Episode 2 - How Should Christians Think About Halloween?

You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone

podcast, a ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone

Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan

Merrick and it's our prayer that this message

strengthens your faith and draws you closer to

Christ. Let's dive in. Hello friends, Pastor

Logan Merrick here from Christ Our Cornerstone

Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. And today I want

to talk about Halloween and I'll have a podcast

later this week. in regards to our sermon from

this past Sunday. But I got a question and a

question that I that I get pretty often, I would

say, in my time in ministry. And I got it this

morning because I shared about our trick or treat

that's on Friday, which if you live in the O

'Neill area, would love to see you there on Halloween

night, five to seven p .m. I just come in and

get some candy and let us love on you a little

bit. But my friend Bruce. message me on Facebook,

and this is what he said. He said, I saw your

post on the trunk or treat. Would you give me

a quick thought on what you think about Christians

and Halloween? Been really trying to discern

about it this year. And so, Bruce, it's a great

question, and honestly one my wife and I, we

wrestled with a lot when we became parents. because

when we both grew up, we grew up in the eighties

and the nineties when, you know, like the whole

big scare of razor blades and your peanut butter

cups was a thing. I mean, not necessarily just

in peanut butter cups. It was an all candy, supposedly.

And our parents, you know, they they were Christians

and, you know, they wouldn't they had strong

convictions about like we couldn't watch the

Simpsons and we couldn't watch the Smurfs and.

So we definitely weren't going to be dressing

up, knocking on doors and collecting candy, even

if we're dressed up as, you know, I don't know,

a baseball player or strawberry shortcake. Uh,

it didn't matter. It was all off limits because

for them that was participating in evil. And

in the words of my own mother, she would say

it is, it is allowing evil to happen. It is allowing

you to be a part of something you are, um, joining

in on it. And so. When we became parents, Tracy

and I, we began to think, like, do we feel that

way? Like, is this something, like, should we

feel this way? Is that the proper way to look

at Halloween and, you know, your kids participating

and all that? So I was like, all right, well,

are we actually celebrating evil by participating

in Halloween? So we begin to pray about it and

read the scriptures. And this is essentially

where we come down on it. And so let's talk about

if it is celebrating evil by participating in

Halloween and how we should approach Halloween.

And so I want to give a disclaimer real quick

before we dive in. This is not a full blown historical

deep dive or a theological thesis. OK, like this

is just a short episode to give you some history

and some scripture and hopefully a little bit

of clarity on it. OK, so here's a little bit

of history. So some people say that Halloween

began as a Christian holiday. Others say it came

from a pagan festival called Samhain, which is

spelled S -A -M -H -A -I -N. So it looks like

Samhain, but it's pronounced Celtic and it's

pronounced Samhain. And so which is it? And the

truth is, so when I say which is it, is it a

Christian holiday that was ultimately observed

by the Catholic Church? Was it a pagan holiday?

Which came first? Was it a pagan holiday that

Christians ultimately took over? Which is it?

And so the truth is we don't actually know for

sure. Now, there's evidence of ancient harvest

festivals, but historian Ronald Hutton points

out that a lot of people repeat about Samhain

is actually what they actually repeat actually

comes from later sources, even from a book from

the 1800s. And so that book is what everyone

essentially kind of repeats about Samhain and

Celtic practices and just all this stuff. And

so even the encyclopedia Britannica also quotes

from this book and he's like, there's actually

not a lot of literature written, not a lot of

good sources that actually can tell us. And so

Samhain was an ancient Celtic festival marking

the end of harvest in the start of winter. And

people would light bonfires and they left food

out for ancestors and they wore disguises To

confuse evil spirits. Okay, so that sounds pretty

familiar, right? Like it should it should like

what like that sounds very very vaguely familiar

like Halloween, right? And so now let's fast

forward several centuries and the Christian calendar

was October 31st became All Hallows Eve the night

before All Saints Day And it was a time to remember

and honor the saints of God. Um, this is again,

this is a Catholic, this is a Catholic thing.

And so if, if you are a Protestant, um, we don't

really do this whole thing of like celebrating

the saints or praying to saints because we're

all saints. And when, once you're absent from

the body, as Paul says, you are present with

Jesus. And so those saints don't care about what

you're doing. Okay. Sorry to my Catholic friends.

but they don't. Like, they are in the full presence

and glory of Jesus. They don't really care. So,

getting off my soapbox for a moment. So, but

they would light candles, they visited graves,

and they would pray for the departed. Now, that

is very traditional, like, Catholic view of All

Saints, All Hallows Eve for All Saints Day. So,

the word Halloween simply comes from All Hallows

evening, the evening before All Hallows Day.

And so, did the two merge? Maybe in small ways,

but history isn't clear, and that's what Ronald

Hutton in his academic article points out. And

if you want to read that, I'll actually link

it in the show notes. So, I can hear you, all

right? I can hear you already. Like, okay, but

should we celebrate it? Should Christians celebrate

it? All right, here's my honest answer. That's

between you and the Lord, all right? Uh, Paul

deals with this kind of thing in first Corinthians

eight. And I know you're like, Logan, that's

between me and the Lord. Like that's a very Switzerland

thing to say. I, I, I, it feels like a very fence

writer thing to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know,

but it's important. And the reason why I'm, I'm,

it's important that I say it like that because

I think that Paul deals with this same issue

in first Corinthians eight. And that's why I'm

going there. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is dealing

with the believers. They were arguing over whether

to eat meat that was sacrificed to idols. And

so he basically says, an idol is nothing. OK.

But if your conscience won't let you eat it,

then don't and don't judge the one who does.

And so that's kind of the same idea. All right.

If you feel convicted not to participate in Halloween,

then don't. And that's okay. But if another Christian

does participate in a clean, fun way, they're

not sinning. Hear me? They're not sinning. And

that's okay if they participate. So, where do

we draw the line, though? Because I can hear

the person that's like, we should not be celebrating

Halloween. I don't think you're celebrating by

participating, okay? you're not necessarily celebrating.

In my mind, celebrating is the people that, well,

I'll get into that. And so let me be clear on

where we draw the line as Christians, okay? Where

we should draw the line is when we celebrate

darkness, when we are putting out tombstones

and fake dead bodies and And murdered bodies

hanging from trees and it gets really gory and

there's blood and there's guts and there's witches

and witches brew and all this and all this crazy

stuff. That is very, very the scriptures are

very, very clear on where we should stand on

this stuff, because they the scriptures are very

clear on it. The scriptures are tell us like

we don't mess around with necromancy. What is

necromancy? Necromancy is trying to communicate

with the dead, trying to summon up spirits from

the dead. We don't mess around with Ouija boards,

seances. We don't participate. Anything that

tries to communicate with the dead, it's not

harmless fun. This is all demonic and dangerous,

and you can see it in Scripture. Saul visits

with the witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28. And Paul

is casting, and by the way, before I go into

about Paul talking and casting out demons, with

the witch of Endor, with Saul, the witch herself,

so Paul goes in order because he's scared out

of his mind, he's needing to know what to do,

and Samuel the prophet is now dead. So he doesn't

wait on the Lord, he runs to the witch of Endor

who conjures up the spirit of Samuel. It's the

actual spirit of Samuel, by the way. And you

could be like, well, how do you know that? Well,

because she's terrified. The witch is terrified.

Why does that matter? Because one, she typically

typically obviously deals with the summoning

of a certain demon and that demon typically is

the one speaking to her. But when actually Samuel

shows up, she's terrified. And so we don't mess

around with that stuff. You may think, oh, I'm

talking to Uncle Charlie's ghost. No, you're

not. You're talking to a demon. You may be like,

oh, Ouija boards. No, you're not. No, it's not.

You're opening yourselves up. You are talking

with things and spirits that hate you. They do.

Why do they hate you? Because you are made in

the image of God. You are an image bearer and

they would love nothing more than to damn your

soul to hell. I know that sounds crazy, but it's

true. That may feel very intense. It's true.

We don't mess around with it. There's a reason

why God is very clear about these things. Don't

go messing around with dark things. You're not

a white witch. I'm going to write something on

that later this week and do a podcast later on

in that this week, because it seems like there

are a lot of quote unquote Christian women that

are getting caught up in this whole TikTok witch

thing. And we're going to talk about that, but

We see Paul in the book of Acts he cast out demons

out of a fortune -telling slave girl in the book

of Acts These aren't ghost stories These are

real warnings not to mess around with the stuff.

So if you dress up Don't dress up in in crazy

gruesome gory stuff like let's let's leave out

the the crazy villains from horror stories the

slasher villains the murderers, the, uh, just

crazy demonic things, bloods, guts, all that

stuff. Like if you're going to dress up, dress

up as a ball player or I don't know, a Disney

character, princess, whatever, or maybe your

favorite pastor. I'm kidding. I'm actually not

kidding. If you want to get a gray wig and dress

up like pastor Logan feel more than free. No,

I'm just kidding. I'm not moving on. So. How

do I think Jesus would approach Halloween? Here's

what I think. In the book of John, we read that

Jesus took on flesh and he came into the world.

And this is in John 1. And he did it not to hide

from darkness, but to redeem it. And I love the

message translation's paraphrase of this. Now,

I can't stand the message translation as a whole,

but I think that this sentence, this verse, absolutely

nailed because it says, this is a paraphrase,

he moved into the neighborhood. So Jesus came

and he moved into the neighborhood. So how do

I think Jesus would approach Halloween? I don't

think he'd turn off his porch lights and pretend

he wasn't home. That's what Tracy and I used

to do. We used to turn off all our lights and

pretend we weren't home and we'd get all our

kids up in our bedroom upstairs and watch a movie

with all the lights off and just act like nobody's

home. But I started getting very convicted about

that, and I was like, Jesus wouldn't do this.

So how do I think He would do it? I think He

would actually turn His porch lights on. I think

He would have all of His lights on. I think He

would hand out full -size candy bars because

that would be awesome, and that's what He does.

He's awesome. And I think He would love on the

children and the parents, the families that come

to His door. I think He would see it as an opportunity

for the gospel, not as something to ignore or

pretend like is not happening. Because when else

do your neighbors come actually knocking on your

door? I would guess typically not very often

And especially if you live in O 'Neill in the

surrounding areas Most of you guys many of you

guys are farmers and ranchers and they're your

nearest neighbors a long way away But this night

is a night of opportunity incredible opportunity

To show kindness to show the love of Jesus and

to meet people where they are just like Jesus

did That's why I think he would do that. And

so, let me close all this out, okay? So here's

what I think you should do. If you're in this

kind of in -between and not sure what to do about

it, I think you should pray. Seek the Lord. If

you feel convicted to avoid Halloween, that's

fine. There's no judgment. Maybe you have a background.

Maybe you were saved and redeemed out of witchcraft,

paganism, whatever it may be, and the Lord and

the Lord, like you don't want, like God took

you out of that, you don't even want to smell

like candy and anything that would resemble your

life you were redeemed and saved out of, that

is totally okay. There is literally no judgment.

But if you don't have a conviction, a strong

conviction to not participate, then enjoy the

night. Go be light to your neighborhood. Hand

out candy. Go get candy. Avoid the avoid the

houses that are real gruesome and gory. Don't

go there Like you don't want to scare your children

but it's okay to go get candy and Maybe hand

out a little bit of candy of your own so whether

you're at a trunk or treat like we're doing or

And passing out candy or you're spending a quiet

evening at home Do it all for the glory of God

All right. I hope that helps clear some things

up. I hope you know that Jesus loves you and

He wants you to know that He is light and hope

and so we need to desperately go and give and

be light and hope. So thanks for listening. I

hope you have a safe and sweet and gospel -filled

Halloween. My name is Pastor Logan and I look

forward to talking to you once again. Make sure

to, if you would, leave a review of this, share

this with your friends, subscribe, do all of

those things. I would appreciate it. Have a great

day.