Is Halloween Christian, and should Christians celebrate it? Is Halloween innocent because we watered it down? Are costumes fine to partake in? Is Halloween fine because parents can make good memories with the children? Do any of these reasons that they use to justify Halloween sound good?
First of all, I want to make this clear, I am not coming at this as a Methodist, Baptist, or Protestant. I am coming at this from the Biblical worldview, looking at pages, studies, and various verses of the Old Testament and New Testament. I also come with major research on the religions of paganism and other cultures of today’s society, and before Christ. I know many religions and practices that many Christians have watered down and have accepted into the church that originated from pagan rituals or practices. Many Christians believe it’s just a night full of candy games, trick-or-treating, pumpkins, ghosts, and let’s not forget death. This is all correct except for the whole thing of it being an American holiday, but there is much more to be added to this. So, let’s look at all the claims being made and let’s go over all of them and uncover the truth. When it comes to Halloween, by a simple search, we find that it was called Samhain.
This holiday originated about 1900 years ago in England, where major pagan practices were practiced. This is also now known as the areas of Ireland and northern France. The history of Halloween can become very confusing, so looking at the right places can help. So, let’s look at many topics on this holy day. And just to warn everyone, this is going to either offend or inform you. But remain open-minded as the Bible commands us in Proverbs 4:23 “to keep your heart with all Vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” If this holiday is truly occult and pagan, then we need to be open to the fact that we should rebuke it. Put away all your human traditions and your feelings, since Jeremiah tells us that the heart is the most deceitful above all things, and come with an open heart to uncover the truth about what Halloween is and if we should be celebrating it as a church.
So when we look at scripture, we see that God does not speak highly about pagan practices or any form of it, and it’s clear that even the slightest copy of it is considered taking its practices. This topic was so important and evil that if a witch was found among the Israelites, they were to be put to death for taking part in this witchcraft to death. We see in Exodus 22:18 when it reads, “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Let’s be clear here. Many people will claim that it doesn’t apply today. But we’re going to continue to read Old Testament verses and compare them to New Testament verses, also. The reason for comparing the verses from the Old Testament and New Testament we are going to find out what Christ says about witchcraft in both the Old and New Testaments. It is no different. He feels the same about it in the Old Testament, and the only difference we will find is that the death penalty does not apply now in the New Testament, since we are under a new covenant. The only time that the death penalty comes into play is when we go to judgment, if you take someone's life. Let’s go to a New Testament verse, Galatians 5:19-21, which reads “now the works of the flesh or manifest (or in some verses, it says obviously) which are these adultery fornication, uncleanness sexual immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissenting factions and Envy drunkenness orgies and the lake. I warned you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Proverbs 4:23
Exodus 22:18
Galatians 5:19-21
When we look at the Old Testament now, we see the same thing in Deuteronomy 18:19, when it reads, “when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one before you practice divination or sorcery, interpret omens, engage in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a medium or spirits, or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, because of the same and detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out these nations.” Now let’s look at revelations. Revelation 21:8 reads this, “but the fearful and believing and the abominable the murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars she’ll have the part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death.”
In Revelation 22:15, we also read this. “For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and idolaters and whoever loves to lie.”
It’s important to remember again that those that practiced witchcraft in the Old Testament was to be put to death by stoning. In other words, capital punishment. What we see now in the New Testament is hell or the second death when we die and get judged according to 2 Corinthians 5:8-10. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, that all will face judgment. Nothing has changed. You just have more time to see your sin and repent. To turn from your sin, to turn from witchcraft, etc. Back in the Old Testament, one way of inviting spirits was using illicit drugs, but not always when it comes to pagan practices in witches and warlocks. We can also see them either praying over objects or rituals being done to attach a spirit to an object or a person. Many churches and Christians say it’s all fake and doesn’t happen anymore. I would like to ask this. Is spiritual warfare irrelevant? Or does anything spiritual today mean anything? Scripture makes it clear in Ephesians 6:12 where it tells us that we “struggle not against flesh and blood, but the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” I hope Christians agree with this. But here’s the thing, even if witchcraft is evil and spiritual, many Christians still partake in activities that are considered “evil in the heavenly realm.” So, is it OK to practice horoscopes then? What about the Ouija boards? What about meditation and clearing the mind? What about the positions you sit in during Yoga to imitate Hindu gods of death and destruction? What if we take these practices that are evil at their core and call them a different name or change their look in style? What are we taking black magic and calling it white magic? Does changing the name do anything? Does dressing up as a “superhero,” or a character in Disney that represents a goddess of prostitution and fertility. the fact is that it’s based on actual gods or goddesses who were worshiped and murdered people according to tradition? It doesn’t. You are dressing up as a false God, which resembles murder and death, or prostitution. All of this does not change anything because it’s in a childish form. The connection that comes spiritually when you dress up or partake in any form of witchcraft, you now form a connection to the demonic realm, which is the spiritual principalities and is known as “evil.”
Let me bring up an example that one of my favorite ex-Satanists, John Ramirez, mentions: “Why are we cheating on God?” And when you think about that, you are going to witchcraft and highly satanic Celtic holidays where their practices are from the beginning of the time of pagan witchcraft. And then you go back to church and ask for forgiveness.
Deuteronomy 18:19
Revelation 21:8
Revelation 22:15
2 Corinthians 5:8-10
Ephesians 6:12
The Bible is clear that we cannot serve two masters. In Matthew 6:24, we read, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
You are going from witchcraft and then going back to God. You spend money to support a holy day that is demonic and towards the demonic at its core. Does this make sense at all? Witchcraft is a form of idolatry. And in scripture, idolatry is putting something before God. Therefore, you are serving that master instead of Christ. Even Pokémon is a form of witchcraft; it’s a form in which you call out specific demons, and just in case you don’t know, Pokémon means tiny demons. You call them out and fight other spiritual beings. These entities have powers that revolve around the natural and spiritual forces of this world. You have to memorize commands and call-outs to activate these beings. The special abilities that come with each identity or deity, you then use against your opponent. This is witchcraft & sorcery. And it’s all an abomination against a holy God.
So what is the spiritual connection between costumes and the occult?
Many people strongly disagree on this topic when it comes to Halloween. People like to back up their claims with “my child doesn’t know that,” or “my child is innocent,” or “wearing costumes creates great memories,” or “where is the harm in wearing a costume of a hero or Iron Man?” Parents! If you are arguing based on your heart, you're automatically showing that you don’t care what is right in the sight of God. Let’s be clear. The job of a parent is what? It’s mentioned in Proverbs 22:6, which reads “Train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." As leaders of the church, we should be watching over the children to make sure they are not getting involved in something detestable to the Lord. We should be warning our children what that is. It’s idolatry! There is nothing wrong with wearing a teddy bear, dinosaur, Iron Man, or a princess costume; what we are talking about is wearing it to celebrate or partake in Halloween. Is it wrong to have a party celebrating graduation and having a costume contest? No! What about birthdays? No! What about a game night with costumes? No! We are talking about picking up traditions solely for the purpose and the basis of celebrating a demonic holiday. And if the practice for that holiday can be traced to the Celtic Holy Days of the dead to properly partake in it, then there is a spiritual connection made with that tradition. Participating or mimicking it is no different than actually celebrating it. Many pastors like to bring this verse up when Paul was talking about buying meat sacrificed to Gods from a market in 1 Corinthians 8.
Here’s the argument that pastors make with 1 Corinthians 8 that because the meat was sacrificed towards false idols and we are told that we can still eat it, it means that even though Halloween was originally pagan, we can take it and make it for Christ. Let’s look at this verse in full context:
1. The food that was sacrificed is food that God made originally on the 6th day, along with mankind. So the animals always belonged to the lord, never to Satan or pagans.
2. This passage is about food and idols. Eating food is not bad, obviously. Idols are nothing more than objects that can not speak. Those people feared that objects could hurt them, or that food that was sacrificed would hurt them. The food itself is harmless unless you eat too much, where scripture tells us that gluttony is a sin. Eating is not a sin, but getting fat is.
3. There is a difference in buying meat for food and buying meat to sacrifice to a false god. Purchasing a costume to wear is one thing, buying a costume to partake in an occult holy day is another.
So, wearing a costume is not a sin, but wearing it to partake in a highly satanic holiday is. Again, I say costumes are nothing more than clothes, but partaking in a ritual or occult practices is evil and detestable to the lord. Many people argue that because it’s not said in full detail in scripture, we shouldn’t argue about it. But what they don’t understand is that it’s a self-defeating statement to say “because it’s not in scripture”. After all, they will look into history and context outside of scripture to understand what certain scriptures mean and what was happening during the time to get a full understanding of the verse. In this case, I am researching what “mimicking and "copying" the practices of the nations” means in Jeremiah 10:2 or in Deuteronomy 12:30, where it tells us to “not be ensnared by their ways,” what ways? What practices? And what made them detestable to the lord? And if practicing these ways makes you detestable, and Christ in Revelation tells us that “idolaters and sorcerers will partake in the lake of fire,” and in Galatians 5:19 we are told “those who practice sorcery will not inherit the kingdom of God,” would you not want to copy what those nations and pagans were doing? Costumes, where does the idea of wearing “costumes” for Halloween or the Day of the Dead come from? It “started” with the Celts. The holiday, not the practices, though. This holy day, Halloween, came about among the Celts about 2000 years ago. The area in which Halloween originated is now known as Ireland. If you searched the history of Ireland, you would find a rich history and witchcraft and pagan traditions. On November 1st, this marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, a time of year which was associated with human death according to not only the Celts but major pagan religions. These people believe that on the night before a new year, the separation of the two worlds, spiritual and physical, was broken, and you can now make connections to the other side. On October 31, the day before November 1, the dead returned to earth. The witches and prophets would receive prophecies (during the time that spirits were wandering) to know what was going to happen during the winter and the future. Costumes came into play when the spirits came out. It was to confuse the spirits that they were or have been possessed. What people wore tended to be animal skins or common. And by dressing up, they also made it so that the pagans would impersonate their dead ancestors. Now in America, we dress up to impersonate gods, goddesses, dead people, witches, warlocks, pagans, mythology, Harry Potter, and much more. The Celts and many pagan sects wore these costumes even after making animal sacrifices to their gods. So imagine being covered in blood and then going to the house, exchanging for food and drinks.
They would leave food and drinks outside of their homes as an offering to the spirits that were roaming around at night. If I am correct, what we do in America is no different from what the pagans do. We leave candy, food, drinks, and much more at the front of our houses. We dress up as different characters, which I mentioned just a second ago. And I guarantee again many of these costumes are gods of other mythologies and religions, or have to do with pigeon witchcraft. We all do this in the name of fun and good memories.
So let me put it this way, Christian families are dressing up as Pokémon and demons and demonic characters, Thor and many other false gods mythology and religious beliefs dressing up as witches, warlocks and characters of magic the gathering they are dressing up as death itself the Grim Reaper then go to door-to-door to get snacks and drinks unknowingly doing so participating in a ritual. The ancient practice was done by pagans in the Celts.
I have to agree with the founder of the Satanic church, Anton LaVey, a Satanic priest. He said, “I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year, welcome to Halloween.” Anton LeVay also stated that when you partake and dress up, you are allowing Satan to own you. Owing to you, in the way that it now has spiritual ties to you and your family. And those connections where those spirits or that curse are made unknowingly. And if you’ve studied curses, then you wouldn’t know that until the curse is renounced and broken, it remains. It’s funny to think that Christians, when we are told that we do not fight against flesh and bone but spiritual principalities, the Christians are the ones who do not take it seriously, but it is the Satanic priests and witches, and pagans that take it seriously. They all know that partaking in this opens up a doorway to the occult.
Matthew 6:24
Proverbs 22:6
Jeremiah 10:2
Deuteronomy 12:30
So are the costumes any different? No. And watering down these pagan Celtic traditions and partaking in them opens up a doorway to the occult.
Let's look at the games and where they originated from. When it comes to highly offensive things that have to do with murder, death, or torture, these are things that we should not make fun of. How would you feel if we were to make fun of 911 and the planes crashing? How would you feel if we made fun of the Christians who are being beheaded all around the world? You wouldn’t like that, would you? Well, that’s exactly what these games are, it’s making fun of death. Now, what is bobbing for apples? Bobbing for apples is sometimes a finding game where you dunk your head and a pool of technically speaking saliva of other players and you try to bite an apple and pull it out. It’s a fun game, it gets the kids going, it gets the kids energetic, it’s competitive, and you can win great prizes if you win, but where does it come from, and why do you play it? Back in 1833, a painting describing white bobbing for apples was, it was titled Snap Apple Night. It's the topics of a round of the game in action in this photo. When they would play this game, players who didn’t retrieve the Apple in time wrist get walloped in the face with melted candle wax. According to occult practices in certain areas, bobbing for apples was a torture device. When people would go around getting food and drinks, they were not the only ones going around.
Witches were very common in small towns and villages, and ran the villages most of the time. They were known to bless the villages as long as they paid their dues. They were offered sacrifices, food, and drinks. And as a result of giving, the witch would bless your house when you gave an offering. This is where the carved pumpkins come from. These pumpkins that were carved out symbolized that you gave an offering. And when houses and homes did not have one in front of their house, they were cursed, and here comes an ancient tradition of bobbing for apples. The witches would take a family member whom they would punish for not giving an offering. They would fill containers of boiling oil in which apples were floating. The skin of the apples prevented the apples from dissolving, and unlike humans, our skin would melt in such heat and temperature. And that was the whole point. The victims that were taken had to put their faces in this container of boiling oil and could not leave until they had an apple. By the end of the game, you were either dead, had no sight because you were blind, could not move, or could not swallow. You were so damaged to the point of no repair.
Why are we so quick to celebrate a demonic holiday and not quick to spread the gospel? Why are we quick to play occult games and not read the bible?
The answer is very clear. America is no longer Christian. A Christian is nothing more than someone who professes the name, but nothing has changed. A Christian in America is blind to spiritual warfare to the point that we immediately deny anything demonic and are quick to completely deny curses and occult practices because it's fun and brings good memories. And we would rather create memories by partaking in occult activities and opening doorways to the occult than know why Halloween is occultic or know what we need to do as Christians to protect ourselves against these spiritual principalities. At the end of all this, many will still deny everything that I have said. Scripture has been made clear that the verses of the Old Testament and New Testament about witchcraft and practicing pagan traditions, even slightly, are evil and detestable to the lord.
This part is for the pastors who celebrate Halloween or allow these practices into the church in the name of “ministry” and “love.”
Can we all agree that God despises all forms of witchcraft? Even if it's in-game form? Can we all agree that if he despises it, we shouldn't be part of it? Can we all agree that many pastors don't know anything about paganism and occult practices because they don't think it's important to know? Cause I would agree with that. That many pastors are cowards to know and cowards to arm their congregation with biblical truth to fight against this new age movement in America, and fight against these pagan beliefs, so just in case it comes into the church like Halloween, they can point out and get rid of it. Scripture is so clear on the topics of witchcraft and demons that there is no excuse for a pastor or Christian not to know what these things are. So, I’m calling out to all the Christians. Everyone claims to be saved and loves Christ with all their heart, mind, and soul. This is what the word of God says about witchcraft.
"That those who practice it will not inherit the kingdom of God." This can be found in Galatians 5:19, where it talks about the “works of the flesh.”
We also see in Revelation 21:8 that “those who practice magic arts will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”
Black magic in witchcraft and sorcery, or not new things, are ancient practices that can be found at the beginning of time, when it came to pagan witchcraft. In Deuteronomy 18:10, it says, “let no one be found among you who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, or engages in witchcraft.”
When we compare the penalty for engaging in witchcraft in the Old Testament and the New Testament, there is no difference. The difference between the Old Testament was that when you were found practicing witchcraft, you were to be put to death. This is found in Exodus 22:18, where it reads “you shall not permit a sorceress to live,” so here’s the thing, if it was found to be partaking in witchcraft, they were to be put to death. And they were warned again. So when we look at the New Testament, we see that revelations again talk about those who are practicing magic arts or witchcraft, and “they are going to be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” So, instead of being put to death by stoning if you are a Christian to be found doing witchcraft, you have a life to decide if you were going to repent from your decisions of engaging in witchcraft, which is in the same category as idolatry, and to turn from your old ways and come to Christ.
We see in Micah 5:12 reads “and I will cut off sorceries from your hand and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes.” This verse is technically saying I will destroy your witchcraft, I will eliminate sorceries, I will put an end to all witchcraft.
1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober-minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around you like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.”
If we are not fighting against flesh and bone and we are fighting against spiritual principalities and forces beyond imagination, then I would argue that Satan himself, the very one who is like a roaring lion that is seeking to devour someone, would do everything in his power to get us to stray away from Christ. One way is to get us to fall into witchcraft without knowing it. To make us too comfortable in our flesh and hold fast to our traditions and not test anything. Witchcraft does not always have to be cursing somebody or casting spells outwardly; it can also be put into the game form, it can be put into music, it can be put into cartoons that we watch. It can be put into such a simplified form that you may never know that it is witchcraft, and we see that on Halloween. Many Christians do not want to look at what these practices are and where they originate from because they are too comfortable in their flesh and do not want to let go of human tradition. They have been trained to completely reject any other person's argument, even if that person was a high Satanic priest, as John Ramirez was, and now tells everything about his occult experience and what Halloween is. But Christians will still deny it because they do not want to let go of their human traditions. And the church continues to imitate satanic cultures and pagan practices in the name of fun and the ministry of the gospel.
Galatians 5:19
Revelation 21:8
Deuteronomy 18:10
Exodus 22:18
Micah 5:12
1 Peter 5:8
