What he saw was a demonic apparition.
that’s the work of the devil. the dead are dead until the return of Christ.
Miracles do happen.
I had a girl ask me if I saw people that were not there. I asked her what she saw and she said people dressed in old cloths. I asked her if they looked at her. and she said no. There are man people with “gifts” that have not developed them.
And I'm guessing that one of his other flaws was to make up stories about seeing dead people.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” From “Hamlet” by William Shakespere.
This is the same kind of stuff that Long Island Medium says.
Several years ago I saw a man who had worked on our family ranch his entire life. He was standing beside a gate and he was smiling at me. It shocked me because he had been dead for 15 years. I looked away and when I looked back he was gone. Something like that had never happened to me before and it hasn’t happened to me since.
It isn’t something that I would want to happen to me again.
Parishioners dead in Christ probably.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than you’ve even dreamed of.”
People don’t see the dead. They see demons masquerading as the dead relative or friend.
I don’t believe in ghosts. ....except for the three that lived in a house I rented. Face of boy sent me falling down stairs, woman sat on bed next to me (jealous of my wife, of course), and man in garage was just plain mad. Cats went crazy, boy walked down stairs, and I got more than one “help me” in my ear. Toys played with and moved. Kids saw boy almost weekly. Talked to local priest. ...with no danger he did not care. We moved.
Other than that, there is no such thing as ghosts (/sarc.)
Jesus told the disciples, how can I tell you of the things of heaven when you do not understand things on Earth? There is so much that we do not understand. I won’t criticize someone else because I do not know everything myself.
There could be something to this. In the Bible wasn’t is Saul who got the fortuneteller to dredge up a dead prophet who became incensed and pronounced a curse on him for disturbing his rest? It may well be that there is a transition period, sort of like a bedtime ritual.
Happy Halloween, all :)
May you be visited by many happy little goblins, and may your mailboxes still be standing by morning!
You figure out what someone wants to hear then say it to them and they believe it, because it's what they want to hear.
BP ping
Where is the Biblical basis for this type of mass in Catholic or Anglican church theology?
First, the Bible forbids all occult practices, which involve various ways of attempting to communicate with the dead but actually involve trafficking with evil spirits.
Does this include praying and asking God to tell my daddy who died that I love him? No, IMHO.
I have heard many stories of people who had visions of their loved ones, etc. These individuals are not "involved in the occult" and were not using occult means to contact the dead. Their brief glimpses of their loved ones, totally unexpected, was a source of comfort to them in a time of grief. I would not "build a theology" on such occurrences, nor would I "go on the lecture circuit" proclaiming my experience - and I certainly would not advocate that anyone seek further contact with their dead loved one.
I am open to the possibility that such unsought experiences MAY be an example of God's mysterious ways: "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are God's ways above our ways."
The priest's subsequent abandoning the Church and his wife for the homosexual lifestyle raises a huge red flag regarding his alleged experiences. If the priest had a good and holy reputation, I would be more inclined to consider him a reputable witness.
I note a Protestant/Catholic divide on this issue, with the Protestants tending to be more hard-line that any such experience is "demonic." I come very much from that tradition, and understand it, but also appreciate the Catholic point of view (I in fact earned my Ph.D. in Theology from a university with Jesuit affiliations).