Halloween. What Separates True Believers from False Believers in Messiah?

As October 31st approaches one can see the spirit of Halloween everywhere. The houses are decorated, some cities have parades, children, as well as adults,  are adorned in the most scary costumes they can buy, or create for themselves.  I would be remiss if I failed to mention the parties and the children going door to door in their costumes begging for candy. It is a splendid picture of un-holiness. Everything done at this time of year is in exact opposition to what the Scriptures teach, but what the heck. God doesn't really care if we totally disobey Him on this one day a year and celebrate the dark and evil deceptions of Satan celebrating death. Or does He?

Why would God give us one strict warning after another strict warning all throughout Scripture, if He thought it was not an extremely severe matter with Him? Yeshua (Jesus) came to give us life, and life more abundantly. Did He not? Yeshua is the Truth, the Way, and the LIFE. Is He not? In John 5:39-40 it says, "³⁹ You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal LIFE; and these are they which testify of Me. ⁴⁰ But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have LIFE." Everything about Yeshua deals with LIFE and LIFE everlasting. Nothing Yeshua does celebrates or glorifies death. NOTHING! When the serpent (the devil) tempted Eve in the Garden, he told her, "You shall NOT surely die." He lied! Everything about satan is a lie, and his lies only lead to one destination. DEATH! Yet, people foolishly believe that they can play games with their faith.  They have been convinced that they can do exactly the opposite of what Almighty God has continuously told us not to do. Still, in their thinking they will have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Oh foolish Christians! When will you awaken out of your foolish stupor and see the truth.

Many point to the church of Rome in a silly attempt to justify their actions saying, this was a practice in the early churches. Since when is the pagan Roman church an accurate source for biblical righteousness? Many in their next breath will speak out against the paganism found in the Roman church, but at the same time embrace that same paganism. Do you not see your hypocrisy? The devil is laughing at you and you are too blind to see it. The early apostles dealt with this on a regular basis. Nothing has changed. The disobedient to God's commandments will continue to do so until they find themselves in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why would their death and darkness be considered a strange thing for these people who are already celebrating it here in this life. Why would they expect anything different on the day Yeshua comes to judge the whole earth. He will only give them what they wanted.

What was Paul's fear about the church in Galatians  4:8-11?

⁸ But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years. ¹¹ I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

Notice, he is writing to Gentiles here who were formerly pagans and served those which by nature are not Gods. However, now they do know God and are known by God. He is asking them, "How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? I know that the church rips these verses out of their context to mean that Paul is talking about the Law here, but one simply has to look at the context to prove that silliness wrong. These people, whom Paul is addressing, are former pagans. To assume he is talking about Torah to people who have never been taught Torah is a wild stretch of the imagination. The clear context simply does not support that foolishness. They were formerly in bondage to the weak and beggarly elements of their pagan religion back there when they did not know God. Since when is Torah (which is the perfect word of God) weak and beggarly?

They were celebrating (observing) days, months, seasons, and years, but they were not God's appointed feasts. They were Satan's times. They were celebrating the winter and summer solstice along with other times, usually found around God's feasts, to distract the people of this world from the true worship of the Almighty. Halloween is certainly one of those times as we have just come out of the Feast of Tabernacles. Paul's concern for them is mentioned in verse eleven.

God gave His specific instructions more than just a few times in His word. Here are two great examples:

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. ¹² For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.

 Leviticus 20:6-7New King James Version (NKJV)

⁶ ‘And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. ⁷ Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

These are pretty stiff warnings. Those who are foolish enough to believe that the New Testament has somehow done away with these things, which God calls abominations, are simply playing with fire in the most literal sense.  Some blind guides, who are nothing less than wolves in sheep's clothing, say that children do not see these practices as evil, but they are just doing them for fun. What does God say in the Shema?

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 New King James Version (NKJV)

⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

I can see nothing here where it tells us to love these pagan times, or teach them to our children. Since Yeshua said this was the first part of the greatest commandment, we can be pretty certain that He did not make it null and void. If you are teaching your children to follow after these pagan practices which are disgusting to Almighty God, there is no mistaking the fact that you will be held responsible for leading your children away from keeping God's commandments. Can you give a single passage of Scripture from its proper context which makes the above passages of Scripture null and void? Here is a hint. There are none. Many are quick to say, "Oh! That is all Old Testament and we are no longer under the Law. What does the apostle Paul say about that?

1 Corinthians 10:21 New King James Version (NKJV)

21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

It sounds pretty clear to me. We who serve the Living God serve a God who does not change.

Again in 3 John we read these words:

3 John 1:11New King James Version (NKJV)

¹¹ Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but^[a] he who does evil has not seen God.

You may look at it as only fun, but the word of God is perfectly clear. We are not to imitate what is evil. Has God condemned these practices as evil? Of course He has. Why are you imitating them, and for crying out loud, why are you teaching your children to follow after them? To continue following these pagan practices after coming to know the truth in nothing short of rebellion against God's word. What do the Scriptures have to say about rebellion?

1 Samuel 15:23New King James Version (NKJV)

²³ For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

This isn't a game folks. You are playing with your eternity here. The choice is yours. You can either live in the Kingdom of Heaven for all eternity, or you can stubbornly remain in your rebellion and be cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth awaiting your portion of the Lake of Fire.


Shalom,
Barry W. Gaugler