Halloween Is Ok, But . . . Series

Various Scriptures

October 23, 2022

I don’t think I’ve ever spoken about Halloween during a sermon, but today is your lucky day. I’m not going to condemn Halloween, but want to point out some parallels between our world today and the origin and meaning of Halloween which goes back 100's of years. So, here’s today’s history lesson . . . . .

The ancient Celtic people believed that evil spirits came out of hiding as summer turned into Fall, which for the Celts signaled the beginning of winter, which they associated with death.

As a result, they observed a festival called "Samhain," which was designed to ward off evil spirits. They dressed in costumes in order to disguise their humanity, hoping the evil spirits wouldn’t recognize them. They built bonfires to light the dark nights to frighten them away. They gave treats at their doors, in an effort to appease the evil spirits.

The Celts believed the veil between the living and the dead was especially thin, which allowed the evil spirits to visit the living.

When thousands of Celts became Christians during the 6th and 7th centuries, the church made the decision to try to incorporate the celebration of Samhain rather than extinguish it.

So, they linked Samhain with their celebration of All Hallow's Day at the start of November. This was a time when the church remembered and honored the "holy ones or hallowed." The saints who served Christ and were now in heaven.

Eventually, October 31st became known as All Hallow's Eve — which leads to our modern day Halloween.

Fast forward almost 1000 years later, on October 31, 1517, a priest by the name of Martin Luther went to the door of the Church of All Saints in Wittenberg, Germany, and nailed to the door a document in which he questioned 95 things about the church.

Among them was whether the church's embracing of the traditions of others had not backfired. In embracing the celebration of All Hallow's Eve, the church had hoped the pagan world would be drawn from evil to a greater fascination with good. However, what was happening, was the opposite.

Luther feared that the church was losing its focus on God’s holiness and His call in our lives to be holy. But people were becoming more and more fascinated with the evil. It wasn't the first time, nor was it the last.

Again, I’m not going to condemn Halloween. We all have our points of view about it. My boys have gone trick or treating, no gruesome outfits, we’ve given candy, we’ve given scriptures with the candy as well. Our church will be participating in a city wide Halloween festival next weekend. No objections!

But my concern, is the same concern that Martin Luther had. Not just with Halloween, but with all that we allow to come into the church which leads us further from the truth in who Jesus is.

We’ve been talking about the church for the past weeks and my point today, and in many ways I can just stop after saying this, but you know I won’t . . .

For the church to be healthy, we can only have one leader . . . . and that is Jesus, the Christ. Paul told the church in Colossae - - -

15 Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through Him and for Him.

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

18 AND HE IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH. - Colossians 1:15-20

We see that in other passages as well. Jesus is the HEAD of the church. By Him and through Him and in Him . . . all things were created. We must always start with Jesus and end with Jesus. There’s no middle ground for this. And I believe that’s part of the big problem in the church world. We want to incorporate a little Jesus with a little of the world and pretty soon we have a watered down church that’s more of a social club. Too many churches compromise the message of Jesus

This is 100% wrong. We may make a mistake about a particular topic, we may disagree about what’s correct about a passage, but we must always start and end with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

I think most of us would have a pretty clear understanding of what it means to say Jesus is my Savior. He’s the One and the only One who saved me from eternal death and destruction. He’s the only One who can redeem me. I can’t do it myself - - - I can’t save myself.