You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Halloween a big day to
some and an annoyance to others, pagan ritual to some, a time of
candy and frivolity to others. So it pops up, you know, every
year round this this holiday known as Halloween, I receive emails, calls,
and tweets with everybody asking me about the origins of the celebration. And then
the secondary question is always and is it okay for Christians to partake in it?
And I think, first of all, it's incredibly healthy to ask questions.
Scripture says to test all things, you should be poking at things and
wondering what your participation is, if it's even something that's edifying you at all.
However, what I want is that that level of discernment that surpasses just
I don't know or I don't think so, and just pushing things away for
the sake of pushing them away. The appearance of that is a group of
sometimes even inconsistent, unwavering, not even well articulated groups of Christians that just
spurt things out and say this is why this is what we do, but
not why we do it, and that becomes confusing to non believers. Like
many things that surrounds your life in this world and your faith. When it
comes to Halloween, there's some controversy. But is this controversy this particular day,
is particular celebration? Is it in fact necessary? Are the roots of
Halloween found in paganism? Yep, absolutely no doubt about it. Does this
automatically mean that Christian that a Christian can't partake in any part of a Halloween
celebration? Of course not, and I know there will continue to be disagreements.
But what is based on fear of an ignorance versus the reality? That's
what's important, because the more you do something just based on fear and ignorance,
the less substantive your faith looks like to others. And you may feel,
well, I don't care what it looks like to them, and if
so, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's important for those around you
that are non believers to it for you, when they are around you,
to give them the best idea you can of what you believe in, why
you believe it, to give them that hope or maybe understanding in a way
that they'll want to ask questions or investigate on their own. Most historians believe
Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Salin. It's also pronounced Savin or
sam Hayne, and it means the end of summer. During this festival,
people would like these huge communal bonfires, and yeah, they wear costumes mostly
comprised of animal heads and furs, and they did this to ward off roaman
spirits and ghosts. That's kind of the basic element of what Halloween was in
one sense or another. It's kind of the roots. In the eighth century
finally rolled around, Pope Gregory the third designated November first as something called All
Saints Day. This was this was a time to honor saints and martyrs that
had passed on. You can't look at that as a bad thing. Essentially
honoring those in the Christian family that had done good and were no longer on
this earth. Well, as often is the case, this particular, this
new holiday incorporated many of the traditions of the Sun Festival. So a lot
of the things kind of that were already being used to sell break and swing.
Did you know you were a pagan? And the reason why I wanted
you to think this way is because, of course Halloween being tomorrow, it
always around this time, starts stirring up questions about you know, the origins
of Halloween and should Christians participate. Are there things that Christians should not participate
in in life? Yeah? Sure there are. Now Christian liberty is far
and wide, and the individual Christian has to use You just have to use
your discernment to know what's going to be beneficial, what's good, what's glorifying
to God. All of those things should be thought about. But to throw
something out or to say that it has no value when if you dressed it
slightly different it would be fine. That Really you're dealing with the origin of
something that doesn't even exist anymore. So the roots of Halloween, yes,
are found in paganism, but that doesn't necessarily mean because soo in was this,
this Celtic festival was celebrated at one point, and it morphed into All
Saints Day, and All Saints Day Uh, morphed in uh to the day
before being All Hollows Eve, and that morphed into Halloween, and that over
the centuries and centuries and centuries, this once religious festival just became commercial and
secular. And at that point the activities can be fun or entertaining. You
as the parents, should control the things that your kids are doing or what
they're they're how they're dressing, or what things they're partaking in. But that's
every day, in every way and everything, so the kids aren't thinking of
it. Theologically, there are not Satanists running around everywhere because kids grew up
participating in Halloween. And to understand from a child's point of view that it's
just dress up, make believe. Being out at night, you know,
holding the hand of your parents and walking around that neighborhood at night, and
the uniqueness of the experience and not all the previous pagan rituals is important to
being a balanced parent and to understand and a balanced Christian and understand how you
interact with this world. You are in this world for reason, and that
reason really is to glorify God, and you find ways to glorify God when
you break the leaves or do the dishes, or do your job, or
when you celebrate the problem the God of Christian that he has with Paganism or
any other belief system for that matter, is not with the general practices of
the belief necessarily, but the fact that they worship another god altogether. This
is the problem. This is where God says I have a problem. Exodus
twenty three twenty verse three, you shall have no other gods before me.
This is where God's concern is. There isn't a commandment about you should not
dress up in fun and make believe, or you shall not receive suits from
the hand of a neighbor, or anything like that. Oh, I'm sure
that somebody would like to twist scripture to find something like that, but that's
not the case. It's really about being having a community and experiencing that community.
And I'll get to your calls in just a bit. As I talk
about the pagan roots of Halloween, make no mistake, this is not an
apologetic for Halloween or pagan activities. It's a defensive reason and discernment and as
a Christian using those tools to find a balanced approach to the things that surround
you in this life. You are in this world. You are in it
by choice of God. And there is a lot of Christians who run from
everything because of origins. And I'm going to show you why that might not
be as easy as you think. And every year I get call and tweets
and emails about Halloween, and yes, Halloween is rooted in paganism, but
that doesn't automatically mean that a Christian can't partake in it in some way or
some fashion. So this Celtic Festival of Sowen, later through Pope Gregory the
Third, designated November first, it's All Saints Day, so it's all around
the same time. This is to honor saints and martyrs, but a lot
of the traditions and ideas and certain of the practices from the Sowen Festival made
its way into that as well. The evening before this became known as All
Hallows Eve that became Halloween. Now you've got this very commercial, secular,
non pagan, religiously anyways event. And it's important to just realize that God's
problem with paganism or other belief systems is not necessarily their practices, but that
they do those practices while worshiping another God altogether. Exodus twenty verse three,
you shall have no other gods before me. Thus saith the Lord. That
is God's words. That's the concern. God wants you to celebrate and glorify
Him in everything you do, and as to understand this a little better,
just keep in mind two thousand years ago pagan sacrificed animals, but so did
our Jewish brothers and sisters under God's command. The same act with different intent
was now a pleasing aroma to God, as it says in Genesis eight to
twenty. In twenty one, and I'll read that, then Noah built an
altar to the Lord, and taking some of the clean animals and clean birds,
he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and
said in his heart, never again will I curse the ground because of humans,
even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And
never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. So it's
not just the act itself, it is the intent. It is the purpose
of that act that matters to God. Sacrifice to idols or a false God
not good, sacrifice to the One, true, Holy and Righteous God good
a pleasing aroma. It's scarting something just because Pagans or any other faith did
it at one time or does it now. Really isn't balanced, and it
isn't thoughtful. It's it's like that you know vegetarianism is bad because Hitler adhered
to a primarily vegetarian diet. It just seems like a weird way to go
about life, rather than seeing things for what they are and using them to
glorify God. It's fallacious to think that because something had origins here or origans
over here, that it's good or bad. Really, it's the application.
You probably don't even know how many things already in your life come from pagan
origins. Guess what. You can look down at your left hand there,
if you were wearing a wedding ring, you're wearing something with origins in paganism
and ancient magic and the concept of the circle, as it's seen as this
endless and timeless thing that you can wear, and it suggests a kind of
repetitive or unbroken time and space. And you can see it in many pagan
uses, such as Stonehenge and others that predate Christianity, and even in Christianity
itself, there are symbols and practices that come from or were used by Pagans.
The cross itself is a pagan symbol and wasn't even used very very early
on in the Christian Church. But you don't think of things that way.
You don't think that there is an overlap where there's a mingling at all.
But there is, I assure you, in your everyday life and even in
your faith. In his eighteen seventy eight essay on the Development of the Christian
Doctrine, John Henry Newman, who was originally a priest in the Church of
England and later a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, wrote these words the
use of temples and these dedicated to particular saints and ornamented on occasion with branches
of trees, incense, lamps, candles, holy days and seasons, use
of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields, the ring, and marriage.
All of are all of pagan origin and sanctified by their adoption into the
Church. So even the cross that adorns many churches has pagan origins. Also.
The beloved fish symbol used by many to identify themselves as Christians, whether
it's on your clothing or on your car. It was used by pagan's generations
before Christianity. The New Age movement, Hindus, Taois, Buddhists, and
others use this symbol of the fish to express their own beliefs different beliefs as
well. The symbol for Virgo, the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac,
if you look, has a pagan fish in it. Because of its the
direction of the fish, people don't always notice that. In the Dictionary of
Symbols, it states that Virgo is based on the Hebreic letter mem and the
Phoenician symbol meaning fish. So as you can see, you'll have to run
very far to try and distance yourself from anything that has pagan roots or is
associated with religions other than Christianity. And it's not that it's not a noble
cause to run away that says resist the devil, and he shelfly, you
don't need to be running everywhere in fear. You have Christ in you,
and if I am for you, then we are the majority. No man
can be against you. So running away from these things and not understanding them
doesn't help anyone, and sometimes makes them sexier to younger kids and more intriguing
than it would if you allowed them to be the simple, secular thing that
they are and put your own spin on it, however you might want to.
But how much more important is it that the things and customs in your
life are all dedicated to God rather than looking for the devil under every stone.
Celebrations like Halloween can seem on the surface like a contradiction to Christianity.
I get that, but really it is more about how it's celebrated than where
it came from. That matters. And you see this throughout the Church.
There were many things that even our Jewish brothers and sisters did, even the
early Church did that Pagans did, but they did it to the right God.
When churches shy away from Halloween and opt for, you know, instead,
a celebration of a harvest festival or something like that, it gives children
more of a reason to be curious about why everyone else is celebrating something they
are not, and maybe even seek out more about paganism than they would otherwise,
and not to mention celebrating the harvest in any way, shape or form
has pagan origins as well, so you're sort of changing it. But not
everything. Everything in life can be used for good or evil. A knife
can either kill in the hands of a mugger or heal in the hands of
a surgeon, and you must remember that how you use it or partake in
something and your intent is important, and I know that you know it's easier
just to cut things out. And if that's where you feel led to,
then God bless you. The important thing is to serve God and to serve
your family in a way that is healthy and glorifying to God. And if
you feel something in your life is not healthy or good or glorifying to God,
then of course cut it out. But sometimes in removing these things haphazardly
without understanding where they truly come from, or or the other things around you
in your life that comes similarly, you'll miss the bigger picture. And in
doing so, it's like those surgeries there where a doctor will tell you that
it's not a necessary surgery. I wouldn't do this because you can go in
and mess something else. More, why not put restrictions on it in a
healthy way, or be interactive with your children in a way that Halloween can
be something dealing with fun and creativity and those types of things and not death
and dismemberment and glorify God. Because remember one Corinthians ten thirty one. Above
all of this, so whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory of God. Luke, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show. How you doing? I am well, Luke? What's
your thoughts? Oh? I understand your point of view about Halloween and what
do you have been saying? But I think if we're going to be serious
about this, I don't think at any level as Christians we should celebrated Okay?
Why so? Well, just knowing the the roots of it and the
practices that went together with those pagan rituals, it was really really anti Christian.
Do you know, do you refrain from celebrating anything? Do you celebrate
any festivals at all? Do you celebrate your birthday or anything like that?
Uh? Yeah, okay, a lot of those have pagan roots as well.
The celebration of life and fertility all goes back. Are you married yes?
Do you wear a reading wedding ring? Yeah? Are you going to
get rid of that? No? Okay? But that that has its background
in both paganism pre dating Christianity and also witchcraft. So are you going to
get rid of those symbols because of where they came? Or are you going
to bring them into your faith and sanctify them, set them apart from where
they started, just like you were sanctified by the blood on the Christ Amen.
I mean the the son who came back to his father, the first
thing father did put a ring on his Yes, but these but but predating
that very story. Yes, and that's that's my point. That you have
feasts that our Jewish and brother brothers and sisters partook in around the same times
as they were pagan feasts, and the Jews did not want to appear to
be pagan. The levitical laws, as a matter of fact, the majority
of them are to uh uh separate themselves from the even the appearance of being
pagan. Yet they did things that Pagans did as well. So it wasn't
about the thing that they did, It was about how they applied them,
right, And I understand, I understand. But the difference between what I'm
talking thing about and the ring or that situation is that Jesus sanctified the latter.
He hasn't sanctified Halloween. Oh No, there are things that are being
sanctified every day by the use of Christianity. Do you celebrate Christmas? Okay,
yeah, but that's not sanctified by God in any stretch, any way,
shape or form. In scripture, there's never a celebration about that,
nor is there a celebration of Easter. Those were those were Loukeluke. No,
that's not the day of his birth. That's about two years later.
The purpose of all of this is that those things that you're talking about have
become comfortable to you because they've been passed down to you, not because of
their origins. There is none. Matter of fact. The early Church didn't
celebrate it in that sense, and those are and those land on pagan holidays
and were usurped it both Easter and Christmas, and a lot that ties into
those things, and the things that you celebrate really tie into peg and beliefs.
The tree in the house, the eggs and the bunny, all of
those things. But it's what you do with them that matters, not from
where they came from. You came from a dark place, and God sanctified
you, and through the blood on the cross, he can sanctify the things
you do as long as they're done to the glory of God. Kfi Am
sixty on demand