All Over America, Chaos Is Erupting In The Streets | End Of The American Dream

If we are going to see this much violence at a time when Americans are celebrating, what will our streets look like once conditions in this country become extremely harsh?  Halloween is always a time when we see a spike in violent crime, but this year we experienced a Halloween weekend that was particularly crazy.  There was rioting in Washington DC, there was rioting in Los Angeles, and there were mass shootings all over the nation.  Was this weekend an indication of what the rest of the month of November will bring?

On Halloween night, members of the National Guard attempted to restore order after a “massive group of juveniles” started rioting in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington DC…

A video captured chaos in Washington, D.C., Halloween night, appearing to show National Guard members chasing after young people in the Navy Yard neighborhood — just hours before Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a “limited juvenile curfew” across the capital.

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to a massive group of juveniles allegedly “engaging in fights and disrupting the flow of traffic.”

Police said five people were taken into custody, including four juveniles. They face charges, including possession of a prohibited weapon, public consumption of marijuana and resisting arrest.

The video footage of the confrontation between members of the National Guard and these young kids is stunning.

The deployment of the National Guard was supposed to prevent chaos from breaking out in the streets of DC, but that obviously has not worked.  After “weeks of disorderly juvenile behavior” in our capital city, Mayor Muriel Bowser has decided to impose a “limited juvenile curfew”…

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced that she was enacting a “limited juvenile curfew” for the city, that would be in effect until November 5, due to “weeks of disorderly juvenile behavior.”

In a post on X, Bowser explained that the juvenile curfew, which will apply to individuals 18-years-old or younger, will be in effect from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. until November 5. Bowser’s announcement came after hundreds of teenagers in the Navy Yard neighborhood of the District of Columbia were involved in an altercation on Friday and were seen blocking the streets.

“We are declaring a limited juvenile curfew in Washington, DC,” Bowser said. “Effective immediately, all juveniles under the age of 18 are subject to a curfew from 11PM until 6AM, which will extend through 11/5.”

Does she really think that a curfew for a few days will solve anything?

Personally, I think that she is being very unrealistic.

On the west coast, law enforcement officers were forced to use tear gas on Saturday night after Dodgers fans starting hitting them with bottles and fireworks…

Dodgers fans celebrating their win in Los Angeles last night were dispersed with tear gas after police officers were hit with fireworks and bottles.

The close game drew high-profile reactions from celebrities, such as Meghan Markle ‘shrieking’ in celebration, and a Blue Jays analyst swearing on camera and dismissing the Dodgers’ win.

But it was the rowdy celebrations from locals that forced the Los Angeles Police Department to authorize the use of less than lethal munitions at Olympic and Grand ave in the early hours of Sunday morning.

At one time, Los Angeles was such a beautiful city.

But now if you walk the streets of L.A. at night you are literally gambling with your life.

Sadly, we have also witnessed a large number of mass shootings this weekend.

In Ohio, at least nine people got shot at a Halloween party “attended mostly by juveniles”…

At least nine adults and juveniles sustained injuries during a shooting at a “very large” Airbnb rental in Bath Township, Ohio, near Cleveland.

During the early hours of Nov. 2, the Bath Township community experienced a “tragic and senseless act of violence,” during which shots were fired at a party attended mostly by juveniles, according to the Bath Township Police Department. It has not yet been confirmed if all nine victims sustained gunshot wounds or were injured in other ways.

“We can confirm that a large party was taking place at this location, which we’ve learned was advertised on various social media platforms, drawing a significant crowd,” Bath Police Chief Vito Sinopoli said during a press conference shared by ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland. “Our deepest sympathy goes out to the victims’ families and all those affected by this devastating incident.”

In Chicago, at least four people got shot not too far from Wrigley Field…

Chicago police early Sunday were trying to find the person behind a mass shooting in Lakeview, just a couple of blocks south of Wrigley Field.

At 1:45 a.m., four people were shot in the 3400 block of North Clark Street. Police believe an unidentified person exited a white pickup truck, took out a gun and opened fire, and fled north.

A 29-year-old man and a 28-year-old man were each shot was shot once in the arm. A 29-year-old woman was shot once in the leg.

In Texas, at least three people got shot at a Halloween party in the very early hours of Sunday morning…

Port Arthur police are investigating after three people were shot at a Halloween party early Sunday morning, according to police.

Officers responded to a large disturbance after shots were fired in the 1000 block of 53rd Street after 1 a.m. in a Port Arthur neighborhood.

All three victims were shot at the party and two victims went by private vehicle to the Medical Center in Port Arthur.

In Florida, at least five people got shot at “a memorial gathering honoring a homicide victim”…

One person was killed and four others were injured Saturday evening when gunfire broke out at a memorial gathering honoring a homicide victim in Gretna, Florida, according to the Gretna Police Department.

Gretna Police and the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office responded to the shooting, which police say occurred at the community gathering around 9:18 p.m. near 181 Beech Avenue. After receiving multiple reports of gunfire, officers found several people suffering from gunshot wounds.

On top of everything else, there was a large explosion at Harvard Medical School on Saturday morning…

An explosion rocked a Harvard Medical School building early Saturday morning, while Boston police have now released surveillance footage of the two suspects.

The unknown device exploded on the fourth floor of the Goldenson building on the Harvard Longwood Campus’s main quad shortly before 3 a.m., The Harvard Crimson reported citing authorities.

Two individuals were witnessed running out of the building at the time of the detonation, the outlet said, citing the Harvard University Police Department.

Most of the incidents that I just shared with you got very little media attention.

And that is because acts of violence and mass shootings have become so common in our society.

On the other side of the Atlantic, 11 people were hospitalized after a mass stabbing in the United Kingdom…

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a mass stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire on Saturday evening.

The attack, which is not being treated as terror-related, saw a “significant” number of police officers called to Huntingdon railway station at about 19:42 GMT, where the train from Doncaster to London had made an unscheduled stop.

Eleven people needed hospital treatment and while four have been discharged, two remained in a life-threatening condition.

This is what we should expect when one of our most important holidays literally celebrates mass carnage.

According to one witness, there was blood all over the place as the two men went rampaging through the train…

Witnesses have described the harrowing scenes – with passenger Olly Foster, who was in coach H, saying how he was listening to an audiobook when a man ‘suddenly ran past screaming, ‘Run! Run! There’s a guy stabbing literally everyone and everything’.

Mr Foster said he and some other travellers thought it was a ‘joke’ or a ‘Halloween prank’ at first but ‘quickly realised they were serious’ by the look on their face.

He explained how his hand was ‘covered in blood’ after he put it on a chair as he ran through the carriage.

‘There was blood on the top of countless chairs, coming from two of the guys who had been severely stabbed ahead of me,’ he said.

After all of the violent train attacks that we have seen this year, I certainly can’t blame those that are saying that they want to avoid traveling on trains from now on.

One woman that was actually on the train claims that as one of the attackers came charging in her direction he said “the devil’s not going to win”…

She said: “I got knocked into some seats. I saw the knifeman running, he came at me with the knife. I said ‘please, please don’t’.

“Then something changed in his eyes and he said ‘the devil’s not going to win.’”

What did he mean by that?

Hopefully authorities will ask him that question.

Here in the United States, it appears that we just narrowly avoided an even more deadly attack.

Apparently five Islamic terrorists in Dearborn, Michigan that had been “inspired by ISIS” were “plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend”…

Federal investigators prevented a real-life Halloween horror by busting at least five terror plotters inspired by ISIS in Michigan early Friday, sources familiar with the operation told The Post.

“This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

“Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland.”

If these five Islamic terrorists had gone to a public Halloween event, how many people could they have killed?

According to authorities, these men had been stockpiling guns…

Authorities raided three homes in the Detroit suburbs of Dearborn and Inkster and recovered weapons including legally owned guns, the sources said.

Those arrested were described as home-grown radicals, but authorities were investigating possible foreign contacts of the suspects.

Needless to say, thanks to the exceedingly reckless policies of previous administrations, there are countless other “home-grown radicals” in the United States right now.

The threat of Islamic terror on U.S. soil has never been higher.

Meanwhile, stores around the country are bracing for a wave of crime if food stamp benefits are not restored soon.  In fact, one Dollar General location in Ohio had actually “boarded up its windows”…

An Ohio Dollar General boarded up its windows over fears of potential Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) looting next month.

The store, located on South High Street in downtown Columbus, reportedly boarded up windows to prevent crimes before taking them down, according to local station FOX 8.

In Missouri, detention cells have been put up at a Walmart in Branson in an apparent attempt to deter shoplifters.

Hopefully the government shutdown will come to an end soon.

But even if that happens, anti-Trump groups are still planning to occupy Washington DC starting on November 5th.

That is in just three days.

Civil unrest is one of the major themes that I have been tracking, and I think that the upcoming protests in Washington DC have the potential to be really big.

The anti-Trump groups that are involved have been plotting this for a long time, and they have lots of funding behind them.

This promises to be a very “interesting” month, and I have a feeling that the chaos of the past few days is just a very small preview of what we will see over the course of the next several weeks.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post All Over America, Chaos Is Erupting In The Streets appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

Is Our Growing Fascination with Halloween Dangerous? | Public Discourse

Is Our Growing Fascination with Halloween Dangerous? 

The holiday season is in full swing. I don’t mean Christmas; that won’t begin until November starts (although it used to begin after Thanksgiving). I mean the Halloween season, which started sometime after Labor Day.  

I recognize its arrival when Home Depot starts selling Halloween decorations. These get more elaborate and grotesque each year: animated Chucky dolls (I hesitate to link to the scarface version); the best-selling twelve-foot-high skeletons (listed under the innocent heading “Home Accents Holiday”); or the macabre offerings in Gruesome Grounds. Not long after these mannequins appear in stores, they appear on many front lawns, more than a month in advance of Halloween—the day’s “Advent” period, you might say. For weeks I walk or drive by yards that are not simply tacky, like overdone Christmas decorations, but disturbing. 

Every generation of adults tends to exaggerate the differences between the present and their childhood, but I believe something has changed in my lifetime. Seeing Halloween decorations on lawns in September, or even the first half of October, was not a thing thirty or even twenty years ago. Decorations were certainly not as elaborate as these. My father said that, in the 1950s and ’60s of his youth, Halloween was an entirely “homemade” holiday. Decorations were little more than a few kitchen-carved jack-o’-lanterns. For a costume, take a white sheet and cut three holes for the eyes and mouth, and you could be a ghost; give a girl a blue jumper, a basket, and red shoes, and she could be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. But in 2025, Americans are expected to spend $13.1 billion (about $115 per reveler) on this once-minor holiday, between candy, store-bought costumes, parties, that ghastly decor, and even greeting cards. 

As Halloween comes around once again, we might consider why this once innocent, passing event is, for many people, becoming one of the most significant celebrations of the year. 

Looking for Reenchantment? 

An optimistic answer is that the easy “enchantment” (as many now call it) of Halloween is taking the place of the waning, more substantive enchantment of Christmas. 

The Christmas season, too, has expanded obnoxiously beyond its original length as its enchantment wanes. Macy’s now puts up red and gold decorations in October, catering to the fact that Christmas has become more about buying stuff than religious observance. Why the commercialization? Because fewer and fewer recall, or take an interest in, the deeply religious message behind Christmas: that God has become one of us, in the flesh: “Pleased as Man with men to dwell, / Jesus our Immanuel.” Some blame consumerist culture for the disappearance of Christmas’s religious aspect. Others blame governments for discouraging all public displays of religion. I tend to think that in large part the decline of Christmas has less to do with the “disenchantment” of the public square than with our own choices to live as though God were absent. 

Whatever the reason may be, as the religious spirit of Christmas declines, so has Christmas’s power to satisfy people’s desire for the enchantment of the supernatural. To fill the void, other, lesser forms of enchantment are sought: the warm feelings we get from receiving and giving gifts; the beauty of a winter snowscape or autumn’s colors; or in Halloween’s case, the enchantment of the non-divine supernatural—ghosts, witches, and magic.  

Because all these things lack the depth of mystery of the God-man, they cannot satisfy our souls. The pain of that dissatisfaction is stronger for the growing number of us who do not believe in the truth of the Christmas story, but who did believe in our youth, as did our families. That belief gave rise to real religious wonder and mutual self-giving in our homes, which were more soul-sustaining than any presents and decorations.  

To make up for ersatz enchantment’s lower quality, we increase its quantity. We spend more time buying things and keeping our lawns decorated, to dull our gnawing feeling of emptiness. And when one season (commercial Christmas) stopped satisfying our hearts (becoming so exhausting that some put Christmas trees to the curb on December 26th), we expanded another—Halloween. 

… Or Something More Insidious? 

But in light of a recent experience of mine, I cannot but think that something deeper is going on in a growing number of people. The burgeoning interest in Halloween, and in openly displaying “the dark side” of the supernatural, suggests that many hearts, impatient with the sentimentality of non-religious holidays, might want to return to religion—but not of the biblical kind.  

A few years ago, I spent the summer near Boston with friends. One day someone suggested an outing to Salem, Massachusetts. I was interested, having been there thirty years before as a boy, on vacation with my family. We did the same things that the group proposed to do this time, such as visit the House of the Seven Gables that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name. (Returning to the house was worth it, and I recommend visiting.)  

But afterward someone suggested we go to the Salem Witch Museum. I was not opposed, since I had gone as a boy (although I cannot be certain it was the same museum). As I recall it was quite simple back in the ’90s: a single large, open, and well-lit floor, with stationary mannequin dioramas. They portrayed the historical events of the trials of the dozen or so women who were wrongly convicted of witchcraft by the then very Puritan Salem of the late 1600s. The trials are now infamous, sometimes used as an excuse to criticize religion—and Puritanism in particular—as necessarily leading to such abuses of justice, in which innocent people get killed. I was young at the time, so I can’t recall how severely the museum portrayed the Puritan magistrates. As I recall, we children thought the lifeless mannequins were a joke. 

So now (not having visited the museum’s informative website), I was unprepared for what awaited me thirty years later. Now the museum occupies a converted church sitting on a large square, its name displayed in bright yellow letters on the facade. The ticket sellers outside were kind, ordinary people, perhaps retired volunteers. We paid and went into the nave for the first presentation. As before, the church contained mannequin dioramas around the periphery, depicting the history of the trials. But they were high up, spanning two stories and wrapping around the vaulted chamber; some scenes were stacked on top of each other. They were in darkness, but there was light in the center where we summer vacationers expectantly sat. When all were in, a greeter politely welcomed us, turned to leave, and closed the door behind her.  

Then everything went black.  

A menacing, prerecorded narration boomed over loudspeakers, accompanied by eerie music. One by one the scenes lit up as the narrator told the history of Salem’s witch craze. We heard how in those times people believed in the existence of demons, especially the devil, who sought to ensnare souls. An enormous mannequin of Satan lit up—glowing red, with ram’s horns, smoke, and other typical and nightmarish features. A large circle on the floor lit up beneath us, with symbols and words printed on it. It felt like we were in hell.  

Not that the presentation suggested that demons and hell were real; it rather suggested the Puritans were fools for believing in all that. The trials were cast not as excessive fear of the devil, but as irrational hysteria. (The ghoulishness of everything was perhaps meant more to cater to visitors during Halloween season, one of the museum’s busiest times of the year.) 

I was glad when the lights came on and we were led out. The next part was not frightening—just more dioramas, but all well-lit, and in rooms of ordinary height. A tour guide led us, occasionally pushing a button to start a relatively short recorded narration. The tour related how people accused of witchcraft were treated throughout history, and how they were just ordinary people doing nothing bad. A wall diagram equated the Salem witch hunt to other embarrassing persecutions of marginalized groups in American history. The message was clear: the idea that bad witchcraft and bad occult practices existed was made up by deranged people who hurt the innocent. The Salem witch craze was yet another instance of the sort of oppression (this one born of the “false consciousness” of early modern Puritans) that critical Marxism has trained so many of us to see in the world.  

And yet the final diorama noted that there are people today who, as the website says, “find the title, mythology, and legacy of the witch to be a powerful spiritual, personal, and political identity,” except they worship nature deities and love peace. They are neo-pagans, like Wiccans, followers of the religion of the pre-Christian British Isles. Their calendar is in part the origin of Halloween (originally “Samhain,” a harvest festival), after which Christians placed All Saints’ Day (hence the name “All Hallows’ Eve”). Wiccans probably now have a role at the museum; you can even buy their books at the gift shop.  

They also have made much of Salem their colony. I recalled the town, when I was a child, as like any other in New England: calm, clean, and orderly. It still is in parts, but now many sections are crowded with Wiccan and other New Age shops, selling crystals, psychic and tarot readings, and other “ritual tools and services to help you … bring the healing energy into your everyday life” and discover “the beauty that lies within the process of nature.” The goal of these stores was to help people “be themselves”—to “illuminate your truth,” in one vendor’s words—not by raising their natural human desires to God’s level, to love as he does, but by being purely and only human, according to the occult ways of our nature, perhaps with the help of certain superhuman spirits.  

Here is a religion well suited to our secular times, similarly defined by self-affirmation and normalizing the “natural.” New Age cults appeal to modern man’s hunger for religious experience while affirming his aversion to religion’s substance: subjecting one’s mind and heart to one’s Creator. It is all very understandable, given our tendency to think that the only improving we need is to be more clever in using our nature, not to change our hearts. And yet how insidious such “spirituality” is, because it denies the truth that we tend to love ourselves too much—what Christians (like the Puritans) call original sin.  

Most people putting up outrageously ghoulish decorations are, we hope, not engaging in the occult. But perhaps not a few are expressing a kind of irreligious attitude that, in time, could lead in that direction.

To Find Yourself, Learn to Serve 

Could part of the surge in Halloween’s popularity be that people are itching for an encounter with something beyond ordinary experience, but without a moral and religious conversion? Most people putting up outrageously ghoulish decorations are, we hope, not engaging in the occult. But perhaps not a few are expressing a kind of irreligious attitude that, in time, could lead in that direction.  

Contemporary Salem shows that interest in the occult is growing (although New Agers still make up only 1 percent of the population). Anyone who thinks such interest is harmless should consider how similar Wicca’s self-affirming message is to that of another neo-pagan religion: the often violent Mexican cult of “Saint Death,” who “accepts you without judging you.” Saint Death provides money and physical protection to her devotees, who include drug traffickers and other outlaws. It sounds evil indeed … even demonic.  

Whether they condone violence or not, neo-pagans risk going through life rationalizing their own self-absorption and not preparing to enter eternal bliss. Heaven is only for those who learn to get out of themselves and generously serve truth and other souls, not merely their own “happiness.” Those of us who have not been seduced by the occult might consider what we can do to save our fellow men who have wandered down that path. It will lead only to unending agony that we should not wish anyone to experience; God certainly has no such wish.  

We all need to recover genuine religiosity, and a good place to start is living better according to the messages of the truly important year-end holidays, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and All Saints’ Day: that God is with us, especially in our experiences of “disenchantment”; that he gives us every good thing we have, for which he deserves all our devotion; and that those who place their trust in him will receive an eternal reward more glorious than any other so-called “enchantment.”

Image licensed via Adobe Stock.

The Connection Between Halloween & Reformation Day | Key Life

He was confronting two religious observances that promoted false saintliness and exploited people’s fear of judgment and purgatory. There’s a curious connection between Halloween and Reformation Day, and it’s more than just proximity on the calendar.

Halloween

Halloween (October 31) is celebrated by millions each year with costumes and candy. Halloween’s deepest roots are decidedly pagan, despite its Christianized name. Its origin is Celtic and has to do with summer sacrifices to appease Samhain, the lord of death, and evil spirits. Those doing the pagan rituals believed that Samhain sent evil spirits abroad to attack humans, who could escape only by assuming disguises and looking like evil spirits themselves. Christians tried to confront these pagan rites by offering a Christian alternative (All Hallows’ Day) that celebrated the lives of faithful Christian saints on November 1. In medieval England the festival was known as All Hallows, hence the name Halloween (All Hallows’ eve) for the preceding evening.

All Saints’ Day

All Hallows’ Day or All Saints’ Day (November 1) was first celebrated on May 13, 609, when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin Mary. The date was later changed to November 1 by Pope Gregory III, who dedicated a chapel in honor of all saints in the Vatican Basilica. In 837, Pope Gregory IV (827-844) ordered its church-wide observance. Its origin lies earlier in the common commemorations of Christian martyrs. Over time these celebrations came to include not only the martyrs, but all saints. During the Reformation the Protestant churches came to understand “saints” in its New Testament usage as including all believers and reinterpreted the feast of All Saints as a celebration of the unity of the entire Church.

All Souls’ Day

All Souls’ Day or the Day of the Dead is normally celebrated, primarily by Roman Catholics, on November 2. This is a day dedicated to prayer and almsgiving in memory of ancestors who have died. People pray for the souls of the dead, in an effort to hasten their transition from purgatory to heaven by being purged and cleansed from their sins.

Reformation Day

Reformation Day (October 31) commemorates Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This act triggered the Reformation, as they were immediately translated and distributed across Germany in a matter of weeks. The Protestant Reformation was the rediscovery of the doctrine of justification—salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—and the protest against the corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. The century before the Reformation was marked by widespread dismay with the venality of the leaders in the Roman Catholic Church and with its false doctrines, biblical illiteracy, superstition, and corruption. Monks, priests, bishops, and popes in Rome taught unbiblical doctrines like the selling of indulgences, the treasury of merit, purgatory, and salvation through good works.

Treasury of Merit

Spiritually earnest people were told to justify themselves by charitable works, pilgrimages, and all kinds of religious performances and devotions. They were encouraged to acquire this “merit,” which was at the disposal of the church, by purchasing certificates of indulgence. This left them wondering if they had done or paid enough to appease God’s righteous anger and escape his judgment. This was the context that prompted Luther’s desire to refocus the church on salvation by grace through faith on account of Christ by imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us. To those spiritually oppressed by indulgences and not given assurance of God’s grace, Luther proclaimed free grace to God’s true saints:

God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead. He does not give saintliness to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace. Therefore no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God, neither can he do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that is, a hypocrite (Luther W.A. 1.183ff).

Instead of the treasury of merit that was for sale, Luther protested, “The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God” (Thesis 62). In celebration of Reformation Day, you should seriously read all 95 Theses—they’re really good.

Check out Justin’s teaching on Grace Through the Centuries on Key Life here!

Read more from Justin here

Watch Ryan Reeves’ video on the 95 Theses here!

The post The Connection Between Halloween & Reformation Day appeared first on Key Life.

What Is the History of Halloween? | Christianity.com

It’s important that Christians understand the traditions they participate in, know what the Bible has to say, and approach every holiday and cultural practice with prayer and discernment. Knowing a bit of the history of Halloween can be an important step in that process.

Contributing Writer

Updated Oct 13, 2025

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in the United States and certainly one of the most profitable. An article published in USA Today estimated that Americans spent over nine billion dollars on Halloween decorations, parties, and events in 2018.

October 31 has become synonymous with many popular traditions. Pumpkin carving, costumes, trick-or-treating, bonfires, carnival games, mazes, haunted houses, decorations, and candy are some of the more light-hearted and even family-friendly activities enjoyed during the month of October.

Other Halloween tropes and traditions, such as popular horror movies, a focus on witchcraft and the occult, and overt links to the demonic and supernatural, are much darker and more disturbing in nature.

Of course, Christians have debated for centuries whether or not to endorse, let alone participate in Halloween. Whether that involves parents letting their children dress up in fun costumes and collect candy from their neighbors, going to see the latest scary movie, attending a horror night at a local theme park, or a church hosting their own costumed event or gospel-centered outreach, how Christians view and approach Halloween will always be a topic of conversation and even debate.

The Bible, of course, doesn’t explicitly talk about Halloween. It didn’t exist when the Bible was written. It does, however, speak boldly and clearly on the subject of death, the supernatural, and the role Christians are called to play in combating spiritual forces of darkness and evil in the world.

God’s people are also instructed to flee from all forms of pagan worship, witchcraft, and idolatry. However, the nature of what exactly is being celebrated or practiced on Halloween can vary.

In fact, if we look closely at the long and storied history of Halloween, we find many instances where the church actively worked to reverse and even supplant the more pagan rituals of October 31 with traditions of its own, many of which have shaped the Halloween we know and many love today.

This is a time of year when countless Christian authors, bloggers, pastors, and radio hosts will offer their take on the subject. Unfortunately, we would be hard-pressed to find a unified Christian view of Halloween. Christian perspectives surrounding October 31 are as diverse as its history.

Therefore, it is largely up to the individual believer to determine, through prayer, spiritual discernment, pastoral guidance, and careful study of the Word of God, how best and how biblically to approach Halloween and its many traditions.

So maybe instead of offering a proscriptive view of Halloween for the believer, maybe the best approach to take is to trace the history of October 31 as a holiday, discussing the evolution of some of its popular traditions from where they began to what they’ve become today.

Halloween Origin

When it comes to the history of Halloween, the first place to start is the pagan tradition of Samhain, practiced by the ancient Celts from October 31 to November 1 in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France.

For the ancient Celts, who lived nearly 2000 years ago, Samhain marked the culmination of summer and the beginning of the harvest. It was the midpoint between the fall equinox and winter solstice and was treated as the day that ushered in the cold winter and darker half of the year, in which sickness and death were more prevalent.

According to History.com, the Celts and Druids believed that on Samhain, “The boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.” Furthermore, on October 31, the Celts believed that the spirit world would become visible to humans, and the ghosts of the dead would return to earth to cause trouble, damage crops, and otherwise play tricks on the living.

For this reason, the Druids would often build large communal bonfires to offer sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The Celtic people also left token offerings outside of their village to appease the fairies, ghosts, and spirits.

There were even occasions where the Celts would also tell each other’s fortunes, share scary stories, and wear animal or monster costumes to try and trick the roaming spirits into leaving them alone.

Obviously, this isn’t the kind of pagan ritual or tradition the Bible would ever condone. However, in the centuries that followed, October 31 celebrations would begin to be enjoyed in a completely different context.

Historical Timeline of Halloween in the Church

By AD 43, the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic territory in Europe, and for the next 400 years, various Roman holidays and festivals similarly designed to commemorate the passing of the dead and the harvest were combined with the Celtic Samhain.

It wasn’t until the Roman Catholic church gained a foothold in Celtic lands that Celtic traditions and rituals like Samhain were refashioned.

In fact, Pope Gregory I (AD 590 to 604) had advised missionaries to Ireland and England not to do away with the religious holidays of the Celts and non-Christian peoples of the region, but rather, to try and appropriate or transition them from their pagan roots into a more Christian context.

Subsequently, in AD 609, Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of Christian martyrs, establishing All Martyrs’ Day as a church holiday. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include saints as well as martyrs, shifting the holiday from May 13 to November 1.

Now, what does all this have to do with October 31, which still hadn’t been given the name Halloween?

By the ninth century, Christianity had taken over Celtic lands, but rather than abolish the Celtic traditions of October 31 outright, the church shifted the focus of October 31 from a celebration of pagan deities, roaming spirits, and the dead to a more Christian emphasis on the soul, the supernatural, and the saints.

November 1 became known as All Saints’ Day in the Catholic church, and in AD 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, with many of the same traditions of Samhain, including giant bonfires, parades, and costumes of saints, devils, and angels, still being practiced.

Furthermore, in preparation for All Saints’ Day on November 1, on which venerated saints, also known as “hallows,” were celebrated, the night before became known as the eve of all-hallows or All Hallows’ Eve. Eventually, the day was known as Halloween.

Thus, a once pagan festival was repurposed and refashioned into a church holiday to acknowledge the supernatural but celebrate the saints, not roaming spirits.

Of course, many Celtic traditions never truly died out even after the church Christianized Samhain and established Halloween. They just took on a new meaning.

For example, placing fire (representing the sun) in hollowed-out vegetables (representing the harvest) was a tradition established by the Celts and later adopted in future celebrations.

In the Middle Ages, carved turnips (later pumpkins) called Jack-O-Lanterns began to appear in commemoration of the Irish myth of Stingy Jack, who wandered the earth after being denied entry into both heaven and hell. Today, carved pumpkins are more decorative than anything.

Trick-or-treating also followed the Celtic tradition of giving token bits of the harvest to wandering spirits to keep them from interfering with the harvest or harming the home. Today, trick-or-treating is more communal and candy-driven than an attempt to placate ghosts, fairies, or spirits.

Halloween in America

In colonial America, large festivals and the telling ghost stories became common. It wasn’t until the Irish potato famine and subsequent migration of millions of Irish farmers to America in the mid 19^th century that many of the traditional elements of Halloween practiced in Europe were popularized in America.

In the late 1800s, Halloween in America also began to shift away from a spiritual holiday focused on ghosts, witchcraft, and death to a more community-oriented festival, celebrating family and good things, in line with similar seasonal traditions like American Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Many have since latched onto Halloween and tried to make it their own. Halloween has come to mean many things to many different groups; some good, some evil. It is as much a day about family, community, and the harvest as it is a time to dabble in the horrors of death and darkness.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Like many holidays, Halloween has plenty of good and even great traditions Christian families can enjoy. On the flip side, there is an abundance of awful, ugly, and evil practices at work on and around October 31 that Christians should swiftly avoid.

If you do want to take part in some kind of celebration on or around October 31st, you and your family could always opt for alternative ways to celebrate Halloween. Several ideas to inspire you can be found here.

What’s important is that Christians understand the traditions they participate in, know what the Bible has to say about these topics, and approach every holiday and cultural practice with prayer and discernment. Knowing a bit of the history of Halloween can be an important step in that process.

For further reading:

Why Was Evil Celebrated on Halloween?

Why Do We Celebrate Fear at Halloween?

What Does the Bible Say about Halloween?

Should Christians Really Celebrate Halloween?

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/what-is-the-history-of-halloween.html

Americans Brace For The Yearly Spike In Crime That Always Happens On Halloween | End Of The American Dream

When three thugs in Halloween masks terrorized a family in northern Virginia a few days ago, it was a sign that Halloween crime season is off to an early start this year.  Once we get to the evening of October 31st, you will want to make sure that your home is both occupied and secure, because criminals love an easy target.  It is the one time during the year when criminals can wear masks and freely approach your home without causing much suspicion.  Unfortunately, many choose to use that as an opportunity to cause mayhem.

According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween has become a lot more popular in the U.S. over the last couple of decades…

The National Retail Federation has surveyed Americans about their Halloween plans each September since 2005. Back then, slightly more than half of Americans said they planned to celebrate. In 2025, nearly three-quarters said they would – a huge jump in 20 years.

And people are planning to shell out more money than ever. Total spending on Halloween is expected to reach a record US$13 billion this year, according to the federation – an almost fourfold increase over the past two decades.

It was once a relatively minor holiday, but it has now become one of the biggest holidays on our entire calendar.

Halloween is a festival that literally celebrates evil, and so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that violent crime spikes on October 31st every year…

“The evening violent crime count on October 31 is about 50 percent higher than on any other date during the year, and twice the daily average,” criminologist James Alan Fox wrote for the Boston Globe, noting criminal activity peaks during trick-or-treat hours, and trails off later in the night.

“The most popular hours for gathering Snickers and Junior Mints around the neighborhood are apparently also the prime time for violent crime.”

This time of the year, Americans consume millions upon millions of hours of Halloween programming that show people in masks doing all sorts of unthinkable things, and there are always going to be sick people that want to copy what they see on their screens.

In fact, a group of three “mask-wearing creeps” absolutely terrorized a family in Virginia just a few days ago…

Halloween mask-wearing creeps terrorized a widow in Virginia as chilling doorbell footage showed the trio trying to break into her home and threatening to kill the occupants.

The three suspects showed up at the Alexandria home — about eight miles from Washington, DC — around 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to the homeowner’s daughter, Shayla, WUSA9 reported.

“At first I thought it was just a Halloween joke, a little prank,” Shayla said. “So I said, ‘Happy Halloween.’”

It turns out that this wasn’t a joke at all.

The thugs just kept pounding on the door and demanding to be let inside…

Shayla said the trio kept knocking and pounding “harder and harder” on the door.

“It’s either you coming out or we coming in,” one person can be heard saying on the video. Another shouted, “Open the door!”

I can’t even imagine how frightened Shayla must have been.

The three criminals were unable to get in through the front door, so they went around back where they “broke through a wooden fence, slashed open deck screens, and banged on windows”…

The group broke through a wooden fence, slashed open deck screens, and banged on windows while peering inside.

“They were just hitting the window,” Shayla told WUSA. “My heart dropped when they said they were gonna take a chair and break down the door. That is just too much.”

Shayla told the outlet the masked suspects “threatened to kill us.” After about 10 minutes of pure terror, the trio finally left — leaving Shayla and her widowed mother shaken.

This is the kind of people that our culture is producing.

Wearing masks and frightening people is considered to be “fun”, and often that is combined with theft.

For example, a woman in Tennessee was recently caught stealing a package from someone’s porch while wearing a clown mask…

A woman in a clown mask was caught on camera stealing a package, giving people quite a scare in Baxter.

The unwanted visitor and thief had several folks double-checking their locks and home cameras this past week.

“To think somebody was so brazen enough to do it in the daylight in a clown mask is kind of crazy,” said Terry, a neighbor of the victim.

In Seattle, two young males were arrested for “harassing two women while wearing clown masks and brandishing guns”…

A 19-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were arrested early Monday after allegedly harassing two women while wearing clown masks and brandishing guns in the Bitter Lake neighborhood, Seattle police said.

The incident unfolded around 12:20 a.m. when officers were flagged down by two women on Aurora Avenue North.

In Indiana, a teen that was spotted “wearing a clown-like mask” went on quite a crime spree before he was finally caught…

An Evansville teen who was seen wearing a clown-like mask on security camera has been arrested and charged, according to the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office.

VCSO says a 16-year-old from Evansville was arrested and charged with multiple crimes, including attempted burglary, theft, and attempted theft.

The arrest is connected to a series of car break-ins and attempted residential burglaries in the Wellington Acres neighborhood of northeastern Vanderburgh County.

This time of the year just seems to bring out the worst in many people.

One forensic psychologist believes that Halloween is a time “when we expect and almost accept petty crimes and mischievous acting out”…

Forensic psychologists say the holiday’s mischievous nature inspires criminals.

“Halloween is a celebration of the dark side — a time when we expect and almost accept petty crimes and mischievous acting out,” said forensic psychologist Barbara Kirwin, the defense shrink for serial killer Joel Rifkin. “Mostly it acts as a pressure valve that allows repressed people to release some of their pent-up anger and hostility.”

Sadly, we don’t just see a spike in petty crimes during Halloween.

Every year, homes get invaded.

Every year, women get raped.

Every year, innocent people get murdered.

So it is important to take precautions.  The following list of safety tips for Halloween comes from CBS News…

• Don’t leave your home unoccupied. If you have to go out, leave lights and the TV on, and ask neighbors to keep a watch. Never put a spare key under the mat.
• If you’re home, make sure your walkway is well-lit to prevent trips and falls by children who can’t see through their masks. Make sure to see who’s at the door before you open it.
• Keep pets indoors and under control. Dogs can become easily spooked by strangers, especially in disguises, and end up biting friends or children.
• Put away outside movable objects such as grills, lawn mowers and bicycles that could be stolen, vandalized or thrown against your home.
• Park cars in a garage, if possible, or in well-lighted areas and remove all valuables. Activate the car alarm when leaving.
• If you’re going out, remain on high alert and avoid children in dark costumes whose minds will be on candy, not safety.
• Set up an informal “Neighborhood Watch.” Some locales have a “Witch Watch” — groups of volunteers who guard the community.

There is one point on that list that I disagree with very strongly.

If you have dogs, make sure that they are visible to anyone that approaches your home, because most criminals do not like to deal with dogs.

In general, I would recommend doing whatever you can to make your home as unwelcoming to intruders as possible.

We live at a time when our society is absolutely teeming with predators, and it is only going to get worse in the years ahead.

So please be very careful and take the security of your home seriously, because the safety of your family is not something that you want to gamble with.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Americans Brace For The Yearly Spike In Crime That Always Happens On Halloween appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

Halloween: Origins, Traditions, and Whether Christians Should Celebrate It | Christianity.com

What does Halloween look like in our current culture, and how should we respond to it?

Regardless of the origins of Halloween, the more pressing question for today’s Christians is this: What does Halloween look like in our current culture, and how should we respond to it?

When I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s, I didn’t know anyone, except a Southern Baptist family, who didn’t “celebrate” Halloween. The hundreds of Catholic and Protestant kids in our grammar schools would dress up in costumes, have school parties, and go trick-or-treating. For weeks leading up to Halloween, we would have school projects that included traditional Halloween images: witches, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, bats, and more. Our parents never questioned if we “should” celebrate the holiday–there was never a belief that what we were doing was evil or unbiblical.

Yet when I became a follower of Jesus as a young adult and had my own child, I was challenged by many Christians who thought Halloween should be ignored. The two Christian schools that my daughter attended treated October 31 as any other day, and encouraged parents to study the history of Halloween (of which I was ignorant) and why it was a sin to take part in Halloween activities.

Additionally, Halloween has continued to grow in popularity over recent years, even spurring celebrations like “Summerween” that promote a focus on the holiday even outside of the fall season. With its increased popularity in our culture, Christians would do well to think through our response to this holiday.

So, what is the right approach as Christians: to let kids have their candy-coated fun, ignore the “holiday,” or come up with alternatives? It’s each parent’s decision, but let’s take a look at the history of Halloween and what the Bible has to say in order to make the best God-honoring decision.  

What Is the Origin and History of Halloween?

In a Library of Congress blog post, Heather Thomas writes, “… the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “SAH-win”), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.” History.com adds that the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland, England, and Northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. 

For them, this meant the end of the summer and its harvest–and was the beginning of a cold and dark winter. This season was often marked by death, as people would run out of food, freeze to death, and didn’t have the ability to treat illnesses common in winter. “Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they…believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.” People began wearing frightening costumes during Samhain to confuse the evil spirits.

But there was much more that developed from this belief in roaming spirits. Thomas also writes of the origin of the jack-o-lantern, which is a staple of Halloween celebrations. Legend has it that there was a man named Stingy Jack who trapped the devil, and only let him go if the devil promised Jack wouldn’t go to hell. But when Jack died, he was forced to wander the earth because heaven didn’t want him. “The Devil gave Jack a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. Locals eventually began carving scary faces into their own turnips to frighten away evil spirits.” Turnips then became pumpkins with scary faces.

On the other hand, there are those who say that Halloween didn’t begin as a pagan tradition. In her article “Is Halloween a Pagan Holiday? Origin of Halloween,” Jessica Brodie writes, “Halloween is meant to refer to the evening before All Holies Day, also known as All Saints Day, a religious holiday in the Roman Catholic and many Protestant denominations of Christianity to honor Christians who have died (also called saints) and gone to heaven.” She contends that most scholars believe there is no tie between the Samhain festival and the Christian Halloween that was instituted in the Middle Ages.  “… it doesn’t seem likely that a church thousands of miles away, in Rome, would orchestrate a major religious festival simply to tie it to a seasonal celebration marked only by a handful of people in the Northern Celtic region of the world.”

Regardless of the origins of Halloween, the more pressing question for today’s Christians is this: What does Halloween look like in our current culture, and how should we respond to it?

I’ve seen a noticeable shift in the tone of Halloween in recent decades. In my own neighborhood, some families decorate with cheerful pumpkins, lights, and scarecrows—evoking a harvest theme. Others, however, create disturbing, grotesque displays that glorify death, horror, and darkness (and parents with young children refuse to go by these houses).

While I don’t know my neighbors’ intent, the focus on evil and fear raises valid concerns. Even if Halloween didn’t originate in paganism, the way it is often “done” today can contradict the values God calls His children to live by. 

And speaking of children, if you’ve raised yours in a Christian home, they may have questions about Halloween. You may choose to tell them something like:

“Halloween is a day when lots of people dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, and have fun. A long time ago, it was connected to a Celtic festival called Samhain which made up unbiblical, creepy stories and traditions. As Christians, we celebrate it as All Hallows Eve which is the night before All Saints Day, when we remember Christians who have died. Today, some people just treat it like a fun night for candy and costumes, but some things you see, like scary decorations, don’t honor God. So we choose to celebrate in a way that keeps our hearts focused on what’s good.”

What Does the Bible Say About Halloween?

You will not find the word Halloween in the Bible, but many of the themes associated with the contemporary, secular celebration—especially its glorification of evil, even if unintentional—are addressed clearly in the Bible. Some relevant Scripture passages are below:

“Let no one be found among you…who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD…” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

The Bible warns us that we have a very real enemy who wants to take our attention and affection away from the Lord and live like the world. At Halloween, we may be tempted to take part in scary or creepy activities, thinking it’s not a big deal, but it is a big deal to God. We need to remain aware that worshipers of Satan, wizards, witches, and Wiccans still celebrate a pagan, evil Halloween that includes occult practices. Some believe if Christians participate, they too are honoring Satan.

As Christians, we live “in the world,” but we are not “of the world” and are protected from the enemy by Jesus’ sacrifice. If we stay in the Word and focus on becoming more like Christ in what we do and think, then we can make God-honoring decisions about what to do with Halloween. And I believe there are ways to celebrate as Jesus followers.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

You may be someone who believes that any recognition of Halloween is wrong. Choosing to abstain entirely may be what you feel called by God to do—and that’s a conviction that you should honor, without pressure from others. Perhaps you don’t want any association with a day that may have pagan origins, or you’re concerned about how Halloween has devolved over the years into something darker or more disturbing.

Or perhaps you believe that Christians can redeem holidays—days that were once truly “holy days,” such as Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and even Halloween. Each of these has been, to some extent, co-opted by the world and reshaped into secular events driven by consumerism and the pressure to “keep up with the Joneses.”

Halloween presents a unique opportunity to show others that God is sovereign, and that He can be glorified in how we choose to celebrate—not just on traditional holy days, but every day, including October 31. What matters is staying true to God’s command to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength–and to love our neighbors as ourselves. So, how can we keep Christ at the center of Halloween just as we try to do every other day?

Christian Alternatives to Halloween

By alternatives I mean what activities can Christians participate in on Halloween that are different from the mainstream? Let’s always keep in mind that we should consider our Halloween events as an outreach to those who are unbelievers. Here are a few ideas of what some Christians and churches can do on October 31:

• In your neighborhood:
  • Welcome trick-or-treaters with decorations that emphasize harvest, such as pumpkins, hay bales, etc.
  • Sit outside of your house to greet trick-or-treaters so that you don’t miss anyone. Maybe have a fire pit going and have neighbor kids who are with their parents stop to make s’mores.
  • Engage in conversation with the kids. Ask why they chose the costume they did, what they wore last year, if their school had a Halloween party, what their favorite candy is, etc. Make them feel special, even if they are in a hurry to go out and collect candy. And give premium candy if you can afford it. 
  • Consider giving away something in addition to or instead of candy that will show you care, like glow sticks to help them see. Maybe these can have a sticker that says “Jesus lights our way home” for example. You can also make individual goodie bags that have candy, stickers, and a “God bless you–have a safe Halloween” message handwritten on a card inside.
  • There are other great ideas about engaging with trick-or-treaters in the article “10 Ways to Show Christ’s Love to Trick-or-Treaters This Year” 
• In the community:
  • While this idea is done most often at churches, I believe it would be great to move it into the community. Why not gather with like-minded churches in your community and host a large “Trunk or Treat” event? Families create a game that can be played out of the trunk of their car, e.g. a ring toss game, a corn hole type game. Or they can just decorate their trunk with a clever theme. Children walk through the event playing games and getting candy. You can include in their goodie bags a short blurb about what churches participated and why. Be sure to emphasize how much you believe God calls you to care for your neighbors, and that you were so glad they came (including an invitation to church as well).
• At your church: host a large-scale harvest festival (emphasis on harvest of foods that God provides). Celebrate with games such as:
  • Pumpkin bowling–using smaller pumpkins so even small kids can play (remove stems as much as possible) and make “pins” out of long gourds that are cut off at bottom to stand up;
  • Pumpkin decorating–painting or carving (if participants paint pumpkins, remind them not to leave outside as the paint may poison squirrels or other wildlife;
  • Corn Hole (bean bag toss)
  • Caramel apple decorating contest
  • Apple toss (into buckets)
  • Pumpkin ring toss (make sure pumpkins have their stems)

For more ideas:

5 Halloween Activities that Point Kids to Jesus

5 Ways Christians Can Biblically Celebrate Halloween

Halloween: A Matter of Prayer, Discernment, and Boldness

In light of some of Halloween’s origins in paganism and occult practices, along with the Bible’s clear stance against witchcraft, idolatry, and celebrating evil, Christians should prayerfully consider participating in anything related to it. We need to ensure that if we choose to take part in the day, that we are claiming it for Christ and participating in His name. While many today see Halloween as harmless fun, it’s important to ask whether what we participate in aligns with God’s truth and glorifies Him. Rather than conforming to cultural norms, believers can use this time to offer Christ-centered alternatives—such as fall festivals, outreach events, and neighborhood ministry—that reflect God’s goodness and truth. Ultimately, the decision should be rooted in our desire to honor God in every area of our lives.

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/halloween-origins-traditions-and-whether-christians-should-celebrate-it.html

Drag-Affirming Pop Star Gwen Stefani Partners With Catholic Prayer App Hallow | Protestia

Drag-Affirming Pop Star Gwen Stefani Partners With Catholic Prayer App Hallow

LGBTQ-affirming pop star Gwen Stefani of ‘No Doubt’ fame has announced her partnership with Hallow, the Romam Catholic prayer app, sharing on Instagram:

I’m excited to partner with @hallowapp this Advent and Christmas on a beautiful series of prayer and music and to journey together this holiday season 🎄 Hallow is doing a 25-day prayer challenge called Advent Pray25 🙏 Every day until Christmas, u can pray and meditate on God’s love and I’ll be sharing a reflection on my song, Christmas Eve and why this song means so much to me ❄️ Join me every day in praying on Hallow at hallow.com/gwen

Stefani, who has 18 Grammy nominations and three wins, ads in her video:

“Join me and millions of other Christians around the world as we celebrate the truth that God so loved the world that he gave us his only son.”

It is unclear how much Stefani is being paid with the endorsement. Still, with Hallow having previously raised over $52M in funding, it’s safe to say that they have a bit of cash in their coffers (We previously recounted the ways that these Christian apps monetize your prayers for millions of dollars).

Stefani joins other recent additions to the Hallow family, including Bear Grylls, Kevin James, Lauren Daigle, Jonathan Roumie, and Francis Chan, in promoting the Advent Pray25 challenge.

While Stefani claims to be a Christian, her lifestyle leaves much to be desired and suggests she’s living the life of a false convert. Apart from having married her current husband under sinful circumstances- they were dating while she was still married to her husband, Stefani and Blake Shelton spent years shacking up before getting married. Stefani still frequently wears scandalously immodest clothing and lauds her LGBTQ audience and partnerships.   

In a recent article for Gay Times, Stefani gushes at how much she loves seeing drag queens dress as her on account of how “inspiring” and “beautiful” it is.

Q: I can imagine with all of your iconic looks that you’ve seen quite a lot of drag queens dressed up as you?

A: Yes! Adrian, our drummer, dressed in drag in the ‘Bathwater’ video. He used to love dressing in drag! It makes my heart…I see it all the time online. The makeup is so cool to watch, because I’m such a makeup fanatic. If I wasn’t [sic] in music, I would’ve been in makeup, and I was! At the makeup counter, I was the fakest makeup artist – no one taught me anything! I was just there.

It’s honestly beautiful to me, to see versions of me through them. What they see in me and the parts of me that are important to them is so inspiring to see.

The post Drag-Affirming Pop Star Gwen Stefani Partners With Catholic Prayer App Hallow appeared first on Protestia.

Do You Know The Real History Of Halloween? | End Of The American Dream

Most people gleefully celebrate Halloween without ever thinking about how it originated or what our Halloween traditions really mean.  They just assume that it must be okay since almost everyone else is doing it.  Today, Halloween is celebrated all over the world, but that hasn’t always been the case.  In fact, there was a time when most Americans did not celebrate it.  It was only during the 20th century that it actually became a nationwide holiday that was celebrated on a widespread basis, and only within the past few decades has it really taken off as a truly global holiday.

To find the original roots of Halloween, one must go back approximately 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain…

Halloween’s original roots trace back to Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”—because of course the Celts couldn’t make it easy), an ancient Celtic festival that marked the end of the harvest season in Ireland. The Celts believed that on October 31st, the boundary between the living and the dead became, shall we say, a little thin. To keep any wandering spirits at bay, they’d light massive bonfires and don costumes—probably doubling as a solid excuse for some much-needed group bonding (what else was there to do in ancient Ireland, really?).

This is where the tradition of “Halloween costumes” began.

Some revelers apparently wore costumes to ward off spirits, but others apparently wore them “to allow for communication with the spirit world”…

Besides the reasons given above, Halloween masks and costumes were used to hide one’s attendance at pagan festivals or—as in traditional shamanism (mediated by a witch doctor or pagan priest) and other forms of animism—to change the personality of the wearer to allow for communication with the spirit world. Here, costumes could be worn to ward off evil spirits. On the other hand, the costume wearer might use a mask to try to attract and absorb the power of the animal represented by the mask and costume worn. According to this scenario, Halloween costumes may have originated with the Celtic Druid ceremonial participants, who wore animal heads and skins to acquire the strength of a particular animal.

Today, some of the most popular Halloween costumes are of ghosts, witches, vampires and fallen angels.

But most people are entirely convinced that there is absolutely no danger in dressing up as such entities.

According to the History Channel, during Samhain the Celts would also “burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities”…

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.

That is quite alarming.

And there are also some ancient documents that indicate that humans were often sacrificed in massive Samhain fires as well…

According to old documents, in its most primitive guise, Samhain would have featured many sacrifices to the Celtic gods of death, with both animals and humans thrown in to huge firepits as offerings.

People claimed the ancient Druids ate their first born children on Samhain, or collected the blood of their sacrificial humans in cauldrons and drank it.

But nobody does such things anymore, right?

Well, Pastor John Ramirez says that when he was a practicing Satanist he actually participated in the sacrifice of animals on Halloween…

Ramirez, now a pastor, knows all about the dark reality of Halloween. He once sacrificed animals as part of satanic rituals and his friends even knew him as “Lucifer’s son.”

Now as a born again believer, he strongly warns Christians against celebrating Halloween and participating in harvest festivals.

“The only harvest we should celebrate is the harvest of souls,” he adds.

Those that are obsessed with spiritual darkness take these things very seriously.

Many of them even still call this holiday “Samhain” even though most of us call it Halloween.

So how did it come to be called Halloween?

Well, it all started when the Celts were invaded by the Roman Empire…

However, when the Roman Empire took over the majority of the Celtic region, two ancient Roman festivals merged with the festival of Samhain over the 400 years the Romans occupied the territory. These festivals were Feralia, a day honoring the dead, and a day celebrating Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees who is primarily symbolized with an apple.

It was not until roughly the 9th through 11th centuries when early Christianity was spreading throughout the Celtic territory that we finally obtained the name we all know and love. The Christian (specifically Catholic) holiday of All Saints’ Day was very similar to the festival of Samhain with bonfires and costumes, though it was celebrated in early November. It was also called All-Hallows and the festival of Samhain—celebrated the night before—became known as All-Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.

From that time forward, “Halloween” was primarily a Catholic celebration.

That is why the Puritans that settled in early America were steadfastly against it.  The following comes from Wikipedia…

Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott write that Anglican colonists in the southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland “recognized All Hallow’s Eve in their church calendars”,^[141][142] although the Puritans of New England strongly opposed the holiday, along with other traditional celebrations of the established Church, including Christmas.^[143] Almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was widely celebrated in North America.^[26]

It was not until after mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the 19th century that Halloween became a major holiday in America.^[26] Most American Halloween traditions were inherited from the Irish and Scots,^[27][144] though “In Cajun areas, a nocturnal Mass was said in cemeteries on Halloween night. Candles that had been blessed were placed on graves, and families sometimes spent the entire night at the graveside”.^[145] Originally confined to these immigrant communities, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and was celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial, and religious backgrounds by the early 20th century.^[146] Then, through American influence, these Halloween traditions spread to many other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century, including to mainland Europe and some parts of the Far East.^{[28][16][147]}

Today, Halloween has become one of our biggest holidays.

In fact, it is being projected that Americans will spend more than 11 billion dollars on Halloween this year alone…

Americans are projected to spend $11.6 billion on Halloween decorations, costumes, candy and other festive purchases this October, according to an annual survey from the National Retail Federation.

When broken down, that $11.6 billion translated to $3.8 billion spent on costumes, $3.8 billion dedicated to decorations, $3.5 billion allocated to purchasing candy and $0.5 billion spent on greeting cards, per the survey.

If you can believe it, Americans even spend approximately 700 million dollars on costumes for their pets each year.

Can you believe that?

One survey found that 93 percent of Americans celebrate Halloween in some way.

Needless to say, this makes certain people very happy.  The founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, once made the following statement: “I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.”

Like I noted earlier, most people celebrate Halloween without ever even thinking about it.

In fact, many people don’t know why they believe what they believe about most things.

If we are going to do something, we need to understand why we are doing it.

As for where Halloween originally came from, now you know the truth.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Do You Know The Real History Of Halloween? appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

5 Major Differences between Reformation Day and Halloween | Christianity.com

Reformation Day vs. Halloween: contrasting celebrations of light and darkness.

1. Spooky Spending vs. Spiritual Revival

Americans spent over $12B dollars on candy, costumes, and decorations in 2023. Spending habits were slightly lower in the preceding few years, although some of the recent surge is related to inflation.

Casual comparison of retail shelves now as compared with a decade ago reveals a wider variety of creative ways to decorate the home, inside and out. Some items are even borrowed from other holidays, such as spooky advent calendars and “Christmas” trees decked out in skeletons. Many consumers slowly drive, cycle, or walk through residential neighborhoods to admire the increasingly lavish displays of tombstones, skeletons, and familiar characters given a Halloween makeover.

Perhaps Halloween has grown in popularity in recent years as a means of escape. Disguises, parties, food, and the supernatural all provide a distraction from America’s precarious political and financial landscape, not to mention the emotional pressures of everyday life. Certainly, this “holiday” appears to have grown in both popularity and profitability.

Reformation Day celebrates the fact that Christians in America no longer pay the church for “indulgences.” Justin Holcombe explained that, until Luther started the Reformation,  “spiritually earnest people were told to justify themselves by charitable works, pilgrimages, and all kinds of religious performances and devotions. They were encouraged to acquire this ‘merit,’ which was at the disposal of the church, by purchasing certificates of indulgence.” Although changes were not immediate, Luther’s 95 theses started a movement that would do the opposite of Halloween – stop people from spending money for privileges the church had no business trying to sell.

Church corruption, aided by the inability of most people to read Latin (or to read at all), led to believers faithfully spending their money to try and buy their way into heaven. They thought they could even pay for a loved one to be removed from purgatory into heaven. The Bible teaches that Christ alone has paid the price for redemption. Paul wrote, “By grace you have been saved through faith.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Read more:

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/slideshows/5-major-differences-between-reformation-day-and-halloween.html

What Christians Should Know About Halloween | Key Life

This festive day also carries a lot of baggage, however. Scholars Ralph and Adelin Linton write:

Among all the festivals which we celebrate today, few have histories stranger than that of Halloween. It is the eve of All Hallows—or Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day—and as such it is one of the most solemn festivals of the church. At the same time, it commemorates beings and rites with which the church has always been at war. It is the night when ghosts walk and fairies and goblins are abroad… We cannot understand this curious mixture unless we go back into history and unravel the threads from which the present holiday pattern has been woven.

The Origins of Halloween

Generally, it is agreed upon that Halloween has its origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer. Typical popular folklore suggests that Samhain was a festival based on human sacrifice. Recent scholarship, however, suggests that this is a caricature, based on Roman writers who had little evidence of actual Celtic practices and were more interested in decrying them as “barbarians” who needed to be “civilized” by the Romans.

According to historian Nicholas Rogers, “the pagan origins of Halloween” arise not from rumors of human sacrifice but from “the notion of Samhain as a festival of the dead and as a time of supernatural intensity heralding the onset of winter.”

Halloween has been rejected as demonic and pagan, subsumed into (medieval) Christian ritual, and accepted unthinkingly as harmless fun.

He continues, “In marking the onset of winter, Samhain was closely associated with darkness and the supernatural. In Celtic lore, winter was the dark time of the year when ‘nature is asleep, summer has returned to the underworld, and the earth is desolate and inhospitable.’”

In addition,

What was especially noteworthy about Samhain was its status as a borderline festival. It took place between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. In Celtic lore, it marked the boundary between summer and winter, light and darkness. In this respect, Samhain can be seen as a threshold, or what anthropologists would call a liminal festival. It was a moment of ritual transition and altered states. It represented a time out of time, a brief interval ‘when the normal order of the universe is suspended’ and ‘charged with a peculiar preternatural energy.’ These qualities would continue to resonate through the celebration of Halloween.

Halloween in the British Isles

According to Rogers, while Halloween derives its original “supernatural intensity” and “spookiness” from Samhain, most of the actual traditions and practices of the holiday developed out of the medieval Christian holy days of All Souls’ and All Saints’ Day. Early Christians in the 4th century began the practice of celebrating the martyrs of the early Roman persecutions. By the 9th century, these festivals were beginning to shift focus to celebrating the lives of saints instead. This festival was held on November 1 in England, but on April 20 in Ireland (disproving the popular view that a November date was picked to “Christianize” the pagan festival of Samhain). 

By the end of the twelfth century, the linked festivals of All Saints’ and All Souls’, Todos Santos or Tots Sants in Spanish, or Hallowtide in English, were well-established liturgical moments in the Christian year. At the end of the Middle Ages they were among the most important. The feast of All Saints’ and All Souls’ was one of the six days of obligation, marked by high masses and prayers. It was a holiday that affirmed the collective claims that the dead had on the living. Its requiem masses also served as insurance against hauntings, for ghosts were generally ‘understood to be dead relatives who visited their kin to rectify wrongs committed against them while alive and to enforce the obligations of kinship.’ As night fell and All Souls’ Day arrived, bells were also rung for the souls in purgatory. These were people who were in a spiritual suspension, in an intermediary space between heaven and hell, for whom prayers and penance could be made for their sins before the day of judgment. In preparation for Hallowtide, churches made sure that their bells were in good shape, for in some places they were rung all night to ward off demonic spirits. (Rogers)

Over time, other rituals were added to the celebration of the Mass. For instance, “In England, many churches purchased extra candles or torches for the ecclesiastical processions of Hallowtide. Bonfires were also built in graveyards to ward off malevolent spirits.”

After the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the rituals of Hallowtide in England came under attack from Protestants because of its association with the doctrines of purgatory, saints, and prayers for the dead. Reformers “denounced purgatory as a popish doctrine” and “deplored the idea that the living could influence the condition of the dead through their prayers and rejected the belief that the saints could function as intermediaries between humans and Christ.” A back-and-forth ensued for decades as Protestant leaders such as Thomas Cranmer tried to abolish Hallowtide rituals and Catholic leaders attempted to revive them.

By the end of Elizabeth’s reign, the official practices surrounding Hallowmass had been eliminated. Yet the more popular customs associated with the holiday did survive in some areas. . . [Around] 1783, Catholics continued to light fires on hilltops on All Saints’ Night. In the more remote areas of the Pennines there were torchlight ceremonies to commemorate the dead. At Whalley, in Lancashire, near the forest of Pendle, families formed a circle and prayed for the souls of the departed until the flames burned out…

If many of the religious customs associated with All Hallows and All Souls had died out by the middle of the seventeenth century, it is nonetheless clear the days were still regarded as a time of supernatural intensity. On Halloween, as it came to be known in the eighteenth century, ghosts, spirits, and witches were likely to be abroad. (Rogers)

Over time, Halloween traditions developed apart from any religious connotation, though the initial religious celebration influenced the developments. Rogers explains, “The diversity of names associated with Halloween did not connote the declining fortunes of the holiday. In Scotland, Ireland, and even in some of the remoter areas of England and Wales, Halloween was robustly observed throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. At the time of substantial Irish and Scottish immigration to North America, Halloween had a strong tradition of guising and pranks, a fundamental aura of supernatural intensity, and a set of games and rituals that often addressed the fortunes of love rather than the prospect of death, or life beyond death.”

There is a big difference between kids dressing up in cute costumes for candy and Mardi-Gras-like Halloween parties, offensive costumes, and uninhibited excess.

It is important to note that this secular account of the history of Halloween seeks to vindicate the holiday from its Satanic and barbaric origins. While it may be the case that the dark side of Halloween has been overemphasized, Christians will still want to affirm that the holiday originated (at least) in pagan and mythical practices. The extent to which such practices can be categories as “Satanic” is a debate of semantics. Is Roman mythology “Satanic”? Perhaps, or perhaps not. Regardless, the origin of Halloween is certainly in the realm of non-Christian spiritualism. As such, Christians should be thoughtful in their approach to Halloween.

Halloween for Christians

Halloween has an uneasy history with the church; Christians have not always been sure what to do with a holiday of apparently pagan origins. Is Halloween unredeemable, such that any Christian participating in the holiday will necessarily compromise their faith? Is it something Christians can participate in as a cultural celebration with no religious ramifications? Or is there the opportunity for Christians to emphasize certain aspects of our own faith within the holiday?

1. Should Christians Renounce Halloween as “the Devil’s Day”?

One of the most famous recent examples of Christian interaction with Halloween comes from Pat Robertson, who called Halloween the “festival of the Devil.” As such, he claimed that participating in Halloween was a mistake for Christians and therefore wrong.

In renouncing this holiday outright, Robertson fails to ask the following question: To what extent does something’s evolution from pagan roots entail that its present practice is tainted? As Albert Mohler notes, there has been a shift in Halloween from pagan ritual to merely commercial fascination with the dark side. What Pat Robertson misses is that for most people in America, Halloween is about candy. A quarter of all candy sold annually in the US is for Halloween night!

Granted, dressing up as witches and goblins can be a tricky issue, but to think that putting on a scary mask or makeup opens you up to the dark side is a bit naïve.

In addition, there are two built-in problems with a blanket rejection position. One is that those who insist on rejecting certain holidays are not being consistent. Should we reject other holidays because there is a propensity toward excess? In other words, if people are inclined toward gluttony on Thanksgiving or Christmas, shouldn’t those holidays be renounced as well? After all, gluttony is a sin. Second, many times the reject position assumes that the evil of the extrinsic world will taint the faith of a Christian. The idea is, “garbage in, garbage out.” But Jesus says the exact opposite is true (Mark 7:21-23). The fruit of our lives (whether in holiness or sin) is always inextricably tied to the root of our hearts. If our hearts are prone toward sin in certain ways, we will find a way to sin. Sin indeed corrupts but the sin is not so much “out there in the world” as much as it is in the heart of every person. The reject position falsely assumes sin is mostly what we do rather than who we are.

2. Can Christians Participate in Halloween Wisely?

The Christian church has tried to deal with Halloween in many ways throughout the centuries. It has been renounced as demonic and pagan, subsumed into (medieval) Christian ritual, and accepted unthinkingly as harmless fun.

An informed understanding of the history of Halloween and the biblical freedom Christians have to engage cultural practices (1 Cor. 10:23-33) leads to the conclusion that Christians can follow their conscience in choosing how to approach this holiday.

Just how Christians ought to go about relating to or participating in Halloween is still a tricky subject. In order to navigate the waters successfully, one must always distinguish between the merely cultural aspects of Halloween and the religious aspects of the holiday. In the past the church has tried to subsume the religious aspects of Halloween by adding a church holiday. But again, this is a questionable area. It seems that Christians can easily participate in (with wisdom) some cultural aspects of the holiday, and there is some potential for the pagan cultural practices to be enjoyed—but care must be taken. There is a big difference between kids dressing up in cute costumes for candy and Mardi-Gras-like Halloween parties, offensive costumes, and uninhibited excess. Therefore it’s naïve to make a blanket judgment to reject or accept  Halloween as a whole. There should be no pressure to participate, but for those Christians whose conscience permits we should view it as an opportunity to engage wisely with our culture.

For those who are still bothered by Halloween’s historical association with evil spirits, Martin Luther has some advice on how to respond to the devil: “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him for he cannot bear scorn.” Perhaps instead of fleeing the darkness in fear, we should view Halloween as an opportunity to mock the enemy whose power over us has been broken.

The post What Christians Should Know About Halloween appeared first on Key Life.

Halloween and Demons, and all that | Elizabeth Prata

Halloween and Demons, and all that

By Elizabeth Prata

Halloween is coming, a holiday that is impossible to ignore when you work in a public elementary school among the youngest of students, as I do. I have an abounding abhorrence to Halloween.

As a child, my particular dislikes involved costumes, makeup, mascots, noise, and chaos; so being among ALL of that was a trial for me. I also didn’t like approaching homes and talking to people. So, ditto. But I loved candy and running around outside with friends. Being allowed out after dark was thrilling too.

As a Christian adult, promoting a night of evil and buying into satan’s lies perplexes me. Some churches forgo the evening entirely and do nothing regarding a “Fall Festival” or “Harvest Fest,” while others change the name of their event from Halloween to ‘Hallelujah Fest’ and invite the community in for hot dogs and games as a Gospel outreach. I’ve wrestled with both sides of the argument: I hate satan…I love outreach.

However, since it is a question of Christian liberty, I try to do all as unto the Lord and not cause anyone to stumble, so I remain silent about my decisions and simply helped where I could and then bowed out where my conscience came in. Make your decisions thoughtfully and prayerfully, and remember not to become prideful about whatever you decide.

Here are a few balanced essays discussing the question of Christians celebrating Halloween.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Where Did Halloween Come From? Can a Christian celebrate it?

Christians and Halloween

Speaking of evil spirits, here is a terrific essay on demonology from Answers in Genesis. In American culture we are so sanitized, so scientific, such a high-falutin’ advanced First World country that even Christians find mention of demons or evil spirits distasteful. The subtle or not-so-subtle undercurrent to such discussions even in church is “Haven’t we gone beyond that?” Well, no. And certainly satan has not, either.

The opposite problem holds true as well. Churches, especially ones that are starting to absorb Charismatic doctrines, tend to attribute every negative thing to satan, as if he was hiding behind every tree and was the evil force behind everything from spilling your coffee to the paper cut on your finger. When the fact is, our own flesh is usually the cause of of our sins. Our flesh is always with us and our lusts are more normally the cause of sinning than demons are.

Here is a biblical view of satan in an excellent article by noted scholar C. Fred Dickason. Professor Dickason served on the faculty of the Moody Bible Institute for thirty-four years and is known as a biblical expert on angelology and demonology. It is hard to find a balanced and not nutty article on demonology! He presents the truth of satan’s influence, extent, and limits, while focusing on the grace of God and the hope we have in Jesus. I recommend the article.

Demons on a leash at Answers in Genesis by C. Fred Dickason
Demons are alive and active today, but we can rest in the reality of our Father’s gracious and powerful control.

He examines the following topics in the article:

Biblical Perspective on Satan’s Role
Demons Through the Ages
Demonic Activity in the World
Demonic Opposition to Believers
The Time of Satan’s Fall (and refuting the popular ‘Gap Theory’)
God’s Provision in Our Battle
God’s Sovereign Control
Our Authority in the Battle

As Halloween approaches evil is increasingly on the mind of the pagans and even the Christians. Our eyes are assaulted by movie posters lauding the latest graphic depiction of the underworld. Our eyes avert from the neighbor’s brutal yard art depicting scenes of evil, all in “celebration” of Halloween.

Our sensibilities may be assaulted by seeing yet another child absorbed into dallying with the occult, or simply enduring the abounding sin that Halloween seems to loose. Yet we take heart. Jesus has overcome the world.

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33). And the evil within it.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

He made a spectacle of those unholy angels AKA demons in His triumph of the cross!

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15)