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Halloween

A friend of mine said that Halloween is the Devils holiday. I was always told that it is a religious holiday. Can you clarify?

Halloween has it’s ancient origins back in a before The Lord Jesus Christ came to earth. In the isles and areas of modern day Britain, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Northern Spain, there was a religious order of magicians – wizards if you will, among the Celtic people – called Druids.

Sadly in this country this ancient order has become something of a modern-day pop-culture phenomenon or at the very least, there has been a renewed interest in them. As we will see, this order was anything but good and peaceful. You will find as you grow in your Christian life that there is no such thing as “white magic” it is all black and all leads to the same end. There are many of the modern-day order of Druids that claim to be nothing more than a bunch of nature worshipping, magic practicing pantheist pagans”. This means they claim to worship the earth and nature, practice white magic, worship many gods and as pagans reject the God Of the Bible. Of course this is true, but there is a dark and violent history and present reality to this religion and it’s “holy day”.

Let us look to history to discover the origin of this holiday.

The ancient Celtic holiday called Samhain (pronounced Sow-wan), “The Feast of The Sun” that celebrated the end of summer (in the Celtic year autumn was considered the last part of the summer) on October 31st. The beginning of winter and the Celtic New Year. It was also the festival of the dead. They believed that demons, witches and the souls of the dead roamed the countryside on the night of October 31st and that the magical forces were at their strongest that night.

The Druids would go from homestead to homestead, dressed in costumes to fool the evil spirits, and they (the Druids) would seek for human sacrifices to appease their gods. If one was provided, the Druids would leave a Jack-O-Lantern or a candle made of human fat to ward off evil spirits. The Druids would then sacrifice their victims usually by burning them in wicker cages. If no sacrifice was provided, then a hex was marked on the home so that demons would storm the homestead and murder someone in the house that night. Historically, Jack-o-Lanterns were originally made out of potatoes or turnips.

After the Roman Empire put down the Druids under their warrior Queen Boadicea (AD 63) the Roman culture, being the religiously pluralistic as it was, incorporated many of the Celtic people’s gods into their own religion and joined Samhain with their own festival of Pomona (the goddess of the fruit trees) as a celebration of the harvest.

Through years, during this holiday, cakes were baked as offering for the souls of the dead. The people would write their faults down and toss them into the bonfires to get rid of them and dance around the fire itself along with many other pagan, superstitious practices.

In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV created “All Saints Day” to remember Catholic Saints on May 12th. This holiday was later changed to November 1 by Pope Gregory & then instituted “All Souls Day” on November 2. “All souls day” celebrated the purifying of the spirit of the dead. October 31st became “All Hallows Eve” according to the Catholic Church it was the night vigil of Hallowmas (All Saints Day).

The holiday morphed on the surface from being a time where the supernatural evil was embraced by the people to a time where spirits were warded off by superstitious catholic people who undoubtedly knew no better. It is amazing how easily such a dark holiday was fused with papist tradition. Many of the pagan practices of Samhain were never really done away with though. They simply evolved in practice. However, to this day, Halloween is still the highest holiday of Satanists and witches across the world.

“Trick-or-Treat” was transformed from the Druid’s murderous search for human sacrifice to “Trick or Treat Money or Each”. In the Medieval Europe, there was a prevalent superstition in Europe that your soul hung in limbo after death (this can be correlated to the false teaching of purgatory by the Catholic Church). The only possible way out of this state of “spiritual suspension” was for the Saints who were still alive to go "souling." This happened on October 31st. The people would go through the hamlets that dotted the countryside gathering “soul cakes” (currant bread). People with deceased loved ones would bake these cakes and give them the gatherers who in turn promised to pray for the soul of the deceased, sending it to heaven. The catch (?) The more cakes a person could give, the more prayers would be offered up.

In England, “Mischief Night” was a very popular tradition. The basic idea was that “mischievous things” were done to those people who did not give “treats” to the requestors. Things such as knocking on the door and running away, lighting bags of manure on the doorstep etc.

In the 1840’s America of course took in a mass of Irish immigrants fleeing the great potato famine in their homeland. Many of these traditions were brought over to this country at this time. Jack-o-Lanterns were used to light the Irish children’s Halloween parties. Instead of using potatoes, the Irish began to use pumpkins which were easier to carve & in abundance here in this country. The 1st recorded celebration of Halloween in this country was in Anoka Minnesota in 1921. Then in New York, New York in 1923 and in Los Angeles, California in 1925.

What does The Word of God have to say of all this?

  1. Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
  2. Leviticus 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.
  3. Deuteronomy 18:9-15 When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do. The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
  4. 1 Samuel 28:8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.
  5. 1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
  6. 2 Chronicles 33:6 And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
  7. 2 Kings 17:17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
  8. Isaiah 19:3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
  9. Isaiah 29:4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
  10. Jeremiah 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
  11. Acts 16:16-18 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
  12. Ephesians 5:11 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
  13. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

One only has to flip through the channels looking for the evening news within 10 days of Halloween to be bombarded with images of demon possession, cannibalism, witchcraft, Satanism, magic, vampirism, murder and unspeakable gore. Odd as it sounds, this is because the world celebrates this day in more reality than they even realize. 

Many good, saved Christian people take their children Trick-or-Treating every Halloween and call it a “harmless holiday”. I have to believe that it is because they do not understand the dark origins and reality of this holiday. Conversely, there are many overzealous and downright sanctimonious Christian people who regularly hurt unknowing Christians with a very haughty and mean spirit if they do happen to celebrate this holiday with their children.

It is my intention to do neither. I have simply put before you the factual record and I have held that information to the Light of God’s Word. There can be no honest argument against the fact that this celebration was founded in and to this day thrives in the occult and that the Lord God condemns such practices. What the believer does with this truth is strictly between him or her and the Lord.

Most Christian people who practice this holiday don’t really know this and I certainly am not here to condemn them for ignorance to this truth. But when a Child of Light is given this truth, then it is a matter of your soul’s conscience and the Holy Spirit. I will not attempt to interfere there.

It is between you and the Lord as to how He would have you to practice next October 31st.

Daily Proverb

Proverbs 30:22

For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;
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