Yes. Dressing up as 'Captain America' and eating candy can only lead to devil worshipping and eating babies.
But he'll burn in hell for it while you bask in your self-righteousness.
Posted on 10/30/2016 11:06:02 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
I received an email this week from Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church.
“Halloween,” he said, “is a huge opportunity … to be a light for Christ on a dark night.” Indeed, he explained, “you’ll have the MOST contact with families in your community than any other day of the year.”
So Pastor Rick asked members of the Southern California megachurch to do the following for Halloween:
Buy a package of the biggest candy bars we can find and tape “Trick-or-Treat invitations” to next weekend’s services at Saddleback. And stay home on Halloween night and turn on the lights so kids know they are welcome to drop by.
Now I appreciate that Pastor Rick is trying to reach out to the saved and un-churched in the communities in which his members reside.
But I am reminded of the words of Aldous Huxley, who famously authored “Brave New World” but who also less-famously authored a collection of essays on the religious experience:
“We know,” he wrote, “that the pursuit of good ends does not justify the employment of bad means.”
Indeed, using Halloween, a day on which the devil is exalted, to win the lost to Christ runs contrary to the word of God.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul warned that Christ followers must “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
The annual observance of Halloween is an unfruitful work of darkness.
And rather than participate in such unholiness – much like the Hebrews during the time of Moses who prostrated themselves before a golden calf – the redeemed of the Lord should expose Halloween for what it is – an affront to God.
It owes its origin to the Celtic druids, who celebrated their new year (Samhain) on November 1, when the pagans believed the souls of the dead, as well as witches and demons, freely roamed the earth.
In the Eighth Century, Pope Gregory III declared November 1 All Hallows Day, an annual commemoration of saints and martyrs that effectively co-opted Samhain. October 31 came to be known as All Hallows Eve, which is celebrated today as Halloween, with the same unGodly influences as the pagan celebrations of Samhain nearly two millennia ago.
Halloween celebrates occult practices the Bible declares abominations – séances, necromancy, fortune-telling, casting of spells, wearing of charms, real magic, etc. It also is a day of adoration of the demonic – witches, vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts and the like.
Many, if not most of us who consider ourselves Christ followers think Halloween is harmless. That’s because the works of darkness associated with Halloween have been mainstreamed (like other cultural abominations).
Indeed, Walmart is selling a “Smoldering Devil Boys Halloween Costume.” Amazon is selling a “Bride of Satan Child Costume.”
That’s why, as much as I respect Pastor Rick, I will take a pass on his Halloween outreach tomorrow. This Christ follower will not be complicit in furthering the works of darkness.
!
Christian Diarist is right. Halloween is not a holiday for Christians to be celebrating, and those of you who say it is, and react with moral outrage over someone pointing that out, aren’t speaking in agreement with the Lord, but against Him.
The New Testament makes clear that God doesn’t promise Christians fun. Nowhere does He promise that. In fact, He promises persecutions and the loss of all worldly things.
But in today’s world and today’s America, the New Testament is something to be picked through and most of it left.
Only when it is easy for someone to obey the Lord is that passage acceptable to the church of Laodicea, which is the state of the church here and now. Any passage that actually involves choosing to die to self and choosing to pick up one’s cross and follow Jesus is treated like the word of Satan rather than the Word of God by this church.
And that is why there is truly passion and excitement in the church in America over something like the next season of “The Walking Dead” or “Game of Thrones” but not over the Lord and the matters of His heart. Truly, most of the church in America is absolutely apostate, and the matters of God’s heart aren’t even known to it, much less matter to it. God’s Word passes cleanly through this church and this church isn’t aware of it.
This church is happy to think it can be a taker from God and then offer up its leftovers to Him in return. In its heart of hearts, it has no desire to serve Him. Serving God to this church isn’t the fulfillment of one’s soul and a joy, but a curse and a hated burden.
This church has been given so much but has only complaints. Even its praise and thanksgiving are self-deception and merely for itself. It sees all the physical suffering and poverty in the world and has no humility and isn’t chastened by it. To the contrary, it says it is always a victim and hasn’t gotten anywhere near all the good things it deserves. The word of God delivered to it through Paul, that Godliness with contentment is great gain, and that believers should be satisfied with food and clothing, are rejected by it as an evil thing.
This church has the haughty spirit of Babylon, and as the Spirit revealed through John in Revelation, it says in its heart that it is a queen and no widow, and will see no sorrow.
This church has closed its spiritual eyes to whatever it doesn’t want to see and curses the command to open its eyes. It has refused to turn over all to the Lord in submission and to pray to Him “but not our will but Yours be done.” It absolutely refuses to humble itself before God,
This church, rather than submitting to God’s will and serving in the work of Christ to “destroy the works of the devil,” instead works for the devil and helps to destroy the work of Christ. This church believes if it calls out unbelievers as those who are opposing God and working against Him, that’s enough, when this church itself increases the evil in the world and believes God doesn’t see or doesn’t care, and it won’t be called to account.
This church has rented God’s vineyard, and wants to live off His fruits while eating up the entire fruits of it and refusing to give the Lord His due portion. This church won’t have Christ to rule over it, but hates Him. God’s words of warning in the Bible addressed to believers are to this church foolishness and fear of Him is evil.
This church isn’t worthy of the Lord’s blood shed for it, and all the saints whose blood have been shed, so that God could offer us His mercy, wipe away our sins against Him, and that it could hear this Gospel. Every word in the Bible that describes worldliness and willful disobedience to God aptly describes it. It is an enemy of the cross of Christ, and won’t endure sound doctrine but heaps to itself teachers who tell it what it wants to hear because it has itching ears. To those who remind it of the Lord’s will for it, it slanders them as evildoers. Repentance is far from it. The fruits of the evil of disobedience to God are all around it, yet the more of this fruit that appears, the less it recognizes the evil of it.
If this church really believed that God has saved those within it from an eternal fate like those who were trapped in the burning buildings in New York City on 9/11, then it would care more about those still trapped there, and not have as its first thought how it can satisfy itself with its next worldly pleasure or next session of drunkenness. It would want to be at the ready at all times rather than unready as much as it believes it can get away with.
By the Spirit of God, which He gives to all who really want it, it is obvious that people celebrating death by purchasing fake grave stones is satanic and demonic deception, as is wearing skeletons on one’s clothing and dressing one’s children in such skeletons. It is obvious that it isn’t God’s will to embrace death and be merry over it. God’s Word says, “Woe to him who calls evil good, and good evil.” Unbelievers and babes in Christ can quite easily be deceived on good and evil, but this church willfully embraces deception.
What unbelievers and the confused of the world need is loving attention from Christians, not for Christians to get drunk with them and commit immorality and declare it all to be good.
This church is content to let evil multiply and condemn unbelievers for causing the evil, and to say only God can stop it, and that God’s will will prevail, so whatever it does can neither help nor hurt. It is content to say of evil and rebellion in the world, “isn’t that terrible, and God will hold the unbelievers accountable for all the evil they do, but there’s nothing I can do to change anything, and it is God’s will for the world to reject Him, so I’m going to live my life as I like and enjoy things, and God wants me to be happy so that means ignoring a lot of what’s in His Word.” As long as this church professes belief in Christ, that’s all that matters and it can do as it likes, and declare to be good what it likes, and reject God’s Word as it sees fit. All the lessons in the Bible that demonstrate how God has dealt with people who have chosen to believe that are idle tales to this church.
This church ignores to its own peril that the evils it justifies are sins that have consequences, including the dulling of the conscience towards God, the conscience which even serves unbelievers to keep them from transgressing as much as they otherwise would, and perhaps prepares them for believing on Christ as their Savior. But to this church, the salvation of other souls is one of the many things of God that are a very light thing in its eyes. And the Word of God is also such a light thing to it that it believes it has the authority to overturn it according to its whims and desires.
This church would have the consciences of all people dulled to the fullest, increasing sin and evil, putting unbelievers further from God, making believers unfit for serving Him and discontented and confused in following Him, and some turning away from Him, for the sake of its fun. It sacrifices its witness to the world, and the souls of others, including the souls of its own children, for the sake of its fun. While believers have suffered the loss of all throughout the ages as the will of God for them, this church refuses to suffer the loss of its sins but declares itself righteous in God’s eyes.
This church chooses to be unfit rather than fit to serve God, and to know and love the world rather than to know and love Him, and to refuse the Lord’s guidance and correction which would turn its heart back to Him.
The blood of Abel cried out to the Lord, and the blood of all the saints shed from the beginning of this world cries out to Him as well. This church is guilty of shedding that innocent blood, and God will repay it.
Now all that said, it is possible for Christians to participate in Halloween without being unfaithful to the Lord, but being faithful to Him must be the first and last thought. That means doing work that makes it real evangelism, and not just using evangelism and being an ambassador for Christ as an excuse. The church with the spirit of Laodicea is a social club that can draw in new members, but that drawing in isn’t evangelism.
Being faithful to the Lord while participating in Halloween also means exposing and not denying and defending all the evils in it, and not attacking Christians for exposing those evils. If a Christian expects to have some people knocking at their door on Halloween, they could avoid all the death and occult-themed decorations and perhaps have up some Christmas decorations that declare joy over the birth of the Lord. Show love, joy and generosity to whomever shows up. Give out candy without Halloween-themed wrappers and show good will to the adults.
Since we are all lost and in Satan’s throes without the grace of God, there is no reason to be reproachful about people celebrating Halloween, but a Christian might show those who seek to nourish their souls with what Satan has to offer, because they know of nothing better, that there is something that is actually good and that will truly satisfy them.
But given the nature of Halloween, it is also possible for Christians to decline to participate, but still to show grace and be salt and light to the lost who do.
Wow I’m convinced!
And do you celebrate that pagan holiday that occurs in December?
#1 Evangelical Holiday and we don’t even celebrate it
“Christian Diarist is right. Halloween is not a holiday for Christians to be celebrating”
No “celebration” involved.
Just a holiday to have fun and let kids dress up and have treats.
Any more than that and *you* are making up things about people’s motives.
Let Satan accuse the brethren. He doesn’t need help.
No he’s not. He’s completely full of crap. And so are you. It’s a sad subsection of Christianity that seems to think the only reasons parties exist is so they can poop on them.
You know only about 5% of the population watches Walking Dead right? Even less for Game of Thrones. Many many more people go to church. Of course if church isn’t generating passion and excitement it’s probably because killjoys have beaten all of the passion and excitement out of it.
Read what I wrote more carefully.
If the focus is truly on the Lord, then a Christian can participate in Halloween and celebrate Christmas.
Participate, I would say, in Halloween because it is about death, which is the reason why in our society today it is growing every more dark as well as very popular with adults.
Christmas, on the other hand, can be celebrated.
As Christians, our life is about working for God, not against Him. It’s funny how it’s clear that if you work for the United States government patriotically during the day but are a traitor to it off the clock, that wouldn’t be all right. But in the church of the Laodicean spirit, if one “works” for God by day, then God and His will can be forgotten about on “one’s own time.”
Our work is to be lights in this world, and that work will bring us true joy and fulfillment, not the empty satisfaction that leaves a spiritual hangover which the world has to offer.
So we certainly can celebrate the Lord’s birth, which is recorded in Scripture. How many hearts are touched by it, with even atheists saying it has some draw for them?
The differences between what Christmas, when the Lord’s birth is the source of its joy, and what Halloween celebrate are quite plain.
One writer’s opinion.
Eve to “All Saints Day.”
Yes, to all you said.
I celebrate All Hallowed Eve of the Church. Praying for the faithful departed and asking their intercession for the Church Militant on earth. I am Catholic, and that decadent man would pervert things of the Church, one at a time, is no of no surprise to me, but I press on and keep the faith and the practices of old.
In the 80’s there was an undercover investigation of Satanists sacrificing babies in my area. Women would become impregnated, not report their pregnancies, and their babies became sacrifices.
Halloween is not happy.
We’ll see who is accusing the brethren in the spirit of Satan.
The most evil things which God hates are fully embraced and celebrated by our society today, which is offering Satan clubs to children in school buildings.
But again, as long as some Christians can make Halloween something for themselves in their own personal interpretation, they will ignore what it is for others as if that’s none of their business, and God hasn’t called them to care about what Halloween is for the lost.
You say, for instance, that it’s “for the children.” But given the passion of its adult defenders, it is also seems for adults somehow, and in fact you most likely know or can observe that Halloween has become huge with adults. Are you aware of that? And if so, why do you ignore that fact then?
While deceiving people with offers of freedom, Satan convinces people that somehow it’s good fun to do things like put out tombstones for each member of the family, a couple of big ones for the parents, and some small ones for the children. Or that it’s good fun to put up a “zombie” baby or bloody murder scenes.
There is spiritual bondage in that, with darkness and despair on the other side of the merriment, and as Christians we know Who can break that bondage, but those Christians who first refuse to see the problem for the sake of zealously preserving their own fun won’t even think about how to present the solution of Christ to those caught in that spiritual slavery.
.
The pews should be empty.
The nicolaitan that stands at the pulpit preaches nonsense as though it were the word of Yehova.
The kid is going to hell, not for how he is dressed, but for the lies the churchians have taught him to live by.
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It's you bro.
Just. Stop. It.
Most of that was debunked
Yes. Dressing up as 'Captain America' and eating candy can only lead to devil worshipping and eating babies.
But he'll burn in hell for it while you bask in your self-righteousness.
Celebrate by going to church on All Hallows Eve. Have your children dress up as a saint.
quote-The differences between what Christmas, when the Lord’s birth is the source of its joy, and what Halloween celebrate are quite plain.
Based on His Creation and His Word, The Word became flesh when the sun clothed the woman and the moon was under her feet.(revelation 12:1)
That sign could have been seen on September 26,2014, October 14, 2015 or October 3 2016.
Each of those days represent a ‘day’ the Father gave to Israel to set apart each month-
A day where the temple was to be open and banquets were held and markets were closed.
and that ‘sign’ is nowhere near December 25. And with study, one can know where that sign was 2,000 years ago (not where it sits today in His heavens- it has moved)
But December 25 fits Rome’s calendar- so does their commemoration of His circumcision on January 1st- and their commemoration of Him being presented in the temple on GroundHog day- feb 2nd.
Amazing what His Word and His Creation can tell us-
8 days after those days would have been the 7th Day Sabbath, according to scripture- when the Word was circumcised. and 40 days from His birth, The Word was presented in the tomb on the 10th Day of the 7th Month- the Holy Sabbath of Day of Atonement.
Almost impossible to tell the difference between Truth according to His Word and His Creation and the world’s times and laws today.
prophetic!
imagine how fast babylon falls when its holy days become weak and beggerly..
Well, when some little princess asking for candy can sake your beliefs, you don’t have any.
sake=shake.
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