Yes, but most people think ghosts are the spirits of dead people. They aren’t. The Bible teaches both believers and unbelievers go immediately to either heaven or a place awaiting judgment. There is no such thing as the spirit of a dead person being left here on earth. In the Bible the believer is promised that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord “(Second Corinthians 5:8). Upon death, those individuals who never trusted Christ alone to get them to heaven go to a place of torment awaiting the final judgement (Luke 16:19-23).
So what are ghosts? They are demons (fallen angels) who impersonate the dead. This explains haunted houses and how those claiming to be able to contact the dead (mediums and psychics) can reveal things about the dead person they couldn’t possibly have known.
The obvious goal of these fallen angels is to deceive people.
Human beings have attempted to communicate with the dead for millennia but any message they think they are receiving from the “other side” is either deception from the person claiming to deliver the message or the person himself is possessed by a demon.
A study of these supposed transmissions have several things in common such as there is no hell, Jesus is not God, and reincarnation is true.
Ouija Boards – Are they just a game?
When I was a teenager a good friend asked me if I’d ever used a Ouija board. I hadn’t even heard of one.
That evening I was introduced to what advertises itself as a game. We sat with each of us putting our fingers lightly on what is known as a planchette. It is an object that you place on a board with the alphabet and as you ask questions it glides from one letter to another to spell out a message.
Of course I thought she was moving the object so I suggested I ask a question in my mind and to make it doubly hard I thought of a question my friend couldn’t possibly have known the answer. To my shock and amazement our fingers were guided to spell the correct answer. I then asked, “Who are you?” The answer, “God.” At that moment I had no doubt we had contacted a demon.
Unfortunately, many people have been introduced to the occult through use of the Ouija board and they use it as a instrument to contact the dead.
The Bible warns,
“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-13).
So the Ouija board can only be considered a game if you consider playing with the devil a game.
What is the difference between reincarnation and resurrection?
Reincarnation is the belief that the souls of humans return to earth to take on a new physical body. Hindus and Buddhists believe it is possible to be reborn as an animal or insect. Hindus see life in terms of a constant cycle of births in which we are doomed to struggle and suffer until we have achieved perfection and only then can we escape having to come back to earth.
The bottom line to those who believe in reincarnation, whether those who call themselves, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian is that your path to God comes through living a series of lives, each one more holy and righteous than before. In other words, we can make ourselves worthy of a good future.
This is completely contrary to the message revealed in the Bible on how to reach God. The problem with man is that he is totally incapable of paying for his sins. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).
We are no more likely to arrive in heaven by our efforts than a drowning person in the middle of the ocean reaching shore by his efforts. Just as the drowning man needs a savior so do we.
When Jesus died on the cross, He accomplished in those few hours what we could never accomplish in all eternity – He paid for our sins.
Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
The work has been done that was required to make us worthy of heaven. We simply believe in the One who sacrificed Himself on our behalf.
Please, at this point let me warn you of a great deception. If I told you I had a free gift for you but in order to receive it you had to pay me $1,000, would what I’m offering you really be a free gift?
What if I told you it would only cost you one dollar, would it then be a free gift?
There are a lot of people claiming to represent Jesus Christ who are telling people that Christ paid the full price for our salvation, but in order to receive it we have to do such things as turn from our sins or confess Him or ask Him into our lives. Turning from our sins and committing our lives to Christ is like the free gift for a thousand dollars and asking Christ into your heart is like the gift for one dollar. Whether one thinks he has to do a lot or a little besides believing is in essence saying you have to pay for the gift.
The Bible could not be clearer on this point. It says salvation is “not of yourselves” (Ephesians :2:8). There is no turning from sin, asking Him in or committing your life to Him required for heaven. Please read the Gospel of John for yourself. It gives examples of those who believed and never confessed (John 12:42,43).
The Bible teaches the necessity of a new birth. Jesus said, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). But this birth doesn’t take place after a person dies but while he’s alive. John 1:12,13, say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,nor the will of man, but of God”. Human beings can not make themselves children of God. Only God can do that. And He does when a person believes in the Name of Jesus. The name Jesus means, “God who saves”.
Thus, those who understand Jesus is God and believe He did everything necessary to go to heaven leaving us nothing more to do are the ones who will go to heaven.
Those who have believed and experience death are promised that someday their bodies will be brought back to life and made perfect and will no longer subject to death and decay. This is the resurrection.
Philippians 3:20,21 say,
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
Reincarnation is the belief we take on another body whereas the resurrection is the same body made perfect.
