IF YOU ENJOY PARTICIPATING IN HALLOWEEN PLEASE DO NOT READ
I greet you all with love and blessings. I meditated a great while as to how to properly deliver this topic. I prayed to God on how this message should be delivered to honor Him and the Kingdom. His message was clear, tell the truth in love with mercy and full of grace. I Clifton, a servant of God and Jesus Christ, write to all the saints in the Faith and pray that grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ:
As a child, I recall Halloween being one of my favorite times of the year. A time when it’s okay for you to eat as much candy as you want! I wasn’t too big on wearing costumes or anything, but those bite size chocolate candy bars, they were on point! I used to try to hide them because my mom and dad would be digging all in my bag talking about I don’t need all this candy. That was a long time ago, now as a parent I witness my children growing up eager to join in on the festivities. To them they knew only the fun associated with this day, they were unaware of the pagan traditions associated and the merchandising that went along with it.
As a believer in God and Jesus being my Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit has given me deeper insight on Halloween. I want to shed some light on two factors concerning Halloween.
The first is that it originated as an ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. Starting with Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating sweet treats. Those of us that try the spirit by the spirit and clearly see this holiday originated with pagan concepts, honoring Samhain instead of God. It also was later changed by Pope Gregory III to in some ways create a positive outlook on a negative celebration. In other words, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents Halloween, the Tree of Life represents Christ. Meditate on these scriptures below:
Ephesians 5:15-16 (ERV)
“be very careful how you live. Live wisely, not like fools. I mean that you should use every opportunity you have for doing good, because these are evil times.”
I Thessalonians 5:19-22 (ERV)
“Don’t stop the work of the Holy Spirit. Don’t treat prophecy like something that is not important. But test everything. Keep what is good, and stay away from everything that is evil.”
Ephesians 5:6-12 (ERV)
“Don’t let anyone fool you with words that are not true. God gets very angry when people who don’t obey him talk like that. So don’t have anything to do with them. In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. This light produces every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. Try to learn what pleases the Lord. Have no part in the things that people in darkness do, which produce nothing good. Instead, tell everyone how wrong those things are. Actually, it is shameful to even talk about the things those people do in secret.”
The second factor is the merchandising of Halloween. Can you believe that one-quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween? Or that Americans spend an estimated $9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas? They estimate this year each American will spend a record $86.79 per person, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey. One reason is that Halloween is a very affordable holiday. It doesn’t cost as much as Christmas or Thanksgiving and is still lots of fun. Part of this is a permanent shift to thrift that occurred during the Great Recession. Record Halloween sales statistics buoys retailers. According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween signals how well retailers will do during the all-important holiday season. That’s when about 20% of retail sales occur for the entire year. The kick-off is Black Friday, which is just a month later. In fact, 40% of shoppers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween.
Which brings us to the point of this revelation. I know many Christians prefer “Trunk or Treat” at their churches or try to exclude all the scary and dark things associated with Halloween and try to make it a righteous event. I pose to you this question, can man alone turn something evil into something good? I present this question not to cause division among the body of Christ, because we are to all be of one accord. I recently noticed how many yards were decorated for Halloween this year. I learned two things, people are very creative, and a lot of adults enjoy this time of the year as much as kids. I started to wonder, what does God say about all of this? So, I asked Him, I said “Lord if Jesus was to come back right now, what would He say about all these fake cemeteries, ghost and all those other scary looking creatures in people’s yard?” I was thrown back by His answer, He told me to look pass the things you see on the outside of people’s houses and look into their hearts. Look into this person’s purpose in my kingdom. Instead of judgment show encouragement, be an example. And then He sent me to this scripture:
Philippians 5:27 (ERV)
“Just be sure you live as God’s people in a way that honors the Good News of Christ. Then if I come and visit you or if I am away from you, I will hear good things about you. I will know that you stand together with the same purpose and that you work together like a team to help others believe the Good News.”
As always God is true, righteous and just. I was also reminded by my mother (by the way check out her God inspired website at www.emanne.org), that imagine if God looked at Saul with human eyes, there would not have been a revelation at Damascus, and Saul would’ve remained Saul instead of Paul. Bottom line, Love, Grace and Mercy should be our guiding light when discussing the worship, practice or celebration of Halloween.
In conclusion, we are aware that Halloween originated as a pagan celebration, and that it is a money-making event. But for those that follow Christ, how do we respond to these things? If God hasn’t revealed to us the hearts of those who celebrate it, we should follow the righteousness of Christ and be led by the Spirit to respond accordingly. Some people will decorate their house with a Fall theme, others believe it is a time of harmless fun without included all the demonic stuff or can we mix things of dark nature with the things of Light nature and call it innocent fun?
I Corinthians 10:14-22
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”
You have the origin of Halloween, you have the merchandising of Halloween, now you must pray and seek God concerning our participation in Halloween. To my sisters and brothers in the Faith according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
COMMENT BY EMMANUEL: Wow! To God be the glory! Deep and thought-provoking. Knowledge is powerful! Charles Spurgeon once wrote,
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
If we think that we know it all, or at least that we already know all that we need to know, we are already potentially deceived into believing a lie. Satan I believe wants us to think than we are smarter than we really are. Whenever this deception occurs we are then not going to make the effort to seek to know the truth of God’s Word. Love and Blessings…
Dan 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
EMMANUEL 