Is Halloween Harmless?

I think it was about five weeks ago, maybe a little longer, I started noticing in the Walmart grocery store whole sections, whole rows of Halloween candy and costumes and all those types of things. You know, we've just, in a sense, finished and completed the seven annual festivals in the cycle that we go through that God begins to share with us who He is, what He's doing, and what our destiny is. And now we're beginning to enter into another season. So Monday night, I imagine, many children will be carving pumpkins and putting lights inside of them and then setting those pumpkins on porches or on doors outside of their homes. Maybe you've begun to already see some of those sights already. And then throughout the day, I suppose, well-meaning parents will be dressing up their children as ghosts and goblins and ghouls and witches and Darth Vader's and maybe some as fairies and some of those types of things. And then roaming the streets, soliciting goodies, trick or treat. You know, many adults, I suppose, have been planning also for weeks, not only for their children and their parties, but also with their friends to be able to get together and go out to parties where rooms will be decorated like dungeons or crypts. And they too will be dressed in sometimes some very grotesque and ghoulish costumes. And we talk about ghouls and ghoulish. You know, those are maybe words that we don't use very often, but what do they mean? Well, a ghoul is an evil demon supposed to feed on human beings. They eat human beings. And ghoulish is strangely cruel or diabolical monsters that are fascinated with death. And so here we go, dressed in grotesque ghoulish costumes and drinking and dancing until wee hours of the morning. And it looks like fun. And it seems harmless. You know, these little jack-o'-lanterns and these masks and these costumes and these long black witch attire with pointed black hats and costumes that are painted like skeletons or demons or goblins. What's a goblin? I think we often know what demons are, but what goblins are demons of any size? Usually they are in human or in animal form and they afflict and they torture human beings. So we dress like goblins. And so I think a question to ask, and that we often do at this time of the year, as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, should we be partaking in this little holiday of fun? Is this preoccupation with the dead, this preoccupation with witches and demons and ghosts and goblins, you know, is this something that we should be doing? And is it harmless? Is this particular day that's coming up here Monday, beginning Monday evening, is Halloween harmless? So that's the title of the message here today. You'll often hear stories or read in newspapers about some of the pranks or the fires that were started. Some cities burn on Halloween evening. Or someone's putting something in candy or tainting it in some way or razor blades or what have you, things that go awry. But for the most part, I think most people will say, but you know, most of it's okay and it's just pretty much a celebration. That's fun for most everyone. So does God, does the Bible have anything to say about the strange customs that surround and are included in this particular holiday, this particular upcoming Halloween? Does God have anything to say? Or is there something that's wrong with his day? Is there something that's dark? Is there something that's even sinister about this particular day? About the dark side of celebrating a dark side of horror? Or celebrating the dabbling with an evil spirit world?

I don't know how many of you have in the past, in some way, celebrated Halloween. You know, unless you're a first generation Christian, probably most of us have in some way. We would be able to raise our hands. What I'd like to do is take a little trip down memory lane about the history of Halloween, where it came from, some of its observances. We're going to take a look down memory lane here. We're going to look at several sources here.

I'm going to give them a quote here up front, because there are many places that you can turn to. There are many things that you can see online. But the sources of the information that I'm going to be providing today comes from five different sources here. One of them is the History Channel site. Another one is Kenneth Davis, a Halloween, a hidden history.

And American Holiday. Another one here is the Encyclopedia of Religion. Another source here is the Encyclopedia Britannica. And another source that I'll be quoting from here is Wikipedia. Most of us are familiar with that. So let's take a little walk down memory lane, and then later on we're going to get into the Scriptures to see what God has to say about some of the things that we'll be coming to understand historically here. The origins of Halloween date back to an ancient Celtic festival. An ancient Celtic festival by the name of Samhain. Now this took place centuries, approximately five centuries, before Jesus Christ even walked the earth.

Before Christianity even came into vogue in 31 AD. From 500 to 550 BC, the Celtic peoples who lived in the area that we now know as Ireland. Interesting. As Ireland, or the part of the United Kingdom, and also part of northern France, they celebrated November 1st as the Religious Festival of Taimen. Religious Festival of Taimen.

T-A-M-A-N. Which is the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon New Year, and a sacred day in honor of the sun god. That was November 1st. But also they observed something else. The previous evening at sunset they observed something else. It was the festival of Sohain, the Lord of the Dead. So we're talking about basically the evening of October 31st. They celebrated to a false god the Lord of the Dead. You know, I can't help but think about the scripture that comes to mind that God says that He is not the god of the dead, but the god of the living.

And here they have an observance to the Lord of the Dead. The festival of Sohain was the most sacred of all of the Celtic festivals. This was the high point of the year for them to have this celebration. And mark the end of summer, the end of harvest, the end of their year, and the beginning of a dark and cold winter. The time of the year that's most often associated with human death. So these ancient sults from the area of Ireland and other areas close by believed that at death that the souls of sinners were trapped in the bodies of animals. The souls of sinners were trapped in the bodies of animals.

It was on this day that Sohain judged the dead. And he could be persuaded to free some of the departed souls from their animal prisons. This is very intriguing stuff. The sults also believed that on that night before the new year that a boundary between the worlds of the living and the world of the dead became blurred. They thought that on this particular night, coming up in a couple of nights, October 31st, that the barriers between the human and supernatural worlds were broken.

And the ghosts of the dead could pass over and communicate with those of us that are still alive. And they would take that opportunity to do that. And that humans could also possibly cross over and talk to the dead. Sults thought that the presence of these otherworldly spirits assisted the Celtic priests, known as the Druids. You may have heard of them over the years, if you're a history buff.

By giving them more power to be able to make predictions about the future. Predictions about marriage. Predictions about luck. Predictions about their life, their health, their death. And they believe that the Olmans could be read with more clarity on this particular night. Monday night, October 31st, or October 31st, was the only day of the year that help from the devil was openly invited.

Openly invoked. Openly invited to be able to predict marriage and luck and health and death. And I suppose, for a people that were entirely dependent upon the vital natural world, really apart from the true God, that these prophecies were a source of direction. You know, just as it was about to enter into a dark, cold period.

So with the coming of these shorter days, winter days, and to appease the sun god, Bell, which is identical, by the way, with the Canaanite bale of the Bible, the Druids would build large sacred fires, in a sense, and they would make sacrifices of animals and crops, and sometimes human beings, to appease the gods that they believed in at that particular time. And people would dress up as ghastly ghouls and demons, so that the wandering spirits would avoid them. Oh, we're of the same kind here. Go after somebody else. You can see here the thought process of what was going through their minds, the reasoning that was going through their minds.

Mans of young people would disguise themselves in grotesque ways, grotesque masks. They would carve lanterns with turnips and carry them with themselves as they went throughout the village, and food and drink were put on the doorsteps to placate the spirit of loved ones. They also left offerings of food and drink for the masked and costumes revelers so they wouldn't destroy their property. And huge fires were set on the hilltops to try to scare away the evil spirits. I don't know why that would be able to do that, but that's what they thought. The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumn festival acquired sinister significance with ghosts and witches and hobgoblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming all around.

It was the time to placate the supernatural powers that were controlling the processes of nature. So they thought. During the celebration, the self would wear costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins and attempting to tell each other's fortunes. So they were fruiting to fortune-telling. And when the New Year celebration was over, they would relit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening.

And from the sacred bonfire, they thought to rejuvenate the sun and to aid in vanishing evil spirits. It was, in a sense, I suppose, bluntly put, a day devoted to appeasing demonic spirits and the dark side of the spirit world. So that's where all this started way, way back, as far as history can take us, back at the time of the Celts in an area in and around Ireland. Now let's fast forward five to six hundred years. We're going to come to the point of around 43 AD. The Roman Empire is ruling most of the civilized world. They conquered the majority of the Celtic territory. And in the course of the next 400 years, as they ruled the Celtic lands, there were two festivals of Roman origin, which began to be combined with the traditional Celtic beliefs, celebrations of Sohin.

The first one that they had that was combined with Sohin was Feralia. It's F-E-R-A-L-I-A. And that was a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. So this fit pretty well with the celebration of Sohin. Now Sohin is how it's pronounced, but that's not necessarily how it's spelled.

Sohin is spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N. S-A-M-H-A-I-N. So the Romans began to combine a couple of their festivals with Sohin. Feralia was one and the second was Pomona. P-O-M-O-N-A. P-O-M-O-N-A. It was a day to honor Pomona, a Roman goddess of the fruit and the trees. Now the symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of that into the celebration of Sohin most likely explains the tradition of bobbing for apples.

Why would that be something that people would do? And that's practiced even up to today on Halloween. Now, in the 300s, as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and as it began to spread throughout the Roman Empire, many Roman church leaders began to see the acceptance of pagan customs as a means to fill their assemblies to bring in new converts.

On May 13th of 610 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated a pagan Roman temple to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and declared a new holiday to honor Christian martyrs. It was called All Saints Day. All Saints Day. Now, about 100 years later, in the 700s A.D., Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day from May 13th to November 1st, same time as the celebration of Sohin. The decision, one historian writes, and I quote, that the day coincided with Sohin was no accident.

The church was still trying to absorb pagan celebrations taking place at the time. Other sources say, and I quote, it is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related but church-sanctioned holiday. Pretty, it's right here in the history books. He continues, and I quote, villagers were now encouraged to masquerade on this day, not to frighten unwelcome spirits, but to honor Christian saints.

I'm not sure how masquerading would be required to honor Christian saints, but this is their thought process. This was the thought of the Roman church at that time. Now, in all saints' day, churches throughout Europe and the British Isles displayed some of their relics, Christian relics, which a relic is a surviving memorial of some kind that had some significance, some religious significance, a bone or some clothing of some saint. So they would display their relics of their patron saints, and poor churches, which couldn't afford genuine relics, instead had possessions in which parishioners would dress as saints or angels or devils.

Now, this religious masquerade resembled the pagan custom of those that were then parading like ghosts through town. It served the Roman church by giving an acceptable Christian basis to be able to try to bring people in to the church, so that they would be able to continue to do what they've always done. But now there'd be a Christian label that was put onto it.

Now, let's fast forward another 300 years. We come from 700 AD to around 1000 AD. And the Roman church would then make November 2nd, we've already talked about November's verse being All Saints Day, they would now make November 2nd All Souls Day, a day to honor the dead. I don't know if any of you come from a Catholic background, but I wasn't necessarily aware of All Souls Day on November 2nd. I've heard of All Saints Day, but not All Souls Day. So let's talk a little bit about All Souls Day, sometimes called the Day of the Dead, which falls on November 2nd.

All Souls Day is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who died. This comes from the ancient pagan festival of the dead. I'm reading a historical quote here. This comes from the ancient pagan festival of the dead, which celebrated the pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles on the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. Children would come through the village asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, and then donated to feed the hungry.

Well, I won't take the time to turn there, but I'll refer to Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 5 and 10, which says, The dead know nothing. The Scriptures are clear that there is no knowledge in the grave where you and I are going. But this wasn't necessarily their understanding.

All Souls Day purposely follows All Saints Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in purgatory. It is celebrated with Masses and Festivities in honor of the dead. While the Feast of All Saints Day is a day to remember the glories of heaven and those who are there, the Feast of All Souls reminds us of our obligations to live holy lives, and that there will be purification of the souls in purgatory of those destined ultimately for heaven. The celebration was also called, and some of you may have heard this, maybe some of you haven't, the celebration was also called All Hallomass. We have Christmas, and now we have All Hallomass. The night before it, the night of Psalm began to be called All Hallows' Eve, and eventually Halloween. Together the three celebrations, the Eve of All Saints and All Saints and All Souls, were called Hallomass. And thus, really, what happened was a pagan religion and religious practices for relabeled Christians.

Now, the pagan custom of worshipping the dead didn't end. It didn't cease. The prayers of a myriad of gods, to a myriad of gods, and goddesses, and demons, and nymphs, would be replaced with prayers for the dead.

It was just dressed with a new clothing, a new garb. Now, interestingly today, most who celebrate Halloween couldn't care less, though, really, when you think about this religious labeling. They don't care. It's maybe just fun. We know its origins, but we don't care. But there are still some, including us, who find that Halloween's pagan roots, its dark roots, in a sense, to a dark and spiritually dangerous world, and trying to celebrate that isn't according to the Scripture. There are others within Christianity that try to sanitize it. They say, well, we know where its origins are, but we can clean things up and maybe even participate in it to make a statement of some kind. There are those that take that particular approach. I guess the question that we should ask is, can we sanitize Halloween? Does God give us the permission to do that? Can Halloween really be sanitized? I think some have tried. Some have tried to do that. We're going to read a couple of quotes here in just a moment by a couple of ministers here. They have tried to do that very thing. But you know, all it does is it results in something that's dangerous, results in something that's confusion. God's not the author of confusion. It results in syncretism. We talked about that in the past, where you combine truth with error. Basically, you try...the thought process is we bring somebody with error into some truth and we'll mix it together and we'll bring them out of error to the truth.

Well, I think the fruits over the centuries of historical evidence have shown that there's a reason why God says, Don't add to what I say and don't take away from what I say, because what happens when you have syncretism, the dynamic is not to bring somebody out of error to the truth. It's just the opposite that takes people from the truth into error.

The fundamental argument in favor of mixing ancient pagan customs and practices with worship of the true God is that some believe it can be gradually bring people and win them over to Christian understanding. And it's a hotly debated topic, in a sense, and some sincere people concluded that syncretism has its value, that indeed it has a place. But I think it's probably best for us to ask a fundamental question here. What does God say about that? What does he think about that? What does he advise in the Scriptures about that? Well, let's turn over to Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy 12, the Israelites, you remember, were confronted with these issues as they settled in the Promised Land. They began to build a new nation, in a sense. They encountered many worshippers of false gods that were leaving the area. They had their form of religion. They had their form of worship and who it was that they worship, these pagan deities. In fact, they had been in that land for centuries, and they were probably leaving some of their altars behind as God's people began to come in. And yet, they still had neighboring nations around them who continued to worship their gods. But before they even entered the land, God reveals his thinking. He reveals, knowing the end from the beginning, he reveals his thinking, and he tells them and us as we read how to handle this particular issue, how to handle this challenge. And his directions are very clear. Deuteronomy 12, verse 28. Observe and hear all of these words which I command you, that it may go well with you. That's what God wants. He wants it to go well with us. So he says, I want you to observe, and I want you to hear the words that I'm about to tell you, that it may go well with you, and not only with you, but with your children forever. There's some long-term consequences here.

So he says, don't look at your own sight. Look at it through my eyes. I'm going to reveal some things to you. Verse 29.

They are scared by following them, after which they are destroyed from before you, and that you don't inquire after their gods, saying, how did these nations observe their gods? Even so, I am going to do the same. I'm going to do likewise. You shall not do that to the Lord your God, because every abomination to the Lord which he hates, they have done to their gods, even their sons. And their daughters, they have burned in the fire to their gods. He said in other places, I hadn't even thought of that, hadn't even come into my mind to destroy your own sons and daughters, which are hence also his sons and daughters. Verse 32.

So we see God before the children of Israel even go into the land, that his instructions are very clear. As a loving father, he sets their expectations. He teaches them. He lets them know beforehand. And he refuses to accept worship that is compromised, that is syncretized, that is tainted by customs used in the worship of false gods or in false religions. He expects his people to respect him and to worship him the way that he asks them to, in accordance with his command and not with their own imaginations or ideas or someone else's imaginations or ideas. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14. Because many centuries later, things haven't changed, the Apostle Paul expressed a similar thought when correcting some of the brethren in the city of Corinth for their poor judgment. Let's notice 2 Corinthians 6.

And we'll go over to verse 14. I'm going to read this first out of the New King James, and then I'm going to also read some of these scriptures from the Good News Bible translation because I think it makes it a little more clear in our modern English. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14. God is speaking here through Paul. He says, Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? So this principle hasn't changed, in a sense.

Don't bring these two together. There's no fellowship. There is no communion between light and darkness, between righteousness and lawlessness. Verse 15. And what accord does Christ have with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? We often use this in the context of marriage, but I would suggest the principle goes much further. It includes marriage, but it goes into our religious and worship practices as well.

Verse 16. He gets into the religious part. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I'm going to dwell in them, I'm going to walk among them, I'm going to be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from them and be separate. Says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

I will be a father to you. You'll be like me, and you will be my sons and daughters. Says the Lord Almighty. I'm going to read here from the Good News Translation here, picking it up here. In verse number 17. And the Lord says, you must leave them. You must separate yourselves from them and have nothing to do with what is unclean.

And then I will accept you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters. I'm going to quote here now, I told you, I'm going to quote from a couple of the sources or ministers that talked about syncretism. And you can almost see as you read through this where this goes. You can see where this goes, and it's almost like this doesn't make any sense. I'm going to quote here from a minister by the name of Reverend Canon Mark Shannon.

Mark, excuse me, Canon Mark Shenoman. This is Reverend Canon Mark Shenoman. This is what he writes about Halloween. He says, should we be concerned, according to part of what he's written. He's talking about Halloween. Should we be concerned? Yes. Should we educate ourselves and attempt to rehabilitate these young angry Satanists?

Yes. Should we cancel Halloween? No. Okay. No. And in the face of growing concern, I'm still quoting, and some opposition based on Christian principles, many are advocating avoiding Halloween in schools and canceling the Halloween parades. Some incorrectly assume that witches worship Satan when, in fact, witches practice an earth religion and have no belief in Satan at all. Well, an earth religion is a false religion as well, whether you call it Satan inspired or not. Should we condemn all the fairy tales in the Disney films which have filled the imagination with images of mystery and magic? I would propose that the Christian community and the secular culture which has adopted the Christian calendar, including Halloween, do what we've always done.

Baptize the observance. Clean it up. Baptize, sanitize the observance. That is, let us be clear about what we are doing when we dress up in creepy, spooky, and fantasy costumes. All Hallows is a celebration and affirmation of life eternal. Can you see the twistedness of this? I hope you're with me here. It is a time to give thanks for those who have gone before us. Oh, really? We can laugh at the powers of darkness.

Pleeve powers of darkness and draw close to God is what Scripture says. We can laugh at the powers of darkness, which always give way to the light of a loving and gracious God. Our culture does not deal well with death and evil.

I would agree with that. Halloween is an opportunity at a basic level to address the dark side of life. We need not attempt to prohibit the fun, nor should we allow Satanists to take possession of this holiday. If we cancel Halloween, then Satan has indeed won the day. That's the conclusion. Can you believe that? Human reason. Human reasoning wants, in a sense, to take a pagan celebration like Halloween and clean it up, baptize it, sanitize it. You know, Satan doesn't care how he deceives, you know, as long as he gets what he wants, in a sense, as long as the job is accomplished. Amazing how he talks about Halloween and the dark side, and yet wants us to be right in the middle of it.

You know how many centuries have passed and the pagan tradition continues? It's kind of hard to stamp it out when you've got the syncretism going on here, isn't it? God says, what communion does light have with darkness? But he would have us to have fellowship and communion with darkness. Okay. Let's read another quote here. But before we do that, let's look at another scripture, see what God has to say.

Let's turn over to Leviticus 19 and verse 30. Go back from the Old Testament now, back to the New Testament. Leviticus 19 and verse 30. Let's see if we should be mixing here. I think we know the answer, but let's just review it here. God's Word. Let's let him speak to us. These words have been here for generations. Let's let him speak to us. Leviticus 19 and verse 30. God says, you shall keep my Sabbaths and you shall reverence my sanctuary, because I am God.

I'm the one that made you. Verse number 31. Give no regard to medium and familiar spirits. You know, I think that speaks pretty clearly. He didn't say give some regard to them. He says he's pretty much absolute here, isn't he? Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them. God begins to explain why we should give no regard and why we should not seek after them at all, because they will defile us.

What's the word defile mean? Well, I looked it up here. This is the English definition from dictionary.com. Probably other dictionaries may shed some other light on it. It means defile means to become foul, to become dirty, to become unclean, to become polluted, to become infected, to become contaminated.

So God says, give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits. Don't seek after them to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. Now let's read from a column here. This is a column that was written at this line here. It's a column by Mr. Mark D. Sorci. He was a guest columnist here. He gives some thoughts here on Halloween. See how he's trying to bring in this syncretism, see where this goes here as we read through this. He says, what are you doing for Halloween? In every context in our country, that seems like a pretty easy question. Every context, that is, except church. You see, in church, we've kicked this thing around for years, debated it back and forth, over what a church should do with Halloween. I'm going to weigh in. I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong. I can respect both angles. I can see both sides. Halloween is a holiday designated to glorify Satan and death. That's what he says. Halloween is a holiday designated to glorify Satan and death. Our society uses this evening to make light of a very serious situation. I'm with him so far. But see where this goes. There is a war going on around and above us between the forces of God and between the forces of Satan. When I go to a sports event, if I dress up like one team, that is meant to show that I support that team. I can remember being on the court and appreciating that support from the onlookers. I will not dress in such a way as to appear in support of the enemy. Sounds good for me, at least from my perspective so far. Now the twist. That being said, I see value in taking part in Halloween. I love the idea of walking through the middle of Satan's party while glorifying his enemy. My God. The thought of redeeming this day when people wittingly and unwittingly celebrate evil and turning the attention to God energizes me. What could be better than walking into the middle of an evil one's party and making God the center of attention? Syncretism, brethren. He goes on to say, many of our Christian holidays and traditions are the result of capturing pagan celebrations and redeeming them for Christmas. Sanitizing them. Baptizing them. For Jesus. The list includes biggies like Christmas and Easter. I could agree with him as far as that we're trying to do that, but God says don't do that. This list includes biggies like Christmas and Easter. I look forward to the day when we do the same with Halloween.

So there you go. Let's see how this syncretism can work. Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 20. Let's go to the next chapter and read verse number 6. Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 6. It says this, And be holy, for I am the Lord your God. God's pretty clear here. Let's go along. Verse number 8. And you shall keep my statutes and perform them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who sets you apart, who asks you to come out of that and be separate. And I will sanctify you and you'll become holy. Brethren, I think the question to ask here is, how is syncretism working? What are the fruits of it? How is it working? You know how many are still observing Halloween? Back from the 300s. We're here 17—I mean one of us first Christianized, if you will. Here we are, 1700 years later. Has it worked? I don't think so. I don't think so. Let's go over to Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 9. And God knew so beforehand. Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse number 9.

God calls a spade a spade. He calls evil evil. He calls wickedness wicked. Let's read what he says here. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 9. When you come into the land, so they hadn't gotten there yet, they're on their way, which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. Don't learn them. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire. We've already touched on that. Or one who practices witchcraft. Or a soothsayer. Or one who interprets omens. Or a sorcerer. Or one who conjures spells. Or a medium. Or a spiritist. Or one who calls up the dead. We're talking about the Halloween celebration here, aren't we? For all who do these things are an abomination to the true God. And because of these abominations, God drove them out. You can't stay here. God drove them out and allowed his people to come in. Verse 14, for these nations which you dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such a thing for you. But on this dark side of Halloween, it's really hard to cover up. They can try to sanitize it. But it's hard to cover it up here and even put a pretty face on it, or a fun face on it. They do a pretty good job of it. But there are people that say, this is pretty perverted. This is pretty dark here. But the core of Halloween remains really on the same level. It's unchanged. It hasn't changed. You know, and this season still slips from life to death. It still slips into darkness and evil. And it will continue to generate legends about the fear of death.

Even the new customs reveal, you know, some of these things. They try to say, well, we'll have parties and we'll try to, you know, to lighten things up a little bit and not emphasize it so much. But I think as we look at it, maybe the last word would be in the words of a child. It was pretty simple and understands things. At a safe Halloween party, somebody asks the child this, are you a clown? A killer clown is what he replied.

You know, dabbling in the spirit world is not something that God gives us acceptance for. Revelation 12, verse 9. I'm kind of a memory scripture here. Revelation 12, verse 9. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. You know, I think some people think, well, he deceives the whole world, but not me. And for some reason, I think I can handle this. I can handle this.

You know, I don't know if you know this or not. You might know this. We know, of course, the Word of God has a lot to say about some of the customs that surround Halloween. It goes back a long time ago. But did you know that there are eight festivals in the religion of Wicca? God's got seven festivals. Wicca's got eight festivals. Which one is the eighth? Halloween. Halloween is the eighth annual festival of Wicca.

Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 20, back to Leviticus. And we've already read in Deuteronomy 18 that God says, not so among you.

Don't practice witchcraft. Don't interpret humans. Don't be a sorcerer. Don't conjure up spells. Leviticus chapter 20. We'll pick it up here in verse number 27. God feels very strongly about this.

Pick it up in verse number 27. Pick it up in verse 26. And you shall be holy to me. For I, the Lord, am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. Verse 27, a man or a woman, who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones, and their blood shall be upon them. You know, God said they're going to die. Why such a harsh penalty?

After all, it's kind of all in fun. Too harsh a penalty? Maybe God sees something that we don't see. Maybe He knows something that we don't totally understand. God doesn't want these perverted practices, these demonic practices that defile, that to corrupt. He doesn't want that to spread among His people. He knows where it leads. He knows it leads to death, eternal death. God wouldn't be against something that's harmless. And frankly, Halloween is anything but harmless. If we focus on witchcraft and demonism and all that, it flies in the face of what God is saying. And allowing our children to dabble in it, in a sense, we're teaching that it's acceptable to do that. To dabble in it just a little bit. Let's go over to John 3, verse 19. John 3, verse 19. Back to the New Testament here.

Jesus Christ's words. He speaks about principles here. John 3 and verse 19.

And this is condemnation. That light has come into the world. That men have loved darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. So God calls us to a spade, that there are things out there such as evil. Let's jump to John 8. John 8, verse 43.

John 8, verse 43. He says, Why don't you understand my speech? Because you're not able to listen to my word. You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and he doesn't stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. And when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources before he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. So Brother God makes clear, he says he doesn't want us to assume that Halloween is a harmless holiday. And you know there was a question asked that came out focused on the family. About how many people out there believe that Halloween is dangerous? Or how many feel it's okay? You know, among the Christian community, you know what the percentage was of those that said it's okay? 53 percent, more than half say that it's okay.

For then Jesus and the apostles cast out demons. They cast them out. Demons sometimes tormented people, including children that were demon-possessed. It's sad and it's frightening, but it's real. Children shouldn't dabble. No one should dabble in the spirit world. And evil is real. Paul said we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. Well then what is it that Satan, with all these deception that he has, what is it that he doesn't really want us to know?

Well, it's our potential. He's trying to destroy everything that God is trying to build. And so if he can begin to infiltrate into God's way of life, into Christianity, if you will, he knows where it leads. He knows where defilement leads. So that's where he's going. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 21. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 21.

I think this speaks it very, very plainly. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can't. You can't. If you try, you will not work. You can't drink from the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. You cannot. You will eventually go one way or the other. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 17. 2 Corinthians chapter 17. You know, these customs, these traditions, these superstitions, they continue to remain from generation to generation.

They still simmer. This syncretism. They're not having fellowship with light and darkness. These customs, and they still simmer. These opportunities, creating new opportunities for evil down the road. You know, the demonic world that we treat so lightly is real. And he is our adversary.

And God says that we should not treat the demonic world lightly. He doesn't. So why should we? Let's notice 2 Kings chapter 17 in verse number 7. 2 Kings chapter 17. We'll pick it up here in verse number 7.

It says, When the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel and the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God. And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fenced city. And they set up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. And there they burnt incense in all of the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord had carried away before them.

And they wrought wicked things. And they provoked God to anger. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said, You shall not do this thing. Notice how God reaches out in verse number 13. Yet God testified against Israel and against Judah by all of the prophets. And all of the seers, saying, Turn from these ways, turn from these evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes according to the law, which I commanded your fathers, which I sent to you by my servants and prophets.

Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but they hardened their necks like the neck of their fathers. They did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers and his testimonies, which he testified against them. And they followed vanity, emptiness. And they became vain. And they went after the heathen. They didn't follow God. They began to follow the heathen that were all around them.

And they left verse 16, all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, two calves, made a grove, worshiped the host of heaven, and served Baal, the sun god that we talked about earlier. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, and they used divination and enchantments, things we've been talking about, and noticed, and they sold themselves. That's ultimately, we're selling ourselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to anger.

And God was angry with them, and he removed them. Remember, the Assyrians came down, took the ten tribes away to the north. He removed them out of the sight, and there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

And we know from history that these ten tribes migrated north, getting as far as Ireland, where some of these very things have come from. Brother, I would suggest that they came from God's people, who derived them from the people that were there in the land that they had dispossessed.

It simmers, isn't it, throughout every generation. Someday it's going to be stamped out. But it still simmers. Let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 33. 2 Chronicles chapter 33, and of course, the real origin of course, goes back to our adversary, our enemy. 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Remember the story about Manasseh, a very evil king? 2 Chronicles chapter 33. We'll pick it up in verse number 1. Manasseh was only 12 years old when he began to reign.

He reigned quite a long time, 55 years in Jerusalem. But he did which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like all the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

He talks about some of the things he did, again offering things to Balaam, made groves to worship the host of heaven, built altars in the house of the Lord, where the Lord had said in Jerusalem, My name shall be. He built altars for all the hosts of heaven.

Verse number 5. And verse number 6. And he caused his children to pass through the fire. He observed times, he used enchantments, witchcraft, familiar spirits, wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking God to anger. Jumping to verse number 9. This is where it leads.

But notice a change here in verse number 11.

And after that, he built a wall without the city of Jerusalem.

Notice, and he repaired the altar of the Lord. He sacrificed peace offerings to God and thank offerings, and he made a command that Judah was to serve the Lord God of Israel.

President Satan wants to keep every one of us away from our destiny. He wants to separate us from being a part of the family of God. We've seen already that we are to stay away from his influences, to have no regard at all for them, and not to dabble with the spirit world at all. Let's finish up here with Matthew chapter 22, verse number 37. Jesus tells us here the first and greatest commandment, what it is here. Matthew chapter 22. Pick it up here in verse number 37. Jesus said to him, and he's asked what the greatest commandment in the law is, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is the first and great commandment. For then God alone is the one who has created us. He's alone as the giver of every good and perfect gift. And to give recognition to false gods or to imitate practices that honored him, God says, is not only unacceptable and dangerous and idolatrous, but it defiles us and it takes us away from our destiny. Halloween? Armless? Hardly. I thank God for the wonderful blessings given to us, the truth of the Scriptures, and He's opened our eyes to this understanding. What a blessing that's been to all of us.