Trick or Treat

I believe most of us grew up longing for the next holiday to show up. Good times, friends, family and crazy get togethers. This was what I thought and believed 'BC.' As a Pastor everyone wants me to provide my opinion on the holidays, and most of the time I hear alot of justification. The holiday that I always have to address the most is 'Halloween.' Let me first say that anyone with children, or grandchildren immediately think "They will be so cute dressing up as Batman or Cinderella." I have to agree that they would, but I also have to agree with the fact that there are many more days a year in which they can be cute and adorn those costumes. Matter of fact if they want to get dressed up in May and go door to door seeking candy, this would be fine.

Here is the deal that many people don't want to accept and that is "Halloween has nothing to do with Jesus, or Christianity." People immeditately say "Christmas came from a pagan holiday and Easter did too!" So, let's look at these with common sense. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter all bring glory to God and Jesus Christ, and are the only holidays that we can actually evangelize, because everyone (even an unbeliever) knows their purpose. They do not promote or glorify the devil, death, or wickedness. Halloween does. The pressure mounts and Christians tend to fall from peer pressure and say "Well, lets have a fall festival, carnival, or outreach at our church, so that we can offer an alternative." Something big is missing though. We are still honoring the day. It is a fact that rapes, human sacrifices, abuse of children still occurs every Halloween in this country and countries all over the world. People say (and my wife and I have to admit also) that it is sad to not open the door and give these kids some candy. When are we going to learn that we aren't suppose to be of this world anymore. The Word of God tells us plainly that we will suffer for His sake. I feel that this is why Christianity has lost ground at a rapid pace across the world. We say we are to be different and yet we do the same things the world does. Unfortunately we call our Christian friends (who are weak) and they agreee that those standing firm have lost it.

I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I do believe that if we train our kids up right from the beginning it will be easier to keep them on track when they get older. If we show compromise in areas of wickedness or evil then they will compromise. Can you imagine an 8 year old justifying what is wicked and what is not? Even if they don't wear a wicked witch costume or a little devil outfit, they still know that the day is about wicked (Once the get over the candy lure), evil, and death. As a Christian I believe we are to look at resurrection not death. Good and not evil.

Last but not least...What do you think Jesus and the Disciples would do? You know the answer don't you. According to the scripture the devil is the father of all lies, and I believe we can either acknowledge this lie now, or pay for it later. The founder of a church that has grown leaps and bounds over the years put out a video series about paganism years ago, and one of the videos is all about Halloween and why as Christians we should have no part of it. I concuur with this video and applaud it to this day. The sad thing to me today is that there are alot of the churches using the same name as the founder and the church he founded who will have 'Alternative' things going on at their churches in the name of Jesus. Even they don't make a total stand and the lost sit back and remain confused. The question is this "Will we compromise and accept evil, or will we satnd for Christ and our kids. It would be sad to stand before Jesus one day and because of our choice to celebrate this holiday, He will say "Trick or Treat, I never knew you."