As a young girl, my family would regularly visit our relatives each summer in Idaho. My favorite place to stay was my Aunt G’s, mainly because she was a fabulous cook and firmly believed in dessert every night after dinner.
Aunt G and Uncle B lived with their three sons in a two story, pale green clapboard house with white trim, doors and shutters. A matching garage sat to the left of the house and you could walk into the kitchen through the connecting door. Border of flowers decorated the green lawn in front and to my 7 year old eyes, it was perfectly lovely. The pine wood floors of the house reflected the light through the many windows so that the whole interior seemed to shine.
When my parents, three sisters and I would come and stay in the summer, we girls would stay in the single upstairs bedroom. Wooden stairs from the kitchen led to a large, oblong bedroom which faced the front of the house. You could see the entire neighborhood from the two large picture windows in the room. A single closet sat on the far left of the room, which was furnished with two doubled beds and two wooden dressers. It was a spacious, sunny room with lots of space to play. However, we never wanted to spend much time in the room.
All four of us girls, who ranged in age from 5 to 11, would tell my mom that it felt “funny” up in the room and the closet was very scary; we would never open the door. We would rather go play in the basement, kitchen or outside yard instead of staying up in the sunny room with its gleaming pine plank floors. We tended to congregate in the wonderful kitchen where something delicious was always cooking…
Several years later, my aunt was visiting us in Utah. After dinner with several extended family members, we sat around our living room and talked about old times, reminiscing and tell stories. My mom and aunt started to discuss the old clapboard house, long ago sold as they had aged and downsized to a smaller home. My ears perked up as they began to discuss the strange things that had happened to my uncle and two male cousins when they lived in the house.
According to my aunt, on more than one occasion, my 16 year old cousin, who had slept in the upstairs bedroom, had been awakened in the middle of the night as something sat on the bed. He had opened his eyes to see an oily, black swirling mist, several feet tall, which appeared to float over the foot of the bed. He could feel the weight of it settle down on the bed, depressing the blankets. In horror, he watched as it slowly moved up towards him. He had struggled to make a noise because of fear, but eventually screamed out, waking his brother, who slept in the other twin bed, farthest from the closet. At the sound of his terrified voice, the entity had disappeared into the closet, dissolving through the closed door.
This continued to happen on several occasions until my cousin refused to go in the room and moved downstairs. My uncle decided he would spend the night in the room alone to see what might happen. He awoke terrified to see the same dark entity directly over him, pushing in on his chest so he could barely breathe. My aunt heard him screaming and ran upstairs to the bedroom, flinging the door open and turning on the light. She saw nothing but my uncle, white-faced and shaking, laying in the bed.
As my aunt explained, she was alone in the house most days and never felt uncomfortable. She didn’t experience anything strange and never saw the thing in the closet. She would be in the upstairs bedroom, changing sheets, cleaning and hanging up clothes in the closet, but never, ever felt uncomfortable.
I used this family ghost story with the black, oily entity, in my book, “A Lasting Embrace.” As a Christian, I struggled to understand what this “thing, ghost, entity” might have been. Television is filled with many programs about ghost hunters, ghost stories and the paranormal; I struggled to understand in my faith, what a ghost could be… Ghost hunters are always touting their proof of spirits with what they capture with their night cameras, voice recorders, and other ghost hunting equipment. So, are ghosts real?
The bible clearly states that there is death, then judgment. It also compares death to sleep (over fifty times). After we die in our mortal bodies, we are asleep, unconscious and not aware of time or what is happening around us. God’s word says, “for the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing… their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, NKJ). If this is the case, then there are not tormented souls who can’t go into the light because of unfinished business. There is no choice in what happens at death. God has control of the process. Our God is in control of all things – He is the Alpha and Omega. He knows the number of hairs on every head and the desires of every heart. There is no way when a person dies that their soul does not go to sleep and await Christ’s second coming and for those who are not saved, the judgment.
It is presumptive and arrogant to assume any of us humans need to help someone “go into the light”, to think God is somehow to busy or doesn’t care enough or is not powerful enough to ensure when our soul leaves our body, it goes to the proper place. So what is responsible for the ghostly images, voices and cold spots that are given in proof as a haunting?
What I began to see is the evil one, the “father of lies”, along with his demons, has developed a well-calculated plan to deceive those who don’t know the Lord. To believe that a soul can be lost on earth, or continually suffering or can’t find their way to heaven, is a lie meant to undermine the glory of God – to lessen our trust and belief in Him.
There are no ghosts, but there are evil spirits in this world, fallen angels we call demons, who followed Satan in rebellion against God. In the bible, Revelation 12:9 (NIV), it says “the great dragon was hurled down, the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” Satan and his fallen angels are on the earth and using their time to deceive everyone away from a relationship with the Lord. Some may be more blatant in their evil, but many are disguised, as in the multitude of stories about a “lady in white” or hearing children laughing.
Ghosts are not angels from God or those that have passed away. They are fallen angels trying to deceive us. Ephesians 6:11-12, (NIV) states, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
While what my aunt’s family experienced was clearly evil, not all ghosts present in the same way. Some may present themselves as children, as a guardian spirit or loved one. But do not be fooled. In 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 (NIV), God’s word states: “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
I wrote “A Lasting Embrace” as a witness, for those who need to come out of Mormonism and for those who are being tricked by Satan in their belief of ghosts. I pray they come into the light of the Lord and a loving relationship with God.
Note: A Lasting Embrace is available through Amazon.com and comes in print or eBook.
C.R. Noble 