Angels Or Demons?

Q

I have an aunt who is and has always been very religious. She lives alone way out in the woods and sometimes I think she hallucinates. She claims to have seen angels in her house and also ghosts. I don’t know how she distinguishes between the two. Do you think these are really angels or something the devil is doing to try and scare her?

Her children claim to also have seen ghosts in the same house when they were young and one even claims the devil was at the foot of his bed one night. I have never believed in ghosts or anything like that and was just wondering your thoughts on this.

A

For the most part I believe that apparitions such as ghosts and other spiritual manifestations are the work of the Devil. On very special occasions man’s eyes have been opened to see the spiritual realm, such as in 2 Kings 6:16-17. But since we’ve been warned in Hebrews 13:2 to be kind to strangers since we might be entertaining angels without knowing it, it seems likely that these messengers of God normally appear to us in human form.

An angel in flowing white robes is sure to get one’s attention, and some great distortions of God’s Word have been delivered to Earth in just such a fashion. Remember 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 “for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.”