by Last week we saw how the day we live in has been heavily influenced by the world and Satan. This week, the Law is where we should begin our look into Halloween and the Christians’ response to it.
One argument for celebrating Halloween is the word “Halloween” is not found in our King James Bible, thus, God has no objections. Well, neither is trinity, demon, rapture, etc. Understand, studying the Bible is more than pulling out a single word or phrase to develop some doctrine (Isaiah 28:10), which is the tactic of the cults and false teachers. Paul implores us to take “all the counsel of God” to be able to “feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:27-28).
As we dig through all the counsel of God, it will not take long to find verses concerning the darkness surrounding witchcraft, which is the driving force in celebrating Halloween:
- God condemns association with familiar spirits and wizards (Leviticus 20:6-8)
- God condemns teaching our children to associate with these (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)
How do we reconcile God condemning witchcraft in the Old Testament, with His church which is under Grace in the New Testament? First, as a rule, unless God changed a principle or precept from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we are obligated to obey it. This is called “the rule of first mention.” Also, if God is silent on an issue in either Testament, this does not eliminate the precept or principle found in the other Testament. Why? We are to study all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27-28). We saw a first mention in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, so how about Halloween in the New Testament?
A search for any word with “witch” in the New Testament reveals “bewitched” in Acts 8. Here, we learn by principle that God still condemns the association and the instruments of witchcraft (Acts 8:9-11).
- sorcery = to be a magician; to practice magical arts
- bewitched = to cause confusion; to lose one’s mind
Furthermore, the church was taught to disassociate with anything associated with sin, and anything that gives any “appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:22). Just open your eyes during Halloween and the appearance of evil is everywhere, including in God’s church. When both Jews and Gentiles became born-again in the Book of Acts, those who were involved in witchcraft immediately removed all appearance of evil from their lives (Acts 19:18-19). This is our present-day example on God’s Law concerning celebrating Halloween and the condemnation of it.
