Twelve men on a boat are besieged by a storm. Suddenly they see, amongst the lightning, a spectral shape. Hundreds of years earlier, a king throws a party that’s interrupted by some thing that’s not on the guest list: a ghostly hand that scrawls a haunting message on the palace wall. Generations before that, another king with a tragic backstory sneaks into a darkened tent to inquire of the dead, not his parents, or his wife, but the very prophet who doomed his royal house. What are the scariest ghost stories in the Bible, and why?

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Episode sponsors

1. Oasis Audio: The Mermaid’s Tale by L. E. Richmond
   
2. Almost Paradise by Bryan Timothy Mitchell
   
3. The Lorehaven Guild
   

Concession stand

• Just in case, if we say “story” about these narratives, we mean true story.
  
• It’s better to say the word “accounts” to remove all doubt: this is history.
  
• Some folks like to find spooky/outrageous takes on parts of the Bible.
  
• But the Bible is best read not piecemeal but within redemptive history.
  
• Don’t go to the Bible treating it like Spirit Halloween, looking for decor!
  
• The Scripture’s main Hero is not nephilim, angels, demons, or monsters.
  
• The Hero is Jesus Christ. We must not chase monsters and ignore him.
  

1. Beware the king who inquired of the dead (1 Samuel 28)
2. Beware the floating hand that inscribes doom (Daniel 5)
3. Beware the Savior himself (Matt. 14:24–33, Mark 6:45–52)
Com station

1. How scary did you find your first exposure to these accounts?
   
2. Do you think Samuel in 1 Samuel 28 was a real “ghost”?
   
3. Do you feel fearful or excited by “the fear of the Lord”?
   

Mission update

• Subscribe free to get updates and join the Lorehaven Guild
  
• Article: Daniel Whyte IV’s How The Crucifix Shows Christ’s Salvation in Dark Fantastical Stories
  
• New article: Jenneth Dyck’s Disney Might Finally Learn Why It’s Failing
  
• Past review: A Bond of Briars by Erin Phillips
  
• New reviews: Steal Fire From the Gods by Clint Hall (Oct. 27) and A Ranger’s Guide to Glipwood Forest by Andrew Peterson (Nov. 3)
  

Next on Fantastical Truth

This holiday season, when people celebrate either evil or the Reformation, it may help to remember Martin Luther’s reminder that “Even the devil is God’s devil.” And yet Satan is still prowling the Earth, looking for souls to steal. We know people don’t think the Devil exists, yet even some Christians act as “functional materialists” who ignore the threat of demonic deception. Marian Jacobs, author of that forthcoming book about fictional magic versus real magic, rejoins us to engage today’s real threats from real witchcraft.