I’ll be honest folks, I’m not a big Halloween fan. I don’t like all the evil associated with it and proven connections to Satan. That being said, my kids dress up in non-scary clothes and go to parties, festivals etc.
That’s a debate for another day concerning Christians participating in dress up and fall festivals.
My concern today is about putting an end to a topic that shouldn’t even be a debate with Christians. That’s the belief in ghosts, spooks, Hants etc. Short answer – Ghosts don’t exist. Ghosts are not real. Never have been and never will be.
Now you may be firmly grounded in scripture and can easily answer your child when they ask “Mom, Dad is there such a thing as ghosts?” If you can, praise God you are taking steps to instill biblical assurance in your children.
However there are parents that are Christians but still believe in ghosts or do not have a good answer for their child when approached with this question.
Now is the time to knock off the uncertainty and embrace what God has clearly stated in scripture. Once your earthly body dies your soul goes to heaven or hell. There is no in between, there is no hanging around to haunt houses, people or things. Souls don’t turn into ghosts. They are either in paradise with their Heavenly Father or in torment in Hades.
Deciding factor: Do you accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ dying for your sins, His shed blood the perfect sacrifice for our unworthiness? Yes? Then you’ll be in Heaven. No? Then you’ll bust hell wide open no matter how good of a person you are.
Now how do you translate that to a child?
You must teach them apologetics. God is not indecisive. He’s shared His plan of salvation in scripture. He’s made clear the paths your soul will follow once you die. So show your child how awesome our God is.
- God is immutable – He doesn’t change. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. When Christ told the thief on the cross ‘On this day you will be with Me in paradise’ Luke 23:43 — Christ didn’t say or maybe not, I’m not sure. Your soul could hang around here for a little bit and if it does, feel free to torture your prosecutors. That same message to the thief is for us today. There’s no chance your soul will be stuck here on Earth. There’s no chance anybody’s soul is stuck on Earth.
- Consequences – Romans 6:23 is repeated frequently but do you really focus on what it says? “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ.’ This is enough to put the ghost debate to bed but for now we will use it as a stepping stone. Sin equals death – die in sin and your soul goes to hell. Die in Christ – your soul goes to heaven. Two very real places. God is crystal clear here – your child can understand that God means what He says and says what He means. There’s no room for ‘ifs or maybes’ which leaves room for the existence of ghosts. The next stone to present to your child, Matthew 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ Again – crystal clear. It’s either/or absolutely no in between.
Spritual Warfare:
While there is no such thing as ghosts, there is a very clear spiritual warfare going on constantly between demons, Satan and God’s angels. I do believe demons can torment, hinder or cause destructive things to happen. But let me be clear, they are not ghosts. Ghosts are defined as spirits of humans who have died, leaving their souls behind here on Earth to either be good spirits or bad spirits. That is all hogwash.
However – Halloween, evil shows, movies, games, paranormal activities etc. open the door to the spiritual warfare that is evil and lurking everywhere, waiting to consume your child and yourself.
Be Diligent:
As parents we must be diligent to protect our children from evil, believing in harmful things and being associated with gateway activities that lead to paths of destruction.
Halloween is a perfect time to settle this with your children. If you don’t have a Biblical answer they will seek an answer from someone else – good luck with that person actually being a Godly person.
Addendum — A question presented itself on Facebook regarding this topic. You can see the conversation here. I feel like I need to update the post to branch out the basis for my belief just a bit further. Here’s my response:
I do not base my statement on the existence of ghosts based on my never seeing one. My firm belief and basis comes from scripture and the definitive work of God. Let me refer you to the disciples. Early on they too believed in ghosts. Look at Matt 14:26, Mark 6:49 and Luke 24.37 — all of these are instances where they were started and believed to have seen a ‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’ — they were immersed in the superstitious culture of their time and would easily have had tendencies to believe in the paranormal. However Jesus put an end to that belief by discipling them — Look at Luke 16:19-31. The dead can not come back. The great divide or chasm prevents that. Specifically stated in Luke 16:26. Also let me point out the ‘praying for the dead’ taught in many denominations of Christianity. However let me blunt here, but in love, that practice is futile. The dead are dead. They have made their eternal decision and as such, their situation – rest and comfort in Christ, i.e. in Heaven – or in torment and fully remembering their rejection of Christ – i.e. Hell (Lazarus for example) can not and will not be changed. Now I say all of that to say this – I will affirm that there are such things as demonic manifestations. Ghosts are not real souls previously departed. But demons can present themselves in various forms.
What a load of religious propaganda. Good laugh though