Every week I receive great questions and I try to answer as many of them as possible.  This week in response to a question on what the Bible says about ghosts, I linked to an earlier article on what the Bible has to say about where people go when they die.  In short, the post follows Biblical scholar Michael Bird in arguing that before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, people went to Sheol, a place that is neither heaven nor hell.  Sheol is divided into two realms and the righteous go to paradise (Παραδείσῳ. Luke 23:43) while the unrighteous go to Hades.  Once Jesus was resurrected, the souls of the righteous followed him to heaven but the unsaved wait in Hades for final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

Every week I receive a number of questions from my blog’s readers and I try to answer as many as I can.  Last week I received two questions along this line, “What does the Bible say about ghosts?” One young woman believes her apartment may be haunted. Believe it or not, this is one of the most frequent questions I have received over the last 16 years in ministry and I have addressed it several times, which is evidence that it is a pressing issue. In fact, as I was putting together this post, I had a friend in New York ask me about paranormal activity in her old apartment.  Here is how I responded to this question  a few years ago:

Every week I receive great questions via email or Facebook or Twitter and I pick one to answer here.  I’ve let a bunch stack up as many have required a lot of research and my schedule has been jammed lately.  I apologize to those of you who have submitted questions and waited patiently for answers.   Here is one I received from a good friend several weeks ago: “How should a Christian understand the Sermon on the Mount? Literally as the Christian version of the Ten Commandments or allegorically?”  

While real Americans were watching basketball instead of commie kick-ball (i.e., “soccer”), I was rooting for the Spurs and compiling the Three Things You Need to Read this Week:

I am addicted to ESPN’s “30 for 30″ Series.  If you are unfamiliar with “30 for 30″ it is the umbrella title for a series of 30 documentaries covering the first thirty years of ESPN’s history (although it proved so popular that it has gone well beyond 30 films).  The series covers such memorable events as Michael Jordan’s first retirement to try out for major league baseball, the run of Michigan’s “Fab Five,” the death of college basketball standout Len Bias, etc.  My favorite, however, is the show focusing on the 1988-1990 Detroit Pistons who won back-to-back NBA championships and were known as “The Bad Boys.”