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Halloween
Harmless fun or something from the pits of Hell?
One year toward the end of October, we were in a meeting somewhere and my son Dylan and I were doing a little shopping at Wal-Mart. I guess I really didn’t notice the typical Halloween decorations strung up around the store, witches, goblins, Jack O Lanterns and the like. When we got around to checking out, the cashier leaned over the counter towards my son, who must have been about 4 at the time and asked him a question. “are you going to come back to the store later for trick or treating?” He looked at her calmly and replied “No, that’s of the devil!”. I believe it is said “out of the mouths of babes…” I will never forget the look that the cashier gave me, she said without uttering a word that she thought I was a horrible parent because of what my son said.
There seems some strange stands in our Independent, Fundamental, Bible Believing Baptist Churches. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is my crowd. I am an Independent Baptist from the top of my head to the heels of my boots and I have no intention of changing. But it seems to me that sometimes many of us have some strange convictions, or lack there of. If I had a dollar for every Independent Baptist Church that I have been around, or knew of that had a Halloween party for its young people I would have several hundred more dollars than I do at the present. Mind you, not all of these churches call them Halloween parties, some call them harvest parties, and others costume parties, while others use another name all together. I don’t care what anyone says; any party held at the end of October involving costumes, candy and pumpkins is a Halloween party no matter what name you give it.
Maybe it is just me, but it seems odd that preachers will blast Hollywood and condone Halloween. We will rant and rave about dressing right but be silent when it comes to dressing up in Halloween costumes. We will preach against public education but not say a word against Trick or Treating. Now I am not belittling those stands, I believe they are right on the money. But I am also of the belief that Halloween and all that is associated with it is absolutely, positively, with out a doubt straight out of the deepest pit of hell and those of us who have been bought with the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ should avoid anything that is associated with the devil and his kingdom.
I don’t believe it is harmless fun, I don’t believe that it is cute and cuddly. I believe it stinks of hell and I want nothing to do with it. Call me odd, narrow minded and old fashioned, you are not the first and I am sure you won’t be the last. I believe that we as Christians should stay far away from this thing called Halloween.
I have preached against Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and people have been with me and agreed, but those same people got uptight when I stood against Halloween. Now call me stupid if you haven’t already but if there is something wrong with colored eggs and bunnies at Easter time, and there is something wrong with a fat man in a red suit at Christmas then surely there must be something wrong with witches, devils, goblins and ghosts at Halloween. It makes perfect sense to me.
Perhaps you are asking, what is wrong with Halloween, why should we not participate in these things? Read on my friend and let’s see if there is anything to be alarmed about when it comes to Halloween.
Please Note: As the bulk of this booklet was written on the road on a notebook computer the vast majority of the historical information is taken from the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia © 1999 Microsoft Inc
We could focus all of our attention on how Halloween is celebrated today in 21st century America and see that this is a holiday that is clearly in conflict with Bible Christianity. However, if we pull back the veil of what may seem to some to be another typical over commercialized traditional American holiday we will find something that has its roots in paganism and Satanism which are clearly things that we are to avoid.
According to the encyclopedia we can trace the roots of Halloween to the ancient holiday of Samhain which was celebrated by the Celts. In Europe the religion of the Celts was known as Druidism and Samhain was one of their major seasonal holidays.
What is or Was Druidism?
Druidism was the religion of the Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles from 200 BC to 200 AD. In remote areas that were not invaded by the Romans, Druidism remained the dominant religion until it was replaced by Catholicism in 400 to 500 AD. The Druids believed that people had an eternal soul that at death passed into a newborn baby. Druid priests were assisted by female prophets or sorcerers and were experienced in astrology, magic, the powers of plants and animals and held the oak tree and mistletoe in reverence. For this reason they often held their ceremonies in oak forests.
Samhain
The Celtic/Druid holiday known as Samhain began at sundown on the last day of October and lasted through the following day. Druidism taught that on Samhain evening the spirits of all of those who had died in the previous year roamed the earth. The Celts attempted to pacify the spirits with offerings of food and drink. Also on this night they built bonfires on sacred hills and performed various rituals including animal and human sacrifices. One such ritual involved the burning of huge wooden effigies known as wicker men. These wicker men would often be filled with animals and/or people and burned as a sacrifice to a druid deity.
Modern Halloween Customs
Much of our modern Halloween festivities and traditions are based on folk beliefs concerning the supernatural, spirits and the dead. Halloween is the start of the pagan new year, a time when witches invoke the help of the spirits for the coming year. They believe that the veil between the dead and the living is at its thinnest point during this time. Halloween decorations tend to focus on images associated with supernatural beings such as witches, goblins, werewolves, vampires and ghosts. Images said to symbolize bad omens like black cats, bats and spiders are also common. There are several other things that have become synonymous with Halloween.
1) Costumes and masks-Perhaps the most common and familiar practice associated with Halloween is the practice of wearing costumes and masks. A walk through Wal-Mart or any other large retailer will reveal a vast selection of costumes and masks, ranging from the cute cartoon characters of the day, superheroes and action or martial art characters (such as the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) to the ghosts, monsters and witches that seem to be the most popular every year. I know there are many that say “it’s all fun and games, there is nothing wrong with it”. I realize I am quite narrow minded but it just strikes me as odd that we would let, or even encourage our kids to dress up as witches, werewolves vampires and ghouls.
2) Jack-O-Lantern-Perhaps the best known of all of the symbols of Halloween is the Jack-O-Lantern. This symbol is named after a character from British folklore. The legend regarding this man is as follows:
An Irish man named Jack who was notorious for drunkenness and for being stingy, one evening at the local pub, was faced with the Devil, come to claim his soul. Jack convinced the devil to have a drink with him, then when time came to pay he asked the devil to turn into a gold coin for the price, he could later turn back and the drinks would have cost nothing. Jack took the coin and placed it in his pocket with a silver cross which kept the Devil from turning back into himself. When the Devil promised to leave Jack for another year, Jack released him. At the end of the year, as the Devil returned, Jack tricked him into climbing an apple tree for an apple. He quickly carved a cross in the tree so the Devil could not climb down. Jack finally let the Devil down after promising never to return for Jack's soul. Jack's body finally wore out and he went to the gates of Heaven, where he was refused entrance because of his stingy and drunken life. Jack proceeded then to go to Hell where he was again refused entrance. Jack was then forced to walk the earth until judgment day with his only light a burning ember from Hell's fire caught in a turnip. In the United States the use of pumpkins replaced the Irish use of turnips and beets.
Taken from a printed sermon on Halloween by Dr. Steve Harmon Mainville Baptist Church, Mainville, OH
3) Trick or Treating-also referred to as Halloweening in some areas is the modern practice of going from house to house in search of treats. The connotation of the term is that if a treat is not given then a trick will be played, though the cry has become largely ceremonial, there are acts of mischief and vandalism that are reported every Halloween night. In my mind there are several things to be concerned about with this practice. One is the threat of tainted or tampered with treats. Through the years there have been many reported instances of candy being druged and needles and razor blades being found in treats. The other thing that I think we should be concerned with is the origins of the practice. Our modern day trick or treating can be traced back to the druids and Samhain that we spoke of previously. Again it was their belief that the souls of all those who died in the previous year roamed the earth on the night of October 31. In an effort to ward off those spirits and find favor with them, the townspeople would leave offerings of food and drink at their door for the wandering spirits.
I would think that up to this point we could say that Halloween comes from bad roots and leans in a direction that Christians should avoid. But I think that the link between Halloween and the very real practice of Satanism should make even the most carnal, compromising, worldly Christian set up and take notice. I hope you realize that Satan is real. If you were to start reading your Bible at Genesis 1:1 you would have to read 57 verses before you came to Genesis 3:1 and the introduction of Satan. He is the fourth character mentioned in the Bible. God is mentioned in Genesis 1:1 “in the beginning God…”. Adam is created Genesis 1:26,27, Eve is created in Genesis 2:18-25 and in Genesis 3:1 we read the infamous words “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” To over simplify a complex subject, it is all down hill from there. The Bible has much to say about Satan and I can assure you that he is real.
Not only is Satan real but Satanism is alive and well in the good old USA. When you mention Satanism, many people think of some long haired teenagers in the woods listening to heavy metal music and torturing someone’s pet. While it is not my desire to down play those types of situations, I do want to point out that Satanism is far more involved than that.
There are several well organized groups active in America, perhaps the oldest is the Church of Satan founded in San Francisco in 1966 by the late Anton Levey who was immortalized in the song Hotel Calfornia which was a hit for the Eagles in the 70’s. The church of Satan produces the Satanic Bible which is available on the shelves in most major book stores. In an interview before his death Levey stated that he was glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil one night out of the year. What night was he referring to? Halloween - makes you think, doesn’t it.
As part of the research stage of putting this together I watched a video produced by Jeremiah Films called Halloween Trick or Treat? Included in that video is several segments of an interview with Glenn Hobbs who was what is know as a generational Satanist, which means that his family was involved and their family before them and on back. Mr. Hobbs gave some graphic accounts of human sacrifice, sexual abuse, blood rituals and various other things that all centered around the Satanist’s High, holy day, Halloween, October 31. He had some other interesting comments which you will find at the tail end of this booklet.
Another group that is newer but which seems to be increasing in popularity is the church of Wicca (the church of Witchcraft). Wicca's will tell you that they don’t worship Satan because Satan is an invention of Christianity and they don’t recognize Christianity, but that is simply splitting hairs. Satan is still Satan no matter what name you chose to put on him. When I pastored in Elkhart, IN we had a Wicca church, called the Live oak Experiential Church right on main street. Their logo was a Cross a pentagram and an oak tree all superimposed on top of each other. They had a High Priestess, a big pentagram on the floor and their members dressed all in black and hung out in the park playing with Ouija boards. But they are not Satanists. Perhaps a Big Mac Value Meal is a low fat meal as well. The church of Wicca celebrates 8 main holidays the most important of which is Halloween. In an interesting side note the Oxford dictionary defines a wiccian as one who is twisted bent or warped.
In the video mentioned on the previous page there is an interview with a practicing witch, involved in the church of Wicca in England who is identified as Sally, queen witch of Kent. This is what she had to say about Halloween: “I love Halloween ….we open the gate of the underworld and if any spirits want to come forward and speak we listen to them”
There is no doubt in my mind that there are some who will read this far and summarize what they have read so far with words like extremist, alamist, or perhaps much ado about nothing. But before we make any determinations perhaps we should see what the Bible has to say about things of this nature.
1) God said those who practice witchcraft were worthy of death.
a) Exodus 22:18 “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
b) Micah 5:12 “And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine
hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:”
c) Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or woman that hath a familiar
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they
shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon
them.”
2) Communication or attempted communication with spirits brings defilement.
a) Defile– To make unclean
b) Leviticus 19:31 “Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the
LORD your God.”
c) I Corinthians 3:17 “If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are.”
3) God condemns witchcraft, fortune telling, necromancy, astrology and other spiritist practices.
a) Deuteronomy 18:9-14 “When thou art come into the
land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt
not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10There shall not be found among you any one that
maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire,
or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, 11Or a charmer, or a consulter
with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12For all that do these things are an abomination unto
the LORD: and because of these abominations the
LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. 14For
these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto
observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee,
the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.”
b) Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,
and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
4) When King Saul got right with God he removed all the spiritual mediums from the land.
I Samuel 28:3 “Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had
lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city.
And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the
wizards, out of the land.”
5) Why should we seek answers from the dead when we could obtain them from the Living God?
Isaiah 8:19 “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that
mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living
to the dead?”
6) It is a real possibility that fortune tellers are demon possessed.
Acts 16:16-18 “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a
certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us,
which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17The
same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are
the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way
of salvation. 18And this did she many days. But Paul, being
grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the
name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the
same hour.”
7) Saved people should have nothing to do with with these demonic things.
A) Acts 19:18-19 “And many that believed came, and
confessed, and showed their deeds. 19Many of them also
which used curious arts brought their books together, and
burned them before all men: and they counted the price of
them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
b) Ephesians 4:27 “Neither give place to the devil.”
8) The Increase of Satanic influence and practices are a sign of the end times and coming judgment.
I Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
Now if you have read to this point I hope you have seen two things:
1) Halloween stinks of Satan, Satanism and the occult
2) The Bible clearly tells us that these things are bad and we should avoid them.
Perhaps you may then be thinking, why should I avoid these things? Why can’t we just go with the flow and not make waves? I hope this next question will answer those questions for you.
Questions you can ask about anything to help you determine your position on those things
When I got saved in 1993 I was 25 years old. I had been for a good solid 10 years immersed in the rock and roll culture and the basic mind set that right and wrong were relative and if you wanted to do something, do it. God instilled in me a desire to do right but there are times that I couldn’t quite figure out if something was right or wrong. Because of that my first pastor was at my house constantly answering my endless questions about is this wrong and what should I do about that? Perhaps because he wanted to help me, or perhaps he just had better things to do than spend several hours a week at my house, or more than likely a combination of the two he gave me a set of questions that I could use to evaluate any activity or situation and determine my involvement in it.
I hope you have already settled the issue of Halloween in your heart. If you have, perhaps these will help you with something else. If you are still wavering, however, it is my hope that these questions will help you to close the door on Halloween for good.
There is an interesting statement made twice in the book of Judges (17:6 and 21:25) the Bible says here “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Clearly that is a problem in today’s churches and society. If I think it is ok then it is regardless of what God says about it. Proverbs 14:12 reminds us “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” I believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that we would be far better off if we would take the time to figure out what God thinks about something and go in that directions. That being said, there are 6 questions that you can ask about anything to help you determine what you should and should not do.
1. Does it Glorify God?
A pretty simple question with not much gray area to it either it glorifies God or it doesn’t. Two verses on this thought are I Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” and Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”. Ask yourself a couple of things:
1) Does this bring glory to Jesus’ name? Does you and your family partaking in all that is associated with Halloween bring Glory to the name of Jesus? I don’t see how.
2) Does it please the Lord? Does it make God happy for me to honor Satan by participating in one of his high holy days? Clearly not.
3) Would Jesus do it? If Jesus was still walking the earth as a man is this something he would be involved in? Clearly not.
4) When in doubt (and regarding Halloween, there should be no doubt) Just say no.
2. Is it a weight? Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”. We can have weights, things that are not necessarily sinful but they will slow us down and get us away from what it is God has for us to do. These weights can be different for different people but when we come upon something that is a weight to us we need to lay it aside. Now I have no problem at all believing that Halloween is not a weight it is a sin. Perhaps you don’t see it as sinful. If that is the case, I will never understand why, but if Halloween is not sinful, then surely it is at least a weight. And if it is a weight then we must lay it aside and run the race that has been set before us.
3. Is it becoming a habit? We can’t really apply this to the subject of Halloween but there is many other things we could ask this question about I Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” There are many things that we would be wise to look at and ask the question, Do I control it, or does it control me?
4. Is this thing a stumbling block to others? I Corinthians 8:7-13 deals with this question “7Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak. 10For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; 11And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” This is an area which we need to be careful. We live in a time where you will find people that are against anything and everything. I am personally so narrow minded that my head is growing to a point. But when I hear of folks making an issue of colored dress shirts, wire rim glasses and the like I tend to wonder where they get the justification for such stands. What I am saying is this, we need to ask ourselves would this be an issue to a normal member in another Independent Baptist Church. When it comes to the issue of Halloween I think that you can be certain that a born again child of God and member of a local fundamental church participating in such an overtly satanic holiday would be a stumbling block to others.
5. Is it the wise thing to do? Consider Colosians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time” and I Thessalonians 5:21,22 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Compare it to eternity and ask if it is the wise thing to do. Will it draw you closer to Jesus or take you farther away? Does it increase or decrease the resistance to temptation and sin? Does it make service and worship harder or easier? Using these verses and questions I think that you will clearly come to the conclusion that participating in Halloween is not a wise thing to do.
6. Does it Help or hurt your testimony? In Genesis 19 Lot went to Sodom. Yes, it was a wicked city. Yes, Lot never consulted the Lord as to whether he should go or not. That being said, he could have done some good. One of the reasons why he did not is that he ruined his testimony. He went the same places as the Sodomites, he ran around with the Sodomites, to the point that he called them brethren in verse 7. When the angels told him to get his family and get gone because God was going to destroy the city Lot went and tried to tell his sons-in-law what was happening. Verse 14 tells us what happened “And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.” Why did he seem as one that mocked? Because he had destroyed his testimony and become just like all of them, and then he came in and claimed to have a message from the Lord. Unfortunately, many of God’s people have done the exact same thing today. We must do all that we can to guard our testimony. One way to do that is to avoid things that are clearly ungodly and Halloween is clearly one of those things.
Jesus Said in Matthew 12:30 “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” In Matthew 6:24 He said “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” And in James 1:8 we read “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” If you were to list all that you did on a daily basis, everything you were exposed to and partook of you could divide everything on your list into 3 categories: things for God, things against God and neutral things. There are very few things that are neutral (sleeping, eating, hygiene tasks, etc). That means that every other thing can be placed into the for God or Against God category. We have taken a pretty good look at Halloween, its history, customs and ties to Satanism and witchcraft. There is clearly no way we could put it in the for God category on our list. That only leaves it one place to go. We must determine that it is against God. Earlier I mentioned Glenn Hobbs, the former Satanist who was interviewed in the Halloween video tape. Consider if you will two questions he was asked in the interview he gave:
Q: Glenn, you’ve now been a Christian for some time, what is your reaction when you see Halloween celebrated by people?
A: Whenever Halloween time starts coming around, about the first week of October, you go into the stores, you see the costumes, you see the mother with her little girl putting the witches hat on her and the little boy getting excited about getting the devil mask and you see the candy and you see the Halloween pumpkins you see people decorating their houses with skeletons and all of these symbols of death. You know it only serves to bring back horrifying memories to me, memories of death, and memories of children being so abused, so ripped of everything including their character all in the name of Satan. If a person can really stop the next time they go into that store and realize that there are children who are losing their lives because people are taking this a step further. There are people out there who don’t just celebrate Halloween with trick or treat candy, this is a religious holiday to them, this is something that is holy and sacred and they are taking innocent human life. I can’t say, go ahead have Halloween fun, it doesn’t matter if you are participating in Halloween even if you are not a Satanist, you know it’s not just for fun. Satanists are using this as a smokescreen.
Q: Glenn, you said that Halloween was the religion of Satan. What do you think when you see churches and Christians celebrating Halloween?
A: It makes me sick that the church of Jesus Christ would take on this horrible demonic thing that is happening in our world. Christians should be the ones who are standing up against this. Christians should be the ones that are saying these horrible things are happening and we want to stand against this. Churches should not be having these Halloween parties at all. They should be coming together as brothers and sisters in Christ. binding together and coming against these dark forces. Praying for the children that God will spare their lives and that somehow God will intervene and save them.
I believe beyond any shadow of a doubt that Mr. Hobbs hit the nail squarely on the head. I am sure it makes God sick as well.