An opening reading from the Gospel of Truth
What, then, is that which he wants such a one to think? “I am like the shadows and phantoms of the night.” When morning comes, this one knows that the fear that had been experienced was nothing.
Thus they were ignorant of the father; he is the one whom they did not see. Since there had been fear and confusion and a lack of confidence and double-mindedness and division, there were many illusions that were conceived by them, as well as empty ignorance—as if they were fast asleep and found themselves a prey to troubled dreams.
Either they are fleeing somewhere, or they lack strength to escape when pursued. They are involved in inflicting blows, or they themselves receive bruises. They are falling from high places, or they fly through the air with no wings at all. Other times, it is as if certain people were trying to kill them, even though there is no one pursuing them; or they themselves are killing those beside them, and they are stained by their blood. Until the moment when they who are passing through all these things—I mean they who have experienced all these confusions—awaken, they see nothing because the dreams were nothing. It is thus that they who cast ignorance from them like sleep do not consider it to be anything, nor regard its properties to be something real, but they renounce them like a dream in the night and they consider the knowledge of the father to be the dawn. It is thus that each one has acted, as if asleep, during the time of ignorance, and thus a person comes to understand, as if awakening. And happy is the one who comes to himself and awakens. Indeed, blessings on one who has opened the eyes of the blind (the gospel of truth)
Metaphysical meaning of ghost (rw)
ghosts--Thoughts objectified. They are nothing except mind projections.
What explanation is there for the appearances of ghosts?
13. The term "ghosts" is a name that is applied to error thought forms, phantoms of an unenlightened mind, resulting from distorted and misguided imagination. The meaning of the word ghost shows us the thing that it is intended to designate — an indefinite, unstable, foggy specter floating about in the realm of man's mentality.
Beliefs in ghosts are illustrations of the unreliability of an uncontrolled imagination. When the imagination becomes active, it forms mental images that correspond to negative thoughts. These mental images become mind projections, sometimes appearing as ghosts. Ghosts are very real to some persons, and they are actually seen; or the imagination of the persons tells them that they are seen, but they have no reality or power and can be denied away with a word of Truth.
Holy Spirit not holy ghost
At the outset let us clarify whatever mystery or confusion may lie behind the word "Ghost" in the expression "Holy Ghost" in the King James (Authorized) version of the Bible. In Shakespeare's day "ghost" was a current word for "spirit" and a spiritual adviser was called a "ghostly confessor". Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are translations of the same original words. The strange notions which now attach to our word "ghost" are not what the translators intended to convey. Later translations uniformly render the words, "Holy Spirit
The Greek word for ghost
5326. phantasma ►
Strong's Concordance
phantasma: an appearance, apparition
Original Word: φάντασμα, ατος, τό
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 5326: φάντασμα
φάντασμα, φαντασματος, τό (φαντάζω), an appearance; specifically, an apparition, spectre: Matthew 14:26; Mark 6:49. (Aeschylus, Euripides, Plato, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Plutarch, others; Wis. 17:14 (15).)
4151 pneúma
phantasma not pneuma
When the Lord Jesus said, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have," he did not mean to say that a spiritual body had not; but a spirit such as they thought they saw. "They supposed they had seen a spirit." The word rendered spirit is properly φάντασμα, a phantom or mere optical illusion; and not pneuma, spirit. When Jesus walked upon the sea both Matthew (Matt. 14:26) and Mark (Mk. 6:49) make use of the same phrase as Luke, and say that the disciples when they saw him, "supposed they had seen a spirit, and they cried out for fear." In both these places the word is phantasma, and not pneuma.
Spiritual body is corporeal
Among the disciples of Jesus, Thomas stood for the head, representing reason and intellectual perception. Jesus did not ignore Thomas's demand for physical evidence of His identity, but respected it. He convinced Thomas by corporeal evidence that there had been a body resurrection and that it was not a ghost body that he saw, but the same body that had been crucified, as was evidenced by the wounds that Thomas saw and felt.
The soul
Now, if it be asked, what do the scriptures define "a living soul" to be?— the answer is, a living natural, or animal, body, whether of birds, beasts, fish, or men. The phrase living creature is the exact synonym of living soul. The Hebrew words nephesh chayiah are the signs of the ideas expressed by Moses. Nephesh signifies creature, also life, soul, or breathing frame from the verb to breathe: chayiah is of life — a noun from the verb to live. Nephesh chayiah is the genus which includes all species of living creatures; namely, Adam man, beme beast of the field, chitu wild beast, remesh reptile, and ouph fowl, &c. In the common version of the scriptures, it is rendered living soul; so that under this form of expression the scriptures speak of "all flesh" which breathes in air, earth, and sea.
Writing about body, the apostle says, "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." But, he does not content himself with simply declaring this truth; he goes further, and proves it by quoting the words of Moses, saying, "for so it is written, the first man Adam was made into a living soul — εις ψυχην ζωσαν;" and then adds, "the last Adam into a spirit giving life, εις πνεύμα ζωοποιονν" (ICor. 15:44-45). Hence, in another place, speaking of the latter, he says of him, "now the Lord is the spirit — ο δε κύριος το πνεύμα εστίν. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into his image from glory into glory, as by the Lord the Spirit — απο κνριον πνεύματος (2Cor. 3:17-18).
The proof of the apostle's proposition that there is a natural body as distinct from a spiritual body, lies in the testimony, that "Adam was made into a living soul;"showing that he considered a natural, or animal body, and a living soul, as one and the same thing. If he did not, then there was no proof in the quotation, of what he affirmed.
A man then is a body of life in the sense of his being an animal, or living creature — nephesh chayiah adam. As a natural man, he has no other pre-eminence over the creatures God made, than what his peculiar organization confers upon him. Moses makes no distinction between him and them; for he styles them all living souls, breathing the breath of lives.
Thus, literally rendered he says, "the Elohim said, the waters shall produce abundantly sheretz chayiah nephesh the reptile living soul;" and again,
"kal nephesh chayiah erameshat every living soul creeping." In another verse, "let the earth bring forth nephesh chayiah the living soul after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, &c;" and "lekol rumesh ol earetz asher bu nephesh chayiah to every thing creeping upon the earth which (has) in it living breath" (Gen. 1:20-21, 24, 30), that is, breath of lives. And lastly, "whatsoever Adam called nephesh chayiah the living soul that was the name thereof (Gen. 2:19).
Quadrupeds and men, however, are not only "living souls," but they are vivified by the same breath and spirit. In proof of this, I remark first, that the phrase ''breath of life" in the text of the common version is neshemet chayim in the Hebrew; and that, as chayim is in the plural, it should be rendered breath of lives. Secondly, this neshemet chayim is said to be in the inferior creatures as well as in man. Thus, God said, "I bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is ruach chayim spirit of lives" (Gen. 6:17). And in another place, "they went in to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which is ruach chayim spirit of lives." "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing, and every man; all in whose nostrils was neshemet ruach chayim, BREATH OF SPIRIT OF LIVES" (Gen. 7:15, 21). Now, as I have said, it was the neshemet chayim with which Moses testifies God inflated the nostrils of Adam; if, therefore, this were divina particula aurae, a particle of the divine essence, as it is affirmed, which became the "immortal soul" in man, then all other animals have "immortal souls" likewise; for they all received "breath of spirit of lives" in common with man.
From these testimonies, I think, it must be obvious to the most unlearned, that the argument for the existence of an "immortal soul" in "sinful flesh," hereditarily derived from the first sinner, predicated on the inspiration of his nostrils with "the breath of lives" by the Lord God, and the consequent application to him of the phrase "living soul," if admitted as good logic, proves too much, and therefore nothing to the purpose. For if man be proved to be immortal in this sense, and upon such premises as these, then all quadrupeds are similarly immortal; which none, I suppose, but believers in the transmigration of souls, would be disposed to admit.
The original condition of the animal world was "very good."
Unperverted by the introduction of evil, all its constituents fulfilled the purposes of their existence. Begotten of the same power, and formed from the substance of a common mother, they were all animated by the same spirit, and lived in peace and harmony together. Formed to be living breathing frames, though of different species, in God they lived, and moved, and had their continued being; and displayed His wisdom, power, and handywork.
But, to return to the philology of our subject, I remark that by a metonomy, or figure of speech in which the container is put for the thing contained, and vice versa, nephesh "breathing frame," is put for neshemet ruach chayim, which, when in motion, the frame respires. Hence nephesh signifies "life," also "breath" and "soul" — Life or those mutually affective, positive and negative principles in all living creatures, whose closed circuits cause motion of and in their frames. These principles, or qualities, perhaps, of the same thing, are styled by Moses Ruach Elohim (Gen. 1:2), or Spirit of Him "who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (ITim. 6:16), and which, when the word was spoken by "the Holy Gods" (Dan. 4:8), first caused a motion upon the waters, and afterwards disengaged the light, evolved the expanse, aggregated the waters, produced vegetation, manifested the celestial universe, vitalized the breathing frames of the dry land, expanse, and seas; and formed man in their image and likeness. This ruach, or spirit, is neither the Uncreated One who dwells in light, the Lord God, nor the Elohim, His co-workers, who co-operated in the elaboration of the natural world. It was the instrumental principle by which they executed the commission of the glorious INCREATE to erect this earthly house, and furnish it with living souls of every species.
It is this ruach, or instrumentally formative power, together with the neshemeh or breath, which keeps them all from perishing, or returning to the dust. Thus, "if God set His heart against man, He will withdraw to Himself ruachu veneshemetu, i.e., His spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust" (Job 34:14). In another place, "by the neshemet el, or breath of God, frost is given" (Job 37:10).
Speaking of reptiles and beasts, David saith, "Thou withdrawest ruachem, i.e., their spirit — they die; and to their dust they return. Thou sendest forth ruhech, i.e., Thy spirit — they are created" (Psa. 104:30). And again, "whither shall I fly, meruhech, from Thy spirit" (Psa. 139:7).
From these testimonies it is manifest, that the ruach or spirit is all pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or the dust of the deepest hollow, in the uttermost depths of the sea, in the darkness, in the light, and in all things animate, and without life. It is an universal principle in the broadest, or rather, in an illimitable sense. It is the substratum of all motion, whether manifested in the diurnal and ellipsoidal revolutions of the planets, in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the storms and tempests of the expanse, or in the organism of reptiles, cattle, beasts, fish, fowls, vegetables, or men. The atmosphere expanse is charged with it; but it is not the air: plants and animals of all species breathe it; but it is not their breath: yet without it, though filled with air, they would die.
GOD'S SPIRIT AND BREATH
The atmosphere, which extends some forty-five miles in altitude, and encircles the globe, is styled the expanse, by Moses; and the breath of God, in Job. It is a compound body, consisting when pure of nitrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of 79 of the former to 21 of the latter, in 100 parts. These are considered as simple bodies, because they have not yet been decomposed; though it is probable they have a base, which may be the ruach. This may exist free or combined with the elementary constituents of the neshemeh. Uncombined, it is that wonderful fluid, whose explosions are heard in the thunder, whose fiery bolts overthrow the loftiest towers, and rive the sturdy monarch of the woods; and in less intensity gives polarity to light, the needle, and the brain. These three together, the oxygen, nitrogen, and electricity, constitute "the breath" and "spirit" of the lives of all God's living souls.
Thus, from the centre of the earth, and extending throughout all space in every direction, is the Ruach Elohim, the existence of which is demonstrable from the phenomena of the natural system of things. It penetrates where the neshemet el, or atmospheric air, cannot. When speaking, however, of the motivity and sustentation of organized dust, or souls, they are co-existent within them. In this case, the ruach Elohim becomes the ruach chayim, or "spirit of lives;" and the neshemet el, the neshemet chayim, or "breath of lives;" and both combined in the elaboration and support of life, the neshemet ruach chayim, or "breath of the spirit of lives." Living creatures, or souls, are not animated, as physiologists and speculative "divines" erroneously imagine, by "a vital principle," capable of disembodied existence as the ghost of a man, or the
transmigrating spectres of other animal species; — ghostly things, the laws and functions of which in the animal economy physiologists are unable to discover; and theologists are non-plussed to prove the existence of from the word of God. On the contrary, "souls " are "made living " by the coetaneous operation of the ruach chayim and the neshemet chayim upon their organized tissues according to certain fixed laws. When the as yet occult laws of the all-pervading ruach, or spirit, shall be known, this subject will be understood; and men will then be as astonished at the ignorance of the "divines," and physiologists of this "cloudy and dark day," respecting "living souls," as we are at the notion of the ancients, that their "immortal gods" resided in the stocks and stones they so stupidly adored. This, however, is quite as reasonable a theory as that of "immortal souls" dwelling in the sinners of Adam's race.
The ruach chayim and neshemet chayim are lent to the creatures of the natural world for the appointed period of their living existence. But, though lent to them, they are still God's breath, and God's spirit; nevertheless, to distinguish them from the expanse of air and spirit in their totality, they are sometimes styled, "the spirit of man," and "the spirit of the beast;" or collectively, "the spirits of all flesh," and "their breath."
Thus it is written, "they have all one ruach, or spirit; so that man hath no pre-eminence over a beast; for all is vanity or vapour." "All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" (Ecc. 3:19-20). And in the sense of supplying to every living creature, or soul, "spirit" and "breath," Jehovah is styled by Moses, "God of the spirits of all flesh'' (Num. 27:16).
We have shown that the spirit of man refers to the breath/life force within him, which returns to God when he dies (Ecc. 12:7). This means that his spirit is not moving around as a ‘ghost’, nor is it free to possess another person or animal so that the man’s personality is continued through them. We will each be judged for our own works (2 Cor. 5:10). If our actions and characteristics are a function of a previous person’s character, then this concept of God judging and rewarding us according to our works (Rev. 22:12) is made a nonsense.
The spirit returns to God at death, and all consciousness ceases. Any attempt to contact the dead therefore shows a serious misunderstanding of the ample Bible teaching concerning this (see Is. 8:19,20; Lev. 19:31, 20:6). The Bible is quite plain that people do not return to their previous houses or towns in any way after they are dead; there can be no such thing as a ‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’ haunting such a place after the person has died. A humble acceptance of this will lead us to discount all claims to have seen the ‘ghosts’ of dead people, haunting their old houses. Such experiences must at best be tricks of the imagination
