The Problem of Halloween

 

Halloween is a holiday that is steeped in darkness. The Occult profess that it is their Easter and Christmas combined, and Anton LeVey, Founder of the Church of Satan said, “I am glad Christian parents let their children worship the devil one night of the year.” Granted it is dubious to trust the word of someone who venerates the Father of Lies (John 8:44). Churches have had an uneasy relationship with Halloween. The term Halloween was an attempt at the Roman Church to Christianize a Pagan holiday called Samhain, and a time when witches worshipped their gods. Halloween means “All Hallowed Eve,” (Hallowed means Holy, as in Hallowed Be Thine Name) because the next day, November 1st,  is “All Saint’s Day.” Though the attempt to Christianize Halloween did not meet with the same success of Christmas. 

Since then churches have adopted one of two typical responses to Halloween. The first is to ban the holiday, and consider it a Satanic feast that no Christian should participate or imitate in any form. While this is a very puritanical approach to many, it is the safest, because it not clear what customs, rites, rituals, and etc in Halloween are from pagans, satanists, and occultists. The second is the watered down version of Halloween called a Harvest Festival, in which youths are allowed to go to church grounds or a venue rented for the event, can dress us as heroes and non-Witchy villains, play carnival games, and get candy. This attempt is to give youths less of a sense of being pariah among their friends who celebrate by Trick or Treating, that is going door to door in their neighborhood to collect candy. More strict Baptist circles that do Harvest Festivals will only allow you to be a Biblical Character, so you have to select from the Bible. Though I wonder what would happen if two kids wanted to be the sorcerers Jannes and Jambre who opposed Moses, especially if they have seen the Prince of Egypt Movie with its “you are playing with the big boys now.” Where to draw the line on this holiday becomes complicated for us as Christians. The US version of the Halloween it is akin to going to Comicon combined with a Renaissance Faire but you go to door to door instead going to booths at fair grounds. 

The origin of dressing up is superstitious, originally people dressed up as demons, spirits, and witches to fool the spirits as they appeared at this time when it was believed the veil or chasm between the spirit realm and the physical became thin. So the origin of the dressing up is antichrist, because it was trusting in fooling demons by looking like demons, which makes about as much sense as Gothic churches putting demonic gargoyles on their roofs to ward off demons. 

Those involved in Deliverance Ministry like Vlad Savchuk, who I think is rather balanced, advises against participating in Halloween, and his reasonings are traditional and those I have listed, but also one that I thought was poignant, “Some holidays we can redeem, but are we really redeeming Halloween? It is getting darker and darker, with things getting more demonic each year.” I thought that was a very astute observation, that while Christmas has this light to it, of our Lord Jesus Christ, despite Santa Claus and mythological aspects trying to overshadow the Manger; in the end everyone ends up singing “Silent Night.” Halloween in contrast draws out the dark side, and that it has so many traditions steeped in occultism, Satanism, and the demonic, we as Christians have to ask ourselves how can we participate?, “No, but 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 from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.” (1 Corinthians 10:20-21). Then there is the issue of that most people will only ever  read us Christians to see Christ, and if we are participating in fruits of darkness or imitations of it, will that not cause confusion?, “Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them,” (Ephensians 5:11), and “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV). I mean the older word of the Apostle even says, “do not even do the appearance of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). Sadly a lot of translations have removed apperarance, and so unless you have a King James Bible, you will not know the verse that way. 

Generally the Church splits on this problem of Halloween. You have those labeled “legalists” as forgoing the holiday altogether, and the other more “moderate” or “lukewarm” Christians thinking there is nothing wrong with their kids dressing up as Jedi, The Avengers, and etc to get some candy and hang out with friends. The answer of how to respond is very difficult, because some people do not at all participate in the more demonic roots of the holiday, and yet even the dressing up was talismic in its origins. I think the question we have to ask is what legacy do we want to leave to our children and to the world? Do we conform to the holiday, fit in, and participate in what we might view as having harmless fantasy, or do we make a stand, and say this holiday is not for saints, and show the world that Christians do not conform, “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2). We have to decide in the cognitive dissonance that Halloween illicits are we “going to change out beliefs to suit the behavior, or conform our behavior to our beliefs?” The truth is its easier to do the former, but once you start down that path, you open yourself up to making changes again and again until like Pelagius, you have thrown out most of the Bible. And then you have no compass, no rudder, and no guide in the darkness of this world to test what is True or not with. Yes the Holy Spirit will guide you, but if you do not have the Scriptures firmly as your basis, you don’t even know who the Holy Spirit is. 

I know we do not want to disappoint kids, or make them pariahs. But think about it this way, if you forbid Halloween, cause of its spiritual dangers, you are setting precedent, for when you forbid illegal substances and drugs, and other things that are bad for them. Just because their friends get high doesn’t mean you endorse it, so why would you a holiday that is spiritually evil? Is not your soul precious, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? What could you give to get back your soul? ” (Mark 8:36-37). 

You are teaching your children an important lesson of a healthy spirit is important, more important than caving to peer pressure. They may buck you later, even secretly in their teens go out trick or treating, feeling they missed out on something, but you will be giving them a firm foundation of saying “this is unhealthy” so that if say they end up around witches and other evil things, they will say, “my parents warned me.. they tried to protect me.” 

I am going to give an example, my mother banned The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at one point, and as kid I did not understand, I was upset, but I had no choice and obeyed. I just learned that in that show, which uses the original footage from Japan, Rita Rupulsa is the daughter of Satan himself, and the stuff she is saying when she chants to make the Green Ranger is true Satanic stuff they dubbed over! My Mother knew, I did not, she protected me, especially when the Power Rangers got spirit guides and spirit animals in the Motion Picture which is also toxic spirituality and false. We should not make parents feel guilty for guarding the souls of their children, 

“O be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little eyes what you see

For the Father up above

Is looking down in love

So, be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little ears what you hear

O be careful little ears what you hear

For the Father up above

Is looking down in love

So, be careful little ears what you hear” (Song by Cedarmont Kids ‧ 1995). 

An alternative I can support and tell you I liked was to instead of Halloween celebrate Reformation Day, October 31st is the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis to Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany and started us Christians getting free of he Roman Catholic Spiritual Captivity. A way a Church I know did this, was they had big feast like Thanksgiving, bonefires, corn maze, games for kids, and allowed people to dress up as knights, Martin Luther, and anything from that time period like a Renaissance Faire. The goal was to remember the good thing that happened on October 31st. You could say but that is still dressing up, true, but the spirit of it is not yo ward off demons or go trick or treating, but to get into that period of history, like a Renaissance Faire. I know that seems perhaps like a cop out, but it was a way to give youths something to do that wasn’t just Water Downed Halloween Harvest Festivals at churches; and taught them about what did happen on Halloween that made it so we Christians are free of the Roman tyranny of warped & toxic spirituality, Canon Law, and the Papacy.  Amen.