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Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
Halloween is an
annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how
did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon
worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
In North America, the yearly observance of Halloween amounts to a
multi-billion-dollar industry, second only to Christmas...selling costumes,
candy and food items, party supplies, greeting cards, tours of so-called
haunted houses, and other forms of entertainment. But what is the history of
this particular day? The story may surprise you.
More than two
thousand years ago, a people called the Celts (Kelts) lived in what is now
Ireland, Great Britain, and France. Among the Celtic people was
an elite intellectual class known as the Druids, who served as religious
priests, judges, lawmakers, and scientists. They had an elaborate pagan
religious festival, along with certain rituals. Chief among these was the
Fire Festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-en), observed at harvest time
to mark the Celtic New Year.
The Celts believed that on this night
the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural was removed, and
the spirits of the dead were able to move freely among human beings. Samhain
was the most solemn and important night in the Celtic year.
After the
Roman Catholic Church came to the Celtic peoples in the seventh century,
some of their traditional folk customs were adopted by the church. In 835
A.D. Pope Gregory IV moved the church’s "Feast of All Saints" from the
spring to November 1st to replace the observance of Samhain. All Saint’s
Day, still observed today by many, honored believers who had died. The night
before, which featured a sacred vigil in church, became known as "All
Hallow’s Eve," or Halloween. But the old practices of the Druids died hard
and were denounced by the church as witchcraft. This is how Halloween became
known as a witch’s holiday.
Dressing in costumes and going
door-to-door comes from a much later tradition in the
British Isles, a practice not restricted to Halloween. Masked
players would go from house-to-house, putting on a simple drama or musical
performance in return for food and drink. Often these performances had
Christian themes.
The "trick-or-treat" custom we know today is
thoroughly American in origin. In the nineteenth century, when Irish and
Scottish immigrants brought their Halloween traditions to
North America, the night became an occasion for pranks and
mischief. Vandals would go through the night, soaping windows, overturning
outhouses, and pulling gates from their hinges. These pranks were playfully
said to be the work of witches and ghosts, but by the 1920s the joke wasn’t
funny anymore. The damage to neighborhoods was mounting. To counteract
Halloween vandalism, community clubs like the Boy Scouts began to organize
alternatives that are safe and fun. Children were encouraged to go
door-to-door and receive treats from homeowners and merchants, keeping the
troublemakers away. By the 1930s, the practice was popular nationwide and
young voices crying, "Trick or treat!" were echoing through neighborhood
streets.
In this way, a combination of pagan, Christian, and civic
elements formed the Halloween celebration we know today. In recent decades,
however, a renewed interest in the old pagan beliefs has blossomed in
North America. Popular entertainment, including television shows
like "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer," and even "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,"
make occult themes and witchcraft seem fun and acceptable. The result is
that Halloween today has become strongly associated with the occult and a
preoccupation with the dead—two influences that Scripture and the church
have always warned against.
You see, Satan is not a joke. He’s real.
Though the Bible clearly states that God is the world’s highest authority,
He gave Satan a certain amount of power. With God’s permission, the evil in
this world is under Satan’s control. This is why the apostle Paul said in
Ephes. 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Satan was the
first one in history to openly defy God. He also started a way of life that
was self-centered and rejected God’s authority. That marked the birth of
sin, which is nothing more than rebellion against God. Today sin affects the
entire human race. We are all guilty, and therefore all deserve sin’s
penalty. "For the wages of sin is death...."
Halloween is rooted in
paganism, but this is not the main reason I discourage its celebration.If you want to, you can tie many of our modern practices back to
ancient pagan practices…Good grief, pagans had a holiday in which they
gathered around a tree, similarly to Christmas, but we don’t throw out our
trees because of that ancient connection…don’t throw the baby Jesus out with
the bathwater…He is the present, dominant association of Christmas however
you celebrate it.But there’s
much better Biblical reasons to avoid Halloween than just its pagan roots,
for it continues in the ancient traditions it was founded in.
So why not celebrate Halloween?
I. Because It Glorifies Death.
A. First it is important for us to realize that death does not come from
God.
Death is a result of man’s own choosing. The Scripture plainly
tells us, Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
God told Adam the only
thing he was not to do was to eat from this tree, but if he did, he would
die. It reminds me of a kid, If you tell him not to do something he will do
it or burst.
Adam was just like you and I, he had to touch and taste
the untouchable. How many of you when you see a sign that say’s, “Wet Paint”
just have to go over and touch it?
Adam made a decision to eat and
Romans 5:12 tells us the result of his actions, “Wherefore, as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned:”
God is not the cause of death, man
is.
B. The second understanding we must hold onto is that death is an
enemy.
We are in a battle with an enemy called death. But why is
death our enemy? It is because it destroys life, it takes life away, whereas
God is the Creator and Author of life. In God’s original creation there was
no sin nor pain, disease or death, remember man chose to sin.
The
Bible teaches that death is the enemy of mankind.
I Corinthians
15:26 “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
Christ was
subject to the great enemy of man: death. Note that death is the last enemy
that will be destroyed.
Death has an end; death will cease to be; the
reign of death will be stopped. Man shall be delivered once-and-for-all
from death. Death will be swallowed up in victory.
“He will swallow
up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all
faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8).
“I will ransom
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I
will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be
hid from mine eyes” (Hosea 13:14).
“So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed
up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54).
“[God’s purpose and grace] is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2
Tim. 1:10).
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death” (Rev. 20:14).
“And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are
passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
II. Because It Honors Satan
and Demons.
God is not honored on Halloween. God is not
even mentioned. Satan, witches and demons are honored. The Bible teaches
that Satan and demons are the enemies of mankind.
I Peter 5:8. Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Throughout Scripture
Satan is described as:
He is “the god of this world” who blinds men’s
minds (2 Cor. 4:4).
He is “the prince of this world” (John 12:31;
John 14:20; John 16:11)and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephes. 2:2;
Ephes. 6:12).
Satan’s purpose in making war against God is twofold.
A. Satan’s purpose is power and worship, to receive as much of the power
and worship of the universe as possible (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-17).
B. Satan’s purpose
is to hurt and cut the heart of God. Why? Because God has judged and
condemned him for rebelling against Him. Therefore, Satan does all he can to
get back at God. The best way he can do this is to turn the hearts of people
away from God and lead them to sin and to follow the way of evil.
But the Bible says “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the
world” (1 John 4:4); and, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans
8:31).
III. Because People Sin On
Halloween.
Many people get drunk and take drugs. People dress in
horrible, occultic costumes. All of this is sin. It’s considered the holiday
of hell, and the bad boys come out for it!In NM they would kill people’s livestock and drink the blood on this
date, and kidnappings is always a great fear on this night…be very careful!
I Corinthians 10:20. But I say, that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye
should have fellowship with devils.
Participation in idolatry is
fellowshipping with devils The devil and his angels or demons are behind all
idolatry, whether the idolatry of a heathen society or of an educated
society. Scripture definitely declares:
“For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places” (Ephes. 6:12).
“And no marvel; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:14-15).
It is utterly
impossible to participate in the true worship of God and in the worship of
devils.
“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”
(1 Cor. 10:21).
“Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not
deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them” (Deut.
11:16).
IV. Because GodHimself Hates Halloween.
God says, "I hate every false
way." Psalm 119:104.
God does not hate mankind, but He hates man’s
evil ways.
Genesis 6:5-7 And God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made
man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me
that I have made them.
God is wearied by man’s sins.
“Thou
hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (Isaiah 43:24).
God is broken
by man’s sins.
“I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath
departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols:
and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all
their abominations” (Ezekiel 6:9).
God is grieved by man’s sins.
“Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a
people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways” (Psalm
95:10).
God is grieved to the depths of His heart with man’s sins.
“And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:6).
These are good reasons
not to celebrate Halloween, and reasons why we are proud to offer a great
Christian alternative in our Fall Family Festival.We need an alternative, and many in our community benefit from it, as
do our own children.We can bury
our head in the sand if we want to, or we can rise to the occasion of the
biggest opportunity we have each Oct. 31st!
Invitation:
Man was God’s creature,
the most noble and dignified creature ever created, but man abused God’s
love and purpose in creating him. Man rebelled against God: he rejected
God’s love and purpose in creation. Man chose to reject, ignore, neglect,
and deny God, his Creator.
You need Jesus Christ to save you from the
penalty of your sins.
Make the right choice today and choose to put
sin aside and turn to Jesus.
NOTICE! Our sermons are free to download,
copy and paste, edit and use as you see fit...but only our free subscribers get
the newest messages, featured sermons, and some free gifts we shower on them
from time to time!