A few nights ago I had the opportunity to go to a Bible study that was going to be on the topic of ghosts. It was one of those odd things things that you decide to do because you are both curious and hope it will be sane. Call it ego, but I wanted to be around in case it wasn’t.

The study had come about because of Matthew 14:26:

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, It is a ghost! and they cried out in fear.

Some other translations render it with different words: spirit, apparition, etc. The question was over whether the disciples believed in ghosts.

The answer to that one is pretty obvious. One of the other men at the study pointed out that if they hadn’t before, they certainly did at that moment.

OK, fair enough. Now what? I was ready to move on to 1 Samuel 28, but the person next to me saw that I was looking up the passage and said that the pastor who was overseeing the study would get to it eventually. So I waited.

We began to cover what a ghost was: a disembodied spirit (standard dictionary definition). 1 Corinthians 15:52 is well-representative of when Christians believe they will receive their new bodies:

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

In other words, we believe that we will receive our new, “sanctified” bodies at the resurrection of the dead. Half an hour later or so we did get around to 1 Samuel 28:

   10 And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
   11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
   12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.

There are two possible conclusions that we can make from this passage. Both rely on the witch’s surprise to see Samuel (who, if you read the rest of the chapter, you will find was quite dead).

The first option is that she was inexperienced and did not expect it to work. I find this unlikely as her reputation had advanced far enough for Saul’s servants to know about her. The second option is that she expected to see her spirit guide who would tell her what to say. Seeing Samuel startled her.

The general consensus was that the spirits of deceased humans are not allowed to walk around on this planet – even by request. Great, that is the conclusion I had hoped they would come to. Any apparitions that are not mirrors or something similar are probably demonic. Most people are terrified of what they see. It makes a lot of sense.

Then someone brought up the passage from Matthew 17:

   1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
   2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
   3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
   4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

OK, fine. Jesus was still living. Elijah (Elias is coming from the way that it is written in the Greek) was called up to heaven in a chariot of fire. II Kings 2:11:

And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

He was one of two (possibly three) men in the Bible that is reported to have not died. Enoch is another, and some people believe that the Apostle John did not die. That’s a long, unrelated discussion so let’s take a look at Moses. Deuteronomy 34:

   4 And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
   5 ¶So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.
   6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

Moses died, God buried him, and nobody ever found the grave. But God said that he would die instead of passing over into Israel’s promised land. This was a problem for me.

It is easy enough to accept that the witch saw Samuel as a spirit. To see Moses, Elijah, and Jesus together creates a problem if they were all recognizable. Two of them could, logically, have living, breathing physical bodies. One of them could not – especially if we receive our new bodies at the resurrection.

After thinking it over for a couple days, I think that the best solution is a better understanding of the natural order of things. Disembodied spirits are not allowed to remain on this earth or return to it. They also do not have physical bodies for now.

The word “supernatural” means that it is outside the realm of what is natural. Not what we think is natural, but what really is natural. God has the ability to break the natural rules when He chooses. He did put the natural laws in place. I’m going to say that these are probably both instances where He has chosen to do that.

If you happen to be reading this and don’t believe in God, you will probably find the thoughts absurd. But then there is no reason to believe in a resurrection and transformed bodies if you don’t believe in a god. Guess I’ll have to leave the post at this. I hope that it makes sense to the rest of you.