What's wrong with ghosts today? Why can't they get their transparent butts up off their rockers and leave the house? Bunch of introverts, sittin' in their room reading books and making chairs move by themselves.
Whoopee.
Don't they do anything besides moan and float around? Or patrol the cemetery? Why the interest in these boring paranormal oddities?
Look at this guy. His dead doctor must be giving him an exam. Or he just watched Splice.
Even ghosts have their limits.
Seriously though, Why do ghosts stick to a certain area? Hell, are they even real? I thought when people died they went to one of two places, not hung around in a house or graveyard or Walmart. What are the 'rules' of ghost-hood?
Violent death=haunting?
Who knows.
Being a Christian, I tend to believe that all paranormal stuff is either fake or caused by demons. Yeah, yeah, get indignant all you want, but demons and ghosts and aliens and Bigfoot are all the same:
Weird.
Why is my weird more weird than your weird, you weirdo?
That's what I thought.
Still, I used to think of ghosts as nonsense or demonic deception. But take a look at 1 Samuel 28. This is the story where the witch of En Dor summoned up the spirit of the prophet Samuel. King Saul asked her to do it, despite the prohibition from God not to mess with necromancy or witches. I wonder if God outlawed it because it actually works?
So Samuel came up. The witch screamed in fright. I guess she wasn't expecting her séance to work! Samuel asked why Saul was disturbing him. They talked a bit, it was a negative conversation, and Saul dies the next day. Maybe talking to dead people isn't such a good idea. . .
I do not have a good explanation for this, other than Samuel was actually summoned and he actually came up. Nothing like this happens again in the Bible. Peter thought Jesus was a ghost when he walked on water, but other than that The Bible is silent. Paul said there was death and then judgment. That's where Christians get the idea that there cannot be any such thing as ghosts. So then, what's going on? Are ghosts really demons? Dead Nephilim? Old Samuels who got called up and haven't gone back yet? Psychic resonances that are attached to their place of death?
Or all the above?
Here is my conclusion: I don't have one. Strange things go on in the world, and though our explanations differ, the strangeness goes on. It's not all fake. There is something to all this paranormal activity. God knows what it is, and maybe I'll ask him about it next week at Subway.
He likes the meatball and pepperjack.
Whoopee.
Don't they do anything besides moan and float around? Or patrol the cemetery? Why the interest in these boring paranormal oddities?
Look at this guy. His dead doctor must be giving him an exam. Or he just watched Splice.
Even ghosts have their limits.
Seriously though, Why do ghosts stick to a certain area? Hell, are they even real? I thought when people died they went to one of two places, not hung around in a house or graveyard or Walmart. What are the 'rules' of ghost-hood?
Violent death=haunting?
Who knows.
Being a Christian, I tend to believe that all paranormal stuff is either fake or caused by demons. Yeah, yeah, get indignant all you want, but demons and ghosts and aliens and Bigfoot are all the same:
Weird.
Why is my weird more weird than your weird, you weirdo?
That's what I thought.
Still, I used to think of ghosts as nonsense or demonic deception. But take a look at 1 Samuel 28. This is the story where the witch of En Dor summoned up the spirit of the prophet Samuel. King Saul asked her to do it, despite the prohibition from God not to mess with necromancy or witches. I wonder if God outlawed it because it actually works?
So Samuel came up. The witch screamed in fright. I guess she wasn't expecting her séance to work! Samuel asked why Saul was disturbing him. They talked a bit, it was a negative conversation, and Saul dies the next day. Maybe talking to dead people isn't such a good idea. . .
I do not have a good explanation for this, other than Samuel was actually summoned and he actually came up. Nothing like this happens again in the Bible. Peter thought Jesus was a ghost when he walked on water, but other than that The Bible is silent. Paul said there was death and then judgment. That's where Christians get the idea that there cannot be any such thing as ghosts. So then, what's going on? Are ghosts really demons? Dead Nephilim? Old Samuels who got called up and haven't gone back yet? Psychic resonances that are attached to their place of death?
Or all the above?
Here is my conclusion: I don't have one. Strange things go on in the world, and though our explanations differ, the strangeness goes on. It's not all fake. There is something to all this paranormal activity. God knows what it is, and maybe I'll ask him about it next week at Subway.
He likes the meatball and pepperjack.
The idea that we "go to heaven or hell when we die" was not held by all Christians and was not the Jewish understanding. It is likely to have been an import into the early Gentile church from Greek understandings of the afterlife. So I guess Samuel was "sleeping" the whole time and was called out of slumber to say what he had to say to Saul. (Whether or not you believe in "heaven or hell when you die" can affect how you view salvation. If you're interested, check out newwine.org)
ReplyDeleteThe Jews believed in an underworld and future ressurection, but you're right, they didn't seem to believe in heaven as a waiting place. The Greeks did influence the church, yes. But their concepts about the afterlife may not have been wrong. Paul did make mention of being "absent with the body, present with the Lord." And Stephen saw Jesus when he was martyred. This implies an immediate, conscious meeting with Christ. Of course, the early Christians "blessed hope" was ressurection at Christ's return. So maybe there is something to what you are saying, brother!
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