 9:27 states that each person will die once (not infinite times), and will immediately face judgment. Infinite variations of me/you is inconsistent with personal judgment. I have to keep my points brief. J
If everyone has infinite identities, then so should Jesus and Hitler. That is blasphemous and utterly heretical. And there would be universes in which He didn’t die for our sins…again, unthinkable. In fact, there should be a universe in which you/me were Jesus. Or Lucifer is good. It is utterly arbitrary to affirm infinite identities, except balk when it comes to being God’s Messiah. That is special pleading, an informal logical fallacy. That just shows that folks can’t live with the logical extension of this absurd notion.
4. The word ‘universe’ is a combination of two Latin words-uni (one), versus (turned)…or combined into one, whole. The idea is that of unity amidst vast diversity of the cosmos. This is a faint but lovely picture of the unity amidst the diversity of the Trinity. For millennia, philosophers dealt with the ‘one and many’ problem in an attempt to explain reality. (Unfortunately, modern philosophy, for the most part, has given up on such discussions) How can we explain how the unity and diversity that we observe on the macro and micro levels, or the one and many, came to be? Look around and see/feel the unity amidst the diversity in nature! Whether you are looking through a microscope at the complexity of a cell, or a picture from the Hubble Telescope, this phenomenon is staggering! A recent trip to the NC Zoo accented the diversity of animals, and yet they are all animals.Which is more ultimate: unity or diversity?
The pre-Socratic philosophers were consumed with trying to explain the nature of reality, and especially how there can be such unity in nature with all its mind-boggling diversity? Ancient philosophers like Heraclitus and Parmenides came to opposite conclusions. One stated that unity was ultimate and the other that diversity/change was ultimate. There were even the ‘atomists’ who posited atom like particles that explained the unity and diversity! So, which is ultimate?
The biblical answer is that both are equally ultimate, as reflected in the oneness of God, but existing in three Persons. What a fantastic answer we have for modern man who is lost in the darkness of their autonomous reason…and has no basis for true and accurate knowledge of God’s world. “He who trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)
My point is that the notion of a uni-verse was born out of a Christian worldview in which scientists understood that Jesus is the Logos that coheres all reality together (Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:1-3)), and that the vast diversity of the cosmos reflects the unity amidst the diversity in the Trinity. In other words, the universe was seen as a thing of wonder and mystery which reflected the very character of God Himself. (Romans 1:18ff)
ALL that God created is contained in this one universe in which there is a mind-boggling unity amidst the staggering diversity of God’s universe. The scientific laws we have discovered are really God’s laws which He implanted into the very fabric of reality or the universe. They display the unity and diversity principle as well, whether it is astronomy to zoology. When I walked outside today, taking in the loveliness around me, I saw a jet 30,000 feet up. How wonderful it is that God has created a world in which, through the cultural mandate in Genesis, we can discover His laws in the warp and woof of the universe, and make such fantastic inventions!
However, the notion of a multiverse brings in its wake chaos-which is demonic. The unity/diversity model is lost and chaos reigns, with infinite bubble universes bumping into each other, and there is no cohering principle. The multiverse model is a sign of how far how our culture has drifted from the Triune God into foolish flights of cosmological fancy, which leads to a horror of great darkness because there is no meaning or coherence in this model of infinite universes.
5. Which leads me to my next point. Those who espouse the notion of multiverse have to assert, if they are consistent, that each alleged universe (here the inner self-destructive nature of its language appears)has its own scientific rules and moral codes. Each universe has its own understanding of truth regarding all aspects of life. Focusing on the latter, we see that this notion is at odds with the biblical insistence that Truth is objective and absolute because God’s law is based on His unchanging character. As Laura pointed out, the notion of multiple truths is absurd and is contrary to God’s Word regarding truth being unchanged and unchanging. Infinite truths leads to a horror of great darkness, in which wrong is right, and vice versa.John 17:17 says that God’s Word is not only True, but it is Truth itself (Greek, alathea, noun),and is thus the standard of truth against which everything else must be tested or compared)So, the notion of multiverse has serious problems from which there is no escape.
6. The notion of infinite universes is impossible because only God is infinite—even the universe, though enormous, is not infinite. If there were infinite universes then they would be God because they are infinite, which is an aspect of divinity. Infinite is not a whole lot—not 10 to billionth power comes even close to a speck compared to infinity. Infinity means there is no end….endless numbers of universes. If this does not concern you, then it should because it is an attempt to become like God, through the guise of science. The infinity of God is what theologians refer to as an imcommunicable (non-transferable) attribute of God. Just as God’s omnipotence and omniscience are divine attributes, so is infinity.Our God is too small!!
7. Are we to believe that Satan is a good being, possibly the Messiah, in one of these other infinite universes? God forbid! But it shows the ugliness and absurdity of this view.
8. Anyone familiar with the Judeo-Christian worldview, will instantly realize that the notion of infinite universes is hostile or contrary to their/our worldview. This is especially true when it comes to the biblical teaching regarding the nature of reality. The growth of the occult worldview has opened the door to this heretofore unthinkable model of reality.
9. Let us now look at the biblical data:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) Bereshith bara Elohim shamayim we ha eres (Hebrew)
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.(Hebrews 11:3)
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things (panta, Greek) were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, (ektisas ta panta, Greek)
and by your will they existed and were created. (Revelation 4:11)
16 For by him all things were created (ekthisthe ta panta, Greek), in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…. 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.(Colossians 1:16-20)
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.(Romans 8:18-23….bolds added to several texts)
I quoted these texts because they answer most the questions pertinent to this discussion.
Notice that in most texts it is explicitly stated that ALL THINGS (not just one of infinite others) that were created through Jesus, and it’s a clear reference to the universe created in Genesis 1:1.All things means all things-what we call the universe.
Genesis 1:1.is a fundamental presupposition that runs through the entire bible. In this verse we see the creation of matter, and the space-time continuum. This is not a summary verse; it is God’s first act in which the one universe was spoken into existence—the very fabric of space and time. Heaven and earth is an expression meaning ‘everything’ ;seen or unseen. This interpretation is supported by the New Testament (see Hebrews 11:3 and Revelation 4:11) It is the biblical teaching of God creating the entire created world/universe ex nihilo (out of nothing). Contrary to other pagan beliefs, Moses and NT authors tell us that God did not create from pre-existing matter. By His sovereign, all mighty power, God spoke the entire creation into existence. Hebrews 11:3 emphasizes the ‘out of nothing’ aspect of creation.
Genesis 1:1 tells us from the outset that God created the heavens and the earth, which means EVERYTHING. It is an amazing comment about God creating everything he created, and there is no mention of alternate universes. The same is true of the other verses. Note especially John 1:3 where it says that ALL things were created through Him, And to make sure we heard him correctly John adds, that nothing was created that Jesus did not create…NOTHING. John could not have been clearer. It is as if He said—“there is nothing that exists anywhere that I did not create. My creation of the universe includes all that I created.” Does that not exclude alternate universes? Everything that was created, was created by Jesus, and is identical with our universe, both visible and invisible. Only by eisogesis (reading into text ones views) can one extract the notion of multiverse from these anti-multiverse verses.
In Colossians, Jesus not only created everything but He sustains it as well. In John 1:1-3, the Logos/Logic (Jesus, and Greek word can be translated either Word or Logic) created and holds the fabric of creation together. Jesus is the Logic of the universe.
The New heavens and earth in Revelation in 21 and 22 indicate that the space time continuum will be sustained through eternity because heaven will be here on earth and we will have glorified but material bodies, which occupy space and live in time. (2 Corinthians 5; 1 Cor. 15) Eternal life in heaven does not necessarily entail the end of space and time. Why should it? You don’t have to worry about CERN or anyone else changing the basic fabric of God’s creation which He upholds with His omnipotent right arm, and will extend through eternity. Whatever Cern is doing, they can’t mess with God’s basic creational pattern which is eternal in nature. I was going to mention the Mandela Effect but think that is an issue for another day. The alleged bending of time/space is a distinct issue from alternate realties.
In Genesis 3 and Romans 8 (see above) the Fall of Adam effected the entire creation—ALL that God had created. In Romans 8 it states that the universe/all creation ‘groans’ due to the Fall, and longs for Jesus’ return so that it, too, will be liberated from the consequences of Adam’s sin. In v.22 it states explicitly that ‘all creation groans’ due to Adam’s sin. How can this jive with infinite universes because that would mean that ALL CREATION does not mean what it says. In fact, it would seem to mean the opposite, since infinite other universes were allegedly not touched by Adam’s Fall. But the Word of God is explicit that all creation was touched by both the Fall, as well as the cosmic ramifications of the blessed Atonement.
The Fall caused:
1. Man separated from God;
2. Man separated from other men (beginning of violence between humans);
3. Man’s separation from himself (origin of psychological problems);
4. Man's separation from nature (hostility and fear between man and animals),
5. Separation of nature from nature (nature became ‘red in tooth and claw’)
Jesus’ death had cosmic ramifications for the entire creation. (see Col. and Romans) Ephesians 1:14 says, “..A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth.” Nowhere do we see alternate realities that were not affected by the historical Fall, nor by the scope of Christ’s atonement. The central theme of the drama of redemption is that the work of Christ on the cross is the central axis for the history of God’s entire creation, whether in heaven or on Earth…and He silenced all demonic powers. All of human and comic history revolves around the cross. That is, ALL of God’s creation was affected by the Fall, and has now been (or will be at Christ’s return) experience full liberation. The cosmic nature of Christ’s death is often overlooked. He not only defeated sin, Satan/demons, death, but He secured the redemption of the entire universe.
Instead, this is powerful refutation of infinite universes because we see that Adams Fall affected everything—except heaven. The universe, as we know it, was affected to its outer reaches. You cannot fit infinite universes into this drama of Fall and redemption.
So serious was this sin problem that God gave His all—He couldn’t have given more—and are we to believe that there are infinite me/you that do NOT need salvation? That is both repugnant to the Word and reason. The bible says that Jesus died ONCE for ALL. Any view that diminishes the perfection of the Person and Work of Christ, is a HUGE red flag, and is The Litmus Test for whether a belief is biblical or not.
As Laura reminded me, Hebrews states that Jesus died “once for ALL.” If the other alleged infinite universes are inhabited by intelligent beings, as is stated to be the case, then they either didn’t fall, or if they did, then Jesus would have had to have taken on infinite incarnations (each to be appropriate for the fallen inhabitants…Hebrews 2) and die infinitely. This is monstrous and contrary to Jesus dying “once for all.” Surely the folly of man’s autonomous knowledge of the world is nowhere more evident than here. If God The Father ever has to choose between the singular honor and dignity of His only Son, and our unrestrained imagination, then He will always choose His Son.
10. Contrary to many people’s opinions, the earth IS the center of the universe—not spatially, but in terms of it being the singular focus of God’s affection and love, from all eternity; past present and future (See Ephesians 1). All the mysteries and beauty of the entire cosmos were created for God’s glory and for our pleasure. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22,, the earth was to be the temple of God, as well as His footstool.
In Genesis 2, after finishing creating of ALL things, God rested and saw the earth as His temple, which is where it will be for all eternity after Second Coming (Revelation 21-22) Again, how can one fit this in with the concept of infinite universes? God will reign here….Immanuel—God with us!
When Satan fell, where was he sent? Earth, and not one of infinite possible dimensions. We see in Job and elsewhere, that Earth is the locus of God’s enemy, and not some alternate universe. This is implicit evidence of this being the only reality or universe. The location of the battle royale of the ages is our planet—not some far off galaxy or alternate universe.
So, unless we want to think that, when God said that He created ALL things, that God meant only our “little bubble” but not the infinite other bubbles, then we need to take God’s Word at face value.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Bereshith bara Elohim shamayim we ha eres. God said it. That settles it. I believe it. Thus, I will not preface my comments with: “In my opinion…”
It is this existing universe, mentioned in Genesis 1 and Revelation 21-22 in which the Triune God will reign on THIS Earth for all eternity, with all of His adopted sons and daughters, through Jesus Christ. How can there be infinite other universes if God has said that the planet we live on will be His dwelling place forever and ever? Can’t we see that this notion could only have arisen in a culture riddled with an occult/Gnostic worldview?
Let us rejoice that, as Isaiah says: “…God created the Earth so that it might be inhabited…”, and that for all eternity we shall reign with God over His redeemed creation.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Recently I was communicating with Laura Maxwell regarding a discussion she had with a man who stated that he was ex-New Ager, but he believed in alternate realities or universes. Numerous insights shared here came from Laura, The idea is that there are allegedly infinite incarnations of each of us in every conceivable situation, in infinite universes. Infinite means infinite, not just a whole lot. What are the ramifications of this belief, and are they compatible with Christianity? Does the bible have any insights on cosmology, and how many universes there are?
First, let’s lay the foundation. The bible/Proverbs says that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of both wisdom and knowledge. Though these two are closely tied together in Proverbs, “knowledge” tends to focus on correct understanding of the world and our place as creatures, while “wisdom” is the acquired skill of applying that knowledge in a way that pleases God. May God enable us to please Him in our pursuit of accurate understanding of the totality of His creation and our place in it.
Again, the idea is that there are infinite realities and some see these universes as bubbles, and each one may have different scientific rules and moral codes.
This notion is common in occult/New Age circles, and is used to express New Age concepts, such as quantum jumping. However, mainstream theoretical physicists and cosmologists are championing this idea on print and on TV frequently. Our concern is that this notion is becoming quite common amongst professing Christians as well. Just as some drugs may act as gate-ways to more serious drugs, so some beliefs are gate-way beliefs which often to lead to a slippery slope down into the darkness of occultic beliefs and practices. And that is my concern about Christians embracing this concept of multiverse.
I need to affirm that of all people, Christians should let their imaginations soar to the stars because we have a solid foundation to distinguish between reality and fantasy. So, anything I say here should not be construed as a squashing of a PROPER use of our imaginations. Positing infinite universes as fact (and not in fiction) is not a proper use of reason, the Word, or imagination.
A new word appeared in cosmology literature—multiverse…instead of universe. Here are my reasons for challenging it:
1. Multivese or infinite universes is a contradiction in terms because the universe is supposed to include everything.
Definition of ‘universe’—all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. By definition, the universe contains everything there is. Hence, the notion of infinite universes is infinitely absurd and internally self-contradictory.
You cannot have multiple/infinite everythings. Most physicists and cosmologist are not Christians and have non-biblical presuppositions which guide how they interpret the data/phenomena—and it’s NOT the fear of God. You can look at the same evidence and different presuppositions will lead to radically different conclusions (e.g. cosmic background radiation). Arguments for infinite realities/universes are often circular in nature…assuming the very thing to be proved.
Some scientists appeal to the Anthropic principle, and state that we ‘create’ universes by existing to observe it. However, creating reality through our minds is classic occult belief. We cannot create anything from nothing, much less a universe, which is something only God can do.
We believe in the basic reliability of the sense perceptions because, the same God who made the external world also made our 5 senses to accurately perceive God’s world. There is a correspondence between what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell and the external world, because God created both. Immanuel Kant dropped a bombshell on modern man with his distinction between noumena (thing in itself) and the phenomena (what we observe), and never the twain shall meet. But the Christian has no such problem!
2. Occam's razor (principle of preferring simpler explanation)would clearly prefer the simplicity of a single universe, which easily and comprehensively explains the phenomena. The notion of infinite universes raises more questions than it answers, and unbelief was the assumption that gave rise to it. It adds infinite complexity and confusion, which is contra Occam’s razor principle.
3. The teaching is that there are infinite variations of all of us. If there are infinite Mark’s, then which one will be judged? The absurdity of it would be humorous if it weren’t so tragic. Hebrews 9:27 states that each person will die once (not infinite times), and will immediately face judgment. Infinite variations of me/you is inconsistent with personal judgment. I have to keep my points brief. J
If everyone has infinite identities, then so should Jesus and Hitler. That is blasphemous and utterly heretical. And there would be universes in which He didn’t die for our sins…again, unthinkable. In fact, there should be a universe in which you/me were Jesus. Or Lucifer is good. It is utterly arbitrary to affirm infinite identities, except balk when it comes to being God’s Messiah. That is special pleading, an informal logical fallacy. That just shows that folks can’t live with the logical extension of this absurd notion.
4. The word ‘universe’ is a combination of two Latin words-uni (one), versus (turned)…or combined into one, whole. The idea is that of unity amidst vast diversity of the cosmos. This is a faint but lovely picture of the unity amidst the diversity of the Trinity. For millennia, philosophers dealt with the ‘one and many’ problem in an attempt to explain reality. (Unfortunately, modern philosophy, for the most part, has given up on such discussions) How can we explain how the unity and diversity that we observe on the macro and micro levels, or the one and many, came to be? Look around and see/feel the unity amidst the diversity in nature! Whether you are looking through a microscope at the complexity of a cell, or a picture from the Hubble Telescope, this phenomenon is staggering! A recent trip to the NC Zoo accented the diversity of animals, and yet they are all animals.Which is more ultimate: unity or diversity?
The pre-Socratic philosophers were consumed with trying to explain the nature of reality, and especially how there can be such unity in nature with all its mind-boggling diversity? Ancient philosophers like Heraclitus and Parmenides came to opposite conclusions. One stated that unity was ultimate and the other that diversity/change was ultimate. There were even the ‘atomists’ who posited atom like particles that explained the unity and diversity! So, which is ultimate?
The biblical answer is that both are equally ultimate, as reflected in the oneness of God, but existing in three Persons. What a fantastic answer we have for modern man who is lost in the darkness of their autonomous reason…and has no basis for true and accurate knowledge of God’s world. “He who trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)
My point is that the notion of a uni-verse was born out of a Christian worldview in which scientists understood that Jesus is the Logos that coheres all reality together (Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:1-3)), and that the vast diversity of the cosmos reflects the unity amidst the diversity in the Trinity. In other words, the universe was seen as a thing of wonder and mystery which reflected the very character of God Himself. (Romans 1:18ff)
ALL that God created is contained in this one universe in which there is a mind-boggling unity amidst the staggering diversity of God’s universe. The scientific laws we have discovered are really God’s laws which He implanted into the very fabric of reality or the universe. They display the unity and diversity principle as well, whether it is astronomy to zoology. When I walked outside today, taking in the loveliness around me, I saw a jet 30,000 feet up. How wonderful it is that God has created a world in which, through the cultural mandate in Genesis, we can discover His laws in the warp and woof of the universe, and make such fantastic inventions!
However, the notion of a multiverse brings in its wake chaos-which is demonic. The unity/diversity model is lost and chaos reigns, with infinite bubble universes bumping into each other, and there is no cohering principle. The multiverse model is a sign of how far how our culture has drifted from the Triune God into foolish flights of cosmological fancy, which leads to a horror of great darkness because there is no meaning or coherence in this model of infinite universes.
5. Which leads me to my next point. Those who espouse the notion of multiverse have to assert, if they are consistent, that each alleged universe (here the inner self-destructive nature of its language appears)has its own scientific rules and moral codes. Each universe has its own understanding of truth regarding all aspects of life. Focusing on the latter, we see that this notion is at odds with the biblical insistence that Truth is objective and absolute because God’s law is based on His unchanging character. As Laura pointed out, the notion of multiple truths is absurd and is contrary to God’s Word regarding truth being unchanged and unchanging. Infinite truths leads to a horror of great darkness, in which wrong is right, and vice versa.John 17:17 says that God’s Word is not only True, but it is Truth itself (Greek, alathea, noun),and is thus the standard of truth against which everything else must be tested or compared)So, the notion of multiverse has serious problems from which there is no escape.
6. The notion of infinite universes is impossible because only God is infinite—even the universe, though enormous, is not infinite. If there were infinite universes then they would be God because they are infinite, which is an aspect of divinity. Infinite is not a whole lot—not 10 to billionth power comes even close to a speck compared to infinity. Infinity means there is no end….endless numbers of universes. If this does not concern you, then it should because it is an attempt to become like God, through the guise of science. The infinity of God is what theologians refer to as an imcommunicable (non-transferable) attribute of God. Just as God’s omnipotence and omniscience are divine attributes, so is infinity.Our God is too small!!
7. Are we to believe that Satan is a good being, possibly the Messiah, in one of these other infinite universes? God forbid! But it shows the ugliness and absurdity of this view.
8. Anyone familiar with the Judeo-Christian worldview, will instantly realize that the notion of infinite universes is hostile or contrary to their/our worldview. This is especially true when it comes to the biblical teaching regarding the nature of reality. The growth of the occult worldview has opened the door to this heretofore unthinkable model of reality.
9. Let us now look at the biblical data:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) Bereshith bara Elohim shamayim we ha eres (Hebrew)
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.(Hebrews 11:3)
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things (panta, Greek) were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, (ektisas ta panta, Greek)
and by your will they existed and were created. (Revelation 4:11)
16 For by him all things were created (ekthisthe ta panta, Greek), in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…. 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.(Colossians 1:16-20)
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.(Romans 8:18-23….bolds added to several texts)
I quoted these texts because they answer most the questions pertinent to this discussion.
Notice that in most texts it is explicitly stated that ALL THINGS (not just one of infinite others) that were created through Jesus, and it’s a clear reference to the universe created in Genesis 1:1.All things means all things-what we call the universe.
Genesis 1:1.is a fundamental presupposition that runs through the entire bible. In this verse we see the creation of matter, and the space-time continuum. This is not a summary verse; it is God’s first act in which the one universe was spoken into existence—the very fabric of space and time. Heaven and earth is an expression meaning ‘everything’ ;seen or unseen. This interpretation is supported by the New Testament (see Hebrews 11:3 and Revelation 4:11) It is the biblical teaching of God creating the entire created world/universe ex nihilo (out of nothing). Contrary to other pagan beliefs, Moses and NT authors tell us that God did not create from pre-existing matter. By His sovereign, all mighty power, God spoke the entire creation into existence. Hebrews 11:3 emphasizes the ‘out of nothing’ aspect of creation.
Genesis 1:1 tells us from the outset that God created the heavens and the earth, which means EVERYTHING. It is an amazing comment about God creating everything he created, and there is no mention of alternate universes. The same is true of the other verses. Note especially John 1:3 where it says that ALL things were created through Him, And to make sure we heard him correctly John adds, that nothing was created that Jesus did not create…NOTHING. John could not have been clearer. It is as if He said—“there is nothing that exists anywhere that I did not create. My creation of the universe includes all that I created.” Does that not exclude alternate universes? Everything that was created, was created by Jesus, and is identical with our universe, both visible and invisible. Only by eisogesis (reading into text ones views) can one extract the notion of multiverse from these anti-multiverse verses.
In Colossians, Jesus not only created everything but He sustains it as well. In John 1:1-3, the Logos/Logic (Jesus, and Greek word can be translated either Word or Logic) created and holds the fabric of creation together. Jesus is the Logic of the universe.
The New heavens and earth in Revelation in 21 and 22 indicate that the space time continuum will be sustained through eternity because heaven will be here on earth and we will have glorified but material bodies, which occupy space and live in time. (2 Corinthians 5; 1 Cor. 15) Eternal life in heaven does not necessarily entail the end of space and time. Why should it? You don’t have to worry about CERN or anyone else changing the basic fabric of God’s creation which He upholds with His omnipotent right arm, and will extend through eternity. Whatever Cern is doing, they can’t mess with God’s basic creational pattern which is eternal in nature. I was going to mention the Mandela Effect but think that is an issue for another day. The alleged bending of time/space is a distinct issue from alternate realties.
In Genesis 3 and Romans 8 (see above) the Fall of Adam effected the entire creation—ALL that God had created. In Romans 8 it states that the universe/all creation ‘groans’ due to the Fall, and longs for Jesus’ return so that it, too, will be liberated from the consequences of Adam’s sin. In v.22 it states explicitly that ‘all creation groans’ due to Adam’s sin. How can this jive with infinite universes because that would mean that ALL CREATION does not mean what it says. In fact, it would seem to mean the opposite, since infinite other universes were allegedly not touched by Adam’s Fall. But the Word of God is explicit that all creation was touched by both the Fall, as well as the cosmic ramifications of the blessed Atonement.
The Fall caused:
1. Man separated from God;
2. Man separated from other men (beginning of violence between humans);
3. Man’s separation from himself (origin of psychological problems);
4. Man's separation from nature (hostility and fear between man and animals),
5. Separation of nature from nature (nature became ‘red in tooth and claw’)
Jesus’ death had cosmic ramifications for the entire creation. (see Col. and Romans) Ephesians 1:14 says, “..A plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth.” Nowhere do we see alternate realities that were not affected by the historical Fall, nor by the scope of Christ’s atonement. The central theme of the drama of redemption is that the work of Christ on the cross is the central axis for the history of God’s entire creation, whether in heaven or on Earth…and He silenced all demonic powers. All of human and comic history revolves around the cross. That is, ALL of God’s creation was affected by the Fall, and has now been (or will be at Christ’s return) experience full liberation. The cosmic nature of Christ’s death is often overlooked. He not only defeated sin, Satan/demons, death, but He secured the redemption of the entire universe.
Instead, this is powerful refutation of infinite universes because we see that Adams Fall affected everything—except heaven. The universe, as we know it, was affected to its outer reaches. You cannot fit infinite universes into this drama of Fall and redemption.
So serious was this sin problem that God gave His all—He couldn’t have given more—and are we to believe that there are infinite me/you that do NOT need salvation? That is both repugnant to the Word and reason. The bible says that Jesus died ONCE for ALL. Any view that diminishes the perfection of the Person and Work of Christ, is a HUGE red flag, and is The Litmus Test for whether a belief is biblical or not.
As Laura reminded me, Hebrews states that Jesus died “once for ALL.” If the other alleged infinite universes are inhabited by intelligent beings, as is stated to be the case, then they either didn’t fall, or if they did, then Jesus would have had to have taken on infinite incarnations (each to be appropriate for the fallen inhabitants…Hebrews 2) and die infinitely. This is monstrous and contrary to Jesus dying “once for all.” Surely the folly of man’s autonomous knowledge of the world is nowhere more evident than here. If God The Father ever has to choose between the singular honor and dignity of His only Son, and our unrestrained imagination, then He will always choose His Son.
10. Contrary to many people’s opinions, the earth IS the center of the universe—not spatially, but in terms of it being the singular focus of God’s affection and love, from all eternity; past present and future (See Ephesians 1). All the mysteries and beauty of the entire cosmos were created for God’s glory and for our pleasure. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22,, the earth was to be the temple of God, as well as His footstool.
In Genesis 2, after finishing creating of ALL things, God rested and saw the earth as His temple, which is where it will be for all eternity after Second Coming (Revelation 21-22) Again, how can one fit this in with the concept of infinite universes? God will reign here….Immanuel—God with us!
When Satan fell, where was he sent? Earth, and not one of infinite possible dimensions. We see in Job and elsewhere, that Earth is the locus of God’s enemy, and not some alternate universe. This is implicit evidence of this being the only reality or universe. The location of the battle royale of the ages is our planet—not some far off galaxy or alternate universe.
So, unless we want to think that, when God said that He created ALL things, that God meant only our “little bubble” but not the infinite other bubbles, then we need to take God’s Word at face value.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Bereshith bara Elohim shamayim we ha eres. God said it. That settles it. I believe it. Thus, I will not preface my comments with: “In my opinion…”
It is this existing universe, mentioned in Genesis 1 and Revelation 21-22 in which the Triune God will reign on THIS Earth for all eternity, with all of His adopted sons and daughters, through Jesus Christ. How can there be infinite other universes if God has said that the planet we live on will be His dwelling place forever and ever? Can’t we see that this notion could only have arisen in a culture riddled with an occult/Gnostic worldview?
Let us rejoice that, as Isaiah says: “…God created the Earth so that it might be inhabited…”, and that for all eternity we shall reign with God over His redeemed creation.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
False Prophets And Satan's Deceptions
Hello everybody I hope you had a great weekend and you are enjoying this wonderful Sunday. The weather dipped down pretty cold for us here in lovely Florida. LOL We had a cold weekend. Now it's back to the 70s so that's very good. I'm a big wimp when it comes to cold weather. Just can't tolerate it for too awfully long.
Jesus had warned us that “false prophets” will come and try to lie and deceive even God’s elect (Matthew 24: 23-27.) The best way to guard yourself against falsehood and lies false teachers is to know the truth. To spot a counterfeit, study the real thing. Any believer who “correctly handles the word and who makes a careful study of the Bible can identify false doctrine. For example, a believer who has read the activities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will immediately question any doctrine that denies the Trinity. That just isn't right to deny that. Therefore, really study the Word and judge all teachings by what the Scripture tells us, not man.
Lying is the enemy's main weapon against God’s children.....The most common lie is " God's not real" "there is no God,” “God doesn’t care about you,” “the Bible cannot be trusted,” But we have to remember the apostle Paul tells us that Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” so that what he says and does sounds good and seems reasonable. Another example would be "familiar spirits" demons masquerading as your past love one in order to get a foothold into your life. Of course they would know exactly what to say that only your grandmother would know and they could appear to look like your lost and dearly departed. The Bible warns us to "be aware of the familiar spirit". Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but in-wardly are ravenous wolves.”
Are you being told different things that you know do not agree with what you know from the Bible? If you are it may be because that wolf in sheep’s clothing does not know the Bible and he is counting on his audience not knowing the Bible also. This is why I feel it's so very important for the Christian to read their Bible on a daily basis even if it's just for 10 minutes....because when you know the truth, a lie will be very clear to you. They are very easy to spot. We just have got so many, many frauds out there that you just have to be so careful. The Bible says the devil comes to kill and destroy that's all he wants. He truly hates humans and most likely animals that's why he wants our souls so we burn in hell for all eternity with him. That's why I believe he sends demons out to carry on assignments by taking advantage of nonbelievers and attacking the ones who do believe.
Demonic Strongholds:
A demonic stronghold is one of the enemies tricks. He will send powerful demons your way. Strongholds is anything powerful enough to hold you in its dominion to keep you from receiving God’s love, mercy and truth. Once a stronghold is established, you provide an open door for the enemy and become exposed to demonic control and oppression in that area of your life. The existence of a stronghold can be recognized because it will be that area of your life in which you consistently have problems and cannot cope in life. Our thoughts influence our emotions and our physical reactions. A thought may seem harmless, but it can become physically, emotionally or spiritually dangerous. Satan will bring evil thoughts into our minds. We cannot entertain these. This will only give way to the enemy. We need to rebuke the evil thoughts from our minds as soon as they start. This is so important.
Demons:
A demon or demonic entity has never been human. Not ever. It is believed to be a force that can be conjured and controlled. You can conjure them but once one comes through they only obey Satan. They are also believed to have the ability to possess or inhabit the body of humans and the only way to rid the person of them is to conduct deliverance and/or Exorcism. Demons are portrayed differently in different cultures. Some believe demons to be actual physical beings that can take the form of anything, including animals. Others consider the real demons as more of a spiritual force of evil battling for one's soul. They have been feared and written about in almost every culture in one form or another
A Few Examples Of The Type Of Attacks
Emotions. Exaggerated emotional states: fear, anxiety, anger, panic, shame, rejection, grief that is over-extended or out of proportion, hopelessness, helplessness.
The Mind. Tormenting thoughts of suicide, self-mutilation thoughts, confusion, forgetfulness, blocked memory, self hate, feelings of worthlessness and thoughts of being unloved and thoughts that God won't ever forgive you and he doesn't love you.
Some call up demons to use their aid in gaining success. Others call them to make a man or woman fall in love with them or to leave their spouses and become armored with them alone. Yet still some call on these dark forces to wreck havoc in the lives of others for their own evil reasons. Making any kind of a deal with a demon has serious ramifications when it's all said and done. They hate humans. When I say hate I do mean HATE! Why would they want to help us? Think about this. Look at the Slender Man epidemic. Attempted murder had taken place in the name of pleasing the master demon Slender Man. If something doesn't exist, if given enough attention will take on a life of its own. Like a Poltergeist. It will be created from all the hysteria. We need Christ more than ever. Cling to the Father and His Holy name, through only Him are we safe from this wicked world that Satan is taking over through channels most never even of thought of.
Selling Your Soul:
Obsession with demons is really quite common. It's not healthy in any way. Think about it, we don’t need to be devil worshippers, wearing robes and sacrificing animals. People metaphorically sell their souls everyday. People gradually abandon their humanity for some goal they feel is more important. For instance, some are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, even if that includes harming others. Think of a gangbanger involved in a drive-by shooting, or a big businessman who feels no guilt about downsizing, firing employees and harming families. After awhile it gets easier and easier until neither cares anymore. Hey, it's just business I'm not personally making up the rules. Every day people sell their souls, if they realize it or not. The enemy is very, very sneaky. He hates all humans.
I'd like to leave you with a couple of comforting verses to look up if you'd like:
For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues” Mark 16:17
This is one of my favorite scriptures.....“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me,” Isaiah 54:17
Written by Jennifer L Auld
Jesus had warned us that “false prophets” will come and try to lie and deceive even God’s elect (Matthew 24: 23-27.) The best way to guard yourself against falsehood and lies false teachers is to know the truth. To spot a counterfeit, study the real thing. Any believer who “correctly handles the word and who makes a careful study of the Bible can identify false doctrine. For example, a believer who has read the activities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will immediately question any doctrine that denies the Trinity. That just isn't right to deny that. Therefore, really study the Word and judge all teachings by what the Scripture tells us, not man.
Lying is the enemy's main weapon against God’s children.....The most common lie is " God's not real" "there is no God,” “God doesn’t care about you,” “the Bible cannot be trusted,” But we have to remember the apostle Paul tells us that Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” so that what he says and does sounds good and seems reasonable. Another example would be "familiar spirits" demons masquerading as your past love one in order to get a foothold into your life. Of course they would know exactly what to say that only your grandmother would know and they could appear to look like your lost and dearly departed. The Bible warns us to "be aware of the familiar spirit". Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but in-wardly are ravenous wolves.”
Are you being told different things that you know do not agree with what you know from the Bible? If you are it may be because that wolf in sheep’s clothing does not know the Bible and he is counting on his audience not knowing the Bible also. This is why I feel it's so very important for the Christian to read their Bible on a daily basis even if it's just for 10 minutes....because when you know the truth, a lie will be very clear to you. They are very easy to spot. We just have got so many, many frauds out there that you just have to be so careful. The Bible says the devil comes to kill and destroy that's all he wants. He truly hates humans and most likely animals that's why he wants our souls so we burn in hell for all eternity with him. That's why I believe he sends demons out to carry on assignments by taking advantage of nonbelievers and attacking the ones who do believe.
Demonic Strongholds:
A demonic stronghold is one of the enemies tricks. He will send powerful demons your way. Strongholds is anything powerful enough to hold you in its dominion to keep you from receiving God’s love, mercy and truth. Once a stronghold is established, you provide an open door for the enemy and become exposed to demonic control and oppression in that area of your life. The existence of a stronghold can be recognized because it will be that area of your life in which you consistently have problems and cannot cope in life. Our thoughts influence our emotions and our physical reactions. A thought may seem harmless, but it can become physically, emotionally or spiritually dangerous. Satan will bring evil thoughts into our minds. We cannot entertain these. This will only give way to the enemy. We need to rebuke the evil thoughts from our minds as soon as they start. This is so important.
Demons:
A demon or demonic entity has never been human. Not ever. It is believed to be a force that can be conjured and controlled. You can conjure them but once one comes through they only obey Satan. They are also believed to have the ability to possess or inhabit the body of humans and the only way to rid the person of them is to conduct deliverance and/or Exorcism. Demons are portrayed differently in different cultures. Some believe demons to be actual physical beings that can take the form of anything, including animals. Others consider the real demons as more of a spiritual force of evil battling for one's soul. They have been feared and written about in almost every culture in one form or another
A Few Examples Of The Type Of Attacks
Emotions. Exaggerated emotional states: fear, anxiety, anger, panic, shame, rejection, grief that is over-extended or out of proportion, hopelessness, helplessness.
The Mind. Tormenting thoughts of suicide, self-mutilation thoughts, confusion, forgetfulness, blocked memory, self hate, feelings of worthlessness and thoughts of being unloved and thoughts that God won't ever forgive you and he doesn't love you.
Some call up demons to use their aid in gaining success. Others call them to make a man or woman fall in love with them or to leave their spouses and become armored with them alone. Yet still some call on these dark forces to wreck havoc in the lives of others for their own evil reasons. Making any kind of a deal with a demon has serious ramifications when it's all said and done. They hate humans. When I say hate I do mean HATE! Why would they want to help us? Think about this. Look at the Slender Man epidemic. Attempted murder had taken place in the name of pleasing the master demon Slender Man. If something doesn't exist, if given enough attention will take on a life of its own. Like a Poltergeist. It will be created from all the hysteria. We need Christ more than ever. Cling to the Father and His Holy name, through only Him are we safe from this wicked world that Satan is taking over through channels most never even of thought of.
Selling Your Soul:
Obsession with demons is really quite common. It's not healthy in any way. Think about it, we don’t need to be devil worshippers, wearing robes and sacrificing animals. People metaphorically sell their souls everyday. People gradually abandon their humanity for some goal they feel is more important. For instance, some are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, even if that includes harming others. Think of a gangbanger involved in a drive-by shooting, or a big businessman who feels no guilt about downsizing, firing employees and harming families. After awhile it gets easier and easier until neither cares anymore. Hey, it's just business I'm not personally making up the rules. Every day people sell their souls, if they realize it or not. The enemy is very, very sneaky. He hates all humans.
I'd like to leave you with a couple of comforting verses to look up if you'd like:
For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
“And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues” Mark 16:17
This is one of my favorite scriptures.....“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me,” Isaiah 54:17
Written by Jennifer L Auld
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Are Ouija Boards A Bad Risk?
I know I mentioned this before in other articles but sadly it continues to be a big problem. It just seems to keep coming up on a daily basis. In my opinion you don't know what you're talking to on the other side. To me that's very dangerous. It could be a very thin veil between our dimensions. We just don't know nor have enough information. But if you do research online I saw and received emails with testimonies of people sharing their story or needing some help and do I know anybody in their area who could help them it seems to be very popular this Ouija board.
Ouija is a combination of the French and German words, oui and ja , which mean yes, yes.
These boards have letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words ‘yes’ ‘no’ and ‘goodbye’, and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board. The Ouija board is used to communicate with spirits of the dead. Although nobody knows where the idea for such a device came from, there are records of Ouija-like instruments being used in ancient China, Greece, Rome and many other countries.
"Use of a Ouija has even led to violence and even to murder..." Dr. Marta Prohazka of Fairfax, Virginia, is also convinced that spirits can play terrifying destructive games with human behavior. During her practice as psychotherapist , she realized that many patients she had considered "hallucinating paranoid schizophrenics" might instead merely be in touch with something invisible to her but visible to them."I came to understand that another plane, or dimension or existence interrelated with our plane or visible manifestation," she said. "By training and expanding consciousness, some individuals gain entrance into that invisible dimension. It seems to some like a window into heaven."
Over 7 million Ouija boards were sold in the last 10 years? I thought that was note worthy. Also it really shows the high interest in the occult and other alike. That is a lot of people owning a possible portal.
One of the many ways the enemy gains control is using our mind and when we place our trust in what many Christians mistakenly call the Holy Spirit. What I'm trying to say is "God told me to do this." However, what God told them to do is completely contrary to God’s word. Jesus said in John 8:47 "He who is of God hears the words of God." God never, ever, ever leads us contrary to the Word of God. So when we receive anything we think is the Holy Spirit, the first question we must ask is "Does God’s word agree with what I believe is the Holy Spirit speaking to me?" Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:14 "And no wonder for Satan transforms himself into an angel of light."
Below are some examples of testimonies found from random searching:
09 Dec 2014 - 06:30AM | By Samar Maguire – MM exclusive
Ouija boards are ‘extremely dangerous’ and could cause mental health issue in children, claims an experienced Manchester psychic.
Eileen-Rose, a professional psychic medium and clairvoyant, warns that children are ‘tempting fate’ after reports that sales of Ouija boards have risen by 300%.
The Ouija board, many manufactured by toy makers Hasbro, is now threatening to become a sell-out Christmas gift after the nationwide release of the film ‘Ouija’ in cinemas on October 24."
'The Ouija board acts as a portal for spirits to come in (via invitation) and for spirit attachment often for maelvolent or mischeivious spirits. I've a sudden influx of spirits entering my room while using another method and it was both amazing and frightening, so I have no doubt it would work with this "game". I also have a friend who used the board and he shared with me that he had a very traumatic and terrifying and very real spiritual attack immediatly after using it with 2 of his friends. He vowed never to use it again.'
Written by Jennifer L Auld
Ouija is a combination of the French and German words, oui and ja , which mean yes, yes.
These boards have letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words ‘yes’ ‘no’ and ‘goodbye’, and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board. The Ouija board is used to communicate with spirits of the dead. Although nobody knows where the idea for such a device came from, there are records of Ouija-like instruments being used in ancient China, Greece, Rome and many other countries.
"Use of a Ouija has even led to violence and even to murder..." Dr. Marta Prohazka of Fairfax, Virginia, is also convinced that spirits can play terrifying destructive games with human behavior. During her practice as psychotherapist , she realized that many patients she had considered "hallucinating paranoid schizophrenics" might instead merely be in touch with something invisible to her but visible to them."I came to understand that another plane, or dimension or existence interrelated with our plane or visible manifestation," she said. "By training and expanding consciousness, some individuals gain entrance into that invisible dimension. It seems to some like a window into heaven."
Over 7 million Ouija boards were sold in the last 10 years? I thought that was note worthy. Also it really shows the high interest in the occult and other alike. That is a lot of people owning a possible portal.
One of the many ways the enemy gains control is using our mind and when we place our trust in what many Christians mistakenly call the Holy Spirit. What I'm trying to say is "God told me to do this." However, what God told them to do is completely contrary to God’s word. Jesus said in John 8:47 "He who is of God hears the words of God." God never, ever, ever leads us contrary to the Word of God. So when we receive anything we think is the Holy Spirit, the first question we must ask is "Does God’s word agree with what I believe is the Holy Spirit speaking to me?" Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:14 "And no wonder for Satan transforms himself into an angel of light."
Below are some examples of testimonies found from random searching:
09 Dec 2014 - 06:30AM | By Samar Maguire – MM exclusive
Ouija boards are ‘extremely dangerous’ and could cause mental health issue in children, claims an experienced Manchester psychic.
Eileen-Rose, a professional psychic medium and clairvoyant, warns that children are ‘tempting fate’ after reports that sales of Ouija boards have risen by 300%.
The Ouija board, many manufactured by toy makers Hasbro, is now threatening to become a sell-out Christmas gift after the nationwide release of the film ‘Ouija’ in cinemas on October 24."
'The Ouija board acts as a portal for spirits to come in (via invitation) and for spirit attachment often for maelvolent or mischeivious spirits. I've a sudden influx of spirits entering my room while using another method and it was both amazing and frightening, so I have no doubt it would work with this "game". I also have a friend who used the board and he shared with me that he had a very traumatic and terrifying and very real spiritual attack immediatly after using it with 2 of his friends. He vowed never to use it again.'
Written by Jennifer L Auld
Thursday, October 13, 2016
The Nature of God and the Greatest Question of All
By Mark Hunnemann
"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21)
I have been accenting the paramount importance of the doctrine of God in our worldviews...how it effects everything. How we view Ultimate Reality has a domino effect on the other six worldview issues. There are several worldviews in our culture, but the one gaining ascendancy is New Age or Neo-gnostic/occult, which we will look at perhaps next time. Obviously, the concept of Ultimate Reality in this pagan goddess spirituality differs significantly from biblical Christianity.
Let me briefly show how the primacy of what God is like effects the other issues, and then I want too camp on what is the most important issue of all--how can I be saved?
1. Ultimate Reality in the bible is the infinite personal God who is really there, and who has spoken to us Person to person in the bible. God is good--meaning He is holy and loving.
2. Since God is both infinite and Personal He took great delight in creating the heavens and the earth, the visible and invisible. (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16)
3. Since God is personal, He loves us and desires to be our primary love...He does not leave it to guesswork as to what our purpose in life is--it is stated in His communication to us.
4. The text above speaks of Jesus' sinlessness. Since God is really THERE, and spoken truth to us, we have an adequate basis for ethics. "Be holy because I am holy". (1 Peter 1:16)
5. God is infinite and personal and He made us finite and personal--that is, IN HIS IMAGE. Again, no guesswork as to what humans ARE, because of who God IS! (Gen.1:26ff)
6. We spoke of the three Lordship attributes of God last time (control, authority, and presence) This assures us that the flow of history (and our own personal history) is moving in a meaningful, linear fashion to it's culmination in the Second Coming/restoration. History is the stage upon which God is driving the drama of redemption.
7. The afterlife is, yet again, not a matter of speculation because God/heaven is really THERE. "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ...", "...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement." The moment we die we appear before the Lord's throne, and are sent to heaven or hell for all eternity. (2 Cor. 5:!0; Heb. 9:27) The greatest argument against the notion of trapped spirits is the nature of God (and His perfect atonement). His nature will also reveal in technicolor how we MUST be saved and enter His perfectly holy heaven.
Do you see how the existence and nature of God effects EVERYTHING? If we had the time, I would like to show how Ultimate Reality as energy/matter would "answer" these worldview questions. We would see that it, and all non-biblical worldviews, are utterly bankrupt to provide adequate answers to our deepest questions.
But what of the greatest question of all: how can I know I am going to heaven after death? Though it is not listed as a worldview component, it underlies and is implied in all of seven components--especially the nature of God. Once again, when we ponder our eternal destiny, the nature of what Ultimate Reality is will guide our thinking. For example, in the history of humanity there are three basic answers to that question. Though details may vary in a multitude of ways, we can accurately summarize three basic views of salvation--which (not surprisingly!) flow from one's view of Ultimate Reality. Let's look at these now.
1. Auto-soterism or self-salvation...otherwise known as Pelagianism (named after the heresiarch, Pelagius). Whether New Age, humanism, atheism, deism or theological liberalism (and scores of others), we either save ourselves by being good or we essentially "save ourselves" by denying that we even need salvation. The details vary from one belief to the next in auto-soterism (e.g. annihilation vs continued conscious existence), but the defining feature is that we don't need a Savior....we will earn or merit our way to our next incarnation or heaven. Perhaps the most common view of salvation is, "Justification by death alone." All we have to do is die, and we fly off to paradise.
The only way one can subscribe to Pelagianism is by having a seriously defective or deficient view of God's nature. Theological liberalism often states that the essence of Christianity is" living the Sermon on the Mount". Hmmm.....I wonder if they have ever carefully read this lofty sermon by Jesus? There is a spiritual logic to the beatitudes, which are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, and the first is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3) That is, blessed (well being in one's relationship with God) are those who recognize they are desperately in need of divine grace and mercy, for they are spiritually bankrupt in themselves. A deficient view of God's holiness will lead to a deficient view of our true spiritual condition. In other words, self-salvation is the noxious fruit of having a distorted view of Ultimate Reality in our worldviews.
2. Semi-pelagianism or Arminianism (named after Jacob Arminius) is a half-way house between self-salvation and salvation by grace alone. Stated another way--we are saved by faith in Christ plus.... (fill in the blank). My intent is not to offend anyone, but to state things accurately and urge us to think (Berean style). I was raised in a devout Christian home, but the gospel was, "We are saved by faith in Jesus, plus doing certain things...but if you do other certain sins, that will kill the grace of God in your soul. You will lose your state of salvation until you do x, y, and z." I am intentionally being vague. However, regarding the view itself--we are saved by faith in Christ AND good work/s-I will NOT be vague. As Paul said to the "Arminians" of his day, "As we have said before, so now I say again:If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Gal. 1:9-10) The heresy Paul was eternally condemning to hell was the notion that we are saved by faith in Christ plus being circumcised. That was the Galatian heresy which so agitated Paul and the Lord.
There always has been, and always will be, differences amongst Christians this side of heaven. However, the essence of the gospel must be protected, regardless of what people say. The folks in Galatia were not pelagianists, or believers in self-salvation. However, they did add to the finished work of Christ on the cross by saying,"In order to be saved, you must believe in Christ and be circumcised." Today, that same sort of belief is alive and well in America, and globally. Only the Lord knows the true state of a person's soul and many folks raised in these traditions are truly born again, but it must be due to some happy inconsistency. Only the Lord knows when the line is crossed in practice--all I can do is state the biblical principle, for which I do not care what man thinks. What I plead for you to consider is that many professing Christians--either because they hold to a "easy-believism" or a version of faith plus works heresy--are not really saved and will spend eternit y in hell. That grieves me...and it certainly grieves the Lord.
The issue again is the nature of God. If we have depth view of God's holiness, then we will have a depth view of our sinfullness. With a deep awareness of our radical corruption comes a vision of the glorious beauty of grace. A deep appreciation of God's utter, burning holiness will reveal the utter futility and madness of adding anything to the finished work of Christ on the cross. A person on this faith and works treadmill can never enjoy (if they are consistent) an abiding joyful assurance of salvation. There will always be the insecurity of, "Did I do enough, or did I do TOO much sin today..did I get kicked out of God's family?" Listen, I lived this way growing up and it was horrible, even as a child.
The third way of salvation is the biblical way...the true way of salvation. GRACE. We are saved by faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the cross. (Romans 3 & 4;Eph. 2:8-10...Gen--Rev) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." I included v. 10 because it is often left out when these verses are quoted and it addresses a significant issue--what is the role of works, if we are saved by grace alone? Concern regarding "cheap grace" or easy believism is valid, but is no reason to throw the "grace baby" out with the dirty water. Luther re-discovered the pure gospel in 1517 after it had languished under severe legalism for 1, 000 years or more. He put it this way, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." The book of James is about the evidence of true faith. Good works have no meritorious value but they have immense evidential value. As the text in Ephesians states, we were saved in order to be pleasing to the Lord.
This is not a systematic theology, so I need to wrap up. We come finally, again, to Ultimate Reality--the nature of the biblical God--which reveals the sovereign grace of God Almighty. All this talk of worldviews is foolish and empty if we ourselves are not reconciled with our Creator. 2 Cor 5:21 is one of the most important verses in all of Scripture for understanding the meaning of the atonement and justification. The sinless Son of God became a substitute for us...substitutionary atonement. We are justified by faith alone. To say that are saved by faith or grace alone is to say we are saved by Christ alone (and His finished work on the cross) Justification involves a double transfer. Christ became sin "for us"--and was punished "for us"--but His 33 years of righteous living (the righteousness of God) is imputed or counted to us as well. It pleased the Father to transfer our sins to Jesus, and to transfer Jesus' perfect life to us. We are declared eternally "Not Guilt y!" and the Father sees us "IN HIM".
The only way we can stand before the holy Father is due the robe of righteousness wrapped around us. Though it may not make sense to the world, we must be saved by grace alone because of how absolutely just, holy and righteous God is. Every sin is an act of cosmic treason against a thrice holy God and deserves eternal punishment. However, since we are in union with Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension..God not only accepts us, He absolutely delights in us! (Isaiah 62:3-5) He delights and rejoices over us...may we relish this, and dance for joy because salvation is of the Lord....from beginning to end. For all eternity we will sing the praises of the King of Grace!
Amen.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
"For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5:21)
I have been accenting the paramount importance of the doctrine of God in our worldviews...how it effects everything. How we view Ultimate Reality has a domino effect on the other six worldview issues. There are several worldviews in our culture, but the one gaining ascendancy is New Age or Neo-gnostic/occult, which we will look at perhaps next time. Obviously, the concept of Ultimate Reality in this pagan goddess spirituality differs significantly from biblical Christianity.
Let me briefly show how the primacy of what God is like effects the other issues, and then I want too camp on what is the most important issue of all--how can I be saved?
1. Ultimate Reality in the bible is the infinite personal God who is really there, and who has spoken to us Person to person in the bible. God is good--meaning He is holy and loving.
2. Since God is both infinite and Personal He took great delight in creating the heavens and the earth, the visible and invisible. (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16)
3. Since God is personal, He loves us and desires to be our primary love...He does not leave it to guesswork as to what our purpose in life is--it is stated in His communication to us.
4. The text above speaks of Jesus' sinlessness. Since God is really THERE, and spoken truth to us, we have an adequate basis for ethics. "Be holy because I am holy". (1 Peter 1:16)
5. God is infinite and personal and He made us finite and personal--that is, IN HIS IMAGE. Again, no guesswork as to what humans ARE, because of who God IS! (Gen.1:26ff)
6. We spoke of the three Lordship attributes of God last time (control, authority, and presence) This assures us that the flow of history (and our own personal history) is moving in a meaningful, linear fashion to it's culmination in the Second Coming/restoration. History is the stage upon which God is driving the drama of redemption.
7. The afterlife is, yet again, not a matter of speculation because God/heaven is really THERE. "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ...", "...it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement." The moment we die we appear before the Lord's throne, and are sent to heaven or hell for all eternity. (2 Cor. 5:!0; Heb. 9:27) The greatest argument against the notion of trapped spirits is the nature of God (and His perfect atonement). His nature will also reveal in technicolor how we MUST be saved and enter His perfectly holy heaven.
Do you see how the existence and nature of God effects EVERYTHING? If we had the time, I would like to show how Ultimate Reality as energy/matter would "answer" these worldview questions. We would see that it, and all non-biblical worldviews, are utterly bankrupt to provide adequate answers to our deepest questions.
But what of the greatest question of all: how can I know I am going to heaven after death? Though it is not listed as a worldview component, it underlies and is implied in all of seven components--especially the nature of God. Once again, when we ponder our eternal destiny, the nature of what Ultimate Reality is will guide our thinking. For example, in the history of humanity there are three basic answers to that question. Though details may vary in a multitude of ways, we can accurately summarize three basic views of salvation--which (not surprisingly!) flow from one's view of Ultimate Reality. Let's look at these now.
1. Auto-soterism or self-salvation...otherwise known as Pelagianism (named after the heresiarch, Pelagius). Whether New Age, humanism, atheism, deism or theological liberalism (and scores of others), we either save ourselves by being good or we essentially "save ourselves" by denying that we even need salvation. The details vary from one belief to the next in auto-soterism (e.g. annihilation vs continued conscious existence), but the defining feature is that we don't need a Savior....we will earn or merit our way to our next incarnation or heaven. Perhaps the most common view of salvation is, "Justification by death alone." All we have to do is die, and we fly off to paradise.
The only way one can subscribe to Pelagianism is by having a seriously defective or deficient view of God's nature. Theological liberalism often states that the essence of Christianity is" living the Sermon on the Mount". Hmmm.....I wonder if they have ever carefully read this lofty sermon by Jesus? There is a spiritual logic to the beatitudes, which are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, and the first is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3) That is, blessed (well being in one's relationship with God) are those who recognize they are desperately in need of divine grace and mercy, for they are spiritually bankrupt in themselves. A deficient view of God's holiness will lead to a deficient view of our true spiritual condition. In other words, self-salvation is the noxious fruit of having a distorted view of Ultimate Reality in our worldviews.
2. Semi-pelagianism or Arminianism (named after Jacob Arminius) is a half-way house between self-salvation and salvation by grace alone. Stated another way--we are saved by faith in Christ plus.... (fill in the blank). My intent is not to offend anyone, but to state things accurately and urge us to think (Berean style). I was raised in a devout Christian home, but the gospel was, "We are saved by faith in Jesus, plus doing certain things...but if you do other certain sins, that will kill the grace of God in your soul. You will lose your state of salvation until you do x, y, and z." I am intentionally being vague. However, regarding the view itself--we are saved by faith in Christ AND good work/s-I will NOT be vague. As Paul said to the "Arminians" of his day, "As we have said before, so now I say again:If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Gal. 1:9-10) The heresy Paul was eternally condemning to hell was the notion that we are saved by faith in Christ plus being circumcised. That was the Galatian heresy which so agitated Paul and the Lord.
There always has been, and always will be, differences amongst Christians this side of heaven. However, the essence of the gospel must be protected, regardless of what people say. The folks in Galatia were not pelagianists, or believers in self-salvation. However, they did add to the finished work of Christ on the cross by saying,"In order to be saved, you must believe in Christ and be circumcised." Today, that same sort of belief is alive and well in America, and globally. Only the Lord knows the true state of a person's soul and many folks raised in these traditions are truly born again, but it must be due to some happy inconsistency. Only the Lord knows when the line is crossed in practice--all I can do is state the biblical principle, for which I do not care what man thinks. What I plead for you to consider is that many professing Christians--either because they hold to a "easy-believism" or a version of faith plus works heresy--are not really saved and will spend eternit y in hell. That grieves me...and it certainly grieves the Lord.
The issue again is the nature of God. If we have depth view of God's holiness, then we will have a depth view of our sinfullness. With a deep awareness of our radical corruption comes a vision of the glorious beauty of grace. A deep appreciation of God's utter, burning holiness will reveal the utter futility and madness of adding anything to the finished work of Christ on the cross. A person on this faith and works treadmill can never enjoy (if they are consistent) an abiding joyful assurance of salvation. There will always be the insecurity of, "Did I do enough, or did I do TOO much sin today..did I get kicked out of God's family?" Listen, I lived this way growing up and it was horrible, even as a child.
The third way of salvation is the biblical way...the true way of salvation. GRACE. We are saved by faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the cross. (Romans 3 & 4;Eph. 2:8-10...Gen--Rev) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it s the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." I included v. 10 because it is often left out when these verses are quoted and it addresses a significant issue--what is the role of works, if we are saved by grace alone? Concern regarding "cheap grace" or easy believism is valid, but is no reason to throw the "grace baby" out with the dirty water. Luther re-discovered the pure gospel in 1517 after it had languished under severe legalism for 1, 000 years or more. He put it this way, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." The book of James is about the evidence of true faith. Good works have no meritorious value but they have immense evidential value. As the text in Ephesians states, we were saved in order to be pleasing to the Lord.
This is not a systematic theology, so I need to wrap up. We come finally, again, to Ultimate Reality--the nature of the biblical God--which reveals the sovereign grace of God Almighty. All this talk of worldviews is foolish and empty if we ourselves are not reconciled with our Creator. 2 Cor 5:21 is one of the most important verses in all of Scripture for understanding the meaning of the atonement and justification. The sinless Son of God became a substitute for us...substitutionary atonement. We are justified by faith alone. To say that are saved by faith or grace alone is to say we are saved by Christ alone (and His finished work on the cross) Justification involves a double transfer. Christ became sin "for us"--and was punished "for us"--but His 33 years of righteous living (the righteousness of God) is imputed or counted to us as well. It pleased the Father to transfer our sins to Jesus, and to transfer Jesus' perfect life to us. We are declared eternally "Not Guilt y!" and the Father sees us "IN HIM".
The only way we can stand before the holy Father is due the robe of righteousness wrapped around us. Though it may not make sense to the world, we must be saved by grace alone because of how absolutely just, holy and righteous God is. Every sin is an act of cosmic treason against a thrice holy God and deserves eternal punishment. However, since we are in union with Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension..God not only accepts us, He absolutely delights in us! (Isaiah 62:3-5) He delights and rejoices over us...may we relish this, and dance for joy because salvation is of the Lord....from beginning to end. For all eternity we will sing the praises of the King of Grace!
Amen.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
Friday, September 16, 2016
A Comprehensive Analysis of Alleged Ghost Texts
By Mark Hunnemann
I came across an argument recently which I consider representative of many thoughtful and sincere Christians. The argument is that there seems to be some “wiggle” room in the bible for considering ghosts as a biblically admissible category—three texts are given as most important. Later, this brother stated that though he believes ghosts may exist, we must not speak with them because the bible is clear that we mustn’t do that (Deuteronomy 18, Leviticus 19, 20). I appreciate this person’s ability to make a distinction as to ghost’s existence and our communication with them as two, distinct issues.
My purpose in this unusually lengthy blog is to establish the fact that the bible is crystal clear regarding the fate of those in the intermediate state—those who have died before Jesus’ return—and that there is no wiggle room for ghosts. Instead of quoting a couple verses and then listing others for folks to read on their own, I have included most of the texts I deem most pertinent to the state of our souls after death. I trust that you will read them carefully, and feel the cumulative effect. I am of the opinion that “mere” belief in ghosts, even if we won’t attempt communication, is harmful….it certainly is unbiblical.
I will address his interpretation of 1 John 4:1 first, list the pertinent verses, and then address the three verses he considers as most supportive of the notion of ghosts. If you are a sincere seeker of truth regarding ghosts, then I appeal to you to listen and read all the texts and arguments carefully. I put a lot of time in this blog.
“It is simply too easy to resign all paranormal phenomenon into the category of the demonic. Besides, we have no need to “test the spirits and see whether they are from God” (I Jn. 4:1) if all spirits (or spiritual phenomenon) are categorically evil. So while the Bible cautions us about deceiving spirits, it does not go so far as to say that all “encounters” are necessarily of the “deceptive” order. (p. 105 paperback edition; bold mine)
The need for spiritual discernment regarding “spirits” is evidence that there may be some wiggle room as to their nature. If all ghosts are demons, we don’t need discernment. But if, as I believe, there’s a broader range of spiritual possibilities, remaining skeptically agnostic may be a virtue.
Furthermore, some biblical texts appear to challenge the “ghosts are demons” narrative. Here’s what I consider the three most important.
Saul and the Witch of Endor (I Sam. 28) — The “ghost” of Samuel is summoned by a witch and witnessed as “a spirit coming up out of the ground” (vs. 13). The spirit is recognized as the dead prophet who validates himself by prophesying against Saul (vss. 16-19). So what was Samuel? A ghost or a demon?
The Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8) — Two dead prophets—Moses and Elijah—appear alongside Jesus in a glorified state. Had they been resurrected? Where did their bodies/souls previously exist? Where did they return to? Compounding matters is that the prophets “were talking with Jesus” (vs. 4).
Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearance to the disciples in which they mistake Him for “a ghost” (Luke 24:36-39) — It suggests that ghosts were an admissible category within their culture. Jesus does not rebuke them for this belief. In fact, He seems to substantiate it—“a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (vs. 39). This implies that ghosts ARE something and not another. (Note, this isn’t the first time the disciples thought Jesus to be a ghost — Matt. 14:22-33).
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6)
First, I need to address the author’s interpretation and application of 1 John 4:1….notice that I quote the entire text to preserve context. Many people assume that John has 3 kinds of entities in mind when it comes to discernment (true, demonic, and ghosts) In fact, the author states we would not need discernment if all ghosts were demons. This is simply not true. Read 1 John 4:1-6 carefully and you will not see ghosts anywhere in the context. What John is clearly calling Christians to be is discerning about human teachers within the church.(1b) The spirits and human teachers are inextricably connected in v. 1.(for many false prophets have gone out into the world.. see v 5-6 for same connection of spirits with teachers) John’s point is that some people’s teaching is animated by the Holy Spirit, and others are animated by demonic spirits. THAT is what discernment is needed for. When he says “test the spirits” it is a call for doctrinal orthodoxy, especially a Christological test. Namely, any spirit which denies that Jesus was fully human is demonic in origin (unclean spirit), and any spirit which affirms it is from God. The clarion call for discernment had only two foci in this context….godly human teachers who were guided by the Holy Spirit who taught orthodox views of Christ, and ungodly teachers who were guided by unholy spirits who taught heterodox views of Christ. False teaching regarding Christ was/is rampant and John (the Holy Spirit) commands us to not be spiritually gullible, but discerning. The author’s assertion that discernment was not needed unless ghosts existed is simply not true, and misses the Holy Spirit’s intent for this text. Discerning false teaching regarding the Person and Work of Christ is plenty reason for dogged and determined discernment. Such calls for discernment regarding false teachers is a common motiff from Genesis to Revelation…from Jesus Himself and in virtually all the epistles. V.6 summarized John’s point. ”We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” It is an either/or. Human teachers like John who speak correctly regarding Jesus have the Spirit of truth, but human teachers who speak falsely of Christ are animated by demons—the spirit of error. John does not have ghosts anywhere in his mind in this text. Nowhere! And yet there is an alarming sense of urgency that we be discerning. I honestly don’t understand how one can say this text makes no sense (in its call for discernment) unless it was implying a need for discernment of ghosts. The issue is discernment between teaching from the Holy Spirit, and teaching originating from demonic influence. That is clearly the Holy Spirit’s intent for this text and not just my interpretation.
From here, I want to list the primary texts that clarify the nature of the intermediate state, which are uniformly ghost-less. For sake of space and time, my comments after each will be minimal. Please read ALL the texts,
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, (2 Peter 2:9) Peter is speaking present tense. ALL of the unrighteous are being punished in hell during the intermediate state. From Adam and Eve onwards, there have been two streams of humanity—the righteous (those who looked forward to the coming Messiah, or look back to the Messiah who came) and the unrighteous. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Again, there is no allowance for exceptions regarding the location of all the unrighteous who have died.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Who is the author of Hebrews referring to as surrounding us? We need to look at the context, especially the preceding chapter. Starting with Abel there is a list of “faith hall of fame”… Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. All of these folks listed in chapter 11 are commended as living by faith and not by sight…waiting for their heavenly home. The astonishing thing is that we are told that this great cloud of witnesses in heaven “surround us”. They are earnestly looking down upon us, perhaps cheering us on as we run our race of faith. These Old Testament believers are currently in heaven….disembodied but glorified spirits worshiping God face-to-face, covered in the righteousness of Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. No exceptions….all the righteous dead from Old Testament times comprise the cloud of witnesses in heaven. In light of all Jesus endured (v.2) is it not noxious in the extreme to think that the perfect atonement made by the perfect Atoner of our sin, let somebody “slip” and become earthbound? The clear picture is that ALL the righteous dead comprise this great cloud of witnesses. They are conscious, and not in some suspended animation or soul-sleep, as some assert.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)
This astonishing text is often overlooked. As is often the case in Hebrews, the greater glory of the New Covenant is accented in this text. Moses, and all the Jews, were fearful of God’s theophany on the mountain. Speaking to all true Christians, the author says that “we have come (not future tense!!)…to the heavenly Jerusalem.” There is a true, proper mysticism in Christianity. The church militant is united with the church triumphant! In some sense, by virtue of our common union with Christ, we have access to the spiritual realm of heaven where we worship together with angels and deceased believers. Notice that God is called the “judge of ALL” (accent added)..nobody is immune from the Judge of heaven and earth. “The spirits of the righteous made perfect” can only mean all believers now in heaven. Notice they are called spirits…their souls are in heaven…and upon death, their souls were glorified; made perfect and free from all sin. Whether living during the Old Testament era or the New, believers are said to be in assembly in worship in heaven, along with innumerable angels. In 2:12 Jesus is leading the assembly in singing!! This is the glorious hope of all Christians upon death. Nobody will escape from our holy God, who is a consuming fire. (v. 29) I earnestly hope that nobody would think to refer to these “spirits of the righteous made perfect” as ghosts, simply because they are disembodied spirits.
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing pat the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together2 at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:54-60)
When the human courts had cast their vote of condemnation, Jesus came to Stephen’s aid. He was one of the first Christians killed (violent death, lots of emotion, unfinished business, before his time, ect…in world’s eyes—criteria set by paranormal community for haunting) But Jesus, King of Kings, became Stephen’s defense attorney. As His son was unfairly condemned and dying, Jesus STOOD UP—He is usually seen as seated at right hand—to tenderly welcome Stephen home. Jesus is our righteousness and He will similarly come to our defense when we die….if we are His children. What “fell asleep” was his body, until resurrected at Second Coming. Stephen’s death is a clear picture of God taking personal interest in everyone’s death, righteous or unrighteous. Can you picture, in light of this text, God just letting some poor soul become earthbound…avoiding any judgment or homecoming? At this point, I hope the cumulative effect of these texts is making its intended mark.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:9-11)
Under the altar is where sacrificial blood would pool. John sees the souls of believers under the altar, using Old Testament sacrificial imagery. The white robes signify victory and purity. Martyrs should be seen as symbolic of all believers who are called to be living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1-2) Obviously, these disembodied but glorified spirits are more alive and conscious than they ever were on earth! This is one of the clearest and most compelling pictures of the condition of believers during the intermediate state. Symbolism abounds in Revelation and these are symbolic of ALL believers who have died. Are they literally under an altar, cramped? No! All deceased believers are in heaven and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and worshipping and enjoying God. Their cry for vengeance would become increasingly answered as the book progresses. Once again, we are walking on holy ground as we peer into heaven, where all deceased believers reside….very much conscious, but no communication seen in any text with those on earth.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house—28 for I have five brothers7—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
There are many things one could discuss regarding this remarkable parable, but I need to stay focused on what happens to all people when we die. We see both sides of the coin: after his death, Lazarus was taken to heaven (that is where Abraham is now), and the unrighteous rich man was sent to hell after death….that is what Hades means in this context. Putting aside all the other details, this parable clearly displays the reality of the intermediate state. After death and judgment, our souls go either to heaven or hell. The notion of anyone being trapped here is utterly foreign to biblical theology. V.31 intimates that there will be no visitations from heaven by righteous souls to folks on earth.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)
This one verse is so clear it should resolve the issue for the open-minded. Since the bible does not contradict itself, less clear verses should be interpreted in a fashion that does not contradict this crystal clear verse. First, note that all men are “appointed to die”. Clearly the unspoken appointer is the Judge of heaven and earth. This is a strong verb—the sovereign King has appointed your death, down to the exact second. God makes an appointment which no man can cancel. All men must die and will die. Not by fate but by divine appointment. We die once—“hapax”(denying reincarnation)…” meta de touto krisis.” In the Greek it is even clearer…immediately after death we face judgment. Death is a means to an end—to bring us before the judgment seat of Christ. This text disallows any wiggle room for anybody to remain earthbound and avoiding immediate judgment. We all die once, then we all immediately face judgment. That is the force of the Greek word rendered “after” (meta).This text strictly denies any option of entrapment. What is usually overlooked in discussions of this verse is the singular honor and dignity of Jesus as well as the perfection of the atonement in the follow up verse. (v.29)…a recurring theme in all these texts. We meet Christ immediately after death, whether believer or unbeliever, there is apodictic certainty that none will remain behind,,,you MUST appear before Christ’s seat of judgment. Christ shed His infinitely precious blood ONCE, just as we die once. This is a judgment before THE Judgment….a personal reckoning before God immediately after death which ushers us into the intermediate state. Our disembodied souls are sent to either heaven or hell…..until Jesus comes a second time and our private sentences will be made public, and we are reunited with our bodies.
This is a good place to point out the serious implications of believing in ghosts. The atonement is like a multi-faceted gem. Put another way, 10,000 benefits flow from the cross. The bible states that the perfect atonement was a frontal assault on sin, Satan, and death. Death lost its sting. However, if only one person gets trapped here, then that implies imperfection in the atonement or the Atoner, or both. It also takes the certainty out of our glorious hope. If for whatever reason folks can get trapped here, then nobody can die with utter certainty of seeing Jesus upon death.Not only is the notion of ghosts inconsistent with the bible it is hostile to every major doctrine in the bible. It certainly casts a shadow over the perfection of the atonement. That is a serious red flag.
All leave earth upon death.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:18-26)
Paul states it explicitly…he had the certain hope that when he died, he was going to be with Jesus. ….depart and be with Christ. It was so wonderfully simple for Paul—die and he would be with his beloved Jesus. How clearer can a man be? In this sense Paul was not special. All Christians are to see these verses as their certain hope—their inheritance. Notice it is all so very Christocentric…these verses ooze and dance with Jesus as the center stage in Paul’s life and death. Another verse which should be enough to demolish earthbound spirits. There is simply no way to jive the notion of earthbound spirits with this text. And as we’ll see, less clear texts are to be interpreted by clear verses like this one. The certainty of being with Jesus upon death was grounded in the Person and work of Christ, as seen in the larger context (cf. 2:8-11…ch.3) Clinging to the righteousness of Christ was the basis for Paul’s (and ours) absolute confidence regarding our heavenly home during the intermediate state. All leave earth upon death.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)
WE…..WE….(9 times in English bible) Frequently in his letters, Paul would use the first person/plural..we. What was true of the great apostle is true of the garden variety believer, like me/us. No exceptions. First, as in previous text, Paul states that death leads to going home to be with Jesus. Death is an immediate and certain doorway for believers into the beatific vision….seeing the Lord Jesus in His indescribable beauty, which will be the greatest pleasure in heaven. Second, we experience what is called the believer’s judgment prior to entry. I don’t have time to elaborate but this teaches that “each one” (no exceptions) will experience it upon death.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:17-18)
Having the keys to death means that Jesus has authority over it. Once again, His authority and victory over death is inextricably linked to Jesus’ death and resurrection. “I died…am alive forevermore”….As if to say, therefore I have absolute sovereign authority over death. I determine what happens to you when you die, not you. I have the keys, not you, and not Satan. John, perhaps Jesus’ closest friend while on earth, almost died from fright when he saw the ascended Lord Jesus in His holy glory. Then Jesus gently touched Him. I honestly believe that the greatest need of Christians is a renewed understanding of God’s holiness. With God as truly God Almighty, God-dishonoring notions like ghosts would melt away. Our God is too small.
Every person who dies has to face the One who owns death and has authority over it. Nobody can just hang around and not have to deal with the One who owns them by virtue of creating them and has the keys.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)
According to the paranormal community certain circumstances and kinds of death raise the chances of one becoming trapped. This man was experiencing one of the most painful ways to die ever devised by man…he met most, if not all, of the so-called death criteria. But he believes in Jesus at the eleventh hour, and Jesus says to him: ”Today you will die and get trapped here for an indeterminate amount of time….and your residual energy will seep into this ground” Right? Obviously not. Sounds horribly foolish doesn’t it? Jesus tells this dear man, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” In other words, Jesus was assuring this dying man that he would be in heaven after he died. During the intermediate state this man would be in conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ. Luke was written in part to show that Jesus is the Divine Messiah for all people. What was true for this man is meant to be seen as paradigmatic for all believers….going home.
Before looking at three classic texts used to support the notion that ghosts are an admissible category, it is prudent to list some basic rules of hermeneutics. It should become clear as we proceed, but there is a science to proper interpretation. Errors can be caught at the gate if we are cognizant of these basic rules. Honestly, most Christians are not trained in this area.
Rules for interpretation
1. New Testament interprets Old Testament
2. Scripture interprets scripture…..in non-contradictory fashion
3. Always interpret text in it’s context…immediate and larger (what precedes it, and purpose of book….e.g. what immediately precedes Mark 6 and what is purpose of Mark’s gospel? And the context of the entire bible, which takes hard work)
4. Determine what kind of literary genre text is (e.g. poetry, historical narrative, ect.)
5. Historical narratives are to interpreted by didactic (examples of historical narratives are 1-2 Kings and gospels….note that all texts cited by author are historical narrative) They record history and often without comment….generally they are descriptive and not prescriptive…unless meaning is made clear. Epistles were written to explain in further detail the meaning of the person and work of Jesus recorded in gospels and its application…and are almost always prescriptive
6. Unclear or bizarre texts are not to be used to formulate doctrine, and should be interpreted by clearer texts.
7. Determine the main intent of Holy Spirit and not what we wish it to mean. Determine what text meant to original audience before seeking personal application.
8. Any interpretation or implication drawn from text that implicitly/explicitly diminishes the singular honor and dignity of Jesus Christ, or casts a shadow over the absolute perfection of the atonement, should be rejected. If interpretation is inconsistent with letter or spirit of other clearer texts it should be rejected.
9. It should be noted that at significant junctures of redemptive history, there is usually an increase of extraordinary, sometimes mysterious, Divine activity. Examples would include Noah, Abraham, Moses, Saul/David, Elijah/Elisha, and Jesus. Care must be taken to ensure that the Holy Spirit’s intent for these texts is sought out, and our own agendas put aside. They are often extraordinary in nature and not directly applicable to us….e.g..just because Elijah did not die and was carried to heaven in chariot, does not mean we will have same experience!
10. Any comments made by disciples BEFORE Pentecost must be interpreted with extreme care and caution
11. Texts should be read theo-centrically. That is, after determining what the meaning was to the original audience, we should first ask: what does this text reveal about the nature of God, and of the Person and work of Jesus in particular?
3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him kin Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. 4 The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. 7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”
8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.” 9 The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?” 10 But Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” 11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” 13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” 14 He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped win a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. 15 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.” 16 And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. 19 Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.” 20 Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. 21 And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. 22 Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.” 23 He refused and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. 24 Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, 25 and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
Before we interpret this text we must ask what the central themes of the books of Samuel are. The essential theme is God exercising His cosmic Kingship by inaugurating a Davidic dynasty and not a Saulide one, and establishing Jerusalem as the place where the Divine King Yahweh will be worshipped. This is a very significant time in the flow of redemptive history as God’s people move away from a period of ruling Judges to a central monarchy, who is to be subject to the Word of God. (see rule #9).
The key themes in Samuel are: the absolute cosmic Kingship of God, His providential guidance, and God’s sovereign will and power. Obedience of God’s deputy (the king) to His revealed Word is of paramount importance. All of this is very significant when looking at this text.
This text is preceded by a narrative of God’s chosen one, David, and is followed by a tragic story of Saul’s rejection and God-ordained death.
All of the rules for interpretation given above must be kept in mind. Above all else, the clear and cumulative evidence of what happens to us when we die (both godly and ungodly) from the multitude of texts above must guide our interpretation of this bizarre and singular text. The New Testament interprets the Old, and didactic interprets historical narrative—and this is a historical narrative.
I am going to make this short, dealing with just the major issue. This is a significant juncture in the flow of the drama of redemption—Israel’s first king is about to be killed. Hence, it is no surprise to me that we have this singularly bizarre incident occuring. In keeping with the theme of the book, the Sovereign King steps in during this séance with a medium (not witch..’ob) and providentially guides its proceedings. Samuel’s soul is dispatched by God to deliver a message of judgment upon king Saul. Samuel is at rest in heaven (why did you disturb me?). God gives him an appearance that all would recognize as the deceased prophet. At this unrepeatable and significant juncture in redemptive history where Israel’s first king is on the verge of death—and the forerunner of the Lord Jesus is about to become king, David—God does something extraordinary. Remember that this is historical narrative and an in-depth commentary is lacking. Thus, drawing doctrine from this would be contrary to several of the hermeneutical rules laid out above. However, just because there was a very brief visit by a glorified soul is no basis for establishing further visitations. Here is a very significant point—Samuel was NOT an earthbound spirit. His rest was “disrupted” and after delivering his message, Samuel went back home to his celestial rest.
The issue at stake is not whether there are disembodied spirits (there are millions in heaven and hell right now). Like Moses and Elijah on the mountain with Jesus, Samuel was sovereignly dispatched during a time of crisis at the beginning of the monarchy stage.
Ghosts are said to be trapped spirits, and usually for a long time. Samuel was not trapped and his visit was measured in minutes. There is nothing in this text which provides ammunition for those looking for a biblical basis for saying that ghosts is an admissible category. In fact, Samuel predicts that” tomorrow” Saul and his sons would join him. Nobody is being trapped or earthbound in this text. Case closed.
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure,2 which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”— not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, ma cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One;3 listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. (Luke 9:28-36)
Three questions are asked of this text: are Moses and Elijah resurrected?; where did they previously exist? Where did they return to? And a comment was made that their talking with Jesus compounds the matter.
This is the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain with Peter, James and John. From the outset, we must point out this is historical narrative, which describes an event, but often without commenting on it….which is somewhat the case in this text. Let me hasten to add that the gospels obviously do contain much teaching from Jesus (or didactic), but they are primarily theological biographies of the Lord Jesus. Events are often compressed and frequently events are described without comment on it…..usually left to reader to see this through Holy Spirit’s anointing and wisdom.
The context and the Holy Spirits main intention for this text is to accent the divine glory of the Lord Jesus. The texts preceding this and the episode with the demoniac coming after it (on the next day intentionally “hooks into” this theme”).
The transfiguration is an illumination from the inside/out of the true divine glory of Jesus which He suppressed during His incarnation. His divine glory shone exceedingly brightly!
Peter, out of fear, makes a foolish comment regarding making a tent for all three….”not knowing what he said”. This is another situation in which a disciple made a dumb comment without Jesus rebuking or correcting them. This will be significant when we look at the text in Mark when Jesus made no comment regarding their fear-laden comment that He was a ghost.
In a rare case in which the Father spoke verbally, He tells the disciples that Jesus is His beloved Son and they/we must listen to Him. Jesus’ ministry supersedes and fulfills all those who preceded Him, like Moses and Elijah.
Speaking of Moses and Elijah, the purpose of their presence was that Moses represented the Law and Elijah the Prophets, and most importantly, Jesus fulfills both. I chose the Lukan text because it tells us what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were discussing. V.31 says that they were discussing His impending departure (“exodus” in Greek), which would entail His death, resurrection, and ascension. These were the events that all the prophets foretold and every inch of the Old Testament progressively revealed the coming ministry of the Messiah. How marvelous it must have been for Moses and Elijah!
To answer the questions: no, Moses and Elijah were not resurrected—that will occur at the Second Coming when we are reunited with our glorified bodies, such as Jesus’s was on the mountain. As we saw in the many texts above, Moses and Elijah existed in heaven, in the form of glorified souls. Jesus gave them an observable form but it was not yet their glorified bodies. Jesus’ whole ministry was THE most significant juncture in redemptive history. Hence we see unparalleled healings and exorcisms and other extraordinary, singular events—which include this Transfiguration. Jesus sovereignly transported Elijah and Moses for this short but magnificent event. How wonderful it must have been for Moses to see how the sacrificial system pre-figured the once for all sacrifice of The Lamb of God. And how moving it must have been for Elijah as he saw Jesus as The Divine Prophet..prophet, priest and king.
After their brief encounter (like Samuel) they went back home to heaven as the glorified souls we read about above (see Hebrews 11-12). Why does Elijah and Moses speaking with Jesus compound things? In God’s inscrutable wisdom, He included these two primary figures of the Old Testament. I find it unspeakably beautiful that God incarnate would bring these two men here to have a heart to heart about the upcoming events, which all of human/cosmic history hinge. The Creator of Moses and Elijah can certainly give them (as glorified souls) the ability to verbally communicate. Once again, their appearance was measured in minutes and they went back home. They were not earthbound. Their appearance enriched the significance of Jesus’ transfiguration by showing the centrality of Jesus in the Old Testament…and more glorious New Covenant.
To take such a God (and His glory) saturated text—with the Father telling us to listen to Him—and use it as an inference for ghosts is unwise, to put it mildly. We need to look to the epistles to give us the understanding of the status of Moses and Elijah. These are glorified souls engaged in conversation with their Creator and Savior, and were then sent back home. No ghosts. Indeed the notion detracts from the central theme—the glorious divinity of King Jesus. It saddens me that this God besotted text—and surrounding context on both sides- is used to support that which undermines the glory of Jesus by undermining the perfection of the atonement which they were discussing on that holy mountain. To infer that other spirits could remain with us, is to overlook the singular nature of Jesus and His role in redemptive history as expressed in His transfiguration. It also overlooks the main intent of this passage and breaks several of the rules of hermeneutics.
all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
Jesus Walks on the Water
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:42-53…emphasis added)
I added this text because many folks are persuaded that this is the most powerful text proving Jesus believed in ghosts because he didn’t correct the disciple’s belief in ghosts. This text is preceded by the miracle of feeding 5,000…it is followed by Jesus landing on shore and healing everyone that came to him. These texts are designed to prove that Jesus is the divine “I AM”, and worthy of our worship and implicit trust. However, as we’ll see, this lesson was lost on the obtuse disciples.
Immediately (v.45) after a sensational, miraculous display of Jesus’ divine power and glory, Jesus made the disciples get into their boat. He went to pray. To condense this, when the disciples saw Jesus they thought He was a ghost (phantasma) Since He did not correct them, it must be that he agreed that ghosts is an admissible category.
Several problems with that argument. First, it is an argument from silence, which is a logical fallacy. You cannot derive doctrine from what Jesus didn’t say, especially in a historical narrative. Speaking of historical narrative, this text needs to be interpreted along the lines mentioned above—through the lenses of the epistles. Thirdly, what was the disciple’s emotional state when they thought this regarding Jesus….who they had just left across the lake, very much alive? We don’t have to guess. It says they were terrified, both by their crisis and Jesus’ appearance.
He did speak to them by telling them to not be afraid. Then He says “ego eimi” which is Greek equivalent of Old Testament Yahweh, I AM….was passing by them. But they totally missed it. In the Mt of Transfiguration, we have a precedent of a disciple saying something foolish without being corrected. What is kindness? Well, when people are terrified kindness and compassion looks like not jumping all over loved ones who just made a mistake. They were terrified…no time for lecture.
Most significantly, we are given a divinely inspired commentary on this whole event in v.52….it says that they didn’t understand the loaves (nor Jesus) because their hearts were hardened. This verse casts a long shadow over everything the disciples said/did in this text…especially regarding ghosts. Instead of operating out of well deserved faith and trust in Jesus, they were sunk in abject terror, unbelief and lack of faith. They (like me) were slow learners, until after Pentecost. Their cry of Jesus being a ghost was prompted by fear and unbelief. Here is the great I AM walking by, and they cling to popular superstition instead of faith in God Almighty. Without beating a dead horse, v. 52 makes it clear that the disciples were operating out of fear and not faith….their hearts were hardened to the lessons they should have learned the miracle done just hours before. Their utterance of Jesus being a ghost (which was absurd anyway since they knew He was alive) was an expression of their hardened heart. As Jesus said, out of the fullness of our hearts, the mouth speaks. In this context Phantasm is best translated as superstitious imagination. Ghosts were a popular notion in their day, as it is in ours, but the bible is our foundation. We must be transformed and not conformed. It was not until 24:25 that we are told that Jesus “opened their minds”….prior to that the disciples were quick to stick their foots in their mouths, and as historical narrative, often commentary is often very brief or lacking altogether.
36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,2 43 and he took it and ate before them.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you ware clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:36-49).
First, it is noted in v.37-38 that the disciples were once again overcome with fear and doubt—similar to the commentary in Mark 6:52, where their hearts were said to be hardened. With these emotions flowing from fear and not faith, they thought Jesus was a spirit (pneuma….not a ghost). There were many disembodied spirits in heaven and hell at that time. In fact, Jesus does gently rebuke them for their comments. If Jesus said “Hey, I’m not like those earthbound spirits which are all around us” then we would have a basis for inference regarding ghosts as an admissible category. Contrary to what the author said he does rebuke them. He gently rebukes them for their unbelief/fear, and simply states he is not a spirit.
Jesus had a glorified body and not an appearance like Moses or Elijah, who have to wait for their glorified bodies. Jesus was simply emphasizing that He had a true, physical body (though glorified)…THAT is the main point. He refers to disembodied spirits as a means to an end….to counter the notion that He only appeared to be fully human after the resurrection. It was not until v.49 that we see Jesus foretelling a time when His disciples would be filled with the Spirit and finally understand…and stop making foolish comments.
Jesus took bread and ate it to prove to them that He was not a spirit. His intent was not to give us a ghostology, but address THEIR mistaken belief that He was a spirit. In a simple attempt to comfort them He says that He is not a spirit. Using their own words, Jesus said He was not who they thought He was, a spirit. Nowhere is the modern notion of an earthbound spirit referred to.
Like other historical narratives, we must view this text through the grid of the above didactic texts. It is not that some verses are more inspired/important than others, but there are common sense rules for interpreting the bible properly…which is what we must do if we believe it is the very Word of God.
By the way, while Jesus ministered to countless demoniacs, He never sought out a ghost to help them. Likewise, we never see an earthbound spirit approaching their Creator to help them, as did many demoniacs. The only inference one can take away is that Jesus did not have a ghostology ministry because there are none. If we allow for the admissibility of ghosts, then we open a Pandora’s box from hell.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
I came across an argument recently which I consider representative of many thoughtful and sincere Christians. The argument is that there seems to be some “wiggle” room in the bible for considering ghosts as a biblically admissible category—three texts are given as most important. Later, this brother stated that though he believes ghosts may exist, we must not speak with them because the bible is clear that we mustn’t do that (Deuteronomy 18, Leviticus 19, 20). I appreciate this person’s ability to make a distinction as to ghost’s existence and our communication with them as two, distinct issues.
My purpose in this unusually lengthy blog is to establish the fact that the bible is crystal clear regarding the fate of those in the intermediate state—those who have died before Jesus’ return—and that there is no wiggle room for ghosts. Instead of quoting a couple verses and then listing others for folks to read on their own, I have included most of the texts I deem most pertinent to the state of our souls after death. I trust that you will read them carefully, and feel the cumulative effect. I am of the opinion that “mere” belief in ghosts, even if we won’t attempt communication, is harmful….it certainly is unbiblical.
I will address his interpretation of 1 John 4:1 first, list the pertinent verses, and then address the three verses he considers as most supportive of the notion of ghosts. If you are a sincere seeker of truth regarding ghosts, then I appeal to you to listen and read all the texts and arguments carefully. I put a lot of time in this blog.
“It is simply too easy to resign all paranormal phenomenon into the category of the demonic. Besides, we have no need to “test the spirits and see whether they are from God” (I Jn. 4:1) if all spirits (or spiritual phenomenon) are categorically evil. So while the Bible cautions us about deceiving spirits, it does not go so far as to say that all “encounters” are necessarily of the “deceptive” order. (p. 105 paperback edition; bold mine)
The need for spiritual discernment regarding “spirits” is evidence that there may be some wiggle room as to their nature. If all ghosts are demons, we don’t need discernment. But if, as I believe, there’s a broader range of spiritual possibilities, remaining skeptically agnostic may be a virtue.
Furthermore, some biblical texts appear to challenge the “ghosts are demons” narrative. Here’s what I consider the three most important.
Saul and the Witch of Endor (I Sam. 28) — The “ghost” of Samuel is summoned by a witch and witnessed as “a spirit coming up out of the ground” (vs. 13). The spirit is recognized as the dead prophet who validates himself by prophesying against Saul (vss. 16-19). So what was Samuel? A ghost or a demon?
The Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8) — Two dead prophets—Moses and Elijah—appear alongside Jesus in a glorified state. Had they been resurrected? Where did their bodies/souls previously exist? Where did they return to? Compounding matters is that the prophets “were talking with Jesus” (vs. 4).
Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearance to the disciples in which they mistake Him for “a ghost” (Luke 24:36-39) — It suggests that ghosts were an admissible category within their culture. Jesus does not rebuke them for this belief. In fact, He seems to substantiate it—“a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (vs. 39). This implies that ghosts ARE something and not another. (Note, this isn’t the first time the disciples thought Jesus to be a ghost — Matt. 14:22-33).
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6)
First, I need to address the author’s interpretation and application of 1 John 4:1….notice that I quote the entire text to preserve context. Many people assume that John has 3 kinds of entities in mind when it comes to discernment (true, demonic, and ghosts) In fact, the author states we would not need discernment if all ghosts were demons. This is simply not true. Read 1 John 4:1-6 carefully and you will not see ghosts anywhere in the context. What John is clearly calling Christians to be is discerning about human teachers within the church.(1b) The spirits and human teachers are inextricably connected in v. 1.(for many false prophets have gone out into the world.. see v 5-6 for same connection of spirits with teachers) John’s point is that some people’s teaching is animated by the Holy Spirit, and others are animated by demonic spirits. THAT is what discernment is needed for. When he says “test the spirits” it is a call for doctrinal orthodoxy, especially a Christological test. Namely, any spirit which denies that Jesus was fully human is demonic in origin (unclean spirit), and any spirit which affirms it is from God. The clarion call for discernment had only two foci in this context….godly human teachers who were guided by the Holy Spirit who taught orthodox views of Christ, and ungodly teachers who were guided by unholy spirits who taught heterodox views of Christ. False teaching regarding Christ was/is rampant and John (the Holy Spirit) commands us to not be spiritually gullible, but discerning. The author’s assertion that discernment was not needed unless ghosts existed is simply not true, and misses the Holy Spirit’s intent for this text. Discerning false teaching regarding the Person and Work of Christ is plenty reason for dogged and determined discernment. Such calls for discernment regarding false teachers is a common motiff from Genesis to Revelation…from Jesus Himself and in virtually all the epistles. V.6 summarized John’s point. ”We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” It is an either/or. Human teachers like John who speak correctly regarding Jesus have the Spirit of truth, but human teachers who speak falsely of Christ are animated by demons—the spirit of error. John does not have ghosts anywhere in his mind in this text. Nowhere! And yet there is an alarming sense of urgency that we be discerning. I honestly don’t understand how one can say this text makes no sense (in its call for discernment) unless it was implying a need for discernment of ghosts. The issue is discernment between teaching from the Holy Spirit, and teaching originating from demonic influence. That is clearly the Holy Spirit’s intent for this text and not just my interpretation.
From here, I want to list the primary texts that clarify the nature of the intermediate state, which are uniformly ghost-less. For sake of space and time, my comments after each will be minimal. Please read ALL the texts,
9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, (2 Peter 2:9) Peter is speaking present tense. ALL of the unrighteous are being punished in hell during the intermediate state. From Adam and Eve onwards, there have been two streams of humanity—the righteous (those who looked forward to the coming Messiah, or look back to the Messiah who came) and the unrighteous. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Again, there is no allowance for exceptions regarding the location of all the unrighteous who have died.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Who is the author of Hebrews referring to as surrounding us? We need to look at the context, especially the preceding chapter. Starting with Abel there is a list of “faith hall of fame”… Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. All of these folks listed in chapter 11 are commended as living by faith and not by sight…waiting for their heavenly home. The astonishing thing is that we are told that this great cloud of witnesses in heaven “surround us”. They are earnestly looking down upon us, perhaps cheering us on as we run our race of faith. These Old Testament believers are currently in heaven….disembodied but glorified spirits worshiping God face-to-face, covered in the righteousness of Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. No exceptions….all the righteous dead from Old Testament times comprise the cloud of witnesses in heaven. In light of all Jesus endured (v.2) is it not noxious in the extreme to think that the perfect atonement made by the perfect Atoner of our sin, let somebody “slip” and become earthbound? The clear picture is that ALL the righteous dead comprise this great cloud of witnesses. They are conscious, and not in some suspended animation or soul-sleep, as some assert.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)
This astonishing text is often overlooked. As is often the case in Hebrews, the greater glory of the New Covenant is accented in this text. Moses, and all the Jews, were fearful of God’s theophany on the mountain. Speaking to all true Christians, the author says that “we have come (not future tense!!)…to the heavenly Jerusalem.” There is a true, proper mysticism in Christianity. The church militant is united with the church triumphant! In some sense, by virtue of our common union with Christ, we have access to the spiritual realm of heaven where we worship together with angels and deceased believers. Notice that God is called the “judge of ALL” (accent added)..nobody is immune from the Judge of heaven and earth. “The spirits of the righteous made perfect” can only mean all believers now in heaven. Notice they are called spirits…their souls are in heaven…and upon death, their souls were glorified; made perfect and free from all sin. Whether living during the Old Testament era or the New, believers are said to be in assembly in worship in heaven, along with innumerable angels. In 2:12 Jesus is leading the assembly in singing!! This is the glorious hope of all Christians upon death. Nobody will escape from our holy God, who is a consuming fire. (v. 29) I earnestly hope that nobody would think to refer to these “spirits of the righteous made perfect” as ghosts, simply because they are disembodied spirits.
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing pat the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together2 at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:54-60)
When the human courts had cast their vote of condemnation, Jesus came to Stephen’s aid. He was one of the first Christians killed (violent death, lots of emotion, unfinished business, before his time, ect…in world’s eyes—criteria set by paranormal community for haunting) But Jesus, King of Kings, became Stephen’s defense attorney. As His son was unfairly condemned and dying, Jesus STOOD UP—He is usually seen as seated at right hand—to tenderly welcome Stephen home. Jesus is our righteousness and He will similarly come to our defense when we die….if we are His children. What “fell asleep” was his body, until resurrected at Second Coming. Stephen’s death is a clear picture of God taking personal interest in everyone’s death, righteous or unrighteous. Can you picture, in light of this text, God just letting some poor soul become earthbound…avoiding any judgment or homecoming? At this point, I hope the cumulative effect of these texts is making its intended mark.
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:9-11)
Under the altar is where sacrificial blood would pool. John sees the souls of believers under the altar, using Old Testament sacrificial imagery. The white robes signify victory and purity. Martyrs should be seen as symbolic of all believers who are called to be living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1-2) Obviously, these disembodied but glorified spirits are more alive and conscious than they ever were on earth! This is one of the clearest and most compelling pictures of the condition of believers during the intermediate state. Symbolism abounds in Revelation and these are symbolic of ALL believers who have died. Are they literally under an altar, cramped? No! All deceased believers are in heaven and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and worshipping and enjoying God. Their cry for vengeance would become increasingly answered as the book progresses. Once again, we are walking on holy ground as we peer into heaven, where all deceased believers reside….very much conscious, but no communication seen in any text with those on earth.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house—28 for I have five brothers7—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
There are many things one could discuss regarding this remarkable parable, but I need to stay focused on what happens to all people when we die. We see both sides of the coin: after his death, Lazarus was taken to heaven (that is where Abraham is now), and the unrighteous rich man was sent to hell after death….that is what Hades means in this context. Putting aside all the other details, this parable clearly displays the reality of the intermediate state. After death and judgment, our souls go either to heaven or hell. The notion of anyone being trapped here is utterly foreign to biblical theology. V.31 intimates that there will be no visitations from heaven by righteous souls to folks on earth.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)
This one verse is so clear it should resolve the issue for the open-minded. Since the bible does not contradict itself, less clear verses should be interpreted in a fashion that does not contradict this crystal clear verse. First, note that all men are “appointed to die”. Clearly the unspoken appointer is the Judge of heaven and earth. This is a strong verb—the sovereign King has appointed your death, down to the exact second. God makes an appointment which no man can cancel. All men must die and will die. Not by fate but by divine appointment. We die once—“hapax”(denying reincarnation)…” meta de touto krisis.” In the Greek it is even clearer…immediately after death we face judgment. Death is a means to an end—to bring us before the judgment seat of Christ. This text disallows any wiggle room for anybody to remain earthbound and avoiding immediate judgment. We all die once, then we all immediately face judgment. That is the force of the Greek word rendered “after” (meta).This text strictly denies any option of entrapment. What is usually overlooked in discussions of this verse is the singular honor and dignity of Jesus as well as the perfection of the atonement in the follow up verse. (v.29)…a recurring theme in all these texts. We meet Christ immediately after death, whether believer or unbeliever, there is apodictic certainty that none will remain behind,,,you MUST appear before Christ’s seat of judgment. Christ shed His infinitely precious blood ONCE, just as we die once. This is a judgment before THE Judgment….a personal reckoning before God immediately after death which ushers us into the intermediate state. Our disembodied souls are sent to either heaven or hell…..until Jesus comes a second time and our private sentences will be made public, and we are reunited with our bodies.
This is a good place to point out the serious implications of believing in ghosts. The atonement is like a multi-faceted gem. Put another way, 10,000 benefits flow from the cross. The bible states that the perfect atonement was a frontal assault on sin, Satan, and death. Death lost its sting. However, if only one person gets trapped here, then that implies imperfection in the atonement or the Atoner, or both. It also takes the certainty out of our glorious hope. If for whatever reason folks can get trapped here, then nobody can die with utter certainty of seeing Jesus upon death.Not only is the notion of ghosts inconsistent with the bible it is hostile to every major doctrine in the bible. It certainly casts a shadow over the perfection of the atonement. That is a serious red flag.
All leave earth upon death.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:18-26)
Paul states it explicitly…he had the certain hope that when he died, he was going to be with Jesus. ….depart and be with Christ. It was so wonderfully simple for Paul—die and he would be with his beloved Jesus. How clearer can a man be? In this sense Paul was not special. All Christians are to see these verses as their certain hope—their inheritance. Notice it is all so very Christocentric…these verses ooze and dance with Jesus as the center stage in Paul’s life and death. Another verse which should be enough to demolish earthbound spirits. There is simply no way to jive the notion of earthbound spirits with this text. And as we’ll see, less clear texts are to be interpreted by clear verses like this one. The certainty of being with Jesus upon death was grounded in the Person and work of Christ, as seen in the larger context (cf. 2:8-11…ch.3) Clinging to the righteousness of Christ was the basis for Paul’s (and ours) absolute confidence regarding our heavenly home during the intermediate state. All leave earth upon death.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)
WE…..WE….(9 times in English bible) Frequently in his letters, Paul would use the first person/plural..we. What was true of the great apostle is true of the garden variety believer, like me/us. No exceptions. First, as in previous text, Paul states that death leads to going home to be with Jesus. Death is an immediate and certain doorway for believers into the beatific vision….seeing the Lord Jesus in His indescribable beauty, which will be the greatest pleasure in heaven. Second, we experience what is called the believer’s judgment prior to entry. I don’t have time to elaborate but this teaches that “each one” (no exceptions) will experience it upon death.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:17-18)
Having the keys to death means that Jesus has authority over it. Once again, His authority and victory over death is inextricably linked to Jesus’ death and resurrection. “I died…am alive forevermore”….As if to say, therefore I have absolute sovereign authority over death. I determine what happens to you when you die, not you. I have the keys, not you, and not Satan. John, perhaps Jesus’ closest friend while on earth, almost died from fright when he saw the ascended Lord Jesus in His holy glory. Then Jesus gently touched Him. I honestly believe that the greatest need of Christians is a renewed understanding of God’s holiness. With God as truly God Almighty, God-dishonoring notions like ghosts would melt away. Our God is too small.
Every person who dies has to face the One who owns death and has authority over it. Nobody can just hang around and not have to deal with the One who owns them by virtue of creating them and has the keys.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)
According to the paranormal community certain circumstances and kinds of death raise the chances of one becoming trapped. This man was experiencing one of the most painful ways to die ever devised by man…he met most, if not all, of the so-called death criteria. But he believes in Jesus at the eleventh hour, and Jesus says to him: ”Today you will die and get trapped here for an indeterminate amount of time….and your residual energy will seep into this ground” Right? Obviously not. Sounds horribly foolish doesn’t it? Jesus tells this dear man, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” In other words, Jesus was assuring this dying man that he would be in heaven after he died. During the intermediate state this man would be in conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ. Luke was written in part to show that Jesus is the Divine Messiah for all people. What was true for this man is meant to be seen as paradigmatic for all believers….going home.
Before looking at three classic texts used to support the notion that ghosts are an admissible category, it is prudent to list some basic rules of hermeneutics. It should become clear as we proceed, but there is a science to proper interpretation. Errors can be caught at the gate if we are cognizant of these basic rules. Honestly, most Christians are not trained in this area.
Rules for interpretation
1. New Testament interprets Old Testament
2. Scripture interprets scripture…..in non-contradictory fashion
3. Always interpret text in it’s context…immediate and larger (what precedes it, and purpose of book….e.g. what immediately precedes Mark 6 and what is purpose of Mark’s gospel? And the context of the entire bible, which takes hard work)
4. Determine what kind of literary genre text is (e.g. poetry, historical narrative, ect.)
5. Historical narratives are to interpreted by didactic (examples of historical narratives are 1-2 Kings and gospels….note that all texts cited by author are historical narrative) They record history and often without comment….generally they are descriptive and not prescriptive…unless meaning is made clear. Epistles were written to explain in further detail the meaning of the person and work of Jesus recorded in gospels and its application…and are almost always prescriptive
6. Unclear or bizarre texts are not to be used to formulate doctrine, and should be interpreted by clearer texts.
7. Determine the main intent of Holy Spirit and not what we wish it to mean. Determine what text meant to original audience before seeking personal application.
8. Any interpretation or implication drawn from text that implicitly/explicitly diminishes the singular honor and dignity of Jesus Christ, or casts a shadow over the absolute perfection of the atonement, should be rejected. If interpretation is inconsistent with letter or spirit of other clearer texts it should be rejected.
9. It should be noted that at significant junctures of redemptive history, there is usually an increase of extraordinary, sometimes mysterious, Divine activity. Examples would include Noah, Abraham, Moses, Saul/David, Elijah/Elisha, and Jesus. Care must be taken to ensure that the Holy Spirit’s intent for these texts is sought out, and our own agendas put aside. They are often extraordinary in nature and not directly applicable to us….e.g..just because Elijah did not die and was carried to heaven in chariot, does not mean we will have same experience!
10. Any comments made by disciples BEFORE Pentecost must be interpreted with extreme care and caution
11. Texts should be read theo-centrically. That is, after determining what the meaning was to the original audience, we should first ask: what does this text reveal about the nature of God, and of the Person and work of Jesus in particular?
3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him kin Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. 4 The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6 And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. 7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”
8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.” 9 The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?” 10 But Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” 11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.” 13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” 14 He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped win a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. 15 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.” 16 And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. 19 Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.” 20 Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. 21 And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. 22 Now therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way.” 23 He refused and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. 24 Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, 25 and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
Before we interpret this text we must ask what the central themes of the books of Samuel are. The essential theme is God exercising His cosmic Kingship by inaugurating a Davidic dynasty and not a Saulide one, and establishing Jerusalem as the place where the Divine King Yahweh will be worshipped. This is a very significant time in the flow of redemptive history as God’s people move away from a period of ruling Judges to a central monarchy, who is to be subject to the Word of God. (see rule #9).
The key themes in Samuel are: the absolute cosmic Kingship of God, His providential guidance, and God’s sovereign will and power. Obedience of God’s deputy (the king) to His revealed Word is of paramount importance. All of this is very significant when looking at this text.
This text is preceded by a narrative of God’s chosen one, David, and is followed by a tragic story of Saul’s rejection and God-ordained death.
All of the rules for interpretation given above must be kept in mind. Above all else, the clear and cumulative evidence of what happens to us when we die (both godly and ungodly) from the multitude of texts above must guide our interpretation of this bizarre and singular text. The New Testament interprets the Old, and didactic interprets historical narrative—and this is a historical narrative.
I am going to make this short, dealing with just the major issue. This is a significant juncture in the flow of the drama of redemption—Israel’s first king is about to be killed. Hence, it is no surprise to me that we have this singularly bizarre incident occuring. In keeping with the theme of the book, the Sovereign King steps in during this séance with a medium (not witch..’ob) and providentially guides its proceedings. Samuel’s soul is dispatched by God to deliver a message of judgment upon king Saul. Samuel is at rest in heaven (why did you disturb me?). God gives him an appearance that all would recognize as the deceased prophet. At this unrepeatable and significant juncture in redemptive history where Israel’s first king is on the verge of death—and the forerunner of the Lord Jesus is about to become king, David—God does something extraordinary. Remember that this is historical narrative and an in-depth commentary is lacking. Thus, drawing doctrine from this would be contrary to several of the hermeneutical rules laid out above. However, just because there was a very brief visit by a glorified soul is no basis for establishing further visitations. Here is a very significant point—Samuel was NOT an earthbound spirit. His rest was “disrupted” and after delivering his message, Samuel went back home to his celestial rest.
The issue at stake is not whether there are disembodied spirits (there are millions in heaven and hell right now). Like Moses and Elijah on the mountain with Jesus, Samuel was sovereignly dispatched during a time of crisis at the beginning of the monarchy stage.
Ghosts are said to be trapped spirits, and usually for a long time. Samuel was not trapped and his visit was measured in minutes. There is nothing in this text which provides ammunition for those looking for a biblical basis for saying that ghosts is an admissible category. In fact, Samuel predicts that” tomorrow” Saul and his sons would join him. Nobody is being trapped or earthbound in this text. Case closed.
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure,2 which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”— not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, ma cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One;3 listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. (Luke 9:28-36)
Three questions are asked of this text: are Moses and Elijah resurrected?; where did they previously exist? Where did they return to? And a comment was made that their talking with Jesus compounds the matter.
This is the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain with Peter, James and John. From the outset, we must point out this is historical narrative, which describes an event, but often without commenting on it….which is somewhat the case in this text. Let me hasten to add that the gospels obviously do contain much teaching from Jesus (or didactic), but they are primarily theological biographies of the Lord Jesus. Events are often compressed and frequently events are described without comment on it…..usually left to reader to see this through Holy Spirit’s anointing and wisdom.
The context and the Holy Spirits main intention for this text is to accent the divine glory of the Lord Jesus. The texts preceding this and the episode with the demoniac coming after it (on the next day intentionally “hooks into” this theme”).
The transfiguration is an illumination from the inside/out of the true divine glory of Jesus which He suppressed during His incarnation. His divine glory shone exceedingly brightly!
Peter, out of fear, makes a foolish comment regarding making a tent for all three….”not knowing what he said”. This is another situation in which a disciple made a dumb comment without Jesus rebuking or correcting them. This will be significant when we look at the text in Mark when Jesus made no comment regarding their fear-laden comment that He was a ghost.
In a rare case in which the Father spoke verbally, He tells the disciples that Jesus is His beloved Son and they/we must listen to Him. Jesus’ ministry supersedes and fulfills all those who preceded Him, like Moses and Elijah.
Speaking of Moses and Elijah, the purpose of their presence was that Moses represented the Law and Elijah the Prophets, and most importantly, Jesus fulfills both. I chose the Lukan text because it tells us what Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were discussing. V.31 says that they were discussing His impending departure (“exodus” in Greek), which would entail His death, resurrection, and ascension. These were the events that all the prophets foretold and every inch of the Old Testament progressively revealed the coming ministry of the Messiah. How marvelous it must have been for Moses and Elijah!
To answer the questions: no, Moses and Elijah were not resurrected—that will occur at the Second Coming when we are reunited with our glorified bodies, such as Jesus’s was on the mountain. As we saw in the many texts above, Moses and Elijah existed in heaven, in the form of glorified souls. Jesus gave them an observable form but it was not yet their glorified bodies. Jesus’ whole ministry was THE most significant juncture in redemptive history. Hence we see unparalleled healings and exorcisms and other extraordinary, singular events—which include this Transfiguration. Jesus sovereignly transported Elijah and Moses for this short but magnificent event. How wonderful it must have been for Moses to see how the sacrificial system pre-figured the once for all sacrifice of The Lamb of God. And how moving it must have been for Elijah as he saw Jesus as The Divine Prophet..prophet, priest and king.
After their brief encounter (like Samuel) they went back home to heaven as the glorified souls we read about above (see Hebrews 11-12). Why does Elijah and Moses speaking with Jesus compound things? In God’s inscrutable wisdom, He included these two primary figures of the Old Testament. I find it unspeakably beautiful that God incarnate would bring these two men here to have a heart to heart about the upcoming events, which all of human/cosmic history hinge. The Creator of Moses and Elijah can certainly give them (as glorified souls) the ability to verbally communicate. Once again, their appearance was measured in minutes and they went back home. They were not earthbound. Their appearance enriched the significance of Jesus’ transfiguration by showing the centrality of Jesus in the Old Testament…and more glorious New Covenant.
To take such a God (and His glory) saturated text—with the Father telling us to listen to Him—and use it as an inference for ghosts is unwise, to put it mildly. We need to look to the epistles to give us the understanding of the status of Moses and Elijah. These are glorified souls engaged in conversation with their Creator and Savior, and were then sent back home. No ghosts. Indeed the notion detracts from the central theme—the glorious divinity of King Jesus. It saddens me that this God besotted text—and surrounding context on both sides- is used to support that which undermines the glory of Jesus by undermining the perfection of the atonement which they were discussing on that holy mountain. To infer that other spirits could remain with us, is to overlook the singular nature of Jesus and His role in redemptive history as expressed in His transfiguration. It also overlooks the main intent of this passage and breaks several of the rules of hermeneutics.
all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
Jesus Walks on the Water
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:42-53…emphasis added)
I added this text because many folks are persuaded that this is the most powerful text proving Jesus believed in ghosts because he didn’t correct the disciple’s belief in ghosts. This text is preceded by the miracle of feeding 5,000…it is followed by Jesus landing on shore and healing everyone that came to him. These texts are designed to prove that Jesus is the divine “I AM”, and worthy of our worship and implicit trust. However, as we’ll see, this lesson was lost on the obtuse disciples.
Immediately (v.45) after a sensational, miraculous display of Jesus’ divine power and glory, Jesus made the disciples get into their boat. He went to pray. To condense this, when the disciples saw Jesus they thought He was a ghost (phantasma) Since He did not correct them, it must be that he agreed that ghosts is an admissible category.
Several problems with that argument. First, it is an argument from silence, which is a logical fallacy. You cannot derive doctrine from what Jesus didn’t say, especially in a historical narrative. Speaking of historical narrative, this text needs to be interpreted along the lines mentioned above—through the lenses of the epistles. Thirdly, what was the disciple’s emotional state when they thought this regarding Jesus….who they had just left across the lake, very much alive? We don’t have to guess. It says they were terrified, both by their crisis and Jesus’ appearance.
He did speak to them by telling them to not be afraid. Then He says “ego eimi” which is Greek equivalent of Old Testament Yahweh, I AM….was passing by them. But they totally missed it. In the Mt of Transfiguration, we have a precedent of a disciple saying something foolish without being corrected. What is kindness? Well, when people are terrified kindness and compassion looks like not jumping all over loved ones who just made a mistake. They were terrified…no time for lecture.
Most significantly, we are given a divinely inspired commentary on this whole event in v.52….it says that they didn’t understand the loaves (nor Jesus) because their hearts were hardened. This verse casts a long shadow over everything the disciples said/did in this text…especially regarding ghosts. Instead of operating out of well deserved faith and trust in Jesus, they were sunk in abject terror, unbelief and lack of faith. They (like me) were slow learners, until after Pentecost. Their cry of Jesus being a ghost was prompted by fear and unbelief. Here is the great I AM walking by, and they cling to popular superstition instead of faith in God Almighty. Without beating a dead horse, v. 52 makes it clear that the disciples were operating out of fear and not faith….their hearts were hardened to the lessons they should have learned the miracle done just hours before. Their utterance of Jesus being a ghost (which was absurd anyway since they knew He was alive) was an expression of their hardened heart. As Jesus said, out of the fullness of our hearts, the mouth speaks. In this context Phantasm is best translated as superstitious imagination. Ghosts were a popular notion in their day, as it is in ours, but the bible is our foundation. We must be transformed and not conformed. It was not until 24:25 that we are told that Jesus “opened their minds”….prior to that the disciples were quick to stick their foots in their mouths, and as historical narrative, often commentary is often very brief or lacking altogether.
36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,2 43 and he took it and ate before them.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you ware clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:36-49).
First, it is noted in v.37-38 that the disciples were once again overcome with fear and doubt—similar to the commentary in Mark 6:52, where their hearts were said to be hardened. With these emotions flowing from fear and not faith, they thought Jesus was a spirit (pneuma….not a ghost). There were many disembodied spirits in heaven and hell at that time. In fact, Jesus does gently rebuke them for their comments. If Jesus said “Hey, I’m not like those earthbound spirits which are all around us” then we would have a basis for inference regarding ghosts as an admissible category. Contrary to what the author said he does rebuke them. He gently rebukes them for their unbelief/fear, and simply states he is not a spirit.
Jesus had a glorified body and not an appearance like Moses or Elijah, who have to wait for their glorified bodies. Jesus was simply emphasizing that He had a true, physical body (though glorified)…THAT is the main point. He refers to disembodied spirits as a means to an end….to counter the notion that He only appeared to be fully human after the resurrection. It was not until v.49 that we see Jesus foretelling a time when His disciples would be filled with the Spirit and finally understand…and stop making foolish comments.
Jesus took bread and ate it to prove to them that He was not a spirit. His intent was not to give us a ghostology, but address THEIR mistaken belief that He was a spirit. In a simple attempt to comfort them He says that He is not a spirit. Using their own words, Jesus said He was not who they thought He was, a spirit. Nowhere is the modern notion of an earthbound spirit referred to.
Like other historical narratives, we must view this text through the grid of the above didactic texts. It is not that some verses are more inspired/important than others, but there are common sense rules for interpreting the bible properly…which is what we must do if we believe it is the very Word of God.
By the way, while Jesus ministered to countless demoniacs, He never sought out a ghost to help them. Likewise, we never see an earthbound spirit approaching their Creator to help them, as did many demoniacs. The only inference one can take away is that Jesus did not have a ghostology ministry because there are none. If we allow for the admissibility of ghosts, then we open a Pandora’s box from hell.
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
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