Halloween: A Christian Perspective
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. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in [1] the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 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. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
14 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. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."
17 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."
21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?" 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken
presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
Let’s face it. English is an odd language.
There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger,
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England.
French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted,
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What in the world does a humanitarian eat!? Humans?
English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn’t a race at all).
· Halloween: a human invention
My point in bringing this thought in is just that – Halloween is just a human invention, just like our English language, and like most human inventions, it takes some pretty weird twists. I can just see the Wright brothers who invented the first flying machine must be turning in their graves to see how their invention is now used as warplanes that could drop bombs from the sky. Look at Matt.15:18-20 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ’unclean.’ 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what make a man ’unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ’unclean.’ " Anything that’s evil, we like to blame it on something else e.g. Satan, Islamic fundamentalism, communism, insensitive government cutbacks, lousy environment, green house gases but so rarely do we look into the human hearts. All the evil practices from Halloween do not come from the devil or angels. It is most definitely from a human source. Let’s face it, the truth hurts…
The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 (AMP): 9The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?
What about the old days, when they do not have electricity to light up the night? As fall gives way to winter, snow arrives days grow darker sooner, colder, oohh…howling winds, creepy, scary… A gust of cold icy wind blows, and the door of your hut slams shut BANG!, aarrgh…. The spirits must be angry! so naturally folks get afraid, so they made sacrifices to the gods, the spirits, they light up the night sky with bonfires to ward away the evil …
And in ancient Europe, some took advantage of this fear and they made a killing by collecting “treats” (why we get the practice of trick or treat) from fearful people to ward off evil and some practice human sacrifice to appease the spirit world who controls the eerie darkness of the night, wahh haahaa! FEAR of the unknown – that is what creeps people out - it seems is the way of this world… so the human heart looks for an answer to a fearful creepy world? Look around, is it not so?
· Horror’s source: the human heart
Look at the horror that comes from the human heart – the Sept.11 attack, the sniper attacks in Washington DC area, the mass murders allegedly committed by the Port Coquitlam pig farmer, Paul Bernado & Karla Holmoka, Hitler… Can we set the record straight here? Are we agreed that evil comes not from a day, or from any other source but from within the sick human heart?
“The devil made me do it” is one of the oldest excuses in the book. Let me put it this way, Halloween has no strange magic or power behind it except for what we choose to believe in our heads what Halloween is all about. It is like this story told by a grandmother:
On Halloween night my three-year-old grandson, Brian, couldn’t sleep because he was convinced ghosts were in his room. "It’s all in your head," his mother reassured him. "Now go to sleep." Before she got down the stairs, his voice called out again. "Mom, the ghosts have left my head and are running around my room!"
SOURCE: Ann C. Ayler, North, Virginia.
The human head can think up some pretty scary stuff, couldn’t it? Look at the our movies – human inspired horror shows from The Exorcist, The Ring, The Twilight Zone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-files…Think with me, how do the ancients think? Many of us today even grow up being afraid of the dark, right? So we need to take a good look at the human heart, do we not?
· Halloween’s hold: FEAR
It is the fear that grips the human heart – the fear of death, the unknown, that puts fuel to the fire of human sacrifice. Perhaps the gods will cease to be angry then and keep the volcano from erupting and we will be alive. It is the fear that drove people without the security of the love of God to do detestable stuff listed in Deut. 18:10. Without the clear voice of God their fearful imaginations figure out ways to get rid of fear, so they sought the hear from the supernatural through mediums, witchcraft etc.
I grew up like that. My Chinese tradition taught me to bribe the spirits and the gods, with sticky sweet gooey stuff on the day of the dead, so that they don’t tell on us. In other words, what drives my tradition to “celebrate” is fear and out of that fear comes the human solution to control the spirits… i.e. the gooey sticky sweet stuff, to tempt the spirits and shut the spirits’ mouth up, so they can’t tell on us to the head god. And when I think of that reasoning, it is rather silly, isn’t it? Are the gods dumb or what?
So the Bible wisely says to us do not learn to imitate their ways (Deut.18:9). Why do folks want to do stuff as described in Deut.18:10-11?
Is that not how it all began… The fear that the dead, evil spirits, ghosts. Goblins, roam earth and are out get us! The Druids in Celtic Europe masquerade as evil spirits (costume idea) coupled with the silly belief that by wearing masks you can confuse ghosts/spirits that they are on the same side so won’t bother the living. Again, are the spirits dumb, that masks and costumes confound them?
So we know the truth is that Halloween’s deepest roots are decidedly human and come for the fear-filled practices of paganistic pre-Christian Europe, and unlike Christmas and Easter, it has kept those pagan roots, despite its now Christian name. Christians didn’t simply speak out; they tried to institute a Christian alternative. That is why the church decided to have “All Hallow’s Day” (November 1) and it was a celebration of all "the holies" - those people who had died faithful to Christ. How do u reach a people with fear, the church says give them faith – faith that conquers death, faith that has resurrection life, faith that curbs wild imaginations. It was designed a festival celebrating Faith against fear!
But fear is gripping our culture once again… Fear of death – a while back email going around internet if you use underarm deodorant you will die from cancer. But last week came across article in our CBC saying that a study has been done, and there’s no truth to it. So if u are concerned with BO, it is safe to use. Urban legends and superstitions abound and it plays on people’s fears.
See around Vancouver – are not the houses around here beginning to look like fortresses, with iron bars, security bars, burglar alarms. Do we not hear the sound of sirens nightly? Is there not a sense of fear that’s creeping people out. I am the block watch captain in my neighbourhood and I can sense some people are totally freaked out by their own neighbours. In our city recently, someone is shot and killed in a hail of bullets in a Burnaby backyard. Then there is reportedly that string of attacks against Asian women here in our city. The case of Burnaby’s Wei Amanda Zhao is sending shivers. Many say they are afraid to be alone or go out at night. Then, will there be more terrorist attacks, where will they strike? They have struck places we think no acts of terrorism would be carried out NY city, Bali…
Yet we humans have a fascination with horror… We see that in the proliferation of horror movies, with serial killers, monsters, ghost ships and haunted videos coming at this time of the year. And our imaginations have little to go on as we are fed these images. So we let the movies become our guide in our cultural landscape into the unknown. But I trust we are not that dumb, to have the movies be our guides to truth. Hello? Movies are make-belief fantasy! There must be more to life and the spiritual world than Hollywood’s take and guesses at what happens in the fearful unknown world that seems inescapably dark and sinister.
A man stood on the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night in the middle of a storm. The night was rolling and no cars passed. The storm was so strong, he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly he saw a car come towards him and stop.
The guy, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door to realize that nobody was behind the wheel. The car started slowly. The guy looked at the road and saw a curve coming his way.
Scared, he started praying, and begged for his life. He hadn’t come out of shock, when just before he hit the curve, a hand appeared through the window and moved the wheel. The guy, paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appeared every time before a curve.
The guy gathered strength, got out of the car and ran to the nearest town. Wet and in shock, he ran into a cantina and asked for two shots of tequila, and started telling everybody about the horrible experience he went through. A silence enveloped everybody when they realized the guy was crying and wasn’t drunk.
About half an hour later, two guys walked into the same cantina, and one said to the other. "Look, that’s the character who climbed into the car while we were pushing!"
Are we going to led our fears and wild imaginations of the ghosts of Halloween control us?
How does one take a genuinely Christian view today? Some have sought to ban the holiday, but that plays into our fears and feeds our fears even more. Celebrate it? Some churches have built hell houses, a Christianized version of a haunted house that depicts hell as place of horror and torture using it as an evangelistic tool.
1. REMEMBER GOD: There is no other god like our God.
Here the Israelites have experienced God powerfully by delivering them with miracles and power out of Egypt and now they are warned not go the way of the nations whom they have conquered. The nations around them go to occultic sources (Deut.18:12-13) diminishes God. When we go to the occult, we are saying God I don’t want to hear from u and I’ve got better sources of info, more powerful than u. Can u see how it trivializes the worship of God by replacing it with the fear of other spiritual entities, as if the other spirits are as powerful as the LORD!
There is no other God and for Israel to go that route is surely a statement that they have forgotten by His mighty hand He has conquered the powers of Egypt and all their opponents! Now they want to go that way, to God, this is a real insult and just unthinkably brainless!
God has raised up prophets like Moses, fulfilled ultimately in Jesus, but does anyone get it (Deut.18:15)? Why choose to listen to the other "powers"? How quickly we forget?
Now today, colored by Hollywood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, teenage slasher films, evil seems cool - some can’t tell what’s real, what’s not,… who are we listening to when we evaluate spiritual powers? Make belief world of Hollywood?
Now people are buying into psychics, occult fairs, cults abound - they are not a novelty thing any more. It’s bandied about as legit! In a culture where everything goes, we are swamped by false claims, cures, gurus, power encounters stories and it seems we have little to fall back on to evaluate these claims. Who are we listening to?
Eastern mysticism - I grew up with it! ALL I know about is again that word "fear." Who gets rich with it? The temples and the mediums as they manipulate others for donations to curry the favor of the gods and spirits. I saw people spending money buying up the joss sticks, hell-bank notes, giving temple donations for what? To get rid of fear! And guess who profits?
Rational people are afraid of unknown again – becoming superstitious, buying books on fung shui, filling up our e-mail with urban legends, and have we not seen how our cool ball players even succumbed to such irrational beliefs, eat chicken dinners to get base hits??? Are we so easily duped into thinking superstition really works? When are we gonna be real and stop fooling themselves? Who are we, by our choice, listening to?
2. REMEMBER HE HAS SPOKEN: God’s revealed Word is through Jesus Christ.
God has raised up proven prophets, who has revealed His truth... but do we listen? Look at the record of the true prophets of God? Has anyone proven their words were a bunch of lies from the pit of hell? Have they deceived anyone about God? If they have don’t listen to them. This past week, we’ve got confirmed reports of discovery of Jesus’ brother James’ bone box. And again the Bible’s record is proven true. But if ever the prophecies are false, the Bible says… "You must listen to him" says Deut.18:15.
Reason: fear of supernatural has caused God to raise prophets up (18:16), sinful folks can’t bear to hear from God, so God raised up prophets, but will they listen? History tell us, NO. Today this prophecy is fulfilled in the person of Jesus, the prophet in mold of Moses! But how many have listened? In a recent episode of TV show called Third Watch, a man claimed to have seen Jesus after a near death experience and from the conversation between two police characters about it, it is clear that anyone who claims to have a spiritual encounter with Jesus is quickly labelled as a nutcase heading towards the funny farm.
Today let us be informed, get the God-honest truth out by God’s revealed Word, not movies, traditions, or festivals, or any other human source. Otherwise we will stumble in fear of the bogeyman again… Sense of paralyzing fear of the unknown. We ought not see Halloween as a day of evil. The fact is everyday is evil, which the Bible says it is. Takes no rocket scientist to figure that out. Look at the everyday evil: talk of war, violence in sports like hockey, how the BC gov’t handling the money pit fast ferry, lists goes on…. Don’t make one day more evil than any other each day is evil enuff!
3. REMEMBER WHO HAS REAL POWER. Evaluate and remember who has power over death that Halloween “celebrates” (Deut.18:21-22). Note that despite all the detestable things nations did, none with all their “power” voodoo can match the power of God of Israel. If they could, they would not have enter the land God gave them….that is why instruction, God’s handing the Israelites the land and they want to get their gods, makes no sense… who has power. Good illustration: story of confrontation between Moses and magicians (exodus 7-8) Why do you suppose they could not reproduce the miracles of gnats? Read Ex.8:16-19 (NASB)
16 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, ’Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become [1] gnats through all the land of Egypt.’"
17 They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt.
18 The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast.
19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Biology of gnats, simpler life-form, surely easier to make if you have supernatural power, no??
Surely frogs more complex, snakes, bigger too.
So why can’t they make a tiny thing appear? Answer: tricks! Professional magicians today use same illusions, produce dove from thin air. Try catching a gnat, SQUISH! Right? And then try making it come out by your command. Blood, snakes, frogs but gnats no.
No way the magicians can duplicate the later miraculous signs and wonders because they knew it was by the finger of God that Moses performed his stuff!
The one who has real power, their words will come true.
Jesus said if he dies, he will be raised up in 3 days.
Did it come true? Of course!
The psychics make predictions, do all they predict come true? No way! Otherwise, they’ll be front page news! They’d found the sniper right away too! Get duped easily! People are so gullible, that’s how con artists make a living. Otherwise they will be out of work.
That is why druidism practically cease to exist after Christian missionaries begin to bring freeing message of love of God and how Christ defeats powers of death, destruction, with the real supernatural power of His resurrection life and took hold of all Celtic regions of Europe, where we find origins of Halloween.
Use their secret arts to instill fear and make others believe in them, coercion is their way!
If they had real power they would have overthrown Christian beliefs, druids would have super churches today but for all practical purposes they all cease to exist. Real supernatural power is the power of Christ. I Cor.15. make it capstone of faith! See it clearly in His defeat of death, darkness and Satan through His resurrection power! There is one who has defeated the horrors of the unknown, of death! Yeah! Judge a prophet by whether what he says come true, Jesus? Rise from dead? Did he?
Think about it if psychics are so good and powerful in predicting future, they would not need to go on tv to get people to phone in. They can just go to stockbroker, cash in on predictions, go to Casinos, horse race track, get tons of money. But they are just guessing… God’s word Deut. 18:22 clear if they can’t get it right 100%, it’s not from God!!! Or anything supernatural!
Even now, Christians affected by it: see authors sell their formulas of successful Christian growth by using formulas, unbiblical as if they were magic spells, . Poof! All troubles gone! Your church becomes perfect! Your life is heaven!! Your sickness problems solved! Drink this formula, poof you will look like Baywatch babe. Magic, superstition, words of Scrooge would be right on “Bah Humbug!”
See, we are right back to the time of irrational superstition again. Duped by magicians of Egypt again and doling out money to them, forgetting God, we cannot see how God is mightier! Are our hearts hardened like Pharaoh’s? Are we listening to the prophets of God or to deluded hearts within ourselves or to the other "powers"?
A Christian response to Halloween, I believe should be
· FAITH vs. fear: Placing trust in God who has the truth, the power to back up His supernatural claims. Who has the power over death now? See Hebrews 2:14-15 (NLT)
14Because God’s children are human beings--made of flesh and blood--Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the Devil, who had the power of death. 15Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
· PROFESS vs. Protest
we can use people’s fascination about spiritual things and with us creatively equipped with God’s word being prepared to give an answer for the hope have, we are to gently and respectfully (1 Pet.3:15). Instead of letting superstitious fear of unknown take hold. Read 1 Pet.3:15-16!
“15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear.”
Not enough just to condemn halloween folks! See it as opportunity to show the relevance of the Word of God! Or it’ll be a stumbling block, that we be seen as cheerless condemning types. Instead of protest, let ‘s profess - let’s us get real first with Christ, let us worship the Lord as the Lord of our lives!
· VICTORY Vs. Vanquished
So shall be fearful of this "holiday"? Obviously not! Christ rules! Grow strong in His grace, His word and nothing will get ya, not even the bogeyman!
Don’t have reality of joy of Christ? Lost it? Fear?
Listen again to His word.
Perhaps "Trick or treating" becomes a problem for u. Children love the adventure of going out in costumes, but some parents have rejected trick or treating entirely. They argue that no matter how universal and supposedly harmless, "blackmailing neighbors for candy" is hardly appropriate. Instead, some create a wide variety of wholesome parties. Others carefully supervise their children as they canvass the neighborhood, perhaps having them add "God bless you" to their thanks for treats. Remember, faith filled joy not fear should drive our candy giving, saying God bless you instead of BOO!
Certainly of all people, Christians should be joyful. The challenge is to use the creativity of the Creator to celebrate joyfully both the light and life He brought into this world, and His victory over evil -Joy of God’s light!
Now if u are fearful, commit your life to Christ and make a decision to have faith in Him, inHis word of freedom who sets us free from fear, let his Power supply what you lack,
Superstition got you down? believe in power of God again!
Never made a commitment to trust Jesus as God? Pray with me. With your heart, listen and believe!
