Boasting In My Weakness

Every year I make up my mind (sometime during the month of October) that I am NOT going to write about Halloween again this year!  I am done, I have already written about it, I am tired of talking about it, I am going to leave it alone!
And every year, as the 31st draws closer, I feel the Lord tugging and my heart, harder and harder and harder…”post the article.”  Until finally, I can’t resist any longer, and by His Spirit, give into His leading!

I am a very non-confrontational person ,and this article is very confrontational and pulls me way out of my shell!  But, that is just one more reason I know that it is totally the Lord’s will and leading for me to write this and post it year after year.

So, here it is…my Halloween article from last year, and the previous years:

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***Disclaimer:  These are my personal, very strong convictions about Halloween.  I understand that this is a VERY controversial topic!  If you are proned to be easily offended, you might not want to read any further! 

My first year of blogging, back in 2006,  I wrote an article called “Halloween – Should Christians Participate?”  Each year, I re-link to this article.  My desire has been to educate other Christians on the origins and also the reality of the occultic activity that still occurs on this day each year.  You can read that article here:

Halloween: Should Christians Participate?

The conviction my husband and I have is that, we, as Believers, should not be participating in trick or treating, Haunted Houses, Fall Festivals, dressing up, or any of the normal activities on the day of Halloween.  Instead we desire to make much of Christ on this holiday that is intended for darkness and evil.  We believe that EVEN Halloween is “the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!”  We do this first by praying together as a family.   We pray that the Lord would prevail over darkness.  We pray that the Lord would protect those who are going to be harmed on this night in occultic rituals (see my original article for more info on this).  We pray for a variety of issues surrounding this celebration.  We teach our kids about the truth of this holiday and its origins and true meanings, and the reason we do not take part in any of the traditions that go along with it.  We focus on Reformation day instead, and on those whom have desired to make much of Christ on this day, rather than go along for the cultural ride!  We then go out and do something as a family!  We go out to eat, or go see a movie, or hang out with friends!  To those around us (when we go out on Halloween night) it might seem strange that we are not dressed up, and taking our kids trick-or-treating.  This leads to opportunities to have conversations about Christ with people in our community!

Each year I have done more and more research on this topic.  It baffles me the ways may well-intentioned Christians attempt to brush aside the reality of this holiday (when they already understand the truth of it).
One argument that I have often come across is that we need to mesh with our culture, and be able to relate to them, and therefore we should participate in trick or treating, dressing up, etc…  Excuse my boldness, but since when did following Christ become a popularity contest?  I do not remember Jesus attemping to please everyone, and fit in with the culture.  He was hated and rejected by men, and his teaching and ways were not at all popular!  We are called to be in and not of the world.  We can be in our culture, and relate to them, and share Christ with them without participating in an evil celebration (that is masked by ‘fun’).
A little while back my husband was invited by a co-worker to go to a strip club.  Obviously my husband didn’t go, and was able to have a great conversation with this co-worker about his reasons why he wouldn’t go.  Applying this same idea, that we need to ”relate” to our culture, and need to go along with their ”traditions” no matter if they are pleasing to God or not,  would they also say my husband should have gone along to the strip club, so he could “relate” to this co-worker, and be a light in the darkness?  Do you see how ridiculous that reasoning is?  Instead, my husband was a light by NOT going along with what an unbeliever was doing as a ”normal guy thing.”  I believe that rather than trying to identify with and ‘fit in’ to todays culture, and ignoring the Bible as the ultimate source of truth and guidance for living out the life of a Believer,  we should go to the Word, and to God in prayer, and truly seek God’s direction in this area of celebrating Halloween!

My original article from 2006

CBN insightful article on what to do with Halloween

Article – Should Christians Participate in Halloween and ‘Harvest Parties’?