I have a question about apparitions. There was another person who wrote to you about these that I had seen in your “Ask a Bible Teacher”. I believe absent from the body present with the Lord, too, and
also the passage from Deut. 18:10-11 that tells us that God permits no communication or interaction between the living and the dead. But what about the mount of transfiguration when Moses and Elijah were present with Jesus and Peter, James and John saw them?
My dad died when I was 4 and my brother was 3 years old. following the death, my brother was in bed and could see someone he said was our dad sitting at the edge of the bed talking to him.
Other people who have lost loved ones tell similar stories. can you help us out?
I believe that at the moment Jesus was transfigured, He became a visitor from the future, and Moses and Elijah joined Him from there as well. It appears that Peter understood this because later he wrote that he was an eyewitness to the 2nd Coming. He was referring to the Mt. of Transfiguration. (2 Peter 1:16-18) As Moses and Elijah disappeared, Jesus came back to His 1st Century form and the visit from the future was over.
Before I became a believer and just after my father died, I caught a very brief glimpse of him all dressed in white, standing on our back porch observing a family gathering. At the time, I had no explanation for this. I have since heard stories like this from several people and know that in some cases it resulted in them being led in a spiritual direction that’s inconsistent with Scripture.
Since the Bible says that no interaction between the living and the dead is permitted, then I can only assume that these events are counterfeit, attempts to lead us astray. But since God knows the end from the beginning, He knows who are His and as our Good Shepherd, He sees that none of His flock gets carried off. 2 Cor. 11:14 warns us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light, so we should not be surprised by such things.