What Iswrong With Hallloween?

What’s Wrong with Halloween?" Eph 5:11-17 - Deut 18:9-12

Many Christians will allow and even encourage their children to pay respect to the devil on October 31 WITHOUT REALLY KNOWING IT! As far as retail sales go, Halloween is second only to Christmas. This year a conservative estimate is that Americans will spend $3 billion on Halloween items and activities. As much as $1.8 billion of this $3 billion goes to buy candy, and $1 billion is spent on costumes. All the other decorations and things make up the other hundreds of millions of dollars. The average household will spend an average of $81 a piece on Halloween. Most of this is spent on candy and decorations. I heard that up to $50 a house will be spent on decorations alone.

The question many Christians ask, "What’s wrong with Halloween?" We will find answers to that today from the Word of God. What do you think about when you hear the word "Halloween" Most of us reminiscence about our own childhood memories of this very celebrated holiday. You say, "I did it as a kid and it was fun", Besides, I don’t let my kids dress in scary costumes as little princess, superman, snow white, etc. So what’s so wrong with Halloween?

Let us look at WHY Christians should not participate or allow their children to participate in this OCCULT holiday.

This is the first reason why we shouldn't keep Halloween. It adds nothing good to our character. It's simply a waste. It's worthless.

The second reason why we need to avoid Halloween like the plague is that God Himself calls it an abomination. DT 12:29-32.

We will look at 1. The Origin of Halloween. 2. The symbols of Halloween. 3. The Occult Practices of Halloween. 4. A Christian’s View of Halloween.

Where did Halloween originate from?

1. THE ORIGIN OF HALLOWEEN

The custom of Halloween is traced back to the DRUID FESTIVAL OF THE DEAD, sometime around 100 A.D. It was commonly referred to as the SAMHAIN festival a Celtic celebration that focused on death. The Celts in Western Europe believed that ghosts and other spirit-beings visited on Samhain Eve, OCT 31st. They also believed that the barrier between the physical world and spirit world was at its weakest. The ancient Druids believed that Samhain "the Lord of Death" gathered souls of the evil dead who had been condemned to enter the bodies of animals. Good people’s souls were reincarnated as humans. The Druids would then offer sacrifices, prayers, and gifts to Samhain, attempting to lighten the punishment of the evil dead. The Druids would even pray for and to the dead in Roman temples trying to contact them through the spirit world. We get the practices of séances and now have the unscriptural teaching of purgatory in the Catholic Church. But what does the Bible say about this: Luke 16:22 this is the story of the rich man who died, looked up from hell. Look at verse 26, "they cannot pass to you". The only holding place for the unbeliever is hell and they await the Great White Thrown Judgment. Well that is the ancient side of it but what about in America? It did not come to America until the mid-1800. The little pilgrim children never learned to say ’trick or treat’ When he was a boy, George Washington never went out hunting for candy on Oct 31st and President Lincoln never dressed up as a pirate or ghost. This holiday was not nationally known until a group of immigrants from the Celtic areas of Europe brought the old customs into America. However in the 1950’s, the holiday as we know it was proclaimed a children’s holiday, a day of fun, dress-up, and candy.

2. THE SYMBOLS OF HALLOWEEN. Everyone thinks it is so cute for kids to dress-up like a ghost a frightening dead character. But where did that come from and what did it represent? The Celts hid themselves in ghoulish costumes or disguises so that wandering spirits would mistake them for one of their own and pass by without incident. What about black cats? These were considered reincarnated evil souls that had the ability to divine or "see into" the future. Jack-O-Lanterns were carved out and a candle put in to try and frighten away evil spirits from the home or they were showing sympathy and submission to the evil spirits. Bonfires came from the practice of "bonfires" which was a large fire containing bones of those that were being sacrificed to the god of Death, Samhain. Skeletons, Skulls, corpses were all part of celebrating the ritual of the dead. Bats and owls were said to have power to communicate with the dead since they were reincarnated evil spirits. Ghosts, demons, goblins were thought by the Celtics to have special freedom to travel among the living and frighten them into submission to their will. The practice of "TRICK OR TREAT" came about by giving treats to frustrated spirits of the dead so they would feel welcome and if they didn’t feel welcome, then came the so called "tricks". These are but a few of the symbols associated with this holiday