Should "CHRISTIANS" celebrate Halloween??

[MAKEMYDAY101]

The question of whether Christians should celebrate Halloween is a very controversial subject. In fact, the debate over Halloween in Christian circles mirrors that over the Harry Potter books and movies. The real question is whether Christians should have anything at all to do with something that pertains to (or is derived from) witchcraft, paganism, or the occult.

A Brief History of Halloween

 

The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The festival of Samhain marked the end of both the harvest and summer seasons, and was also tied to celebrations of the dead.

The Samhain festival (in all its variations) was extremely popular in pre-Christian Europe. Over the years, various cultures adapted and added to this celebration, which was then influenced by Catholic tradition. In medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church began celebrating "All Saints' Day" and "All Souls' Day" at the beginning of November, and these festivals mixed culturally with Samhain. It didn't take long before Halloween (derived from "All Hallow's Eve") emerged from this cultural mixture of superstition, tradition, and community celebration.

Today, the celebration of Halloween is highly commercialized, with most people enjoying the comical thrill of haunted houses, scary movies, costume parties, or trick-or-treating, but giving it little thought beyond the "fun" factor. Only a small minority of Halloween's celebrants give witchcraft, paganism, or the occult any serious attention or consideration.

Nevertheless, those aspects of Halloween are present and they are very much a part of its character and identity.

What Does the Bible Say About Halloween?

Halloween itself is, of course, not in the Bible. But the Bible does talk about witchcraft and paganism, and thus provides guidance on whether Christians should celebrate Halloween.

The Mosaic Code forbade the Israelites from seeking out "mediums" or "spiritists" (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6) and instructed that sorceresses be put to death (Exodus 22:18). In the New Testament, sorcery and witchcraft are still represented as anathema to God's work (Acts 13:6-11) and those spiritists who converted to Christ renounced any and all such practices (Acts 19:19).

The Bible clearly teaches that followers of God are to have nothing to do with sorcery, divination, witchcraft, or the like. However, the apostle Paul does provide one possible "out."

In the Graeco-Roman world, the early church grew in the midst of paganism. Thus, pagan culture, traditions, and customs were everywhere present in the communities in which early Christians lived. Controversies and questions arose, including whether Christians could eat meat that had been offered to pagan idols.

Paul noted that God's law does not necessarily forbid Christians from eating meat offered to idols, so long as the eating of such meat was for nourishment or culinary enjoyment (I Corinthians 8). According to Paul, the key was to make sure that one doesn't eat such meat as a way of worshiping false gods; that would be sinful.

What's more, Paul cautioned that this "liberty" was not to be abused, and that those exercising such choices should be careful not to cause another brother or sister in Christ to "stumble" (I Corinthians 8:9).

It's this principle of cautious liberty to which many Christians point, when they explain their decision to celebrate the "harmless" aspects of Halloween (candy, trick-or-treating, etc.). As Travis Allen of Grace To You Ministries writes: "There's nothing inherently evil about candy, costumes, or trick-or-treating in the neighborhood" (Allen, Travis. "Christians and Halloween." Grace To You Ministries, online article, 2006).

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

While a good argument can be made that Paul's principle of liberty allows for Christians to cautiously decide whether to celebrate Halloween (or even enjoy science fiction and fantasy tales like The Lord of The Rings or Harry Potter), others warn that such liberty too often does cause people to stumble.

The debate will likely continue, but the Bible is clear that Christians should oppose sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult -- and should not do anything that would encourage or advance such practices or beliefs.

Read more: http://biblestudies.suite101.com/article.cfm/should_christians_celebrate_halloween#ixzz0VSBzO1Vk

 

 

Go ahead teach your kid to lie... But don't be mad when they lie to you..

 

YOU STARTED THE LIES FROM THE TIME THEY WERE LITTLE.

 

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[babymomma0306]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 5:45 PM

This is ridiculous! Everything pretty much came from something else. I'm a christian myself, and my kids do Halloween. I see nothing wrong with it, we don't use it to worship the devil, they go on rides and get candy...wow that sounds so evil! BTW Santa was a actual man that started the tradition of giving gifts on door steps to poor kids and so they named the tradition after him when he died. The one thing I would have to agree with you on is the lying. My mom never told me Santa, the eater bunny, ect. was real. She said it was because she wanted us to know that she was honest and not a lair in hopes that we would be truthful as well. I don't think that telling them they are real will make them evil liars but it doesn't help the situation either. I don't worship the devil but i do Halloween. My mother wouldn't let me go trick or treating or do Halloween but I let my kids do it because I don't see a problem with it. Did you know that Christmas was originally a PAGAN holiday? Do you celebrate Christmas? You better not anymore then because, according to you, if it has a "evil" beginning then we can't have fun with it. So I guess you'd better tell the kids Christmas is canceled because it's a devil day LOL!!!

[Anouck]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 5:51 PM

Yeah, I'm going to agree with babymomma0306... Most "Christian" holidays originated as pagan holidays, so you might as well cancel all of those too. Sometimes I really thing people just over "analyze" the hell out of things. Halloween is a time for kids to dress up and score some candy, big deal. Do you enjoy sucking all the fun out of their lives?

But umm...Santa isn't real. It started off with St. Nicholas, who DID exist. He lived in Spain, and on his own birthday, would hand out gifts to kids. Well,he was a saint, he did a lot of good stuff, but let's stick with that. In Europe, where I grew up, we didn't do the present thing on Christmas with Santa, we had "Sinterklaas", or St. Nicholas Day. It was celebrated on his birthday. He would come by boat from Spain (or so we were told), he'd ride a white horse over the roof tops and come down the chimney to leave presents. We'd put out a shoe filled with hay for the horse. This tradition kind of morphed into Santa riding a sleigh with reindeer, and putting up stockings instead of shoes, and leaving cookies and milk for Santa instead of hay and carrots for St. Nicholas' horse.... Kind of interesting  how traditions change over the years, isn't it?

[UniqueDesire]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 5:57 PM

I feel that if you celebrate Halloween.  You can have a fall party Hand out Bible tracks, give treats to kids and turn it into love and fun for kids.  My kids went trick or treating.  The church had a fall party and they dressed up.  I did too.  This was the Nazarene Church so each person has to make their own choice.

[hinson7169]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 6:03 PM

love it great post and so true

[octavia137r]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 8:12 PM

I don`t celebrate Halloween the bible tells us to abstain from all evil. Dressing up as witches, demons, monsters and   begging strangers for candy!! Just crazy! we teach are children to don`t talk to strangers but drag them to their homes at NIGHT?? for candy!! Nothing about Halloween glorifies Christ its all about scary stuff!

[octavia137r]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 10:01 PM

 

That is my point it's not evil! That's like saying having sex with your husband is evil because some people use sex slaves. Just because someone uses it for bad doesn't mean it in and of itself is evil. no matter what people are going to use stuff for bad, you can't cut everything in life out because f it. As far as strangers houses I only go to houses of people I know and fall festivals ;-)

[my4pinkroses]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 10:17 PM

I guess I just do not understand why you are so worried what others are doing.. Are they seriously harming you or your family???? No, so why do you care so much????   Seems to be that your not being such a good  " Christian" you claim to be.... This post is nothing but judging others and telling them what they can or can not do.....   Besides these days and ages , most children unless they are physopaths do not even think about evil or satanic things only  adults who are so against it do......

[octavia137r]

Oct. 30, 2009 at 10:56 PM

• octavia137r

That is my point it's not evil! That's like saying having sex with your husband is evil because some people use sex slaves. Just because someone uses it for bad doesn't mean it in and of itself is evil. no matter what people are going to use stuff for bad, you can't cut everything in life out because f it. As far as strangers houses I only go to houses of people I know and fall festivals ;-)

• babymomma0306
• LOL how can you compare having sex with your husband to Halloween?  what part of Halloween is glorifying Christ? the demons?monsters?dead people?bloody masks? As a christian the bible tells us to abstain from all evil . having a sex slave would be consider evil! LOL
• As the bible tells us Satan comes as an angels of Light making it look like harmless fun! If you choose to allow your children to join in on that day that totally up to you But for my family we don`t celebrate anything that is demonic and produce fear in children.
• So if you think nothing is wrong with celebrating Halloween then that's between you and God! But as a True sold out believe its not even an option for my family!
  

 

[MAKEMYDAY101]

Oct. 31, 2009 at 11:21 AM

Babymomma, WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY? All I did was tell you the truth about a holiday. Apparently Your getting convicted for having participated in something your bible says you shouldn't have. I AM SORRY TO BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU.. However had you read your bible you would have already known this. Also frankly Your being so harsh and unkind is not helping anyone or anything. It surely is not a christian attitude or charicteristic. The fact that you can claim the name of christ and then be so angry and resentful over a simple journal which does nothing but speak the truth about the origins of a holiday and what the BIBLE WHICH YOU SAY YOU FOLLOW AND OBEY TELLS US; (And I did give many scriptures telling you where and what it says.) WE SHOULD NOT PARTICIPATE IN!  Your anger levels and bitterness and hostility and uncharitable and unkind and unloving behavior speaks VOLUMES about you and your christianity. And also I suggest you check yourself into some anger management counciling since another person's factual representation of the bible(which you claim to follow...) and a holiday (which you say there is nothing wrong with... ) makes you spaz out into such uncontrolled rage and aggression.. It is a horrible commentary on you. I wonder where your charity, love, joy, longsuffering and many more fruits of the spirit are?? I suppose you will just become more angry at me .. but why are you angry? You might want to think about that?!

(Original Poster)

[gamom36]

Oct. 31, 2009 at 4:15 PM

I believe all of this is pure bull crap. You sure do like to judge! Wow I thought only GOD was supposed to do that?  You do  need to get some of your facts straight though before posting. Starting the Halloween you need to dig deeper as you will find it's not all about evil to what you "may" think. Santa look up St. Nick and so forth! Lord have mercy do ya homework before you criticize others. Now I think I'm gonna dress in my "witch" costume and get my cauldron going and have a spooktacular time and celebrate the dead!