Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit?

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Does your church say Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost?
If Ghost means: Spirit....why say Ghost?
Doesn't Ghost imply the spirit of someone who has died? What are your thoughts on this? :confused
Just wondering what you think???

[Patty T]

We use both :):

Scripture says that when Jesus died, He gave up the "ghost". I believe both words are interchangable.

[Jael]

Because the KJV uses both terms, we tend to use them interchangeably at my church (we tend to use the KJV when quoting scripture since that is the version most people are familiar with).

The translators of the KJV translated the word pneuma sometimes as "ghost" and sometimes as "spirit". For example, in the following verses:

Act 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise

...in both cases the highlighted word is pneuma in the Greek...

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pneuma {pnyoo'-mah}

1) the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

a) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the "Holy" Spirit)

b) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of "Truth")

c) never referred to as a depersonalised force

To the translators of the KJV time, the terms were synonymous...in our time the word "ghost" is used pretty much exclusively to refer to the spirit of a dead person, but that was not always the case. If "Holy Ghost" makes you uncomfortable since it has a different connotation as we use it today, there is nothing wrong with sticking to "Holy Spirit".