Spooky Times Call For Calm Minds
Halloween is upon us and with it the religious angst that so often dominates conservative evangelical circles. And because this day comes with many historical, contextual, and cultural aspects which can be celebrated without fake blood, false teeth, witch broomsticks, and zombie brains, we must not deny the fact that some people view it as a spiritually oppressive and demonic celebration.
I want to share with you, my fellow believer, whether you’re on the conservative evangelical side of this issue or not. Scripture is a comfort to all who honor it. After, I want to provide a few closing thoughts to bring peace to worried hearts and anxious souls.
The Law of Liberty
1 Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person judges one day to be more important than another day. Someone else judges every day to be the same. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord. Whoever eats, eats for the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat, it is for the Lord that he does not eat it, and he gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and returned to life for this: that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living. 10 But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. Romans 14:1-10
The Law of Love
13 Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. 14 know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. 15 For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval. 19 So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. 20 Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. 21 It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. 22 Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin. Romans 14:13-23
Pleasing Others, Not Ourselves
1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. Romans 15:1-2
Don’t Let Anyone Judge You In Regard…
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind. Colossians 2:16-18
Conclusion
Historically, Christians have waged wars against Christians who look different, dress differently, worship differently, and live somewhere geographically different. When we consider Paul’s admonition to the culturally diverse churches of Rome and Colossae, we get a better window into the soul of the issues present within those respective communities. Jews, with their ancient rituals and rites, settled into the majority pagan Hellenistic Greek societies. These two major worldviews intertwined and clashed when Christians began to spread throughout the Levant, Africa, and Europe, bridging belief, tradition, culture, and faith as they went. With this often rapid intermingling of ideas, misunderstanding of habits and norms was bound to be the talk of the time.
“We eat meat.” “We don’t.” “We eat pork.” “We don’t.” “We celebrate these festivals.” “We don’t.” “We observe these customs.” “We don’t.”
“We do…”
“We don’t….”
And on and on. Paul recognized these tertiary issues and tackled them head-on to advise churches to live in harmony through their cultural and historic differences. The binding glue was their faith in Christ. The reality of localized habits, customs, traditions, and celebrations could be enjoyed if they were enjoyed for the Glory of God. Granted, as long as these local customs did not involve idol worship, prostitution, or harming of one another, you were safe to participate in them freely. As long as these parameters were respected and the “weaker” or “unaccepting” brother or sister was not around, you could enjoy these customs with Joy unto the Lord with a clear conscience.
However, Paul advises those who are able to hold both Christ as Lord and King AND participate in their local customs or traditions, that they ought to use their faith for good and not to beat their weaker brothers and sisters in the head with their freedoms.
I, me, Olivet Theory (alter ego, Jarrel), believe that Halloween is one of those festivals that is neither good nor evil in and of itself. Historically, every single culture on earth has had closer ties to the dead in their respective cultures, but with the advent of modern technology and medicine, we have increased the distance between our sickly, elderly, and dying and us. We place our dying in hospitals and hospice care. When they pass, the room is sanitary, white, and institutional. When we bury our dead, the rituals and burial sites are resolute, quick, and final. We seldom have continual habits of mourning, where we come together, culturally, to mourn for longer than the wake and burial service. Therefore, discussions of traditions and customs of honoring the dead in a culture sadly distant from the dead and dying can be disconcerting.
Halloween began as a national event in Ireland, where locals believe, mythologically speaking, that the dead or in-between souls wander closer to the realm of the living on a particular day of the year. Theologically speaking, at least from a Protestant Christian tradition, this is biblically impossible, unless you consider the sequence between the necromancer from Endor and King Saul, Moses and Elijah visiting Jesus in the New Testament, and the cryptic passage from Revelation where two unnamed prophets wander the earth preaching and teaching, only to be murdered and then resurrected on the spot days later.
The Bible itself has some questionable traditions and customs, which were collectively understood and accepted or misunderstood and condemned by ancient Near Eastern cultures. Jesus spoke in cryptic language when discussing the afterlife of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. He said he saw Satan fall from heaven. He wandered the desert and spoke with the Arch Nemesis, Lucifer, face to face. Spiritual happenings happen. How we choose to identify, acknowledge, dismiss, or condemn these practices and events depends heavily on our geography, tradition, and openness to intellectual and critical readings of scripture and interpretation of modern events of the same vein.
With that said, just because an event claims to be spiritual does not make it so, and, as a result, does not make it good or evil. And in the same vein, if an event happens to be secular, the lack of metaphysical inspiration does not negate the possibility that those involved may be under the influence or guidance of good or evil forces.
We have to test the spirits and also test ourselves to see if we’ve become culturally insensitive, spiritually superstitious, religiously legalistic, or dismissive of all things because none of them affect us personally. Being isolated from culture is a symptom of spiritual pathologies. Isolation is never good.
As Christians, we live and move in the worlds we reside within. Some cultures celebrate Christmas with all the bells and whistles, while honoring Christ, whereas others condemn the Christmas season, namely, the advent of Christ, as historically inaccurate (which it is) and spiritually satanic because it correlates with materialism, Santa Claus, and Christmas trees. Both honor Christ from their respective vantage points. One is strong enough to enjoy the season AND worship the Lord. The other is weak, cannot enjoy the season, but they worship the Lord. The Lord is worshipped in both circumstances.
So this brings us to my final thought. Whether you celebrate Halloween, makeup, fake blood, an inflatable dinosaur suit, and a bag full of candy… do it for the glory of God. Don’t waltz to your brother or sister’s home, who do not celebrate or observe this event, to show off your freedoms and willingness to celebrate this event. Mind your humility and honor their weaknesses.
And if you, being weak, yes, it is a weakness when you abstain from all things that do not align with your understanding and interpretation of a tradition, honor the Lord in your heart, and do not malign your brother and sister who can freely celebrate this event without disparaging the name of Christ. Their freedom should not make you hate them. Understand your limits!
There are no sacrifices, offerings, or libations being offered to idols. Idols are nothing. Christians who engage in the festival of dressing up to collect candy are not participating in child sacrifices (as if adult sacrifices are less important), burning meat to Pazuzu, or offering grain to Baal. No. They’re participating in the culture they’re a part of to showcase their willingness to be approachable and open, the same way Paul was when he approached Mars Hill. Those of us who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God cannot offer anything to idols or demons who have no power over us.
So, dress up as a vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, Trump (he’s a monster, too), or as a priest. Dress up, meet some strangers, share some treats, and then come back home. No spirits are honored, no demons are celebrated, no entity is invited into your home, as if spirits needed an invitation to walk through walls to begin with. No sacrifices are offered to statues or symbols historically recognized as pagan and idolatrous. No temples to the dead are visited. No children are sacrificed. And, if you’re lucky, you’re home before 8 pm, just early enough to catch a nice scary movie with the family, to then call it a night.
Traditionally speaking, the living die and they end up in one of two places. One where they wait peacefully for the resurrection of the body unto eternal bliss and in the other, they await the resurrection unto judgment. The actual state of souls once they leave this earth is up for debate in multiple Christian circles but Christians generally believe that when someone dies their soul can NO LONGER return to this earth in an immaterial, spiritual way. Therefore, there are no spirits or souls wandering school halls or graveyards on any day of the year. People who believe they’re able to see the dead need to be evaluated by a professional clinician as soon as possible.
Regarding Unclean Spirits
It is entirely possible that unclean spirits, contemporaneously known as demons, roam the earth seeking whom they will harass. But nowhere in scripture is there evidence to support the concept that demons have the power to possess Christians. Paul admits that he ventured to visit a New Testament church multiple times but was prevented from doing so by the devil. Paul could have meant this in two ways: one, the devil had power over non-believers and used them to interrupt Paul’s efforts. Two, it is possible Paul viewed natural, uncontrollable events such as war, persecution, famine, poverty, intermittent weather, and interpersonal adversaity and hostility as acts of the devil because what he sought to do, namely, the work of Christ’s mission, was divine, and therefore any attempt to interrupt this mission was satanic.
With that in mind, I do not believe Christians who engage in traditional customs are intentionally or unintentionally rousing wandering unclean spirits into their lives. Christians who participate in these events do so for the glory of God and not the glory of unclean spirits. If you’re going to allow the thought to come forward that because the asthetics of an event or holiday determines their connection to the spiritual world, perhaps you should start by investigating the United States of America’s Independence Day, which honors the valiant efforts of white Americans to build for themselves a Republic free from British tyranny but bursting at the seams with genocide and chattel slavery. Yes, the visuals of Independence Day lift beautiful images of the flag, whigs, fireworks, and constitutional documents, but hide the brutal rape, murder, and enslavement of millions as a result.
Halloween, mythologically speaking, honors the passage of the living into the afterworld. Independence Day honors the brutal murder of untold thousands for the sake of the political independence of a select few. Tell me which has more connotations of evil and we can digress from there.
Go and honor God with your candy collection. Honor God by sitting at home, doing nothing. In all things, honor your Lord.
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