A little note about Halloween

Ahh, Halloween – that pesky holiday that is serving as yet another conduit to help divide Americans. Take a look at this screen shot I took from a conversation I had with some Hebrew Roots folks on Facebook who were discussing some plans for their children’s upcoming Halloween celebrations:

So, with Halloween just around the corner, the debates are again raging, as they do every year. I can understand why atheists believe that it’s just a fun holiday. But I don’t understand why many Christians and Messianics/Hebrew Roots types do – because, since they supposedly KNOW Scripture, they should KNOW what YHWH says about the “forces of darkness” which is – let’s be truthful here - what Halloween is all about! (See Isaiah 29:15; Psalm 82:5; Ephesians 6:12, Matthew 6:23; 1 John 5:19; etc.)

Instead, they attempt to twist Scripture to support and promote the idea of this “fun holiday.”  Some even attempt to make it sound less pagan by referring to it as “Harvest Festival” or some other more benign name cloaked as an excuse to ignore what YHWH says.

The dictionary definition of Halloween is, “the eve of All Saints' Day (the evening before All Hallows' Day) …” which “has its roots in the ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain, which was celebrated on the night of October 31. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, believed that the dead returned to earth on Samhain.”….

Further explanations include the fact that ”many Americans celebrate the traditions of Halloween by dressing in costumes and telling tales of witches and ghosts. Pumpkins are carved into glowering jack-o'-lanterns. Children parade from house to house, knocking on doors and calling out ‘Trick or treat!’ hoping to have their bags filled with candy.”

So, Halloween - which is based on the “pre-Christian Celtic festival of Samhain” and commemorates their “saints” - includes the American tradition of “…telling tales of witches and ghosts and carving pumpkins into glowering jack-o'-lanterns.”   Most ads for Halloween include depictions of witches, goblins, demons, devils, monsters … EVIL things – all the things YHWH HATES! 

And yet most Americans – including supposed Believers in YHWH and His Divine Son – are okay with that.

Well, that truly takes my breath away! 

So, really, all that is left for me to say is:  “What does SCRIPTURE say?”

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (ESV)

Matthew 15:3 Then Y’shua answered and said to them, Why also do you transgress against the Commandments of Elohim because of your traditions? 4. For Elohim said, “Honor your father and mother, and anyone who reviles his father and his mother let him be put to death?” 5. But you say anyone who says to a father or to a mother, “My offering is whatever you have gained by me,” then he does not need to honor his father or mother. 6. And you nullify the Word of Elohim because of your tradition. 7. Hypocrites! Well did Yesha’yahu prophesy concerning you and said, 8. “This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is very far from me.” 9. And they revere me in vain, while they teach the doctrines of the commandments of the sons of men. (AENT)

Deuteronomy 18:9 "When you enter the land ADONAI your God is giving you, you are not to learn how to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, an enchanter, a sorcerer, 11 a spell-caster, a consulter of ghosts or spirits, or a necromancer. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to ADONAI, and because of these abominations ADONAI your God is driving them out ahead of you. 13 You must be wholehearted with ADONAI your God. 14 For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to soothsayers and diviners; but you, ADONAI your God does not allow you to do this. (CJB)

Colossians 2:8 Beware, or else any man make you naked by philosophy and by vain deception, according to the doctrines of men, according to the rudiments of the world, and not according to the Mashiyach 9 in whom dwells all the fullness of Elohim bodily. (AENT)

1 Thessalonians 5:1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 prove them all. Hold fast what is good. 22 Keep back from every form of wickedness. 23 And the Elohim of peace Himself set you completely apart, and your entire spirit, and being, and body - be preserved blameless at the coming of our Master יהושע Messiah! (ISR)

2 Timothy 4:2. Proclaim the Word and persist (in it) with diligence, in time and out of time; admonish and rebuke with all patience and instructiveness. 3. For the time will come when they will not give ear to sound teaching; but, according to their lusts, will multiply to themselves teachers in the itching of their hearing; 4. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and incline after fables. 5. But be vigilant in all things; and endure evils and do the work of a proclaimer of the Good News, and fulfill your ministry. (AENT)

Here’s one that should conjure up another man-made holiday….

Jeremiah 10:1 Hear the word ADONAI speaks to you, house of Isra'el! 2 Here is what ADONAI says: "Don't learn the way of the Goyim, don't be frightened by astrological signs, even if the Goyim are afraid of them; 3 for the customs of the peoples are nothing. They cut down a tree in the forest; a craftsman works it with his axe; 4 they deck it with silver and gold. They fix it with hammer and nails, so that it won't move. 5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, it cannot speak. It has to be carried, because it cannot walk. Do not be afraid of it it can do nothing bad; likewise it is unable to do anything good!" (CJB)

YHWH’s people received many warnings about paganism; the following is just one:

Deuteronomy 5:32 "Therefore you are to be careful to do as ADONAI your God has ordered you; you are not to deviate either to the right or the left. 33 You are to follow the entire way which ADONAI your God has ordered you; so that you will live, things will go well with you, and you will live long in the land you are about to possess. (CJB)

The scriptures above represent just a FEW passages admonishing YHWH’s people are to refrain from evil and to stay on HIS Path.  In the end, that is really ALL that matters.

Whose path are YOU choosing?