Halloween Vs. Reformation Day

I was reading a few blogs yesterday from Christians either bashing Halloween, sticking up for Halloween, or distracting the attention away from Halloween and putting it all on Reformation Day. I was quite fascinated with the viewpoints out there and sort of baffled about the Reformation Day thing. For one, I had never heard of Reformation Day myself... so I looked it up.

Apparently, some protestant denominations observe Oct. 31st in honor of Martin Luther posting his 95 Thesis on the church door on that day in 1517, which began the Great Reformation. They were claiming that Martin Luther chose that day to make a point... that Jesus had come and died on the cross, defeating Satan forever, therefore he was declaring that all forces of evil was harmless and Halloween was no longer a day of demonic activity. That all sounds good, like far fetched wishful thinking, but it also sounds like a pretty big stretch based on the facts. To say that's why Martin Luther posted his argument against the doctrines of Catholicism on the church door on October 31st is just as opinion based as pure speculation. I also have an opinion about why he posted it on October 31st... because he was declaring that the Catholic/papal practices were demonic works, or at the very least, man-made superstitions driven by people who were not interested in honoring God. That's my opinion, but I have no hard facts to back that up either.

Anyway, I see nothing wrong with celebrating the Reformation in general, which played a part in God beginning to bring the Church out of captivity of Satan's reign in Catholic/papal form. It led to protestantism breaking away from a very religious organization into a faith based on a personal relationship with God. But it was just a part, and it was just the beginning, and we as the Body of Christ are still struggling, wandering around in the wilderness trying to be restored to where we are meant to be. Martin Luther did some good things and was used by God for a time, but I wouldn't praise the man too much, because God could have used anyone to do what he did, and not everything Luther did or said was of God and some of it is not worth celebrating at all. But I will say this, Luther was a man of faith and convictions and he put himself in the position to be used by God mightily by standing up for what he knew was right in the face of powerful religionists, and with great risk and sacrifice. We are in need of such people today, who will go against the grain of church tradition to become the Church according to God's Word!

And for another thing, I'm a bit interested at the range of opinions about Halloween itself from Christians. From "it's no big deal" to "Halloween participators will burn in hell" - it all seems to be coming from what people are or are not being taught in their churches about it. Some churches do a little teaching about it and hold a costume party, pass out treats, and have their own fall festivities. For the sake of "outreach", they do hayrides, carve pumpkins, and roast marshmallows at bonfires, inviting the world in to participate with them instead of with traditional "Halloween customs". Some churches do a lot of teaching about it and hold a prayer vigil that night and pray for the lost, doing spiritual warfare against the enemy. Some churches don't do any teaching of it at all and ignore the Halloween season altogether. In those cases, you'll find the Christian parents who remember trick-or-treating fondly as children and buy into the commercialism and tradition of the day, and their family gets really into it - dressing up, taking their kids to haunted houses and out for beggar’s night, and getting a kick out of trying to scare each other. All harmless fun, right? Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

Halloween, by the way, is "All Hallows Eve", the night before "All Hallows Day" (All Saints Day). This is a day of honoring dead saints in the Catholic church, which was moved from sometime in April in the 700's A.D. and placed upon the ancient pagan holy day of the Celts, Samhain Night, festival of the dead. Samhain was a fire festival when the "dead revisited the mortal world" and large community bonfires would be lit to ward of evil spirits. Often it involved divination, honoring "gods”(demons) associated with the dead, making offerings to the spirits, necromancy, and soothsaying. This day is also one of the high holy days in the Wiccan calendar today, taken from it's pagan origins.

It's bizarre to me that believers are even tempted to engage in the world's system of holidays at all! Christmas, Easter, and now Reformation Day... you'd think that the Church would wake up and see that those are pagan holy days dressed up in Christian clothing. God's Word instructs us and gives us more than enough Holy Days and Festivals to celebrate God with - but we refuse them and go the way of the world anyway. How sad. It's bad enough that Satan has orchestrated idolatry on set days that God established as Holy Days unto Him - do believers now also have to chase after those pagan holy days with thier idolatrous customs and slap a "Jesus" sticker on them to excuse it?

Let's get back to the Bible and base what we do and don't do on God's Word rather than on the customs of the world. Purim (the festival of Lots) is a Biblical holy day that could be celebrated joyfully with costume parties, feasting, candy and plays - a celebration that fosters great joy and worshipful acknowledgement to God for saving lives and for working behind the scenes to bring about salvation! Rejoicing in life, not death. The festival of Tabernacles lends itself to autumn celebrations as we live out in our wooded shelters for a week - roasting marshmallows together with our families in a campfire, celebrating Jesus' birth and worshipping God for His constant grace, provision, and protection that He pours out to us. God's three Highest Holy Days are Passover (God delivering His people from bondage into salvation; Jesus, death, burial, and resurrection), Pentecost (the giving of the God's Word; the giving of the Holy Spirit), and the Festival of Tabernacles (God's leading with provision and protection in the wilderness; Jesus' birth on this earth). These 3 at least should be a hallmark in the lives of believers in Christ Jesus our Lord in addition to our weekly Sabbath! And not to forget the others: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Dedication - which are all Biblical and honor the Lord God Almighty! The Biblical Holy Days point to Jesus' first coming in human form on the earth and His second coming; and if not for the excitement and joy in celebration of these, we should be observing them at least for the purpose of honoring God and rehearsing for Christ's return! Let's put aside the ways of the world, and that includes man-made church tradition and secular waves of popularity, that go against God's Word or that have nothing to do with giving Him all the honor and glory!