Should Christians participate in Halloween? A Christian perspective
It’s an age old question- well, maybe not that old; but at least as old as medieval days, when Christians began debating whether or not they should participate in Halloween. The question surrounding Halloween is one that is very perplexing to many Christians and the more one traces the roots of Halloween, especially when it’s realized that the holiday has its roots in Samhain, many Christians feel as if the worst thing they could do would be to participate in this feast of the dead and devils.
To some Christians, you may as well be asking them to sacrifice their children to satan himself be merely suggesting they don scary costumes and ask neighbors for candy. Other Christians feel the pressure from other believers not to participate in the celebration. Many churches try to compensate for the holiday by having their own celebrations. The best of these, undoubtedly, is the Halloween/Hallelujah night.
One of the most interesting fact surrounding Halloween and Christianity is that the Catholic Church pretty much addressed this issue when it went and took all the secular holidays and turned them into religious holy days. Take your pick, fellow brother and sister- Easter, Christmas and Halloween were all mixed with Christianity and paganism in order to appease the Catholic Church. On Halloween, the Catholic Church, as some Anglican churches are celebrating “All Saint’s Day” which begins on November 1st. Christians that decide not to participate in Halloween due to its occultic origins may want to take a look at all the things that life presents us that has its roots in either the occult or things not pertaining to Christianity.
Take a look at the names of the days of the week or the months of the year? January was named for the Roman god “Janus,” should all Christians rise up and protest the naming of the months due to their mythological origins? Does Jesus hold Christians to a strict standard of legalistic dos and don’ts or does He look upon the heart?
Does Jesus object to Christians trick or treating if they do it in fun, or is having any part of an “occultic” celebration equate the believer with a sinful lifestyle?
There are many Christians who use Halloween as an opportunity for evangelizing and witnessing; but it must be asked if the house down the street with the tracts instead of candy are really presenting the gospel in a palatable way to the unsaved. Please folks, if you’re going to hand out a tract, please put some candy with it, or else you run the risk of scaring all the children in the neighborhood away from Jesus for good.
There’s no doubt that Halloween has its roots in the occult, and there’s no question that many who practice black arts will cast spells and practice divination on this day. But that doesn’t mean that Christians can’t present the gospel of Jesus Christ in a fun, entertaining and loving manner that doesn’t terrify children or leaving them begging for fun.
If you’re going to host a Hallelujah night or a Halloween alternative, please do your best to make certain it is better than what is going on outside. If Christians drop the ball when it comes to kids, there’s a good chance they will lose them for the Lord forever.
And if that happens- guess who wins.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
You were doing so well, great even, until you buckled and said go ahead and celebrate Halloween. People of all ages need to know that you either stand for Christ or you don’t. You don’t put one foot for Christ and the other for Satan. You can’t serve 2 masters as it says in the bible. You only serve 1.If your kids can’t accept Jesus without being bribed with candy, and it frightens them ( why?)then some adult is not teaching them good from bad, and why it’s important to know the difference. Will you lose your soul for candy.As you pointed out, you know it’s pagan worship. As most holidays are. Stop straying from the truth. You know what’s right.
Hi Shirley,
Thanks so much for the comment and I value your opinion, truly I do. My point is more of when do we as Christians stop. If we don’t celebrate Halloween due to its pagan history, do we put up a Christmas tree? Do we celebrate Christmas when Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 but most likely in April? If the pagan roots of Halloween is enough to make us choose between two masters then what about Christmas? Or, do we say with Christmas that it’s our “heart” that counts and what we are focusing on.
I choose between two masters daily- and I choose Jesus. I live in a world that is steeped in paganism and other religions. I don’t believe that “trick or treating” makes you a satanist and I don’t believe a Christmas tree (Saturnalia, pagan and wiccan origins, mistletoe, etc.) makes me a practitioner of wicca.
Also, I believe that if Christians are going to take a stand and ban Halloween by believing their children will be led like lambs to satan’s slaughter, then they better have a pretty good alternative. Or else they’re presenting God as a mean scrooge that hates candy.
[...] Anúncio OnlineHotel document.getElementById("oh_ads_657").style.display = "none"; Origem: http://primewriter.com/news-1246-headlines/2011/10/16/should-christians-participate-in-halloween-a-c... There are many Christians who use Halloween as an opportunity for evangelizing and witnessing; but [...]