"And have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." -Ephesians
5:11
Where
will this woeful apostasy in America lead? The answer is quite
obvious... to our own destruction as a nation. At
Focus On The Family (now a dead link), a book by
Kim Wier and Pam McCurie was being promoted and sold years ago titled, “Redeeming
Halloween: Celebrating Without Selling Out.” On their
website under the “Resource Description” tab, they've put the words: “Seize
The Day: making Halloween Holy.” That title did not set right with me at
all as a Christian.
The description
continues:
"Celebrate Halloween without selling out! Balance love with
conviction, while creating treasured childhood memories for your children.
Here is a guide to fun, guilt-free ideas on everything from costumes and
decorating hints to original party suggestions."
It is important dear reader that you
understand the Satanic origin of Halloween. There is no way to make
Halloween “holy,” and the very idea is offensive.
The inspired Word of God clearly condemns witchcraft as a sin in
1st Samuel 15:23a, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Halloween is a WITCHES HOLIDAY (holy day)! Halloween is the second
biggest holiday for witches? Their biggest holiday is actually in May. Concerning the witches holiday of Halloween, one witch says:
"Magical Qualities: When
the veil between the worlds is at it's thinnest. One of the prime Sabbats for
doing all kinds of magic, including shape-shifting, astral travel, ancestral
communication, honoring the dead, and working with the faeries."
SOURCE
On the back cover of “Redeeming
Halloween: Celebrating Without Selling Out,” the book reads:
“Halloween
used to be a time of innocent fun for kids. Choosing a fun costume,
going to neighbors' houses for candy — what could be better? But in
recent years, Halloween has become a controversial subject among many
Christians. Some parents see it as a pagan holiday with evil origins,
some parents ignore it, and some let their kids go out trick-or-treating —
hoping they won't run into anyone from church.”
I grew up in American culture too. I
loved going Trick-or-treating as a kid, and none of us had the crazy idea of
doing anything evil to someone who didn't give us a treat. I realize that no
matter what position I take on this touchy issue, someone will be offended.
I personally don't have a problem taking my children out trick-or-treating.
Halloween is some of my fondest memories as a child, which I wouldn't trade
for anything. As a born again Christian and a fundamentalist Bible preacher,
I don't have a problem with children going out trick-or-treating safely in a
group, or better yet with their parents on Halloween. I don't think it is a
sin.
I have worked with some crazy religious
people throughout my lifetime, particularly Jehovah's Witnesses who are
against having a Christmas tree, against going to a doctor, against blood
transfusions, against Halloween, against celebrating holidays, against
serving in the military, et cetera. Then there's the Amish who are against
having photos of your loved ones, calling it a form of idolatry. You will
never win with religious nuts. The insane Charismatic movement with their
wacky Satanic speaking in tongues have driven tens of millions of people
away from Jesus Christ.
I didn't write this article to
discourage you from taking your kids out in public to have fun
trick-or-treating; but rather, to warn you never to call Halloween “holy,”
because you cannot make it holy. You cannot make Easter holy. As Christians
we celebrate Easter as the day Jesus resurrected from the dead after three
days, but in truth Easter is a very pagan holiday with a demonic origin in
false religion. Easter centers around the worship of the
goddess Eostre. But we
don't celebrate it that way.
Likewise, in Jeremiah 10:3-4 the wicked
Babylonians worshipped decorated trees, which is where the concept of
decorating Christmas trees came from. Is it sinful to have a Christmas tree
in your home? Absolutely not. It is fine to celebrate Christmas, Easter and
Halloween, just so long as we don't honor the true origin of those pagan
holidays.
When Harry Potter first came out, many
children became infatuated with witchcraft. The books used the names of real
demons. Many Christian parents freaked out! Personally, I didn't have a
problem with my four kids (who are now all in their thirties) reading Harry
Potter when they were young. I do have a problem with any school forcing
children to read such books without explicit consent from their parents. I
also think it is unwise for any school to require children to read books
about witchcraft when they fully know some parents will be offended. Public
schools are wicked.
“Harry in an absolute godsend to our cause,”
said High Priest “Egan” of the First Church of Satan in Salem, MA.
“An organization like ours thrives on new blood—no pun intended—and we've
had more applicants than we can handle lately."
The controversial issue of
Halloween may have been heightened by the Harry Potter series,
but the Truth is that Halloween was demonic from it's inception:
Encyclopedia Britannica:
Halloween, also
called All Hallows' Eve or All Hallows' Evening, a holy
or hallowed evening observed on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day. In
modern times, it is the occasion for pranks and for children requesting
treats or threatening tricks. In ancient
Britain and Ireland, the Celtic festival of Samhain eve was observed on
October 31, at the end of summer. This date was also the eve of the new year
in both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times and was the occasion for one of the
ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten
away evil spirits. The date was connected with the return of herds from
pasture, and laws and land tenures were renewed. The souls of the dead were
supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival
acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black
cats, fairies, and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was
was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of
nature. In addition, Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for
divinations concerning marriage, luck, health, and death. It was the
only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.
Halloween Was Never
Innocent
The
author's of Redeeming Halloween: Celebrating Without Selling Out
are foolishly wrong to claim that Halloween used to be “INNOCENT.” Halloween was never innocent, any more than the innocent tiger who ripped his
owner and trainer, Roy Horn (of Siegfried and Roy) to shreds in 2003.
Likewise, there's nothing innocent about Easter. Christians don't celebrate
Easter in its original intended form. Neither do we celebrate Halloween in
its intended original form.
A parent who takes their child
trick-or-treating is not celebrating Halloween, they are simply enjoying the
festivities. Some Christians refuse to dine in a restaurant that serve
booze. I personally don't have a problem with eating in a restaurant that
serves alcoholic beverages. I have never drank a drop of booze my entire
life. Just because I choose to eat at a business establishment that serves
beer doesn't mean I am celebrating the alcohol industry.
And although I may eat at a restaurant
that serves booze, that doesn't mean I support or approve of beer. Likewise,
just because I may take my children trick-or-treating, doesn't mean that we
are celebrating Halloween.
You Cannot Redeem
Halloween
Even the very title of their book
tells on them, “Redeeming Halloween: Celebrating Without Selling Out.” Why don't they write another book titled,
“Redeeming Adultery: Fornicating Without Selling Out?” or perhaps “Redeeming Abortion: Killing Without Selling Out?” How
in the name of righteousness can you REDEEM a Satanic holy day? I humbly think
we need to discern the clear difference between celebrating Halloween,
versus simply enjoying the occasion. There is a very big difference. Most
people don't worship their Christmas tree in December, but they enjoy
looking at the lights.
“And have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
—Ephesians 5:11
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the
Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and
of the table of devils.” —1st Corinthians 10:21
“Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft.” —Galatians 5:19,20
“Wherefore come
out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” —2nd Corinthians 6:17
You CANNOT
redeem Halloween anymore than you can redeem adultery or murder. There
is absolutely NO WAY to make Halloween holy unto the Lord. I want to
quote from the back cover of the book in question again...
“Halloween
used to be a time of innocent fun for kids. Choosing a fun costume,
going to neighbors' houses for candy—what could be better? But in recent
years, Halloween has become a controversial subject among many
Christians. Some parents see it as a pagan holiday with evil origins,
some parents ignore it, and some let their kids go out
trick-or-treating—hoping they won't run into anyone from church!”
The invention of the internet and
social media have changed the way that we interact as a culture. Never
before have we seen so much criticism, controversy, gossip, slander and
fighting as we do today on the internet. No matter what you believe or say
on social media, someone will strongly disagree with you.
If you are looking for affirmation from
everyone, you will be very disappointed. Even the most popular of
politicians are fortunate if they receive 70% of the vote, which means 3 out
of 10 voters don't like them. It's no different on a personal level. I would
be foolish to expect all of my website ministry's visitors to agree with my
Bible preaching. Many people do not, and they have told me so, and I am okay
with that. I don't claim to be right on everything, but I do claim to think
I am. I am sincerely preaching what I believe to be the honest truth, so
help me God (Romans 3:4).
The Pagan Origin of
Halloween
We read later that the early Roman Catholic Church took the
observance and attempted to Christianize it. Continuing the MS Encarta Encyclopedia
article above, we read:
By the
end of the 1st century AD, the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic
lands (see Rome, History of). In the process of incorporating the
Celts into their empire, the Romans adapted and absorbed some Celtic
traditions as part of their own pagan and Catholic religious observances. In
Britain, Romans blended local Samhain customs with their own pagan harvest
festival honoring Pomona, goddess of fruit trees. Some scholars have
suggested that the game of bobbing for apples derives from this Roman
association of the holiday with fruit.
Pure Celtic influences
lingered longer on the western fringes of Europe, especially in areas that
were never brought firmly under Roman control, such as Ireland, Scotland,
and the Brittany region of northwestern France. In these areas, Samhain was
abandoned only when the local people converted to Christianity during the
early Middle Ages, a period that lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. The Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older
religious traditions in order to win converts.
For example, Pope Gregory
IV sought to replace Samhain with All Saints' Day in 835. All Souls' Day,
closer in spirit to Samhain and modern Halloween, was first instituted at a
French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe. Folk
observances linked to these Christian holidays, including Halloween, thus
preserved many of the ancient Celtic customs associated with Samhain.
SOURCE
So, we see the pagan roots of this festival. Catholics tried to Christianize
Halloween to
appease the idolaters, but who really converted who in this situation? It was the idolaters that converted the Catholics! Since Catholicism is
the largest religion in America, Halloween is commonplace. Of course,
Catholics are NOT Biblical believers because they trust upon the sacraments,
Mary, and good works for salvation. ONLY through simple faith in Jesus
Christ alone can anyone be saved. Catholics are NOT Biblical Christians!
Sadly, many genuine Christians are guilty of
CELEBRATING Halloween. Believers are supposed to set the standard, not
imitate the world and have a "Christian" version of everything like we see is
so common today. In an age where there are professed Christian rock
stars, Christian comedians, Christian lesbian ministers, Christian porn stars,
and even Christian magicians... is it any surprise that professed Christians
are also trying to Christianize Halloween? Not at all. It is
tragic!
In closing, I do not believe it is wrong for
Christian parents to take their children trick-or-treating. I have been very
careful over the years not to become a religious nut. There is a fine line
between faith and foolishness. Everybody I have ever met who had a problem
with celebrating the holidays were a hateful religious weirdo.
The same is true with with Christmas. I don't think
it is wise to teach children that Santa Claus is coming, because it is
obvious that Santa was invented to replace Jesus. Santa is omnipotent,
omniscient and omnipresent. That would make him God! Only God has those
divine virtues. Jesus is almighty God and He has those virtues. Santa is a
fictitious character and I don't think children should be misled to believe
that Santa is real.
I think parents should teach their children the
truth about Halloween, that it is Satanic in origin, just like Easter. Any
Christian who would condemn another believer for going trick-or-treating
with their kids on Halloween had better not observe Easter, because if they
do that would make them the ultimate hypocrite!
