Halloween Warnings! Series

HALLOWEEN WARNING!

10-24-10 New Liberty Christian Church, Veedersburg, IN with Pastor Richard T. McQuinn

TEXT: REVELATION 12:9-12, I PETER 5:8-9

The Great dragon was thrown down out of heaven. He is that old snake called the devil or satan, who tricks the whole world. The dragon with his angels was thrown down to the earth. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “The Salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come. The accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accused them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. Our brothers and sisters defeated him, by the blood of the Lamb’s death and by the message that they preached. They did not love their lives so much that they were afraid of death. So rejoice you heavens and all who live there! But it will be terrible for the earth and the seas because the devil has come down to you! He is filled with anger, because he knows he does not have much time. Revelation.

Control yourselves and be careful! The devil, your enemy, goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to eat. Refuse to give in to him, by standing strong in your faith. I Peter.

INTRODUCTION: We begin the last week of October 2010. For weeks the retail stores have been building their displays concerning ghost, goblins, witches and devils. They count on the sales of costumes, candies, fruit, candles and special movies to promote this season. Many of your television shows this week will have some thing about Halloween—a pagan holiday.

Many of our neighborhood children will be out going door to door asking for a treat---usually candies. I did see on commercial on television this week where the children came to the door and were received by a couple handing out fresh pancakes and maple syrup. The women asked the kids to open their bags and she plopped down a pancake into each bag, followed by the man who poured the syrup right into the bag. Now that is a new idea to bring to the trick or treat table.

Pranks, parties, arrest, ghost stories and séances will all be tagged this week to come out of storage. What turns you on or off about this weird day? You know already that it is on our calendars each year on October 31. You know of course that it is the Eve before All Saints Day. All Saints day is practiced each year by many God fearing families. Pray for the dead, pray for the souls lost in hell, and pray for to the Saints to help family members get from Hades to Heaven.

A druid was a member of the priestly class in Gaul and possibly other parts of Celtic Western Europe during the Iron Age. Very little is currently known about the ancient druids as they left no written accounts about themselves, and the only evidence of them are a few descriptions left by Greek and Roman authors, and stories created by later mediaeval Irish writers.[2] While archaeological evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Celtic people, "not one single artifact or image has been unearthed that can undoubtedly be connected with the ancient Druids."[3] Various recurring themes emerge in a number of the Greco-Roman accounts of the druids, including that they performed human sacrifice, believed in a form of reincarnation, and that they held a high position in Gaulish society. Next to nothing is known about their cultic practice, except for the ritual of oak and mistletoe as described by Pliny the Elder.

The earliest known reference to the druids dates to 200 BCE, although the oldest actual description comes from the Roman military general Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (50s BCE). Later Greco-Roman writers also described the druids, including Cicero,[4] Tacitus[5] and Pliny the Elder,[6] Following the invasion of Gaul by the Roman Empire, druidism was suppressed by the Roman government under the 1st-century emperors Tiberius and Claudius, and it disappeared from the written record by the 2nd century, although there were likely later survivals in the British Isles.[7]

The druids then also appear in some of the mediaeval tales from Christianised Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity.[8]

In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, fraternal and Neopagan groups were founded based upon the ideas about the ancient druids, a movement which is known as Neo-druidry.[9]

Halloween dates back to the Roman days when a group called the Druids celebrated the day of Saman. He is known as the Lord of the Dead! How would you like a title like that one? The Druids believed that on October 31 of each year, Saman would call together all of the souls of the wicked who had died during the past year. The Druids were an ancient order of priest that believed that the black cats were really human beings that were being punished because of their evil deeds. They were allowed a certain amount of freedom to roam around on the earth every October 31. They were believed to all to have some special power on the night before All Saints Day---November 1.