Just So You Know

Do you believe in ghosts?

With a bit of a Halloween theme, a speaker on the Reformation was in town this week and he gave a radio interview on the changing attitudes in Christianity on the dead. One of Martin Luther’s complaints with the Catholic Church was the collection of money to ease the passage of the dead. Now they weren’t the first to come up with easing the afterlife of the dead, just look at what was buried in the tombs of the Egyptians and the Chinese. What dead person really needs an army? And the Japanese and many African cultures feed their dead. There are even some African cultures that every few years, take the dead out of the crypts, re-dress the bodies and then party with them, including dancing with the newly attired corpses (I read about it in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago).
Anyway, back to the speaker and his point, he mentioned that the reformers taught that the ghosts people saw in those days were not the actual spirits of their deceased loved ones but were demons masquerading in the faces and voices of those we loved. That got me thinking. What if they were right? What if the apparitions and voices that we see today are demons trying to fool us? What if when you die, a loving God provides a guide to help you get to where your next destination is?
But then the question is: are you so busy in the afterlife that you never get to come back and visit? Maybe you are so happy that you have no desire to come back and visit. Maybe, part of that lake of fire and brimstone and eternal torment mentioned in the Old Testament is not being able to come back and visit.
However, there are too many cultures with too much folklore of the dead watching over the living for it not to be an eternal truth. I learned long ago that truth is where you find in and your heart knows what is true and what isn’t.

My heart tells me though that people do live after they die and they can come back to visit. I’ve felt loved one’s presences in holy places during times when I needed them. I know that my great-grandmothers watch over me just as their ancestors did for them and that after this life; I’m expected to do the same for my descendents. I know it sounds odd to a lot of folks that I know this about me and my family but I believe in eternal family bonds. I believe that love and connections to those we care about extend beyond this life and through eternity.

posted by Shondratasha @ 01:14