My wife has recently gotten very interested in a new show on the sci-fi channel called GHOST HUNTERS and I have to admit some of the shows are chilling in the PROOF offered to support claims of paranormal activity. Like thermal heat scans and electromagnetic activity as well as voice recordings and the like. A long time ago when I was a freshman (before I met Christ) in college I had a series of ghostly encounters at my school which is renowned for being “Haunted.” It seems like these kinds of “reality shows” featuring the paranormal are on the upswing and I wanted to know what the Bible has to say about “Ghosts” (where does a soul who dies OUT of Christ go at the moment of death?) and how this should be interpreted in the light of eschatology and the “End Times” before a rapture?
The only place in the Bible where the disposition of the spirits of both saved and unsaved dead is described is in Luke 16:19-31, better known as the story (not parable) of the rich man and Lazarus. Based on that passage, we can conclude that the idea of the ghosts of departed ones flying around loose causing all kinds of mischief is not Biblical. Believers go to a place that no one would return from on a bet, and unbelievers are imprisoned. That’s not to deny para normal activity, but simply to say that it isn’t the ghosts of departed loved ones that are being revealed with this new technology.
As far as its connection to the End Times, I believe that for some time now unseen forces have been manipulating the media to portray the spiritual world as friendly and benign, so that the counterfeit miracles of the anti-Christ will be more acceptable and therefore more deceptive.