00:01:17.500Many of you have realized that many churches are no longer meeting in person and in large
00:01:23.580crowds, and this has caused more and more Christians to be interested in planting a
00:01:28.220house church with a few other Christian families.
00:01:31.380That said, we really believe that nobody should plant and pastor a church without training,
00:01:39.020and for that reason, we created St. Justin's School of Biblical Church Planting, which
00:01:44.060is basically a one-year diploma program for men. We teach students, I should say, to exegete, to
00:01:52.140preach, to shepherd, and to plant a biblical house church in their local community. In fact, we just
00:01:59.080launched a brand new three-minute video about the program that you can watch right at the homepage
00:02:06.180at stjustins.org. That's just stjustins.org. The 2021 class space is very limited, but there are
00:02:18.060a few spots left. And if you're interested in learning more, you can just apply online
00:02:23.880before December 20th, 2020. We'd love to have you maybe pass that along to somebody else that you
00:02:30.660might know who may be interested in planting a house church in the coming year. All right,
00:02:36.760so let's get into the episode. Today's question is from Valerie in Houston, Texas, and she asks,
00:02:42.940Hello, Pastor Dale. My family has been celebrating Halloween for years. We have three kids who dress
00:02:49.980up and carve pumpkins. However, over the past few months, we have been feeling convicted
00:02:55.340about celebrating Halloween? Do our convictions align with Scripture, or are we just worrying
00:03:02.860too much? Hey, Valerie, thank you for the question. We actually get this exact question
00:03:09.000every year. We've probably done an episode on this specific issue for a few years running now.
00:03:16.200Every year I make an Instagram post that causes a lot of controversy talking about
00:03:20.840the idea of Halloween. Christians wonder, you know, where they should draw the line. Should we
00:03:27.500be buying the decorations and carving pumpkins and going trick-or-treating?
00:03:32.900So let's just start with the most important question first. What is Halloween? Where did
00:03:39.740it come from? And why is that important? Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic
00:03:47.620festival, Samhain. And this is 9th century Ireland, is basically where most people track it back to.
00:03:54.600It's a celebration of all things dying for the year, crops and, you know, think about just the
00:04:01.320farm life, the agrarian culture. And it's things dying in preparation for winter. In the 8th
00:04:09.460century, about a hundred years earlier, Pope Gregory III designated November 1st as a time to
00:04:17.920honor All Saints. It's called All Saints Day, and likely due to its proximity to All Saints Day,
00:04:26.020All Saints Day began to incorporate some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before
00:04:32.600was known as All Hallows' Eve, and later we call it Halloween, and later the Catholic Church
00:04:38.500deemed the day All Saints Day, but the Catholic Church, the website of the Catholic Church,
00:04:45.760I should say, makes it clear that Halloween is a secular holiday, and it's not All Saints Day.
00:04:51.560All Saints Day is a holy day in the Catholic Church, and they actually require members of
00:04:57.520the Catholic Church to attend Mass, so it's kind of a major day for the Catholic Church.
00:05:02.660Now, the secular Halloween was to be believed as the night that released the dead spirits who control nature that have been held captive underground by the vegetation of life over the previous months.
00:05:22.220Now, those spirits come back to life on this night is what it's supposed to represent.
00:05:28.840And this is the origin of the jack-o'-lantern, right?
00:05:31.340The idea is that the dead pumpkin has come alive from the spirit of something else.
00:05:39.220Halloween, historically, is a night in which people would circle around bonfires, dress
00:05:46.040up in costumes to scare these spirits or ghosts away, and have a seance to welcome the dead.
00:06:06.260That's what the historical narrative of Halloween is about.
00:06:09.660Over time, Halloween has evolved into a day of activities, and we've sanitized the holiday to make it less overtly evil and more palatable to a Western culture.
00:06:22.060think trick-or-treating or carving jack-o'-lanterns or festival gatherings or dressing
00:06:26.440up in costumes and eating candy. However, Halloween is still very much holding its
00:06:35.400spiritual roots, which is becoming more and more obvious to the Christians in a society that has0.81
00:06:39.940lost its moral convictions. In other words, I really do believe there is a demonic element0.99
00:06:46.120of Halloween in play here. And I'll tell you why. If you simply look up the satanic calendar on
00:06:53.540Wikipedia, it's fascinating that you'll see four central events. Number one is your birthday. So
00:07:04.040on the satanic calendar, your birthday, which is a celebration of self. And I'm not saying that I'm
00:07:11.600against birthdays, but this is just one thing that it's talking about your celebration of self.
00:07:16.120Um, you know, then there's, uh, what's called a, uh, Walpurgisnat, um, which is the evening of
00:07:23.540April 30th. And that is a major satanic holiday, Walpurgisnat. It's like a, um, it's a, um,
00:07:32.180uh, a German name, I believe. And just one day later, May 1st, so you have this one on April
00:07:38.24030th, and then just one day later on May 1st is St. Walpurgis Night, which is intercessory prayer
00:07:48.900for warding off witchcraft. So that was, what's going on here is that basically there was a knight
00:07:54.500declared St. Walpurgis Night, and that was a knight by the church of intercessory prayer
00:08:01.960for warding off witchcraft. But then later, the demonic alternative was Walpurgisnat,
00:08:11.160and that becomes this satanic event just one day before. If you move down the calendar later in the
00:08:17.560year, you have another satanic holiday on December 24th, just one day before Christmas, right? So
00:08:23.940that you have December 24th is the Grand High Climax, and this is a night of indulgence and0.85
00:08:30.360sex, and demon revels with a focus on birth and children. And just one day later, again,
00:08:35.360is Christmas, and that's the remembrance of Jesus' birth. Halloween, you have an October 31st,
00:08:42.280and then just one day later, you have All Saints Day. Also, some people also put in relationship
00:08:50.060with this as much later as the Reformation, October 31st stuff, but we'll talk about that
00:08:54.200in a bit. But October 31st, you have Halloween, and then you have one day later, you have All
00:09:01.140Saints Day, identified by the Catholic Church. So basically, there's either a major coincidence
00:09:06.940going on, or there's some sort of strategy in play to offer these pre-day, pre-historical
00:09:15.000Church Day events, offering satanic alternatives one day earlier. And so it's just a fascinating
00:09:23.840observation that I've made. Now, the vast majority of people who celebrate Halloween are families who
00:09:30.300are simply unaware of its dark history. And that said, Christians, we do need to be aware
00:09:38.120about the relationship between Halloween and Satanism. Just because it's become an American0.82
00:09:44.580holiday where most of the culture participates doesn't mean there's no spiritual involvement
00:09:49.140and what's happening. So again, let's just look back to the core question. Should Christians
00:09:55.720celebrate Halloween? So before I share my position, let me share Anton LaVey's position.
00:10:03.940Anton is the founder of the Church of Satan and the author of the Satanic Bible. In an interview
00:10:11.240a few years ago in a discussion about Halloween, he said, and I quote,
00:10:17.420quote, I'm glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out0.62
00:10:22.600of the year, end quote. The reality is, Halloween is viewed as a satanic holiday by Satanists.0.61
00:10:31.980So, here are three reasons that I have, you know, for our family and why we personally don't believe
00:10:40.800Christians, or at least have the conviction for ourselves, to celebrate Halloween. But again,
00:10:47.060at the end of the day, these are simply principles because the Bible doesn't speak specifically
00:10:51.960on participating in Halloween, but your level of participation becomes a matter of conscience
00:10:58.780before God, and we're not to violate our conscience or convictions. My hope is to give you an
00:11:04.200understanding, and this isn't a carte blanche answer. There's a variety of factors you need
00:11:10.260to take in consideration—the age of your children, the place that you live, how much
00:11:15.940participation you feel comfortable with, what are your convictions, etc., etc. So I'll give you my
00:11:21.280three reasons. First is Halloween is a celebration of death. So this is point number one. Halloween
00:11:28.500is a celebration of death. And this is why your local Home Depot and Target stores are covered in
00:11:35.660morbid, decaying witches and skeletons. It's a season to make children more comfortable with
00:11:42.600evil and the distortion of God's image. It's a night to elevate nooses and demons and gore and
00:11:50.000horror and fear. And an appetite, you have to realize this, an appetite for horror movies in
00:11:58.740your teens is cultivated in your childhood. If you're comfortable with a playful form of
00:12:05.080human perversion and degradation, then you'll eventually become more comfortable with a less
00:12:10.740playful form of it later. And we have to remember that Satan is a patient incrementalist, and he's
00:12:17.460aiming at destroying your children, even from a young age. As Christians, we don't look forward
00:12:25.280to death, okay? We don't celebrate death. Death is actually our final enemy. It's been conquered
00:12:32.680by Christ in part, but it's not something that we celebrate. We celebrate life. We don't look
00:12:40.240forward to the rising of the dead to torment humanity, but the resurrection of the dead,
00:12:47.140some to judgment and justice, and some to eternal life. And so, Christ conquered death on the cross,
00:12:54.160therefore we don't celebrate what Christ came to conquer. 2 Timothy 1.10 says,
00:13:00.320"...and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
00:13:04.440who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
00:15:45.300John 1, 4 through 5, in him was life and the life was the light of men.
00:15:51.340The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
00:15:54.560Ultimately, darkness is the opposite of light. After coming to Jesus,
00:16:00.640Christians love the light because we know first and foremost that spiritual darkness
00:16:06.940stands against God. And second, we know that we're safest as Christians when we walk in the light.
00:16:15.420We also know that although he disguises himself as an angel of light, Satan is the prince of
00:16:21.480darkness. Now, he's no more the prince of darkness on Halloween than he is on any other day,
00:16:28.860meaning that your sensitivity and awareness of darkness shouldn't change just because it's a
00:16:35.020holiday. It's always that dark. But at the end of the day, this point that I'm trying to make here
00:16:41.420is that Halloween is a celebration of darkness. We are people of light, and light has no fellowship
00:16:49.580with darkness, and we need to be careful about what we associate ourselves with. I think about
00:16:55.320this as maybe an in the world, but not of the world. How do we distinguish and differentiate
00:16:59.340ourselves? But Halloween is for sure a celebration of spiritual darkness. Number three, my last point
00:17:06.800here is Halloween is a celebration of evil. I'm not saying that all non-Christian or even Christian
00:17:13.960Halloween celebrations are overtly celebrations of evil. I'm saying that Halloween specifically0.98
00:17:20.360is rooted in evil and generally elevates things that Scripture directly tells us to not elevate.
00:17:28.6001 Thessalonians 5.22 says, abstain from every form of evil. It's a command in Scripture.
00:17:36.400And we got to remember, in a world filled with suicide, murder, wickedness, and fear,
00:17:42.460we can't believe that dressing up these horrors in cute decor one night per year
00:17:51.640makes them any less of what they really are, which is evil.
00:17:57.260And, you know, one thing I've noticed is that parents can struggle with viewing Halloween as evil
00:18:03.140and truly believe it's an innocent holiday.
00:18:07.600and this is because they have the mental and emotional faculties available to discern the
00:18:14.320moment, meaning that they can understand that a ghost is fake or that a witch in a cauldron is
00:18:20.200folklore. But what they don't often realize is how influential and formative these moments and
00:18:27.520visual images can be for small children. And I know our friends, for example, had a five-year-old
00:18:33.640who was traumatically scared just from one night of trick-or-treating and has changed
00:18:38.500that child's thinking about the holiday for several years coming. I've had my own kids ask
00:18:45.360me about the ghosts and if ghosts were real after seeing them in Home Depot. So these are
00:18:53.060real things that we need to be aware of, the differences between parents and children.
00:19:00.880Now, just to quickly address two other common questions.
00:19:05.600First is, is it okay to use an irredeemable event like Halloween as a church-sanctioned evangelism tool?
00:19:15.420And I think so, as long as the alternative that the church offers is truly an alternative.
00:19:22.860The current solution for Halloween in the church is almost identical to the world solution.
00:19:27.040The only difference is that it's less immodest, meaning that the girls aren't walking around in, you know, their, you know, nakedness for the most part.
00:19:37.160The blatant evil is toned down, and it's experienced on the church campus or parking lot instead of, you know, some Halloween party or on the streets.1.00
00:19:45.980I think a good alternative would be something like a harvest community dinner on the lawn with
00:19:54.680a movie and a gospel presentation at the end, a place to come and eat free food, have a night by
00:20:01.120the fire pit, watching a movie outside with other Christians. However, I personally wouldn't have0.96
00:20:06.680the kids dress up. I think the mere fact that kids aren't dressed up on Halloween becomes a
00:20:12.580wonderful cause for curiosity to an onlooking world and invites a good conversation about
00:20:18.580the gospel and why they're not conforming to the world in that capacity. So that's one question.
00:20:26.160The second common question is, what does our family do? Like, what do we do about it? Do we
00:20:32.660just sit at home, lock our doors, turn off our lights? Do we do anything special? As of now,
00:20:39.720We usually just gather together with our house church community and invite other maybe friends and family that aren't in our church for an apple-pressing pumpkin pie-eating evening, and we celebrate and discuss the five solas of the Reformation, which again is initiated by Martin Luther on October 31st, 1517.
00:21:03.420and so we've just turned it into a Reformation Day discussion, has no links with Halloween,
00:21:10.900no dressing up, and that's just how we've been able to do that, and hopefully that's