A “No Halloween” image on a lot of Spanish websites
10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
When you type “no halloween” into Google, it is surprising to me how many Spanish language sites and blogs come up. They understand the connection between Samhain (pronounced sou-en) and so-called “All Hallow’s Eve”, the name traditionally shorted to “Halloween”.
A lot of Americans, however, totally don’t get it. A lot of the critics of the Church of God totally don’t get it. What is interesting, however, is how many evangelicals at least partially get it.
While interpretations about traditional holidays based upon paganism certainly vary from our own, there is one point that some, thankfully, do get: God is against evil. He cannot stand to have evil in His presence, and at the end of it all, evil will be put far, far away from Him.
Halloween is nothing less than a celebration of evil. It encourages outrageous behavior that on a normal day would have people be very concerned about the person doing it. Is it any surprise how much true evil happens on Halloween, to include razor blades and drugs hidden within “treats” that have been handed out?
Growing up, my father was very anti-Christian for many years because he understood the hypocrisy of mainstream Christianity. He realized a long time ago that Christmas was a pagan celebration of Semiramis and her child-husband Tammuz. He also realized the pagan practice of Easter sunrise worship services was strictly forbidden in the Bible (Eze 8:14-18). Yet, he found he had to make a few concessions in order to put up with my mother and grandmother.
One thing he could not abide was taking candy from strangers. He insisted our “trick or treat”, such as it was, was to be solidly in our little rural neighborhood, but he would not go. Mom had to take us. She stopped fighting him on these things after they found WCG, though.
Have your parents ever warned you about taking candy from strangers? Yet, what is it that parents turn around and tell their children to do on Halloween? Is it any wonder that children don’t respect what parents say so much of the time? Worse, why would parents be so lenient about allowing them to take candy from people they do not even know? And, there are some who really will give children dangerous items hidden in candy every year.
It is an evening for dressing up as evil, acting like evil and, for some, to actually be evil. It is celebrated by witches (whether so-called “white” or not) and neo-pagans. In fact, it is considered one of the two highest Satanic holidays on the calendar.
That’s what anti-COG critics just don’t get. They can call it “secular” all they want. Pinning labels on pagan holidays is nothing new, anyhow. The point about Halloween is that it is not just not Christian, but it is evil. Period.
How anyone can celebrate evil and say with a straight face they are a Christian is beyond me. God will not be mocked.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
~ Ep 5:11
John,
Another section of verse that helps to make your point is Haggai 2:12-14.
12 If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy? Then the priests answered and said, No.
13 And Haggai said, If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? So the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
14 Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, says the LORD, and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
This so clearly shows that we simply cannot make something clean, pure… just because we insert “Jesus” into it, however, on the other hand, our fellowship with what is unclean does make us unclean. A couple other verses… Is. 52:11-12, II Cor. 6:16-17, Rev 18:1-5.
Ed wrote: ” just because we insert ‘Jesus’ into it”
How true! From cover to cover, the Bible tells us that God is the One Who makes things holy, not human beings.