Ghosts are not the spirits of dead people. They are demonic

The belief that the souls of the dead return to us has existed throughout human history. But in the UK today, belief in ghosts is a lot more common than it used to be. Back in 1950, only 10% of UK adults admitted to believing in ghosts. By 2025, that number had increased to 38%.

Entertainment and the internet have no doubt had an effect on this, with documentaries, films, TV series and podcasts based on spooky and supernatural subjects becoming increasingly popular. As well as influencing the number of people who believe in ghosts, these themes also reflect the changing spiritual climate of our culture, which is rapidly embracing occult and New Age spiritualities.

Because death has such a huge impact on our lives, alternative beliefs about the afterlife often take the form of reassuring ideas: death shouldn’t make us afraid because peace and rest can be found there as long as we’ve been a good person. Some of these ideas suggest that people need closure from life to move on to a place of peace, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Back from the dead

Ideas about being able to see or communicate with the dead have been around for a long time. The biblical authors would have been aware of these, and scripture appears to teach that the souls of dead people do not come back to visit us.

Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31) is a particularly important passage. Here, the righteous Abraham informs the unrighteous rich man: “Between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” This implies that the position of the dead remains fixed in the afterlife.

In the Bible, we see how innate the connection between demonic forces, death and deception are

In the parable, the rich man’s response was to ask if someone could be sent from the realm of the dead to warn his family about the perils of the afterlife for the unrighteous. But Abraham’s reply was a flat refusal, telling him that if people do not believe the word of God, neither would they believe the word of one sent back from the dead. While it doesn’t say the dead can’t return to us, other biblical passages support this case.

Job 7:9–10 says: “As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again”. And while mourning the death of his son, David states: “But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23).

Demons, death and scripture

In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul commands the Witch of Endor to summon Samuel from Sheol, despite having previously forbidden the art of necromancy - the practice of calling up or consulting the spirits of the dead (see Leviticus 19:31, 20:27 and Deuteronomy 18:11). She does so, and Samuel delivers a very serious warning to Saul.

It has been argued that it must be possible for the living to contact the dead, or else there would be no reason for the Bible to forbid it. But things aren’t quite that simple. The witch “cried out in a loud voice” (v12) when Samuel’s spirit appears. This reaction has often been interpreted as surprise at actually seeing a dead person’s spirit, when she usually just delivers ambiguous messages in the same way that modern psychic mediums do.

Because death has such a huge impact on our lives, alternative beliefs about the afterlife often take the form of reassuring ideas

Jenn Nizza was a practising medium for many years. She eventually gave her life to Christ after becoming convinced that the spirits she was communicating with - which could provide genuine revelations about her clients - were not the spirits of the deceased, but demons who were impersonating them.

As she developed in her art, she began to experience increasing levels of fear and uncertainty. Eventually, she felt things touching her and “manifesting as shadowy figures, animals, and what looked like human beings.” This produced a dread that was so great, she felt compelled to call out the name of Jesus. As soon as she did, the oppressive feelings stopped. Jessica Murray has a similar story.

Many who have experienced supernatural phenomena or visited a psychic may attribute their experiences to the souls of the departed, because doing so brings comfort. The idea of ghosts, while scary to some, brings hopes of continuing life after death to others. This is why the demonic exploitation of our fear about death and loss can be an effective and cruel tool.

In the Bible, we see how innate the connection between demonic forces, death and deception is. Mark 5:1-5 tells the story of a demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs and cut himself. Matthew 17:14-20 recalls Jesus healing a demon-possessed boy who continually tried to throw himself into fire and water.

Dodging deception

But does this mean ghosts don’t exist? After all, the Gospels use the word ‘ghost’ to refer to two sightings of Jesus by his disciples. In Mark 6:49, the Greek word phantasma is used to describe how the disciples mistook Jesus for a spectre, phantom, or deceptive apparition when He walked towards them on the water. In other words, it tells us that the disciples thought they saw a ghost, not that ghosts exist.

Then, in Luke 24, Jesus startles the disciples when He appears to them after the resurrection. Here, the word ‘ghost’ is a translation of pneuma, a Greek word that refers to any kind of disembodied spiritual being. So, when Jesus responds that “a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39), He is confirming that He has risen bodily and is not just a disembodied spirit, as some of the disciples believed.

Further biblical evidence refutes the idea of ghosts existing through the statements that the dead go straight into the presence of Christ if they had saving faith in Him (Luke 23:39–43; Philippians 1:21–23; 2 Corinthians 5:1–8), or that they go to a temporary place of punishment in the realm of Hades (Luke 16:19–31; Revelation 20:11–15). Both the righteous and unrighteous dead then remain in their temporary states until they are judged to eternal life or eternal damnation (Daniel 12:2; John 5:25–29; Acts 24:14–15; Revelation 20:11–15).

Considering what the Bible says, there are very few grounds for Christians to believe in ghosts. Scripture tells us of just one specific example when this was allowed to happen, with God’s obvious disapproval and severe consequences for Saul made clear. The greater, overall picture tells us that humans do not ordinarily return from the dead as ghosts.

The alternative ideas presented by occult spiritualities and modern entertainment have little to do with biblical thinking or the salvation offered by Christ alone. But they do have the potential to lead many astray.

Read an alternative view here