Every year, on the evening of Oct. 31, millions of families celebrate a distinctly odd holiday known as Halloween. For your own good, you need to know what lurks behind the mask of Halloween.
by
Jerold Aust
Halloween
is undoubtedly one of the strangest holidays people celebrate, with its
symbolism of witches, devils, skeletons, bats and black cats. Is it not a
little bizarre that children are taught to dress up as ghosts and monsters to
go from house to house demanding "trick or treat!" (with the threat
of a trick or prank constituting a playful form of extortion)? While tricks are
no longer the norm in most places, it used to be common in many areas that
refusal to give trick-or-treaters candy invited minor acts of vandalism, such
as having one's windows marred with a bar of soap, trash dumped on the lawn,
toilet paper unrolled across tree limbs, and raw eggs thrown against the house
and car.
Where,
how and when did such strange customs begin? And why do they continue?
Many
parents encourage their children to celebrate Halloween, assuming it to be
harmless and innocent fun. But why? Would parents honor this holiday if they
knew what's behind it—behind the mask?
Halloween's
origins
Few
people really understand the origins of Halloween. However, many clues are
obvious from the trappings of the holiday—witches, ghosts, jack-o'-lanterns,
skeletons and the like.
History
shows that behind the dark mask of this popular children's holiday reside the
terrors of an ancient Celtic festival renamed All Hallows Eve. It was
originally a holiday marking the mythical time when the dead supposedly rose
from their graves to walk the earth.
The
Encyclopedia of Religion then
explains the origin of the bizarre customs that survive in today's Halloween:
"Divination activities remained a popular practice. Adults, dressed in fantastic disguises
and masks, imitated supernatural beings and visited homes where occupants would
offer tributes of food and drink to them. A fear of nocturnal
creatures, such as bats and owls, persisted, since these animals were believed
to communicate with the spirits of the dead".
Today, says The
Encyclopedia of Religion, "modern Halloween activities have
centered on mischief making and masquerading in costumes, often resembling
otherworldly characters. Folk customs, now treated as games (such as bobbing
for apples), have continued from the various divination practices of the
ancient celebrants of this occasion. Supernatural figures (such as the ghost,
the witch, the vampire, the devil) play a key role in supplying an aura of the
mysterious to the evening, whether or not they originally had an association
with the festival. "Children are particularly susceptible to the imagery
of Halloween, as can be seen in their fascination with the demonic likeness of
a carved and illuminated pumpkin, known as the jack-o'-lantern. In recent
times, children have taken up the practice of dressing in Halloween costumes
and visiting homes in search of edible and monetary treats, lightly threatening
to play a trick on the owner if a treat is not produced . . .
"There
also has been renewed interest in Halloween as a time when adults can also
cross cultural boundaries and shed their identities by indulging in an
uninhibited evening of frivolity. Thus, the basic Celtic quality of the
festival as an evening of annual escape from normal realities and expectations
has remained into the twentieth century" (p. 177).
God
unmasks Halloween
Does
the Bible have anything to say about strange customs and holidays such as this?
In fact, it does—and none of it is good. While
God's Holy Days in the Bible celebrate the role of Jesus Christ in bringing
mankind to salvation in the eternal family of God,
Halloween is a celebration
of the opposite—of demonism, witchcraft, death and evil spirits. God's
Word makes it clear that no one should dare entertain witchcraft or act as a
sorcerer. "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or
his daughter pass through the fire, or
one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who
interprets omens, or a
sorcerer, or one
who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD"
(Deuteronomy 18:10-11, emphasis added throughout).
God pronounced death on any Israelites who would dare dally with demonism or Satanism: "A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:27). "You shall not permit a sorceress to live" (Exodus 22:18).
Why
such a harsh penalty?
God did
not want such perverted, demonic practices to spread among His people and
corrupt others. "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death,
because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of
bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to
walk. So you shall put away
the evil from your midst" (Deuteronomy 13:5).
Would
God be against something as harmless as Halloween, especially since it allows
children to have fun and enjoy a little entertainment? Can't we let them have a
little harmless fun? Frankly,
Halloween is anything but harmless. It focuses one's attention on witchcraft
and demonism, which flies in the face of the holy God Almighty! When parents
not only allow but also encourage their children to celebrate witches and
goblins, they are teaching them that it's acceptable to deal in demonism. And we
have seen what God thinks of that. God is a God of light and truth (1 John
1:5). Satan, "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), is a very
real being—a being of darkness, deception and death (Revelation 12:9; John
8:44). We are to have nothing to do with his ways. Do not assume that Halloween
is a harmless holiday. God hates mankind's dabbling in the spirit world of
Satan and his demons! If
there were no other reason available, that should be enough. But there are more
reasons. Halloween keeps humankind, and many Christians, confused, disoriented
and separated from the one and only true God.
God is
not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Nor is He the author of
Halloween or any other "Christianized" pagan holidays (Amos 5:21).
Why would the only true God who loves mankind support any worldly holiday that
blinds human beings to Him and His truth and that holds men, women and children
captive to deception?
What
does God expect from you on Halloween?
You now
know what lurks behind Halloween's mask: Satan the devil! God will one day
unmask the ritual and tradition of Halloween to all people (Hebrews 8:10-11).
If you
believe that God exists and you understand that He is highly offended by the
holidays designed and perpetuated by the god of this age, then you have a
choice: whether you will begin honoring God the way He expects to be honored
and be blessed for doing it, or whether you will ignore the truth revealed in
history and His Word. Don't wait!
God is
not a god of masks, but a God of truth. God says that if you honor Him, He will
honor you (1 Samuel 2:30). Ignore God and He will leave you subject to the god
of this world and all that entails. God expects all who love and honor Him to
repent from dead works and turn in faith toward Him, the only true God.
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Excerpted from Good News Magazine
