Debate: Are Ghosts Former Humans or Demons?

That's all that we need. Only sufficient, but the only thing that couldn't be done for okay.

So we don't need baptism then because it's the only thing. Is it. Is it the only thing or is it not do you need to be baptized or not? Because if you need to be baptized, it's not sufficient.

It is true that you are an extremely skilled debater and you're good.

We.

Are live. Apologetics live here to answer your most challenging questions you have about God in the Bible as we say every week. We can answer any question you have about God and the Bible. But just remember I don't know is a perfectly good answer.

We're gonna be doing something a little different this week so we usually always announce that here you can always come in at apologetics live and Join and ask any questions. You will not be allowed to join Live during the at least the first two hours you will be able if you're watching on YouTube to put comments and we'll see them if you have questions for that.

We're gonna be having a formal debate and if you have a question and I'll mention this again later. Just put the word question colon then ask your question and make it be a question not a statement. But what we're gonna look to do is get to those if we have time at the end.

We're gonna be very tight on time and therefore I'm gonna jump right into this. I first want to introduce Adam Parker from the bold apologetic Apology a podcast which where I was had the privilege of being on your show.

That's how we got to meet. That is how I got to meet one of the debaters Daniel and I got to watch your debate with these two Folks that you had so let me bring both Matthew McGuire and Daniel McAdams in and I'm gonna let him do the introduction since you know Both these men better than I do and then I will.

Then we'll get into the format of the debate for folks.

Awesome. Yes. Thanks again Andrew for letting me be part of what you're doing here. And it's great to just be a part of this. So first, I just want to introduce Matthew McGuire, he's a great guy. He wrote a magnificent book called a magical world and he and I actually started kind of talking a little bit over that and Since then just has been really awesome getting to know him.

He's a very skilled Debater he is just a great great man of God and then we have Daniel McAdams and he leads 612 ministries and Both of these guys are really interesting. Matthew covers ghosts in his book and he has some great information on that and then Daniel was a ghost hunter for a number of years and I'm sure a lot of you know that and just from a previous appearance that he's had on the show and so these are some great guys and Andrew I'll let you open the door for them to kind of.

Introduce themselves a little bit more. Yeah, Matthew. Anything else you want to add to that introduction?

Thanks Adam, thanks Andrew, I appreciate you having me on the show. I am like Adam said I'm the author of a book called a magical world how the Bible makes sense of the supernatural and I include a lengthy appendix on ghosts.

So a lot of the information I'll bring up is from that appendix that people are interested and I did my undergraduate work at Crandall University in the biblical studies, and I also am a student at the Rhine Education Center, which is a parapsychology research center.

So there's some interaction with that field of work as well that I incorporate in my writings. I write. I write regularly on substack. You can find everything that I do on Matt McGuire net and also for anyone that wants to follow along I've got a bunch of debate notes.

So no surprises if you go to Matt McGuire dotnet slash ghost notes dot PDF. You'll get all of my notes including you Daniel so you can follow right along. See everything I plan to say tonight and no surprises, but the reason I do that is because you that now he doesn't.

I don't want you to have too much time to look over them. But it does have all of the resources or at least the majority of resources that I'm gonna be referencing tonight.

Opportunity that's kind of a Michael Brown and I're supposed to be debating on charismatic gifts and we both agreed that we would actually give each other our opening comments Beforehand so that we have time to interact with it ask any questions before we actually do it.

So Daniel anything you want and Daniel has was mentioned down you've been on before. And folks if it's the time when Daniel was we start talking about some of the paranormal and all of a sudden the Catholic guy Came in and dominated the show.

That was paranormal for sure on that show, but yeah, my name is now McAdams. I've been on apologetics life before talking about evidential apologetics and then I've been on Adams podcast a couple times.

So it's a blessing to be back with you guys. And then as mentioned I got to debate Matthew on Adams podcast and we had a Wonderful time. That was a a grand time having that debate and talking with you Matthew.

So I'm looking forward to this one as well. Adam said I used to be a paranormal investigator. I was involved in that field for about Ten years before God. God called me out of that I wrote a book as you can see over my right shoulder called biblical explanations the paranormal.

Why go through what the Bible has to say about the paranormal. Because it took ten years of looking for questions about What the paranormal is what are ghosts and all these different things and wasn't finding them in any?

Secular realm and then as soon as I opened the Bible the answer started pouring out. So I'm excited for this debate and discussion tonight, and it's gonna be a blessing.

Yeah, and and you know folks you could tell that Daniel is trying to suck up to the host with it with the you know Book placement there. He's got he's got my book. What do we believe and my book? What do they believe right next you know in prominent view before his own book?

Yeah, it's Sucking up the host. Um, so yet Doreen says so this is gonna be an in-house debate. Yes, this will be before we start. Let me also just since this question came up. Not a question for you guys, but the question is how is Aaron Brewster and his family are there any updates?

I so I haven't watched for some time a brother John from Canada. Aaron is so folks who don't know Aaron Brewster is one of our speakers at striving fraternity. He was got affected by the storms in North Carolina, and I know that no one knows anything about North Carolina.

It's just California. That's all that matters. You know when millionaire Hollywood types houses burn that matters. You know. But when you know average people's houses burn or get flooded. It's not an issue for them, but media doesn't care.

So the issue is yes. We've been able to raise over $10 ,000 the total need that he has is about 50. We have been able to raise enough money to basically replace his HVAC system, which was good for the winter.

He has heat. The bigger issue which I think is in the 10 $20 ,000 range is now dealing with all the mold they are having health issues because their house is filled with mold and they're. So yeah, so if anyone wants to to help out with that campaign that we're doing just go to give send go Slash SFE.

So I'll put that up there right there, so it's give send go comm SFE that is where you can go to support him so. With that this is going to be the format of debate that both men have agreed to. They will each will start with Matthew followed by Daniel.

Matthew is taking the position that ghosts can be human spirits former human spirits. He believes they could be demonic, but they also could be former human spirits. Daniel will go second his position is that they are only demonic spirits.

And there are not human spirits. So that is the debate topic. We'll start with 15 minutes each opening then they will have 10 minutes each to rebut the opening of the others. Then we'll have a 15 minute cross-examining from each of them and then a 5 minute Closing if there is time left we will open to questions in the in the chat again if you have a question put the word question colon and Then put the question so that I can see it.

And so that is going to be the format. We're gonna jump right into it for time. We will not be going much after 10 o 'clock or at least Matthew will not. So if you have quite for there's questions for Matthew, we might have to ask those right away.

So with that I'm gonna remove Adam and let's see. I will Put in. I'm gonna go To that mode. Okay, I'll remove Daniel and you have your clock. So whenever you want to start I will Hit the button.

All right, well, thanks and I just want to say at the out front thanks to Daniel for joining me again. We had a really fun friendly time last time. He's a brother and he's very genuine and in his position.

So this I don't see this as a a clobbering opportunity. This is just like someone said an in-house debate. The first thing I want to do before I dig in is just correct one mistake that I made in the last one I when I was talking about World War one Apparitions of dead soldiers.

I mentioned phantasms of the living. That is the wrong source. It was written before World War one a better source for that. It's a great book. But it's not the right source. A better source would be it's a book by Kyle Falcon called haunted Britain.

That's a new one that came out among other sources that document apparitions after World War one. But anyway back to the debate itself like I said a lot of the stuff that I'm gonna reference comes from my book the appendix to a magical world and As I also said you can go to Matt McGuire net and I have a link right to all of the debate notes for tonight.

So I also want to say Both views that either ghosts can be human spirits or they can never be have support in church history. So I'm not arguing that my position is obvious, but my position I think is probable.

I think it's more probable than not. So on my side of the debate you have people like Justin Martyr origin of Alexandria Gregory of Nyssa Augustine kind of and I can explain that later. And as far as post-reformation you have Richard Baxter John Flavel John Wesley Johan Blumhart and In the 20th century and 21st century people like the Lutheran John Warwick Montgomery JB Phillips Ben Witherington and Michael Heiser.

They all had a category for ghosts as the deceased spirits of humans. Which was a possibility. On the other hand people like Tertullian people like Martin Luther Martin Chemnitz King James himself and modern scholars like Craig Keener argue that ghosts are not human spirits.

In fact, they are demonic imposters. So there's we have to respect both sides because there's a lot of precedent on both sides. I'm going to be approaching this topic like many things from the epistemology of the Wesleyan quadrilateral.

Not everyone is a fan of this. But I have found it very helpful in discerning truth and the Wesleyan quadrilateral says we should determine truth first through scripture then through experience then through reason and then through tradition as sort of a Ways of balancing each other out.

Of course scripture enjoys a place of priority and then the other three methods are ways of refining our thoughts in Filling in the gaps. So according to scripture I'm gonna argue that the Bible has a category for ghosts a legitimate category of the spiritual realm and this coincides with the majority report not only of the ancient world but of the medieval world and even the contemporary world.

If we're talking about Global culture the Bible assumes the existence of ghosts and works within that framework and we can deal with specific passages along the way through the category of experience it is it is pretty well conceded that some form of ghost is Attested in pretty much every culture now some cultures like ancient Greece the ghosts were considered like a shade and they weren't like the full person Plato had more of a More of a idea of more substantial soul that survives death.

But in general whether you're talking about ancient India ancient China ancient Mesopotamia. They all had this idea of a ghost and many of these ghosts exhibit common motifs reasons for their existing pointing to something that That may be objective rather than just a subjective hallucination on the reason perspective.

I think the the principle of phenomenal conservatism. Which for people unfamiliar with this term basically it means you should you should take things at face value. Until you have reason to believe otherwise.

This is the reason I don't believe that we're living in a simulation. If we lived in a simulation I could never falsify it. I could never know otherwise, but because I would go crazy. If I believe we were in a simulation I'm just gonna take my five senses at face value until I have reason to suspect otherwise.

And then from the. And so with the area of ghosts until I have good evidence to believe that a ghost is a demon or a psychic projection or something. I'm gonna take the ghost at face value because I do believe in a supernatural world as does my opponent and then finally in the tradition.

Part of the quadrilateral as I mentioned the view of ghosts has a lot of support in church history. It's impossible to argue which one is the majority and which one's the minority view because As anyone knows who looks at early church history and medieval church history.

It's it's really hard to track down majority views and minority views but there is a lot of names that argue the same thing that I argue and Lastly on the tradition category I do want to point out that one of the big reasons that Protestants are so skeptical of ghosts is because of a polemic from the Reformation era where Catholics were using ghostly appearances as a bludgeon to to tell the Protestants that their doctrine of purgatory was correct and the Protestants are like not so fast Purgatory is false.

And so these these ghosts must be demons helping you prove your purgatory doctrine now that that that doesn't represent Their whole argument, but we should be historically aware that that is a major motivation with ghosts so if we want to jump into scripture, I'm going to Point out some scriptures that seem to support my position and then the ones that are more difficult I expect Daniel will bring up and we can deal with that in the rebuttal.

Of course, so Daniel and I both agree at least as far as the last debate. We both agree that when Samuel shows up in first Samuel 28 that it was the real Samuel. I think Daniel takes the position that this was sort of a direct miracle of God and it even surprised The the medium or the ghost mistress at the time.

Whereas I on the other hand I'm open to the idea that the Bible presents this story as as Evidence that necromancy was taken seriously. The Israelites are forbidden from getting their spiritual knowledge outside of Yahweh and his and through his prophets.

And so necromancy is a sin, but that doesn't mean necromancy is false. Michael Heiser writes the reason for this prohibition was not that it couldn't be done. Rather God insisted that he be the lone source of information from the spiritual world for his people.

So then the next passage and we can go through you know, the Isaiah uses terms like a team and Ove and May team and these are all terms that refer to the dead in general and there's some ambiguity as to whether he's he's Affirming their existence or whether he's just critiquing people that try to consult with them.

So I won't I won't put too much weight on the Isaiah passages. When we get to the New Testament, there is some more telling passages. I point out that in Matthew 17 That's the appearance of Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration is not a proof of you know Ghosts being humans, but I think it does undermine people who that say an apparition of a dead person must always be evil.

Or it's always Always a demon because we have Jesus himself. Accommodating this apparition of Moses who is a deceased individual. So it's just a principle case that kind of complicates some of the the sweeping statements of the other side.

Now we're getting to more poignant episodes such as Mark 6 and Matthew 14 are parallel passages where the disciples are In the boat and they see Jesus walking on the sea. They call him a phantasma and it's pretty universally agreed.

They thought he was a ghost. So this wouldn't mean too much because of course, you know, Jesus could say by the way guys ghosts aren't real. Like what are you talking about? The problem is when you get to Luke 24 the disciples post-resurrection see Jesus again, and they call him a pneuma and Most responsible translations such as the Lexham English Bible the New Revised Standard and the net Bible.

They all translate this ghost. Even though the word technically is spirit and we even have a 5th century textual variant that changes pneuma to phantasma. Just to make it make everyone clear. These disciples thought they were seeing a ghost so it's not conclusive proof, but it does show that these disciples retained this belief in a category a spiritual category of ghosts as deceased humans and One of the motifs of ghosts is that they have a violent death and then they're back for vengeance.

So it's it it makes sense that they're all startled and frightened when they see Jesus and they call him a pneuma. Like oh no, and Jesus has to prove to them that he's not a pneuma. He's not a ghost. And then you get to Acts chapter 12, this one's a little bit more ambiguous, but it's been cogently argued that when the disciples.

When Jesus is sorry, excuse me. When Peter is at the door and the servant girl wrote up answers and says it's Peter the disciples say oh, it's his angel. Well angel is a euphemism for his ghost. Because that would that would make sense of why she would see.

Or hear the voice of Peter or possibly see him through a crack in the door and say it's Peter. Whereas they're like no. No, no, that's just his ghost. He was probably killed at the Antonia fortress. They probably murdered him because we have a wicked King.

It's not 100 conclusive, but it's also telling we may have a third instance of the disciples. Continuing this belief in a category of ghosts after the resurrection. These disciples aren't named but they're still in you know, Judea.

And so presumably they would would have been connected with Jesus or at least his immediate followers. Then you have John chapter 11. This one is not this is just adds another layer of evidence where Jesus waits four days.

To resurrect Lazarus from the dead and we know from a couple centuries later. There's written documents saying that Jews believed that a soul would hover around a body for three days trying to return into the body and Even though that evidence is late da Carson has argued that The belief probably goes back to Jesus's time and it explains why he would have waited four days.

So even though Jesus doesn't say oh the ghost is lingering. He does accommodate the view of ghosts lingering this is also an extra biblical literature such as First century works the life of Adam and Eve and the book for Ezra.

They both talk about the soul lingering in their case. They have it for one week after death. So we have a belief in Second Temple Judaism that the soul lingers after death. So we're building this worldview that seems to be assumed by a lot of the New Testament characters and followers of Jesus now getting beyond Scripture we point to experience and I point out that people like Homer Plato Socrates ancient Egypt all these ancient cultures.

They all believed in ghosts in one form or another and Dale Allison and others have pointed out there's many many common motifs among these. Such as a violent death people that didn't suffer few didn't get the right funeral rites and in the ancient world It was almost universally considered a bad thing.

If you see a ghost something has gone wrong if ghosts were just you know a hallucination or something then you would expect all kinds of different reasons for ghosts, but the fact that Many of these ghosts share common reasons for you know appearing or becoming a ghost shows that maybe there's some sort of Factor in the spiritual plane of existence that that shows it's it's real.

It's not a hallucination. I also point out that Veridical information or corroborative information from ghosts points to it being a real thing and not just a hallucination as well as multiple witnesses so I'm gonna cite from this there's an award-winning essay from the Bigelow Institute and They communicate a couple of these things called after-death communications.

So the first one is the case of Lucille's biological grandfather which you could find in the notes and This is a Lucille was a 39 year old hotel housekeeper in Florida. She was adopted after birth her birth name was Mary, but her adoptive parents had changed it to Lucille.

So this lady she I'll try to summarize it because we're low on time. But basically she she's always wanted to reconnect with her adoptive parents. But she didn't want to hurt the feelings of her. Excuse me her biological parents.

But she didn't want to hurt the feelings of her adoptive parents. She gets this dream from this person that she doesn't know and the person says go find your mother and she sees what the person looks like and so she's motivated to find her birth mother and She joins one of these adoptive groups finds the mother right away.

And then she describes this whole scenario and what he looked like what suit he was wearing and then the mother says wow. That was your grandfather as it turns out that grandfather on his deathbed Just just recently had died and one of his last wishes that he said was go find your daughter.

So we have this whole situation where we have information that she could not have gotten by natural means. The question is was this a demon was this psychic functioning or was it the spirit of the departed?

And I would argue that there's no clear demonic motivation that would make me think that. Another case is the case of Blair's father just to summarize that basically this woman saw her her father the apparition of her father.

And she just her first instinct was oh, maybe this is just I'm grieving I'm seeing the image but he looked very solid and then right at her her little son was with her and Then the little son said Oh grampy's okay or grampy.

Excuse me. My granddaddy my granddaddy is what he says and she says to him your granddaddy is gone son. And he said no my granddaddy was right here. So we have a case of two witnesses seeing the same apparition.

I I have example more examples of this in my book as well. So I think this just points to the fact that these are objective experiences. They're paranormal supernatural. Not not just a hallucination getting to the reason perspective.

I have what's called the white crow advantage. William James said if you wish to upset the law that all crows are black. You mustn't seek to show that no crows are. It is enough to prove one single crow to be white.

I just have to prove that one ghost is the spirit of a dead human. Daniel has to prove that they're all demonic or they're all hallucinations. But going back to the phenomenal conservatism approach I believe that some ghosts may be Demonic imposters some of them might even be a result of psychic functioning such as some poltergeist activity.

Or false apparitions of Jesus like we have in the life of st. Martin of Tours. However, just in the same way that we shouldn't attribute every temptation to demons. I think it would be irresponsible to attribute every single ghost to demons as well.

So this this is sort of where I land I just don't find the the demon of the gaps approach to be very convincing. Although it may be the case in certain Episodes, I don't see for a lot of these stories.

I just don't see the demonic motivation that is right on time. So let me.

Bring Daniel in. There we go Daniel we will restart the clock here for you. And once you get going I will start it. But you have to unmute first. That will be helpful.

That is a good point. Thank you. All right ready when you are all right go. So right off the bat, I'd like to to just Note that both Matthew and I do have a belief in the supernatural. So this is not a debate over whether or not ghosts or demons exist.

We both agree that they do. There's tons of historical and cultural evidence for the existence of the paranormal. That was part of the reason why I was a paranormal investigator for so long because this stuff is real.

But when it comes to the question about Ghosts and demons or questions about faith theology and the supernatural and eternal matters The question we should be asking is what does the Bible say? Sure, there is a a lot of historical and cultural evidence for this position as Matthew made abundantly clear, but as Christians we shouldn't be seeking to understand these things based on the historical and cultural accounts or personal experiences.

We need to be turning to scripture as our final authority. That is why in the Reformation time sola scriptura was the rallying cry of the Reformers. Scripture alone.

So.

You might be wondering what sola scriptura has to do to this debate. Do with this debate. Well, it's foundational to this debate. It's essential. Sola scriptura means that for us as Christians that God's Word is the ultimate and only infallible Authority for our faith and for matters of theology and the spiritual realm.

It does not mean that tradition experiences church councils Philosophical musing scientific findings Commentaries pastors teachers scholars or debates like this are are useless and need to be rejected by Christians.

But rather it simply means that while all these are useful They are not to be the final and ultimate authority for the Christian as that position is occupied by scripture alone. So we are to stand fast upon the Bible as Christians and examine all by the Bible and reject all that does not align with the Bible.

So.

This is critical to this debate because when you examine the thesis are some ghosts the spirits of dead humans. When you examine that in the light of scripture You will find that scripture does not in any way shape or form teach That the spirits of human beings can linger on the earth after death.

Now Matthew already brought this passage up, but some of you are probably thinking about. What about the spirit of Samuel when King Saul had the witch of Endor summon him? Well, that was a one-off event and it is a descriptive passage of something that happened in the past.

It is not a prescriptive passage. Meaning that it's not prescribed as something that we should follow or expect so it is poor hermeneutics to build a doctrine off a passage of scripture that is descriptive and of an historical event and Matthew and I are both in agreement on this passage that the plain normative Straightforward reading of the text makes it clear that God allowed the spirit of Samuel to deliver one last message to Saul.

So when we examine the question of are some ghosts the spirits are dead humans do we let historical accounts cultural beliefs and personal experiences dictate our beliefs about ghosts in the afterlife as well as influence how we read the Bible concerning these things or.

Do we view these historical accounts cultural beliefs and personal experiences through what the Bible teaches? Well, my friends God's Word is truth and God's Word doesn't change. So when we're looking at the biblical passages concerning death and the afterlife we need to remember that the main things are the plain things in scripture and the plain things are the main things and That if the literal sense makes sense, we need to not seek more sense lest we end up with nonsense.

So, let's turn to some passages of scripture and examine what scripture says on this topic. Looking at Job chapter 7 verses 9 through 10 starting in the Old Testament we see Job say when a cloud vanishes it is gone.

So when he goes down to Sheol that is the place of the grave Does not come up. He will not return again to his house nor will his place know him anymore. The psalmist in Psalm 146 verses 3 through 4 says do not trust in princes and mortal man in whom there is no Salvation his spirit departs.

He returns to the earth and that very day his thoughts perish. Thoughts thinking ideas plans they perish when man dies and then Ecclesiastes Solomon in chapter 9 verses 5 through 6 writes for the living.

No, they will die, but the dead do not know anything. Nor have they any longer a reward for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love their hate and their zeal have already perished and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the Sun and We while we know that Ecclesiastes was written as a kind of cynical outlook on life.

The book starts with the vanity of vanities. Is it correct to think that King Solomon? The wisest man to ever live Would be incorrect when he wrote under the Holy Spirit's inspiration that the dead no longer have a share in all that is done under the Sun.

To insinuate that the Bible teaches an error here is thus to call into question the truthfulness of the entirety of Scripture so if we see that the Bible plainly teaches that the dead no longer have any interactions with the living that their plans and thoughts and desires perished.

And that they no longer have a share in all that is done under the Sun then what does happen when we die now the Old Testament gave kind of a a shadowy view of the afterlife, but in the New Testament the Apostles writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit give us a fuller picture of what happens when we die.

And Paul states the answer plainly and clearly to what happens when we die in two different passages. In 2nd Corinthians 5 verses 6 through 8 he says therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in The body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight.

We are of good courage. I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. And In Philippians 1 verses 21 through 24. He says for me to live as Christ and die as gain.

But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions having the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better.

Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. So Paul clearly teaches that after death we are immediately present with the Lord as believers. Paul didn't long to die and hopefully stick around as a ghost to tie up loose ends he longed to be with the Lord and If any person had unfinished business to fulfill back on earth after he died it would have been the Apostle Paul.

And This is why Christians don't have to fear death. This is why we don't have to turn to the paranormal and ghostly realm to seek assurance of what happens when we die. Or to find hope for the life after this when we turn to scriptures and we see as believers.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ. We have the blessed hope promised to us that we will be present with our Lord and Savior when we depart from this life. And Jesus gives insights into the afterlife in his parable concerning the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16.

Now for sake of time, I'm not going to read this all but if you guys want to look it up, it's verses 19 through 31. And while the immediate context of this parable is addressed towards the Pharisees The parable contains spiritual truths.

Which we as believers can learn from. Thus we can safely infer from the plain reading of this parable some thoughts and insights on the afterlife. The first is that the saved immediately go to paradise in heaven and The unbelievers immediately go to Hades where they await final judgment.

We also see that there's no second chance after death. And we see that nobody's sent back to earth to give messages to the living after death. Which is in line with what I said earlier in the other passages that I quoted.

Thus showing that scripture interprets scripture and is perfect and consistent in what it teaches. And it also says in this parable that we do not need a message from the dead as we have the inerrant complete authoritative sufficient Word of God.

So based on these passages of scripture, there is a clear teaching about what happens when we die. The believers spirit goes immediately into the presence of the Lord and the unbelievers spirit goes into a place of torment and We know that the body returns to the dust of the earth.

But at the resurrection the spirit will be united with the glorified body in the believers case. But one's eternal destiny will not change. So nowhere in scripture is it taught either Explicitly or implicitly that a person's spirit can come back to minister to the living after a person has died.

That brings up the question then. What are ghosts? Well, we need to remember that personal experiences historical accounts and cultural beliefs. Do not trump scripture. We do not interpret scripture in light of any of these rather we interpret these through the light of what scripture teaches.

So if the Bible only teaches two options on a subject in this case Heaven or Hades as to where we go when we die. Then that any other options that are presented can be immediately dismissed as being wrong.

So if it's clear from scripture that human beings do not return to the earth after death to interact with the living then what could Account for all the ghost stories and paranormal experiences that so many people across cultures throughout world history myself included have.

Well, once again, we ask What does the Bible say? Starting again with Paul in Ephesians 6 verses 11 through 12 He writes put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Meaning we're not fighting against each other but against the rulers against the powers against the world forces of darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Our battle is against spiritual forces. We're to stand firm against the devil that is Satan and his schemes. We fight against the spiritual forces of darkness that are allied with Satan against God in his word and us as Christians.

Key words in this passage are scheme. The key word in this passage is schemes. Satan is a schemer a deceiver or adversary and so are those who serve him his demons. We see in 1st John 5 19 that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one world meaning the world system of ideas philosophies teachings and desires.

And Paul echoes this in Ephesians 2 chapter 2 verse 1. When he states that Satan is the prince of the power of the air and of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience the sons of disobedience being those who are opposed to God in his word and.