We take it for granted that you know that Satan and his demons exist. It is not the purpose of this Q&A to address that fact; we have written and spoken many times about this.
As this year’s Halloween is behind us—a feast dedicated to the forces of evil—we are moving towards the holiday of Christmas by the end of 2024 and New Year’s Day and the holiday of Easter in 2025. All these days have one thing in common: They are all connected with evil spirits. It was believed that during these days the “underworld” or “Otherworld” gave up their “dead” who walked around among the living as “ghosts” or “spirits.” Since dead people do not live in an “underworld,” those spirits were demons. They had to be appeased with gifts or frightened with noise.
But how did those “spirits” appear? Did they show up as men or women? The answer is clearly no, nor do they appear that way to men today.
Let us take the White House as an example. It has been reported and known for a long time that the White House is “haunted.” In fact, the evidence for this truth is overwhelming. But the “ghosts” in the White House did and do not appear as human beings. Note how the reports describe their presence.
“Roll Call” wrote on June 6, 2012, that [Nancy] “Pelosi… recounted an unusual anecdote about how the ghosts of past women leaders spoke to her at her first White House meeting as Speaker… in 2006… ‘I realized that on that chair with me was Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Hall, Lucretia Mott, you name it, they were all there… And I could hear them say “at last we have a seat at the table,”’ Pelosi said.”
The “Wikipedia Encyclopedia” writes: “There have been several stories about ghosts of former Presidents revisiting the White House. However, the most common and popular is that of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s Ghost, or to others as The White House Ghost, is said to have haunted the White House since his death.”
The website of haunted-places.com states: “The White House has a reputation for being one of the most haunted homes in America. President Harry Truman said the place was haunted ‘sure as shooting.’ Kennedy’s Press Secretary James Haggerty admitted to sensing the presence of Lincoln’s ghost in the White House, and Clinton’s Press Secretary Mike McCurry admitted he was a believer… Hillary Rodham Clinton said: ‘There is something about the house at night that you just feel like you are summoning up the spirits of all the people who have lived there and worked there and walked through the halls there.’…
“There have been many séances in the White House, but the majority occurred during the administration of Abraham Lincoln. While living in the White House, he and his wife held several séances in the Green Room in an attempt to contact the spirit of their son, Willie, who died there… In his book The Choice, Bob Woodward of Watergate fame describes how in 1995, a séance was held by psychic Jean Houston in the White House solarium, during which Hillary sank into a trance and channeled the spirits of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi…
“Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was a guest of the White House when she heard a knock on her bedroom door in the middle of the night. When she answered it, Lincoln stood before her with his famous top hat and all. The Queen fainted, and when she came [to], he was gone. Britain’s Winston Churchill refused to sleep there after sighting President Abraham Lincoln’s ghost lurking about… in the Lincoln Bedroom… He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Abraham Lincoln standing by the fireplace in the room, leaning on the mantle. The two men looked each other in the face… as Lincoln’s apparition slowly faded away.
“Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Margaret Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson [wife of Lyndon Johnson], Susan Ford [Gerald Ford’s daughter], and Maureen Reagan [Ronald Reagan’s daughter] have all admitted sensing the presence of the Civil War president in the White House… Maureen and her husband, Dennis Revell, both saw Lincoln’s transparent form next to the bedroom’s fireplace.”
On July 9, 2009, “Weekly World News” reported this:
“Just as Bill Clinton did before him, President Barack Obama is now getting help in the White House – from Abraham Lincoln’s ghost! A government insider has revealed that Honest Abe’s apparition has been seen in the Oval Office on several occasions, quietly conferring with the President on vital world issues!… In a 1993 issue, Weekly World News stunned the world with its exclusive story that the Great Emancipator was helping President Clinton guide America’s ship of state through troubled waters…”
History.com adds:
“The most famous address in America–1600 Pennsylvania Avenue–is also perhaps the country’s most famous haunted house. Presidents, first ladies, White House staff members and guests have reported feeling ghostly presences, hearing unexplained noises and even running into actual apparitions–even on the way out of the bathtub, in one particularly famous case [that of Winston Churchill].”
The Daily Mail wrote on November 5, 2009:
“The daughter of former President George W. Bush… Jenna Bush Hager told chat show host Jay Leno she had been terrified by spooky events near the fireplace in her bedroom [in the White House]… [She] said: ‘I heard a ghost. I was asleep, there was a fireplace in my room and all of a sudden I heard 1920’s music coming out. I could feel it, I freaked out and ran into my sister’s room. She was like “Please go back to sleep this is ridiculous.”
“The next week we were both asleep in my room, the phone had rang and woke us up. We were talking and going back to bed when all of a sudden we heard this opera, coming out of the fireplace. We couldn’t believe it, we both jumped in bed and were asking the people that worked there the next morning “Are we crazy?” We tried to rationalise it, but they said they heard it there all the time.’…”
In the “Haunted White House,” the following is stated:
“There were no reports of Lincoln’s ghost during the Bush administration and both the President and Mrs. Bush denied seeing Lincoln or any other ghost in the White House. However, during the Clinton years, there [was] at least [one sighting] of Lincoln’s apparition. One encounter was admitted by President Clinton’s brother, Roger, who stated that he had sensed Lincoln’s presence in the White House…
“President Harry Truman had no idea why Lincoln’s ghost was still present in the White House. In her biography about the president, Margaret Truman stated that her father certainly had no ambitions to haunt the White House himself. ‘No man in his right mind would want to come here of his own accord,’ he said.”
The Huffington Post wrote on December 31, 2013, at first quoting President Reagan:
“The President laughed and said, ‘I might as well tell you the rest. A member of our family [he meant his daughter Maureen] and her husband always stay in the Lincoln Bedroom when they visit the White House. Some time ago the husband woke up and saw a transparent figure standing at the bedroom window looking out. Then it turned and disappeared. His wife teased him mercilessly about it for a month. Then, when they were here recently, she woke up one morning and saw the same figure standing at the window looking out. She could see the trees right through it. Again it turned and disappeared.’…”
Elections Daily, Hauntings at the White House, wrote on October 29, 2024:
“The living residents have also had interest in the supernatural. Mary Lincoln famously held séances in order to contact her late son Willie, something Jane Pierce did just over a decade earlier. Edith Wilson and Florence Harding consulted with a medium, who apparently successfully predicted President Harding’s early death. Nancy Reagan famously used an astrologer to protect her husband.”
On November 4, 2024, Express USA wrote:
“US election could put Donald Trump back in ‘haunted’ White House with ‘dead presidents’. With the US election taking place, the world will be watching to see if Donald Trump will be voted back into the haunted White House.”
Many times, we read about the “APPARITION” of Lincoln or other dead people. Many times, people “felt” the presence of these “ghosts” or “heard” them, and when they “saw” them in a “transparent form” or as a “transparent figure” and you could “see the trees right through it.” They then suddenly or slowly disappeared. “Apparition” is defined as “a ghostlike image of a person”; a “ghostly appearing figure”; or the presence of a shadow.” It has also been described as something “that you imagine you can see”; and as “something that appears, but may not be otherwise real.” It can also refer to a “delusion,” an “hallucination” or a “phantasm.”
The meaning of the word “phantasm” is also very interesting, which can also be described as “deceptive appearance”; “mirage”; “shadow”; “fantasy”; “a figment of the imagination”; or “an illusion”; as well as “something that only appears to exist. It’s not real but an illusion or brief hallucination.”
We will see later the biblical application of these words (“apparition” and “phantasm”).
We also read that some were foolish enough to hold seances or attempted in other ways to get in contact with those “ghosts.” But this is not always the case. In some instances, according to the reports, there were no prior attempts to encounter any of these “ghosts.”
The attempts to communicate with ghosts or the dead seem to be as old as mankind. Ancient Israel was specifically warned not to try to engage in such practices. We read in Leviticus 19:31 (Authorized Version): “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them…” So it is possible, although prohibited by God, to seek after “familiar spirits.” But are those “familiar spirits” the departed spirits or souls of dead people, as some claim?… Leviticus 20:6 and 27 tell us, “And the person who turns after mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person…A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death.”
Though many people don’t believe in the existence of Satan and demons, they are quick to dabble in the occult, being ignorant of the danger therein. Demons are called “familiar spirits” because they want to familiarize themselves with man Haunted houses, poltergeists, séances, communication with the dead, and contact with “aliens” are all clearly of demonic origin. Once we have made “contact” with demons, it is difficult to get rid of them (compare Luke 11:24–26).
Acts 16:16–19 gives us a clue who or what those familiar spirits are: “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’ And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And he came out that very hour.”
This spirit of divination was a familiar spirit—a demon. It was not a departed soul. We also learn that the demon told the truth—Paul and his companions were in fact servants of God, preaching the way of salvation. Likewise, demons proclaimed that Christ was the Son of God. But they spoke to annoy God’s people and to detract from the message, and to confuse the masses. Demons don’t always lie, but they always want to thwart God’s plans and purposes.
We read in 1 Samuel 28 that Saul consulted a woman who was a medium. The Authorized Version describes her as a woman “with a familiar spirit” (verse 7). In the Hebrew, it says literally that she was “the possessor of a spirit,” in other words, of a demon. In other words, Saul consulted a witch possessed with a demon. This witch was asked by Saul to bring up Samuel. We read in Verse 12, “When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice.” The following passage tells us that Saul saw nothing. He asked the woman in verse 13, “What did you see?” Notice her answer (same verse): “I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.” When she described the form of that spirit as one of an old man, we are told that “Saul perceived that it [was] Samuel.” (Verse 14). The word “was” is not in the original. So one could add “pretended to be,” “appeared to be,” “claimed to be,” etc.
Some claim the witch actually brought back Samuel—or his spirit—from the grave. The Ryrie Study Bible comments, “On this occasion God miraculously permitted the actual spirit of Samuel to speak and announce Saul’s imminent death.” But is this true?
Notice that Saul did not see the “spirit” or “ghost” or “soul” of Samuel at all. Samuel had died and had been dead for a while (cp. 1 Samuel 25:1). God did not answer Saul in dreams or by the prophets (1 Samuel 28:6)—and Samuel was a prophet (Acts 13:20; 1 Samuel 3:20). When the “old man” appeared and answered Saul, that could not have been Samuel or his spirit or departed soul—otherwise, Samuel would have answered Saul in the capacity of a prophet of God. We also read in 1 Chronicles 10:13–14, that this seance was not of God—rather, Saul was killed by God because of conducting it. Saul died “for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him.”
We read that “Samuel” answered Saul and told him that Saul would die the next day. The real Samuel, dead and in the grave, could not have known that. The dead “know nothing.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). But Satan and demons do sometimes know God’s plan and purpose (cp. 1 Kings 22:19–23; the “lying spirit” was a demon; notice also Revelation 12:12; James 2:19). So it is clear that the demon, the familiar spirit, pretended to be Samuel, and spoke as Samuel to the witch.
We see, then, that, apparently, the very demon that possessed the witch, appeared to her—not to Saul!—in the form of Samuel, convincing the witch, and through the witch, Saul, that he was in fact Samuel. The true Samuel, however, as a prophet and servant of God, would have never spoken to Saul through a witch, especially after God had refused to talk to Saul. And God would not have supernaturally brought Samuel—or his soul or his spirit—back to life, to allow him to speak to Saul through a witch—after God had refused to speak to Saul directly.
The Bible does not tell us what exactly the woman, in her trance, actually saw. But based on all the other reports, she might have seen an apparition—a shadowy figure—which she described to Saul. Saul, based on the description, concluded that it was Samuel. And then, it appears that the demon spoke through the woman, but maybe, Saul heard the actual voice of that demon. Notice Isaiah 29:4 (Authorized Version): “…thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground.” This is a reference to the voice of a demon, a familiar spirit that has possessed the medium. It may appear as if the medium speaks, but it is, in fact, the demon within the medium that does the speaking. That is why Paul, in Acts 16:16–19, spoke to the familiar spirit or demon of the possessed slave girl—and not to the slave girl herself.
Another description of an apparition can be found in the Book of Job.
We read in Job 4:12–16 about Eliphaz’s encounter with a spirit: “Now a word was secretly brought to me, And my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up. It stood still, But I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; There was silence; then I heard a voice…”
Eliphaz saw some kind of a form before his eyes but he could not discern the appearance of the spirit. This indicates that it was a demon, who cannot appear as a person (see discussion below), as the Bible does not show that God’s angels appear to man in such a way. It was something like an apparition—a phantasm. The Living Bible translates: “I felt the spirit’s presence, but couldn’t see it standing there.” This reminds us of the description of the “ghosts” in the White House.
At the same time, we need to emphasize that Eliphaz was not asleep. He was quite awake and had “disquieting thoughts.” The encounter with the demon happened at night, when deep sleep falls on (other) men. The demon’s message, communicated to Eliphaz, was partially true (see verse 17), but it was taken out of context, and Eliphaz passed it on to Job, perhaps not even realizing himself that this was meant to destroy Job’s faith. But the demon knew exactly what he was doing.
The concept that the souls or spirits of dead people can be contacted is demonic. Isaiah 8:19 tells us, “And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” The Authorized Version states for “who are mediums”: ”…that have familiar spirits.” To consult mediums (those possessed with demons or familiar spirits) and God is incompatible. Also, Isaiah is not saying here that the spirits of the dead can be consulted. He is asking, “Should anyone try to seek the dead?”
Notice Deuteronomy 18:10–11 (Authorized Version): “There shall not be found among you any one that… useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.” A “necromancer” is somebody who “consults with the dead, or with a spirit to answer questions.” Note, how the New American Bible brings this phrase, “…one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead.” This phrase does not say that communication with the dead is possible—it tells us, though, not to try it, as this will bring us in contact with demons.
We should not allow ourselves to be fooled by strange events, stemming from the occult, which may be “entertaining,” “interesting” or “appealing to our senses.” The safest course of action is NEVER to want to get involved with spirits or ghosts (in reality, with demons) in any way. This would include, staying away from alleged haunted houses, participating in séances, consulting mediums, listening to demonic messages or showing interest in and curiosity for demonic activities, becoming hypnotized or engaged in obscure far eastern meditation practices. Even the viewing of certain scary movies with ghosts and demons could lead to undesired results. The same is true for participation in wrong and ungodly religious practices. Paul warns us not to come in contact with demons in any way (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). Those who worship idols and pagan gods are really worshiping and sacrificing to demons (Compare Deuteronomy 32:16-17). Whenever we give ourselves “over” to another influence, we have become victims of the powers of darkness.
It appears from Scripture that demons cannot materialize themselves the way that Christ or angels can. Demons cannot appear as men. They can, however, create an illusion, or an apparition that might look very real to people. Examples of those illusions would include, as we have discussed, the appearance of “ghosts,” or of a “lady,” claiming to be “Mother Mary.”
We find the following interesting record in Mark 6:47–50: “Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night [from 3 to 6 a.m.] He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost [Authorized Version: a spirit], and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled [or terrified]. And immediately He talked with them and said to them, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’”
The disciples thought they saw a ghost or a spirit, that is, a demon. The Greek word for “ghost” is “phantasma,” which has the meaning of “phantasm” or “apparition.” (Compare above our discussion of the meaning of these words.)
In Luke 24:36–42, we find another passage that sheds some light on the inability of demons to materialize themselves. We read: “Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.’ But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, ‘Have you any food here?’ So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.”
Christ manifested Himself to the disciples as a being with flesh and bones. He even ate food in their presence to convince the disciples that it was He, not an evil spirit or a demon. The Greek word for “spirit” is “pneuma” and can refer to demons (compare Matthew 8:16; 10:1; 12:43, 45; Luke 4:33, 36; 6:18; 7:21, etc.). We understand, of course, that Christ is not a being with flesh and bones. Rather, at His resurrection, His physical body was changed into a body composed of spirit. He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:44–45). He was able to manifest Himself, however, as a person with flesh and bones. Angels can manifest themselves as human beings as well. Demons cannot. Christ used this opportunity to show His disciples that He was not an evil spirit or a demon, because demons cannot manifest themselves as human beings with flesh and bones.
It is also important to take note of the following observation: If you are not an ordained minister, don’t try to exorcize a demon (compare again Acts 19:13-16). Don’t speak to him. Pray to the Father in the name of Christ to free you from his influence, but don’t engage in conversation with him. Ephesians 4:27 tells us: “Don’t give place to the devil.”
This would include, not showing interest in their activities. It was reported that at one time, a student at a Christian college observed that his toothbrush which he had laid down on the sink began to levitate until it rested again on the sink. The student foolishly said: “Again.” And so it happened again. He had responded to demonic activity.
The admonition and command is clear. Don’t get involved with the demonic world, with spirits or ghosts, and when you are in any way confronted with spooky experiences, shadowy figures, strange feelings or even “voice” messages, we are told in James 4:7 to RESIST Satan and his demons (by praying to God the Father to free you from their influence), and they will flee from you.
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
