“And you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty” – 2 Corinthians 6:18
What would you say if once a year we had a holiday where we played with gas stoves? We’d call it “Stove-Day” and make it lots of fun for children teaching them to turn on the stove, play with hot flames, stick their heads in unlit ovens with the gas turned on, and just overall teach them stoves are not dangerous at all. We’d message them, “Happy Stove Day! Stoves are fun! Stoves are your friends. No danger there.” The message would be, “Just go ahead and play with stoves, they look dark on the inside, but they’re really a great toy to play with.” What would you think about that?
What if this Stove-Day celebration became so popular it became a big market money maker, the BIGGEST money-making day for stores of the year. Lots of money exchanged hands as matches and flame starters of assorted colors, shapes, and sizes were bought and sold and given away free to children. There were special gift offers for colorfully packaged singed-eyebrow-salve and burned-finger-cream. Defibrillators and portable oxygen units would be hot items to resuscitate children gassed to unconsciousness. Great fun! What would you think about that?
So popular did this holiday become that even fireman and firewomen stopped trying to put out the fiery fun and fumes of the Stove-Day activities. They threw caution to the wind because people and children argued, “What do you mean stoves are dangerous, ‘they can burn you’?, “suffocate you’? or “blow you up’? We’re fine! We’re having fun! Let us alone!” What if people laughed at warnings cajoling, “We haven’t been burned, suffocated, or blown up! Quit being such kill joys and let us have our fun or we won’t donate to your station or attend your ceremonies.” What if such a response motivated the fire departments of the world to not only refrain from correcting or teaching people about the dangers of Stove-Day, but actually started encouraging people to “Dive in and join in the ‘fun’”?
What would your reaction to such a celebration be? Would you participate with your child or grandchild? Would you do that with your friend’s children, neighbor’s children, any children? Would you join in the “fun” of Stove-day? Or would you maybe call Child Protective Services to protect the children? Maybe you’d intervene to prevent harm to the children. Maybe you’d try to educate those celebrating Stove-day and warn them of the dangers involved. Maybe you’d give Stove-day worshippers a good serious talking to. Me, I’d opt to protect the children and anyone in danger of such a Day.
Our children, grandchildren, and children in general are the most precious people in our lives. Children are worth protecting with every fiber of our being and at all costs. Children are fun. Children give meaning to life. Children are curious. Children are precious. Children are our future. Because of this, we want to protect them at all costs. Well at least most people do. Some limit protecting children based on age. If they are young, and in the womb, (where they should be safest), some people deny their viability. If a child is too small they are labeled a “fetus,” not yet “human” or worthy of protection. The “fetus” is “just tissue” they say, and so they can be cut up, and sucked out of the womb. They aren’t really “people” at that stage they say. They’re not human or having personhood but expendable, just flesh and bone, tiny toes, and tiny fingers not worth complicating “my” life with. The word “fetus” means offspring. Size and development, age and proximity shouldn’t be obstacles to valuing human life. “It’s complicated” people say. Is it? Not really. Not when “life” is at stake. But I digress. What about that Stove-Day celebration?
People are important, period. Jesus came to save people. Jesus loves the little children. Jesus mission to save people and children should be our mission too. “The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). “I lay down My life for the sheep,” Jesus said (John 10:15 and 17). “Sheep”? Yes, sheep was how Jesus referred to people. Sheep are not smart. A shepherd will tell you that. If they are not watched closely they will eat their way right over a cliff. Jesus also said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Jesus said that right after He washed His disciples’ feet, their big toes, and dirty feet. He did that for us. We need to wash dirt from those around us.
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The Apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say that. The Apostle Peter was inspired to write, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:21-22). The Apostle John was inspired to write:
1 John 2:3–6 (NKJV) – Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Follow in the steps of Jesus. Walk as Jesus walked. What does that mean? What does that have to do with Stove-Day? Well, Jesus in His most solemn high priestly prayer, the night before He was to go to the cross, prayed to His Father, “Sanctify them in Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). To “sanctify” (Greek hagiadzo) means to purify, consecrate, be holy, to separate from profane things and be dedicated to God. To be sanctified means to be set apart to God for His purposes. Jesus said the way that is done is by God’s “word of truth.”
If you haven’t already figured it out, Stove-Day is a parody of Halloween. Celebrating Halloween is like opening a stove, turning on the gas, and giving your child matches to play with. While “Halloween” is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, the things associated with it are forbidden. Here are some examples:
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery, are forbidden by God – Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:9-14.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery are evil according to God – 2 Kings 21:1-6; 2 Chronicles 33:6.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery involve rebellion against God – 1 Samuel 15:23; 2 Kings 17:14-17.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery rob us of God’s peace – 2 Kings 9:22.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery are works of the flesh – Galatians 5:19-21.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery give a foothold to Satan in our lives – 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1; Ephesians 4:27; 6:10-18; 1 peter 5:8-9; 2 John 8-11.
- Occult, witchcraft, and sorcery can keep us out of heaven – Revelation 21:8.
Halloween spiritually suffocates those who play with it. It deadens people to the seriousness of the spiritual elements at work in this high unholy day. Halloween attracts us with sweets that give us not only physical cavities and high blood sugar levels, but spiritual cavities and will leave is shamefully toothless. Halloween is packaged colorfully, uses fright and gore to coax us to indulge just-a-little-more. Its images are antichrist in nature. It emphasizes darkness when God calls us to the light. It is filled with human traditions that promise dark powers but distance us from the God of all power. Halloween in the end is deadly. It lures us in with fleshly enticements, and once inside, the gas is turned on, it slams its door shut on us and steals our life.
Celebrating Halloween is minimizing the danger of something that is extremely dangerous. Halloween is a high “holy” day for those who worship nature, animism, alternatives to God, occult, and yes, who even worship Satan. The idea of holiness and holy living in our day, even in the Church, is not a popular theme. Holy living is not seen as important. Holy living has been brushed aside by those who abuse God’s grace to excuse and minimize the importance of a holy response to the Holy God. The only “standards” we live by today is that that are “no standards.” The bar is set low. It’s set low so we can step over it easily. It’s set low so we won’t have to get up off the couch. It’s set low so we won’t have to “go” anywhere the Lord might want us to go. We have been frightened so much by the specter of “works righteousness,” that we give no thought to righteousness. Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, but it is also “God’s Resources And Calling Egress.”
When I speak of sanctified holy living, I’m not speaking of a works righteousness. Sanctification like justification, is something we receive from God by faith. The Bible speaks of God who, “made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). Paul described his calling from God as, “to open their eyes,” that is the eyes of sinners. He continued, “in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18). We need our eyes to be opened about the dangers of sin. We need our eyes opened in a way that turns us from darkness to light, “from the power of Satan to God.” That’s not only true for the person first repenting and trusting Jesus as Savior. That remains true for the Chrisitan who is saved from sin. Satan will always try to lure believers back into his reach. God’s objective for us is that by faith we receive forgiveness for our sins, and an inheritance among those who are “sanctified by faith in Me.” Our sanctification is something we seek and receive by faith in Jesus. It was Jesus speaking these words to Paul on the Damascus Road (Acts 9). This is Jesus’ calling on our lives.
We, you, me, no one is righteous because of our work. We are saved from and forgiven our sins only as a gift of God’s grace received when we trust Jesus as our Savior. It is His substitutionary atoning sacrificial redemptive work on the cross that is put to our account and saves us when we trust in Him and Him alone for the forgiveness of our sins. Sin separates people from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). If we want to spend eternity with God in Heaven and avoid eternity in Hell, then we need to deal with our sin. The wage we earn from our sins is death, not annihilation, but eternal tormenting death. That is not a pretty picture. That is not a message of potential horror that is frequently associated with included in Halloween. No, Halloween makes light and jokes around with death and darkness. Halloween dismisses concern over eternal destiny. It turns the light off about such things and invites us to indulge in the moment.
Halloween glorifies and has fun with everything that leads people to an eternity separate from their Creator. Halloween distracts from the God who loves them so much that He came to die for them. The wages or consequence of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). That is because “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” That’s how serious this problem of sin is. The cost of fixing a problem tells you the value of what the problem jeopardizes. You, me, we, humanity, are valuable to God. He gave what was most precious, most costly, to save us. That’s how much God loves you, how much He values you. But Halloween tries to pull the curtain on such truth.
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). When we trust Jesus as Savior, His redemptive substitutionary cross-work is put to our account, but also, His righteousness is imputed or put to our account! (2 Corinthians 5:21). Incredible! The richest, most magnificent, and holy blessing of eternity. But the scripture adds a calling imparted to us, a calling that should flow from our redemption, “and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Is celebrating a Stove-Day type Halloween or its alternatives such a big deal? It is my contention that God’s call to share His good news gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, His calling on us to share “the word of reconciliation” is not suited to contemporary manipulations of Halloween, fakery and facsimiles of a holiday which is anything but “holy.” Our nation and this world is at a critical stage. The forces of light and darkness are forming. The battle lines are being drawn up. The question remains, whose uniform will you wear? What side of the line will you be on? Will you be indistinguishable and standing in such an uncertain and unclear way that no one will be able to discern whose side you are on? It’s time to stand and be counted. Consider this. Think about it. Pray about is. Then remember, God knows, He truly knows where you stand.
Do you think Satan and his followers celebrate the true HOLY DAY of Resurrection Sunday? Do they celebrate Pentecost? Do they celebrate Christian baptisms, weddings, revivals? No they do not. They do celebrate “alternatives” though. Satanists and the occult often practice the principle of opposites, or countering their adversaries’ practices by performing counter celebrations, you know, just like some Christians do. If demonic forces don’t celebrate Christian holy days, THEN WHY DO “CHRISTIANS” feel so at ease to indulge in celebrating the most unholy day of the year, Halloween. Celebrating Halloween for the Christian is right up there with Easter Egg hunts and chocolate bunnies as compatible with holy Resurrection Day celebrations. Oh, wait, you do celebrate such things. Well, we will have to wait until “Easter” to discuss that.
You might be thinking, “Now wait a minute pastor, I like candy. I like to get dressed up in disguises and have some fun.” I wonder if teaching our children and indulging as adults in being something we are not by using a mask or costume, I wonder if that hasn’t fed into the confusion people have today about who they really are. I wonder if the irrational thinking that a person can be whatever they think or feel they are, whether a different gender or an animal or whatever, I wonder if that hasn’t been fed to some degree by the costumed holiday of Halloween. Just a thought.
I imagine there are a lot of rationalizations used by well intentioned Christians and pastors to justify celebrating Halloween or “Christian” alternatives. My response to that is a brownie with just a little dog defecation in it, is still dog defecation. Would you eat it? Neither would I. There is value and safety in actually coming out from and not being a part of, in any way, the things which offend the Lord (see Isaiah 52:11; Jeremih 50:8). If we are going to celebrate something, let it not be initiated by trying to provide an alternative to Halloween. Instead, why not celebrate Luther’s nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of his church at Wittenberg. That’s a possibility. But that opens another can of worms which is Luther’s eventual antisemitism, an antisemitism so vulgar and violent that it was adopted by Hitler and the Nazis. Maybe its best to just share the gospel as God gives you opportunity, as you would on any other day. (Hopefully, you are sharing the gospel each and every day as the Lord provides opportunities.)
The duplicity and compromise and low standards of God’s people in the Old Testament led to their outright indulging in abominable practices and ultimately their captivity. They got to a point where they called evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). They couldn’t distinguish good from evil. The same has proven true in our day. There are churches that approve of same sex marriage, the gender agenda, who have been caught up in all sorts of woke worldviews and worldliness. The bottom line is that, at some point Christians need to consider seriously that there is a time to actually, “’Come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.” If we recognize and receive God’s holy calling, His promise is, “’I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty’” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).
Notice those last two inspired words of that phrase. God refers to Himself here as “LORD Almighty.” “LORD” (Greek kyrios) here translates the holiest name of God which means I AM whatever I need to be to accomplish whatever I purpose to accomplish. It is the name above all names that God first shared with Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3). “Almighty” (Greek pantokrator) means the all-ruling, He who holds sway over all things, the Ruler of all, almighty God. “LORD Almighty” couldn’t be a stronger, more powerful way for God to refer to Himself.
Revival is often missed because of mantra of “relevance.” With a misguided ministry heart people pursue being relevant with the sinner in hope that sinner comes to Christ. There is a place for relevance. But the pursuit of relevance has its dangers. We can become so relevance minded that we lower our standards or turn away from the truths that define us as Christians. We can become so “relevant” that we are indistinguishable from the unsaved. Jesus was a friend of sinners, but He was never a sinner; He didn’t indulge in sin or try to look like sinners in order to reach them (Mark 2:13-17). There’s no record or indication Jesus dressed differently to become relevant to sinful people. He didn’t change or decorate a synagogue so it would be more inviting to sinful people. HE was the reason sinners repented. He never watered down a message, or the word of God. He didn’t accuse the woman caught in adultery, but He did say, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). We are to love people into the Kingdom. But love doesn’t water down the message of God. Love speaks the truth of God, in love (Ephesians 4:15). True love, “rejoices in the truth.” Love doesn’t parade itself, puff itself up, behave rudely, doesn’t seek its own. Love “thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Love doesn’t indulge in evil. I can hear the Spirit and His love saying, “Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). I find it hard, no, impossible, to fit Halloween and its associations inside that parameter.
Many pray for revival for our nation and this world. Revival is always linked with repentance. Maybe if we want to know and see God “LORD Almighty” in all His almighty Pentecostal power, we need to take more seriously what His powerful holy word says about the forces of darkness and their symbols. If we genuinely want revival, we need to truly get serious about it. We need to draw a circle around ourselves and pray for the person inside that circle. Then we need to pray for our brothers and sisters outside that circle who are caught up in unholy activities. Then we need to keep praying as the LORD leads us to pray. We need to pray, listen, obey, and repent where the Spirit directs us to repent. We need to clean up the sloppy agape and get serious and sanctified about our faith.
What does the word of God say about the darkness around us? What is its sanctifying message about such things? I believe, when it comes to Halloween, we need to repent of the practices we have let our guard down about and indulged in. We need to revisit and better adhere to God’s clear calling of, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write those words to a church located in a very unholy, occultic, demonic city. Ephesus was a very dark place, like much of our world today. Paul didn’t water down or minimize the seriousness of the darkness and its dangers. Paul didn’t suggest an alternative celebration. He commanded a complete separation from it. That’s a good word for us today. Maybe we need to rethink our take on Halloween. Have our “Christian alternatives” really had a significant impact on the worldings around us? I’m sure there will be some who say it has. But honestly, instead of our Christian alternatives to Halloween, maybe we need to be pointing out in living vivid colors the seriousness, the damnable seriousness of what Halloween celebrates. Instead of poo-pooing the witches, black cats, ghosts, goblins, Jack-O-Lanterns, skeletons etc., etc., etc., maybe we need to get a bit more serious. If we want to see God Almighty in His ALMIGHTY power, I believe we do.
I have one final point to make and it is an eternally serious one. One of the most prominent images of Halloween is blood. People paint blood on their faces and on their bodies. Bloody hacks on Halloween are all an accepted part of the celebration. From headless horsemen to blood soaked knives carried by masked emotionless monstrous murderers, it’s all fun. People love it. They love the thrill, the fright. But it is all sending a message. It’s all numbing, dumbing down, desensitizing people to a time when real blood letting will come.
We are at a critical time in the history of our nation, our world. Deceptions, propaganda, and lies of every kind are flooding society. There’s an avalanche of darkness rumbling toward us. There are more deaths, assassinations, and genocides taking place every day. One of the most demonic and devilish messages of our day is the cheapening of the spilling of blood. Muslims are hacking away at and spilling the blood of Christians. The media could care less. The womb still remains a death camp for the unborn. That topic is taboo to discuss and censored frequently on social media. Violence and spilling blood are becoming more and more an acceptable option to inflict on those who speak a righteous alternative to leftist anarchy. Why is blood letting so acceptable? We are being numbed to the value of spilt blood. Why?
God told Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Tertulian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” But we have made blood and blood letting something fun and decorative. Don’t you see how this is the work of the one who wants to devalue the shedding of blood? The blood has a voice. Those who celebrate the blood are muffling its message. THERE ARE CHURCHES THAT WON’T TALK ABOUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS IN THEIR MESSAGES BECAUSE IT IS TOO “OFFENSIVE” TO PEOPLE, BUT THEY WILL CELEBRATE BLOODY HALLOWEENS. Pay attention Christian. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). “The precious blood of Christ,” (1 Peter 1:19). “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood fo Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus. All blessing comes through His shed blood. We are brought near to God by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sins. That is the light that the darkness of Halloween seeks to cover.
Reference to blood in its various forms occurs over 500 times in scripture. “Blood” is a major theme in scripture because according to God, life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). The shedding of blood is a vital part of the gospel. “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14). This is the message that is being attacked. God’s sacrificial system was never dismissed casually, but was always treated with seriousness and sanctity. “. . . and without the shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Anything that desensitizes us to the value of blood is darkness and should be off limits to indulge in.
Stove-Day. Halloween. Harmless? Holy? I think not. I know not. A strategy of Islam is to make peace with your adversary until you gain a foothold, then grow strong enough to fight and overcome them. The devil uses a similar strategy. He knows he is no match for the Spirit-filled Christian. He knows scripture. He knows that the God of peace will crush him under the feet of the Christian (Romans 16:20). The devil knows that if we resist him in Christ, he must flee (James 4:7). He knows that greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The devil knows these things, so instead of a frontal attack, he seeks to lure Christians to sleep, get them to lower their standards. He whispers to them, “What’s the big deal? You don’t want to come off looking like a legalistic out of touch unfunny stick in the mud do you? Come on, have some fun. Be relevant. Be in touch. Reach out.” That’s what he whispers in our ear. Then when we’re in his stove, he slams the door shut. But the Spirit boldly says, “Come out from among them.” Who will you listen to? God lead and empower you. In the name of Jesus. Amen!