Below is a well written piece by a minister from the United Kingdom named J. John Canon. He is an excellent and thought provoking speaker. I felt this piece below was appropriate to pass on considering halloween is coming up. I used to celebrate halloween, in fact, it was my favorite holiday – I loved it! After reading what J. John wrote about how it dishonored ELOHIM [Hebrew word for GOD and who I believe is FATHER/SON/HOLY SPIRIT] and the further investigation I did on its roots, I decided to throw out all my halloween decorations and not celebrate it anymore because I wanted to show ELOHIMGOD I loved HIM more than what is of HIS enemy: death, darkness, evil, wickedness, witchcraft, magic, the undead, blood lust, lust, fear, torment, horror, deceit, trickery, superstition, uncleanness, curses, and pagan ways – all of which halloween celebrates. There is nothing of Life, Light, Goodness, Truth, Forgiveness, Love, Peace, Righteousness, Mercy, Compassion, Wholesomeness, Cleanness, Blessings, and ELOHIM’S/GOD’S Way involved at all in that celebration!
I felt I have hurt ELOHIM/GOD enough in my life by doing things that HE would not approve of and my priority these days is to hurt our FATHER IN HEAVEN, HIS SON, and HIS HOLY SPIRIT as little as possible and preferably not at all. That is my goal and I still fail HIM but HE strengthens me through my failings. Take a look at my Welcome and Shalom page for the full meaning of set-apart: https://glclifestyling.com/2012/01/17/hello-world/ . Basically, the root word Qadosh means more literally “set-apart”, not holy. Holy was picked by translators to explain this Hebrew word. Set-apart really means to separate yourself from all that is not ELOHIM’S/GOD’S Way. What many people do not fully realize is that HIS Way was revealed to the Israelites, HIS Chosen people. All other nations were pagan and they had their own ways for their gods. So unless you are of Hebrew origin, your ancestors were pagan and if you follow their traditions and customs you are honoring and following pagan ways.
The Biblical example of what happened to ELOHIM’S/GOD’S people, Israel, when they followed pagan customs instead of being set-apart, resulted each time in their being punished and separated from HIM. They repented and were accepted back by HIM but did not learn their lesson. They lost their beloved Temple which is still in ruins and even today, many do not understand what the prophets foretold because their religious leaders had and still have them focused strictly on the Torah. Hoshea [Hosea] 4, they perish for lack of knowledge of ELOHIM/GOD. They still do not recognize that their Covenant was cut off and replaced by a New One. They did and do not recognize that the NEW TEMPLE is the HA’MASHIACH’S/CHRIST’S BODY [read Yochanan – John – 2]. We need to realize that through HIS being tortured and dying for us and conquering death and being resurrected, our Well Beloved SAVIOR gave us pagans the Priceless GIFT of HIM [Yochanan 4] and Eternal Life and are grafted into the olive tree of the Promise [Romans 11].
I read verses in Yirmeyahu [Jeremiah] recently that show just how much ELOHIM/GOD does suffer when we don’t do right by HIM. Yirmeyahu 4:19 starts out “I am in pain! I am in pain! I suffer in my heart; my heart throbs within me, and does not cease…”. Verse 22 says “For my people are foolish; they have not known me; they are stupid children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” I encourage you to read Yirmeyahu 4:19-31 and Tehillim [Psalm] 53. While these verses speak in context about Israel, keep in mind that there is much going on today that we all are doing that is repeating the same mistakes of Israel and is very hurtful to HIM.
ELOHIM/GOD loves us enough to give us the gift of free will. HE did not create robots/golems to worship HIM. If you think “golem” originated with Lord of the Rings read this link for something eye opening that mocks our ELOHIM/GOD and HIS SON, who by the way, is also referred to as “Precious” in Scripture [I Kepha – Peter – 2:4-7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem . ELOHIM/GOD wants us to freely seek HIM, and come to HIM, and want HIM, and love HIM, and to willingly give up for HIM what would not please HIM. When you hesitate to give up something you enjoy that Scripture says hurts HIM, please think about all that HE has done for you.
Please forward this to others, maybe even print this study and hand it out instead of candy at halloween. Do you know that sugar in our bodies does not just causes cavities and weaken the immune system, but much more. Read below for more details:
“There has been new evidence showing not just how alcoholism and sugar addiction are related in terms of trading one addiction for another, but also the fact that children who are more drawn to sugar may be more likely to end up abusing drugs or alcohol, underscoring the genetic component of addiction.” https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/alcohol-abuse/faq/alcoholism-sugar-addiction-related/
https://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/endurance-library/146-reasons-sugar-ruins-your-health
The main reason, however, for giving up halloween should be about your love for ELOHIM/GOD: do you want to honor GOOD which is HIM or evil and wickedness which are HIS enemy? Do you believe ELOHIM/GOD has feelings? If so, what do you believe those feelings are towards halloween and why? Would you be willing to give up how you feel about it if HE showed you that you were wrong? May we all be blessed with the Well Beloved SPIRIT OF TRUTH/HOLY SPIRIT and the ability to see, hear, recognize, understand, and be teachable to receive and love only the TRUTH and no deception! Thank YOU for YOUR help with this our Well Beloved FATHER/ABBA IN HEAVEN, in the Precious NAME of YOUR Well Beloved SON, JESUS CHRIST THE LORD/YESHUA’YAH HA’MASHIACH YAH, AMEN!!!
http://www.christianpost.com/news/kirk-cameron-on-halloween-christians-should-have-the-biggest-party-on-the-block-128345/ [May Kirk and those whose lives he touches be blessed with the above prayer, too! AMEN!!!]
Handling Halloween Wisely – J. John Canon
https://canonjjohn.com/2017/10/31/the-tragedy-of-halloween/ [below is an older study. Please read both.]
Christians are almost united in their dismay at Halloween becoming a major cultural festival but they struggle to know what to do about it. On many other social issues – caring for the environment, stopping people trafficking, giving aid to less developed countries and so on – we find that even if our neighbors don’t understand where we are coming from, they will often agree with us. But when we raise objections about Halloween we are met with utter incomprehension. Surely Halloween is harmless fun for children – dressing up, collecting sweets and meeting the neighbors? How can anyone object to that? And don’t we need a celebration that crosses cultural, racial and religious boundaries? In the face of such arguments, how are we to persuade our friends and neighbors that they should not celebrate Halloween?
Firstly, you could see Halloween as the revival of a pagan festival. But this is not a terribly convincing argument against it. What a celebration once was is not much of a guide to what it currently is – most people are surprised to realize that Bonfire Night started off as an anti-Catholic celebration! Although there were all sorts of strange local customs on 31 October, the modern Halloween only really started in the UK in the 1960s. Its growing popularity is largely because it is a major element in popular American culture – and a huge marketing opportunity. This year, spending on Halloween merchandise in the UK is likely to top £200 million, while in the US it is measured in billions of dollars.
Secondly, it is always possible that as Christians we are overreacting. But Halloween trivializes a real issue: spiritual warfare. It is clear throughout the Bible that there is a continuous, bitter cosmic conflict between God and the forces of evil. There is supernatural evil and supernatural good and whether we acknowledge the existence of the spiritual realm or not we are all caught up in the battle. Through God’s salvation offered to us in Christ we can be transferred from the side of evil to God’s side. Yet Halloween trivializes all this – devils, demons, witches, ghosts are all figures of fun. Halloween also glorifies such things as witchcraft and sorcery, which are condemned in the Bible (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10-11; 1 Samuel 28:6-7; Acts 19:19; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8; 22:15).
Thirdly, Halloween fails to acknowledge that evil has been defeated. The Bible doesn’t just condemn evil powers, it affirms that Jesus Christ destroyed them through his death on the cross. That victory was demonstrated by Jesus’ resurrection (Colossians 2:15) and through the Holy Spirit God’s people also have power over evil (Matthew 28:18; Romans 16:20; Ephesians 6:11-17; Colossians 2:9-10; Hebrews 2:14-15; James 4:7; 1 John 3:8; 4:4).
So Halloween distorts the reality of spiritual warfare, glorifies the dark side and overlooks the victory granted to God’s people through Christ. For me, this is reason enough to condemn Halloween, but these arguments carry little weight with those who deny the existence of the spiritual world. However, it isn’t just Christians who dislike the festival. Many followers of Islam and other faiths also dislike Halloween. And as Halloween gets bigger and darker in emphasis each year, many with little or no religious faith feel uneasy about it. How are we to enlist support against Halloween? I suggest that we need to look at its three emphases: the magical (or supernatural); the macabre (or scary); and the malicious.
The strongest element is the magical – dressing up as witches, wizards, vampires etc. We would no more dress up as a witch or a wizard than we would don a Gestapo uniform – because we do not wish to glorify evil. Two sorts of people are likely to object to this argument. The first is the atheist, who says that there is no spiritual world and so Halloween poses no risk. But denying the existence of the spiritual world is as much an act of faith as saying that it exists. Moreover, if we examine human culture worldwide and over time, we find that the vast majority of people have believed in spiritual forces of some kind. Complete rejection of the spiritual world is rare. The second sort of person would be one who accepts the existence of a spiritual world but sees it as a harmless realm. But the testimony of almost every society that has ever existed is that there is a dark side to such a world. And at Halloween what is celebrated is not the benign but the very darkest side of the supernatural.
Turning to the macabre aspect of Halloween, the celebration of the ugly, the scarred and the horrific, raises many issues. Why celebrate the macabre? Why dress up in a way that portrays death and decay? Even the most resolute atheist must be troubled by the trend for ever-more-gruesome masks and costumes. When the media only parade beautiful bodies we need to say loudly and clearly that there is absolutely no relationship between having a deformed or distorted body and being evil.
Finally, the malicious element in Halloween – tricks that are mostly fairly harmless but not always. But ‘trick or treat’ is a very curious principle. We would normally call this sort of thing ‘demanding with menaces’. The principle is: ‘Give me what I want – or else.’ Is this really something we want to teach our children? So there are arguments against Halloween and to some extent it is immaterial whether our friends and colleagues believe in the existence of spiritual powers or not. Halloween stands condemned on other grounds: it is a dark celebration that focuses on evil, horror and wrong. In the modern Halloween there is no element of good triumphing over darkness. So what are we going to do? I would suggest that:
• We need to think and pray through the issues. There is a temptation to focus on the demonic but this can lead to Satan getting the attention. Instead we should remember that Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the greatest power in the universe.
• There is something clearly unhealthy about Halloween and we need to oppose it. It celebrates evil and darkness. We spend a lot of time as parents and teachers encouraging children to follow what is right and Halloween inverts all this.
• We need to take a stand and one way is to provide alternatives. It is good if churches provide sensible and fun alternatives and invite others along. If you are at home and don’t want to subscribe to Halloween then you could put a note on your door saying ‘Halloween not celebrated here’ – and defuse any ill feeling by drawing a smiley face underneath. Or offer sweets – but together with invitations to church youth and children’s activities.
• We should try to build alliances against Halloween. You might just say that you think it trivializes and distorts what’s going on in the spiritual world, but your position may be strengthened by going into more detail.
• Whatever your response, it is important that you explain it. This is particularly important for parents with their children. It is far better to talk about the issues involved than just to say, ‘We don’t do Halloween.’
Finally, let’s use the opportunity. Halloween allows us to talk about some of the deeper issues in life. Is there life after death? Are their spirits? Is there a force of evil? Why, in our scientific age, are books and films with a supernatural theme so popular? Halloween presents dangers but also opportunities; let’s not waste them!
J.John (Canon)