Are ghosts demons?

Question

Biblically speaking, can someone clear up ghosts for me? I'm a tad confused. Angels appear as messengers from God, when people die their souls no longer remain on earth...so ghosts must be demons, right?

Answer 1

If I were you, I would disregard any of the answers above that make assumptions about what the Bible teaches without using the actual texts and letting the Bible speak for itself. Most people don't even know what the Bible says about a subject; they just go off of something they've heard someone else tell them about what the Bible teaches...

First, you have to define what a "soul" is. The Bible says in Genesis 2:7 that God breathed formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into him, and he BECAME a living soul. The ingredients are body+breath of life=living soul.

So what happens at death? The opposite, according to Eccesiastes 12:7: "And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit (Note is says SPIRIT, NOT SOUL. This was originally written in Hebrew, and the Hebrew word for "spirit" is the same as the word for "breath.") So when death happens, the breath goes back to God, the body returns to the ground, which means the soul ceases to exist.

This is confusing for people who have been told that people who die go instantly to heaven or h**l. That is not the case, according to the Bible. In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, the apostle Paul tries to clear up any misunderstanding: "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep (note he refers to death as sleep, not as a continued existence in heaven or h**l), or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." Verse 16 says, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, AND THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST."  Verse 17: "After that, we who are still alive and left will be caught up TOGETHER WITH THEM in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."

Paul is talking about the second coming of Jesus, when the dead (those who "sleep" in the ground) will be resurrected and we will meet them in the air. If they were already in heaven, then why would Jesus "resurrect" them from the graves? Obviously the Bible means what it says when it tells us that the breath goes to God, the body goes to the ground, and the soul is no longer a living entity.

Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The soul that sins, it will die."
Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned."

That means every soul dies...it does NOT go on living in another plane or in heaven or in h**l or floating around earth haunting people, or anywhere else!

The Bible does NOT say that ghosts are demons. We can INFER that ghosts are demons based on the fact that:

1. The Bible teaches that dead people sleep. They do not go to heaven or h**l or anywhere else. They rest in their graves until Jesus resurrects them at his second coming.

2. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. If he can do that, it would be easy for him to also masquerade as a dead loved one, or a scary creature, or a ghost...well, you get the idea.

I hope this helps.

If you are experiencing a supernatural experience that you believe may be a demon, here is what the Bible says about THAT:

James 4:7: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Blessings to you.