Then he said, “I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” Abraham said to him, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” But he said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:27-31)

Ghosts, Goblins, And Spirits

The fascination of the spirits of the dead has long intrigued men. Every culture contains stories of those who have died, returning to haunt the world or to speak to spirits long dead. Do ghosts appear from the dead? Are there spirits that roam the earth? Is it possible to talk to the dead? Can the dead manifest a presence to the living? There are many questions about the spirit world, and the only place to know what occurs in the realm of the dead is the Bible.

Everything to be known about life and death and life after death is found in the words of the One who created all things. God created the world, and He formed man out of the dust of the ground and the woman from the side of Adam. Because of sin, death reigns over all the world. No one can know what happens after death but the One who lives in the world of the eternal. Through the revealed word of God, men learn there is life after death. Death destroys the physical body, but the spiritual man continues to exist.

Jesus taught death ushers in two worlds: one that is full of joy and one that is filled with horror. The Lord taught there is a judgment coming where humanity will be divided as a shepherd separates his sheep. Most will go away into eternal darkness and pain, and the few will enter the place of the redeemed. The realm of the dead is called Hades. Jesus described Hades as a place of Paradise and a place of torment. Lazarus and the rich man is a story of life after death. Because he was a righteous man, Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man was condemned to torment because he was an unrighteous man.

There are many lessons to learn from Lazarus and the rich man, and one of those helps to answer the question of whether the dead return to haunt the living or whether it is possible to talk to the deceased. The rich man begged Abraham to allow Lazarus to bring a drop of water to cool the flame that tormented him. Abraham said something that is the first declaration about eternity: there is no travel allowed! The rich man cannot enter the bosom of Abraham, and no one in Paradise will be sent to torment. This is a defining moment of eternity. Dead people cannot go from one place to another.

As the rich man suffered torment, he begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to his five brothers to testify. Again, Abraham reminds the rich man there can be no travel from realm to realm. The rich man further begs Abraham and is rebuffed with the truth that no one from the realm of the dead can return to the world of the living without the power of God. Many were raised from the dead, but that was only for the glory of God. The raising of the dead was a manifestation of physical bodies, not a spirit body.

When Jesus returned from the dead, He was in a physical body. After the resurrection of Jesus, the tombs around Jerusalem opened, and people rose from the dead in physical bodies. These bodies were full of life and would die again one day. No ghosts, ghouls, or spirits were walking around or haunting houses or cemeteries. The story of the rich man and Lazarus affirms there are no ghosts of people who have died inhabiting the world. Believing in ghosts is a fairy tale suited for the end of October and nothing else.