This is always a difficult time for Christians, especially those with children. It has been suggested that for a Christian to be asked to celebrate Halloween is like asking a Holocaust survivor to celebrate Hitler’s birthday!
It is also a dangerous time for some, since many of the seemingly “harmless” involvements associated with Halloween can also be “entries” for the occult, and can prove very tragic for the unwary.
Pagan Background In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic festival of Samhain was observed on October 31, the end of summer. November 1 was the new year for both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon calendars and was one of the most important and yet sinister calendar festivals of the Celtic Year.
Settling in northern France and the British Isles, the Celtic people engaged in occultic arts and worshiped nature, giving it supernatural, animistic qualities. (Much like our Federal government is attempting to enforce today.)
The ancient Druids were the learned priestly class of the Celtic religion. Many of their beliefs and practices were similar to those of Hinduism, such as reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul, which teaches that people may be reborn as animals. The Druids believed that on October 31, the night before their New Year and the last day of the old year, Samhain, the Lord of Death, gathered the souls of the evil dead who had been condemned to enter the bodies of animals.
The Druids also believed that the punishment of the evil dead would be lightened by sacrifices, prayers and gifts to the Lord of Death. (This begins to reveal the strange link between this holiday and the non-Biblical concept of purgatory.)
The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival acquired a sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature.
And, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther drove a stake into the heart of many of the prevailing non-Biblical concepts by nailing his famous 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, which started the movement known today as the Reformation-the single most important event in modern history.1 Appropriately, he did this on Halloween.
Modern Halloween Traditions In early American history, Halloween was not widely practiced until the 20th century, when it was introduced by the Irish Catholic settlements. Gradually, Halloween became a secular observance, and many customs and practices developed. The carved pumpkin may have originated with the witches’ use of a skull with a candle inside to light the way to coven meetings.
Since 1965 UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations, has attempted to incorporate into the Halloween observance the collection of money for the United Nations Children’s Fund. This exploitation by the ungodly United Nations of this pagan holiday seems strangely appropriate.
The Occult is Increasingly Popular Halloween is, for many, a “crossover” involvement in which innocent games can lead to serious entanglement with real witches, neo-pagans, New Agers, and other occultists.
2 A common pastime is the use of a Ouija board to attempt to contact ghosts or spirits that are believed to be roaming about. This can lead to serious consequences including demon possession.
3 Demons have a vested interest in Halloween because it supports the occult, and it also offers novel and unexpected opportunities to control and influence people.
Forms of the occult can include mediums, channelers, clairvoyants, psychics, spiritists, diviners, mystics, gurus, shamans, psychical researchers, Yogis, psychic and holistic healers, astral travel, astrology, mysticism, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, contact with the dead, UFOs, and thousands of other practices which almost defy cataloging.
Occultism includes Satanism, astrology, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, theosophy, witchcraft and many forms of serious magic. It includes activities seeking the acquisition of “hidden” things-which are expressly forbidden by God in the Bible.
The Biblical View Halloween practices can open the door to the occult and can introduce forces into people’s lives that they are not equipped to combat.
4 There is genuine power in the occult, but it is demonic power.
5 Any serious study of Biblical demonology will reveal Satan as the power behind false religion, witchcraft, idolatry and the occult.6 The Word of God makes it clear that these are all to be shunned as dangerous. There were many superstitions and false concepts in ancient Israel about which the Bible is silent. However, occultism, in any form, was punishable by death! Why?
The spiritual power and reality behind idols involves demons.7 The Bible commands us to shun occult practices. Mediums and spiritists are expressly prohibited.8 Nowhere are such practices acceptable.
Your Protection Intellect alone is insufficient. “If it were possible, it would deceive the very elect.” This is another example of the necessity to truly understand the Armor of God as outlined in Ephesians 6. This brief review was excerpted from our featured briefing package, Halloween: Invitation to the Occult? [Related Article: Blending Witchcraft and Christianity]
End Notes
1. Manuscript by his son D. Paul Luther preserved in the library at Rudolstadt, quoted by F.W. Boreham in A Bunch of Everlastings or Texts That Made History, Judson Press, Philadelphia, 1920, p.20.
2. See Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House, Eugene OR, 1996.
3. The case studies underlying William Blatty’s The Exorcist indicate that the trouble all began with a child playing with a Ouija board.
4. Russ Parker, Battling the Occult, Inter-Varsity Press, Downer’s Grove IL, 1990, p.35.
5. Isa 47:9; Mt 24:24; Acts 8:7; 13:6-11; 16:16-19; 19:18-20; 2 Cor 4:4; Eph 6:7-11, 22; 2 Tim 3:8.
- Missler, Chuck, Signs in the Heavens, The Mysteries of the Planet Mars Halloween: Invitation to the Occult? (briefing packages), Koinonia House, 1991-6.
- Ankerberg, John, and Weldon, John, The Facts on Halloween, Harvest House, Eugene OR, 1996. A key reference for this article.
- Sykes, Egerton, Who’s Who in Non-Classical Mythology, J.M. Dent, London, 1993.
- Patten, Donald Wesley, Catastrophism and the Old Testament, Pacific Meridian Publishing Co., Seattle WA, 1995.
- Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House, Eugene OR, 1996.
- Also the video, Halloween: Trick or Treat, Jeremiah Films, Hemet CA
Over a hundred years ago, the
great Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck predicted that the 20th century
would “witness a gigantic conflict of spirits.” His prediction turned
out to be an understatement, and this great conflict continues into the
21st century. The issue of Halloween presses
itself annually upon the Christian conscience. Acutely aware of dangers
new and old, many Christian parents choose to withdraw their children
from the holiday altogether. Others choose to follow a strategic battle
plan for engagement with the holiday. Still others have gone further, seeking to convert Halloween into an evangelistic opportunity. Is Halloween really that significant? Well, Halloween is a big deal in
the marketplace. Halloween is surpassed only by Christmas in terms of
economic activity. Reporting in 2007, David J. Skal estimated: “Precise
figures are difficult to determine, but the annual economic impact of
Halloween is now somewhere between 4 billion and 6 billion dollars
depending on the number and kinds of industries one includes in the
calculations.” As of 2012, that total exceeded $8 billion. Furthermore, historian Nicholas Rogers claims:
Halloween is
currently the second most important party night in North America. In
terms of its retail potential, it is second only to Christmas. This
commercialism fortifies its significance as a time of public license, a
custom-designed opportunity to have a blast. Regardless of its spiritual
complications, Halloween is big business.
Rogers and Skal have each produced books dealing with the origin and significance of Halloween. Nicholas Rogers is author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night.
Professor of History at York University in Canada, Rogers has written a
celebration of Halloween as a transgressive holiday that allows the
bizarre and elements from the dark side to enter the mainstream. Skal, a
specialist on the culture of Hollywood, has written Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween.
Skal’s approach is more dispassionate and focused on entertainment,
looking at the cultural impact of Halloween in the rise of horror movies
and the nation’s fascination with violence. The pagan roots of Halloween are well documented.
The holiday is rooted in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which came at
summer’s end. As Rogers explains, “Paired with the feast of Beltane,
which celebrated the life-generating powers of the sun, Samhain beckoned
to winter and the dark nights ahead.” Scholars dispute whether Samhain
was celebrated as a festival of the dead, but the pagan roots of the
festival are indisputable. Questions of human and animal sacrifices and
various occultic sexual practices continue as issues of debate, but the
reality of the celebration as an occultic festival focused on the
changing of seasons undoubtedly involved practices pointing to winter as
a season of death. As Rogers comments: “In fact,
the pagan origins of Halloween generally flow not from this sacrificial
evidence, but from a different set of symbolic practices. These revolve
around the notion of Samhain as a festival of the dead and as a time of
supernatural intensity heralding the onset of winter. How should Christians respond to this pagan background? Harold L. Myra of Christianity Today argues that these pagan roots were well known to Christians of the past:
More than a thousand
years ago Christians confronted pagan rites appeasing the lord of death
and evil spirits. Halloween’s unsavory beginnings preceded Christ’s
birth when the druids, in what is now Britain and France, observed the
end of summer with sacrifices to the gods. It was the beginning of the
Celtic year and they believed Samhain, the lord of death, sent evil
spirits abroad to attack humans, who could escape only by assuming
disguises and looking like evil spirits themselves.
Thus, the custom of wearing
costumes, especially costumes imitating evil spirits, is rooted in the
Celtic pagan culture. As Myra summarizes, “Most of our Halloween
practices can be traced back to the old pagan rites and superstitions.” The complications of Halloween
go far beyond its pagan roots, however. In modern culture, Halloween has
become not only a commercial holiday, but a season of cultural
fascination with evil and the demonic. Even as the society has pressed
the limits on issues such as sexuality, the culture’s confrontation with
the “dark side” has also pushed far beyond boundaries honored in the
past. As David J. Skal makes clear,
the modern concept of Halloween is inseparable from the portrayal of the
holiday presented by Hollywood. As Skal comments, “The Halloween
machine turns the world upside down. One’s identity can be discarded
with impunity. Men dress as women, and vice versa. Authority can be
mocked and circumvented, and, most important, graves open and the
departed return.” This is the kind of material
that keeps Hollywood in business. “Few holidays have a cinematic
potential that equals Halloween’s,” comments Skal. “Visually, the
subject is unparalleled, if only considered in terms of costume design
and art direction. Dramatically, Halloween’s ancient roots evoke dark
and melodramatic themes, ripe for transformation into film’s language of
shadow and light.” But television’s “It’s the Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (which debuted in 1966) has given way to
Hollywood’s “Halloween” series and the rise of violent “slasher” films.
Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff have been replaced by Michael Myers and
Freddy Kruger. This fascination with the occult
comes as America has been sliding into post-Christian secularism. While
the courts remove all theistic references from America’s public square,
the void is being filled with a pervasive fascination with evil,
paganism, and new forms of occultism. In addition to all this,
Halloween has become downright dangerous in many neighborhoods. Scares
about razor blades hidden in apples and poisoned candy have spread
across the nation in recurring cycles. For most parents, the greater
fear is the encounter with occultic symbols and the society’s
fascination with moral darkness. For this reason, many families
withdraw from the holiday completely. Their children do not go
trick-or-treating, they wear no costumes, and they attend no parties
related to the holiday. Some churches have organized alternative
festivals, capitalizing on the holiday opportunity, but turning the
event away from pagan roots and the fascination with evil spirits. For
others, the holiday presents no special challenges at all. These Christians argue that the
pagan roots of Halloween are no more significant than the pagan origins
of Christmas and other church festivals. Without doubt, the church has
progressively Christianized the calendar, seizing secular and pagan
holidays as opportunities for Christian witness and celebration.
Anderson M. Rearick, III argues that Christians should not surrender the
holiday. As he relates, “I am reluctant to give up what was one of the
highlights of my childhood calendar to the Great Imposter and Chief of
Liars for no reason except that some of his servants claim it as his.” Nevertheless, the issue is a bit
more complicated than that. While affirming that make-believe and
imagination are part and parcel of God’s gift of imagination, Christians
should still be very concerned about the focus of that imagination and
creativity. Arguing against Halloween is not equivalent to arguing
against Christmas. The old church festival of “All Hallow’s Eve” is by
no means as universally understood among Christians as the celebration
of the incarnation at Christmas. Christian parents should make
careful decisions based on a biblically-informed Christian conscience.
Some Halloween practices are clearly out of bounds. Others may be
strategically transformed, but this takes hard work and may meet with
mixed success. The coming of Halloween is a
good time for Christians to remember that evil spirits are real and that
the Devil will seize every opportunity to trumpet his own celebrity.
Perhaps the best response to the Devil at Halloween is that offered by
Martin Luther, the great Reformer: “The
best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of
Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.” On
October 31, 1517, Martin Luther began the Reformation with a declaration
that the church must be recalled to the authority of God’s Word and the
purity of biblical doctrine. With
this in mind, the best Christian response to Halloween might be to scorn
the Devil and then pray for the Reformation of Christ’s church on
earth. Let’s put the dark side on the defensive. ALBERT MOHLER http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/10/30/christianity-and-the-dark-side-what-about-halloween-5/
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