FROM ONE NEWS NOW/AFA

Halloween has no place in the life of a Christian


Date: 10/7/2010 11:37:18 AM


Why is Halloween Not Good For Us?

Roy Wikoff October 7, 2010

1 Thess. 5:22, tells us to “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” So please wake up Christian Church, listen to God’s Word. This is a night of evil and those who love the Lord should have nothing to do with it. But the church and its members have embraced it as a fun time and do not see it for what it really is.

Halloween has never been a Christian holiday, and has no place in the life of a born again Christian. As we study the history of this day we find that its roots come from paganism, Satanism, Heathenism, and the occult. The current modern view of this day is no better than its earlier incarnations.

The festival of death marks the Celtic (pronounced KEL’ tic) New Year and goes back to a time when celebrating the end of the growing season was important to everyone in Ireland. So the god of the Celtics was to call up the spirits of the wicked dead who had died during the past year. It is reported (either true or false) that other so-called evil spirits arose and went about the countryside harassing people. So history teaches that the Celtics expected to be harassed by evil ghosts and demons on October 31st. Bonfires were lit to guide these so called demons to their own towns and of course to ward off evil spirits.

It was not fun and games to them. Our modern view of this evil day is represented in stores and television by ghosts, witches and all sorts of displays of carnage.

So where does our trick or treating get its start? Let’s talk about the Druids, who were the priests of the day for the Celtics and members of pagan orders in Britain, Ireland and Gaul. From these Druid priests who went from door to door demanding certain foods and anyone who refused was then cursed by them for the next year. So as it went, the Druids would hollow out large turnips and then carve demon faces on them as charms to protect them from the evil they would summon. Each Druid priest assumed that a demon spirit guided them personally and they resided in these turnips. It was his little god, so to speak.

Fortune tellers and those who practiced divination found that they had their greatest success on these nights as well. They even called on Satan to bless their efforts.

Several centuries before Christ, sacrifices were made to the gods, especially the god of death, Sam Hain (pronounced Sah Ween). Sacrifices all the way from vegetable to human were offered. This was a very gruesome event that many in that day thought would protect them from evil and the demons. This practice still goes on in some areas of the world today. They believed Samhain was a time when the division between the two worlds became very thin, when hostile supernatural forces were active and ghosts and spirits were free to wander as they wished.

To the Celtics, the bonfire represented the sun and was used to aid the Druid in his fight with dark powers. The term bonfire comes from the words "bone fire," literally meaning the bones of sacrificed animals, sometimes human, were piled in a field with timber and set ablaze. On Samhain, all fires, except those of the Druids, were extinguished and households were levied a fee to relight their holy fire which burned at their altars. During the Festival of Samhain, fires would be lit which would burn all through the winter and sacrifices would be offered to the gods on the fires. This practice of burning humans was stopped around 1600, and an effigy was sometimes burned instead.

When Christianity spread to parts of Europe, instead of trying to abolish these pagan customs, people tried to introduce ideas which reflected a more Christian world-view. Halloween has since become a confusing mixture of traditions and practices from pagan cultures and Christian tradition. Even today we find many churches who have decided to do some type of anti-halloween event such as fall festivals at their churches and even let the small children dress up as Bible characters. Such confusing activities tell our children this practice is okay. When they go out to their schools and homes, it is hard to tell the difference from church practices and the October 31st event. (Jeremiah Project web site)

The festival of death has pretty much survived all the efforts of the church to stamp it out. A counterfeit for this time of the year is giving in to the time of halloween. Satan has deluded the saints into believing they can somehow circumvent the evil by playing along in some small ways.

Today’s present day celebration is bigger than Christmas in stores and in the minds of most children. Isn’t the theme of this day one of evil, death, fear and threats? We see the stores with supposed fun stuff like witches, ghosts, skeletons and monsters and we just take it all in stride as just plain fun. Since when have these things ever really been fun? Many will say, “We don’t take it seriously.” But satan does and so does God. What about churches who build house of horror in the fellowship halls and think that this does not lead to confusion on the parts of our children?

So wake up church, and let us never, ever embrace anything, other than the Church of God and the precepts of faith set up by our Savior Jesus Christ.



Sources:

Standard Reference Work; Collier’s; Illustrated Work Book; The Columbia Encyclopedia and World Book.



On-line references from Jeremiah project dot com: www.jeremiahproject.com