Christianity and Ghosts

[Yllaria]

@Blake

. . . Jehvovah’s Witnesses. Official doctrine is that ghosts do not and can not exist, and any ghosts seen are illusions projected by demons. Belief in ghosts is seen as completely incompatible with church doctrine. The JWs get around the issue of Jesus talking top ghosts by claiming that they weren’t ghosts at all, just illlusions conjured by Jesus to illustrate a point.

Decades ago I studied with some visiting JWs and this fits in with their tenet that the dead are inert and on hold until the Judgement Day. Unless it’s changed or I’m remembering it wrong, of course.

@HeyHomie

The brand of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity to which I subscribed for a number of decades (but no longer do) taught that what our culture would regard as a ghost - viz, the disembodied spirit of a deceased person - is not actually a ghost, but rather, a demon, sent from hell to trick God’s people into not taking the occult seriously. . . . .

Are you sure you mean ‘not’? Because seeing ghosts would seem to argue for the occult existing.

[kaylasdad99]

@tomndebb

I am not aware of any Christian group that would consider either a belief or a lack of belief in ghosts to be heresy.

@Blake

Jehvovah’s Witnesses. Official doctrine is that ghosts do not and can not exist, and any ghosts seen are illusions projected by demons. Belief in ghosts is seen as completely incompatible with church doctrine. The JWs get around the issue of Jesus talking top ghosts by claiming that they weren’t ghosts at all, just illlusions conjured by Jesus to illustrate a point.

Be nice to find a Christian group that abjures belief in ghosts and demons…

@HeyHomie

The brand of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity to which I subscribed for a number of decades (but no longer do) taught that what our culture would regard as a ghost - viz, the disembodied spirit of a deceased person - is not actually a ghost, but rather, a demon, sent from hell to trick God’s people into not taking the occult seriously.

@Yllaria

Are you sure you mean ‘not’? Because seeing ghosts would seem to argue for the occult existing.

By “not” taking seriously, I suspect he means “not taking it seriously enough to know that you need to leave it the hell alone, at the risk of your immortal soul.”

:dubious:

[ricksummon]

@NinthAcolyte

The Biblical incident mentioned above is commonly referred to as “Saul and the Witch of Endor.” According the the narrative, after the death of the ancient Hebrew prophet Samuel, Saul, the King of Israel, no longer received the divine guidance of God. He therefore sought out a witch to summon the spirit of Samuel. The witch raises Samuel’s ghost, who prophesies doom and gloom and so on.

While some Christian traditions believe that the spirit of “Samuel” was actually a demon, I’ve heard of others who don’t buy that argument because Samuel gave Saul an actual prophecy and told him that God was angry with him for his misdeeds, which doesn’t sound like a very demon thing to do. Remember that Saul resorts to the necromancy that he himself outlawed because he can’t get an answer from God through the approved methods. Therefore, some Christians believe that God himself actually sent Samuel as a way of saying, “You wanted an answer? Well, you got one!”

[HeyHomie]

@kaylasdad99

By “not” taking seriously, I suspect he means “not taking it seriously enough to know that you need to leave it the hell alone, at the risk of your immortal soul.”

Yes, that is what I meant.