Are Ghosts for Real?

I thought I would cross-post this on the Haunted All Year site as well, because it probably fits better there than here, but I figured why not put it on here as well. This IS the site for those exciting Haunted House opinions of mine, right?

So because I do love Halloween so much and I get into the whole "haunting" thing at haunted attractions, I am often asked if I believe in ghosts.

I gotta say, I don't think so. My theology just doesn't really allow for that. I believe, no, wait, that isn't strong enough, I KNOW that when we die, we go to be with the Lord, Jesus Christ. I know that believers in Him go right there. And when I am pressed, I have to say that I can't I believe that it is not my or any human's place to put limits on love and what the power of Christ's sacrifice on the cross can do for all of God's people. As Barth said in Humanity of God, “This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.”

Besides, as Norman Vincent Peale said, when asked if non-believers would go to Heaven, "That's management, I'm in sales."

So that said, I just don't know how anyone who has died could still be walking around, chilling and the like.

BUT (everyone I know has a big but- that was the title of an awesome sermon given by my dear friend, The Rev. Edward Cadwallader) the Bible does talk about ghosts.

Really?

Yeah! It does! I was totally surprised when I first heard someone say that, but then I thought about it, and yeah...

Luke 24:38-40 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Luke 24:36-38 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
Mark 6:48-50 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,
Matthew 14:25-27 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

I'm not talking about "spirits"- nonhuman things that never had a human body, etc. I am just talking about ghosts of the dead here.

"Spirits" I stay away from them! Except for the Holy Spirit, of course! Spirits are talked about all through the Bible and they are bad, bad dudes and I would never mess with them. But what I am addressing here are ghosts of those who have gone before and well, like I said, how can that be, if they have gone to Heaven?

BUT again....I have also known many people who would swear, swear, they have had contact with a ghost. So...I just don't know. I just don't.