Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep. 1410 ｜ The Great Halloween Debate： Where I Land May Surprise You

00:00:00.740 First things first, our pro-life Christian pregnancy and period tracking app is now out

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00:01:30.440 Anna Kate for women or life, we're tracking what's true together from period tracking to

00:01:37.220 pregnancy to postpartum download Anna Kate today. All right. Today's episode is about Halloween.

00:01:44.860 should Christians celebrate Halloween? How do we approach Halloween? We've got all of that

00:01:51.120 on today's episode of Relatable. Hey y'all, welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone

00:02:06.220 had a wonderful weekend, that your week is off to a great start. Hopefully it's getting a little

00:02:10.880 bit cooler and fallier where you are. We have had so many fake falls where I am. If you are anywhere

00:02:17.760 south of the Mason Dixon, you have probably experienced the same thing. Also my friends in

00:02:22.040 California, you've been telling me about your heat woes. San Diego is not used to the 105 heat that

00:02:28.100 y'all had a couple of weeks ago. So I hope that y'all are surviving. And if all else fails, you

00:02:32.840 can be like I am today. It's probably going to be 85 degrees. I got my fall costume on. Okay.

00:02:37.480 That's what I do every year. I say, darn it. I am just going to dress like it's fall. I will 0.99

00:02:42.960 will it to be autumn even before it happens. So I've got my fall costume on. And speaking of

00:02:48.160 costumes, we will be talking about the completely non-controversial topic of Halloween. Every

00:02:53.820 Christian agrees on this, right? We all are unified in this doctrine about Halloween, correct? No,

00:03:00.560 this is very contentious. I've been talking about this probably every year of my podcast.

00:03:04.200 I would say since 2018. And so most of you are familiar with my take on it, which as much as I

00:03:12.020 hate this word, I would call it nuanced. The reason I don't like that word is because I feel

00:03:17.360 like sometimes it is overused to justify confusion and moral confusion and an unwillingness to go

00:03:24.480 towards the truth. Oh, it's nuanced. Oh, it's nuanced. But some things are actually nuanced.

00:03:28.740 Some things have multiple layers to it. And let me just start out this episode by saying

00:03:33.480 that it is okay if we don't all agree on this. Now, some of you are extremely passionate about

00:03:38.300 me being wrong on this. Some of you have changed your mind. Some of you agree with me, but this is,

00:03:44.860 I just want to say upfront, in my opinion, a Christian liberty issue. This is not a primary

00:03:49.640 issue. I don't even know if it's secondary, maybe tertiary, maybe sometime after that,

00:03:56.100 but this is not a salvation gospel issue in my book, in Allie Beth Stuckey's subjective book,

00:04:03.640 but it is an important thing for us to discuss because it has to do with how we engage in the

00:04:08.220 culture, how we are salt and light. Does it look like extracting ourselves from this particular

00:04:13.760 day in the mainstream sense entirely, or is there a way for us to redeem it? Is there a way for us

00:04:20.000 to use it in a way that glorifies God? Is it okay to dress up as long as it's not scary?

00:04:26.820 And then also what else happened on October 31st that we as Protestants are so thankful to God for

00:04:32.160 that of course is the Protestant Reformation. So we'll be getting into all of that today.

00:04:36.960 First, a reminder, God's eternal plan of redemption, it is going off without a hitch.

00:04:42.320 Today and every day is a day that the Lord has made so we can rejoice and be glad in it.

00:04:48.080 because every day we are living in light of the reality of the resurrection. So even if

00:04:55.600 nothing else seems to be going right, everything seems to be falling apart around you or everything

00:05:00.700 seems to be falling apart in the world. You have all reasons for anxiety and fear and paranoia and

00:05:07.960 sadness and depression and all of these very real emotions that you may feel are haunting you. The

00:05:14.160 truth is we always have a reason to rejoice. James one tells us this crazy thing that we should

00:05:20.500 find joy when we are facing trials of many kinds joy, when we are facing trials. So the joy that

00:05:26.980 we are told to have as Christians is actually not dependent upon whether our life is going good or

00:05:31.940 not. We are actually told specifically, Hey, when things are really hard, when you're being

00:05:36.520 persecuted specifically for your faith, when you're going through these difficult things,

00:05:40.800 when you're living through just the consequences of the fall, or when you're living through the

00:05:46.480 consequences of the sins of others, whatever it is that you're going through could be sickness.

00:05:52.040 It could be all kinds of things that have befallen your family. You're actually defying

00:05:56.460 joy because in those trials, we are learning perseverance. We are gaining steadfastness.

00:06:02.800 We are cultivating faithfulness and God really cares about our holiness. He really cares about

00:06:08.860 our sanctification. He really cares about working out our salvation with fear and trembling, and he

00:06:14.340 will really stop at nothing to glorify himself by sanctifying his people. And sometimes that's

00:06:20.740 scary because not a single one of us wants anything to go wrong. We don't want to be sad.

00:06:25.920 We don't want anything bad to happen to us, of course. And so we just have to trust the Lord

00:06:30.540 and to trust that his gospel is enough for us to be joyful or his gospel is enough for us to be

00:06:37.080 grateful. The future that we have with him because of our salvation by grace through faith in Christ

00:06:43.120 is enough to be hopeful, is enough to even be happy. And so we live in light of this reality,

00:06:48.860 which is absolutely fixed. It doesn't change. It doesn't undulate. It doesn't wax and wane.

00:06:56.660 And so that is the steadiness that we have in Christ. Hebrews 13, 8. I love this verse,

00:07:01.720 and it was a verse that I clung to a lot, especially during COVID when it just seemed

00:07:05.220 like, okay, hang on a second. What the heck is going on? What world are we raising our kids in?

00:07:10.760 And that is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yesterday,

00:07:15.520 today, and forever. Isn't that what everyone is looking for? For some kind of stability,

00:07:20.240 some kind of solid place to put our feet that we can trust in? As well as Job 42, 2,

00:07:26.840 nothing is too hard for you. No plan of yours can be thwarted. We can totally trust in the Lord.

00:07:32.340 his eternal plan of redemption is never thrown off. It is never off track. It never takes a

00:07:38.400 detour. It never takes an unexpected turn. God is sovereign over all of it. He cannot be hindered.

00:07:44.460 He cannot be interrupted. He cannot be surprised. He does nothing arbitrarily. He does nothing

00:07:50.000 accidentally. He is working all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called

00:07:53.960 according to his purpose, Romans 8, 28. So whatever you are going through today, just cling

00:07:59.140 to those things. I've talked to so many of you who have told me that that reminder that God's

00:08:03.600 eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch has been such a buoy to you. And of course,

00:08:08.840 that's not my truth. That's not Allie Beth Stuckey's ism. That is biblical truth. That's

00:08:14.500 what biblical truth does. It gives us clarity. It gives us courage and it helps us hold on when

00:08:19.400 things feel really, really chaotic. All right, let's get into this y'all. Let's get into Halloween

00:08:26.280 with Christian love and charity. Can we do that? Can we do that when we're talking about this?

00:08:31.600 Because I know I'm going to get some spicy messages about your disagreement, which is

00:08:35.860 okay, but let's try to approach this as charitably as we possibly can. It's one of those topics that

00:08:42.480 we debate every year. Is it harmless? Is it a celebration of darkness that Christians should

00:08:48.520 have no part in whatsoever? Can we celebrate Halloween or not? How do we glorify God on 1.00

00:08:55.220 October 31st. So what does scripture actually say about these things? First, let's talk about

00:09:00.900 the camps that Christians fall into when it comes to Halloween. There are really four different

00:09:07.260 categories of Christian participation or Christian viewing of Halloween. The first one is abstinence,

00:09:14.140 totally abstaining from anything to do with Halloween. They might have a harvest festival,

00:09:19.440 They'll celebrate fall. As we'll talk about, they might celebrate reformation day, but this view

00:09:25.280 says, look, this is a lot of darkness. This is a lot of death and decay and witchcraft.

00:09:30.260 All of those things are satanic. Why would I participate in a day that glorifies that which

00:09:35.840 calls evil? Why would I even attempt to navigate that in a way that could possibly confuse and

00:09:42.420 scare my children? So that's one view of it. And then the second would be the opposite of that,

00:09:47.680 which is full participation. There are those who think it's no big deal to be scared for your kids

00:09:52.080 to be scared that they might say, they know that it's not real. Their kids know that it's not real.

00:09:58.140 They know that it's just fun. And it's a way to maybe not make them, I'm trying to, you know,

00:10:03.480 I'm trying to steel man their position here. It's a way to not make them scared of things and to

00:10:09.560 show them that, you know, Satan actually doesn't have power, that this is, Satan doesn't have the

00:10:15.600 kind of power that they need to fear as Christians. And so it's really just not that serious. It's

00:10:23.680 okay to be a little bit scary. It's okay to even make fun of mummies and skeletons and all of that,

00:10:31.540 that it's not actually demonic and Christians put too much stock into the idea of everything 0.79

00:10:37.300 being satanic. So that would be possibly one position, the full participation. And then the

00:10:44.080 third position that a lot of Christians take is partial participation or participation in the 0.52

00:10:49.280 parts of Halloween that are not as obviously horrifying. So maybe some trick-or-treating,

00:10:57.040 some getting some candy, allowing their kids to dress up as certain things that are not scary.

00:11:03.340 I will say this is part of what I did growing up. My mom would never let me dress up like a witch

00:11:08.300 or never let me dress up like anything scary. She would never decorate our house for Halloween. I

00:11:12.120 always wanted her to decorate our house for Halloween. She wouldn't do that. Um, she would 0.99

00:11:16.200 just decorate for fall and she allowed me to go trick or treating, but we never could watch scary

00:11:20.360 movies or glorify anything scary. She was very serious about that. Um, and so this is another

00:11:27.400 thing that Christians do. They partially participate, but they try to avoid the things 1.00

00:11:32.740 that are really, really dark. And then the fourth form of participation is what I would say my mom

00:11:39.720 really does, which we'll get into a little bit more. And that is participation, probably partial

00:11:45.100 participation with redemption. So not only participating in the parts of Halloween that

00:11:52.440 are just kind of fun, the candy and the lighthearted costumes, but also using it

00:11:57.980 as an opportunity for evangelism, using it as an opportunity to share God's word with people.

00:12:05.000 and we'll get into how my mom has done that and how she does that to this day. So those are kind

00:12:10.980 of the four categories of how Christians are thinking about Halloween. And we'll get into

00:12:16.120 specifically what they could look like, what's right about them and what's wrong about them.

00:12:20.440 But let's back up first. Let's talk about the origins of Halloween, because this is highly

00:12:24.580 debated and really lays the groundwork for how we can discuss and, um, how we can debate what

00:12:31.860 really is the best view when it comes to our participation in this day. First, let me pause,

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00:13:44.480 okay so where does halloween come from we talked about this um on an episode on episode 697 okay

00:13:59.920 so quite a bit of time ago a few years ago and i talked with the guys from um cultish the cultish

00:14:07.860 podcast because they've been talking about the origins of halloween for a while on their show

00:14:13.540 and they talk about how the origin story is very murky. The traditional account traces it partly

00:14:21.720 to Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and beginning of the new year

00:14:28.260 around November 1st. Now, according to this account, the Celts believed the boundary between

00:14:34.300 the living and the spirit worlds became thinner at this time, leading to rituals intended to

00:14:39.780 appease or ward off spirits. So obviously a pagan mentality there. Um, but according to Desiring

00:14:47.420 God, that's John Piper's ministry. They know that Christianity has also contributed significantly

00:14:53.580 to the holiday. The church established All Saints Day, eventually celebrated on November 1st

00:14:59.020 with the preceding evening becoming All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Hallow means sacred or hallowed

00:15:06.280 means sacred. Some historians argue this state was chosen to supplant or replace Samhain,

00:15:13.020 although that connection is disputed. So that's kind of the murky part of this. Medieval and

00:15:17.760 early modern Christian customs also contributed to traditions resembling trick-or-treating. So

00:15:22.740 souling was a practice where people went door-to-door receiving soul cakes in exchange for

00:15:27.660 prayers for the dead. Obviously, that is not a biblical practice. So even if Christians were

00:15:32.880 contributing to that custom. That is not a good thing. And Britain and Ireland, a separate practice 0.98

00:15:38.240 guising involved, costumed young people performing songs, poems, or tricks in exchange for food.

00:15:44.120 These traditions eventually crossed the Atlantic mixed with other customs, including Guy Fawkes

00:15:48.560 Day, bonfires, masks, pranks. By the early 20th century, American Halloween had developed a

00:15:54.360 reputation for destructive pranks, helping spur the more family-friendly practice of trick-or-treating.

00:16:01.400 By the mid-20th century, Halloween had largely become a commercialized children's holiday centered on candy costumes and neighborhood festivities.

00:16:09.980 So like so many of our holidays today, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, it started as one thing, then it became commercialized.

00:16:18.020 It became a way to sell things, sell candy, sell cards, sell costumes, and sell movies, and that's really what it became.

00:16:27.660 by the 1970s and 1980s, horror movies, new age influences, broader cultural changes helped push

00:16:33.940 Halloween imagery increasingly towards gore, sexuality, witchcraft, the occult. So that is

00:16:40.620 more of a modern iteration, a modern evolution of Halloween. So Halloween is difficult to reduce

00:16:47.760 based on all of this to either an ancient pagan holiday or a Christian holiday. It developed over

00:16:53.120 centuries from a mixture of pagan Christian folk, immigrant commercial traditions, and whatever its

00:17:00.000 origins are, Christians still just have to evaluate what are the modern practices, what are the

00:17:05.900 meanings, and how should we as Christians respond according to scripture. Now there's something else

00:17:12.080 that happened on October 31st that has nothing to do with Halloween and has nothing to do with

00:17:18.460 Catholic traditions of Halloween, of praying for the dead and things like that. And that has to do,

00:17:24.380 that is the Protestant Reformation. We've talked about the Protestant Reformation many times on

00:17:29.600 this show, specifically on our Halloween episodes, because this is a day, regardless of how you feel

00:17:35.760 about Halloween, if you are a Protestant, we should know more about, and we should celebrate.

00:17:41.000 Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door, or that's the,

00:17:47.340 that's the lore anyway. We know that his 95 theses existed. We don't know exactly how he

00:17:52.680 pinned it to the door and what really that looked like, but he nailed, he posted somewhere his 95

00:17:59.260 theses on October 31st, 1517. He was confronting through these 95 theses, two religious observances

00:18:07.480 that promoted false saintliness and exploited people's fear of judgment and purgatory.

00:18:13.400 So monks, priests, bishops, and popes in Rome taught on biblical doctrines like the selling

00:18:19.580 of indulgences. The selling of indulgences is the belief that if you pay a certain amount of money

00:18:25.160 to the Catholic church, then your loved ones who have died might spring themselves out of purgatory

00:18:31.200 and earn their way into heaven, which of course is completely anti-gospel. The treasury of merit,

00:18:36.800 again, this is just earning, um, earning favor with God. This is trying to reconcile yourself

00:18:42.940 to God and remit your sins through payments and through your own financial sacrifice.

00:18:49.740 And that is again, the opposite of what the gospel teaches. Um, they also taught during this time

00:18:55.960 salvation through good works that in order to skip purgatory or in order to spend less time

00:19:02.540 in purgatory. In order to go to heaven, you have to earn your way to God. While Luther never wanted

00:19:07.880 to be a revolutionary, he wasn't trying to start his own denomination. He wasn't trying to start

00:19:12.580 some kind of mutiny against Rome, but he saw this. He was a learned man and he realized, okay,

00:19:20.560 right now the Catholic church is teaching doctrines that are simply anti the book that

00:19:26.820 we say that we believe in. They're anti-Bible, and even more fundamentally, they are anti-gospel.

00:19:33.880 He also took issue with the authority of the Pope that seemed to supersede the authority of

00:19:39.340 scripture, which really was causing so much confusion when it came to people at the time

00:19:44.900 not really knowing what is true about Christianity, because most people during this time could not

00:19:50.140 read. And because they could not read the Bible for themselves, and because they were going to

00:19:54.700 mass that was only taught in Latin, they really had no idea what was going on. They had to trust

00:20:02.260 the Pope. They had to trust their priests. Okay. If you say that I have to pay money to get this

00:20:06.160 person out of purgatory, I guess that's true. And to Luther and understandably so rightly, so

00:20:13.280 he saw this as completely anti-Christianity. This is not true to the claim that the Catholic church

00:20:21.240 is simply the earliest church and is simply reflective of the faith and the practices of

00:20:26.080 the apostles. That is clearly not true. It wasn't true in Luther's time, and he saw that. So that

00:20:31.500 was the context that prompted Luther's desire to refocus the church on salvation by grace through

00:20:36.440 faith on account of Christ, by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. So that is what we

00:20:42.520 as Protestants believe, that Christ, when he died on the cross for our sins, when by grace through

00:20:49.340 faith. We believe in him. We are given his righteousness. We are justified all at once.

00:20:54.820 Justification is not a process, but we are justified when we are saved. And then we get

00:20:59.620 the righteousness of Christ. And because we get the righteousness of Christ by Christ's sacrifice,

00:21:04.260 we are totally reconciled to God. We have boldness and access with confidence to him

00:21:09.020 right then. We don't have to earn it. There's nothing that we can do to pay our way,

00:21:13.080 but that is the gospel by grace alone through faith alone. Luther was passionate about this

00:21:18.220 And it is obviously God's providence that as Luther was raising a respectful ruckus about

00:21:25.120 all these false doctrines of Rome, that the printing press was also invented.

00:21:29.520 So he took pains to translate the Bible into German, into the common language, so more

00:21:35.540 people would be able to read it.

00:21:37.140 And because of the invention of the printing press that providentially coincided at the

00:21:41.300 same time as Luther and others throughout Europe speaking about the truth of the gospel,

00:21:47.740 the gospel and God's word spread like wildfire. And once the truth was unleashed, that's really

00:21:53.140 what started the reformation. It wasn't one person leading a mutiny against Rome. That's

00:21:58.300 not what he intended to do, but that is what happened. And of course, I believe by the total

00:22:03.700 and complete grace and power of God that happened. And I'm so thankful for it. Here's one thing that

00:22:10.400 Luther said that was just completely counter to so many beliefs at the time. He said, God receives

00:22:14.580 none, but those who are forsaken, restores health to none, but those who are sick, give sight to

00:22:18.920 none, but the blind and life to none, but the dead. Okay. The dead can't earn their way to God.

00:22:24.240 He does not give saintliness to any, but sinners, nor wisdom to any, but fools. In short, he has 0.99

00:22:29.320 mercy on none, but the wretched and gives grace to none, but those who are in disgrace. Therefore,

00:22:34.120 no arrogant saint or just, or a wise man can be material for God. Neither can he do the work of

00:22:40.000 God, but he remains confined with his own work and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible,

00:22:45.500 false, and deceitful saint. That is a hypocrite. You can't earn your way to God. You can't earn 1.00

00:22:51.460 your way to God. The early reformers' key tenets were this, justification by faith alone, by grace

00:22:57.860 alone, through faith alone. It's essential to the gospel. The gospel is essential, they argue,

00:23:04.660 to Christianity and to salvation. The gospel is essential to a church's being a true church,

00:23:11.200 uh, to reject justification by faith alone. The reformers believed is to reject the gospel and

00:23:16.040 to fall as a church by grace alone. These are the five solas you see. Um, I have this little,

00:23:21.900 this little token right here on my necklace, and this is the Martin Luther's rose and it has the

00:23:28.600 five solas around it. It's funny. Some people think that this is like some kind of Catholic

00:23:33.520 emblem from afar because they can't really see it. I'm like, it's actually the exact opposite.

00:23:37.680 It's the five solos by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, according to scripture

00:23:41.660 alone for God's glory alone. Good works are important, but they are an outworking of that

00:23:48.260 faith that justifies you. They do not earn your salvation. That's how we reconcile Ephesians two

00:23:53.840 with the passage in James that says faith without works is dead. And also by grace,

00:23:58.280 you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is a gift of God that can't

00:24:02.980 be earned through works. Paul says it over and over again in Ephesians 2. We reconcile that by

00:24:07.740 saying that faith is the initiator, the source of those good works, and that the good works are a

00:24:14.540 product of that faith, not a prerequisite for it. So those are the five solas that Protestants,

00:24:21.300 that Protestantism relies on. That is something that we should all know about, that we should

00:24:26.040 all celebrate on October 31st, no matter what the origins of Halloween are, no matter what

00:24:32.480 four categories you fall into, we can know for sure that if we are celebrating the beauty of

00:24:39.200 the truths of the reformation, then we are glorifying God, um, because we're celebrating

00:24:46.740 the gospel and we're celebrating more people knowing about the gospel. Now I know a lot of

00:24:51.480 my Catholic friends out there who I really respect and I really love and agree with on so many

00:24:56.020 different things. They'll say, how can you celebrate this? I see this every year. How can

00:24:59.960 you possibly celebrate this when there's so much division now and Protestantism has allowed for all 0.84

00:25:06.920 of these different heresies? Well, first of all, I would say there's divisions within the Catholic

00:25:11.260 church. There are things that I believe not to be biblical and not to be true dogmas, especially

00:25:16.580 Marian dogmas that I believe not to have any support in scripture whatsoever in the Catholic

00:25:21.220 church. So there's not unity. There's not infallible truth necessarily, um, or infallible

00:25:27.460 truth, not even not necessarily, but, uh, within the, within the Catholic church. And so you don't

00:25:32.660 really have that on Protestants, but also division in pursuit of the truth is worth it. Like it's 1.00

00:25:39.960 the same argument for, Oh, how could you be happy for the revolutionary war and the establishment

00:25:44.160 of America when now you have all these different States and you're not just under one kingdom.

00:25:48.800 Like that's basically the same argument. We would say that having these States and having

00:25:52.900 these state and local governments that are democratized and are not ruled completely by

00:25:58.240 the federal government, even with all of our disagreements between states and between parties

00:26:02.780 is better than being ruled under tyranny. And so it's, it's a similar principle. It's a similar

00:26:09.360 argument, even though there are churches that claim to be Protestant, that claim to be a part

00:26:15.020 of a particular denomination that don't preach the things that are true. We're thankful for the

00:26:21.520 freedom and for the autonomy to preach God's word, to know God's word, and to believe God's

00:26:27.520 word in its entirety as the only inerrant source of wisdom that we have. All right. So no matter

00:26:35.360 where you fall on Halloween, like Protestants, we can unify on that, the love of the gospel and the

00:26:40.040 celebration of the gospel. Now, here are those four categories again, which includes what I

00:26:46.380 think Christians should not celebrate at all, what we should absolutely not do, and what I think 0.94

00:26:51.220 from my opinion, we can actually do when it comes to Halloween. Let me pause, tell you about our 0.65

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00:28:07.220 Okay. Option number one for Christians, total abstinence. Maybe you are celebrating the 1.00

00:28:12.880 Protestant Reformation, or maybe you are a Catholic and you're not celebrating the Protestant

00:28:18.880 Reformation, but you don't want to celebrate Halloween either. That would look like, again,

00:28:24.340 not going trick-or-treating, just celebrating the harvest, fall, just living like it's any other day.

00:28:31.580 I think, this is my opinion, I think that's a totally legitimate Christian choice. I definitely

00:28:37.160 know and respect a lot of people who just think, you know what, I'm not even going to try to toe

00:28:42.720 the line here. I don't want it to be confusing to my children. And I do believe that teaching

00:28:48.460 children contacts of things can be really difficult when they're young. It's easier when

00:28:53.580 they're older. It's hard when they're little because kids are very black and white. And so 1.00

00:28:58.660 if you're like, you know what? Sure. I could dress them up as Paw Patrol or I could dress them up

00:29:03.160 like an angel and that might be fine. But then when you're going trick or treating and you're

00:29:06.900 seeing the scary skeletons and all of the gore, you're trying to teach your kids. Yeah, that's

00:29:11.860 not okay. Then you walk to the next house with pumpkins. This is okay. You're like, okay, you

00:29:15.980 know what? I just don't even want to participate in that. Maybe you're concerned about just

00:29:21.360 participating in darkness in general. That's not something that you think Christians should be a

00:29:25.820 part of. I think that is totally, totally fine and understandable. Here's what I would caution 1.00

00:29:32.040 those who are in this camp of saying, no, we absolutely cannot participate in darkness at all.

00:29:38.800 It needs to come from a place of wisdom and trusting God, a place of peace and not a place

00:29:46.540 of superstition and paranoia and giving Satan too much credit. First, all of us need to appeal to

00:29:52.460 James 1.5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach

00:29:59.960 and it will be given him. This is something that we can ask the Lord about, to ask the Lord for

00:30:06.920 discernment. Remember, we've talked about a lot, the discern, decernary, which is the Latin word

00:30:12.800 for discern. It literally means to sift. And so you are taking what you want and you are letting

00:30:18.120 go of what you don't sifting through like a fine mesh sieve is much more particular than just

00:30:27.340 deciding between good and bad. Figuring out, okay, is this a diamond? Is this just a dirty rock?

00:30:33.360 that's pretty easy. When it comes to deciding between what's good and best, that takes a much

00:30:39.720 stronger filter that I believe requires the Holy Spirit and the word of God to really help us

00:30:47.320 work through that. But we need to remember that this day in itself is not innately evil.

00:30:55.240 It is not innately dark. We don't need to walk around worried about, oh my goodness,

00:31:01.160 are the spirits out to get me. No, no, no. If you are a Christian, he who is in you is greater than

00:31:06.620 he who is in the world. And that is true every single day. Romans eight is true every single 0.67

00:31:12.180 day that you are more than a conquer through him who loves you. Psalm 118 24 reminds us that this

00:31:19.260 is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. That is every day, not every

00:31:25.140 day, except for October 31st. That is every single day that we can rejoice, that we bring our joy,

00:31:30.480 our light, our evangelism, our generosity, our charity into October 31st, just as we do every

00:31:37.080 other day. I don't think that you need to hide out on this day. I don't think that you need to

00:31:41.760 do any extra Hail Marys if you're a Catholic on this day. I don't think if you're a Protestant 0.53

00:31:46.760 on this day that you need to be extra fearful and feel the sense of darkness. Actually,

00:31:50.980 you shouldn't because you are a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Paul also makes it clear

00:31:55.980 in Romans 14, that in regard to days and festivals, there is room for Christians to

00:32:02.460 celebrate differently. Now, I understand some of you might say, no, no, no, no, that's not what

00:32:07.700 he's talking about. It's a mixture of light and darkness that we should not be a part of. But I

00:32:12.080 think that there's a principle here that we can look to and possibly apply. One person, he says,

00:32:17.180 esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should

00:32:21.900 be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the

00:32:26.780 Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who

00:32:31.480 abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Now, what I want to say, regardless

00:32:37.060 of even the Halloween conversation here, the principle that I think that we can apply is that

00:32:42.720 whatever we do, whether you are eating candy or not, whether you are dressing up as an angel or

00:32:49.040 not any day of the week, we do it for the glory of God. We do it in honor of the Lord. So I believe

00:32:56.700 that abstaining from Halloween and all of its traditional celebrations is a totally valid option,

00:33:02.480 but you do it not from a place of conspiracy, not from a place of paranoia, not from a place as

00:33:09.200 like the devil is out to get me and my children today, but from a place of faith, from a place

00:33:15.760 of wanting to desire to glorify God as much as you possibly can from a place of confidence in your

00:33:23.040 place in God's kingdom and the Holy spirit, which works as the deposit for you and your salvation

00:33:30.980 and your faith and your confidence in him and the hope that we have in glory. Like you should walk

00:33:36.280 through this day, totally joyful and fearless. Okay. So option two full participation, full

00:33:43.020 participation. There are things, this is the other side of the spectrum, obviously. It's no big deal.

00:33:48.260 People are making a big deal of it. You know, real death and real decay, real demonic activity

00:33:54.760 doesn't look like silly googly eyes and people dressing up like mummies and things like that.

00:34:01.060 And so it doesn't even have any correlation with the satanic. I would push back against that

00:34:08.040 position because it is a representation of darkness. And even if it's a cartoonish representation

00:34:14.140 of darkness, it doesn't mean that it's something to be celebrated. If we know that even Satan

00:34:20.180 disguises himself as an angel of light, we could also say that his minions and his work

00:34:25.660 can disguise themselves as, um, not so scary characters or cartoonish representations of

00:34:33.980 darkness. In Ephesians, Paul makes it clear that Christians don't partake in darkness.

00:34:38.700 Ephesians 5, 8 through 11, therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you

00:34:43.080 were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light

00:34:47.540 is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern, there's that word again,

00:34:52.140 what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead

00:34:58.820 dead, expose them. Philippians 4, 8 through 9 also speaks to this. Finally, brothers, whatever is

00:35:04.460 true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever

00:35:09.400 is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about

00:35:13.980 these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things

00:35:17.900 and the God of peace will be with you. God is saying, look, all of these things, purity,

00:35:24.120 loveliness, excellence, things that are praiseworthy, all of these things will facilitate

00:35:28.580 and cultivate peace in you that comes from God. So when your children see Halloween decorations

00:35:35.220 that celebrate things like death and darkness and decay, we should actually make clear that

00:35:41.700 we don't participate in those things, that you really shouldn't blur the lines there.

00:35:47.260 Whether you participate or not, and we'll get into the partial participation in a minute,

00:35:51.700 I really don't think that there should be a question of this. It's also just not loving to

00:35:57.300 your children. It's not loving to your neighbors to try to frighten them in this way and even give

00:36:02.600 them a morbid curiosity or interest in the things of darkness because they might seem innocent or

00:36:08.900 silly or cartoonish now, but they actually have a representation like in the underworld, they have

00:36:15.900 a representation or a parallel in Satan's domain of darkness. And Satan loves death. He loves 0.97

00:36:24.980 decay and he loves scariness. He loves cultivating fear and anxiety. And we should participate in

00:36:32.160 nothing that purposely cultivates fear and anxiety and glorifies death and decay. Spiritual warfare

00:36:40.180 is very real in Ephesians. Paul writes about this in Ephesians six, that we don't wrestle 0.82

00:36:46.640 against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic

00:36:50.080 powers over this present darkness. So it's not just the one costume. It's not just the one

00:36:54.780 skeleton in your yard. It's about what it really represents. The demonic is real. And to dismiss

00:37:01.520 that or minimize that is actually exactly what Satan wants. If you read screw tape letters,

00:37:06.040 if you want a spooky but edifying thing to read this October, you should read Screwtape Letters

00:37:10.460 by C.S. Lewis because you will see in this fictionalized representation of the demonic

00:37:16.380 what it can actually look like. Satan does not care whether you blatantly worship him or not.

00:37:22.300 Actually, I think he believes that it's better for you to think that you're worshiping something

00:37:27.620 that's or doing something that's innocent or innocuous, not that big of a deal when really

00:37:32.540 you are doing something that he enjoys. Again, he disguises himself as an angel of light.

00:37:39.220 Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

00:37:43.560 following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,

00:37:47.140 the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once walked in

00:37:51.340 the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by

00:37:55.300 nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. The next sentence is like the most glorious

00:38:00.880 sentence in scripture, I think, but God being rich in mercy because of the love with which he loved

00:38:05.200 us made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved through faith. That's that

00:38:10.480 reformation gospel truth. Again, by grace, you have been saved through faith. So right there,

00:38:14.500 we see the juxtaposition between the darkness, the domain of darkness that is death, and then

00:38:21.920 the kingdom of light, which is life in Christ. Life and light should be celebrated, not darkness

00:38:28.700 and death. Also the third thing here that I would warn people against if they are for this like

00:38:34.520 full participation thing, um, is that witchcraft is real. The occult is real because the demonic

00:38:40.400 is real. And because demonic influence and spiritual warfare is real, witchcraft and the 0.60

00:38:45.700 occult are real and they are not harmless. In fact, they are so harmful and they are so wrong

00:38:50.260 that they carried the weight of the death penalty with them. If God's people practiced these things

00:38:56.140 in the old Testament. We see that in Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12, there shall not be found among

00:39:01.140 you. Anyone who burns his son or daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or

00:39:05.800 tells fortunes or interprets omens. So like you're Ouija born, he is putting on par with child

00:39:12.060 sacrifice, going to a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer. That is one who speaks 0.97

00:39:18.460 to the dead, by the way, he's saying that is in the same category as offering your baby up to be

00:39:25.080 sacrificed. That's how bad it is. Like it is so bad to try to channel other powers other than God

00:39:33.240 himself, that he believed in the old Testament, or of course God never changes, but he ordered

00:39:38.940 in the old Testament that you had to die because of that. That was so infecting to a society,

00:39:44.840 so damaging to a people that you had to purge that. You had to purge that completely by executing

00:39:52.080 the person. Of course, because God never changes, his truths never change. His principles never

00:39:57.240 change. We don't live under the same old Testament law that ancient Israel did, but we can look at

00:40:02.440 his laws and say, okay, what is God communicating here? And of course we see the prohibition against

00:40:06.620 witchcraft and all works of darkness echoed in the new Testament as well. I just don't think

00:40:12.140 it is at all an option for Christians to not only fully participate in Halloween and all of its 1.00

00:40:18.820 darkness and scariness. But I also just don't think that Christians should be a fan of horror 0.96

00:40:24.700 in general. Like, I don't think you should be reading books that make you scared. I don't

00:40:28.560 think that you should be listening to true crime podcasts that make you scared. I don't think you

00:40:32.760 should be listening or watching movies that make you scared. And I have, like, I've seen Rosemary's

00:40:37.960 Baby. Like, I've seen the really scary movies out there. And now I'm like, oh, I know why my mom

00:40:43.420 didn't want me to watch signs when I was like in sixth grade. It scared me. Like being scared is

00:40:49.540 not like how many times, how many times do we read throughout scripture from Jesus and in the

00:40:56.360 Old Testament? Do not fear. Do not fear. And yet we purposely consume content that is meant to make

00:41:04.320 us scared. I don't think we often think about like the horror content, the scary content,

00:41:10.960 law and order SVU that you are imbibing. That is actually a direct contradiction of Jesus's

00:41:18.620 command to not fear or be anxious about anything. So we shouldn't be facilitating fear. And then

00:41:25.820 you've got the other option, which is partial participation. We'll get into that in just a

00:41:29.260 second. Let me tell you about good ranchers. Okay. We're talking about some bad things. Let

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00:41:43.380 the backbone of American industry that really has been the backbone from the very beginning.

00:41:48.460 These are, in many cases, these generational farms that are trying so hard to stay afloat,

00:41:54.980 but they need our support. They treat their animals well. They are sometimes like a bulwark

00:42:01.580 against the technological industrialization that is taking over our farmland because a lot of these

00:42:08.600 farmers and ranchers are saying, no, I don't care how much money you give me. Like I'm going to

00:42:12.820 continue to feed my community and feed my country. They need to be rewarded for that, not punished,

00:42:18.140 uh, punished for that. So how we do that is we support them by buying meat from American farms

00:42:23.460 and ranches. You do that with good ranchers. It's the easiest way to vote with your dollar.

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00:42:51.400 Okay. Third option, which I think probably describes a lot of people in this audience,

00:42:55.240 and that is partial participation. So this particular position would say, okay, well,

00:43:01.620 candy isn't inherently demonic. Costumes don't have to celebrate any form of darkness at all.

00:43:07.720 Like if you're dressing up like a school bus or like a pumpkin, there's nothing dark or evil

00:43:13.080 about that. Carving pumpkins does not have to glorify evil. If you do trunk or treat at your

00:43:19.100 church, that can be very glorifying. And so this position would say, as long as you abstain from

00:43:25.160 partaking in or glorifying evil or death or the occult or participating in this at all,

00:43:32.520 scaring yourself, scaring your children, then you can do these fun activities.

00:43:37.980 My opinion, I think that this is a fine option.

00:43:41.120 It's a fine option.

00:43:42.400 I do not think that this is simple.

00:43:44.760 I don't think that this is flirting with evil.

00:43:46.940 I think it's a way to just have a fun day with your kids.

00:43:50.180 like if you allow your kids to dress up for different kinds of days in the year, I think

00:43:56.500 it's okay for you to call this Halloween, which comes from all Hallows Eve and for you to eat

00:44:03.140 some candy and for you to have fun with your family and for you to dress up. I would simply

00:44:08.040 argue that for the Christian, there is an even better option than that. So I would say that's 0.97

00:44:13.080 like a good slash neutral option. But I think the redemptive participation is what Christians 1.00

00:44:20.040 can do. I'm not saying that you have to do it. I think number one, number three, and number four

00:44:27.100 are all viable options. But if you are going to go with option number three, the partial

00:44:32.020 participation, then I think you should switch on over to option number four, which is redemptive

00:44:37.780 participation. And this is something that my mom has set an example on for me for many years.

00:44:45.180 And that is using giving out candy trick or treating as an evangelism opportunity. So

00:44:52.460 with every bag of candy or every piece of candy that she hands out, she also hands out basically

00:44:57.820 a gospel tract. She has John three 16 or whatever the Bible verse is printed on little pieces of

00:45:05.520 papers. She'll put them, she'll attach them to the pieces of candy or put them in little plastic

00:45:10.340 bags. She'll sit out front in her front lawn and she will talk to the kids that come. She'll talk

00:45:16.940 to the families that come. She'll share the gospel with them. She'll show kindness to them. She'll

00:45:21.880 make sure that they have whatever materials she has created that day, um, that tells them the

00:45:28.240 truth of God's love for them. And, um, the area where they live is, um, is heavily, I would say,

00:45:36.460 or has a good percentage of people who are not Christian. They are of other religions and might

00:45:42.320 not know the gospel at all. And so she really has had the opportunity to share the love of Jesus

00:45:49.160 with them. What other time she would say, what other time of year do you have people coming to

00:45:55.180 your home and asking you for something, this is like the easiest evangelism opportunity

00:46:01.120 possible. To me, this is the best option. Number four, I think is the best option.

00:46:07.840 The reason why I think it's the best option, even though I understand the benefits of the

00:46:12.160 first option, just completely abstaining whatsoever, protecting your children from

00:46:16.360 any visualization or glorification of darkness at all. This is saying, look again, he who is in me

00:46:23.560 is greater than he who is in the world. The world is dark. There is demonic spiritual warfare going

00:46:29.220 on. That's something that exists, but I'm going to redeem it. I'm going to infuse light into it.

00:46:35.020 I'm going to overcome evil with good. And there is nothing too dark for me as a Christian who

00:46:41.060 has the Holy spirit inside me to enter in, preach the gospel into. So that's what my mom has done

00:46:47.820 for many years and it's not only sharing the gospel as people come to her house for a candy

00:46:55.000 she also makes these little signs and i'll put a picture up she makes these little signs that are

00:47:01.100 really cute and they're like a little halloween size i don't know where she makes them she creates

00:47:06.840 them she like creates them i guess on her computer and then she gets them printed out but they're

00:47:12.020 these little banners that she puts in her front lawn. And they're like, for example, one like has

00:47:18.320 a little Halloween owl on there. And it was, and the verse is like, whoever calls upon the name

00:47:24.440 of the Lord will be saved. Um, light in the darkness kind of versus things like that. And so

00:47:30.320 the word of God doesn't return void. And she is using a day that most people celebrate that most

00:47:37.000 people participate in to catch people's attention and to draw them toward the word of god this could

00:47:44.120 also be a way to teach your children not to fear satan but to see themselves as an agent of order

00:47:50.420 an agent of light colossians 1 13 through 14 he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and

00:47:56.620 transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness

00:48:01.060 of sins i think it's so important to emphasize that that right now as a christian you don't live

00:48:06.860 in the domain of darkness. It doesn't matter how many of your neighbors are celebrating Halloween.

00:48:11.460 That neighborhood is not the domain of darkness. You live in the kingdom of his beloved son. You

00:48:17.880 live in the kingdom of light. So where you are, you have the power of light and the power of Christ

00:48:25.520 inside you. So wherever you go, you have the power to infuse that light and infuse that truth

00:48:31.460 and goodness. Um, your neighbors might be living in the domain of darkness, all the more reason for

00:48:37.520 you to reach out to them. Now you might say you already share the gospel with lots of people.

00:48:41.900 You don't need to do that on Halloween because you think it offers too much confusion. I think

00:48:45.760 that's fair. If you are someone who already is an active evangelist and you're actively sharing

00:48:50.940 the gospel with your neighbors and it's your conviction not to participate at all. I think

00:48:54.860 that's fair. But if you're looking for an opportunity to talk to the people who live

00:49:00.520 around you about the gospel, I think that this is a really good one. First John four, four little

00:49:04.760 children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in

00:49:10.100 the world. As Christians, we are called to walk differently from the world, which is why I think

00:49:14.660 that second option of full participation just isn't it for us. First John one seven. But if we

00:49:19.540 walk in light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of

00:49:24.100 Jesus's son cleanses us from all sin.

00:49:28.640 There's another part of this that I think is really important that we have to touch on

00:49:32.460 when it comes to like what we are teaching our, what we are teaching our children on

00:49:37.800 this particular subject.

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00:50:36.420 code Allie10. There's another point to this that I think is important to emphasize for our kids,

00:50:47.020 that everything belongs to God. The entire world belongs to God. Psalm 24, one says the earth is

00:50:53.640 the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and those who dwell there in Genesis one reminds us

00:51:00.900 that God made everything. We see that he made everything that swarms in the waters, everything

00:51:07.600 that flies in the air. Then in Genesis one, 24, he says, let the earth bring forth living creatures

00:51:13.120 according to their kinds of livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth, according to

00:51:17.000 their kind. So all of the creatures of the earth, God created, he created them with purpose and

00:51:22.500 intention and in order and for his glory. So black cats and spiders and bats and these kinds of

00:51:30.940 things that are typically used as mascots for Halloween are not innately evil. Again, God

00:51:37.720 created them. They are part of his creation and we don't need to teach our children to fear those

00:51:43.600 things inherently. We can also teach them that death does not win. Secular culture typically

00:51:49.900 tends to avoid the topic of death as taboo or by inappropriately celebrating death and decay.

00:51:56.300 We don't have to fall into either of those categories, either of those errors. We don't

00:52:00.880 want to glorify death. We know that it's sad. We know that Jesus himself, the God of the universe

00:52:05.520 wept when Lazarus died, even knowing that he was going to raise him from the dead just a few

00:52:10.140 moments later death is a result of the fall the fall is tragic it is responsible for so much for

00:52:18.320 all of the um sadness and oppression and injustice that we have seen throughout human history

00:52:24.160 and so it's not something that we didn't want to celebrate but it's also a fact of life and

00:52:28.800 even paul says to live as christ and to die is gain so we as christians understand that for us

00:52:34.400 dying is to be in full fellowship with christ and there is going to be a resurrection of the

00:52:40.480 bodies one day because of the bodily resurrection of christ and so that's why we say in first

00:52:44.800 corinthians 15 55 oh death where is your victory oh death where is your sting so christians don't

00:52:51.200 believe that death is something that we should avoid it's not something to fear but it's also

00:52:57.900 again, not something that we want to make light of because it does mark the beginning of our

00:53:04.080 eternal journey. And every soul on earth will either end up in hell or heaven in perfect

00:53:09.800 fellowship with his or her creator. So we, how we spend our life here and how we die and what we

00:53:18.520 believe before we die really matters. It's not something that we should handle flippantly at all.

00:53:24.500 So that's the category that I try to fall into this fourth category of partial participation with redemptive participation

00:53:33.400 That i'm not going to glorify the things that god calls darkness

00:53:36.840 I'm, not going to glorify anything that is truly demonic or satanic or fear inducing

00:53:41.920 Not going to teach my kids that those things are okay, but I am also not going to be paranoid

00:53:46.380 I'm, not going to live in fear

00:53:48.140 People have asked me are you because my due date is november 1st

00:53:51.740 Are you worried that your baby is going to come on halloween?

00:53:54.500 No, I'm not. On Reformation Day, maybe we'll name the child Martin Luther. If he's a boy,

00:54:02.100 we don't know. I can't tell you. I know you don't know. I'm not revealing the gender quite

00:54:06.860 yet, but maybe we will name our child five solas Stucky in celebration of Reformation Day.

00:54:16.600 So no, I'm not worried about that because every day is the Lord's and I just don't want to give

00:54:22.400 too much significance to just another day on the calendar just because there are people who do like

00:54:27.840 satan and do like the things that he produces that they might think that day is special well

00:54:32.800 they just don't know that every day is a day for christians to rejoice every day jesus is the same

00:54:38.920 every day the gospel is true every day we get closer to the fullness of the fruition of our

00:54:46.980 hope that we have in christ closer to the day where jesus is coming back and he is going to make

00:54:51.880 all things new. So I just don't give a lot of heftiness to that day. And I just take it as

00:54:58.040 another opportunity to try to share the gospel. Now, here's some Bible verses that you could use

00:55:04.280 to put in your lawn and try to make cute for Halloween. And you're more creative probably

00:55:12.420 than I am. I'm creative. I'm not artistic. So I could never make something like this. But a lot

00:55:16.960 of you are artistic out there and you could make something like this. But I have one more sponsor.

00:55:20.860 So let me read that one sponsor, and then I'll tell you these Bible verses that you

00:55:24.760 could use.

00:55:26.000 Preborn, this is really good news, has saved over 50,000 babies at their clinics this year.

00:55:31.620 Isn't that incredible?

00:55:33.180 More than 5,100 commitments to Christ through the ministry of preborn this year alone.

00:55:38.660 You can be a part of that.

00:55:39.620 You can be a part of that first encounter by covering the cost of a life-saving ultrasound

00:55:43.720 for a woman who walks into a preborn clinic.

00:55:46.440 It's just $28.

00:55:47.600 Can you donate $28 today?

00:55:49.040 Can you put your money where your heart is and help save a life and give the opportunity

00:55:54.100 for someone who works at Preborn to share the gospel with this scared mom and to hear

00:55:59.220 that God loves her and is with her and loves her baby.

00:56:02.240 Go to preborn.com slash Allie.

00:56:04.200 Make your donation today.

00:56:05.660 That's preborn.com slash Allie.

00:56:12.360 All right, here are the verses that you could use in this redemptive way and this fun Halloween

00:56:19.020 kind of way. Like my mom said, Matthew 5, 16, let your light shine. Romans 10, 13, everyone who

00:56:28.120 calls, who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Ephesians 5, 8, walk as children of

00:56:33.880 light. That's another one that she has. Psalm 139, 14, I am fearfully and wonderfully made,

00:56:39.700 fearfully. First Corinthians 15, 55, oh death, where is your sting? Again, the word of God doesn't

00:56:47.820 return void. If you don't want to celebrate these or decorate these rather like in a Halloween-ish

00:56:52.860 way, you could use them in a fall way. And, uh, you could have people drive by your house or walk

00:56:58.920 by your house and see a Bible verse. And you just never know how God is going to plant seeds. Um,

00:57:06.280 so that is my final pitch to you for the redemptive participation option. Again, I know that

00:57:12.280 Christians have a variety of opinions on this, and I'm happy to hear your opinions in the 0.98

00:57:17.560 comments, but I think this is a great opportunity for Christians to show our joy as a contrast to

00:57:24.980 the just heaviness of the world, especially on a day like Halloween. All right. Can't wait to hear

00:57:31.520 what you think and your opinions in the comments and in my messages. I will talk to you guys soon

00:57:36.220 and see you on Wednesday.

00:57:47.560 You

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 19, 2026

Ep. 1410 ｜ The Great Halloween Debate： Where I Land May Surprise You

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