Leviticus 18:30 “Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.’”
I used to think Halloween was only an American custom. Kids dressing up as their favorite superhero, pulling sheets over their heads and cutting holes out then calling themselves a ghost, spiked hats that look like witches, or wrapped bodies like mummies, the myriad of costumes is partly what makes it so much fun. But the fun was more than a costume, going door to door and shouting “Trick or Treat”, as the owner hands out candy from a plastic Jack-O-lantern was as good as it got for kids. People would decorate their houses with fake spider webs, or more creative ones with witches, ghouls, and goblins, each scarier than the next.
For many families, Halloween was a time for fun, candy, and facing fear while knowing the fear wasn’t real. People will pay to go through corn mazes that are ‘haunted’, others will have parties with cleverly decorated fruit bowls, bobbing for apples, and creepy music in the air.
Many churches will throw their own version of fun by opening a community event called a Harvest festival and have fun games without the evil overtones. Others will do Trunk or treat events where cars will line up in parking lots and open their trunks with decorated themes and hand out candy, keeping the event more controlled.
Opponents to Halloween celebrations will remind people of how the celebration began. The Gaelic festival of Samhain is one theory of origin, a pagan festival that marked the end of the harvest and a time to commune with the dead. Pagan fires and sacrifices were made to open portals to the underworld, offering sacrifices for blessing and a good life through the winter. All hallows day was believed to be another root origin that marked a time of remembrance of saints who had gone before, martyrs for their faith who had left a legacy worth remembering.
Interestingly, Halloween wasn’t celebrated in America until the 19th century when Irish and Scottish immigrants brought their customs to America and then these spread to other countries in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Should christians celebrate the day? Some would say it’s harmless and remember the time when they were children and the fun they had. Others are adamant the practice is pagan and should have no place in christendom.
Today, Halloween symbolizes fear. Scary movies are prominent, decorations more elaborate, and children are still susceptible to the tactics.
Practicing Fear
When walking around a neighborhood in America during Halloween you will see and hear all sorts of scary sights and sounds. Small children will walk closer to parents and be visibly shaken by the more elaborate terrors that emanate from houses. Older kids will dress in macabre costumes, driven by desire for candy and connecting with friends.
Should we subject children to an environment that thrives on fear? Is it worth dealing with the nightmares soon thereafter or the misperception of evil? I have known many people who wrestle with fear as adults, being afraid of the dark or having a false impression of the afterlife.
The Bible is clear on what happens to people after they die, and the idea of spirits walking among the living is not one of them.
Hebrews 9:27-28 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
The author of Hebrews makes it clear that death is final and after that, judgement is enacted. Once a person has received their judgement, there are only two locations they can inhabit…in the presence of God or separated from Him for eternity.
Prudence would be for parents to teach their children concerning the fear of the Lord, understanding His power and position as Judge of all living things. As Judge, He also is the advocate for the condemned and has provided a way for grace…He is a good Judge who demonstrates love.
The King of kings also has all authority over every evil thing and has appointed a time for their demise.
From Death to Life
Listen to the words of Jesus regarding the end of life….
John 5:24-29 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
The dead are the spiritual dead. They have no life because life exists only in the Son of God by the Spirit of God who gives life. For those Jesus mentioned in the graves, they were those who died previously and awaited the Messiah. They walked in obedience to the Father, and were raised to life in Heaven after His resurrection, for those who did not, their fate was sealed into eternal condemnation. There is also a day coming when the final resurrection occurs and everyone who believes is given a new body to dwell with God forever. For those who are currently in Hell, they will be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire for which all disobedient souls who rejected Christ’s salvation will find themselves forever.
What is Prudent
I’ve never known a family that celebrates or remembers the death of saints during the season of Halloween, I’m not even sure what that would look like. All true saints are those who are or were redeemed by Christ and filled with the Spirit. Some churches pray to a ‘saint’ hoping the deceased will invoke God’s response but the Bible makes no provision for such practices. Paganism infiltrated those types of churches hundreds of years ago and continues today every week.
There are all kinds of symbolic gestures that distracts from Truth. Halloween exalts evil, gives it more prominence, and even places its power as near equal with God. The view of the dead is warped, the view of ghosts or goblins is myth turned into reality, and witches and warlocks are made to look good while their practices in reality are demonic.
Do you think satan uses the fear and paranoia to his advantage?
In a world where evil is real, the enemy would certainly use every advantage to invoke fear and feelings of insecurity. Jesus continually reminded His people to not fear, knowing it is a tactic the enemy uses on every generation.
Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
While fear is tactic of the enemy for people to take their eyes off the Lord and place it on their circumstances, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Every good thing of God is twisted by the enemy.
A celebration of God’s blessing of a harvest is turned into a pagan demonstration of ancestral worship, a celebration of Christ’s birth is turned into Santa clause who gives good gifts and places them under a tree. The celebration of Christ death and resurrection is turned into an Easter bunny who drops eggs to be found with candy.
We must decide on what we want to emphasize to our children. Do we want to give them a good view of life, a godly perspective of reality, or focus more on the fun and less on the meaning?
What we Practice
When the Israelites were given the land of Canaan for their inheritance, there dwelt many pagan nations that practiced all forms of rituals, similar to what we see today. They sacrificed their children upon altars for better crops or more children, much like the abortion industry does today. They held pagan rituals to invoke the dead to ward off evil spirits and to bring blessings, much like many cults do today. They elevated false gods, they reinterpreted goodness to be for the pleasing of the body and left the Lord out of the picture.
This is how God warned His people as they entered those lands….
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.”
The Lord understood the risks of allowing pagan practices into culture, they change the culture for the worse. Those nations lost their lands because of their evil practices.
The same pagan practices of the Gaelic immigrants in Samhain is practiced today during Halloween. Roman customs of placing a tree in a house during Saturnalia is similar to the Christmas trees found in so many homes in December. The easter bunny came from 18th century protestant German immigrants and the tradition of Osterhase, where only good children only received colored eggs in their nests of bonnets and caps for Easter. Today, it is the focus of society and not the resurrection for which it was meant.
Tradition is hard to break, and the meaning behind many customs has been lost. Most distract from their true meaning and consequently a lack of the knowledge of God is unprecedented in society today.
Should we become ascetics, completely separating ourselves from society? It would take radical acts like ascetics of the past who lived in caves and wrote the Bible all day long.
Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world.
I’ll leave you with part of the prayer Jesus offered for His people…
John 17:14-19 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
Jesus understood reality. God’s people are in the world but are under the attack of the evil one. The devil wants to distract people from God’s Truth. The Truth of a spiritual war waged against people. Fear weakens, pagan practices distract from reality, and even though people don’t intentionally practice paganism, the message kids receive can be quite confusing.
We can find healthy ways to have fun while instituting God’s truth. Handing out tracts to kids who are trick or treating with a little candy, decorating with harvest symbolism rather than evil, going to church related harvest festivals that don’t promote evil while still allowing kids to feel like they got to participate in fun.
If we don’t teach these things to our kids now, when will we?
Believers are to be separate from the world so that the world may see Christ in them and believe. There is much more at stake than losing a little tradition.
U.T. 