Why Ghosts?

Dad
May 14, 2003

DFO 14779/2/83

1. (MARIA: WE SAW A GOOD GHOST STORY CALLED "SOLE SURVIVOR"!) That was a clever ambiguous title. I'm sure they intended a pun on s-o-u-l. It was about five GIs who died in a plane crash in Libya during WW2. They never told you that they were ghosts, you just finally had to kind of figure it out, because they just looked like five ordinary GIs. They were sitting around this plane out in the desert all by themselves, & it turned out they had been waiting out there for 17 years for somebody to rescue them!

2. WHERE DOES THAT PARTICULAR SUPERSTITION OR BELIEF OR IDEA COME FROM? Is that particularly Catholic, perhaps, that the soul or spirit is supposed to hover around near wherever the body is? That's a pretty commonly held belief for some reason, that some ghosts hang around where they were killed or where they died, or around their graves. They've gotten that idea from somewhere, I don't know exactly where. Although when I got to thinking about it, I thought back, well, we've had a few experiences along that same line: "Where Poppies Grow", "Treasure Ship", "Singapore Sailor", etc.! (Nos. 368, 614 & 1262.) So there must be something to it.

3. (MARIA: THEN I SAID, "WELL WHAT ABOUT ABRAHIM?" And you said some ghosts are relegated to certain areas.) The whole point is that there're different kinds & classes of ghosts—some are cursed & some are blessed. Obviously someone as good as Abrahim was blessed. He served the Lord when he was alive, so he continues to serve the Lord. But people who have been either unbelievers or not very faithful in their lives, sometimes it seems they have to hang around where they used to live & where they died to see the results of all their failures & sins.

4. MY MOTHER USED TO SAY THAT WOULD BE A FORM OF HELL, TO HAVE TO HANG AROUND & SEE THE FRUITS OF YOUR EVIL, to see what it did to your family & your children & all the people thereafter.

5. THEN THERE WAS ANOTHER GHOST STORY WE SAW. They made a lot of films in Britain‚ Italy & Spain after WW2, because they could make them so much cheaper over there, wages & taxes were not as high & everything was cheap then. By that time the taxes & wages were outrageous in the United States‚ so many of the movie companies just moved over there, & there were oodles of pictures made mostly in Britain‚ Spain & Italy. So this was one of those post-war pictures where the guy went through one of those time-warp situations. The French call it déjà vu—sort of a thing like I went through in "The Green Door" Dream. (No.262) In fact‚ in some ways I've been through that quite a few times in dreams. Of course, they sure seemed real‚ just like I was really there!

6. THIS FELLOW GOT AN INVITATION FROM THIS KIND OF A ROYAL MANOR HOUSE WHERE THEY WERE GOING TO HAVE A COSTUME BALL. He didn't even know the guy who sent him the invitation, & it turned out it was a girl. She sent for him because she wanted to be rescued from the past‚ from what was going to happen at this mansion that had happened a hundred years ago at this costume ball! They'd had this big fire in which nearly all of them had died.

7. SO HE ACCEPTS THE INVITATION & GOES UP THERE & FINDS THE MANOR‚ a big huge estate with one of those giant old English houses. They were having this costume ball & he meets this pretty girl who was costumed as a butterfly. She keeps wanting him to take her away, rescue her, save her, & he can't figure out what for. So he keeps putting her off. But finally he promises to take her & sends her upstairs to change her clothes while he goes & gets some gas or petrol for his car. I knew right then he was making a mistake, because then he can't find his way back. He lost the place!

8. WHEN HE WAS FIRST LOOKING FOR IT HE ASKED SOME NEIGHBOUR WHERE IT WAS, & the guy looked at him like he was crazy asking for that place, & he said, "You don't want to go there!" It turned out in the present it was just a ruins from the fire, & apparently there'd been some rumours around about ghosts. This girl had fled the fire & fled to their house & died there. It had kind of a sad ending. You're left wondering whether he really could have saved her or not, if she could have left her time zone & gone into his. Well, there must be something to that.

9. I REMEMBER AS A YOUNG TEENAGER I CHECKED A BOOK OUT OF THE LIBRARY & I NEVER COULD FIND IT AGAIN! I went back to the same library & tried to find it & they said they didn't have such a book. It was called Phra of the Phoenicians & was about this guy who sort of had nine lives. It began with his life way back in Phoenicia, he was a soldier & he got killed in battle, then he wakes up in a new time, lives another whole life & dies again. Sort of a transmigration-of-the-soul idea. I thought it was very interesting at the time, it made a fascinating story, & I couldn't figure out why the library claimed they didn't even have that book after I took it back. I thought I'd like to read it again after I got kind of interested in things like that, so I went back to try to get it & they said they didn't have it! So it sort of disappeared also!—Ha!

10. OF COURSE, THIS IN A WAY BEARS OUT THE BIBLICAL IDEA OF "TIME BEING NO MORE," where you're in a state where there is no such thing as time any more. When the Lord comes it says, "time shall be no more." (Re.10:6) Some people say, "Well, then how come there's so many days after that for the Wrath of God, then there's another Thousand Years of the Millennium. What do you mean time shall be no more? The Bible contradicts itself!" The atheists are always trying to pick out something to say the Bible contradicts itself. How do you explain it? How have I explained it? (Family: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years‚ & a thousand years as one day"?) (2Pe.3:8) Well, that's the way some get around it, & in a way that relates. But actually I crossed that off the list of my Millennial verses because I think that's too confusing to people, they wouldn't understand it. Because what difference does it make whether it's a thousand years or it's a day, it's still a period of time.

11. ONLY WE HAVE PASSED OUT OF THE REALM OF TIME AT THE RAPTURE, THAT'S ALL! We have passed into the other sphere, into the spiritual eternal sphere where there is no time! But they, the human beings still left on Earth over whom we will rule, are still in time. They've been out of time a lot of times—out of time with God's music, at least—but they're still in Time, so to speak. But Time shall be no more for us when Jesus comes! We are released from Time & gravity & a lot of other things. So although we're released from time, the people over whom we'll be ruling, the people who survive the Holocaust—the genuine Holocaust—will still be human & normal. The face of the Earth will be much the same & normal except for the destruction, & they'll still be in Time.

12. TIME SHALL BE NO MORE FOR US IN THIS SENSE: It's not that we can't keep track of the years, but it no longer affects us any more. We never grow old any more, we are not bound by any time, we can go back & forth. I think that's maybe one reason the Lord has let some of these things be invented like tape & video recorders, you can go back & play it again. And I believe we'll actually be able to go back in time & view those scenes & events again as though they were still happening, just like in "The Time Machine." There's nothing that man has not dreamed of or imagined but that it's somehow going to be fulfilled or is possible in the realm of God's possibilities. The very things that he dreams of, the good things, will come to pass. And the horrible nightmares that he dreams of are going to come to pass too!

13. SPEAKING OF TIME & GRAVITY NO LONGER AFFECTING US—I WAS AT A LOSS TO EXPLAIN TO YOU HOW THE PEOPLE MOVED IN SPACE CITY. I said they seemed to sort of float along, although they were sort of walking, & it's hard to explain. They're sort of walking & floating at the same time! And it just dawned on me when I was swimming, that swimming reminded me of the way I described the peoples' movements in Space City! One reason I enjoy swimming underwater is because it's like flying, like gravity has no longer an effect on me. Your buoyancy counteracts the gravity & you are weightless, like in space. This is the way I was when I died, & the way you will be when you go & the way people were in Heaven!—Slow! Like slow motion. There's no hurry in Heaven, no haste, nobody's in a rush to get anywhere.

14. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, FRACEFUL BALLETS I'VE EVER SEEN WERE NOT ON STAGE NOR ON SKATES‚ BUT UNDERWATER BALLETS! To me, those are the most beautiful of all because they're so graceful & the movements are so slow & they're totally independent of gravitation—they're weightless! This is the way I saw the Holy Spirit moving in "The Wild Wind!" (No.154B) It's almost like I was moving the same way, although I was in a way sort of running or swimming. She was pursuing me like in a graceful underwater ballet, & that's how they move in Heaven—everything is so graceful & slow motion & beautiful‚ just beautiful!—Not only weightless, but slow motion. Sort of like a pregnant woman must feel! Not exactly weightless, but slow motion. But that's one reason pregnant women like to go swimming‚ that's one place they can be weightless! Our poor little skinny kids, they try to float & they're all skin & bones & they promptly sink! Ha! You have to have a little fat to really enjoy the floating! So we who are bountifully endowed can appreciate it more!—Ha!

15. I TOLD YOU THAT FUNNY STORY ABOUT THE TIME I WAS BAPTISING MRS. BROWN, LITTLE MRS. FIVE–BY–FIVE! The pool was only about 5 feet deep with only about 4 feet of water in it‚ & she was less than 5 feet tall, very short‚ but very fat. She was really fat! And the funniest thing happened! I was walking her out to this hole I'd scooped out to make it deeper, where people could stand & they'd be a little bit further down in the water when I baptised them. That's one advantage of baptising like that, it's weightless, you don't have to worry about them being heavy or whatever because they're buoyant in the water. And she began to snicker & giggle because I got her out to that hole & she said, "Oh, oh! I'm floating!" Standing straight up she was floating! Ha! And I had to hang on to her like a bobbing cork to get her baptised! It was really funny!

16. SO THAT'S SORT OF THE WAY THEY MOVED IN SPACE CITY—LIKE THEY WERE FLOATING!—Like we do in the water & underwater ballet, in slow motion. Apparently God really doesn't like speed—speed's of the Devil! But it depends, you have to qualify that for certain kinds of speed. God Himself will very speedily deliver the poor, etc. He can move fast when He has to! But normally He doesn't seem to like to move fast, He likes things to move slowly. In fact, He doesn't always move as fast as we would like Him to move, does He? But it seems God is never in a hurry & He likes things to move slowly & gracefully & beautifully, weightlessly, slow motion. Amen? That's the way I like to see you girls move.—Except sometimes I like it when you go fast!

17. I'LL NEVER FORGET DEAR JUICY LUCY! She was more like one of these pneumatic drills, like an air hammer!—Ha! I never saw any woman in my life that could go like her! I think she could have killed me—with love! She was a wonderful girl. But where is she now? (Maria: The last we heard she & Jared were in the States.) Well, the Lord said the day would come when she would be sorry, & I'll bet she's sorry now. Just think, she could still be here enjoying the children that she helped with & our family & all! She was a good worker & good lover & always jolly & full of life. We never had any problem with her at all until that happened, until he wrote her that letter‚ & that kind of flipped her out! And she wrote him that letter back & that finished it with me. She said she longed to be at his side & I said, "OK, then go! If you want to be there, you'd better go." (See "Days of Heaven!" No.395.)

18. BUT PRAISE THE LORD, GOD NEVER SEEMS TO BE IN A HURRY! For thousands of years He's worked out His purpose & His plan. Of course, there comes your verse again: "A thousand years is as a day & a day as a thousand years!" Do you know who I've heard quote that verse the most?—The so-called Deistic or Christian Evolutionists who try to claim that the days of Creation could have been thousands or millions of years, "just like a day to the Lord," blah blah blah! But you know what my answer for them was, don't you? There's one real clincher as far as I'm concerned—at least it's convincing to me, maybe it won't mean that much to you. (Family: "The evening & the morning were the first day"?) Well, they can explain that away by saying: "It was the dawn of an era, an evening of an era, a few billion years!"

19. WELL, THE MOST CLINCHING CONVINCING ARGUMENT THAT IS GOOD PROOF AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED—I'LL GIVE YOU A HINT, IT'S IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS! (Family: "On the seventh day He rested"—& He didn't rest for a thousand years!) (Ge.2:2,3) Yes, & therefore the Lord hallowed it, He said, & He made it a day of rest—it! He hallowed that seventh day & from then on they were to rest on the seventh day. Well, if that seventh day was a thousand years, then the poor Jews didn't live long enough to last till their rest day!—Because we're just now coming to the end of the first 6000 years since Creation! But that seventh Day was a symbol of the Millennium, the 7th 1000, which will be a rest compared to now! PTL!—Are you ready for it? GBAKY till then!—In Jesus' name‚ amen!