Are Holidays Religious?

I'm sure all of you have that it's that time of year again. Commercials have started. Walmart and the big box stores began setting up for holiday season weeks ago. It's funny, there's something they call Christmas creep, or just holiday and general creep. And now you've noticed the decorations are appearing everywhere.

And over the years, it seems that holiday decorations continue to get bigger and flashier. It makes me wonder, who in the world came up with the idea of Christmas lights for Halloween? You notice the twinkle lights, but they're orange? A few years ago was the first time I saw that. Are you kidding? Well, what amazes me is a lot of times people put up the Christmas lights, and then it takes them months to ever take them down. Would you really want to put up lights that you have to take down a month later to put up other ones, and then take them down?

Or you could just do it our way and not put it up any at all. Now, I'm not... I'd be happy to not see all the holiday decorations, but I have mixed feelings in one regard. You know, I don't care for those groups that are going around filing lawsuits to prevent the holiday decorations on public property. And I'm sure you've heard about those. It goes on every year, but every few years there's a really big name lawsuit.

It's something that gets a lot of attention. Now, these groups claim that it's about the separation of church and state. You know, that it's based on the First Amendment prohibition from Congress establishing a religion or church. I found it interesting as I was looking into some of that.

One of the foremost groups in filing these lawsuits has a name that, for me, says it all. It's called the Foundation for Freedom from Religion. Notice they're not concerned with freedom of religion in their title. They want freedom from religion. That's what really annoys me. You know, I don't personally want public displays of manger scenes or Christmas trees or any of the other stuff, but I don't like the idea of our Constitution being warped in order to eliminate them.

I'd rather it be based on the truth, especially when we consider the real history behind it. Activist groups frequently reference President Thomas Jefferson as the source for the phrase, separation of church and state. And actually, he is the source. I think it's worth noting it's not found in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights or anywhere else.

He used it in a letter that he wrote to the Baptist Convention in Connecticut in 1802. And he wrote to assure the Baptist that because of what he called a wall of separation between church and state, the government would not interfere with or inhibit their practice of religion, whether in private or public.

And that went on for years and years. That was the common interpretation. It was in 1947 that the Supreme Court reversed the common meaning of that phrase and its practice that had been in place for decades, and for the first time allowed the government to interfere with and even prohibit religious practices and expressions when occurring in public. As I said, this was a complete reversal of what the idea of separation of church and state had meant all that time.

Along with groups like the Foundation for the Freedom from Religion, the American Civil Liberties Union has brought a lot of cases to court. And I found it interesting as I looked into it that the verdicts have varied. They have trouble setting one particular standard. And believe it or not, I'm circling around. I'm going to come down in my thesis here pretty soon. And part of it is based on this, because the courts have had trouble deciding what's religious and what's not in symbolism. But one trend they've begun following is that they would forbid publicly-owned facilities from demonstrating a manger scene.

Because they say, well, you know, or what they call the Nativity scene, because that's all about Jesus. And you can't not be religious when you're talking about Jesus Christ. But many times they'll say, well, but Christmas trees, they're secular. We'll allow the Christmas trees or the wreaths. They've ruled that those are parts of American culture and historical symbols more than religious. An example of touching on a similar thing I found in a story about a memo that the president of the Florida Gulf Coast University released.

Let me read. It says, in a memo to faculty and staff a few years ago, Florida Gulf Coast University, and if you're like me, I never heard of them until their team made the basketball playoffs last spring. Suddenly, Florida Gulf Coast was known. But their president, Wilson Bradshaw, mandated that all public areas on campus remain undecorated throughout the holidays. Student, staff, and faculty are free to display seasonal items expressing their personal beliefs and their own private living and work areas.

The fact of the matter is that everyone is welcome to express their beliefs. Bradshaw further said, we're not banning those expressions, but we're a public institution doing public business and we have to be sensitive to that. He said legal limitations played a part in his decision, and he plans to form a work group with students and faculty to determine an appropriate stance on public holiday displays. In his memo, he said, please know that there's no attempt to suppress expression of the holiday spirit. Now, this is coming to the part that I found most interesting.

He said that the fact that the university allowed public displays of Halloween decorations this year is irrelevant. And his direct quote from the President, he said, Halloween is not a religious holiday. He said, I put Halloween in the same basket as St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day. Interesting. Halloween is not a religious holiday. And apparently, he says, neither are Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day. And this is a university president, somebody who should be pretty well educated.

So that brings the question. What do we make of comments like this? It must not just be that he's isolated. Do we presume that major scenes are religious symbols, but Santa Claus and Christmas trees are not? Are Christmas and Easter religious holidays, but Halloween and Valentine's Day are not religious holidays? Well, I'll answer. In fact, these are all religious holidays. Now, not the religion that most people think, but they are religious days. And that's the main subject I hope to show today, to make sure we understand these are religious holidays, and the practices surrounding them are religious practices. Now, you could say, it doesn't matter.

As what we consider true Christians, do we need to know the difference? Does it matter to us? I do think we should be informed, and we need to be aware of the practices of what are false religions. So I want to turn, and let's consider this process that is often called secularization. Now, I didn't realize how big a word that was until I tried to say it in public, but secularization of these holidays, meaning making something that was considered sacred or religious into something that's not.

A key scripture for us to keep in mind in all of this, I want to go here first, Deuteronomy 12, and we'll begin in verse 29. Deuteronomy 12 and verse 29, I think this is the central thing for us to keep in mind in considering all of this. Often it's something we say for later in a sermon like this, but I thought, I'm going to jump to it right away so it can inform everything we think of or everything that I read afterwards.

This, of course, is part of the instruction that God was giving through Moses to the children of Israel when they were finally ending their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and about to go into the Promised Land. It says, When the Eternal your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go into dispossess, and you displace them and dwell on their land, take heed to yourself that you're not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?

I will do likewise. What did they do to worship their gods? I want to do that. It says, You shall not worship the Eternal your God in that way. For every abomination to the Eternal which he hates they have done to their gods. For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatsoever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it. You shall not take away from it. That's a pretty clear statement.

And you say, if we want to be very literal, he's saying, Don't try to worship God by sacrificing your children. And all of our children here should take great comfort in that. Don't go setting up altars. Don't sacrifice to the sun and the moon. They've done all of that. But does it stop just at those specific things he mentioned? Could we say, Oh yeah, but he doesn't mean if there's some cute cultural things in society that we may want to do just because they're fun. Maybe they have good benefits for the families.

I didn't read an exclusion in there. He didn't say, Well, unless it's something that has a good family benefit. He said, If they used it to worship their gods, don't try to worship me that way. God finds it offensive, and he's got a pretty long memory. Much longer than Americans do, which we can see from another article I wanted to read. Because there are some people nowadays who say, Well, if you're not using these practices to worship God, or if you don't believe in a god, maybe it doesn't matter.

I found this article on a website written by an atheist. And it's funny, I copied part of the article, and then I went back and said, Oh, wait a minute. It's from a website called Atheism and the City. Which I went right over it, and I said, Oh, wait a minute. I wonder, did he get that name from that TV show about sex in the city, but it's atheism in the city?

Because I don't know if that's going to draw anybody in. But anyways, there's no place where he admitted his name, but I did see a J.P. Moreland several times. But anyways, this is a well-known atheist who leads this organization. The title of the article is, It's Christmas Time. So what's an atheist to do? Now, I'm going to interject some of my comments here and there, so I'll try to make clear when I'm reading his comments and when I'm making my own. But he says, Every year around this time, I write something about what the Christmas holiday means to an atheist like me.

One of the bad images atheists have is that we're trying to destroy Christmas and take fun away from millions of celebrants. I can fully appreciate this concern. And here I would say in my own comments, I can understand what he means, too, because haven't we all been accused of that? When we say, Oh, we don't celebrate Christmas because of its pagan origins, sometimes people say, Well, you just don't want to let people have fun. You're getting in the way. Stop squashing the Christmas humor, you Grinch.

Of course, you'd only know who the Grinch is if you watch the Christmas specials. Oh, no, wait a minute. Actually, I read the book long before I saw the TV show, but... And a lot of you are looking at me like, What are you talking about? You haven't been watching Christmas specials. Let me carry on with his words.

He says, I too am concerned that atheism can be an annoyance for anyone wishing to keep a relatively benign tradition. It's interesting, relatively benign. So I think, as atheists, we should conduct our preservation of the separation clause carefully. That's that separation of church and state that many people think is part of the Constitution.

What groups like the American atheists are doing is trying to prevent any government money and institutions from funding or displaying a religious-based holiday. So that means, among other things, there should be no nativity scenes on public property. Now, he stops, he says, when it comes to Christmas trees, wreaths, and holiday lights, it gets a little more fuzzy. Interesting. He's making the same distinction that I said some courts make. Some say that the lights and decorations do not necessarily have a religious meaning to them. That the Christmas tree itself was a pagan tradition that can be secularized into what we'll call a holiday tree. Now, my thought on that is, is that true? Just because people think it doesn't have any religious meaning, does that mean there is none? Now, to some extent, that's true. There are some things, if you don't know it's there, maybe it's not there. We're supposed to be educated when we're practicing things that are meant for religion. Now, he comments, so the question I ask is, do we as atheists really want to eradicate any and all visual displays of holidays, whether they're associated with a currently practiced religion or not, from all buildings and property? Now, I emphasize the currently practiced. He's making a difference. It seems that in his mind, and apparently in a lot of people's minds, if a religion's not currently practiced as that religion, then it's not really religious. But is that true? I'm going to go back to his writing. He says, I'm actually not sure. Imagine a public building displaying Halloween decorations or Thanksgiving Day decorations. None of those holidays are associated with a practiced religion today. Indeed, Thanksgiving was never, ever a religious holiday. That struck me. I had to pause there. Do people really think Halloween is not religious? Now, I think he's making that distinction of currently practiced. I guess most people, I don't know if there are too many people currently practicing the religion that Halloween was based on. But then again, you hear things in the news every now and then that says, yeah, some people are trying to practice that religion.

But even more bizarre to me, do most Americans think that Thanksgiving was never about religion? Now, and I say, well, who do they think it's about giving thanks to? Now, there's a caveat to that, and I think what he was getting at is the idea that Thanksgiving was not established by a church or religious group. It's a national holiday that was first started by presidential declaration and then by an act of Congress. So in that sense, it's not religious. It's not a church holiday. But boy, to say that it's never ever been religious, that strikes me as a bit odd. Let me go back to reading the article. It says, would this be okay, according to American atheists? Just how far should the wall of separation between church and state go? If Christmas is a pagan tradition adopted by Christianity, as I and many others see it, then can we say that every aspect of Christmas, lights, reaves, trees, candy canes, and other visual displays are all religious in their very nature? He's saying, well, we know that all this holiday came from paganism, and that was a religion, so does that mean the holiday lights, the reaves, the candy canes, all that has a religious meaning? I'll answer. I say, yes! And he's right. Christmas really is a pagan tradition. But more than that, it was a pagan religious tradition, and all those symbols associated with them were religious practices. The meaning was there. That's where they came from. Let me go back to his writing. He says, might we allow a city to display on public property and paid for with public money a snowman, some wreaths, and a light display without any violation of the First Amendment, as we might also display of a jack-o'-lantern and scarecrow? That's interesting. He says the jack-o'-lantern, all the Halloween stuff, doesn't violate the First Amendment, because I guess there aren't that many Wiccans out there. Furthermore, Halloween started out as a pagan tradition that was incorporated into Christianity. No one today dons masks and costumes because they actually believe it will scare spirits. Their tradition of Halloween remains after the supernatural aspect disappears.

I could see him thinking that, but as a Christian, I have to stop and say, does it really disappear? Does that supernatural aspect disappear just because people aren't paying attention to it? Back to his words. He says, modern Christmas celebration can detach itself from the Christian mythology. This is one of several times he refers to Christian mythology. He said that it was fused with together along with the pagan spiritual elements, so that Christmas becomes a holiday solely focusing on family, friends, and gift-giving. The Christmas mythology need not be suppressed, but rather it should be regarded in the proper domain myths belong to, where they are not in any way based in reality. That struck me as interesting. Part of me says it's kind of offensive that he's lumping Christianity and paganism together, but I suppose if you're an atheist, they both belong together. This fellow sees some things that many people don't. Particularly, he does acknowledge the pagan origins of so many religious practices, so many of the holiday traditions. However, because of an atheist, he sees the ignorance as good. He says the fact that most people don't know where it comes from, that's perfectly good. He doesn't believe there is a God, but he also doesn't believe there are any other spirit beings. So he doesn't want tax dollars to support what he considers just a vain worship. But, whereas he doesn't realize that, yeah, there actually is a real God. And this is an aside I didn't plan, but I thought, wouldn't you like to be there at the resurrection of some of these guys, who are so sure there's no God when they come up and say, guess what? You were wrong! Of course, they're going to learn that that God that they didn't believe exist is very merciful and very patient. He's not going to slap them around just because they didn't believe he exists. But the important thing is not only is there is a God, there is a devil. There are demons. And many modern holiday traditions that atheists, along with professing Christians, think are harmless secular traditions do honor and even obeisance to some of those evil spirits that do still live and are out there. People don't see it, though. In modern America, many of these holidays are considered secular. Secular meaning they're not days for worship. They don't think of these days as for worshiping some higher power, but days of fun, or that they're honoring physical people or things.

Now, there are holidays like that. On our calendar, we've got Labor Day and Flag Day and Veterans Day. And I wouldn't argue that those are necessarily bad or counter to Christianity. But most of the holidays our society focuses on and pays attention to are religious holidays. I say that we ought to do this in sermonettes. I thought in this sermon I need to come back to that point. These are religious holidays. It occurred to me, you ever wonder, how do we know for sure the difference?

Now, I think a lot of us are educated enough that we know and we know that we know the difference. But I thought, you know, one way I think that you can tell if a holiday has religious meaning to someone or if it started that way is just by looking at the calendar for when it's observed.

A religious day is sacrosanct to somebody. It's attached to a particular date because of that date's significance. It can't be arbitrarily changed just for convenience sake. For instance, December 25th is Christmas. Now, we don't believe Christmas means what people mean, but it's...that's the date. You don't move it to the nearest Friday or Monday so that you can have a convenient three-day weekend.

It's December 25th, convenient or not. Likewise, well, Easter is a little more complicated because it doesn't fall on a set date, but it falls on the first Sunday after the Equinox with special safeguards put in place to make sure that it can never, ever coincide with Passover. It's interesting that several hundreds and hundreds of years ago when the Cordodeciman controversy reached its climax that Catholic leaders wanted to make sure that you couldn't get the two accidentally crossing. But what about Presidents Day? No, it doesn't fall on a particular date. Now, it's based on...we used to celebrate Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday, and those fell on particular dates. But because there wasn't a religious meaning, and actually we wanted to back...

I shouldn't say we, I wasn't around back then, but our society doesn't want to try to deify our presidents, so we settled on one date and it moves. Presidents Day is always on a Monday. Likewise, Labor Day and Memorial Day. And it's sad in some ways because in our society convenience often trumps meaning. And I say, what do we do to celebrate Presidents Day?

We go shopping. Or at least I know the retailers have big sales. We had some fun with that at the in-home Bible studies because I asked the question, it's like, generally there's a big mattress sale or something else. It seems like it's usually mattresses. And I thought, I mentioned the value city commercials. I've seen those, the last few years, they've got some fellas, one dressed up as George Washington, the other is Abraham Lincoln, and they're dancing constantly. And as I said, I thought Washington would probably not think that was funny at all.

He was not a joker, but I'll bet Lincoln will look at that and probably start chuckling. And he'll probably say, oh, I could never dance that good. Anyways, I lost track of where I was. Well, I want to say, Halloween always has to fall on October 31st. It is a religious day. It's tied to November 1st, which is where supposedly it's derived from, and the date for November 1st is called All Saints Day. That sounds kind of religious. Interestingly, though, as I said, these dates are becoming more secularized. Local governments have felt free to move what was traditionally the main object, the main practice on Halloween, which is trick-or-treat. And that's moved all over back and forth on that week for convenience sake.

Although it's interesting, we get to Columbus TV stations where Sue and I live, and I had the news on one morning and they were running a scroll of all the communities when they were having trick-or-treat, and almost all of them were on October 31st, which I'm not sure what day of the week that is this year, but it must have been convenient. But people are doing that with a lot of other things.

They schedule their Halloween parties, usually Friday or Saturday night. And people are doing that with their Christmas traditions. Now, for them, Christmas is becoming secularized, too. But does that change what it really means? Where it really came from? I don't think so. Especially, and members of the congregation, those of us who are older, when you came into the church, many times Christmas was one of the biggest, toughest things to give up. Or, if it wasn't tough for you, it was the thing you got the most flack over.

Your family might have got offended. You're not giving Christmas gifts anymore. You're going to deprive the kids. It's funny, I was too young to get a lot of hassle, but I remember my family, we had one last Christmas after we were supposedly done, because some people convinced my mom that my sister and I really weren't willing to give it up.

We were just going along. They really wanted it. So, she went out at the last minute and put up a tree and bought a bunch of presents. We woke up that morning and, boy, that was awkward. But, you know, there was that peer pressure, people leaning on us, and you know that you can't deprive your kids of Christmas.

Now, it's interesting, most people, most of you probably didn't have family members getting upset when you stopped celebrating Halloween, right? Especially, several decades ago, that was a thing for kids. But, you know, Christmas, well, I was going to say, Halloween has changed. In recent years, I've heard stories and read in the news that Halloween, the celebration of Halloween, has moved up to second place in ranks of how much money people spend on it.

People spend second, Halloween is second only to Christmas, is what I'm trying to say. It's big bucks for the retailers and for what people are willing to spend on. So, it's not for kids so much anymore. Halloween parties for adults are now the biggest way to celebrate. Now, I think it comes down to, largely, people like to play dress-up. And, what can I say? Me, too. But I've got more costumes hanging up at home than most of you here.

But also, dressing up is one thing, there's different occasions. People like revelry. People like partying. And that's becoming more and more commonplace in our society. More and more families are getting increasingly extravagant in their Halloween decorations. Used to be they'd put some pumpkins out, you know, they'd carve some jack-o'-lantern with the kids and do this or that.

Now, it's just mind-boggling what's happening. Just a block or so away from my house, there's a mini cemetery set up on somebody's lawn with these, you know, plastic grave markers and supposedly hands coming up out of the grave. It's getting really gruesome. And actually, Sue drove today, so I had a chance to look around more than usual.

Just up 23, there's some old mansion and out front of it, it's got what's supposed to be, I don't know, a demon or ghoul or something. It looks like it's 13 feet tall and really just big and sky-looked. I said, ugh, what's that? Sue said, yeah, I saw that last week.

People are trying to outdo each other. And as I said, even with orange Christmas lights. And I guess people also, now I haven't gone out to sample this, but I hear people are competing to see who can be the most extravagant with the candy they give away. You know, either the most expensive, or some people say, you know, forget the really nice candy, I'm going to win in terms of volume. You know, they go out and buy the cheapest stuff and just throw handfuls in the bags.

Why are they doing all this? Because they see it as fun. Now, our culture has become one where people are looking for just about any excuse to have a party, to celebrate. And as I said, especially if the revelry can include overindulgent, abandonment, with little or no guilt. Now, we can come up with opportunities to party, but Halloween comes with some built-in excuses. Going all the way back to its origin, it's about the desperation of death, and release, and just abandonment.

So, it's built in. I think it's no accident. And I think Satan's influence has carried a heavy guidance that way to lean people to say, Oh, yeah, you can overdrink, you can have this wild party, you can do all kinds of things that you wouldn't do any other night. And come to think of it, St. Patrick's Day has some of that built into it. To some degree, Valentine's Day does also. Now, it would be easy to get caught up in all this fun and partying and think, Oh, it's harmless. Nobody thinks this is religious, or that it's honoring false gods, right?

Well, let's sort of turn a corner, and let's consider where some of these holidays and their traditions come from to answer that. Now, I'm not going to be very thorough on all of them, especially since I know we'll have at least some sermonettes and probably some other messages that will go into some of these. But we do want to look at some of them, some of where this comes from. Interestingly, it was decades ago, our church published a booklet titled, Pagan Holidays or God's Holy Days, which? Oh, that's right.

I was going to say, I referenced that recently when I had booklets in one of my sermons a couple weeks ago. Now, we publish a booklet with the title, Holidays or Holy Days? Doesn't matter which we observe. Now, that's a bit more thorough of a title, asking, does it matter, not just which. But some may argue, now, why did you drop pagan from holidays? Now, was it so that you would avoid offending people right off the bat in the title so they might not even bother to read it? I think there's another reason, and I'm not really sure, but I think one good reason that we don't mention it is that a lot of people have no idea what the word pagan means anymore.

I'm trying to remember somebody in the congregation recently told me somebody asked them what pagan meant, and I'm embarrassed now that I can't remember who it was, but, ah, there we go. A lot of people, they have no idea. The term, you know, it's foreign to them. I checked my Webster's dictionary, you know, that big fat one I like to refer to.

It gave a number of definitions. One was polytheistic religion, such as was practiced by the ancient Greeks or Romans. Polytheistic meaning many different gods, the Greeks and Romans being the foremost example that most people are familiar with. A second definition was a hedonistic lack of religion. Hedonistic means abandoning restriction and indulging physical desires. A third definition referring to a person says any person who is not Christian, Jewish or Muslim is pagan. And it references those Christian, Jewish and Muslim are the three main monotheistic religions in the world. But all three of these terms are about what? Religion. Paganism refers to religion. Remember where we read back in Deuteronomy? God said, when you're moving into this land that I'm giving you, don't ask how the Canaanites worship their gods and apply that to me.

Those Canaanites that he said don't ask about? They were pagans. They worship many different gods in some unusual ways. What we could say is pretty much any religious practice that's not given to us in Scripture is pagan. It's not from God. With that in mind, I want to read a brief description of the origin of Halloween. I went back to one of the older Liables.

I got that famous Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition. I think it was published in 1912 or early in the 1900s when it had a lot more stuff on the liberal arts. I've got it on a series of discs. I don't have that many books in my home. But it's got a good entry. It says, Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, the name given to the 31st of October as the Vigil of Hallomass or All Saints' Day.

Though now known as a little else but the eve of a Christian festival, Halloween and its formerly attendant ceremonies long and to date Christianity. This stuff was around long before Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Halloween were the lighting of bonfires and the belief that of all nights in the year, this is the one during which ghosts and witches are most likely to wander abroad. Now on about the 1st of November, the Druids held a great autumn festival in light of fires in honor of the sun god and thanksgiving for the harvest.

Further, it was a druidic belief that on the eve of this festival, Samhain, sometimes called Samhain, the Lord of Death, gathered together the wicked souls that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals. Thus it is clear the main celebrations of Halloween were purely druidical. That's harder to say. Druidical, meaning this pagan religion that was practiced in northern Europe, especially in the British Isles.

Not Christian, not at all. And this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland, the 31st of October was, and even still is, as of early 1900s, known as the Oitshamhain. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, but it's translated as the Vigil of Samhain. On the druidic ceremonies were grafted, some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona held about the 1st of November, in which nuts and apples, as representing the winter store of fruits, played an important part.

Thus the roasting of nuts and the sport known as apple-ducking. It's interesting, I always heard of apple-dunking, because you dunk your head and try to, you know, attempting to seize by the teeth an apple floating in a tub of water. These were once the universal occupation of young folk in medieval England on the 31st of October. Which tells us, you know, it seems like a nice party game. Get together, well, I'm not sure if I'd say a nice party game. But anything where you're sticking your head deliberately underwater with your hands tied behind your back, that sounds like the recipe for trouble.

But still, it's just a party game. What's that got to do with false religion? Well, it does. It was religious practice going way back. It has to do with fortune-telling and calling on demons for revelation and such like that. Likewise, the practice of going about that night wearing animal masks and costume was basically either to frighten off evil spirits or to convince them that you were one of them so that you wouldn't be hurt. And I had to stop and pause and say, how bizarre! It goes from that to little kids wearing Power Ranger outfits, you know, or stuff like that, or adults wearing who-knows-what-all.

But you'd like to think the kids' costumes, that'd be, you know, okay. But it goes back to something very closely tied to evil spirits. And that's not news to most of you. This is a chance for me to gripe with some of my complaints. When I was a kid, I wanted a Spider-Man costume, because Spider-Man was my favorite superhero. But all the costumes in the store had a picture of Spider-Man on the chest. I said, wait a minute, Spider-Man doesn't wear a costume with a picture of himself on it. He just wears the costume. And I couldn't get one of those. I think what's interesting is you see costumes like that in the store now.

That's telling me that people my age, when they were kids like me being upset about the type of costumes, they grew up and they went into business and made those costumes. And that doesn't matter a whole lot for the sermon, but I thought I'd inject a little humor.

What would really be humorous, if I had a couple of the pictures from my days as a kid celebrating Halloween, because we didn't come to church until I was 10. And so I don't have them. I think my sister has them. There's a photo album, one year of her dressed up in a bunny costume, but I was dressed up as the devil. And if you can imagine Connor wearing red pajamas with a pointy ears and a long tail, and I thought the tail was the coolest part. All the pictures, I'm holding the tail and showing it off. And I look at myself and say, boy, if you'd have known what you were doing, at least it was deliberately demonic, but you think, well, what parents would have... Better the Power Rangers costume were Spider-Man. I should mention also the Jack-o'-lantern, of course. Universal looks like a nice thing in Halloween, but the Jack-o'-lantern is known to represent a watchman.

Supposedly, some man who's caught midway between this Earth and the supernatural world, and he's a warning to the others. Interestingly, in Europe, they were carved out of turnips. I guess pumpkins, you know, being native to America... Well, when they came to America, they said, wow, these things are much better for Jack-o'-lanterns than trying to do it with a little turnip. But I think they must have had really good carving skills. Seemed like there was some reason I thought that was cool to talk about.

Anyways, all of this represents practices not at all close to God's truth, not worshipping God in the way he wants. Now, I'll mention some people might be tempted to say, well, the ancient people weren't worshipping the evil spirits. They were afraid of them. They were trying to drive them away. So doesn't that match with Christianity's goals?

Well, let's consider... I'm not going to turn there, but 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, is where Paul reminds us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. And if you'll turn with me to Mark 16, and remind us of something else, when it comes to these evil spirits, we believe there are evil spirits.

God did not create a devil, but Lucifer became the devil, and Satan. He's our adversary, and deceived, we believe, approximately, or perhaps exactly, one-third of the angels who follow him. Do we need to wear costumes to frighten them off, or something like that? Well, we're told, Jesus Christ told his disciples in Mark 16, and... well, I'll start in verse 15. Some of his last instruction was, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, and he who does not will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe in my name. They all cast out demons, and they'll speak with new tongues. They can pick up serpents, or drink deadly things without being harmed. But this is the way we're commanded. If we have any intercourse with demons, if we have any contact with them, we're to rebuke them in the name of Jesus Christ. Not with costumes, not with jack-o'-lanterns, bonfires, or any other means. You know, our contact with God, and calling on his name and authority, is how we rebuke demons. No other method is really going to be effective. Engaging in those practices, like I said, the jack-o'-lanterns and such, amounts to engaging with demons. Even if unwittingly. And let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, to see the instruction we should consider for that. 1 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 19. Now, in this section, I acknowledge the Apostle Paul was writing about people eating meat that's a sacrifice to an altar. And if you did so, if you knew where it was sacrificed or not, at point, sometimes he says, if you buy something out in the marketplace, don't ask where it came from. But he's making a point, if you do know where it came from, that matters. In verse 19, he says, What am I saying then, that an idol is anything? Or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, not to God. I don't want you to have fellowship with demons. You can't drink of the cup of the Lord and of the cup of demons. You cannot partake in the Lord's table and the table of demons. That's important for us to remember. We might similarly say, is a carved pumpkin anything? No, not in and of itself. But if carving jack-o'-lanterns, trick-or-treating, and so on, is giving honor to and supporting demonic practices, well, God does not want us to have fellowship with demons or to support any of those practices. And of course, I could mention, many of these ancient pagan religions were built on fear, not adoration and worship. What I'm saying is, even if it's of fear, that's a type of religion. Not a good religion. Not the religion that God wants us to practice. But being fearful of evil spirits is a religious thing. And of course, that leads back to my main point. These are religious holidays. They're religious customs and practices. Just not of the one true religion. Now moving on, I'll mention, contrary to what some judges have ruled, many of the so-called cultural and historical practices associated with not only Halloween, but with Christmas, are religious. Now at least that's their origin. I probably don't have to remind many of you that the date for Christmas has no relation to the birth of Jesus Christ. It's been well documented, and it's widely acknowledged, even by the atheists that I quoted earlier. Well, maybe I should say especially by the atheists. They're much more willing to acknowledge it. But that the Roman Catholic Church adopted the annual Winter Solstice Festival that had been practiced for thousands of years. And actually, many different types of religions had some type of festival during the solstice.

The Saturnalia in Rome was the most prominent at that time. That celebration was named after the false god Saturn, who also was known by the name Janus. Something I didn't realize until recently, on the Roman Julian calendar, that's the calendar that Julius Caesar introduced before the time of Christ, on that calendar the Winter Solstice fell on December 25th. So it was actually matching exactly with the solstice. It's when the Gregorian calendar was introduced a few hundred years later, that the solstice moved to the 21st. But because they'd settled on that date as being religious and meaning something, celebrating on December 25th remained.

But still, nobody debates that the origin of the date and the festivals associated with it all derive from sun worship. It's basically the shortest day of the year when the sun seemed to be dying. The celebration encourages and celebrates its rebirth. And all these various traditions associated with it are also religious. Christmas lights, pretty as they can be, they originated from the lighting of bonfires and candles to encourage the rebirth of the sun, sort of like trying to give it a kickstart or a primer. Decorating with holly, mistletoe, and evergreen trees comes from the druidic practices in northern Europe. They celebrated the idea that the gods were preserving life even when it seemed like the sun was dying, so they brought all this greenery into their homes. Santa Claus is from the Dutch for San Nicolas, so they can press that together. Or we hear of St. Nicholas, that's in some of the songs. But that was a supposedly Christian name given to a representative from the Viking tradition that goes much further back. And they believed that there was a fur-wearing and booted fellow that was an associate of Thor and Odin, their chief gods. And of course, false gods are religious. And so the one that became known as Santa Claus was a religious figure. I should comment, of course, the current image that we have wasn't really from the Norsemen, it's from Coca-Cola.

And I think it was in the late 1800s, early 1900s, Coca-Cola seized on the idea of Santa Claus, and their artists developed and refined the image, and I don't think we're not going to get rid of that until Christ returns. You know, and it's inviting. It looks good. A fellow with a belly... his belly shook like a bowl full of jelly, something like that. And he has a Coke and a smile and calls on the reindeer anyways.

As for the giving of gifts, that was a common part of the Saturnalia festival. What I think is interesting and kind of scary is that among the gifts that were the most common were small dolls. And the dolls had replaced or were representative of the sacrificing of children. By the way, Saturn, the mythology behind that false god was that he ate his own children because he'd heard a prophecy that they were going to usurp and kill him. So to prevent that prophecy from being filled, he killed and ate his own children. Consider that when Paul said, I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You know, God said of the pagans that he displaced, you know, they sacrificed their children. And he said, don't ask about how they worship their gods and try to apply that to me. What about New Year's Eve parties? I read from the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition earlier, so I'm going to turn the exact opposite direction and quote from Wikipedia on this one. Because the article I found was a pretty concise definition, so let me read. The Romans dedicated New Year's Day to Janus, which I said was another name for Saturn or Saturnalia, or the god of gates, doors, and beginnings, for whom the first month of the year, January, is also named.

The deity Janus supposedly had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward. Add to that, after Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 46 BC and then was subsequently murdered, the Roman Senate voted to deify him on the first of January, 42 BC, in honor of his life and his institution of the new rationalized calendar. So, first of January was the date...it's funny, they could vote to make him a god.

I don't think it really works that way. But the closing comment of this article was, this suggests that New Year's celebrations are founded on pagan traditions. And that's true. Most of the pagan celebrations associated with that time of year included over-drinking, over-eating, and other such debauchery. Is it debauchery or debau...I like it with an SH sound, debauchery, or...

Anyways, my point is, if the modern New Year's Eve parties are not directly descended from those, they certainly share common traits. Now, people love an excuse to do stuff that they know they shouldn't any other time. And it's funny, even if they say, this isn't religious, it's funny how, in the name of religion, there's a higher purpose. I have to do this. I have to drink too much because it's this night. You know, I have to go home to go to bed with somebody I've never met before because the meaning of the day.

Now, I should comment, that doesn't mean that it's devil worship to turn over your calendar or to buy a new one for January. You know, it's the raucous celebration that seems to look back to pagan origins. You know, we have to have a calendar, and we're not going to escape the calendar. And so, noting the day that marks a new calendar isn't necessarily wrong. You know, I've been...it's funny, I mentioned this the other day. I'm still...I'd like...I didn't get a chance to do the research. I'm not sure if there's any pagan origin to the ball dropping on New Year's Eve. But, you know, if Sue and I are awake, we'll turn on the TV to watch it happen just because of the spectacle. But it's amazing. More and more in recent years, we haven't been awake when that happens. I don't know if many of you are in the same boat with me on that. Anyways...we can say, at least, as I said, in this case, the drunken debauchery isn't based on or an excuse for the religious celebration. It was the religious celebration. Now, let's consider some other holidays. One common point about some of these days is that they're named for saints. We already mentioned November 1st as All Saints Day, and that's tied to Halloween or coupled to it. People also want to celebrate St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. Well, as professing Christians say...I mean, those who aren't part of the true body of Christ, they say, well, we don't celebrate them religiously, so doesn't that make them secular? Well, my point is, no, they're religious days, and celebrating them is giving homage to the religion that spawned them. We already know that most pagan religions recognize many so-called gods. And so when the Roman Catholic Church was expanding and trying to recruit new members, it was easier to let them come in and still venerate the gods that they held often locally than convince them they had to abandon those. So what they did is they let them bring their veneration of the many gods, but they changed their name and started calling them various saints. So celebrating any saints' day is giving homage to a false god. Valentine's Day has a bit more to it than that. I'm going to quote from another source. This time I just went to the Good News article that we printed a few years ago because it said it so well. But it tells us that Valentine's Day was originally the ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia, an annual three-day ritual believed to ward off evil spirits and, importantly, increase fertility. It occurred every year from February 13th through the 15th. And, of course, our modern celebration, we just took the one day out of the middle. Lupercalia was also known as February... Februaryo. That's as hard to say as it looks. Which is where we get the name for the month, February. It was popular among many new converts coming into the Catholic Church, so many of its practices were retained, and the day was renamed to St. Valentine's Day, officially in AD 496. So nearly 500 years after Christ's ministry, suddenly we have this new holiday, not based at all in the true religion, but based on a religion. The former practice for obtaining fertility was by being beaten with strips of animal skin, called the febriwa. You can see why people liked the new practice. They replaced being beaten with these animal skins, and in the new holiday, people would pray to St. Valentine, who was made the patron saint of engaged couples and of anyone wishing to marry.

So this renamed and refurbished Lupercalia became more and more popular, gradually becoming the Valentine's Day that we know today, with the added elements of Valentine's card, and they threw in Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love as well. So in case we'd lost sight of the pagan origins, they attached another pagan god without even trying to cover up or hide where that came from. I'm purposely done. I only brought up one glass of water, so we might have to end early today, because I'm getting near the end. March 17th was supposedly set as the date to commemorate the death of St. Patrick, who was supposedly the patron saint of Ireland. But it turns out that that date had formerly been the time of the Roman Bacchanalia.

The Bacchanalia was an annual celebration of the god of wine and partying. Isn't it something? They had a god of wine and partying. You've got to figure if you're going to worship a false god, if you want to have a good time, that's the one that you choose to worship. So now, March 17th was the time of year when you worship that god, and how did you worship the god of wine and partying?

By drinking a lot and partying. So now, on St. Patrick's Day, the party goes on just with a different name. So what I'm pointing out is, whether you're Irish or not, March 17th is a religious holiday. Now, in America, people are looking for an excuse to have a party, to overindulge and things like that. That's why in the In Home Bible Studies I mentioned the rise of celebrating Sanco de Mayo.

And I honestly don't know what Sanco de Mayo is about. I think it has to do with something in Mexican history, but Americans just like a reason to, like I said, party. I should mention, probably, a couple of holidays that we do participate in, and that we don't have any reason to feel guilt about them once we understand their origin and their real meaning.

One of those is what we call Independence Day, or I grew up calling it the Fourth of July. That's the date when the Constitution was officially ratified. It's pretty well obvious this day doesn't have any known pagan origins, and it was not intended to be a religious holiday. It's a date recognizing the establishing of the separate country of the United States and winning independence. It's interesting. I say, if you study American history, you'll find a number of scholars who will say, it is kind of a religious holiday in the fact that in America, civics has become sort of a quasi-religion.

They say, for some Americans who aren't religious otherwise, they get involved in politics, and their high holy days are Election Day and Independence Day. But I don't see that as their true false religion. That's an academic construct to say, boy, Americans are not so religious, but boy, are they into politics. Now, Thanksgiving Day, that is an American national holiday. And as I mentioned earlier, it was established by the government, not by any church. That's where we know it doesn't have a false religious origin. I think it's sad that so many Americans don't consider it to have any religious meaning or background.

There might be perhaps a little too much mythology surrounding the origin story, the idea of the pilgrims having this big harvest festival, inviting the Indians to come over for this special feast. But it's based on what really happened. And to be honest, the Indians were a big part of the reason any of the pilgrims did survive, even though less than half of them made it through the winter. But the Puritans were giving thanks to God, not to the Indians, and they invited the Indians to join them in that. It's true that the Puritans and other American colonists actually developed a habit of proclaiming a special Thanksgiving Day whenever they experienced abnormal blessings.

They did not celebrate Christmas or Easter or New Year's. Most of the days that they saw is associated with Roman Catholicism. But they did, at random, according to events, celebrate certain days. They would regularly call for a day of fasting and humiliation if they felt they weren't being blessed and they wanted to draw close to God. And likewise, when they were blessed, they would set aside a separate day for giving thanks. Now, I asked the question in the Home Bible Studies, is it wrong for us to celebrate such a day if God didn't give that day?

I don't think it's wrong because God did give a precedent of us thanking Him and of celebrating our thanks to Him by having a special meal and spending time with family and friends. I'll mention, of course, the tradition carried on through the years, and it was common for early American presidents to proclaim a day of fasting and prayer, but also days of Thanksgiving. It was during the American Civil War that Abraham Lincoln called for a special day of Thanksgiving on November 26, 1863.

And that began the tradition of the annual Thanksgiving Day in the last week of November. As I said, it's sad that during the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day up a week to allow an extra week of Christmas shopping. But the meaning of Thanksgiving is still holds. I think this is a rare case when modern people in our country have corrupted a holiday from a good meaning, and they're now thanking God for His blessings into a fairly non-religious day.

They focus on eating turkey and watching football. And I love eating turkey, and I love watching football, so I'm not necessarily opposed to that. But I would say we as true Christians can enjoy those aspects, but even more appreciate the giving of thanks to God for the blessings He's given us, and especially that we enjoy many of these blessings because of the promises to our forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I will mention this. Some also say, well, is it wrong for us to keep this day if the pilgrims weren't what we would call true Christians? You know, they didn't have God's Holy Spirit that we know of, and they didn't keep the Sabbath and Holy Days?

I thought they were giving thanks to the true God, even if they didn't know Him that well. Let's turn over to Acts 17 to see where I get that way of thinking. I think the way Paul addressed the Athenians would apply to, in some ways, to the pilgrims or the Puritans in America. Perhaps it applies much more to them because I think they were more devout in trying to worship the one true God. As we'll see in Acts 17 and verse 22, this is a story you're probably pretty well familiar with.

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and he said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I found an altar, even with this inscription, to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you, God who made the world and everything in it, since He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. I'd say there are times when people, even if not called by God, do see evidence of the one true God, and they see His divine blessings and want to worship Him and give Him thanks for that.

I think true Christians, rather than shunning thanksgiving because of its origin, should celebrate it with much greater understanding.

So understanding, I just did a quick overview of several holidays and where they come from. Thinking of those, what should we consider about what God's Word tells us about that?

We read earlier the command in Deuteronomy. Let's consider another one. If you'll join me, let's go to Deuteronomy 18. We read Deuteronomy 18 beginning in verse 9. Actually, we'll read just verse 9.

Deuteronomy 18 in verse 9. When you come into the land which the Eternal your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. That's pretty straightforward. You're coming to His land. Don't learn the things that they did, whether it be sacrificing children, carving pumpkins, dressing up as power rangers, any of that stuff. God specifically said, I don't want you to worship me that way.

Let's turn over to Jeremiah 10.

See another command that came centuries later, but very similar meaning. Jeremiah 10 in verse 2.

Jeremiah 10 in verse 2 says, Thus says the Eternal, Thus says the Eternal, Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Don't be dismayed at the signs of the heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them, for the customs of the people are futile. And he goes on to describe what sounds an awful lot like going out in the woods and cutting down and decorating a Christmas tree.

Now Bible scholars say, that couldn't be an actual Christmas tree, because we know that the Christmas tree custom came from the Druids in northern Europe, and it was practiced hundreds and perhaps thousands of years after Jeremiah wrote. So Jeremiah could not have known anything about those practices.

Well, Jeremiah actually couldn't have, but God could have. This is the God that tells the end from the beginning. So God could have been giving a prophecy of the Christmas tree and saying, Don't go do that. But even if that's not the case, let's assume that this is actually talking about carving a wooden idol, cutting down a tree, carving it, and then decorating it, basically overlaying it with gold or silver. It amounts to the same thing. God is saying, this is how the pagans worship. Don't do that. Do not think that's an appropriate way to worship God. Don't think that it's an appropriate custom to adopt as some fun family tradition. He says it's not appropriate, but it is religious.

God shows these are religious practices they're carrying on. And in just in case anyone might think this is solely instruction for ancient Israel, let's look at some New Testament scriptures. 2 Corinthians 6. We'll begin in verse 14.

2 Corinthians 6, verse 14.

Now, this is a scripture we often think of in terms of other areas of our life, but it fits here. And that is, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That certainly includes being tied with them by using their religious practices. It says, You know, false God. What part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you're the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell with them and walk among them. I'll be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the eternal. Don't touch what is unclean. That doesn't just mean touching something that was in a foreign temple. That means don't pick up a custom that has unclean origins. Don't pick up those practices because they're from a false religion. Don't touch what's unclean. And I'll receive you and I'll be a father to you and you'll be my sons and daughters, says God Almighty. Now, much of what I just read, Paul was quoting from the Old Testament, showing that God's instruction to ancient Israel about not adopting pagan customs still applies as much to New Testament Christians. Now, of course, we're under grace, but just think what that means. In the same way that we're not forgiven of sin and then turn around and say, well, I can sin all I want because Christ's blood covers my sin. No, we go and don't sin anymore. Similarly, we don't accept instruction in how to worship God and then carry on with traditions that come from pagan origins. We used to often read from Revelation 18 and verse 4 where God says, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, lest you receive of her plagues. I've heard that so many times, I thought I'd just read it, but we could make the case, this means coming out of her, not sharing in her sins, it means don't decorate with evergreens in the winter. Don't go to New Year's or St. Patrick's Day parties and other things. What strikes me is not members of our church, but many people in society who call themselves Christian do understand the pagan origins of these days, and they think they can just reason away. Well, that's what they did, but now we've changed them and we're going to honor God by doing this. You know, by, like I said, dressing up as demons and stuff on Halloween. What they're doing is what we read in Colossians chapter 2, I think. Colossians 2 and verse 8.

Colossians 2 and verse 8. This applies to us, especially when it comes to that form of reasoning. Oh, this is okay. It's not a currently practiced religion, as that atheist wrote. Or as that university president said, no, Halloween's not a religious day. It says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. No, Christ Himself. Interesting. He told the Pharisees that their traditions, in many cases, weren't proper ways to worship. Let's go back to the book of Mark. Mark chapter 7. We'll begin in verse 6.

Mark 7, beginning in verse 6.

As I said, I'm reading some scriptures in a different context than we often knew, but I hope you see the connection of, as I said, don't take these customs that weren't the ways that God told us to worship Him and think that they are okay. Here, Christ is talking to the Pharisees, and He says, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it's written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. I could say, or teaching as religious practices, these practices, these traditions of men. Now, addressing the Pharisees in particular, He says, Laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. And He said, all too well, you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your traditions. Now, if that was true of the Pharisees putting priority on ritual washings and on their extreme safeguards around the Sabbath, how much more would it be true for us, thinking that practices that were developed for sun worship and idol worship could be secularized, or even worse, adapted as a means to worship God? Christ is saying, no, don't adopt these traditions created by men, and think that they apply to me. Basically, back in Deuteronomy, He said, do it the way I tell you. Do, worship me the way I tell you, and don't worship me any other way. That's pretty simple. And I just realized, I don't mean to have a tone where I'm trying to chew you guys all out. It's not like you've been out putting on Halloween costumes, as far as I know. Now, we know these things. Many of you proved these things a long time ago. You studied and proved them when you first began understanding the truth of God's Word. But the world continues to engulf us in its practices. It's around us. It's easy to become desensitized. Over time, we can start to fall prey to that mistaken line of reasoning. After all, we probably know some good people, good-hearted people, who do these things. And, you know, Christmas lights sure can be pretty. And the songs are beautiful. I've got a personal theory on that. You know, because you ever wonder why that Christmas music is so pretty. I think if someone writes a song and it's really, really good, they say, I'm going to save this for Christmas. I'm not just going to release this as a Top 40 hit. I've got to save it for, you know, special time. Now, people get caught up in the holiday spirit. And when they do, they can be so nice and loving and friendly. And we might say, what could be so bad about that? Well, in a way, we just reviewed some of what can be bad about that. And even if we didn't understand the history, the corrupt evil origins, God said we can just turn to a couple of scriptures where God said, don't do that. That should be enough for us. And I think for the most part it is. God gave us a set of sanctified days for worshipping Him. And they're magnificent. Now, we just completed a full cycle revealing the plan of God and how He wants to deal with mankind and bring children into His family. Most of the world instead celebrates a set of counterfeit days. They distract them, blind them to the truth. But I wanted to remind us today that these counterfeit days are not harmless secular traditions. They are religious holidays. They're days devoted to false religion, with a false worship of deities that are not God. There's only one true God, and He gave us the way to worship Him. And with that knowledge, we know what we should do. As the Scripture says, we should shun evil and hold to what's good.