Latest / CraveMore / Should Christians Participate In Halloween?
Transcript
- Victoria: you you Victoria Grant: I'm Victoria Grant alongside my husband Mark, and we both want to welcome you to Cravemore. And as promised, we had finished up the podcast on the spiritual realm. We said we would come back and have a discussion about Halloween. It's a very controversial topic for Christians, and we wanted to discuss Halloween. Can we or should we participate in some of these events? We know Halloween with its costumes and its candy and for some of us the nostalgic family traditions, we can be influenced by that. And the question is, is that what Halloween is all about? Or is Halloween a varying degree of darkness and we are participating in it? So we know it's that time of year. You're out in the stores, you're shopping and you see all the decorations. We just want to have a really good discussion today. And we wantto approach scripture. So, Mark, would you go ahead and share with us some of the scriptures that we see in the Old and New Testament that talk about pagan practices? Absolutely. So in Leviticus chapter eighteen, verse three, we see God through Moses communicating with the Israelites, his chosen people that he has called to be set apart, and he warns them, having come from Egypt, a land where it was polytheistic, pagan practices. He warned them and said, Do not remember those practices, do not bring them into your ways, discard them. He also said, You're going into the land of Canaan, where the Canaanites also practiced paganistic rituals, and he said, Have nothing to do with them. I've called you to be set apart, so have nothing to do with those practices. He repeated that same instruction. In the book of Deuteronomy, also chapter 18, verse 9. So God was very consistent in what he was saying to the Israelites. Correct. And Paul has something to say about that as well in First Corinthians six, about things being lawful versus profitable. Right. So in verse twelve of chapter six, Paul writing to the Corinthian church and they're asking a lot of questions. They're new believers, and they've come from a paganistic culture where there were a lot of paganistic practices. And they're asking, you know, can I do this? Should I do that? And Paul is stating within Christ, all things are lawful for me in that I am free, but not all things are profitable. Meaning, not everything, just because you can doesn't mean that you should, because it isn't going to be to your benefit. It isn't going to draw you closer to God. So as we further the discussion, one of the things that you can be thinking about is this spiritual risk. To you or your family. And so that is where this scripture kind of comes into place. Is it profitable for you and your family? Paul also writes in Romans sixteen, nineteen, and twenty, we are told to be excellent at what is good and innocent of evil. And I love the simplicity of this verse. Mark, what does it mean to be innocent of evil? Well, he means to know nothing about evil and know. means it's within an intimate personal knowledge not just I'm aware of it but to truly know it and have it become part of you of what you're doing. So consider that scripture as well. You know it may seem like we have a bent and we have formed our own opinion over the years, but what we're doing is we're asking you to go back to God's word. That's what Cravemore is all about. Go back to God's word. Pray these scriptures and see what Holy Spirit would speak to you. So not only do we see that Halloween may not be something that's profitable for us as families, but one of the I feel like disturbing things that we learned about Halloween is that it's a Thirteen billion dollar industry. Second to what, Mark? Second only to Christmas. And you have to consider Christmas spending starts back in in July So $13 billion. are spent by us, by consumers in the United States for the purpose of buying costumes and candy decorations. Right. So it is a commercially driven holiday by an industry that has no desire for your good. It has a desire to see you as a dollar sign. And one of the things that we feel is true is that The world sees this as an opportunity for entertainment, but the enemy sees this as a different type of opportunity. And remember when we talked in our spiritual warfare podcast, go back and take a look at it, we said that the tactic of the evil one is to wait for an opportune moment. And what a better way for him to introduce darkness than through a disguised celebration of fun, right? Right. So it is and can be an opportune moment and the industry doesn't care about your spiritual well being, our family's spiritual well being. And this is another thing to consider. When I think about a thirteen billion dollar industry, I kind of feel like we're being had and our money is better spent edifying our families and spending quality time maybe in a different way. Right. So we asked the question, is this harmless fun or is there a spiritual risk to it all? We talked about is there a spiritual realm? We talked extensively about open doors. What opens a door and certainly how to close the door? So if you haven't watched that podcast, we would really encourage you to do that. But Mark, what happens when the spirit absorbs fear? Well, fear is very clearly an open door for darkness to come in. And once that comes in, it becomes a way that it influences you. It causes you anxiety. It causes you grief. Fear can lead to depression. Fear is a pathway to a number of different negative things within our personal being. Fear is actually a route to anger. And so we have to be careful if we are going to introduce these things to our children. I think we need to know what doors we are opening for them. The other thing that we contend with when it comes to should we, can we participate in events such as Halloween, we have to ask ourselves what is the origin? what can we trace back to the Celtic practices of old and what are the roots? So it goes back to a Celtic practice called Saun, which was formed years and years and years ago, centuries ago. by people who believed that this particular time of year was when the veil between the spiritual realm and the earthly realm was at its thinnest. And during that time people were very, very afraid because they weren't sure. They didn't know what those gods who they worshiped were going to do to them. So they took up some different actions, didn't they? They did. And at this time the energy in the atmosphere is very charged. with fear. So they wore masks and they wore costumes. They were called guises as the mask, a disguise, so that the spiritual beings couldn't find them. And they wore costumes so they would not be recognizable. And why did they do that? Because they were concerned that beings would find them, entities would find them, harm them, harm their families, or kidnap them. That was the whole point of costumes and masks. Fear. Fear to be afraid. So, what is another practice we do? And my family did it. We carved pumpkins. And we understand that there are ways you could teach about the gospel through a carved pumpkin. But just so you know and understand the origin, in Celtic practices, they would carve out a root vegetable and they would put a lump of lard inside the root vegetable. They would light that to ward off spirits, entities that were trying to find them, scare them. And they didn't want to be found, and they thought this would be a way for them not to be involved with these spirits. Again, everything was driven by fear. Hide your face, cover your body, put lights out to drive away any wandering evil spirit. It was all correct fear based. So those were ancient practices that serve as the origin of Halloween. Correct. But what do we see today? What's going on today that can tie into some of those ancient practices. I don't think there's any one of us listening or watching today that would contest that Halloween has its roots in a high holy day for Wiccans, witches, and warlocks. That is a true statement. They believe and practice many of what the religion of Saun would have practiced. They also believe that the veil is thinnest between the physical and the spiritual realm. And what they are doing is they are calling up dead spirits. So they light bonfires and they call up dead spirits because they want to communicate with the dead. And this thing called Halloween is directly tied to death, graves, skulls, and none of it is out of love. None of it is from redemption. This is all over fear and I would dare say even hate and calling up spirits. So this is the practice. Of a Wiccan witch or warlock. And this action of calling up dead spirits, these spirits are actually demonic spirits who come and manifest in ways and recognize that demonic spirits have studied and understand and know, and so they will come and they will mimic people that may have been known. But nonetheless, these spirits are demonic. They get called up. That's correct. And as a believer, as a Christ follower, walking with Jesus. We are told to test the spirits, correct? Yes. And we need to ask any spirit that we could come in contact through fear, through horrendous decorations. We have decorations in our neighborhood that I actually avoid. They are so, so graphic. And when we come into contact with spirits that oppose the Holy Spirit, we will say, if a spirit opposes the Holy Spirit, you must bow. To Holy Spirit. We are not going to open up our spirits to invite something in that opposes God and opposes Holy Spirit. Correct. Correct So when we think of witches, warlocks, Wiccans, we don't talk about that people group very often. And I will say this I did go on the internet and I wanted to know if I was interested in a social club that talked about being a witch warlock or a wiccan, if I wanted to participate in a group. In my area, in my county, there were thirty options, about thirty options for me to select a group to belong to. So this isn't an old practice. We're not talking about just something that happened a long time ago. We are talking about things that are current to today. Here and now, so Victoria, as we've gone through those practices, as you said, from long ago up to current, in you really think through them, are those things that a person who Claims and says is following Jesus Christ, are those things that we should be associated with. You know, everyone's gonna have to draw their own conclusion, but when I look at scripture and when I think about what Paul has written, I would say no. That is not healthy, that is not profitable for you or your family. We understand that there are lots of alternatives out there. We have churches that do harvest festivals. even Mark and I. Many years as part of our ministry in the neighborhood God had planted our church, which was an urban environment where people could walk to church. We did trunk retreat. And why did we do that? Because students and families were on our campus, whether we showed up or not, whether we brought out candy, whether we fed them and we did, whether we brought out dinner, they were going to be on our campus. They were gonna walk across the parking lot to get to other houses. Correct. And so what the staff decided to do was to to intercept, right? To meet them with the love of Jesus. we said we would pray for you, so we had a tent-up. Do you need prayer? And we prayed for people. But most importantly, our staff and our volunteers encountered the community and we shared the love of Jesus. We invited people to a service, we invited students to come into a youth group. So I am not saying that you shouldn't discern what is right and what is good, but Mark, did we ever have young children, did we ever have kids, our children, come into an environment like that? No, our children were older and we would encourage other people who are volunteering to host trunks to be mindful of what the world was going to bring in so that they could be in control of what they expose their kids to. It's one thing for an adult. To see these things and be able to filter them through the maturity that we have in Christ. It's another for a small child to be able to do that. So we really encouraged parents of younger kids that this might not be a ministry for you. To volunteer with. And what we saw year after year, and what we even see at our own house when we open our door to someone on Halloween, is the costumes are more and more graphic. There is more blood, there is more gore. So at a trunk or tree alternative event, you've got to understand that your children, even though they might be dressed up as a cute little butterfly or a superhero, they are likely going to encounter graphic gore that represents death in the underworld. And and we just say please consider what you're opening your children up to. Yes. So what would we encourage families to do? To focus in on who? Focus in on Jesus Christ, recognizing going back to the discussion of its origins and what some current practices are being done by the occult, all those things stand opposite of Jesus. He came to destroy the works of darkness and this is an event. If you're being honest with yourself and we're presenting you with facts, the origins are dark. Correct. The origins are dark. Just because something is dark doesn't mean you can't use it as an opportunity. Jesus Christ overcame death and grave and was resurrected again. Why? Because He loves us, because He loves your family. And this is a great opportunity to teach them what the world would say and teach them what Jesus did. And we think about this scripture in First Peter. first Peter 2:9. We are to be a peculiar people. What better time to talk to your kids about being different? Because we are different. It's very difficult to look at your kids and say you're not gonna be able to celebrate. You're not gonna go to that party with your friends. Right. And that is part of being set apart. you can't avoid that conflict if you want to be a peculiar people. Right. And that's what we're called to be. So the perceived fun that they could have is something that you can talk to them about. Maybe when you were a kid or when I was a kid, it was a little Little more wholesome. it doesn't change the origin, mind you. That's correct. I just wasn't not as aware and I wasn't walking with Jesus it wasn't as aware. It's perceived fun, but you can teach your children about the one who is good and holy and pure and doesn't want to instill fear. He wants to increase our faith. And so again, we're different because we are called to be different. And just to add to that, if you remember Proverbs Train up a child in the way that he or she should go. And so this is part of that training process. And training, if you've ever trained for anything, it's not a one and done, it's a repetition over and over and over, building up those spiritual muscles. And what a great way to set a godly example to be confident in your spiritual knowledge of what is happening, so that your children can receive your confidence and also to teach them About Jesus. That is a great example that we're looking at the world. We're in the world, but not of the world. And we can teach them that through Halloween. And so we want to conclude with this. Ephesians 5, 8 through 11 says this. Paul's writing, right? He's speaking to believers. Right. And he is saying, We once were filled with darkness. How is that? Well, before we accepted Christ, before the light of Christ came inside of us, we were filled with darkness. We were filled with dark scripture says, but now you have light from the Lord. And this light produces only what is good and what is true. Mark it says take no part in darkness, right? Take no part in evil. And why? Because the scripture is not only telling us what we should be doing, it's also telling us that we are to expose The deeds of darkness. Yes. What does verse thirteen say? It says that to expose the evil intentions with the light that shines from us, which is Jesus Christ, because as we know, light makes everything visible. It takes what was dark and brings it into the light. So that's part of the intent of our conversation with you today. Correct. isn't to say you must do this. It's To bring the light of God's word, into a practice with dark origins that's currently undergoing the same dark practices today. Correct. So we're not here to condemn. That's not our role. Our purpose at Cravemore is to keep pointing you back to scripture and asking you to pray. Ask the Holy Spirit what you should do. For your family. Yes. There are several books out there on Amazon. You can read them about should a Christian participate in Halloween? That's gonna be up to you. But you know, for us, we want to reflect the light of glory and have no knowledge of and no participation with darkness. So as you pray and as you seek the Lord, we're just trusting that you are going to hear from Holy Spirit because that's what he does. Ask him to speak. That you are listening and I promise that he will. Remember, Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit would come, he would guide us into what? All truth. All truth. All truth. And we trust that he'll do that for you. We know. Amen to that. So, Mark, what do we like to say? We say what? Follow us as we follow Christ. Amen. Victoria: Bye!