3 Reasons Not to Celebrate Halloween. Handwriting on Today's Wall, Presidential Election Just Few Days Away.

 

3 Reasons Not to Celebrate Halloween. 

by Erik Jones - October 27, 2020

On Oct. 31, millions will celebrate Halloween. But did you know many Christians reject this dark holiday? What are some reasons not to celebrate Halloween?

According to a Markets Insider report, fewer than 60 percent of Americans are planning to celebrate Halloween this year. The coronavirus pandemic has made trick-or-treating and parties more difficult and complicated, so many are just forgoing the holiday for 2020.

But just because people aren’t celebrating the holiday as they normally do doesn’t mean they are abandoning it all together. The same article reported that it seems consumers will spend a record amount to celebrate the holiday in “safe” ways—such as with cards and decorations.

It is estimated that Americans will spend $8 billion to celebrate Halloween this year (down slightly from last year’s $8.8 billion).   

What will you be for Halloween?

Have you decided what you will be for Halloween this year? I actually have a suggestion:

Be a Christian for Halloween this year.

You may ask, how does someone dress up like a Christian? The answer: by not dressing up like anything at all!

In other words, ditch Halloween completely!

What is the origin of Halloween?

Did you know that thousands of Christians around the world have made the choice to completely scrap Halloween for good? They didn’t make that decision because they are grumps or cheapskates—or because they don’t like candy. (Actually many of them appreciate candy very much!) They made that decision because there are serious spiritual problems with the celebration of this holiday.

The origins of Halloween are not very hard to discover. All you have to do is Google “what is the origin of Halloween?” (Interestingly, an average of more than 4,000 people Google that search phrase per month.) You will find a plethora of information on where Halloween came from.

Here is its origin in a nutshell:

Halloween is a combination of two separate observances—All Saints’ Day (All Hallows Eve) and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sah-win).

Halloween is a combination of two separate observances—All Saints’ Day and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.All Saints’ Day was an observance created by the Roman Catholic Church to honor “all” the “saints” who weren’t assigned a specific day of commemoration. In Roman Catholicism, many saints are assigned a specific day to be honored on.

After Catholicism was legalized and became the state religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the Roman Church developed a tradition called canonization. This was the process of declaring a man or woman a saint because of some heroic deed or act of faith. Those declared saints could then be venerated and prayed to as an intermediary to God. Eventually the tradition developed to honor each particular saint on a certain day of the year—becoming that saint’s day. For instance, as I write this on Oct. 26, today is the Catholic feast day for Pope Evaristus, who is believed to have died in 107.

By the seventh century, the Roman Church had canonized so many “saints” that they couldn’t all have a calendar date, so May 13 was declared All Saints’ Day—in honor of all the saints who didn’t have a particular day of veneration. All Saints’ Day was officially moved to Nov. 1 by Pope Gregory IV in the ninth century.

Why was Nov. 1 picked for All Saints’ Day?

It is a generally accepted historical fact that Nov. 1 was selected to “counteract the pagan celebrations held on that date” (Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, p. 285). In other words, to appeal to the pagan masses, a day was selected for the celebration that was already being observed by pagans. This was to help them transfer their loyalties. They could continue keeping their former celebration and many of its customs, but now under a “Christian” banner. This is the basic origin of most of the holidays kept by mainstream Christianity.

The pagan festival that All Saints’ Day replaced was Samhain—an ancient Celtic festival that had many meanings and costumes. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, and it was celebrated by lighting large sacrificial bonfires where crops were burned to honor the gods and costumes were worn to ward off the spirits of the dead that were believed to rise and wander around on the evening of Oct. 31.  

Knowing these facts about Halloween’s origins has convinced thousands of Christians to stop celebrating it. Perhaps you will consider becoming one of them?

Three reasons not to celebrate Halloween

With the origins and the practices of Halloween in mind, here are three reasons why we believe you should consider ditching Halloween from your (and your children’s) lives:

1. God forbids the merging of pagan customs into our lives. “You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31). God demands purity of worship from His followers—not combining paganism with Christianity.
2. God wants us to avoid darkness. Halloween is all about darkness. It glorifies and emphasizes dark characters of mythology—witches, wizards, vampires, ghosts and zombies. These are all associated with either death, Satanism or the occult. The Bible is clear that we should “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11). No fellowship means no participation! For more insight on God’s view of darkness, read “Casting Out Spirits of Darkness.”
3. The whole celebration is based on a lie. The entire celebration of Halloween—from the celebrations it sprang out of to the present, commercialized holiday—is based on the unbiblical idea that humans have an immortal soul and live on in another form after death. The ancient Celts believed the souls of those in the Underworld wandered around on Samhain, and the Catholic All Souls’ Day is predicated on the belief that “canonized saints” are serving as mediators for God in heaven. Read “4 Keys to Understanding the Afterlife” to learn what the Bible actually teaches on this subject.

This year has been a pretty dark year in many ways. Perhaps it’s a good time to rethink this holiday dedicated to death, darkness and the macabre?

Join the thousands of Christians around the world who have made the decision to ditch Halloween! 

Don’t we all need a little less darkness in our lives?"  From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/blog/3-reasons-not-to-celebrate-halloween/?

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Handwriting on Today's Wall The United States Presidential election is just a few days away. The long pre-election season will be over and we will have one less big item to discuss. Of course, it will be replaced by more big items. And we all know this year has given us a lot of big items to think about. I want you to step back from the polarizing partisan politics and consider a key element of a biblical worldview. It is this: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” (Daniel 2:20-21). Daniel tells us God controls the overall course of history and of nations. While we watch and carefully discern major political events like a presidential election, godly Christians will always decide for the Kingdom of God and place ultimate hope in that coming Kingdom. I am very concerned about the direction of America. I have written about it many times in this space—and of course spoken about it on Beyond Today TV and in our magazine. Audiences I speak to across the country also realize this is the most critical election of our time. The stakes are high. We are close to seeing the America we have known disappear and become something very different. This reality stirs me to a sober assessment of what God’s Word says about the times prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. It stirs me to greater effort to make clear the truth of the gospel of God. I admit to being a political junkie and student of history and current affairs. I care deeply about what happens in this world. But I always base my conclusions on an understanding of what the Word of God says. In a recent Beyond Today television program titled “The Handwriting on the Wall,” I went through the fifth chapter of the book of Daniel and discussed this eerie event in light of the recent events in our news. We are living in big times. We all need to step up to the challenge of this moment, shed the fear and timidity and gain courage from the truth that God is involved in events—they are not running wildly out of control. God can give you wisdom and courage to handle the news and its impact on your life brought on by challenging economic events. Do not be discouraged! I encourage you to watch this program. The story of the handwriting on the wall of the king of Babylon’s palace is one of the most dramatic in the Bible. Watch this program and gain greater insight into how you can keep the big spiritual perspective surrounding today’s events."   From: https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?e=72c729d811&u=1d04480cefc2e7c4492fe4a04&id=0be0308f8e  ________ Does God Influence Elections? ISTOCK.COM/SDI PRODUCTIONS https://www.thetrumpet.com/blogs/2-joel-hilliker/23077-does-god-influence-elections  _________