Halloween: Jesus and Jeans Part One

(Maybe I'm a liiiiiittle behind on my posts....)

I'm not a confrontational person, but I do have opinions. During this season, I have a few strong ones. (This season being fall.) Why fall? Well, fall for the vastly celebrated: Halloween; and fall for the call for fall fashion.

This post will probably need to be divided, since both may get lengthy on their own; however I shall keep my catchy title for this one. But here goes!

Jesus & Jeans: Part 1

Christians everywhere are gearing up. But there's two different things that we seem to be "gearing up" for. One group is looking forward to, and preparing for Thanksgiving. Phone calls, menu ideas, meals plans, family travel, etc. all seem to be swirling about as the biggest meal of the year is in full swing. I know my family has already begun the exhilarating bustle of preparing for it :) The holiday of gratefulness is one of my favorites (not that I don't try to be grateful year-round, but the season is just one of my favorites, truly.)

There is another thing Christians seem to be getting ready for. My whole life I've been raised to believe not to participate in Halloween, but why? There comes a time, when a person has to decide for themselves what they believe, if they believe what they were raised to, and why they believe what they do. I was blessed with parents who are gave me an incredible foundation. They have raised me to be Bible believing. (And no, I do not question this. I was shown early on how dangerous that can be, and have accepted His infallible Word as, well, infallible.)

As previously stated, I was raised not doing the whole Halloween thing, but as I got older, I noted a number of Christians in my life who did. What does that do to a child? Conflicts them. Not being a thrill seeker of that sort, however, I was content to continue not participating in it. My childhood felt plenty complete without it, and I never felt the need to ask mom and dad if we could "do Halloween". However as I continued to grow, I wanted to know somethings: Why didn't we participate? And why did other Christians think it was ok? Instead of giving you the answers I was given over the years (although all good, and Biblical) instead, I want to share with you some of my personal revelation in the area of Halloween.

Now, please note, I said "personal revelation" on purpose. This is what I feel God has called me to. If you celebrate Halloween, all out costumes, candy, the whole sha-bang, or hide in your basement completely cut off from the world for the night, please don't feel judged. I'm not judging you. This is simply what I believe.

My realization of Halloween, and all it entails actually came on when Halloween was far from my mind. I don't remember the date or the season, but I do know that I was young, and it was not even fall time. I was reading about when Saul called on the medium to wake Samuel. (1 Samuel 28-an interesting read if you want to see a king disobey himself.) Although this sounds weird, don't think I'm into things I shouldn't be, however reading this sparked my interest in the Bible and sorcery. I wanted to know what the Bible said about it, since at even so young I saw it permeating so much of my culture. Movies and books seemed to have and promote wizardry and witches as good things, and after reading this section of God's word, I wanted to know how He felt about it. I haven't done any deep research on it, I don't know the Greek origins of words or terms, and I haven't consulted scholars. But I know how to read the Word at face value, and so I did. Now this was so long ago, (um...yeah..am I allowed to say that at 19?) that I did just a "refresh" on my search, and this is what I found:

Deuteronomy 18:9-13:

 "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 be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God." (all emphasis added above is mine) 

These verses are unarguable; God HATES those things. A second warning I found was in verses 19-21 of Galatians 5:

  "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." (emphasis mine)

Yet I see people, engaging in activity that not only accepts these things, but glorifies them. Media is a different post all together, but to Halloween specifically I have heard so many viewpoints. Everything from "its an opportunity to show Christ to all the people that come to your door!" to "hide in the basement" type articles. I believe, that to every extreme, there is a middle ground. The problem is, what is that? Because lets face it, Halloween exists, people celebrate it, and it is largely apart of our culture every October. We cannot pretend that something that is apart of our world, isn't apart of our world. That would be foolish. And we are told to be IN the world; and warned not to be OF it. God tells us not to conform to the world (Romans 12:2). Conform means that it looks like something. So if God is so blatant against these things, why are we ok with making an exception for something so evil one day a year? I don't use evil lightly, I really believe that God considers these things evil.

I think it's best to not participate at all. No trick-or-treating, no passing out candy with Gospel tracks that the kids won't read anyways. And certainly no messing in the wickedness that prevails on this night every year. I tend to humanize God, and although I probably shouldn't, I think if He had human emotions, this night is when He gets a knot in his stomach. Secret, evil practices that go on all year are given a place in the public eye. WHY would we be ok with this? There's a lot that goes on in our culture that not everyone participates in. And I think that this should be one that Christians sit out on. Yes, it happens. But we don't participate. "Harvest" festivals where candy is rewarded to children who wear cute ladybug and Superman costumes looks no different that what everyone else is doing. I think
it's time the church revisits Halloween. And decide how we handle it. Because doing it like the world, should not be it.