“I’m glad that at least one night a year, Christian parents let their children celebrate the Devil.”

This is a quote from Anton LaVae, the author of “The Bible of Satan” and the founder of the Satanist Church.

Now, I’m going to level with you. I’m a Christian, I never have celebrated Halloween, and I never will. I am firmly convicted that Christians should not engage in this practice, and I hope that by the end of this blog post, you will have that conviction as well, if you don’t already. I do not hold this conviction for legalistic or ‘holier than thou’ reasons, but firmly rooted on scripture and conviction from the Holy Spirit.

In a poll done in 2015, 59% of Christians polled said that had no issue with Halloween and that it was “all in good fun”. 14% avoided only the outright pagan elements, 21% avoided it completely, and 6% said they weren’t sure.

The History and background of Halloween is often debated in Christendom, but by and large you will hear two different theories. The first is that it used to be “All Saints day”, but later was corrupted by culture. I have not so far been able to find any evidence that supports this theory.

The second theory is that it is based off a pagan holiday in Ireland, that is still celebrated to this day. This Irish holiday is called Samhain, and the majority of Ireland recognizes their holiday as what inspired the American observance of “All Hallows Eve”. In any research I’ve done, the secular world and all of history agrees that the American holiday of Halloween has a direct line back to Samhain.

When confronted with the reality of the Halloween background, most Christians have the following argument.

“Well, we don’t observe it that way now. We aren’t trying to commune with spirits or any of that.”

While this may be the case, and I believe that Christians generally don’t have malintent with their observance of Halloween, I challenge this belief. The belief that you can be involved with and directly associated with a holiday characterized by darkness and evil, and be justified simply because you think about it differently or ignore certain elements, is flawed and unbiblical.

The main argument I have against Halloween is not actually my own, but scripture.

Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

What is Halloween characterized by, again?

Death, decay, jump-scares, horror, monsters, zombies, skeletons, ghosts, vampires, blood, potions, etc. Lawns are decorated with skeletons crawling out of the ground, ghosts hanging from trees, creepy dolls waving from a porch swing, bloody knives, spiders with massive webs, etc.

Tell me which part of Halloween is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy? Would Jesus be go to a haunted house for fun? Would Jesus wear a costume covered in fake blood and wear bruise makeup?

So what are Christians to do? It’s a major holiday celebrated in a massive way by the entire country. Are we to sit it out? Ignore it? Do nothing? Deprive our children of a fun time?

Yes.

We are called by the Lord to be a holy people! (meaning: set apart). We are called to be not of this world! We are called to be the representation of Christ in this world, and – I don’t know about you – but I cannot for the life of me conjure up a world in which Jesus would be hanging skeletons on His home or dressing up in a witch costume.

Ephesians 5:11 says: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

Leviticus 19:31, “‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritisms, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.”

Galatians 5:19-20, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions,”

The question also must be raised, are all parts of Halloween wrong? One thinks of candy, fun costumes for children, pumpkin pie and cider. To this question I would say one thing.

If it is unique to the observance of Halloween, then yes, it is evil and should be avoided.

There is nothing biblically wrong with costumes. There is nothing biblically wrong with handing out candy. There is nothing wrong with getting together with friends, with cider, or other harvest time activities/decorations.

Now, this is a personal conviction, but if I were asked to attend or host a harvest party on Halloween, I would say no. My reason for this is simple; dressing up a pagan holiday to be more acceptable to Christians or less evil looking is a slippery slope, and would reveal that the condition of my heart was being allured far too much by the world.

Christians must not be deceived into compromising, and allowing ourselves to be directly associated with evil practices and imagery.

1 Thessalonians 5:22, “Avoid every appearance of evil.”

This post has barely scratched the surface of this issue, and is leaving much unsaid. This is purposeful, because my goal here isn’t to tell you to what to do on Halloween. My goal here is to present to you reality as I see it and as laid out in scripture, and to challenge you in making sure that your practices and observances of any day are firmly rooted in and motivated solely by scripture.

He who is mighty has done a great thing!

-M