COMPELLING TRUTH  



A Ghost Story

By Robin Schumacher





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In Father Ignatius McCarthy's case, he admits he is "old school" where the idea of the devil and demons are concerned. The highly educated monk's personal experience with demons came when he helped cleanse the parochial home of a fellow priest. The clergyman began to have encounters with apparitions in the home that began attacking and defiling his religious objects. Once McCarthy performed an exorcism in the home, the activities ceased. [2]

The truth is, the activities described by Kiely and McKenna in their book, and the experiences I had as a young boy, are caused by the same type of being, and it is nothing as tame as a ghost.

The Real Deal

The Bible documents the existence of both a fallen angel named Satan/the devil (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:11-19) and the fall of countless other angels who joined him in his rebellion against God (Revelation 12:4). The New Testament in particular reports numerous encounters that Jesus and his disciples had with demons, and also details how both Satan and his demons will work in the end times to deceive and destroy people's lives.

While it might seem odd that demons would manifest themselves through episodes that are reported as "ghost stories", the truth is that it forwards their agenda quite nicely as C. S. Lewis notes in his work The Screwtape Letters: "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight." [3]

Perhaps this is why when the true person of Jesus, the Bible, or requests to tell the truth in Christ's name are brought up in séances, Ouija board episodes, and other such occultic scenarios, the true colors of the "spirits" behind the scenes come out.

The Wrong Path

My early experiences with evil cause me to have great concern when movies such as Ouija (released this month just in time for Halloween) appear. I know these films will move many people to try out Ouija boards and other occultic devices, which will do nothing but open up their lives to entry by the enemy.

Why does this happen? It occurs because people instinctively know there is more to life than the material universe around them, and they go searching for it. As Canon Lendrum says:

Again, there are no such things as ghosts. But there is something that is much worse.

However, the great news is Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, which means that you and I can be free from the enemy and never have to fear the entities behind any supposed ghost story. If anything, such things only glorify God in the way one anonymous writer penned years ago: "Darkness cannot put out the light. It can only make God brighter."



2. Ibid, pg. 157.
3. http://goo.gl/5dV6dN.
4. Kiely and McKenna, pg. 3.



Image Credit: Stephen Groeneveld; "Welcome, ghosts"; Creative Commons



TagsBiblical-Truth  |  Personal-Life  |  Satan-Demons



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Published 10/22-14