Participants: John Bradshaw
Series Code: IIW
Program Code: IIW001256
00:07 It has stood the test of time, God's book,
00:13 the Bible. 00:17 Still relevant in today's complex world. 00:21 It Is Written...sharing hope around the globe. 00:37 I'm John Bradshaw and this is It Is Written. 00:40 Thanks for joining me today. 00:42 I'm here behind the GAR Hall, the oldest church building in 00:47 the City of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 00:50 It was built in 1822 by Methodists. 00:53 It was the first church in this area to allow Blacks and 00:56 Whites to worship together. 00:57 The church is still in use today. 01:00 In 1863, during and after the Battle of Gettysburg, most 01:04 public buildings and most church buildings were pressed 01:06 into emergency service. 01:08 Many college buildings, seminary buildings, even 01:11 private homes were converted into hospitals to take care 01:15 of the many wounded and dying. 01:18 Behind the GAR Hall here you find this little cemetery. 01:22 There is no shortage of cemeteries here in Gettysburg 01:25 and that is because so many people died in battle. 01:28 During the course of the American Civil War, more than 01:31 700,000 soldiers died, almost 8,000 alone during this one 01:37 battle here and more following the battle. 01:42 If you plan to make a trip to come and visit Gettysburg and 01:45 you do a little bit of research you are probably 01:48 going to discover this interesting fact. 01:51 The number one money making tourism enterprise in 01:54 Gettysburg is ghost tours. 01:59 In fact, one company that operates ghost tours here in 02:02 Gettysburg has this to say on its website: Of all the 02:06 forlorn countless souls awash in time, none reach out to us 02:11 more than those of the dead at Gettysburg. 02:14 They were young men, mostly, with hopes for a bright 02:18 future and moved by sincere, patriotic dreams, caught up 02:22 and cruelly thrown down again in that great hot world of 02:26 mortal combat. 02:27 Their presence on earth was silenced forever by death, or 02:34 maybe not. 02:35 What's really going on here? 02:39 Are the ghosts of dead soldiers really wandering 02:42 around Gettysburg? 02:44 Lost in some sort of purgatory? 02:46 And if they really are, what stranded them here? 02:49 Was it the tragedy of war? 02:51 Or was it as the website says, their intense desire 02:55 for a bright future? 02:56 Did nobody tell them that the battle of Gettysburg ended a 02:59 century and a half ago? 03:02 When it comes to the subject of what happens to the dead, 03:04 the only place you can go to for reliable answers is the 03:09 Word of God. 03:10 It is the only thing we can really trust. 03:12 The Ghosts of Gettysburg. 03:15 I'll have more in just a moment. 03:20 In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says, " It is written, 03:23 man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that 03:27 proceeds from the mouth of God. 03:29 Every Word is a one-minute Bible-based daily devotional 03:33 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw and designed 03:35 especially for busy people like you. 03:38 Look for Every Word on selected networks or watch it 03:41 on-line everyday on our website, itiswritten.com. 03:45 Receive a daily spiritual boost. 03:48 Watch Every Word. 03:49 You'll be glad you did. 03:55 Today, we're talking about the ghosts of Gettysburg. 03:58 It is big business around here. 04:00 In fact, let me tell you a local ghost story. 04:05 The word is that not that many years ago, two men in a 04:08 multistory building somewhere around here in Gettysburg got 04:11 onto an elevator and they headed down to the bottom 04:13 floor. 04:14 When they got to the bottom floor, the doors of the 04:16 elevator opened and they looked out and they were 04:19 shocked to see right before their eyes, in vivid color, 04:23 larger than life, a battleground scene from 04:27 Gettysburg. 04:28 They looked out there and they could hear the groans of 04:31 the dying and they could smell warfare and death and 04:35 they could see doctors and medical people scurrying to 04:38 and fro and they could experience it all and they 04:41 looked at this ting and they looked at each other and they 04:43 pressed the button and as the elevator doors were closing, 04:46 one of the doctors looked up at them with an appealing 04:48 look in his eyes. 04:50 Do you think it was true? 04:54 Well, keep listening. 04:55 Today's program is going to answer that question really 04:58 very clearly. 05:01 The idea of people dying and leaving spirits here on the 05:05 earth to wander to and fro is an old idea. 05:08 As a matter of fact, people have been believing in ghosts 05:11 since before human beings started leaving written 05:15 records. 05:16 Today, most people fall into one or the other of two main 05:20 camps when it comes to this question of what happens when 05:22 you die. 05:23 Many people believe that when you die, you go straight to 05:25 heaven or straight to hell or perhaps purgatory. 05:28 In other words, you survive bodily death. 05:31 You go on living after you die and then there is a 05:33 school of thought that says that when you die your spirit 05:36 goes back to God like your hopes and dreams and thoughts 05:39 and desires and aspirations all cease to be. 05:44 As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:5, the dead 05:48 know not anything. 05:49 Well, whatever you believe about that, there's one thing 05:52 everybody ought to be able to agree on and that's this. 05:56 That when you die, you don't leave a spirit behind that 06:00 roams the earth. 06:01 The dead don't come back to visit their families or haunt 06:05 houses. 06:07 In the Bible, the only spirit beings that roam the earth, 06:10 at least in the Old Testament, were angels. 06:14 Interestingly, even in the Bible there were people who 06:18 believed in ghosts. 06:20 Let's consider a New Testament Story. 06:22 We get it from Matthew, Chapter 14. 06:25 The disciples were out on the lake, on the Sea of Galilee. 06:28 It was night time, a big storm had came up. 06:30 The wind was blowing and these guys were in a fight 06:33 for their lives. 06:34 Keep in mind they were tough guys. 06:36 Many of them fishermen, some of them at least, and they 06:39 had spent, a number of these disciples, a lot of time out 06:43 there on that lake. 06:44 But this night they actually thought that they were going 06:48 to die. 06:49 They were scared stiff. 06:51 Let's pick up the story in Matthew 14:25, 26. 06:57 Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them 07:00 walking on the sea, and when the disciples saw him walking 07:03 on the sea, they were troubled, saying 'It is a 07:06 ghost', and they cried out for fear." Did I read that 07:11 right? 07:12 Did the disciples actually believe in ghosts? 07:16 The ones who spent many of their waking days, in fact, 07:19 every day for several years with Jesus, the divine Son of 07:23 God, did these guys believe in ghosts? 07:26 Evidently so. 07:27 And it wasn't just the disciples who believed this 07:32 either. 07:33 There is a very curious story found in the Old Testament 07:36 concerning a man named Saul, that is, King Saul, the King 07:41 of Israel. 07:42 King Saul believed that he had an encounter with a ghost 07:45 as well. 07:47 You find the story in 1 Samuel 28 and the fact is, 07:50 it's the only real ghost story that you find in the 07:54 Bible. 07:55 Understanding this story gives us some real insight 07:59 into the supernatural. 08:00 Let's pick it up in 1 Samuel 28:8. 08:05 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and he 08:09 went and two men with him. 08:11 And they came to the woman by night and he said, "please 08:15 conduct a séance for me and bring up for me the one I 08:18 shall name for you. 08:20 Then the woman said to him, 'look, you know what Saul has 08:23 done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists 08:26 from the land. 08:27 Why then do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to 08:31 die? 08:32 And Saul swore to her by the Lord saying, as the Lord 08:35 lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. 08:39 Then, the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you? 08:42 And he said, bring up Samuel for me. 08:45 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud 08:49 voice, and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, 'why have you 08:53 deceived me? 08:54 For you are Saul!' And the King said to her, 'do not be 08:58 afraid. 08:59 What do you see?' And the woman said to Saul, 'I saw a 09:02 spirit ascending out of the earth.' So he said to her, 09:06 'what is his form?' and she said 'an old man is coming up 09:10 and he is covered with a mantle,' and Saul perceived 09:13 that it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the 09:17 ground and bowed down. 09:19 Now, Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by 09:24 bringing me up?" Interesting, isn't it? 09:27 Now, the question we want to ask ourselves is this. 09:30 Was that actually the ghost of Samuel? 09:35 Evidently looked like Samuel, apparently talked like 09:38 Samuel. 09:39 This Samuel figure evidently recognized Saul and Samuel 09:44 wasn't too happy about having been brought back from the 09:47 dead. 09:48 So how do we understand this? 09:49 First thing you want to do is consider the context in which 09:52 this took place. 09:53 King Saul was talking to a medium and this was something 09:57 that God had expressly forbidden his people from 09:59 doing. 10:00 Leviticus 19:31, "Give no regard to mediums and 10:04 familiar spirits. 10:06 Do not seek after them to be defiled by them. 10:09 I am the Lord your God." Then we read this in Deuteronomy 10:13 18:9-13, "when you come into the land which the Lord your 10:18 God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the 10:21 abominations of those nations. 10:24 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes 10:26 his son or his daughter pass through the fire or one who 10:29 practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who 10:32 interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures 10:35 spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls 10:39 up the dead, for all who do these things are an 10:44 abomination to the Lord and because of these 10:47 abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from 10:49 before you. 10:51 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 10:54 And then Leviticus 20:6, "And the person who turns to 10:59 mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself with 11:02 them, I will set my face against that person and cut 11:05 him off from his people." 11:06 Spiritualism is one of Satan's most overwhelming and 11:11 most effective deceptions and it was cooked up in the 11:15 theological seminaries of hell itself. 11:19 There is no question something was going on and 11:21 what was going on was this: Saul the King was speaking to 11:25 the medium and the medium was communicating with the devil. 11:30 It's important that we know this, especially in this 11:34 world where psychics are big business and mediums have 11:38 their own television programs. 11:40 It wasn't that long ago that a cable TV channel came here 11:43 to Gettysburg and they filmed the show on paranormal 11:46 activity in Gettysburg. 11:48 They brought high tech electronic equipment that 11:51 they hoped was going to help him capture communication 11:55 with spirits from the other side. 11:58 How successful were they in doing so? 12:01 Well you and I both know. 12:02 People say Gettysburg is haunted. 12:05 People refer to hearing strange things and seeing odd 12:07 things from time to time. 12:09 Activity they can't really adequately explain. 12:12 But you know, that's true for just about anywhere in the 12:15 United States. 12:16 You hear something, you see something, if you hadn't been 12:20 told that there are spirits roaming around, you'd never 12:23 have even thought it was a spirit. 12:26 You would have thought that noise in your attic was a 12:29 racoon, you would not have been worried about some 12:31 departed Gettysburg soldier. 12:32 It is said that Gettysburg is the most haunted place in the 12:36 United States. 12:38 True or False? 12:39 Well, it's true that it's said that, but I think we 12:42 both know why it is said. 12:44 You know why? 12:46 Because it's good for business, that's why. 12:51 Now, God does have a means of assisting those of us living 12:56 on the earth, even sometimes communicating with us here on 13:00 earth. 13:01 How does God doe that, supernaturally? 13:03 1) Through the Holy Spirit; 2) Through the Word of God; 13:07 and 3) Through angels. 13:14 One thing that is consistent in the Bible about angels is 13:18 that when angels interact with human beings, they have 13:21 this tremendous capacity to be able to fill human beings 13:24 with awe. 13:25 They are awe-inspiring. 13:26 I will share with you a couple of verses from the 13:28 Bible that make that point very, very clear. 13:31 Matthew 28:5, the angel answered and said unto the 13:37 women, "fear not for I know that you seek Jesus, which 13:43 was crucified." These are the women who came down to Jesus' 13:46 tomb. 13:47 The angel appeared and they were awestruck. 13:50 Now, the word used is "fear" and I've got to be honest 13:53 with you and tell you that I'm not sure how much terror 13:55 filled these people as much as wonder and awe ... a 13:59 heavenly being. 14:00 We are in the presence of somebody who has come from 14:03 God. 14:04 They didn't have to be terrified of God, but I tell 14:06 you, the word is not inappropriate any how, they 14:09 were afraid, they were awestruck. 14:12 I'll give you another verse that makes the same point and 14:14 we'll discuss a couple of others again. 14:16 Luke 1:12, when Zacharias, that's the father of John the 14:22 Baptist, saw him, the Angel, he was troubled and fear fell 14:29 upon him. 14:30 So the angels of heaven have this ability to instill fear 14:34 or inspire awe in those people who encounter the 14:38 angels of heaven. 14:39 You read in Daniel 8, Daniel said "when the angel appeared 14:43 to him, he was afraid and he fell on his face." So point 14:48 #1, angels inspire, let's say fear or awe. 14:52 You choose which word works best for you. 14:56 Point #2 angels are powerful. 14:59 I want to share a little story with you from Isaiah 15:02 37, how powerful are the angels? 15:05 Well, let's look at this. 15:08 At Gettysburg in 1863, the Battle at Gettysburg ended 15:12 with 8000 or thereabouts deaths. 15:16 Many more casualties when you take into account the wounded 15:18 and the missing and so on, and then about another 8000 15:21 people died shortly after the battle of Gettysburg and it 15:24 is interesting to just say that as though it is of no 15:26 consequence but it was of colossal consequence. 15:29 Then you had the battle of Antedum, the bloodiest single 15:32 day in the history of the American civil war. 15:35 But look at this. 15:36 How powerful is an angel of heaven? 15:39 I'll read in Isaiah 37 starting in verse 33. 15:42 Listen to this. 15:43 God says, therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the 15:46 King of Assyria. 15:47 He shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there 15:50 nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank 15:53 against it. 15:54 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return and 15:57 shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. 15:59 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, 16:03 and for my servant David's sake. 16:06 And then what did God do? 16:08 God commissioned an angel who went forth and ... well, let's 16:14 read. 16:15 Let's read and see what happens in verse 36: Then the 16:18 angel of the Lord went forth and smoke the camp of the 16:22 Assyrians 185,000 and when they arose early in the 16:29 morning, behold they were all dead corpses. 16:35 One angel, so powerful, that 185,000 soldiers were killed 16:44 in one fell swoop. 16:47 How powerful are the angels of God? 16:50 They are tremendously powerful. 16:53 Now there is another point I want you to look at 16:56 concerning the angels of heaven. 16:58 God's messengers sent to this earth, and that's this. 17:01 2 Kings 6:13, He, the king, said, go and spy where he is 17:07 that I may send and fetch him. 17:09 And it was told him saying behold he is in Dothan, 17:11 therefore he sent there horses and chariots and a 17:14 great host and they came by night and encompassed the 17:17 city about and when the servant of the man of God was 17:20 risen early and gone forth behold, an host compassed the 17:24 city both with horses and chariots. 17:27 And his servants said unto him, Alas my master, how 17:30 shall we do? 17:32 And he answered Fear not for they that be with us are more 17:35 than they that be with them and Elisha prayed and said 17:40 Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see and the 17:46 Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and 17:51 behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of 17:56 fire round about Elisha. 18:00 In 2 Kings 6 the angels appeared as brilliant beings. 18:05 What a display to see the mountain full of horses and 18:08 chariots of fire sent from God and angels. 18:13 The word of God said a great host was there. 18:16 How impressive that must have been to the view of Elisha's 18:20 servant, to walk out there and look out and see what God 18:24 had sent, all sent by God to assist and aid and help God's 18:28 people and bring encouragement and assure 18:30 God's people that he was with him. 18:33 God was there with his people and the angels appeared as 18:38 messengers of God to bring strength and hope. 18:41 Now, about the way angels appear. 18:45 The word of God makes clear that angels are able to 18:49 assume other forms. 18:50 Now, here is what I mean by that. 18:53 I will give you a couple of very Biblical examples. 18:55 In the NT, the Word of God says that Satan is able to 18:58 appear as an angel of light. 19:00 Now, he is an angel of darkness. 19:02 He is the Devil. 19:03 Nevertheless, he can disguise himself in such a way as he 19:08 can appear to be an angel of goodness, an angel of light. 19:13 Let's get an even more graphic example than that. 19:15 We go back to Genesis. 19:17 The creation story just after the creation story in Genesis 19:21 3. 19:22 In Genesis 3:1, the Bible says "Now the serpent was 19:28 more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God 19:31 had made and he said unto the woman, Yay, hath God said you 19:35 shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 19:38 And the woman said unto the serpent, "we may eat of the 19:42 fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of 19:45 the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God has 19:48 said ..." and so on. 19:49 The devil appeared as a snake. 19:55 Must have been a very beautiful creature, because 19:57 Eve was enticed. 19:59 She was beguiled. 20:00 She was drawn. 20:01 She was attracted to what was taking place. 20:03 And maybe there is something about a talking snake. 20:06 A little hard for me to relate to because I was 20:09 raised in one of the very few countries in the world where 20:12 there are no snakes. 20:13 There are only three of them and I was raised in one of 20:15 those three countries ....no snakes at all. 20:18 I wasn't raised with any affinity for snakes in any 20:22 way, shape or form. 20:23 Now I've developed a working toleration with them. 20:28 I can't imagine what I would ever have done if I would 20:31 have heard a talking snake. 20:32 I'd like to think that I would not have hung around. 20:36 Eve heard the voice, looked and saw the snake, the 20:40 serpent, it must have been a beautiful creature and she 20:45 entered into a discussion with it and where did that 20:48 discussion lead? 20:49 It led to where we are today. 20:51 Plunged into misery and sin, and depths of despair as a 20:54 planet hoping for a better day and we know that better 20:57 day is the return of Jesus. 21:00 Lucifer, now Satan, changed his form and he did that to 21:06 draw Eve and Adam and this whole planet into the depths 21:12 of the misery of sin. 21:14 Now, there is another point I want to make about angels, 21:18 and that's this. 21:19 You know God created us in such a way that we can be 21:22 inhabited. 21:23 The Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy 21:26 Spirit. 21:27 We were created to be filled with the presence of God. 21:31 In Revelation 3, Jesus says 'Behold, I stand at the door 21:35 and knock. 21:36 If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come 21:39 into him and dine with him and that person will dine 21:42 with me. 21:43 Jesus wants to come into us and live his life in us. 21:48 We read that again and again and again in the word of God. 21:51 We were made to be inhabited. 21:55 However, you have also read in the Word of God that there 21:58 are people who have been inhabited by the wrong spirit 22:03 and there are probably several places we could go in 22:05 the Bible to illustrate that, but I want to go to Luke 11 22:09 and there is an interesting passage in Luke 11 that 22:13 demonstrates this. 22:15 Luke 11, I'm going to read in verse 24 and on. 22:21 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh 22:27 through dry places seeking rest and finding none, he 22:30 saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out and 22:35 when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. 22:38 Then he goes and he takes to him seven other spirits, more 22:43 wicked than hiself and they enter in and dwell there and 22:48 the last state of that man is worse than his first. 22:53 Isn't that something? 22:55 You wee, we were made to be inhabitated, inhabited by a 22:58 spirit. 22:59 God is a spirit and that is who we want to fill us up. 23:02 Jesus wants to live his life in us and he would do that 23:04 today through the Holy Spirit. 23:07 But if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we are going 23:11 to be filled with something. 23:13 Notice, the demon was cast out or went out of a man, he 23:17 came back to that person and found the man empty ... empty 23:22 and because he was empty, there was room inside that 23:26 person's mind or heart or life for that demon and many 23:30 of his associates. 23:31 We were made to be filled up. 23:33 We were made to be filled with the Spirit of God. 23:37 However, if we are not, we can be filled with the Spirit 23:41 of Satan. 23:42 We can be filled with demons. 23:44 People can be possessed. 23:45 You know, that's one of the reasons why it's so very, 23:48 very important not to go to mediums, not to consult 23:52 mediums, not to consult with psychics, to stay away from 23:54 psychic phenomena, to stay away from that dangerous, 23:57 unbiblical paranormal activity. 24:00 Why? 24:01 Because it is not of God. 24:02 And if you will give the enemy of Saul a toehold, he 24:05 will take it. 24:06 If you give him an inch, he will take a mile. 24:08 If you give him access to your life at all, before you 24:11 know it, he has taken over our life completely. 24:14 The only safe thing to do is to stay away from that dark 24:17 side, to stay away from the mediums and the psychics, to 24:22 stay away from the ghosts and the ghost stories and run to 24:25 Jesus and hang on to Jesus and just don't let go. 24:33 You can't always explain things that go bump in the 24:35 night, except you can know this. 24:37 The Devil is a liar. 24:39 Jesus called him the father of lies and to get a world 24:42 full of people to believe that the spirits of the dead 24:45 come back to the earth and roam the streets and haunt 24:48 houses, really ... that's quite an achievement, especially 24:51 when the Bible says plainly and simply in the Book of Job 24:54 7 that the dead return no more to their house. 24:59 So, are there demons roaming the streets of Gettysburg? 25:04 I wouldn't doubt it for a moment, not for a moment. 25:08 But are they the spirits of dead soldiers wandering 25:11 around, troubling people and bothering lives? 25:13 It absolutely cannot be that way, at least, not if you 25:18 want to believe the Bible. 25:21 I will never forget the experience I had visiting a 25:23 lady in her home a number of years ago and she told me 25:25 this story: She said that her uncle lived with her family 25:30 in the last years of his life and that he died right there 25:33 in her home. 25:35 It was not but a couple of days after the funeral and 25:37 she went back into uncle Larry's bedroom to straighten 25:40 something up or return something or retrieve 25:42 something and as she stepped into that room, music started 25:47 playing. 25:49 She looked around. 25:50 She didn't know how to explain that. 25:52 She stepped out of the room and the music stopped. 25:55 So she stepped in and it started and she stepped out 25:58 and it stopped, and she had a little fun with this for a 26:00 while and she wondered what was going on and she wondered 26:02 if she was hearing things and then she realized that's the 26:06 kind of music Uncle Larry used to live. 26:08 That's what is going on here. 26:11 Uncle Larry is back and he is telling us everything is 26:14 okay. 26:16 Well, you can believe that if you want to but it's not what 26:20 the Word of God says. 26:21 The Bible does not tell us that the dead come back to 26:24 the earth, haunt houses, scare people and roam the 26:29 streets of cities like Gettysburg. 26:31 In fact, that's far from the truth. 26:34 It just doesn't happen and we have that on the authority of 26:39 the Word of God. 26:42 The Mystery of Death is a book that will help you 26:45 discover the truth of the after-life, death whenever it 26:48 happens is a tragedy and people wonder what happens 26:52 next. 26:53 In this week's free book, the mystery of death, pastor 26:56 Bradshaw explores this often misunderstood subject and 26:59 provides answers directly from the Bible. 27:01 Just call 1.80.253.3000 and ask for the book The Mystery 27:05 of Death. 27:06 You can call anytime, day or night. 27:09 If the line is busy, please keep trying. 27:11 You can also request this free book by writing to It Is 27:15 Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks, California, 91359 and 27:19 we will mail a copy to your address in North America. 27:21 Please note this free book is limited to the supply on 27:25 hand. 27:26 For immediate access, you can download a free electronic 27:28 version of the book, The Mystery of Death, from our 27:32 website itiswritten.com. 27:33 It Is Written is a faith-based ministry made 27:35 possible by viewers like you. 27:37 Thank you for your letters and your continued support. 27:40 Thanks for joining me today. 27:42 I look forward to seeing you again next time. 27:44 Until then, remember, it is written, man shall not live 27:48 by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the 27:53 mouth of God. |
Revised 2015-02-06