Exposing Halloween

What Is Halloween?

In the book entitled, The Facts on Halloween.

The research that was found revealed.

In AD 835, Pope Gregory IV designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day (the term hallow refers to saints). The night before November 1, October 31, was known as All Hallows’ Evening. How did we get the term Halloween? Look at the name “All Hallows’ Evening.” If we drop the word “all,” the “s” on Hallows’, and the “v” and “ing” on evening, the result spells Halloween.

Long before the church gave this name to the evening before All Saints’ Day (a celebration in remembrance of saints and martyred saints), it had been celebrated in various ways in many places around the world. The book Every Day’s a Holiday accurately observes that Halloween “probably combines more folk customs the world around than will ever be sorted out, catalogued and traced to their sources.”

It is generally agreed by historians that Halloween came to take the place of a special day celebrated by the ancient Druids. The Druids were the educated or priestly class of the Celtic religion. The Celts themselves were the first Aryan people who came from Asia to settle in Europe.

The Celts taught that on their New Year’s Eve (our Halloween) ghosts, evil spirits, and witches roamed the earth. In order to honor the sun god (Belenus) and to frighten away evil spirits who allegedly feared fire, large bonfires were lit on hilltops.

For the most part, our modern Halloween appears to trace its initial origin to the practices of the ancient Druids at their winter festival on October 31.

It’s not just about the origin of the holiday that makes it wrong, it’s because it literally promotes and praises darkness!

Talk about all of the crazy rituals that take place on Halloween!

And over 85% of people in America celebrate every year!

Can Halloween be an entirely innocent practice? [King Manasseh of Judah] practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger (2 Chronicles 33:6).

The Genesis 3 Worldview:

The enemy tries to make sin look innocent.

The enemy wants to portray Halloween to be a harmless and innocent day for your kids.

Why? Because he wants to trap them early.

And parents are often giving their kids over to Satan and the forces of darkness without even realizing it.

So is wearing customs ok for halloween?

Talk about the little mermaid and customs.

And black panther.

There is a lot of symbolism to witchcraft and satanism.

Let’s look at Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:4–7 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Did you catch it is verse 7!?

The put on clothes!

Their identity was changed!

That’s exactly what the devil wants to do to you!

Especially on Halloween!

Halloween traditions often involve fruit centerpieces, apples, and nuts. Three of the sacred fruits of the Celts were acorns, apples, and nuts, especially the hazelnut, considered a god, and the acorn, sacred from its association to the oak. Fruits and nuts also seem to be related to the Roman harvest feast of Pomona, apparently the goddess of fruit. For example, in ancient Rome, cider was drawn and the Romans bobbed for apples, which was part of a divination that supposedly helped a person discover their future marriage partner.

He not only wants your soul, but he wants your identity!

He also wants your worship.

The deep rooted behind the sin of Halloween is essentially idolatry.

Samhain

Samhain was also a festival of the dead, whose spirits at this season were thought of as scouring the countryside, causing dread to the folk at large.

To expel them from the fields and the precincts of villages, lighted brands from the bonfire were carried around the district…Divinations for the fate of the individual throughout the new year were engaged in.

On this night, evil or frustrated ghosts were also believed to play tricks on humans and cause supernatural manifestations, just like poltergeists today. As part of the celebration, people dressed in grotesque masks and danced around the great bonfires, often pretending they were being pursued by evil spirits.

In addition, food was put out to make the ghosts or souls of the good dead Samhain had released feel welcomed and at home. Because Samhain marked the beginning of a new year, an interest in divination (the magic art of interpreting the unknown by interpreting random patterns or symbols) and fortune-telling became an important part of this holiday.For example, the Druids believed that the particular shape of various fruits and vegetables could help predict, or divine, the future. Victims of human sacrifice were used for the same purpose. When the Romans conquered Britain, some of their customs were added to the traditions of the Druids, while others, such as human sacrifice, were banned.

In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic Festival of Samhain was observed on October 31, at the end of summer…. The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day and the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, goblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature. In addition, Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divinations concerning marriage, luck, health, and death. It was the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.

In spite of the historical evidence for the origin of Halloween practices, Halloween today is assumed to be an innocent time for most children. However, it is a very serious observance for many witches, neopagans, and other similar religious groups. Before we proceed, it should be noted that the historic and contemporary spiritual associations to Halloween have produced something of a crossover effect to the larger society so that in some instances even the observance of Halloween is not a seemingly innocent practice. In reading through various histories of Halloween, it is surprising to notice the large number of superstitions and divination practices involved. There can be no doubt that many of these practices and beliefs can be directly related to the practices of pagan religions.

Pagan beliefs and superstitions may regulate or control a person’s life in unhealthy ways. True divination almost always brings harmful consequences.* Since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Halloween has been regarded as a time “for working charms, spells, and divinations.”

Deuteronomy 18:10–12 ESV

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Further, Halloween has also become a common day for children to use a Ouija board or another device for divining in an attempt to contact the ghosts and spirits that are believed to be roaming the earth. Yet Ouija boards are biblically forbidden and anything but an innocent pastime. They can lead to serious psychological and spiritual consequences, including spirit-possession.*

Two Snakes

Exodus 7:8–13 ESV

8 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” 10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. 11 Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. 12 For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament), Volume 1 (First Demonstration of Power (6:28–7:13)

It became a snake (7:10). The Hebrew word for “snake” in this verse is different from the one used in 4:3. The word here can refer to a sea-monster, dragon, crocodile, or snake.

The purpose of this event is also different. The sign with Moses’ staff was for the Israelite elders. They saw it and, initially, believed Moses (4:30–31).

The sign with Aaron’s staff is for Pharaoh and his officials and demonstrates what appears to be an assault on Egyptian ideology. If Aaron’s staff did indeed become a snake, then its devouring of the magicians’ snakes, on the one hand, demonstrates an overpowering of the magicians and even a commandeering of their own abilities and expertise.

On the other hand, it could also serve as an attack on the snake as a symbol of Egyptian power. It is hard to know, though, whether Aaron’s staff was supposed to become a snake that the Egyptians feared and despised or one that they worshiped.

In either case, the narrative describes the actions of Moses and Aaron as an emphatic display of power. This snake standing upright is reminiscent of the staffs that became serpents.

The Hebrew term for “magicians” appears related to an Egyptian word often used to refer to theological specialists in ancient Egypt, who studied their culture’s sacred literature and knew an array of secret charms, spells, and rituals. They were often said to be associated with the “House of Life,” a special section in some Egyptian temples that housed ritual and magic texts said to be inspired by the sun god.

They were the heavy hitters, so to speak. Magical wands are also known from ancient Egypt, used mainly to ward off evil power and illness.

Micah 7:15–17 (ESV) - As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things. The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf; they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.

7:15. The phrase “in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt.”

The periods of the exodus, wilderness wanderings, and conquest of the promised land were filled with a number of miracles performed by Yahweh on behalf of His people

Plagues on Egypt, crossing of the Red Sea, manna and water in the wilderness, crossing of the Jordan River, walls of Jericho falling down, sun standing still, etc.

7:17 They will lick the dust like the serpent This phrase utilizes synonymous parallelism.

2 Timothy 3:8 (ESV)

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.