Ghost Story: Levels of Hell

[AnOrangeCat]

7 hours ago, ayin jade said:

Those verses dont support the notion of ghosts being souls of dead humans.

I don't see support for ghosts either, and I'm going to go further and say that there isn't even necessarily support for levels of Hell. Parts of the Bible are full of figurative speech, symbolism, and poetic language, and Psalms is one such book. There was a time when people took a verse in Psalms as evidence that the earth was flat because they took a mention of the four corners of the earth literally. There are countless examples of things like that in Psalms.

[Debp]

8 hours ago, other one said:

I can say that paranormal activity is all from the spirit world and virtually all from demonic activity.

I always believed the above to be true.

[Dennis1209]

14 hours ago, OneLight said:

Hebrews 9:27

"And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment"

2 Corinthians 5:8

"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord."

I've found nothing in scripture to indicate the souls of the dead wander the earth.  Even in the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) we see that the souls of the deal are restricted to either Hades or Abraham's Bosom, never free to wander around.  It's just another lie from the father of lies.

That is very true; a great gulf divides the living souls, location, location, location. Our tri-part body goes to the grave, and the spirit of all humans immediately returns to the Lord at the last heartbeat. The soul is that part of us that makes us an individual. Unique, what and who we are, accepting or rejecting, we are sinners needing a Savior.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (KJV) Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

The Bible is clear where each member of our tri-part being goes to immediately upon the first death. A study of 1 Samuel chapter 28 adds much understanding to mediums, demons, and ghosts.

Genesis 2:7 (KJV) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Just my thoughts.

[TrueFollowerOfChrist]

On 1/30/2023 at 11:19 AM, Biblican said:

Some friends of mine rented a house in New England. It wasn’t long before they discovered that the house was haunted, possibly by one of the former occupants.

My friend’s first indication that they were not the only residents came when Trudy decided to move the vase that was on a cabinet to the center of the dining room table. Pleased with the new arrangement, she left the room, only to return later to find that the vase had been returned to the cabinet.

It wasn’t long after that when the ghost actually appeared to them which it did on multiple occasions. It was a woman and they nicknamed her “Honey.”

My friends were Christians and they were never afraid of the apparition. They just felt sorry for her. Her soul was trapped. She had never accepted Jesus in her lifetime and without the Holy Spirit she was unable to ascend to heaven when her body had died and her soul was released. She was imprisoned in another level of hell.

The scriptures show us that at the last judgment and the second resurrection of the dead, which occurs after the second coming and Jesus’ millennial reign; the souls who have not repented and received the gospel in their lifetimes are retrieved from two locations. –

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).

We can see from verse thirteen that some souls are gathered from the “sea” and the rest from hell. These are two distinct locations and we are shown from this example that not all souls are in “hell.”

The “sea” symbolically represents the world, our dimension. Hell is another dimension and from the example given in Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31), it is a place of extreme torment.

The prophet David praises God for saving him from “the lowest hell” in Psalm 86:13, which indicates that there are levels of hell and the place of the most extreme torment is the “lowest.”

We can conclude from these examples in scripture, that the souls who die without Christ are imprisoned in one of these two locations and we can also conclude that the souls who are trapped in this dimension, “the sea,” are the ghosts, and the source of paranormal activity.

There are multitudes of recorded examples of genuine hauntings around the world. For example, there is a lighthouse in Long Island sound, New York, that is so haunted that the Coast Guardsman refuse to stay there. That location is also where there have been many shipwrecks and the lighthouse has become a refuge for souls whose bodies perished in that vicinity.

There are many in this day and age that want to eliminate the Biblical concept of hell, even though Jesus assures us of its existence (Matthew 5:22,29, 10:28, 23:33). But these same people that are opposed to the concept of hell, ignore the fact that the paranormal does exist and that it is the evidence of another level of hell that cannot be erased that easily from the blackboard of mental reasoning.

We have been shown from the Bible where the dead are housed after the judgment. Who ends up where is God’s decision, which is based on the choices the souls have made for themselves in their lifetimes. All these souls have one thing in common; none of them have received the Gospel. –

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life - John 3:16.

Repentance and Faith in Jesus’ atonement for our sins, removes them and clothes us with the righteousness that can only come from God. This is turn enables us to receive the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of eternal life. The Holy Spirit is the lifeline that is secured to our souls that enables us to rise into heaven and live eternally in the freedom of God’s holy, loving presence.

You can make the decision now to repent of your sins and receive Jesus, the only one God has ordained to keep your soul out of every level of hell’s prisons. I guarantee that if you refuse God’s offer to save your soul, it will be a decision that will haunt you for the rest of your life - and beyond.

I could be misunderstanding your post, but are you suggesting that unsaved people can be ghosts when they die? That is definitely an unscriptural concept. However on the subject of Hell, even Jesus admitted that some people will suffer more in Hell than others. Not everyone will have the same torment in Hell, just as not everyone will have the same Bliss in Heaven. 

[Biblican]

6 hours ago, TrueFollowerOfChrist said:

I could be misunderstanding your post, but are you suggesting that unsaved people can be ghosts when they die? That is definitely an unscriptural concept. However on the subject of Hell, even Jesus admitted that some people will suffer more in Hell than others. Not everyone will have the same torment in Hell, just as not everyone will have the same Bliss in Heaven. 

Yes. It's another level of hell based and it is not unscriptural based on Rev. 20:13. The dead are extracted from two locations hell and the sea, which is symbolic for the world. A ghost is simply a soul that has been released from the body.

[Biblican]

On 1/31/2023 at 4:52 PM, grahampaul said:

 

ghosty wobbles and goolys. arnt we  supposed to be turfing them out.not welcoming them in with open arms.

wonder if Eph 5v12 is relevant.

as for souls wandering the earth i cant see it,spirits yes.

The word for spirits in the Hebrew is also used for souls.

[Biblican]

20 hours ago, Slibhin said:

If by "Hebrews" you mean "Jews", we believe no such thing. The Tanakh speaks only of Sheol, the grave. We do not believe in the devil, hell or other such things.

The Tanakh mentions hell and the devil. Hell is referred to in Deut. 32:22, Isaiah 5:14,14:9, 14:15, Ezekiel 31:16. At least ten times just in the major prophets,

Satan/Lucifer in Job 1:6,Isaiah 14:12 and implied in other places.

[Biblican]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:26 PM, ayin jade said:

Those verses dont support the notion of ghosts being souls of dead humans.

If the dead are retrieved from the sea which is figurative of this world, then who are those dead and why are they not in hell?

When the body dies the soul has to go somewhere.

[Biblican]

18 hours ago, AnOrangeCat said:

I don't see support for ghosts either, and I'm going to go further and say that there isn't even necessarily support for levels of Hell. Parts of the Bible are full of figurative speech, symbolism, and poetic language, and Psalms is one such book. There was a time when people took a verse in Psalms as evidence that the earth was flat because they took a mention of the four corners of the earth literally. There are countless examples of things like that in Psalms.

Deuteronomy 32:22 also mentions the lowest hell.

[Biblican]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:26 PM, ayin jade said:

Those verses dont support the notion of ghosts being souls of dead humans.

If a soul is released from the body, and is in the "sea" the world, this dimension, and not in hell, then we can call it something else other than a ghost if you like.