The world becomes such a narrow road when we only know of our own customs and beliefs. Sadly; in America today, many of us are not even sure WHAT we believe; much less have a working knowledge of other’s beliefs.
As Halloween casts it’s dark shadow over our lands each October; I find myself pondering this awkward situation.
Do you know where you stand on Halloween and all of the reasons why you take that stance?
I’ll start this conversation by sharing a few of my own experiences.
WHEN I WAS A CHILD I THOUGHT AS A CHILD
As a child I participated gleefully in church trick-r-treats and Halloween Festivals. Also; in our little community we felt safe enough to go door-to-door, and I loved dressing up in my princess costumes and receiving buckets full of candy.
If we didn’t go anywhere else; at least we went to Grandma’s house where we knew we would be spoiled with caramel apples and popcorn balls and chocolate fudge.
For us; there was nothing evil or satanic going on; we were simply celebrating a harvest festival and carrying out an old passed-down tradition of our country.
Halloween was basically meaningless; but fun.
WHEN I WAS A TEEN I THOUGHT AS A TEEN
Teen years found me running all over town with my high school friends.
YES; we DID enjoy rolling a few yards.
In those days it was all in fun. No one considered whether we were doing right or wrong; it was just something to do in a small town that offered not so much excitement.
We were never too carried away with these activities. Most of us knew who would care and who would not care if they were “tricked.” We avoided the ones who would care. My group even called this “being respectful.” Sometimes I look back at our logic and laugh; but we DID know where to draw the line.
The grown ups around us all considered the fact that we were still young and we were just going to do certain things and they didn’t worry too much about us.
It was all a part of growing up.
JUST OLD FASHIONED, INNOCENT FUN
Actually, most of our friends were insulted if their yards DIDN’T get rolled; and we never complained about having to go back and clean up the messes we made when we got caught.
No one ever considered doing any REAL damage (like throwing eggs at cars from overpasses.) We knew the difference in a “prank-for-fun” and real vandalism. There were certainly limits to how far we took our fun.
We tried never to be REAL vandals and just wanted to keep it all innocent fun. Occasionally things went wrong; but this was never intentional.
In those days, Halloween seemed to be simply a time for old fashioned, traditional, community entertainment. Nothing harmful was included in our local pranks; but at the same time; we were not searching for any religious meanings; we were just having fun and neighborhood fellowship.
GROWING UP AND BECOMING MORE MATURE
As I matured and became a Christian with kids and a family of my own; I began to study the truth behind this day we called Halloween.
I wanted the days of my children’s youth to be “mindful” and I hoped that everything about their lives would be godly.
Some of those things I studied about the ancient holiday called Halloween startled me; and I definitely thought much of these things were wrong. I will go further into the “why” a bit later in this conversation.
But; the point is that long ago I decided Halloween was a pagan practice and after making that decision; I abhorred it.
The annual holiday of Halloween was no longer a fun time for me.
People acting just as I had in the past now disturbed my spirit. I just wanted it all to go away.
There is an old saying; “Ignorance is bliss; but knowledge changes things.”
IGNORANCE IS BLISS; BUT KNOWLEDGE CHANGES THINGS
I feel strongly that Christianity is a lot more than a good head-knowledge of the scriptures.
A true follower of Christ puts hands and feet to their faith and practices godly living in their day-to-day life.
If you SAY you are a Christian; you are required to be responsible and live out what you believe, or those are just empty words and the world will never pay attention to your witness.
This Christian lifestyle was my heart’s desire. Upon realizing how important it was to me, I gave up celebrating Halloween.
Honestly; I haven’t missed it one tiny little bit.
THE WISDOM THAT COMES WITH AGEING
Over the years of time, my stance against Halloween hasn’t changed; but my world view has become a bit wider in my old age.
Simply from the process of living life in this world, I seem to have developed a deeper understanding of why some people think and act as they do on this holiday.
This knowledge has helped me to be kinder in my dealings with people who do things that I consider to be completely pagan and disgusting.
In other words; I have learned (sometimes the hard way) that it isn’t always the people doing these wrong things who are to blame for these sins. It is the demonic and satanic forces using their ignorance and lack of knowledge who are really the culprits behind all worldly temptations. After all; it had happened to me too. I used to think exactly as they do now.
PUTTING BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS
To re-word that; I’ve learned to blame the enemy of God (Satan) for all sins. As a mature Christian and follower of Jesus I’ve come to know and understand that Satan only uses the weak, the innocent, or the ignorant to accomplish his means.
God gives mankind free-will and we have a responsibility to exercise it in the right way. The devil likes to persuade us in the way he would like to see us go. This is where we have to do our homework and be very careful.
No greater predator ever lived.
So; I do try to be kind and merciful to the sinner (who still needs to change and repent. Jesus did the same.) Then I begin to pray against the evil forces of this world that causes people to be confused and to commit such sins.
Heaven alone knows how many times fellow believers have had to do the same thing for me. I am no better than the lowest sinner; but that doesn’t mean I’m above praying for them to be better; so I do.
Then I give it all to God and He handles every situation.
WHEN WE CHOOSE TO LET HIM; GOD HANDLES EVERY SITUATION FOR US
Sometimes, it feels as if God is using these “gray-area” things of living in the world that I now consider “wrong behavior” to help me learn how to become more merciful and compassionate toward other fellow human beings. It is a lot like in the story of Joseph when Joseph told his brothers who grew wiser and repented that “what you meant for harm; God used for good.”
I’ve found out the hard way that prayer is much more effective than preaching.
True prayer is simply another way of showing love.
Lots of things in life seem to work out this same way.
All of these “things” have affected the way I approach the dreaded season of Halloween each year.
HISTORY CAN BE CONFUSING
To arrive at a logical conclusion for why people celebrate Halloween, and whether or not they should do so, and to understand whether celebrating Halloween is a sin or not; we have to first consider the fact that this holiday is based on BOTH pagan and Catholic traditions.
Each of these separate conditions of connecting with the dead are in hopes to gain power (in the pagan tradition,) or; to make intersession, (in the Catholic tradition.)
Both things, being such opposites, make this decision about observing Halloween an even more slippery slope to navigate.
We must always remember and consider the fact that counterfeit acts are always a sure sign that satan is at work. If paganism and religious practices begin to look very much the same as religious rituals; beware, and be very careful.
LET THE SCRIPTURES GUIDE YOU
In either case (the pagan practices or the Catholic practices;) the scriptures make it clear that we should not “entreat the dead.”
The pagans are honoring false spirits. Catholics are hoping to connect with the dead; something that scripture warns us against doing.
(FYI: This act of connecting with the dead is very different from “Communion of The Saints” as a “Saint” or a “Saved person who has all sins forgiven” has been given everlasting life the moment he is saved. In contrast, a soul in purgatory would only have the “possibility” of everlasting life. On Halloween the religious Catholics are inviting the dead into the equation on their own. However; in Communion of The Saints; God does the inviting of any souls that attend.)
Also the scriptures do not want us to entreat the dead, which would mean inviting them to attend our function/ritual. Saints that join in with us during the Mystery of The Communion of The Body of Christ come of their own free-will and with God’s invitation and blessing; not ours. Hence; we would not be “entreating” in that case.)
On Halloween however, most people celebrating for religious reasons, or pagan reasons, are both entreating the dead.
Of course, the above argument goes even further if you don’t believe in purgatory. I do not; though I will agree that walking through life is a constant form of purgatory in itself, because of the fact that God shows us new things and teaches and cleanses our souls every day that we trust Him and follow Him. Our time on earth should be dedicated to getting our souls ready for eternity.
I just don’t believe that people go to purgatory after death. Some day we might choose to go further into that discussion; but for now – we are only trying to decide if Halloween is right or wrong for Christians.
So; how are we to properly address these facts to the rest of the world?
WHAT DIFFERENT GROUPS OF THE CHURCH TAUGHT ME
Perhaps, as a first consideration; churches should stop neglecting the teachings of all of the history of the gospel; because understanding history is half of solving the problem of what to do about participating in Halloween. Of course, history basically clears up many other questionable events as well.
If I had known church history when I was younger; perhaps I might have thought differently. So many today do not understand that the Christian Church came to us via a handful of faithful Jews who followed Jesus.
Most of our church congregations today live in ignorance of certain portions of the scriptures that speak of how Jewish Holy days and holidays originated. These days as well as Seventh Day Sabbath keeping were wiped out of the knowledge of the faithful by mixing the pagan rituals with the religious rituals of the Catholic Church. The same Catholic Church that preserved so much of our scriptures also allowed governing authorities to pervert our Christian traditions based on the scriptures.
Sometimes, though most denominations ignore certain texts in their bibles. God’s children stumble upon the truth and ask questions and seek answers. They know what the bible says and they wonder why the church isn’t teaching certain scriptures.
Until that moment of realization; many stumble around without knowing what they are doing. It could be compared to walking in the dark. I too was stumbling in the dark, until I prayed for clear answers. Those answers came to me in little pieces because God knew I could not retain it all at once. I found a piece of the puzzle here and later another piece of the puzzle there. “Here” and “there” began to add up. Over time they came together to give a new and fuller picture of what God wanted me to know about certain things. I think all Christians grow and mature in this way. We have to give each other grace during such times.
For example; here is a little background of how I came upon the knowledge of different aspects and views of Halloween from different and varying denominations I’ve loved and been a part of. I had to trust God to help me sort these out.
THINGS LEARNED FROM THE CHURCH OF GOD
Most Church of God congregations are full of people who have a passion for knowing and living out the truth of God. It was there that I learned the ancient truths and history surrounding Halloween. Of course I confirmed everything with all types of other research of my own while praying for understanding.
Until then; I thought the day we called Halloween was just a silly, but fun annual holiday.
The Catholic Church is another religious group that is all about history; but they can’t seem to remember any history that happened before the council that started the Catholic Church. This council first formed when THEY split off from the original sects of Jewish and converted Gentile congregations over an argument that I won’t go into in this article. The changing of truthful history, for a lot of things in the Catholic beliefs started here.
Funny how the Catholics (I do love them though) can only recognize splits that occurred in the church AFTER that time that their group began. When you listen to them talk about the church, almost every other word is “schism” and they claim to hate schisms.
However; the original Catholic Church was actually a schism itself. That is why I always want to scream when they tell you over and over again that Christianity started with them.
It didn’t.
Christianity started with a Jew named Jesus Christ and a handful of Jewish disciples and followers. They didn’t give up their Jewish history or heritage when they became Christians. To them; their view simply expanded and became better. The traditional Jewish religious practices actually proved that Jesus was Messiah in so many ways!
The Jews of our current time still have scales on their eyes and cannot see this – yet. No greater irony ever existed. A new day is coming though.
At any rate; when this point of history happened, the Catholic church chose to change almost everything that had anything to do with Judaism. They reassigned the Sabbath from the seventh day to Sunday. Also; they renamed the feast and festival days into their own order. They moved to use the Gregorian calendar instead of the Hebraic lunar one.
But; GOD didn’t make those changes; the Councils of The Catholic Church did. God is still functioning from the gift of time that He gave to us at Creation; and that time still operates on the Hebraic calendar.
The Catholics also changed the pagan practices of Halloween. It was actually a noble attempt to make them holier by creating a day that came to be called, All Hallow’s Eve. This was man’s idea; not Gods.
HISTORY TRULY MATTERS
All historical-thinking groups aside; it was those old Church of God “truth-tellers” that actually let me know the error of my ways about Halloween. I deeply appreciated their efforts. I strongly believe in “fidelity to the original” or that we should not change God’s edicts to mankind’s edicts.
From a historic point of view; I learned that Halloween was actually rooted in a Celtic pagan festival called Samhain. Over the years; I have been amazed to see that even some churches of today still celebrate Samhain, as if it were a Christian activity; which it definitely is NOT.
Historically; truth tells us that everything from the ancient Celtics evolved around degrees of light and dark. The times of lightness brought forth positive values and good things. The times of darkness brought forth negative and destructive forces. The times of dark and light were alternating annual gifts to the people from a whole range of pagan gods and goddesses.
In those days the Celtics were pagan through and through; not like the Celtic religious groups of Christian believers today; who have evolved into different sects and groups of Celtic Christianity.
Originally the Celts were VERY pagan.
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN BELIEFS
Similar to the Hebraic practices many of us have grown to love; the Celtic year also began at sundown at the end of the autumn harvest. (This was probably carried over from historic practices and inherited traditions of ancient people who were following God.)
Somehow along the way, the Hebraic/Christian values were totally lost, and pagan practices appeared in their place.
The harvest festivals that were once observed to honor The One True God of Heaven and Earth were then perverted and used to honor pagan gods and goddesses.
In the Celtic cultures, Samhain occurred from October 31st to November 1st. This time period was considered to be the annual moment in time when the spiritual world became visible to humans. It was said to be a time when the pagan gods enjoyed playing tricks on mortals.
The pagan Celtics thought this time was a time when the spirits of the dead could revive for just one night a year and mingle with and among the living.
So; they made a great effort to have all of their harvest inside their barns by the time of Samhain. They didn’t want any of their harvest damaged by the spirits of the dead who were said to be evil and mischievous when they returned on this first day of the darkest part of the year called Samhain.
HOW TRICK-R-TREATING BEGAN
In order to placate these spirits; token offerings were put outside from each home for them with hopes that they would take them and leave the owners alone and unharmed.
That is where we got the idea of putting candy out for children to collect; it originally started out as being gifts to buy off (bribe) evil spirits. Eventually the Catholic faith (with all of its changing directions of pagan activities) eventually proclaimed that it was an enticement for children to pray for the souls in purgatory. This seems to be an attempt to make the unacceptable; acceptable. God doesn’t work that way though.
Everyone knows that a child’s prayers are always heard by God.
(Do you really want your child to be treated exactly like an ancient evil spirit from the dead?)
The Catholic leaders tried to turn the pagan practices into something that looked godly instead of pagan. Of course they were hoping to unite everyone under one religious umbrella, instead of dividing the faithful from the pagan whenever the original festivity time came about each season. Without being aware of what was slowly seeping into their world; the church was participating in politics instead of being a theocracy as it was first established. Government rulers who called themselves “godly” were changing dates and times in the name of God.
CALLING DIRT A ROSE DOES NOT MAKE IT SO
Obviously; Samhain was very pagan in nature.
Nothing about The One True God was truly to be seen in any of these ancient harvest festivities.
Even when the Catholics tried to blend everything together; the practice was still based on paganism and nothing from the scriptures.
I was grateful for finally learning this information (it was never taught in the Baptist Sunday School I attended growing up) and that was when I first began to put Halloween and all of its evil roots out of my own annual practices.
THINKING ABOUT WHAT THE EPISCOPALS TAUGHT ME
My dear Father-In-Law was a devout Episcopal. He walked the narrow path and there is no doubt in my mind that this man was a man after God’s own heart. You could see it in his eyes and you could feel it in his spirit as he spoke of Jesus.
We talked a lot. I used to ask him how to handle these confusing religious activities where one section of the church believed opposite of another section of the church. His answer to me was both simple and profound. He said “you have to chew up the meat and spit out the bones.”
This beloved relative died on All Soul’s Day; yet another day which I was never educated about as I grew up in the Baptist church.
At his funeral everyone commented that it was so appropriate that he passed away on All Soul’s Day. Of course; I had to look this up to try to understand what they actually meant, and why they would say such a thing at his funeral.
Two religious groups actually observe an annual set of days called ALL SOUL’S and ALL SAINT’S Day. They are the Catholics and the Episcopals. Each of their observances are a bit different though.
The Catholics believe that All Soul’s Day commemorates the church penitent, which is full of the souls in purgatory. For them; it is a day of prayer and intercession for the lost souls who are trying to make it out of purgatory and into heaven.
Yet; MOST Episcopal congregations do not believe in purgatory. They see life on earth as a time of penitence. For them All Soul’s Day is a day for Communion with the Saints who have gone before them.
Catholics believe they can shorten the time a soul spends in purgatory (a place where souls are purified before entering heaven) by visiting a church and praying the Our Father and the Creed on All Soul’s Day.
All Souls’ Day seems to remind the Episcopal believers of their belief that all Christians that ever lived, are spiritually still living, and will ever be because their souls are bound together in one Communion – the Body of Christ.
WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HALOWEEN?
I hope I haven’t lost anyone with my lengthy explanations of things from my past experiences in late October days gone by.
What does any of these differences in religious beliefs have to do with Halloween anyway?
Everything.
For some people (those who believe that the souls of the dead do not sleep until the Resurrection of the faithful, and that they go either straight to heaven or purgatory upon death;) All Soul’s Day is a time set aside to remember and honor their deceased loved ones who just need a little more cleaning up before they are allowed out of purgatory and can then step safely into heaven. This is the day they pray for it to happen.
Also; in opposition to the above, there are those who believe that upon death each saved soul goes either straight to heaven or straight to judgement and hell.
For these first types of believers; they think that “All Hallow’s Eve (better known as Halloween) is more about praying for help for their loved ones whom they think are now on the journey from purgatory toward heaven.
For these second types of believers; they believe that “All Soul’s Day” is a day when the Souls of the Saved join in and pray with the congregations of the faithful.
I’m not saying I believe either of these groups are scriptural; I’m just saying; nothing they are doing on this night is really about evil. However; it is about honoring their ancestors. Note I say “honoring’ and not “worshipping” as those are two words with two distinct different meanings.
In both beliefs; All Soul’s Day or All Hallow’s Eve is more about intercession for others; or intercession with the saints that have already achieved eternal life.
These well-intending intercessors might even go out to the cemetery to clean up a loved one’s grave (much like many other religious sects do on Memorial Day), or they might light a candle in their loved one’s honor, or offer up prayers that they truly believe God will answer for their loved ones who have died.
So this was what I finally discovered about the meanings of All Soul’s Day and All Hallow’s Eve in my life experiences with others.
Then there is another group that I discovered later who also celebrate “All Soul’s Day” or “All Hallow’s Eve” but they call their celebration THE DAY OF THE DEAD.
THEN THERE IS THE MEXICAN HOLIDAY
If you are not confused enough already; there is a religious and nationally celebrated Mexican Holiday called The Day of The Dead.
Basically; the people gather believing that the dead are still members of the community who are kept alive in memory and spirit. During The Day of the Dead; these souls are said to temporarily return to Earth.
If you ask someone from Mexico what this day is all about (it falls on the same day as All Soul’s Day in the Catholic Church) they will explain that it is from a syncretistic mix of The Roman Catholic celebration of All Saint’s Day and the celebration of death practiced by pre-Hispanic cultures for hundreds of years.
In the ancient practice, ancient civilizations worshiped death and celebrated the dead during an annual festival. During the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish, Roman Catholicism was imposed on the native people by mixing the pagan traditions of this day with the Catholic traditions.
Let me try to muddy the waters a little further just for fun. Let’s consider that in modern-times in many countries today there is an adorable Disney character named Coco who celebrates this old tradition of The Day of the Dead. This little production has recently gained more popularity across the world because Coco is presented as one who is so cute and cunning.
Clearly though; the mixing of the pagan roots, makes this production of Disney totally unacceptable from a Christian perspective. Even satan is often disguised as an angel of light. Some believe that Coco is basically disguised in this same way. Let’s all stop to remember that some of Jesus’s last words to us were “do not be deceived.”
The cartoon with Coco about The Day of the Dead celebration is very deceptive.
HOW ALL OF THIS FINALLY PLAYED OUT IN MY OWN LIFE
At first; I didn’t understand any of the above.
During the years right before and after my father-in-law’s death; I went to work at a Roman Catholic television station. Of course many of my beliefs were different from theirs (by then I was a non-denominational Christian believer) and yet they were very tolerant of my different ways as I worked among them. The important thing we all agreed upon was that we were all Children of God and we wanted to give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. That was enough to build many bridges and heal much confusion along the way.
The good definitely outweighed the bad.
I learned mercy and compassion from these Catholic friends. It happened over a period of about eight years.
One day I came into the studio to find it full of little children dressed in costumes. Most of them were dressed like their favorite Catholic Saints. I then realized the date was Halloween; and I soon learned they had some odd ways (to me) of celebrating the occasion.
I didn’t think it too odd though; compared to the fact that most of my Baptist friends were busy promoting their fall festivals as if Halloween were comparable to Resurrection Day.
At both events, on the eve of All Saint’s Day, all of the little kids walked around in costumes seeking sacks full of candy.
What was the difference though?
These Catholic kids were honoring known Saints (declared so by the Catholic Church) who had died before them. The candy was being given to them in hopes that they would pray for the souls in purgatory for payment of the candy.
The other non-Catholic children were dressing up like witches, warlocks, the devil, demons and goblins. No one was being honored. Of course there were also innocent costumes like doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.; but the evil out-weighed the non-evil. every season.
Each of the Catholic children were given candy and asked to pray for the souls in purgatory.
All of the other children were simply demanding candy from perfect strangers whose homes they had invaded and then threatening with a “trick” if they were not served immediately.
One celebration was honoring those of God who had gone before them, and/or praying for the souls of those who would eventually get there. The others were simply delighting in celebrating that it was a night of ghosts and goblins and they tended to celebrate this fact by becoming a glutton.
WHERE IS THE TRUTH?
I could see that one celebration promoted better values than the other; but I could not see the truth of the scriptures in either celebration.
(I believe that saved souls die in Christ and sleep peacefully until the time of The Resurrection just after Christ Returns for His Church. I think the judgement comes after this Resurrection and all who do not follow Christ are burned up and not allowed to enter eternal life.)
So; not believing in purgatory myself; even after experiencing and considering all of these “religious” things I encountered in different churches; I decided it was best to stay with my original theory that Halloween wasn’t a good thing for anyone.
I found this scripture passage which seems to back up this line of thought:
Deuteronomy 18: 9-13 says: When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritualist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.
I read this scripture and remembered all of these things from my past and considered truth. In my prayerful examination of the truth, I thought of those two very different groups of children I had encountered. Were any of them practicing divination or sorcery? Truth be told; most likely none of these children even knew what divination or sorcery were; much less how to practice it.
I did see that the Mexican Day of the Dead was probably practicing divination. They actually were setting up altars for their dead and calling on the name of their ancestors. Sounds pretty pagan to me! I ruled this practice out completely and had no doubt that it was way too pagan to be acceptable.
As for the people observing All Soul’s Day that were Catholic and/or Episcopal I still had further questions:
Were any of these groups interpreting omens or engaging in witchcraft or casting spells?
Absolutely not!
I added myself and my elementary and high school friends into the mix of these other religious encounters. Were any of us hanging out with mediums or spiritualists in order to consult with the dead?
Nope. Not at all.
Those Catholic children WERE praying for the dead and honoring the dead Saints that had previously given us a better world; but they were NOT consulting with them or trying to conjure them up from the grave with help from someone practicing divination.
Still; something stirred up in my spirit about Halloween and I STILL knew I didn’t want to participate.
WHEN IN DOUBT – DON’T
I think it was my thoughts about the fact that even though what I had experienced and knew personally was done in innocence; those same things could still be misleading to the weak and uninformed of the world who might have been looking on.
Also beyond that; I DID know that there truly WERE groups of people out there who WERE worshipping satan and performing witchery and sorcery on Halloween. It was just covered up and not seen by my eyes. Satanic practices and witchcraft are well known to be practiced not only at Halloween but all through the land as a pagan religious practice.
I wanted no part of promoting that lifestyle.
We all know there really are those hidden groups of people who keep getting braver and braver and more and more open with their satanic practices and rituals. Witchcraft has become very popular and accepted among the cultures of America. God has warned us to avoid such things.
I did not want to ever be responsible for exposing anyone to such as this; or to cause these things to begin to seem common enough to be accepted by today’s society. They ARE wrong and they ARE evil and they should never be practiced by professing Christians.
Halloween was more and more sounding like another story about the frog in the boiling pot. At first the heat is barely noticed, then over time the frog becomes so conditioned to it that he does not even know he is boiling alive.
REALITY CHECK
So how do YOU feel about Halloween?
Do you get a reality check too?
You know what I mean; I’m speaking about that sinking feeling that says the beautiful Fall Holy Days have now passed, and now we all must return to the reality of day-to-day life on planet earth again.
In the words of the Great Apostle Paul; we must keep running our race with patience and endurance. While the rest of the world is preoccupied with the things of Halloween; God’s people are entering the days of Chesvan on the Hebraic Calendar; and that is the time of receiving the double portion; the time of enjoying the benefit of the early rains and the latter rains and all of the multiplying abundance of God’s blessings that come to pass after they arrive.
It is time to hold our heads up and do what we must do to proclaim our God and His ways. It is a time of rising above the clouds like an eagle and not fearing the enemy. We must keep walking toward our destiny.
Humanity-in-general can be very imperfect; and often very insensitive toward the heart of God.
After the Feast of Tabernacles; this is truly a hard reality check every year.
God never said it would be easy.
We have a whole series with other thoughts about Halloween coming your way. Each article will speak of a different aspect of this subject. I hope that these are helpful.
I want to start out the season by simply encouraging you to stay the course and be faithful to all of the truth that God chooses to reveal to you. All of our blessings on this earth are the product of obedience to God.
God is bigger than the pagan practices of the world at Halloween; rise up and soar through this fall season with the blessings of obedience.