Halloween

Halloween A. Hallow-e’en: The eve of All Hallows or All Saints, the last night of October. In the Old Celtic calendar, the year began on 1st November, so that the last evening of October was 'old-year's night', the night of all the witches, which the Church transformed into the Eve of All Saints. (OED) B. “In the 7th century CE Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Halloween.” (Ency. Brit. Online, art. Halloween) C. Halloween is rooted in ancient paganism long antedating Christianity and “...the main celebrations of Halloween were purely Druidical, and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland Oct. 31 is still known as Oidhche Shamhna, 'Vigil of Saman.' This is directly connected with the Druidic belief in the calling together of certain wicked souls on Halloween by Saman, lord of death.” (Ency. Brit.; 14th Edition, vol.11, art. Halloween) 1. Jesus Christ alone is the Lord and Judge of the quick and the dead. ACT 10:42; 2TI 4:1. 2. Christ has no concord whatsoever with Saman or any other false lord/god. 2CO 6:14-18. a. concord: Agreement between persons; concurrence in feeling and opinion; harmony, accord. b. This counters the notion that Christ utilizes pagan traditions or superstitions for His own glory. c. Christ does not need them, desire them, harmonize with them, consecrate them, etc. to bring men to God in true fellowship and service. Assuming otherwise provokes God to jealousy. 1CO 10:19-22. d. So obviously is such consecration of pagan religion an error that modern-day pagans and witches denounce the Christian hi-jacking of their religious high days and customs. 3. Pagan traditions and superstitions are not overcome by accommodating them but by calling them out as superstitions to be repented of in deference to gospel truth. ACT 17:22, 29-31. a. Repenting of ignorant, unbiblical traditions and superstitions means forsaking them, not dressing them up in a flimsy Christian negligee. b. God despises the utility of heathenism as unto Himself. EXO 32:5-6 c/w 1CO 10:7; DEU 12:30-31. 4. Pagan ways and customs towards deity are vain and not to be imitated since they do not glorify God as He intends men to do. JER 10:2-3; MAT 6:7; ROM 1:21. a. They also carry toxic implications. EXO 32:25; DEU 12:31; 1KI 18:28. b. Christ in truth orders a right mind, cleansed conscience and a cared-for, covered body. MAR 5:15; 2TI 1:7; COL 2:20-23. D. The very name, Hallow-e’en, exposes another error: the hallowing (making holy) of calendar dates as acts of religion. 1. Mosaic holy days were shadows of Christ Who abolished them by one day: His blood- spent death which caused a New Testament. COL 2:14-18. 2. Calendar holy days in general are weak and beggarly elements of bondage. GAL 4:8-11. E. Halloween presumes to trifle with the works of darkness like gore, death, witchcraft, ghosts, etc. 1. There are real spiritual powers of darkness that affect hearts and minds. We are to be at war with these powers, not at play with them. EPH 6:12. 2. Satan’s dark powers were directly involved in the crucifying of Christ. JOH 8:44; LUK 22:3, 53. 3. Carnal Christianity is strange in that it imagines and exalts false spirits in vain worship and Halloween 10-27-22 Page 1 of 2  duty (spirit of Christmas, spirit of Easter) while trivializing the very real spiritual forces of darkness as harmless fun to which God is indifferent. 4. Christians who celebrate Halloween might as well dress up and act like Judas Iscariot, Herod, Pontius Pilate, Pharisees and Roman soldiers with hammers and nails to flesh out the full experience of harmless fun. F. “The two chief characteristics of ancient Halloween were the lighting of bonfires and the belief that this is the one night in the year during which ghosts and witches are most likely to wander abroad.” (Ency. Brit.; 14th Edition, vol.11, art. Halloween) 1. The Jack-O-Lantern is a New World version of the superstitious Gaelic story of Irish Jack, a fellow rejected by both heaven and hell because of his shiftiness. He was said to have been condemned to wander indefinitely with a live coal from hell in a hollow potato or turnip to light his path. 2. “Harmless” superstition conflicts with Scripture: there are only two possible destinations and no migration of the soul upon the death of the body. HEB 9:27; LUK 16:19-31. 3. Stories like this are imagination that goes too far and needs to be arrested by the gospel. 2CO 10:5. G. Dominant themes of Halloween include occult arts like wizardry and witchcraft. 1. Both testaments of Scripture condemn such. DEU 18:10-12; GAL 5:19-21. 2. Only in weird Dorothy-dreams or Hollywood hokum are there such things as “good” wizards and witches. 3. Wicca (old English word for witch) has been busily polishing its broomstick to sweep itself into public acceptance but it is far from the innocent natural religion it purports to be. a. Its tenet, “An it harm none, do what ye will,” justifies unbridled sex among its adherents, suicide, consensual killing, and furthermore lacks definition as to what “none” is. If, for example, a child is a non-entity until it reaches a certain age, it can be aborted or graphically exploited. b. Witchcraft has a long history of the use of plants and chemicals for abortifacents, murder, psycho-active experiences, etc. H. Parents should consider the psychological and spiritual groundwork they are laying for their children by encouraging their participation in common Halloween customs. Here’s a short list: 1. They are trivializing Satan, sin and occult power, as if none of them are genuine or harmful and the Bible is irrelevant. 2. They teach them to beg for unhealthy handouts that they don't need and which they could have obtained by labor. 3. They teach them that the principle of an acquire-by-threat shakedown is acceptable by “Trick or treat.” 4. They teach them them that the spirits of the wicked dead (ghosts) are free and are fantasy when the truth is that they are real, suffering and locked in hell. JUDE 1:7. 5. There are plenty of witnesses who can testify that early tinkering with darkness opened doors of full rebellion against God and a regretful lifestyle. Witchcraft and rebellion are close sisters. 1SAM 15:23. I. It is bad enough that a Christ-rejecting world buys into such nonsense, but what about Christians who are plainly not to conform to the world? ROM 12:1-2; 1PE 4:17. 1. They may vigorously evangelize and proselytize but what is their real message? c/w MAT 23:15. 2. Gospel evangelism is genuinely prosperous where darkness is burned up, not held onto nor held up as enlightenment. ACT 19:18-20. Halloween 10-27-22 Page 2 of 2