Halloween : Harmless Holiday ?

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther is said to have nailed his '95 Theses' to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The 95 Theses were a 95 point disputation to the heretical teachings and practices of the The Roman Catholic Church regarding their perspective on repentance and penance, authority of the pope, and selling of indulgences (the buying of forgiveness of sin). These points of dispute are what initiated the much-needed, God-ordained age of Reformation and, in other words, revival in Europe. I'll bet you didn't know that (sorry, but did you?). However, I'll bet you do know that October 31, any year, is Halloween!

You don't need a calendar to tell you its Halloween. If all I did was watch tv all year, and nothing else, I would know when it was Halloween simply by the change in the content or theme of movies, and other shows, that are programmed at this time of year. After this weekend, I got to thinking about all the flood of movies that were being aired on multiple networks and stations. Why is it that Halloween is so obsessed and focused with all things that are violent, murderous, bloody, fearful, and occultic....with things that are just plain ugly?? (and what does this say about the people, the owners/execs/sponsors, behind and responsible for this type of vulgar programming?).
I heard a story on the news this morning that the mayor of Madison, Wisc. is thinking about cancelling their annual Halloween celebration because it has turned so increasingly violent. I had to know more. So, I did a little research. Channel 15 news (WMTV) has published three articles on their website. They are titiled as follows: "County Jail Ready for Halloween Visitors", "Another Madison Halloween Ends in Gas Masks and Pepper Spray", and "City Prepares for Halloween". (Why is it this city has to prepare for Halloween like some of our southern coastal cities prepare for the threat of an oncoming hurricane)? Some quotes from these articles are as follows": "City and University officials have been planning for this weekend since the pepper spray cleared away from last Halloween's riot. Fences are in place and ready to up....This all comes in the wake of rioting the past two years....Last year, more than 400 people were arrested..."It wil be the largest police presence ever at a single event in the capital city." "It costs the taxpayers extra money to hire these staff on overtime....the jail is limited in the number of highly intoxicated people it can handle." "Madison's Mayor called the night a limited success saying at least there were no injuries and no property damage....."We did have to deploy pepper spray for the fourth year in a row so I'm disappointed about that." "If you could make the decision would you want to hold this event next year? No, definitely not. I would eliminate the event if I could."

Now, I am not so naive as to think that little kids dressing up and collecting candy from neighbors will set you, the kids, and your household on the path to destruction. However, it would be wise to know something about the origins of that which we practice. (Johnny and Suzy may look cute in their little goblin or gremlin costume but I bet you wouldn't want to wake up next to one---there's really nothing heavenly or angelic in all this). Notwithstanding the origins thereof, it is also the association, the implications we make saying certain things are alright or are harmless and make-believe---"a little harmless fun". Paul wrote, "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" and Solomon wrote that its "the little foxes, that spoil the vine." How many parents are really aware of what little seeds get planted.....and you know what happens when seeds get planted. We reap what we sow.
"As I was eating I came across Ann Landers' column entitled "Parents Must Tackle Violence." The parent wrote 'I heard somehting today that made my hair stand on end...Last October, the teacher of a fourth-grade class asked her students to write a short essay on what they would like to do most to celebrate Halloween. Eighty percent of her 9 year-olds expressed the wish to 'kill somebody.' Where do children get such ideas?' she asked.
The answer is a simple one. Halloween accentuates mutilation, murder, blood, guts and gore. It even glorifies it!
The truth is , millions of people, and likely your kids will be exposed to some of the almost endless string of TV programs, videos, community and church activities that GLORIFY MUTILATION, TORTURE, and BIZARRE MURDERS this Halloween. Now before you say "it won't hurt them, it's only fantasy," perhaps you should consider what a horrified mother discovered in her teenage son's diary. She read 'Last year I stole a car at Halloween and ran over a kid and killed him for the Devil. I plan on doing it again this year.' The boy is now incarcerated." (The Dark Side of Halloween, www.home.computer.net)

"This is always a difficult time for Christians, espcially those with children. It has been suggested that for a Christian to be asked to celebrate Halloween is like asking a Holocaust survivor to celebrate Hitler's birthday! It is also a dangerous time for some, since many of the seemingly "harmless" involvements associated with Halloween can also be "entries" for the occult, and can prove very tragic for the unwary.
In early American history, Halloween was not widely practiced until the 20th century, when it was introduced by the Irish Catholic settlements. Gradually, Halloween became a secular observance, and many customs and practices developed...
Since 1965 UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations, has attempted to incorporate into the Halloween observance the collection of money for the United Nations Children's Fund. This exploitation by the ungodlly United Nations of this pagan holiday seems strangely appropriate.
Halloween is, for many, a "crossover" involvement in which innocent games can lead to serious entanglement with real witches, new-pagans, New Agers, and other occultists...Halloween practices can open the door to the occult and can introduce forces into people's lives that they are not equipped to combat." (An Invitation to the Occult? by Chuck Missler, Koinonia House Online).

"Halloween is a 'religious day' but it is NOT a Christian day. Tom Sanquinet, former high priest in the Celtic tradition of Wicca (witchcraft) said 'The modern holiday we call Halloween has its origins in the full moon closest to November 1, the withches' New Year. It was time when the 'spirits' (demons) were supposed to be at their peak power and revisiting the earth planet.' He went on to say, 'Halloween is purely and absolutely evil, and there is nothing we ever have or will do that would make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus'.........The two most frequent ways children are introduced into the occult are through rock music and Halloween. I was introduced to the occult at a Halloween party. Tragically, more and more children are being introduced to the occult by teachers in the public schools. and unfortunately, Halloween is one of the Holidays that public schools celebrate. They choose Halloween (and Valentine's day) because supposedly there is no 'religious' significance. How wrong they are about Halloween. To be sure, there is no Christian significance to Halloween but it is obviously a religious day.
Our forefathers recognized Halloween's association with the occult. The Pilgrims banned celebrating Halloween in America. The ban lasted until 1845. At that time multiplied thousands of Irish emigrants flooded in to New York because of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-46. They brought Halloween with them and gradually it spread throughout the rest of the country." (The Dark Side of Halloween @ www.home.computer.net).

So, if you have the patience (for another whole ten minutes), here is a quick reference on the history of Halloween (just so you know):

"In America, Halloween did not exist until after 1845 or thereabouts. The Pilgrim fathers banned the holiday because it was aware of the occult nature of the holiday. The holiday itself began long before Christ among ancient Celtics, meaning the Britons, Gauls, Scots, and Irish. They observed the end of summer (to them a time when the weather began to get cold) with sacrifices to Saman (Shamhain). He was the Lord of death and evil spirits. This day was the first day of the Celtic New Year. The ones in the Celtic culture who led the holiday celebrations were known as Druids. The Druids were the Priests-Magicians- of the Celtic people. They were Priests and Priestesses.
Although since Christian times Druids have been identified as wizards and soothsayers, in pre-Christian Celtic society they formed an intellectual class comprising philosophers, judges, educators, historians, doctors, seers, astronomers, and astrologers. The earlliest surviving Classical references to Druids date to the 2nd century B.C.
The Druid Lord of death and evil spirits was called by variations of the name Saman, such as Samana, Shamhain, or Samhain...This god they celebrated was shown as a ghostly skeleton holding a sickle in his hand. We know him today as The Grim Reaper.
The Celts considered November 1st as being the day of death because the leaves had pretty much fallen, it was getting darker sooner and temperatures were dropping. They believed that Muck Olla, their sun god was losing strength because Saman or Samhain, lord of death, was overpowering him. They also believed that on October 31st Samhain assembled all the spirits of all who died the previous year. They believed that the spirits of the dead were confined to inhabit animals' bodies as punishment for their evil deeds. On October 31st, they were allowed to return to their former homes to visit the living.
Apparently, Druid priests, in a show to protect these people, led them in worship ceremonies for which animals of many kinds, horses, cats, black sheep, oxen, and even humans were rounded up as sacrifices, stuffed into wicker cages and burned to death.. It was done to appease Samhain and to keep the spirits from harming them. History has shown that the Celts celebrated two great fire festivals, one on the eve of May 1st to celebrate the beginning of summer and the second on the eve of November 1st to celebrate the beginning of winter. It was not hard to understand that when the Druids began human and animal sacrifices on October 31st to appease Samhain, that fire was used to consume these same people and animals.
Druids often got together in pagan worship and would meet in a grove of trees, preferably oak trees, or in a Druidic stone circle, the most famous surviving circle being in Stonehenge, England (no, this circle had nothing to do with UFOs). They know human sacrifice was common at Stonehenge because within three miles of that site there were over 350 funeral mounds that contain the remnants of countless human sacrifices.
The Celts and Druids spread across Northern Europe and celebrated an autumn festival. The Roman Catholic Church recognized early Christians, desiring to be a part of the festivities, created All Saints Day to celebrate in May all the canonized Saints. Since a saint was supposed to have their day celebrated on the anniversary of the day of their death, some saints had special days. But since there were so many saints without special days, 'All-Saints' day was brought to honor all those saints that died. Not to be left out, the Christian church at that time also made 'All Souls Day' on November 2nd to bring people to pray for the dead that were in purgatory in order to have them released and sent to Heaven. This coincided with the November 1st celebration of the Druids and people participated in their own autumn festivals.
Then came an attempt to 'Christianize' this pagan holiday. In A.D. 800 the Roman Catholic Church moved All Saints Day to November 1st to directly coincide with the Druid holiday hoping Christianity would overcome the pagan holiday. This new day was then called 'All Hallow's Day'. The day prior to All Hallow's Day became 'All Hallow's Even' or the evening before All Hallow's Day. It became hyphenated to Hallowe'en, then finally, Halloween. There was also a three day celebration called 'Hallowmas', or the 'Hallowed Mass' meaning celebration of the Hallowed.
Satanists today call October 31st "All Demons Night". All Hallows Eve, that so-called "Christianized" holiday became a time of spells, curses and horrors for those who did not believe in it. For Wiccan witches, it became a joyous holiday similar to the Christian Christmas. It was a major black sabbath for them. Witches tend to believe that witchcraft is different from Satanism. While Satanism is pure rebellion against Christianity, witchcraft is a pagan worship of the Mother Goddess (in whatever form the local coven wants) and her consort, the Horned god. Witches, also called Wiccans claiming not to acknowledge Satan, worship through what are called "degrees". The second degree however was the Satanic pentagram inverted, symbolizing the 'horns" of Satan. The mystic belief of Satan was that he was a creature with horns, hooves, and an arrow-like tail. While the Wiccans do make a distinction between Satanism and witchcraft, biblically, there is no distinction.
At this time of year, it is no accident that missing children increase in October as well as missing animals. Graveyards are desecrated, Halloween movies now overtake Christmas movies on television and theaters. It is as if Hollywood is proud of Satan and ashamed of Christ. And shame to the churches... have Halloween parties, even if it is "for the little children". You are not helping these children.
Gradually, instead of Christians predominating the holiday, Satanists and occultists began winning over the holiday by re-introducing its origin of the dead and today, Halloween easily beats out All Saints Day, All Souls Day and even Easter and Thanksgiving. Only Christmas surpasses Halloween in dollars spent on holidays to date. And even now, Halloween is beginning to be included as one of the "holidays" at the end of the year. Before, the "holidays" began with Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and then New Years. Now, Halloween is beginning to be a part of it as Christmas decorations are seen in stores during October...The lighted houses of Christmas now occur with orange lights on Halloween. It may be a fun holiday to some, but we need to know what is behind the "fun". "
(The Origin and History of Halloween, www.christianheritageonline.com)

In light of this subject the following is a list of pertinent Bible references:

Deuteronomy 18.9-14
Ephesians 5.11-17
I Corinthians 10.20
II Corinthians 6.14-18
II Corinthians 11.14-15
Romans 13.12-14
I John 1.5-10
Deuteronomy 32.16-18
II Kings 17.17-18

The church has been a history of continuous struggle to keep the pure faith and has and does know compromises. Compromises only water down and render anemic vital spiritual life and blood flow. Jesus, before leaving the earth, posed the question "when the Son of Man comes , will He really find faith on the earth?" The Lord, the bridegroom, is awaiting a pure bride and as assuredly as the temple was measured (in Ezekiel), He is measuring His church.
The line is being drawn.

Please send all comments to watchlinecomments@comcast.net

There Has Always Been.......

The most important gift of being human is that we were created in the image of God to have fellowship and relationship with Him and that He gave us responsibility and authority.
God has always had a people even if we were only a twinkle of a design by foreknowledge in His heart and eye. However, for right now, I am especially interested in His people since the Truth came to earth...since he, being the fulness of the Godhead bodily came to us to redeem and restore the world...since the Light came to dispel the darkness...since the Word became flesh, since the writing and establishment of the New Testament as Holy canon...since the early church and its' apostolic foundation sprang from the midst of the early 'brotherhood' such as Peter, John, and Paul. Ever since, God has always had a people. There has always been a people for God---for the heart of God--- who carried the truth forward.

All down through the years and centuries, since the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father, God has had a people. Not a people that were necessarily known by religious affiliation, but were known by God Himself, at heart, because they chose to seek Him and the center of His will. They sought to pass Him and the truth of relationship with Him forward as one would pass an inheritance along to the next heir. And so, the legacy of truth has been passed along from generation to generation even as a baton is handed off in a race to the next runner. But what is this truth? Nothing more complicated, yet so simple, but yet so reward-filled as the power of close fellowship with God through the conqueror Jesus Christ holding promise of restoration for this world by means of individual experience first.

Once I watched a movie about cavemen when they first discovered fire. These cavemen quickly discovered the value of fire for their lives. They discovered its value for warmth, for protection, and for its value in food preparation (an aid for sustenance). The cavemen tried to preserve even the first fire. Fearing they would lose it when its flames died out, they sought to preserve it by protecting its embers with the hope of reviving that flame.
Many Christians see Christianity as a religious responsibility or as a social duty or maybe a once-a-week experience with some good thoughts, actions, and words sprinkled along with it and as being something separate and external to their real personal life. But those that carry the treasure of fellowship like a fire do not see it so. This experience is their personal life; it is their identity; it is that which is central to their being and for being.

There is a spiritual lineage of people that have survived from generation to generation all down through the ages since the early church and have kept alive the sound word of God through their passionate embrace of His word and His communion. They loved not their lives unto death throughout the persecution that scattered the first church and yet protected the embers of truth through the cold centuries of the dark ages unto and through the renaissance withstanding the heresies of so-called enlightenment unto our modern day era of humanism, moral relativism, and multi-denominationalism.
These were those who kept faith alive in the face of great adversity as did our forefathers of old Israel and 'old testament' times who by faith "passed through the Red Sea....stopped the mouths of lions....out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle....received their dead raised to life again....were tortured, not accepting deliverance....had trial of mockings and scourgings..of chains and imprisonments....were stoned....were sawn in two....were slain with sword....of whom the world was not worthy....And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us...." And so, there you have it! These people and their message has endured from old testament times to the promise fulfilled establishing a new testament---which testament has now been bequeathed to our generation. These people are our heritage.
Who are these people? They are the true church. Oh, you won't necessarily find them organized into formal groups or ecclesiastical institutions with creeds and bylaws. However, they are a group with a common cause and mission and common denominator. They all may not know each other but they carry and transfer and keep alive the same message and will of God. They are the tie that binds. The tie that binds is by the Holy Spirit who has literally revealed the most powerful, all encompassing force in the universe in their very personal heart of hearts (do you know what I mean?).
In his book, The Torch of the Testimony, John W. Kennedy traces the history of the true church through Christian groups who remained outside formalized institutional religion down through the ages, chronicling the life of God and His word through these people calling them, in effect, torchbearers of the gospel. One reviewer of this book speaks of these people as those "who crisscrossed the timelines of history. You enter into their joys and sorrows, their struggles , persecutions and steadfastness in the face of peril. Your heart begins to leap as you identify with the spirit of Christ which comes forth from their lives. You rejoice, as if finding a long-lost relative, when you realize that it is from these that the torch of the testimony of Jesus Christ has been passed."(Tom Sigwarth, Book Nook).
And they weren't (and aren't)necessarily the most popular or notable or most spotlighted or heralded or most apparent in importance. Most people in America probably have seen a football game and know what a field goal attempt is. When that attempt is made, everyone's attention is on the kicker. However, of late, my attention has been drawn to the holder. If the holder doesn't catch the pass from center and correctly set the ball for the kicker, no points will ever be scored. No kick will even be made period!--- without the holder. However, you will never see him (the holder) get credit for those 3 points or read his name in the box score. The ages and centuries are full of people we do not know or have never heard of but who have held the heart-warming fire and life-saving truth of God and presented it to their generation and set it up to be passed on. They are our spiritual bloodline and ancestry. We are their successors--if we so choose to answer the call, raise high the banner and take up the sword---the real fellowship.
It is time for us to allow the embers of the fire of God to be blown upon afresh by the breath of the Holy Spirit and allowed to catch flame. We are the modern-day torch bearers of the testimony of the power of an endless life bestowed to us from the ancient of days.......and our generation is our watch. Let it not be said that the fire of God smoldered during our watch......and that is exactly what is happening in much of this great nation---little by little.
What is the anwer? :

There is something special....mysteriously holy about the heart of God.....about the center of His will. There is something about finding that special place with God. It is a place set apart from the dissonance of a world system that is progressively, day by day, choosing to find 'its' own way. It is a place set apart from the fears and labors of self. There is an almost unspoken, no-fanfare spiritual aura of having deep communion with the ancient of days. It is a cool, unrushed, unintensity, but yet charged with a warmth of realness, solidness, and security of being in the place you are supposed to be at the right time, but yet apart from time (time that is both self and world imposed). David, in the book of Psalms, mentions this place several times. He wrote, "be still and know God." He also wrote that "he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" and "He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock." This place is not found by the casual inquirer. Only those who seek will find it and be allowed to find it. This is not an elitist statement, message, or people. David wrote, "Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have laid up for those who trust You....You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence." Another place he writes, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" and "deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls......"

People who truly hunger and thirst find it and are filled---God is faithful. These people who find this place bear witness of it----they can't help it----it's that special. These are people who don't necessarily run with the crowd of the world system--the cosmos. They don't ebb and flow with the tide driven and influenced by worldly-wise winds. Because of their walk with the Lord, their ears become attuned---they hear a different voice to live by that influences their thinking and renews, transforms and 'colors' their perspective and purpose. As a result, they do not fit into the mold of ritualistic religion that has lost its salt and life no more than Jesus fit in with the Pharisees. These are those who have learned and are learning to 'breakout' of that mold and 'breakthrough' by the power of the Holy Spirit which must always flow. Flow as water. Again, David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water" (2 Chron. 14.11). In days of old, God had a people set apart that carried the ark of the covenant---the ark of his rest---symbolic of his presence and holiness. No longer does God reside in structures of wood, stone and metal. God does not thrive and flourish from the midst of anything man-made or perpetuated by the traditions of man. It is incumbent, then, for our generation to be sure to fulfill our role as spiritual watchmen. Let it not be said that they of the early 21st century were found sleeping on the wall while the enemy stole silently into the camp.
God has always had a people, as David, after His own heart. There has always been a people for the heart of God.

"In some countries today there is great concern among the large Christian bodies to make the Church popular. Every conceivable scheme is being brought into play in order to attract people to the Church. It is forgotten that the true Church can never be attractive to the world, and was never meant to be. It is something which is completely beyond the world's understanding. People are brought into the Church through the witness of the Lord's children who comprise the Church. When the life of Christ is expressed through a spiritual order, believers will maintain a witness that is spiritually effective. Others will be regenerated, and they will be added to the Church, not because they, as worldly people, were attracted to it, but because they have been subject to a divine change which enables them to enter into life on a higher plane. The Church's mission is not to fit into the world, but to see men changed so that they will fit into the Church.
The Church of the New Testament is no mere theory. It is a fact of the twentieth century, as it was of the first. The principles of the unchanging Word of God, having been demonstrated and tested for almost two thousand years, have proved themselves applicable to every age and every circumstance. The Church authoritative, holy, witnessing, invincible has continued and will continue, not in outward show and ostentation, but whenever the Lord has found a people willing to gather round Him in submission and obedience. It is a Church that is indissolubly one, bound by ties of the Spirit.
Amid the bitter conflicts and tragedies of so-called Church history, the life of the spiritual movement of the Church has flowed on through the ages. The splendid unity of a heavenly race, living a heavenly life passed down from spiritual generation to spiritual generation has never been broken. They are pilgrims and strangers still upon the earth, bearing the reproach of Christ outside the camp, pressing 'on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'. They gather round Christ their Head, owning His Word their guide, bearing the torch of the testimony." (The Torch of the Testimony by John W. Kennedy)

Once again, and please forbear the repetition---It is incumbent, then, for our generation to be sure to fulfill our role as spiritual watchmen. Let it not be said that they of the early 21st century were found sleeping on the wall while the enemy stole silently into the camp. God has always had a people after His own heart. There has always been a people for the heart of God.

Please send all comments to watchlinecomments@comcast.net