You may be wondering what this has to do with health, well it has PLENTY to do with it. If you are celebrating Halloween you are serving Satan and his ways and you are NOT spiritually healthy....I guarantee it.
HALLOWEEN IS A PAGAN HOLIDAY TO HONOR THE DEAD AND EVIL
SPIRITS.
All Saints' Day was followed by All-Souls' Day, November 2,
unless that was a Sunday then it was November 3, this was another Catholic
adaptation of pagan festivals for the dead. Prayers for the dead are an
integral part of the traditional All Saint's Day services, which are scheduled
in Catholic churches on November 1, and on the next Sunday. Halloween gets its name from the
Catholic holiday, it is a hallowed evening, because it precedes All Hallows'
Day, thus: Halloween. We are warned not to take part in customs and
traditions like this in the Scripture.
Deuteronomy 12:30-31 – Take
heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be
destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying,
How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy
God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done
unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the
fire to their gods.
Halloween is a perfect example of what this passage is
referring about. Pagans served their gods by honoring the
evil spirits on Halloween. They did this by dressing up like the evil spirits
and giving offerings to the evil spirits. This is why candy is given
out on Halloween, as offerings for the evil spirits. The phrase trick or treat was attributed to this practice because
pagans believed the evil spirits would do something bad (trick) to them if they
did not leave an offering (treat) for them. I WOULD RATHER HONOR THE MOST HIGH.
Modern
celebrations of Halloween may appear on the surface
to be quite harmless, but the spiritual implications of dabbling with
the spirit world are extremely serious.
What must an unfamiliar observer think of Halloween? Parents dress their children as
monsters, vampires, devils, witches and ghosts and encourage them to approach
total strangers to ask them for candy and other treats. Homeowners
decorate their houses with images of black cats, ghosts, goblins and carved
pumpkins and sometimes transform their yards into make-believe graveyards. Adults dress in similar strange and
outlandish costumes and go to parties in rooms decorated like dungeons or
crypts.
Why are such
bizarre practices so popular?
Why would anyone
celebrate a holiday emphasizing the morbid and macabre?
Where did such
strange customs originate?
As with Christmas
and Easter, we can trace the roots of Halloween far back into the pagan past.
The Encyclopedia of Religion says, “Halloween, or Allhallows Eve, is a festival
celebrated on 31 October, the evening prior to the Christian Feast of All
Saints (All Saints’ Day). Halloween
is the name for the eve of Samhain [pronounced sow-en ], a celebration marking the beginning of
winter as well as the first day of the New Year within the ancient Celtic
culture of the British Isles. The time of Samhain consisted of the eve
of the feast and the day itself (31 October and 1 November)” (1987, p. 176, “Halloween”).
Besides Halloween, the Celts observed many other holidays
including the winter solstice (later transformed into Christmas), spring
fertility rites (reborn later as Easter) and May Day as a harvest festival.
Concerning Halloween, The Encyclopedia of Religion
continues: “On this occasion, it was
believed that a gathering of supernatural forces occurred as during no other
period of the year. The eve and day of Samhain were characterized as a time when the barriers between the
human and supernatural worlds were broken. Otherworldly entities, such
as the souls of the dead, were able to visit earthly inhabitants, and humans could take the opportunity to
penetrate the domains of the gods and supernatural creatures.
“Fiery tributes and sacrifices
of animals, crops, and possibly human beings were made to appease
supernatural powers who controlled the fertility of the land…Samhain
acknowledged the entire spectrum of nonhuman forces that roamed the earth
during the period” (pp. 176-177).
On this holiday “huge
bonfires were set on hilltops to
frighten away evil spirits…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 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”
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, Micropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 862, “Halloween”).
ANCIENT PRACTICES CONTINUED TODAY
As with Christmas
and Easter, church leaders adopted this ancient celebration to serve their own
purposes. “Samhain remained a popular festival among the Celtic people
throughout the Christianization of Great Britain. The British church attempted
to divert this interest in pagan customs by adding a Christian celebration to
the calendar on the same date as Samhain. The Christian festival, the Feast of
All Saints, commemorates the known and unknown saints of the Christian religion
just as Samhain had acknowledged and paid tribute to the Celtic deities” ( The
Encyclopedia of Religion, p. 177, “Halloween”).
Several ancient Halloween
practices still exist in modern observances. Bobbing for apples was originally a form of divination
(fortune telling) to learn of future marriages. The first person to bite an
apple was predicted to be the first to marry in the coming year…The Jack-O-Lantern…represented a
watchman on Halloween night or a man caught between earth and the supernatural
world” (Jack Santino, All Around the Year: Holidays & Celebrations
in American Life, 1994, p. 26).
THE BIBLE CONDEMNS THE OCCULT
Although some may
dismiss the demonic symbolism and divination associated with Halloween as
harmless fun, the Bible
reveals the existence of evil spirits, led by Satan the devil, whom God holds
responsible for great suffering and sorrow inflicted on the human race.
Revelation 12:9 speaks of “the great dragon … that serpent of old, called the
Devil and Satan … [who] deceives the whole world …”
The name given him in the Bible, Satan, means adversary or enemy. The apostle John tells us
that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Satan and the other fallen angels
(demons) constantly try to keep humanity spiritually blinded, turning
them aside from their awesome destiny as part of the family of God.
As a loving Father, God commands us to avoid things that can
harm us. Concerning the spirit world, notice what God says to His people: “Give no regard to mediums and familiar
spirits; do not seek after
them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31).
In addition to this command to avoid practices that pertain
to evil spirits, God warned ancient
Israel to avoid any kind of occult practices: “There shall not be found among you
anyone who…practices witchcraft, or a
soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures
spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For
all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy
18:10-12).
GOD HAS CALLED HIS PEOPLE TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD. Instead
of superstitions and myths, God tells
us to look to Him for our blessings, direction and future.
Modern celebrations of Halloween may appear on the surface
to be quite harmless, but the
spiritual implications of dabbling with the spirit world are extremely serious.
Fortune-telling, Ouija boards, Astrology,
Voodoo, Clairvoyance, Black Magic and the like can all be related to occult,
satanic forces or the worship of natural phenomena and are forbidden in
Scripture.
Jesus Christ tells us that “the first and greatest commandment”
is to love
our Creator “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind” (Matthew 22:37-38). God
alone is the giver of life and all good things. To give recognition to
false gods, and to imitate practices that honored them, is unacceptable and idolatrous.
I found this on a website long ago and loved it and saved it…..so
I want to share it with you.
A LIST OF THE TOP TEN REASONS I KISSED HALLOWEEN GOODBYE
1. HALLOWEEN GLORIFIES EVIL, NOT GOD
It’s no secret that Halloween
is all about witches and ghosts and fear and death. Haunted houses,
Hollywood movies, even neighborhood patios are graced with blood and dead
bodies and axe murderers…giant replicas of poisonous spider and cobwebs … scary
organ music, skeletons, and gravestones. Can
anyone deny that this holiday glorifies Satan and every evil thing?
“Oh, but our
family only dresses in good costumes,” we are quick to point out, as
if somehow sugarcoating the evil with smiling pumpkins and sparkly
Disney princess costumes somehow changes
the meaning of the celebration.
I too continued to dress up for several years, but no matter
what creative spin I put on it, eventually
I could no longer justify that anything I was doing in respect to this holiday
was honoring to God. Sure, my costumes were cute. Sometimes they were
even sophisticated, clever, funny, or smart. But none of those things changed
the fact that the holiday itself
glorified evil, and I could no longer lend my talents and attention to
remain part of it.
Most of us know that Halloween is one of the highest, most holy days for witches
and Satanists. Even though we
ourselves may not be involved in the practice of witchcraft, we give credence
to the holiday by celebrating it. If we abhor evil, should we not also
abhor any day designated to celebrate it? The
Bible says to avoid even the appearance of evil.
1 Thessalonians
5:21-22 — “Test all things; hold
fast what is good. Abstain from all
appearance of evil.”
It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to discern that the Halloween is all about fear.
Scary costumes, haunted houses, and horror movies are designed for no other
purpose than to frighten us. Seeking out opportunities to be scared is, on this
day at least, the highest form of
entertainment. If we do not have a spirit of fear, should we even
acknowledge a day whose purpose is to invoke a spirit of fear in us?
“For
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a
sound mind.” — 2 Timothy 1:7
2. IF THE SEED IS BAD, THE FRUIT WILL BE BAD
Halloween has never been a Christian holiday. The
foundations of Halloween are occultic, and the symbols and traditions we
continue today all have roots in pagan practices. God tells His people over and over again
to avoid all pagan rituals and traditions.
Halloween derives in part from the occult traditions of the Druids, the pagan priests of the Celts, whose fall festival was the
precursor to Halloween as we know it. “To ancient Druids, the end of October
commemorated the festival of the waning year, when the sun began his downward
course and ripened grain was garnered from the fields. Samhain…was celebrated with human sacrifice,
augury and prayers; for at this season spirits walked, and evil had power over
souls of men.”
When the first
Christians came to America, they knew of Halloween’s occult beginnings and
banned its celebration.
“Because of Christianity among so many of the settlers, Halloween celebrations were not
celebrated until the 1800’s when several immigrants from Ireland and
Scotland introduced their Halloween customs. They brought various beliefs about
ghosts and witches with them. Other groups added their own cultural influences
to Halloween customs. German immigrants brought a vivid witchcraft lore, and
Haitian and African peoples brought their native voodoo beliefs about black
cats, fire, and witchcraft.”
Today, we have
become so accustomed to the traditions of men that we refuse to question them.
Even Christian families have been honoring
this holiday for generations. But doing so ignores the fact that this festival in no way honors God, and in fact
celebrates the very practices God abhors:
Deuteronomy 18:9-11 –
“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the
abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you
anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a
soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer [pharmakeia], or one who conjures spells, or a medium,
or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.”
Putting a Christian
label over the top of a pagan practice does not make it pleasing to God.
In fact,
we are to get rid of all pagan practices and have no part of them:
Deuteronomy 12:1-4 —
“These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in
the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the
days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess
served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under
every green tree. And you shall destroy
their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with
fire; you shall cut down the
carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.
You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.”
God doesn't want us to keep the ways of the world and
sprinkle Christianity on top. He wants us to elevate Him alone: His
ways, His philosophies, His deliverance, His celebrations. Any other practice
is sin and eventually bears bad fruit.
3. DON’T DINE WITH DEMONS
Samhain was the one day of the year when the dead were allowed to come back into
the world and commune with the living. People traditionally set a spot
for the dead at their table, inviting them in. Since there was also the
possibility that evil spirits would come looking for them, people took to “guising”
themselves for protection. In other
words, it’s okay to dine with demons — as long as you wear a costume to protect
yourself.
1 Corinthians 10:21 —
“You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and
the table of demons.”
So are we really
supping with demons? Sharing food with someone represents a sacred connection. Adam
and Eve first ate with God in the garden, but then chose to share an
apple without God in the presence of Satan. Jesus spent much of his time on earth dining with sinners,
because that is who He came to save. The last thing Jesus did before He was
crucified was to share a meal with
His disciples, and He commands us to continue remembering Him in that
way until He comes again. When we see Him in heaven, it will be at the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb!
Revelation 3:20 — “Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
dine with him, and he with Me.”
Satan is the
world’s greatest counterfeiter, so he tempts us to sit at his table and
join his feast (festival, festivity) by making it as attractive as he can. He
knows we won’t say no if his festival looks like pure evil, so he’s let us
create our own G-rated version that we aren’t as likely to resist.
But God says in 2
Corinthians 6:14-16— “For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has
light with darkness? … And what agreement has the temple of God
4. HALLOWEEN IS AN EXCUSE TO FLAUNT SEXUALITY
It’s true. Halloween is becoming more risqué every year. In fact, sometimes I think its real name is “Dress
Like a Porn Star” Day. Girls dress
more provocatively, and at much younger ages, on this day than any
other. There seems to be an unwritten competition to have the raciest costume.
For those passing on ghoul or gore, the only other worthy goals seem to be
shock and immodesty.
“But fornication
and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is
fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse
jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this
you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ
I can vouch from
personal experience that when we put
on a costume, we often detach ourselves, sometimes ever so slightly, from our
inhibitions. After all, it is much easier to act a tad bit naughty when
our real identity is hidden. It’s
almost as if bad behavior is somehow excused when we are in costume —
and it’s much easier to explain in the morning: “I wasn’t actually sinning; I
was just staying in character.”
Even though we are not to have fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, we prefer to emulate them and parade them on our
Facebook pages as if they are somehow deserving of honor.
Ephesians 5:11-12 — “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to
speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”
5. WE PLAY HOW WE PRACTICE
This is one of my husband’s favorite sayings. He is usually
referring to table manners with our sons: If
you use a knife and fork correctly at the kitchen table, then you won’t have
any problems when it counts — when you’re at a nice restaurant with your
employer or meeting your future wife’s parents for the first time. How we practice spills over into real
life.
The same applies
to Halloween. We think we can entertain the macabre, erect gravestones
in our front yards, and prop dead “bodies” on our front porches. “Oh, but they’re not real,” we demur. Then we are appalled when a 17-year-old
has a fascination with dead bodies and decides to act on his morbid desires.
Do we really have any right to be shocked or even surprised
when some among us decide to act out in real life the fascination with evil we
insist on holding dear? We can't have it both ways: if we choose to be entertained by evil, we should be prepared for
the time when it becomes reality.
Ephesians 6:12 — “For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this work,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Let us not drop our guard for a moment, or even camp out
one night a year “for fun” on the side of the enemy.
6. ARE WE CAUSING OTHERS TO STUMBLE?
Even if we don’t believe it’s dangerous to dabble in the
ancient pagan practices of Druid priests, have
we given any thought to the impact our actions might have on others?
The Bible tells us just how important it is that we not lead His children astray
(Matthew 18:6) or cause them to
stumble (Mark 9:42). If we
present witchcraft, promiscuity, and the occult in a fun and seductive manner
now, are we opening the door to involvement in those practices in the future?
Will our children
learn values we want them to learn by participating in this “holy day,” or
would they learn better values, perhaps even courage, from seeing us stand up
against evil even when our culture says it’s fine? It probably goes
without saying, but what values are we impressing on our children when we send
them trick-or-treating? Is the lie “give me your candy or I’ll play a trick”
really becoming of anyone?
If we forego
Halloween but give our children a substitute celebration instead, are we
sending the message that “I am trying to compensate because I think you’re
missing out on something really amazing”? I want my children to believe
what I myself believe: that we have been given something so much better than
this! No more bobbing for apples in the church basement (a pagan fertility
ritual, by the way) when I have true
joy in knowing God’s true Son!
7. BE FAITHFUL IN THE SMALL THINGS
For many Christians, the thought of whether to celebrate
Halloween is a small issue, maybe even a non-issue. After all, it’s only one
day a year. And what harm is there
really in a handful of Snickers miniatures and a pillowy pumpkin costume?
Let me answer that this way:
First, our character, integrity, and devotion to God is
evident in the small things. If we
can't be faithful in the small things, how will our hearts be faithful in the
big things?
“He that is
faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he that is
unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much.” —Luke 16:10
So, yes, even something as seemingly small as how we
handle Halloween is important.
Second, God has
told us to focus on what is true, noble, right, pure, noble, right, lovely, and
admirable (Philippians 4:8). Is Halloween any of these things? NO, and
therefore it is unworthy of any of our time or thoughts.
Third, “the Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He
might destroy the works of the devil.”
—1 John 3:8
If God came for
the purpose of destroying the works of Satan, why do we then try remember,
imitate, and even elevate those very things?
How do we expect we will be able to keep ourselves
faithful when the big temptations come alone when we can't even say no to
glorifying evil in what we do for fun?
“Pure and
undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans
and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” —James 1:27
But we've joined forces with the world. In fact, instead of
keeping ourselves unspotted, we have become one giant spot with it — we are so much alike no one can tell
where the world ends and the Church begins.
We need to start keeping ourselves pure in the small
things, so that we will be able to stay pure and undefiled in the big things.
8. GOD WANTS TO BLESS US — BUT NOT IN THE WAY THE WORLD
BLESSES
For those of us who love Jesus, why is it so important to entertain the
macabre and flirt with the dark side for one day, one week, or one month out of
the year, instead of delighting in the joy the Lord Himself has set before us?
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Do
not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of
heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile....’” —Jeremiah 10:2
We often say we don't want to deprive our children of candy,
of dressing up, of the “fun” they have by participating in this holiday. But God has already told us the customs of the
world are futile!
Is this is the kind of happiness we want for our children,
we are clearly setting our standards too low. Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, and He will provide
all of the other things we need.
“Trust in the Lord,
and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight
yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
—Psalm 37:3-4
God in His divine
sovereignty did not give us Halloween for our entertainment. Instead,
we thought we were missing something and we hijacked it! Just like Eve in the
garden, we believed Satan’s lie that
God was withholding something good from us. God,
however, has far better things in store for us than candy corn
and parlor games. Why do we continue
to grovel in the plastic sandbox when God has given us the entire beach?
We continue pouring time and money into what is overall
something that has no lasting fruit and does not in any way glorify God. Would
our time be better spent in prayer, teaching our children about the real
dangers their friends face by dabbling in the occult? As a Christian, I don't want
to spend even a penny of my money on a $7-billion-a-year event that is so
dishonoring to God. As a
nation, it is painfully evident where our hearts are.
“Where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.” —Luke 12:34
9. THERE IS SIN IN THE CAMP
Even if we think our costumes are not sinful (as if it’s the costume that’s the problem and
not the fact that we are still giving reverence to the holiday itself), what
about others who have decided that there is nothing wrong with their costumes
either? After all, they aren’t really practicing witchcraft, just dressing up
as witches. So do we excuse the
dressing up but draw the line at Ouija boards? What about pretending to cast spells? We have
made ourselves the judges of what is good and evil instead of following God’s
command to avoid even the spoils of the enemy.
I have two words to say to that kind of thinking: Remember Achan.
In Joshua 7, Israel
was accursed and could not even stand before its enemies because just one man, Achan, had taken the spoils of Jericho,
when God had said no one was to touch them. By
the sin of one man, the entire nation was judged.
“Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I
commanded them to keep. They have taken
some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied,
they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites
cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they
have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy
whatever among you is devoted to destruction.” —Joshua
7:8-12
It's just a
holiday — what’s the big deal? The
darkness of Halloween is devoted to destruction and is in no way honoring to
our Father of lights (James 1:17) — and no orange and black sugar
coating will make it so. God is a jealous God, and all pagan beliefs are sinful in God’s
eyes. We can’t choose how much or even how nicely we want to
celebrate.
And we need to
help hold each other accountable because we may all bear the judgment for sin
in the camp.
At this time in history more than ever, we are in great need of God’s mercy on our land:
“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble
themselves, and pray and seek My face,
and turn
from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin and heal their land.” —2
Chronicles 7:14
Yet how many of us
are truly humbling ourselves and turning from wickedness? We say we are
followers of Christ, but we refuse to surrender in complete obedience to His Word in even the simple act of turning from a holiday that glorifies
evil.
If still we refuse
to repent and seek God’s wisdom in every aspect of our lives, we should not be
surprised when God further removes His hand of blessing and protection from
this great land.
10. COME OUT FROM THEM AND BE SEPARATE
Perhaps the reason I finally let go of Halloween was
precisely because I didn’t want to.
If that sounds like a contradiction, let me explain. You
see, the very fact that I kept coming up with reasons and excuses so I could
continue celebrating eventually led me to question my motives. Why was I hanging on so tightly?
Was it possible that my celebration of Halloween had become an idol to me? Certainly it appeared so, because still I
embraced the traditions of men even when I knew God’s heart on the matter.
“Therefore come
out from them and be separate from them, says the Lord.” —2 Corinthians 6:17
God wants His
people to be holy, which means to
be set apart. If everyone else is doing something, and I’m doing it
too, that is a good time to examine myself to see if I’m really in the faith.
If people don’t look at me and think I am peculiar (1 Peter 2:9) — IF I FIT
RIGHT IN WITH OUR CULTURE AND NO ONE CAN TELL I AM ANY DIFFERENT — THEN I AM
PROBABLY DOING SOMETHING WRONG.
The Bible doesn’t
say that we should have less to do with darkness than other people do; it says have nothing to do with evil. By
even acknowledging and associating with the holiday, I was giving credence to
it in my life and opening myself to deception.
It is my prayer
that everyone who follows Christ will be open to prayerfully seeking God’s
wisdom about the traditions of man.
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of
these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore DO NOT BE PARTAKERS WITH THEM. For
you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness,
righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.” —Ephesians 5:6-10
Here are
additional Bible verses you can review as you prayerfully seek God’s wisdom regarding
celebrating Halloween:
HALLOWEEN HISTORY
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