Introduction
In America, Halloween is celebrated on the evening of October 31st.
Excited children dress up and go through the neighborhood knocking
on doors, saying "Trick or Treat" expecting to receive candy.
Teenagers go to haunted houses to show their bravery. Houses are
decorated with "jack-o-lanterns", skeletons, blacks cats and
witches. Schools have carnivals that include bobbing for apples,
cake walks, best costume contests, etc. Every year some people
carry the fun too far and people get hurt. But for the average
family it just seems to be lots of fun. It is especially fun for the children.
Many Christians celebrate Halloween with their children and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. Other Christians have become convinced that Halloween activities are not just simply innocent holiday fun which they seem at first to be. Some churches that formerly had haunted houses and Halloween costume contests are changing from a Halloween celebration to a "Fall Festival" (usually held on the evening of October 31st). Other churches are continuing to celebrate Halloween but are restricting the kind of costume that can be worn at the church sponsored event.
Why the change in attitude by some and not by others? Is it that after a person's children are grown, they then decide it is wrong for others to celebrate this holiday? Is it just simple a fun holiday or is it something Christians should not participate in? What follows will be basic information so that you can decide for yourself if or how to celebrate Halloween.
Most of the time the difference between a Christian who thinks it is OK to celebrate Halloween and the Christian who does not think it is OK is their knowledge of the occult. Those Christians who through study or experience are familiar with the occult are usually opposed to Halloween as it is normally celebrated. Some decide not to celebrate it at all. Most decide to not include the things that offend them.
The Difference In a Cult and the Occult
A cult is a religious group that is a perversion of true
Christianity. It is counterfeit Christianity. They usually claim
to believe in Jesus and claim to use the Bible as their guide.
Gordon R. Lewis in his book Confronting the Cults (Baker Book
House) defines a cult as "Any religious movement which claims the
backing of Christ or the Bible, but distorts the central message
of Christianity by (1) an additional revelation, and (2) by
displacing a fundamental tenet of the faith with a secondary
matter." A cult is a counterfeit of true Christianity, which
means that to the casual observer it seems to be Christian. They
usually deny the Trinity. They usually deny that Jesus is God and
unique from any other man. Two of the most widely known cults are
the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the
Jehovah Witnesses.
The word occult is from a word that originally meant to conceal. Occult means hidden, secret, esoteric, beyond human understanding, mysterious. The term occult is applied to group who openly credit Satan or the spirit world for their abilities. Satan, spirits, or gods and goddesses are worshiped and give power for the practitioners to cast spells or curses, fortell the future, and communicate with the dead. Occultic groups are entirely and openly opposed to Christ and to Christianity. The occult includes such things are Satanism, Witchcraft, "Dungeons and Dragons", Astrology, Horoscopes, Quija Boards, Parapsychology, and Rosicrucianism.
Many of the activities related to Halloween are just simple fun to the normal person. But to the person with a knowledge of the occult these activities have serious anti-Christian meaning.
A Short History of Halloween
According to the World Book Encyclopedia "Halloween developed from
the ancient new year festivals and festivals of the dead....The
Celtic festival of Samhain is probably the source of the
present-day Halloween celebration. The Celts lived more than 2000
years ago is what is now Great Britain, Ireland and northern
France. Their new year began on November 1. A festival that
began the previous evening honored Samhain, the Celtic lord of
death. The celebration marked the beginning of the season of
cold, darkness, and decay. It naturally became associated with
human death. The Celts believed that Samhain allowed the souls of
the dead to return to their earthly homes for this evening....On
the evening of the festival, the Druids, who were the priests and
teachers of the Celts,...built a huge new year's bonfire of oak
branches, which they considered sacred....The Romans conquered the
Celts in A.D. 43 and ruled what is now Great Britain for about 400
years. During this period, two Roman autumn festivals were
combined with the Celtic festival of Samhain. One of them, called
Feralia, was held in late October to honor the dead. The other
festival honored Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.
Apples probably became associated with Halloween because of this
festival....Many of the customs of the Celts survived even after
the people became Christians. During the 800's, the church
established All Saints Day on November 1. The people made the old
pagan customs part of this Christian holy day." (World Book
Encyclopedia Volume 9 page 25 copyright 1992)
The 13th volume of the Encyclopedia Americana copyrighted 1957 says of Halloween: "It is associated in the popular imagination with the prevalence of supernatural influences, and is clearly a relic of pagan times....In the north of England, Halloween is known as Nutcrack Night....Popular belief ascribed to children born on Halloween the faculty of perceiving and holding converse with supernatural beings."
Halloween Activities and Their Origins
October 31st - The Celtic New Year's Eve
Halloween - The name Halloween came when the Catholic Church introduced a method whereby the Christians could continue to celebrate this pagan holiday. They named November 1 as All Saints Day to honor saints who had died. The mass they celebrated the night before was called Allhallowmas or All Hallow's Eve which eventually was pronounced Halloween. It means Holy Evening or the Eve of the Holy Ones' Day.
Bonfires - "One of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits." (The New Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 5 copyrighted 1987 p. 646)
Trick or Treat - "The time of falling leaves seemed an appropriate time to celebrate death, which is exactly what Halloween was to them: A celebration of death honoring the god of the dead. The Druids believed that on this particular evening the spirits of the dead returned to their former home to visit the living. If the living did not provide food for these evil spirits, all types of terrible things would happen to the living. If the evil spirits did not get a treat, then they would trick the living. This ancient practice is still celebrated today where people dress up as the dead, knocking on doors and saying "Trick or Treat,' not realizing the origin of that which they are practicing. (Handbook of Today's Religions by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart Campus Crusade for Christ, Here's Life Publishers, Inc. copyrighted 1983 p. 261)
Jack-O-Lantern - In America this is a pumpkin with a face cut into one side. (It other countries it may be a beet, a potato or a turnip instead of a pumpkin). One source says that jack-o-lanterns is an ancient symbol of a damned soul. Another source says that jack-o-lanterns were designed to scare evil spirit from their houses. According to an Irish legend, jack-o-lanterns were named for a man called Jack, who could not enter heaven because he was a miser. He could not enter hell either, because he had played jokes on the devil. As a result, Jack had to walk the earth with his lanern until Judgment Day.
Black Cat - The Druids believed that cats has once been human beings but were changed as punishment for evil deeds.
Ghost - Originally the word ghost meant the spirit or the soul. But the only phrase left with that meaning is when we say someone "gave up the ghost" we mean he died and his spirit separated from their body. In Halloween costumes a ghost is the supposed disembodied spirit of a dead person, conceived of as appearing to the living as a pale, shadowy apparition.
Many of the holidays we celebrate have pagan origins. In fact, both Christmas and Easter were pagan holidays that were "converted" or "Christianized". In other words the activities associated with a pagan (non-Christian) holiday were given Christian meaning and continue to be celebrated. The Catholic Church tried to do that with Halloween with the introduction of All Saints Day in the 800's. But there is a problem with Halloween that is not true of Christmas and Easter. Many of the Halloween activities and symbols still have unchristian and even anti Christian meanings.
Josh McDowell and Don Stewart write in their book, Handbook of Today's Religion: "True witches and followers of witchcraft still preserve the early pagan beliefs and consider Halloween a sacred and deadly powerful time."
Scriptures That May Be Applied To Halloween Activities
Halloween is not mentioned in the Bible. The word did not even
come into existance until 800 years after the birth of Jesus Christ.
But there are quite a number of scriptures to study as you try to
locate principles that may apply to the celebration of Halloween.
Exodus 20:1-3 - You shall have no other god.
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 - Strictly condemns witchcraft, calling up the dead, or being a spiritist.
Leviticus 20:6 - God will punish those who turn to mediums and spiritists. (NASB footnote on "Mediums" says it could be translated "ghosts and spirits")
Leviticus 19:26 - You shall not practice divination or soothsaying.
Exodus 22:18 - You shall not allow a sorceress to live. (Sorceress is Strong's # 3784 which may be translated witch or witchcraft)
II Kings 9:22 - Jezebel associated with witchcraft.
II Chronicles 33:1-9 - King Manasseh Leads Israel Into "Occult" Sinfulness. (Compare Deut. 18:9-12)
Acts 19:13,19 - Exorcists (# 1845) means generally one who by adjuration and incantation professes to expel demons Magic (# 4021) Means work or business and was the standard term for black arts or magic referring to all the work they went through in their rituals.
Galatians 5:20 - Sorcery (KJV Witchcraft) (# 5331) is one of the works of the flesh. Pharmakeia means the occult, sorcery, witchcraft, illicit pharmaceuticals, trance, magical incantation with drugs.
Revelation 21:8 - Condemns sorcerers.
Conclusion
As a Christian you decide which way you will celebrate Halloween.
Be careful of condemning other Christians who may decide
differently than you. Here are some possibilities:
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