Halloween and Christmas as Church Practice

Deau 18:9-12 "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.  There shall not be found among you any one that.....useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee."

What about the practice of Halloween and Christmas?  Should we be putting Christ back into Christmas.  What's the harm of trick or treat, or bonfires, or witches or wizards or monsters and children pretending to be them. God says these things are an abomination, but it is great fun for the unthinking.  Truth should guide our thinking and not the world's idea of fun.

Should we be putting Christ back into Christmas?  the problem is that this question overlooks the question of whether or not these festivals are right at all.  There can be no Christian way of doing things that are wrong, so we cannot speak of the Christian way to observe these things unless they are legitimate in the first place."

Churches have Halloween parties, and Christmas trees in pulpits.  Should this be?  Can we Christianize that which God has not even commanded or hinted at?  

What biblical command or principle is there for celebrating Halloween or Christmas:  There is no command or principle at all.  We are told to remember the Lord's death and that is it. 1 Corinthians 11:26 "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."  Neither Halloween nor Christmas was celebrated in scripture nor were they given a Christian veneer until the Roman Church..  until then both these celebrations were by pagans.. pagan festivals.  And both were hijacked by the Roman church and given an unbiblical Christian veneer.  Well what is the origin?  



Halloween:  origin..   found in the British Isles before the time of Christ.  Halloween was practiced by the Celtic druids.  Oct 31 was the end of the pagan year, the end of summer and the beginning of winter, darker nights, dead leaves.  To the pagans, the end of summer spoke of death and black is the color of Halloween.   It's name was Samhain, it's pronounced Sowan, and its name means the lord of death.  The pagans believe that at that time of year the veil between the supernatural and the natural is at its thinnest.  they believe that the spirits of the dead can come into our plain and possess animals and people, most especially black cats.

The pagans have animal and human sacrifices to appease the spirits of the dead and to appease the lord of death.  That happens today .  What about bonfires?  they were bone fires, lit at perimeter of villages hoping to prevent the spirits of the dead from entering villages.  

What about the hollowed out pumpkin.  The druids believed that was their personal god and guide, a symbol of the demons.   

Dressing up and trick or treat, knocking at the door:  their firm belief was and is that the dead that come through the veil want treats or else they play tricks on the living.    When trick or treaters come they are (in ignorance) carrying on the practice that symbolizes the spirits of the dead wanting treats or else nasty tricks were done.

In 834ad pope Gregory the 4th proclaimed Oct 31 "all saint's eve" and the next day "all saints day"  It was to be a time to specifically pray for the dead.  So the veneer was anti-biblical at its origin.  When we die our spirit goes either to hell or heaven, there is no coming back.  That is the origin of Halloween.

Origin of Christ Mass:  Christmas was and is a pagan festival of Saturnalia, to do with the planet Saturn.  Its origin was the supposed birth date of Tamuz, the Sun God.  Tamuz is referred to in the scripture in Ezekiel  8:12-14 "Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.  He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.  Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tamuz."  Context makes all the difference.  God says it was a great abomination.  Dec 25, the birth day of Tamuz is hateful to Jehovah.  Saturnalia was abhorrent to Christians until around 300ad.  What happened?  The Roman church tried to change the pagan festival that people had refused to give up into a festival that marks the birth of Jesus Christ.  So what is Saturnalia? How is it celebrated.  We know what Christmas is now but how was Saturnalia celebrated?  Dec 25 was not Christ's birthday but long before Christ was born Dec 25 was the most widely recognized and celebrated holiday among the idolatrous pagans as the birthday of the Sun god.  Christmas originated with pagan Sun worship.  It was the time of merriment, revelry and drunkenness.  Most modern practices of Christmas were part of pagan winter solstice.  Saturnalia was the most vile, immoral feast of the year in Rome.   Isn't it plain and obvious to you that though its name has been changed, the same spirit of merriment is present in our modern Christmas celebrations.  Christmas is not of God or it would be a time of holiness, drawing closer to God, and true spirituality but the opposite is true.  The public celebrates it just as the ancients celebrated Saturnalia with office parties and such.  The whole world is one madhouse, religious and otherwise  at Christmas.

 What does a Christmas tree symbolize?  In pagan origin the tree symbolized fertility, evergreen.  The early church forbade the custom as savouring paganism.

How should these things be done?  They should not be done because God says we are not to copy the pagans.   Mark 7:7 "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men"    Apart from the pagan origin and the heretical Roman origin, it is enough that God does not command it, not warrant it, therefore it is forbidden as a church practice.
Who is to do it?  Nobody..  why should any church practice things that God has not sanctioned.  Festival days called "holy days" having no warrant in the word of God are not to be continued.  The Christian is not to be a partaker with false religions because that would be bearing a false witness.

Ah But..  let's consider a few "ah buts".  Ah but, they say that people are doing it in ignorance.  Does that mean if you something ignorantly that its not sin? if that is the case, we should call all the missionaries back and leave people in ignorance.  It's sin whether or not they are ignorant.   Ah but, is this not divisive?  aren't you making an issue of these things?  It is common to hear Christians who want only the Lord's ordinances in the Lord's worship to be accused of being divisive.  Christ required only whatsoever he had commanded to be taught for our observance.  True unity is when the people of God rally to the ordinances of the Lord and refrain from trying to bring one another into bondage by the imposition of their particular man-made preferred ordinances.  Human innovation divides the flock, not those who want to obey the ordinances of the Lord.  Ah but,  its OK at home..  well, if that which is offensive to God is OK at home, would the Lord be happy with an anti-Christian festival at home?   Ah but, should we not compromise and be gracious on the basis of Romans 14:4-6.   Certainly not, that would be to take Romans 14 out of context.  Romans 14 as we well know is referring to the days and feast and sabbaths that were once appointed by God in the old testament but were changed in the new testament..  grace was to be shown during the transition period.  Halloween and Christmas were never appointed by God and to use those verses is to take the passage way out of context.  Ah but, shouldn't  the church adjust to suit the modern Christian, to mold ourselves to people?  Now we don't.  It will make Gods commands of none effect because man's traditions and God's ordinances do not mix.  Matthew 15:9 "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."   Ah but, we have Christianized those things, no problem.  Isn't a false birthday a Christian veneer? 

You do not Christianize that which the Lord does not.  We should never adjust to suit the modern man.  Halloween and Christmas are not church practices.                                        ________________________________________

These notes were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1014121640150