Annual Halloween Rant

[Ukulelemike]

we had out anti-Halloween service last night, as our midweek service is on Thursdays. It was a good service, though these days, after a few years, I'm kind of preaching to the choir. I spoke about the fact that Halloween glorified darkness, death and fear, three things we have been delivered from by Christ-so why should we celebrate such things? One day, darkness, death and fear will be no more-why would we wish to glorify them now?

[JerryNumbers]

That's right. I notice most of these folks either don't want to hear the truth or they simply pay no attention when they do hear it.

It's not just in these sort of matters either, many professing Christians are the same way when it comes to worldly music, movies, booze, sports, politics, matters of dress, men/women roles, etc. They don't want to hear the truth because they might be convicted to change or they have determined to ignore the truth because they are set on not changing no matter what.

Much like the covetous person, they cannot understand their love of money stands between them & God. Many of the Christian's can been seen during president election season crying loud & long for their man while speaking about how bad it is.

Lu 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Mt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

[jebarr]

Its unfortunatley Halloween time again and I am struggling with the fact that once again our IFB "separate from the world" home church is using "trunk or treat" to hand out candy and Bible tracts.  I have heard both sides and see the opportunity to pass out tracts to many unsaved people but still feel as though it is a slippery slope to "Movie nights" and other gimmicks to get people to come to church.

 

Not all of the congregation participated last year but I believe more are this year as the pastor has pointed out that one family returned to faithful church attendance because of last years "trunk or treat".

 

We are a church with a very busy bus outreach and Thursday night soulwinning going door to door.  And while the intentions may be good to reach more souls, I still feel convicted not to participate. We do not participate as a family in Halloween nor "decorate" our home, so why start at church of all places?

 

I know "trunk or treat" has been around secular churches for quite a few years, but is this "Tradition" starting to infiltrate other IFB churches around the country?

[Anon]

The school my kids attend (a church, but we have our own church) has a harvest night on Halloween where we just have a bonfire and games and food...but nothing like Halloween stuff.  I'm glad they do that.  I'm staunchly against Halloween, and I don't think Christians even realize the devil's influence in their lives these days.

 

My husband is starting a series about the devil in church for the next several weeks.  We, ourselves, have had to get rid of a few things in our home that the kids liked that we were afraid was opening the door for Satanic influence (games that others think are harmless, etc.)

 

The college we went to, which was otherwise "strict" and almost "legalistic" actually allowed people to celebrate Halloween, even so far as to allow trick or treating on the campus.  I remember being appalled back then, and remain appalled.  Just goes to show that even people who think they are perfectly aligned with Scripture prOBably aren't.

 

I personally do not believe Halloween falls into "personal liberty" because it directly deals with Satan and I believe God tells us to flee from anything having to do with Satan.   Halloween doesn't even try to hide it...witches, gOBlins, ghosts, horror houses.

 

BTW the fact that our country loves Halloween but now people are starting to get upset about "Christmas" tells me there is a huge difference between the two holidays.  Even the world will admit that Christmas is a religious holiday.

[Jim_Alaska]

Kitagrl,

 

Christmas is a religious holiday, it came right out of RCC and its Pagan forerunner.

 

Although it would “seem” like people are “starting” to get upset about Christmas, this is clearly not the case. Perhaps it is more of an “awakening” to the reality that Baptists have never OBserved this holiday until fairly recently.

 

Until the recent era you would not be able to find a Baptist who would have anything to do with this pagan feast.

 

How is it then, that up until 150 years ago the truth of Christmas was known among Baptists, but now, 150 years later we accept it like it was Gospel? The answer is that Satan has instituted a master piece of deception. He has succeeded in convincing Christians that Christmas is a holy day. Every successive generation has grown up with this thinking. The church no longer condemns it; the world has even bought into this great deception, so it is all around us on every side.

 

In short, Baptists once knew this holiday was wrong and preached against it. Those in our ranks that attempt to revive the old strict Baptist ways will most likely be resisted by modernists among us.

 

Mods,

I was only addressing Kitagrl's last paragraph here. Since the thread is about Halloween, if you think this is out of line and off topic, please feel free to remove it.

[Anon]

When I said "people are getting upset about Christmas" I'm referring to non-religious people, who seem to love Halloween, but be offended by Christmas.   Anything that the world decides it doesn't like (manger scenes, "Merry Christmas", etc) tells me that prOBably there's something good in it.

 

I don't have a prOBlem with celebrating Christmas in the right way.  And the Bible says that if we feel like we can honor God in "regarding a day", if we "regard it unto the Lord" it's okay...it's our personal liberty.

 

IMO there aren't too many ways to regard Halloween unto the Lord....but honestly, if someone truly feels they can honor God with Halloween, that would be between them and God.

[Ukulelemike]

Only 'good' thing about Halloween is cheap candy.  That and sometimes I can find odd hats I wouldn't find other times-I like odd hats, bowlers and such. I have a pirate hat and a viking helmet, and when else can you find weird things like that, but on Halloween?   

 

But that's it-cheap candy and goofy hats. And cheap candy. (had to say it twice).

[John81]

Only 'good' thing about Halloween is cheap candy.  That and sometimes I can find odd hats I wouldn't find other times-I like odd hats, bowlers and such. I have a pirate hat and a viking helmet, and when else can you find weird things like that, but on Halloween?   

 

But that's it-cheap candy and goofy hats. And cheap candy. (had to say it twice).

Where do you find cheap candy these days???

[Ukulelemike]

Where do you find cheap candy these days???

WalMart, another questionably-evil place.

[John81]

Maybe they are cheap there but the candy in WalMart here isn't what I would call cheap. I was in a WalMart today and was shocked at the high price of the candy they had on display for Halloween.

 

One of the most evil things about WalMart is the bigger the get, the less variety of stuff they actually carry. So many things I used to buy there years ago, they no longer even carry.

[MountainChristian]

We don't do anything at my church. Most members keep some candy in case kids stop at their houses. Grandparents buy a little candy for their grandkids. I haven't heard one word spoken against giving out candy, or not taking children around to receive candy.

 

Other churches here do have trunk or treat. (I didn't know that is what they call it). They don't like it when someone says Churchoween. 

 

I'll buy a bag of candy incase some kids come by. I have a backbone of jello when it comes to children. 

[John81]

Not a lot participate in Halloween here anymore. There aren't that many kids that go out and not many houses that give out candy.

 

The local "fun church" holds  what they call a "harvest festival" on Halloween. They usually have a bonfire, cookout, games and trunk or treat (still not really sure what that's about).

[ThePilgrim]

Trunk or treat?  What is that?  Around here we call it trick or treat.  When I was a little kid mom would give me and my brother both a pillow case and we would do our duty and go out and get it filled before we came home.  In those days kids could go out alone.  The big kids would do the tricking, doing things like tipping over outhouses . . . . that is where the trick came in.  Just have no idea where trunk or treat comes from . . . . maybe some of the older kids were big enough to carry trunks to load up with treats?  

[Rebecca]

A word to the wise... if you google 'trunk or treat', make sure you use the word 'church' in there! yikes. Even then, you might get some inappropriate photos come up in the search.  From what I read, trunk or treat is supposed to be a safe alternative to the door to door approach to the holiday(not just churches do this), so it's supposed to be aimed at kids, not college age or older.  I really don't understand how gore and scantily clad women are appropriate themes in a so called 'safe alternative'. 

 

Trunk or treat is when a group(church, school, etc) gets together and they decorate their cars, vans, and trucks with various themes and dress up in costumes to go with the theme, and hand out candy to the kids as they walk by each vehicle. Some places have the kids stop and the group tells the story to go with their theme and the kids get candy before heading to the next vehicle in the line. 

[John81]

A word to the wise... if you google 'trunk or treat', make sure you use the word 'church' in there! yikes. Even then, you might get some inappropriate photos come up in the search.  From what I read, trunk or treat is supposed to be a safe alternative to the door to door approach to the holiday(not just churches do this), so it's supposed to be aimed at kids, not college age or older.  I really don't understand how gore and scantily clad women are appropriate themes in a so called 'safe alternative'. 

 

Trunk or treat is when a group(church, school, etc) gets together and they decorate their cars, vans, and trucks with various themes and dress up in costumes to go with the theme, and hand out candy to the kids as they walk by each vehicle. Some places have the kids stop and the group tells the story to go with their theme and the kids get candy before heading to the next vehicle in the line. 

Thank you! I never knew what that was all about and I never even thought of googling it...and it sounds like that's prOBably a good thing!