Here we are, eight days away from all the givings of halloween. I can remember it like yesterday. The days shortened up, the sun fell around 6 pm and by 7:30 p.m. it was dark. It was bittersweet. The heat of summer was gone, mosquito's disappeared, the colors were blazing and by the time school let out it was warm and sunny, or overcast and wet. The only two things we had to look forward to were halloween and thanksgiving. Our Christian household was fundemental, but had flexibility. Both my parents as children were brought up in strict protestant houses (one until she married and one until he found he could manipulate his mothers emotions as his father had other devices to focus on). My father went out in his small rural Michigan town and parlayed treats door to door. Mom was kept at bay, her parents took that avoid all appearances of evil seriously. When one got off the leash with one who was already running, they decided it was a harmless holiday and that we could dress up as ghouls and current cultural figures or rock icons and go out to beg for sugar!
This author was convinced (with a juvenile, uncritical mind) that it had the same evil effect as a masquerade party. As the time marched on, a divorce ensued, a preteen, a teenager and two youngsters now placed these special times to go and cut loose, besides, we weren't the cause of the divorce and we needed our fun too. Although harmless fun in our minds, we were left to our own devices without the proper balance of oversight. For the next four years I dressed up less and tricked a whole lot more. I remember doing things I look back on and wonder why stupidity ruled over me. Breaking windows, pouring oil on a house of worship, indulging in drink and drug and being an all around hooligan.
After a period of time I came to realize I was a slave to errant thinking and misguided self trust. It was ruining me. That was when I returned to God and began seeking that wisdom. I had done it all wrong. Of course I started out at the age of 26 with the most sensational topics I could find. I started digging, not as deeply as I would in a couple more years, but my journey began. The first book I can recall was from a youth minister who was telling everyone about backwards masking in rock and roll music. He told of rock bands being heard backwards and speaking out "my sweet satan" and "its fun to smoke marijuana". I thought it was too much of a stretch, but kept listening, kept digging. I finally came to a show on CBN (Christian broadcasting network) called the "John Ankerberg Show". This well coiffed man (killer perfect hair) started describing halloween as a purely satanic holiday. I couldn't believe that. However I was honest enough to hear him out. He went on to bring out expert after expert, historian, bible teacher, ex satanists and others in prosecution of this "holiday". To rehash the bullets points about halloween and where it came from I have compiled the following list:
1. Samhain: This is a a cursory overview of how pagan and base roots of halloween were mixed into the new country of America (although not first in the colonies, nor the contemporaries of revolutionary and civil war era America). Ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain. This was not the holiday itself, but has crept back in with its ideas of ghosts and spirits coming visible on earth.
2. All Hallow's Eve: This was westernized, but again, we refer to wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Hallows_Eve
3. Hallowmas: Here is where Christianity stepped in, to the detriment of the cause. Shame really. I picked this narrative off a web search.
http://jacksonsnyder.com/arc/New%20Century%203/Hallowmas.htm
This is the short list. Wikipedia can take you in a thousand different directions on this one subject of halloween, but when the satanic bible references it as one of its top three holidays, maybe we as Christians should take a hard look at what we are "innocently" tolerating in light of our God speaking through the apostle saying "abstain from every form of evil". We know this holiday is come from druids, celts, pagans, worshippers of the physical and most awfully satanists (who chuckle and say they laugh at this holiday, they just celebrate to have dark fun and unwind......sure) who say one thing and do another, we know another group like that don't we?
The lesson is yours kids. Really though, take a look at the last ten years of your life. I have and I have engaged this activity on the kid level and the adult level even up to two years ago and the involvement in it was wasteful, unrighteous and quite frankly, I won't involve myself in it anymore. My grandpareents refused to engage in it and had a few other things ran correctly, they would have been blessed a longer while than they had. My grandfather lived to 93 and my grandmother 79. I guess I am finally getting it through my thick head and my stubborn heart that this cannot be innocent fun when we are told to keep away from it from the almighty Creator who KNOWS what's best for us. I tried my adult logic and wisdom apart from God. As with all things that don't consult him or seek Him as a first cause it will fail, damage us, get us misfocused and most of all make a large spread of miles between us and our precious God.
"my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" Hosea 4:6
CJ
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