Greetings all and Happy Sabbath! Just a quick reminder to set your clocks back tomorrow night.

Halloween. Ughhh….

I’m assuming you all feel about Halloween the same way I do (if not, we should probably talk…). It’s a terrible holiday based in pagan traditions and a celebration of evil. I can’t wait until Sunday morning when it’s over.

Beyond the obvious, have you ever thought about the problem that Halloween represents? In many ways, it’s a model of how we tend to justify sin.

How our minds work

Most Christians acknowledge Halloween has dubious origins and very questionable practices today. But people have found a way to clean it up to make it seem more innocent. Trick-or-treat for the kids, fun parties for adults and some scary movies for the sake of entertainment.

In short, people know it’s bad, but they’ve made excuses to participate in sin. Why? Because it looks and feels good.

The real issue

The real problem here is one of temptation. All the free candy, raucous parties and other ‘fun’ aspects appeal to our base nature. Thus, we’re tempted to succumb to the temptations of those things and sin.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how Halloween is simply one example of a bigger problem we all face: temptation. But more than that, we’ll look at some practical ways in which we can resist temptations and the sin they lead to.