The Truth Behind Halloween
Tonight we have some decisions to make.
We have some decisions to make concerning Halloween.
Is Halloween harmless or harmful?
What is it actually a celebration of?
What is wrong with letting children dress up like a ghost, or Dracula, or witches to go from house to house to ask for sweets?
How did this peculiar custom originate?
Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship?
Should we or our children participate in Halloween?
Let’s start with 3 short passages from God’s word.
Deuteronomy 18:9-22
When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD , and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.
Ephesisans 6:10-13
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
2 Corinthians 6:14-16
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Satan? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
In America, the observance of Halloween is a multi-billion-dollar industry, second only to Christmas...selling costumes, sweets, food, party supplies, greeting cards, tours of so-called haunted houses, and other forms of entertainment.
What is the history of this particular day?
The truth may surprise you.
More than two thousand years ago, a people called the Celts (Kelts) lived in what are now Ireland, Great Britain, and France.
Among the Celtic people was an elite intellectual class known as the Druids, who served as religious priests, judges, lawmakers, and scientists.
They had an elaborate pagan religious festival, along with certain rituals. Chief among these was the Fire Festival called SOWEN (Samhain), observed at harvest time to mark the Celtic New Year.
The Celts believed that on this night the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural was removed, and the spirits of the dead were able to move freely among human beings. SOWEN was the most solemn and important night in the Celtic year.
The Celts believed that evil spirits lurked about as the sun god grew pale and SOWEN grew stronger.
By lighting great bonfires on the hillsides, on the Vigil of SOWEN, the Celts hoped to scare away the evil spirits of those who had died the previous year. It was believed that on this day the souls of the deal would rise from the grave to haunt those who were living.
In order to please SOWEN, the Druids held cruel fire rites.
Prisoners of war, criminals or animals were burned alive in odd-shaped baskets. By observing the way they died, the Druids saw omens of the future, good and bad.
By waving burning wisps of plaited straw aloft on pitchforks, people tried to frighten off demons and witches. Just in case waving of burning wisps didn’t work, the Druids also put on grotesque and terrifying costumes.
They believed that if you dressed in a horrible enough fashion and went trooping around with the spirits all night, they would think you were one of them and do you no harm.
The Celts believed that when these spirits came to your house, if you did not treat them, they would trick you.
Many of the Halloween legends and customs of today have come from the Celts.
After the Roman Catholic Church brought Christianity to the Celtic people in the seventh century, some of the Celtic itraditional folk customs were Christianised.
In 835 A.D. Pope Gregory IV moved the church’s “Feast of All Saints” from the spring to November 1st to replace the observance of SOWEN.
All Saint’s Day, is still observed today by many people. The night before, which featured a sacred vigil in church, became known as “All Hallow’s Eve,” or Halloween.
The pagan celebration of the Horned god during the 7th Century is a practice which contributed to the Halloween ritual.
In this magical rite pagans would dance about in a circle, barking and howling at midnight, using a bronze sickle, they would gather herbs.
Spells were cast on enemies, also pagans bewitched individuals by sticking thorns into a wax model of the person.
They also brewed love potions and concocted poisons, The skins of snakes, and saliva and intestines of animals were dropped in their brews. The wings and entrails of bats also went into their brews.
In the tenth century, King Edgar of England admitted that witchcraft was more popular than Christianity. It was then that its followers became known as witches.
While All Hallows’ Eve originally had been a strictly Christian holiday, the pagan influence from earlier traditions gradually crept in while the Catholic Church’s influence waned.
Soon Halloween became a secular observance, and many customs and practices developed.
The 14th century saw the rise of suspicion and occult practices.
Witchcraft grew and witches held weekly meetings called Eshats and several times a year they gathered for their Sabbath. Witch couples were married at these ceremonies. New witches were indoctrinated into their covens on Haloween.
This is how Halloween became known as a witch’s holiday.
Dressing in costumes and going door-to-door comes from a much later tradition in the British Isles, a practice not restricted to Halloween.
Masked players would go from house-to-house, putting on a simple drama or musical performance in return for food and drink. Often these performances had Christian themes.
The “trick-or-treat” custom we know today is thoroughly American in origin.
In the nineteenth century, when Irish and Scotch immigrants brought their Halloween traditions to North America, the night became an occasion for pranks and mischief. Vandals would go through the night, soaping windows, overturning outhouses, and pulling gates from their hinges.
These pranks were playfully said to be the work of witches and ghosts, but by the 1920s the joke wasn’t funny anymore. The damage to neighbourhoods was mounting.
To counteract Halloween vandalism, community clubs like the Boy Scouts began to organize safer alternatives.
Children were encouraged to go door-to-door and receive treats from homeowners and merchants, keeping the troublemakers away.
By the 1930s, the practice was popular throughout North America and young voices crying, “Trick or treat!” were echoing through streets.
In this way, a combination of pagan, Christian, and civic elements formed the format of Halloween that exists today.
Today For many Halloween is an opportunity for pagan and Satanic celebration.
Today Halloween is the witches high Sabbath where animal and human sacrifice occurs.
Today “modern” witches honor “their Master Satan” and offer him sacrifice.
Today children go Trick or Treat.
Today children dress up as demons.
Today the Symbols of Halloween- Focus on fear, evil, terror, death
Creatures of the night, deception, the strange, the fearful, the evil supernatural, all characterize Halloween, the celebration of death.
Halloween promotes everything evil.
In recent years, a renewed interest in the old pagan beliefs has blossomed in North America and Britain.
Now “popular entertainment”, includes television shows like “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” a show that features a teenage psychic called “That’s so Raven”. Or the series “Charmed” about three sisters who are all witches.
One of the best selling authors, JK Rowling, famous for her “Harry Potter” books that glorify witchcraft have become multi-million block-busters at the cinema
Some would call this Popular entertainment…
Popular entertainment?
These all have one thing in common – they make occult themes and witchcraft seem fun and acceptable.
Halloween has become strongly associated with the occult and a preoccupation with the dead—two influences that Scripture and the church have always warned against.
Do you believe in the devil, in demons, and demon possession?
According to a recent Gallup Poll taken among 1,236 adults more than ½ believe in the devil (or 55%, with 8% not sure and 37% who don’t believe the evil one exists).
One in ten people surveyed claim to have talked to the devil.
Some 49% believe that people are at times possessed by the devil, and 22% are not sure, leaving 35% of the population who do not believe in demonic possession.”
We can say with accuracy that Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the disciples believed in demons and dealt with them. Remember the story of Legion.
If you are one of the ones that does not believe in the demonic realm just look around you.
Have you noticed the latest movies coming out, the TV shows, the incidents of bizarre things in the paper, serial killers, secular Satanic music,
The list goes on -- just open your spiritual eyes and ears at Halloween.
The Satanic realm is present!
You see, Satan is not a joke. The Devil is real.
Though the Bible clearly states that God is the world’s highest authority, He allows Satan a certain amount of power.
With God’s permission, the evil in this world is under Satan’s control. This is why the apostle Paul said, in Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Satan was the first one in history to openly defy God.
He also started a way of life that was self-centred and rejected God’s authority.
That marked the birth of sin, which is nothing more than rebellion against God. Today sin affects the entire human race.
We are all guilty, and therefore we all deserve sin’s penalty. “For the wages of sin is death....” – but the free gift of God to those who believe in Jesus is salvation, eternal life, a place in heaven.
There are a number of reasons why we, as Christians should not celebrate Halloween:
I. Because It Glorifies Death.
II. Because It Honours Satan and Demons.
IV. Because God is not glorified by Halloween.
I. Because It Glorifies Death.
First it is important for us to realize that death does not come from God.
Death is a result of man’s own choosing. The Bible clearly states in Genesis 2:16-17
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
God told Adam the only thing he was not to do was to eat from this tree, but if he did, he would die.
Adam was just like you and I, he had to touch and taste, the untouchable.
How many of you when you see a sign that say’s, “Wet Paint” go over and touch it to check if it really is wet.
Adam made a decision to eat and Romans 5:12 tells us the result of his actions, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”
Adam represented all of mankind and when he took and ate, God’s perfect creation became saturated with sin and it is because of sin we die.
God is not the cause of death, man is.
Death is an enemy.
We are in a battle with an enemy called death.
But why is death our enemy?
because it destroys life, it takes life away, whereas God is the Creator and Author of life.
In God’s original creation there was no sin or pain, disease or death, remember man chose to sin.
The Bible teaches that death is the enemy of mankind.
1 Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
Christ was subject to the great enemy of man: death.
Death is the last enemy that will be destroyed.
Death has an end; death will cease to be; the reign of death will be stopped.
Man shall be delivered once-for-all from death.
Death will be swallowed up in victory.
Listen to these verses from the bible:
Isaiah 25:8 “he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken”.
Hosea 13:14 ““I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”.
1 Corinthians 15:54 “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”.
2 Timothy 1:10 “[God’s purpose and grace] is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”.
Revelation 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”.
PRAISE GOD!
So as Christians we should not celebrate Halloween:
I. Because It Glorifies Death.
and II. Because It Honours Satan and Demons.
God is not honoured on Halloween.
God is not even mentioned.
Satan, witches and demons are honoured.
The Bible teaches that Satan and demons are the enemies of God and man.
1 Peter 5:8. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Satan’s purpose is power and worship, to receive as much of the power and worship of the universe as possible (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-17). He goes about this in many ways.
He opposes and disturbs God’s work in the world.
He discourages believers through various strategies.
He arouses God’s justice against people by leading people to sin and to deny and rebel against God.
And when they do, God’s justice has to act and judge people to the fate of their choice: that of living with Satan eternally.
God has judged and condemned Satan for rebelling against God.
Satan does all he can to get back at God.
The best way he can do this is to turn the hearts of people away from God and lead them to sin and to follow the way of evil.
But listen, Christ has broken Satan’s power!
Christ has broken Satan’s power!
By never giving in to the devil’s temptation (Matthew 4:1-11) and by never sinning (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ overcame sin. He was righteous; He was perfect.
Christ has broken Satan’s power!
By destroying the devil’s power of death. Christ was not held by physical or spiritual death (Hebrews 2:14-15). He arose and ascended to God’s right hand.
It is for this reason that the Bible says “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4); and again, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
All Halloween celebrations glorify Satan because they come from paganism.
Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:20. “the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons”
As Christians we should not celebrate Halloween:
Because God is not glorified by Halloween.
God says,“I hate every false way.”Psalm119:104.
God does not hate mankind, but He hates man’s evil ways
Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
Halloween and its activities are not praiseworthy.
Is this something Christians should want to participate in, or allow our children to “celebrate” if real witches and satanists are celebrating it?
Witch’s and Satanist love Halloween.
They get a lot of media coverage and it promotes their beliefs into mainstream society.
The best part about it is for them, is their belief’s are pushed at people under the guise of innocent fun. The kids in the costumes, the trick or treating for sweets. It all seems to be for fun.
But the Bible says, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
Satan is a master at deceiving people into doing things that seem innocent and look fun.
The Bible still commands Christians, “come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing (2 Cor 6:17).”
Satan has convinced many Christians to go along with every secular activity the world comes up with.
Halloween is not innocent. Halloween Emphasizes Death.
While researching Halloween for this sermon I found a letter from a woman called Ann Landers to an Newspaper.
The heading of her letter was “Parents must tackle Halloween violence.”
She wrote, “I heard something today that made my hair stand on end. I hope you will deal with it in your column because it is a symptom of a problem that warrants deep concern.
Last October, a primary school teacher asked her students to write a short essay on what they would like to do most to celebrate Halloween. Eighty percent of her 9 year-olds expressed the wish to `kill somebody.’”
That is not innocent fun. That is the power of Satan at work in the minds of children. This letter was right on target.
Halloween is desensitizing us and our children by glorifying violence, death, mutilation and gore.
Halloween places such an emphasis on murder, gore, violence, and fear.
But The Bible proclaims that, “God has not given to us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).”
Halloween emphasizes witchcraft and spirit worship. But the Bible says, “do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of others (Deut 18:9).”
JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter, popular Harry Potter, supposedly harmless Harry Potter literally teaches our children that witchcraft is acceptables.
But I say to you that God was the Potter (Jer 18) before Harry ever came along.
I wonder what it will take to get Christians to wake up to the reality that witchcraft and Halloween are not innocent.
Maybe we think Halloween is innocent because we close our ears to such realities.
We don’t want to hear about the truth about Halloween because it means we will have to change our behavior.
Ask police officers and they will tell you that graveyard desecration is becoming a big problem in some areas on Halloween. That’s not innocent.
Last year a pumpkin was dropped from a bridge on a motorway onto a passing car below. It crashed through the driver’s window and killed her.
All for a “good laugh.” That’s not innocent fun.
Evangelist Dave Benoit often speaks on the occult and Satanism. He shared that one mother found a diary called, “The Book of Shadows” in her son’s room.
She flipped through the pages and found the words,
“Last year I stole a car at Halloween and ran over a kid and killed him.
This year at Halloween I plan to do the same thing.”
The words he wrote in his diary were true. He is now in prison.
You may say, “Most children just go and get sweets.
They aren’t involved in those things.”
Seemingly innocent things often lead to things much worse.
When I was a child I didn’t have Christian parents to warn me, or a church to tell me the realities of Halloween.
I wasn’t taught about the truth of satanic influence.
As a child I was never told we are wrestling, “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph 6:12).”
Paul said, “Abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Thess 5:22).”
Halloween is more than just the appearance of evil. It is evil.
Halloween is a day that honors Satanism, witchcraft, demons, death, fear, idolatry, and immorality; everything God’s Word stands against.
I don’t have any desire to enter into the worship of false gods nor honor the devil.
I hope after considering this message you will agree and decide NOT TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN.
Let’s practice Ephesians 5:11, “...have NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them.”
God is not honored by celebrating Halloween.
The Bible teaches this
We have been given a choice.
We have to choose. We cannot straddle the fence. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters (Matt 6:24).”
He also said, “A house divided cannot stand (Matt 12:25).”
We have a choice to choose light over darkness.
Wherever there is darkness we should provide the light.
Well, Halloween is full of darkness so we are providing light through worshiping Christ.
Explain to your family why you are not celebrating Halloween.
Tell them Halloween doesn’t glorify God and that you are going to celebrate God.
Halloween is a strategic time for the church to send a clear message to the world.
We don’t have to do what you are doing in order to have fun.
We will not be deceived. Halloween is not innocent.
Since we are given the choice to participate in something that will glorify God why would we still choose to be involved in Halloween?
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
It’s our job to teach children to have biblical convictions. We are to TEACH them.
Why can’t we go trick or treating?
Because we are Christians and we would rather celebrate Christ.
But all the other kids are going trick or treating...
First of all, not all the other kids are going. Second, that is a bad reason to let your kids go. If you do that they will be following other kids into trouble the rest of their youth.
They will grow up giving in to all kinds of peer pressure.
Our kids should be leading and influencing instead of being influenced.
When the Bible says, “Train up a child” it means to sit and instruct them in what is right.
There is no reason for a Christian to participate in Halloween.
In conclusion: I hope your desire is that of James, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” (James 4:7-8).
On Halloween we can show we are resisting the devil.
And we can draw near to God.
Make the right choice today and choose to put sin aside and follow Jesus
