Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What does the Bible say? Are there any hints in the Scripture, especially in the New Testament, that would indicate that Christians should and perhaps use this holiday or this event to draw people to Salvation or should we completely stay away from it?
I'm going to share my seven reasons why I don't celebrate Halloween and why you shouldn't celebrate Halloween either. But first I want to highlight something that Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He didn't talk about Halloween but he did talk about something that Christians were wrestling with in the city of Corinth.
So 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul talked about Believers to stay away from idol worship, verse 14. Then he talked about the idea that the cup of bread, the communion you know represents unity with Christ's body and blood. And then he would continue to talk about that the sacrifices to idols are actually sacrifices to demons and even though idols, physical statues are nothing, but they are demons behind them and Christians should not fellowship with demons.
And that believers cannot participate in both the Lord's table and the table of demons because it provokes God to jealousy. And then he highlights these four main principles that sometimes are being used to apply to other areas of our life where we don't have a specific instruction from the Bible. When it comes to food offered to idols, in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 10, Paul says these four parameters.
He sets these four principles for believers to follow. The first one is meat in the market. Buy without asking where it came from.
So like if this meat was dedicated to demons, you know you don't ask, you just buy the meat and don't worry about it. The second one is invitation to dinner. If you got invited to dinner and you're eating, everything is fine, but Paul would say that if the dish was offered to an idol and they told you that, then you stop eating it.
And then there was eating in the temple restaurants. So if the food was offered to idols and you're there eating in the temple restaurant, he said it's allowed unless it causes a weaker believer to stumble. And then last thing, the last parameter or last principle is Pagan parties.
So that Christians are not to attend Pagan Temple parties because it's a direct fellowship with demons. So if you have meat in the market, you know you can just buy it without asking where it came from. Kind of deals with the whole thing things are dedicated to demons.
If you got an invited to dinner, you're eating dinner, nobody mentions anything, you don't know where the food came from and all of that stuff. Just eat it for the glory of God. But if they tell you, hey this food was dedicated to demons.
You're like okay, I'm not touching that. If you're eating in a restaurant, in a temple restaurant and there's a weaker believer that will be stumbled by the fact that you're eating there, don't do that because don't cause the weaker believer to stumble. But when it comes to pagan parties in the temple, it's a direct fellowship with demons and those things Christians should not participate.
So when it comes to Halloween, what do you think Halloween is? Is it something like food on the market? A casual dinner or a pagan party?
I would argue it's more like a pagan party than a casual dinner, and here are reasons why. The first one is the origin of Halloween are pagan. Some of you might argue, so is the names for our weekdays.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. They're all actually names connected to pagans and that's true, but Halloween is an old Celtic Festival that was called Samhain. It was from October 31st to November 1st.
People believe that the spirit world and ours were closed during this time. In fact they believe that the veil between our world and the spiritual world is the thinnest. A lot of people in witchcraft actually still believe that and they use that knowledge to try to connect with the spiritual realm during those times.
Later in Ireland people wore costumes and sung songs for the dead at houses and getting cakes in return. Now the second reason why I believe that Halloween is a pagan party holiday is because Halloween means more than candy and customs to those in witchcraft. Like Wiccans, they have eight holidays with Halloween being main one.
People that are involved in witchcraft say that Halloween is significant to them. Many people who used to be either in Satanism and occupied pretty high places and they would actually say that Halloween is a very big deal. It's like Christmas and Resurrection Sunday put together.
Anton LaVey the author of the Satanic Bible and the founder of the Church of Satan said, two major holidays, Halloween and another one are celebrated by the Church of Satan. And I'm glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one day out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.
Now of course we don't take everything this guy said, but the fact that how he's praising these holidays and how big deal it is for them should kind of give you a little bit of warning that this means a lot more than it's just candies and costumes. Third reason is the Halloween has not been redeemed for God. It's darker today than before.
Many times people say, well you know I'm just going to redeem it for God. The church from its earliest history has invited its people to celebrate this season differently. Eastern church celebrated a festival in honor of all the saints.
Eventually All Saints' Festival was moved to November 1st called All Hallow's Day. It became the custom to call the evening before All Hollow's Eve. Since then until now, has there been more Christian customs?
Halloween is more darker. There's more death. There's more fear, not less.
We are not changing it. It's changing us. The paganism and witchcraft is on the rise.
It's not a decline in our culture. We haven't redeemed this. In fact, it's hijacking us.
There are certain things you can't redeem. You just got to remove them. You know Leviticus 18:3, God says: God didn't say, redeem it.
See the houses, the wells and the cities, they occupied and used them for God. They didn't have to demolish everything. The city of Jericho, they destroyed it completely.
But all other cities, they just took it and repackaged it. You know they just used it for the promises that God has given them. But there were practices and there were doings in those lands, God says, you can't redeem that, just got to remove them.
And I really believe that the witchcraft, sorcery, all of this stuff, I don't think it's being redeemed. In fact, I think it's hijacking many people and it's making Christians desensitized toward witchcraft and the occult. Number fourth reason is the celebrating Halloween is conforming to the culture.
If you don't celebrate Halloween the world think you're weird and you don't know how to have fun. But see the Bible says in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is. " Galatians 6:14, Paul says, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
" We are called to change the world, not to conform to it. Daniel didn't bow to the idols in order to fit into the Babylonian culture. We must engage with the culture but we are not encouraged to imitate it.
This world that we live in is our mission field, but we're not called to try to appeal to it by being like it. And one of the ways of this world is embracing spirituality without Christ. It's embracing supernatural that's demonic, that is not godly.
And they dress it, it's being promoted. I know a lot of that, most people who are dress up for that and give out candies, they're not trying to practice witchcraft or trying to call on demons. They're just kind of trying to do it in an innocent or sometimes in an ignorant way.
But the enemy is in a subconscious way is trying to penetrate this world to say, hey witchcraft is okay, dressing up like a witch is okay, you know dead skulls and all of this stuff is okay. Horror is fine, darkness is fine, demons aren't harmful. Look you can dress up as one and everything is going to be fine.
And those things are penetrating in our culture, and if you don't believe it, look at what's happening on TikTok, look at what's happening in our bookstores now. Witchcraft is on the rise and people are unfortunately conforming to it who are embracing everything in this culture. Number five reason why I believe that Halloween is more like a pagan party holiday instead of a casual dinner.
Halloween promotes darkness, death and fear. They're all contrary to Christian beliefs. As Christians we celebrate faith.
We are believers who belong to the household of faith and our lives revolve around faith. We have the gift of faith. We are called to live the life of faith because that's what pleases God.
The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear. It doesn't celebrate fear. Jesus is the light of the world and we are called to be the reflection of His light in the dark and broken world.
The Word of God is light and nothing about Christianity revolves around darkness. The only death we celebrate is Jesus's death because it defeated the grave and death. We believe in the cross, not in the skull.
As Christians, we believe in the Holy Spirit and in Him alone we rely for guidance and direction in our life. We don't look to the dead people, nor other spirits from the great and beyond. Halloween is not celebrated during the day but during the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 says, "Abstain from every form of evil. " The sixth reason why Halloween is more like a pagan holiday than a casual dinner is Halloween is having fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. Ephesians 5:8-11, it says: Let me ask you a question.
Is Halloween unfruitful or fruitful? Is it more resemble darkness or light? Or you be the judge, go to your local store and see what costumes are being presented and sold for Halloween.
Nothing about it is righteous. Nothing about it is light. Nothing about it is love.
Nothing about it is faith. It's spookiness, it's fear, it's ghosts and it's all haunted houses and all of that feel. And the Bible makes it very clear, things don't have to have the words "you'll get a demon if you buy this" for you to know its unfruitful works of darkness and you and I are not to have fellowship with them.
The seventh reason why Halloween is more like a pagan party than a casual dinner. We're referencing Paul's instruction to believers in Corinth. Activities people engage in while celebrating Halloween do not honor God.
The idea that you're dressing up like a demon or a stripper is not pleasing to God. So much more of ungodly activities take place during this celebration. People get drunk, party and start using drugs.
See the devil brought identity confusion to Adam in Genesis 3 and cast doubt on Jesus's identity in wilderness, Matthew 4. Our generation is confused about who they are. On Halloween we get a chance to dress up as someone we are not.
That's not helpful to the mess our culture is already in. The Scripture makes it clear, 1 John 2:15 through17, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world-- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life-- and that is not of the Father but is of the world. The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. " So to answer that questions, should Christians celebrate Halloween?
I don't think so. Satanists do not celebrate Good Friday, therefore we don't owe Halloween anything to celebrate it. Instead we celebrate the death, the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We celebrate God's light, His Word. We celebrate faith, not darkness, not fear and not death.
