Everyone has their own ghost story, regardless of whether they believe in ghosts or not. Even the most doubtful skeptic could tell you about a friend or relative who claims to have encountered a ghost. Even so, not a lot is known about ghosts except that it has been scientifically proven unusual changes in the immediate environment occur some of the time a ghost is said to be doing something. TV shows like Sci-Fi's Ghost Hunters try to explain the presence of alleged ghosts through scientific investigation. While they can't define what a ghost is, they usually show how vulnerable we are, if not to ghosts then to fear.
Me, personally, I don't watch shows like Ghost Hunters because I don't like watching anyone take stupid risks. The risk in my mind isn't "Oh geez, they're stupid going looking for something that if it exists could be kind of scary and maybe even dangerous." I feel they'd be safer if they walked up to a sleeping grizzly and poked it with a stick.
I don't doubt ghosts exist, although let me say they are probably not the souls of the dead coming back to haunt their old hideouts. Of course, from a theological standpoint, it might be possible that's what ghosts are, but I'd rather not try to explain on my own why it could be possible given what the bible says about a person's soul and when exactly the soul goes to heaven or hell after the body dies. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on the matter if someone familiar with scripture would like to debate it with me; I know both David and Emerald could if they wanted.
As for what I think ghosts are, that's an easy one. They're instruments of Satan in his war against God, more than likely, literal demons. Most of the time, hauntings do more to divide a family and destroy a person's faith than they do anything else. They're not just playful annoyances that interfere in the lives of a selected minority.
A few years ago, my grandparents lived in a haunted house. It was out in middle-of-nowhere Virginia and was over a 100 years old. I think someone had told me two people had died in the house, both from old age, but I can only be sure of one. While she was living there, my grandma had encountered a fair bit of paranormal activity, including two human forms.
The first encounter was a knock at the front door one day, and when she answered it, apparently there was a little old lady with creepy red eyes and wild white hair just standing there. My grandma tried talking to her, but she didn't say anything back. Eventually, I think my grandma closed the door and went back to what she was doing, praying as she did so.
The other one happened while she was washing dishes once. There was no one in the house except her and her husband, who was asleep and bed-ridden at the time. From the parlor, her piano began playing. Confused, she went to check it out, and saw a farmer in muddy overalls sitting at the bench playing. Yet, the front door was still shut and locked, and there was no way this man could've gotten inside. My grandma got that same feeling she'd had with the other encounter, so she retreated back into the kitchen. When she left, she asked him to close the lid when he was done.
Cherie's also encountered her own fair share of ghostly phenomena, being that she goes to one of the oldest colleges in the country. From the tours she's given me of the campus, pretty much every other building is haunted. Some of them had suicides, some murders, and some other stuff happen in them. The part that freaks her out though is that one night she was out doing something with one of the clubs she's in, and apparently there was an eerie light flickering in one of the third-floor windows of the most haunted building. I think the building was supposed to empty and locked for the night, so they couldn't explain why there was any light at all.
The color still drains from her face when she talks about it.
It's scary stuff to think about, demons and whatnot. I understand entirely why Cherie is so shook up after her experience, and frankly, if I didn't have Jesus, I'd be cowering just by talking about it.
But, with Jesus, it's not me who cowers. After Satan got pwned, Jesus gave his disciples the authority to overcome whatever Satan can throw at them.
Thus, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I've got a bodyguard. I need not fear any demon.
But that's not why I celebrate. I celebrate because I know I'm going to heaven one day.
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