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It’s that time again. Carolers are dusting off their songbooks for practice. Grandparents and extended family are booking plans for travel. Pastors are praying and seeking God for the message to give when their congregation returns to Church for the “C” in the C/E season.
But before we get to begin preparing for what is literally the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, we have to pass by one dark door, in the corridor of the passage of time… Halloween.
Every year we come to a time where we have to decide, will we conform to the world, or be set apart like Christ. Many Believers often feel left out of festivities and decide to participate out of feelings of peer pressure.
So many times, I have heard Believers say these same things.
“It’s just dressing up”, “It’s harmless”, “Its innocent”, “It’s just some harmless family fun”. “I’m still a Christian, it doesn’t change anything”, “It’s for the kids”. “I’m going to dress up as Jesus”, “It’s just candy”, “You’re judging me”, “I don’t really believe all of that”.
Be honest, how many of these or similar statements have you made to justify yourself?
In Pastor Cyndi’s Podcast Series “Have You Heard?”, she recently did the first episode of her two-part series discussing should Christians celebrate Halloween.
Ancient Origins
In her session she talks about the dark origins of Halloween. The ancient Celtic peoples celebrated a day at the end of fall where they believed evil spirits were able to slip past the barrier of the spiritual world and terrorize them. They wore costumes to confuse the spirits, and set out food to appease them, hoping to protect themselves and their families.
To be clear, this was a day of fear and dread, not of celebration and festivities. This was a day people gathered with lights in the homes or by a bonfire to keep out the darkness. It was a time before electric lights. Those costumes weren’t for fun, they were as scary as possible so that they would be unrecognizable to evil spirits.
Unlike many years ago, today people in the west don’t really believe in the spirit world. Many of us see (and are taught to see) religion as something poor people in other countries use to make sense of the less developed circumstances they are in. They have to believe in spirits and use shamans because they don’t have modern medicine. If they get a cold they have to pray to the spirits for help because they don’t have or can’t afford cough drops.
Modern Agnosticism
Because of this our understanding of the Bible and Christianity becomes watered down to something you use when you’re desperate. The devil becomes a cute villain in children’s cartoons, and Jesus was just a really nice guy.
Growing up with this mentality, that you don’t really have to be religious or believe anything that restricts you, because all that stuff was just how people without modern understanding or medicine lived… it changes your perspective on things like this. So now people are “Christians” because they went to Church with their parents when they were children. They wear the label without having Christ inside. But Halloween started as a day of fear. A day on the ancient calendar that had to be observed for fear of what could happen.
Sure, today people party and dress up as ‘harmless things’ like princesses and cowboys, and visit haunted houses, graveyards and festivals, but what are they celebrating? The theme of Halloween has always been death, blood, gore, violence. Just because someone dresses up as a fairy doesn’t make it not a part of the general celebration.
Be a Bright Light
What I am saying is No, Christians should not celebrate Halloween. To but it plainly, and as an echo of what Pastor Cyndi says in part one of the Halloween episode,
What has Light to do with Darkness?
Are you really the Light of the World when the whole point of the Holiday is to cover up who you really are?
So, you say ‘I dress up as Christian characters and preach the Gospel to my friends, so they can see how a Christian celebrates Halloween’. But did you pray and ask God what you should do? Surely, He hasn’t sent all of His children out to proselytize on Halloween, certainly there are other days of the year, indeed, other ways to share the Gospel than dressed up at a party, or taking your children to trick-or-treat, or handing out candy.
And for those of you who take your children, what are you teaching them about Christ? That He doesn’t actually mean what He says in the Word of God? That we aren’t really Holy and set apart?
Okay, so maybe you don’t have children, and maybe you did dress up last year and go party, but you don’t want to turn down invitations and for anyone to find out you’re not celebrating. They’re ‘Christians’ and they’re going to celebrate. You’re afraid of what your friends will say, that they’ll ostracize you. What can you do? Pleasing your friends is more important than doing what God says and not indulging in darkness. Church is boring anyway, and besides my friends know I’m a Christian, so it’s fine, right?
Be a Good Witness
Most people put God on the back burner this time of year. Thinking it’s just one night, one party, one little sin that they’ll repent of later. They don’t know that every time they push God aside, their friends are watching. Every time they go partying with them, they are reassuring their friends of one thing…
God isn’t as good as He says He is.
Yes, you read that right. Your friends, family, and colleagues are watching you, even when you think they’re not. They’re watching to see if God is really so good that you would be different. Every time you curse, drink, fornicate, shack up, steal, lie, cheat, and skip Church, you are telling them, God isn’t that good, He’s not worth missing out on what I could get by doing evil works. He’s not loving enough that I would put Him before you.
God is good, and every decision you make reflects how good you believe He is. Every move you make is a witness to other people of whether or not God could help them too.
Being a Christian often means sacrifice, but that sacrifice is for our good. We believe that God is good and doing good in our lives, even when it doesn’t seem or feel that way… that’s why it’s called faith.
You may never know what people are truly thinking. They may stop talking to you, treat you poorly, get angry and leave. But they are watching, and they have been witnessed to, and one day that will stand against them in the courts of heaven, or they will be able to tell you themselves that it was something as simple as not celebrating Halloween that turned them to Christ.
But it’s just a little fun right?
