Taking The Fear Out Of Halloween

INTRO.- ILL.- One dark night two guys were walking home after a party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery. When they got to about the middle of the graveyard they were startled and stopped moving.

There was this terrifying noise, “TAP-TAP-TAP” coming from the shadows. Trembling with fear, they spotted an old man with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones.

"Holy cow Mister,” one of them said after catching his breath. “You SCARED us half to death. We thought you were a GHOST! What are you doing working here so late at night?"

"Those fools!" the old man grumbled. "They misspelled my name!!"

This is Halloween weekend. And even though I was raised in a church that preached Christ I still went “trick or treating” like most kids did. Apparently, our parents considered it to be a harmless thing to do and it was probably a whole lot safer back then than today.

Do you believe in ghosts, goblins, witches, the boogeyman, etc.?

ILL.- DO YOU AVOID BLACK CATS IN ORDER TO AVOID BAD LUCK? This belief goes back to the Middle Ages when it was thought that a black cat was the companion or mascot of a group of witches, and that it changed into a witch or Satan after seven years of service.

Therefore, people reasoned, a cat crossing one’s path might be a witch or the Devil in disguise, up to no good. It is true that the devil is up to no good, but he is not disguised as a black cat. HE IS MORE CLEVER THAN THAT.

II Cor. 11:14-15 “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness...”

Satan may well appear as a person of light, meaning someone who is godly or well meaning. How well we remember the likes of Prophet Jim Jones of the Guyana tragedy, Nov. 1978, and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians (April 19, 1993). Both of these men and many more gave a good appearance at one time, but could well have been in league with the devil!

ILL.- And here’s an interesting news item about Pepsi and the afterlife. It is said that a number of misconceptions can come when trying to translate a concept from one language to another. The Pepsi Cola company found this out when mounting an ad campaign in Taiwan. The slogan was supposed to read "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation." Unfortunately, translated into Chinese it read, "Pepsi Will Bring Your Ancestors Back From the Dead."

Needless to say the advertisements were canceled - even Pepsi couldn’t quite live up to that claim. The resurrection from the dead is possible but only through the Lord Jesus Christ!

I Thess. 4:13-14 “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”

PROP.- Let’s consider the truth of God’s Word, which will take any and all fear out of Halloween myths.

1- There are no ghosts, but there is a holy spirit

2- There are no goblins, but there is an evil spirit

3- There is no boogeyman but there is a Savior man

I. THERE ARE NO GHOSTS, BUT THERE IS A HOLY SPIRIT

A ghost is the spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to a living person and/or to haunt former habitats.

Many people tend to believe in ghosts because of movies they’ve seen over the years. Some of the more popular ones are: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts (1966), The Amityville Horror (1979), Poltergeist (1982), Ghost Dad with Bill Cosby (1990), “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze (1990), Casper (the friendly ghost, of course - 1995), and Ghost Ship (2002), etc.

It’s amazing how believable some of these movies were and are, and yet what is more amazing is how gullible people are!

ILL.- One writer asks, “Why are people so gullible? One reason is modern man’s loss of religious faith. That loss creates a vacuum ready to suck in some new form of belief. The eminent British broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge (1903 ~ 1990) had this to say on the subject, ‘One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we’ve developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity (or being open to anything). It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.’”

“Why are we so gullible? Another reason is we can’t face the truth. We’re willing to sacrifice the truth whenever it makes us feel uncomfortable. But, as Plato taught, ‘We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.’”