Check into this one and see what conclusion you come to. In the term (pneuma) used to represent God as the Holy 'Spirit', it is translated some (90) times in the NT as Holy 'Ghost' but never once in the OT. The same word is also translated 'Spirit' over (100) times in the NT and a number of times in the OT but never 'ghost'. All the references for the Holy 'Spirit' that is translated 'Ghost' comes from the same word. For some strange reason, five (5) times in the NT both 'Spirit' and 'Ghost' are used in the same verse and are translated from the same word (pneuma).
A preacher had a problem with this issue and explained it this way so that he would not offend believers or God. A 'ghost' is only a shadow of a substance, but the 'Spirit' is the substance because the Spirit is God. To call God the Holy 'Ghost' is to say that the Holy Spirit is only a shadow of God and not God Himself. And we know from the scriptures that God is (the) Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit (not Ghost) and truth (John 4:24).
The reasonable conclusion that was made, was that the translation of (pneuma) to 'Ghost' should have been translated 'Spirit' because we worship God in the 'Spirit' and not as a 'Ghost'. Some may say that the term 'Ghost' was understood in a different way, back during the time of the translation, as we understand it today. If that is true, and it may be, then why did they translate the same word (pneuma) into 'Spirit' over (100) times and what basis did the translators have in the OT to translate it 'Ghost', when not one time was it done in the OT? Just something to think about and when we refer to God it is probably better to use 'Holy Spirit' instead of 'Holy Ghost'.
I sometimes misunderstand words that is the reason we have a dictionary Ole Webster I was told was a devout Christian, even used to use scriptures in the definitions in the dictioary but I think your preacher must have not known the defintion of either look at this
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)
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Ghost:
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1913 edition:
Ghost (Page:
624)
Ghost (?), n. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gāst breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. gst spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
1. The spirit; the soul of man. [Obs.]
Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament. Spenser.</I>
2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.
The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose. Shak.</I>
I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost. Coleridge.</I>
3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.
Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Poe.</I>
4. A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses. Ghost moth (Zoöl.), a large European moth (Hepialus humuli); so called from the white color of the male, and the peculiar hovering flight; -- called also great swift. -- Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Comforter; (Theol.) the third person in the Trinity. -- To give up ∨ yield up the ghost, to die; to expire.
And he gave up the ghost full softly. Chaucer.</I>
Jacob . . .
yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
Gen. xlix. 33.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)
ARTFL > Webster's Dictionary > Searching for spirit:
Displaying 1 result(s) from the 1828 edition:
SPIR''IT, n. [L. spiritus, from spiro, to breathe, to blow. The primary sense is to rush or drive.]
1. Primarily, wind; air in motion; hence, breath. All bodies have spirits and pneumatical parts within them. [This sense is now unusual.]
19. An apparition; a ghost.
I think the King James may still be true!! And The Word of God still intact.
Good reminder.