Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
YouTube live discussion (King's Council) where Rylee Meek and Christian Edwards debate whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. They cover personal experiences, the Celtic and medieval origins of Halloween, how the church historically repurposed pagan customs, and a number of Bible passages (e.g., Deut. 18:9–14; 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23; Eph. 5:11; Rom. 14) used to argue for rejecting Halloween. They outline five Christian approaches (reject, receive, and three redeem options) and give practical guidance for parents and households on guarding spiritual atmospheres and discipling children.
Chapters
All right, all right, everybody. Welcome back to the King's Council live. You got hope dealer Christian Edwards in the house.
That's right.
And my name, Riley Meek. Great to have you guys. Happy Friday.
Yes, bro.
We are three weeks out.
Is it three from or two?
Three.
Three.
Three weeks out from Halloween. This is what we're going to dive into today, guys. Hot Topic, the what some would call a holiday of Halloween. And I want to just rebuke that right away because a holiday means a holy day and ain't nothing holy about Halloween. Can I get an amen in the chat?
Yeah, that's right. That's why I love when people say, oh, don't say Merry Christmas, say Happy Holidays. Well, yeah, Happy holy day.
Right, right, right. Are you one of those guys?
Well, that's what I think.
Yeah. I would just say Merry Christmas back to him.
Yeah, I, I, even before I was saved, I'd never had a problem of saying Merry Christmas.
Right.
I mean, Christmas, nothing about Jesus. To me it was all about getting lots of presents and. Right. You know, the tree with the, the star, the lights and all that. But we did an episode about that.
Yeah.
Well, the week of Christmas, I think last year.
Yep.
And you actually dressed as an elf for that one. Why are you not dressed as like a little, little gremlin or something?
I forgot I did that, didn't I?
You did.
And has like a little elf on a shelf.
Yeah, it's actually where you got the outfit from. Right, Same size.
Well, welcome, welcome, guys. Love having you here again every Friday live with us here at the King's Council. But we thought this would be a great topic to dive into just because I think it is a question that a lot of Christians have or wrestle with and maybe, maybe you're even newer to the faith. And this is a good question for you to, you know, kind of come to a conclusion on your own. We're going to provide a few different perspectives on today. And as we, as we do this, I would just love to hear your guys perspective on Halloween. Maybe you've, you grew up with certain traditions. Maybe you've come to know the Lord and now you're like wrestling with that. Or maybe you don't even know. You're like, man, I never even thought about this before. Right. And so this is a part of our sanctification process.
Yeah.
Right. And we're going to dive into a lot of scripture today, even a little background on where it even originated from and how we should go about or what we should do with it. Moving forward out of here. So our heart, our. Our hope and intent is there's some practical things that you guys can do for your household, for your family, your friends, all those that you have reach with. Reach and influence with. So.
Yeah. Amen. So you used to celebrate Halloween as a kid?
Oh, yeah, yeah, Wholeheartedly, bro.
What was your best ever costume?
Ooh, I don't think this was the best, but I do remember one year we were pretty poor, and I don't know if. I don't know if it was necessarily because it's not like we ever went without. I want to say that, but maybe we just forgot and didn't get a costume. And one year, my mom just, like, magic. Magic markered my teeth. Like, literally blacked out my teeth with, like, a Sharpie. Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. And I thought it was kind of cool. And my friends were like, you just put marker on your teeth?
Yeah. How long did I say?
I'm like, I don't even remember, man. I can't imagine it was long. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's interesting. That's memorable.
Yeah, right?
Yeah. For me, it was actually. My mother dressed me up as Michael Jackson. She was a big fan, and I. There's a picture of this floating around.
Somewhere where Chase find this?
Yeah, I had the. The. I had the red jacket. I had the glove. I remember she dyed my hair black, and it was just, like, combed back, but she used the. The black that we use. I was playing little league at the time. I mean, you start when you're like, five playing T ball, so I was probably around six or seven. But the eye black for under my eyes. She rubbed all over my face to make my face black.
So Michael was never even that black.
Never. But that was all we had. We weren't poor, but, you know, we weren't going to the store to get brown.
You were the original blackface.
Yeah, I am. I am. And look at that. You know, my mother being prophetic as being Christian, and now I have black children, so. Yes. Right.
I'm not going to say anything about your mother anymore.
No, no, please don't. Please don't.
She was prophetic. That's good. That's good, man.
Yeah. So we'll get into this, and do you want to come out? And you mentioned, like, as a Christian, how we should respond, but there might be somebody listening to this or watching this that's not even a Christian and just thinks that it's very harmless, which our parents did growing up, where it's a harmless thing. Oh, the kids have fun. It is fun as a kid to dress up, get some candy. Of course. What kid doesn't get excited about that?
Y.
So whoever you are, will. Will give you biblical reasons as to how I, in my household, have come to the conclusion that we've come to as to. And I'll share it now. It's a hard line. There's no celebration of Halloween at all. And we'll get into it a bit as we go through this episode. How about you?
Yeah, we are to the point of that now, but certainly hadn't always been. Some of, you know, my walk with the Lord has definitely grown. And yeah, I mean, we have. I have photos of Ash and Ellie and I dressed up as. We were never like ghost goblins, ghouls, anything like that, but we were dressed up as, like the Descendants from Disney, whatever that show was. We were dressed up as the Incredible. The Incredibles. You know, I was the man and woman and the child, things like that. So we always thought it was just, like, fun. But, you know, that was like 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 10 years ago. And, you know, it's. It hasn't. It was always something. You know, I would consider myself a Christian. Right. You know I'm Christian, right? Again, I wanted Jesus as savior, not as Lord of my life. But now that I've really dove into this, I don't think there's any question of where I stand now. And that's a hard no. Right. And I think in all of you, even listening have your other opinions and things like that in the chat is great. We want to hear all of those. And what I want to make sure or what we're clear of is that none of this is like, you have to do it this way. This is our. Our conviction, and we're gonna explain why. Right. And that might alter your thoughts on this. It might not. And that's completely fine. We just want to explain where we come from from our perspective of why both of us now are just clearly, this is just not allowed in our household.
Yeah, I enjoyed it as, like, late teen, early 20s. Because the hoes, they dress even more hoe. Like, for Halloween, don't they? Don't they? If they dress Christian, like, even those who. Who dress provocatively, like just even a little bit Halloween, it's like the whole. Comes out.
Yeah, man. If. If you're. If you're going to the clubs, like, that's the night that you would want to definitely go out, because they were. They weren't wearing much. No, they don't usually, but they definitely aren't on those times, so.
Right, right.
So, yeah, we. We don't condone.
But everybody knows in my early 20s, I was a male hoe.
Yeah.
Myself. Yeah.
Gigolo.
What's a male ho called? Gigolo. Gigolo.
I think so. Deuce Bigelow, male gigolo.
That's right. Well, I didn't get paid for it or anything.
That's true.
Yeah.
I don't know what it is. And player.
Yeah, Player. Yeah, exactly.
All right, let's dive into this, bro.
Where do you.
Where do you even want to start? Want to get into the roots of it or just like. I'll let you. You started out.
Yeah, let's get into the roots a bit because, well, Halloween, like we did back on our Christmas episode, we got into the. The roots of it and ultimately, I believe Christmas. And we. And we went through everything. Everything I just mentioned about as a little kid, I enjoyed about Christmas. Like the tree, the lights and everything that Christians have redeemed. That and the. The lights, the. The star on top, everything could represent Christ. Right.
Sure.
So Christmas is a. Definitely a holiday that could be redeemed, but Halloween, not so much.
Yeah, I agree. Some things just shouldn't be redeemed.
Right.
You know, I mean, Christ came to redeem the. You know, the lost, but with something that is clearly from this has demonic roots and like. Nah, dude, just catch. Cast that thing to the bits of hell where it belongs. Yeah, right.
Yeah. Because with us, I mentioned redeem. So when it comes to holidays like this or just anything, we should always assess it and take on the approach. Approach. As Christians, do we reject it altogether? Do we receive it or can we redeem it?
Yep. Right.
And we'll walk a little bit through that as we go through here. But the Celtic beginnings of Halloween is really where it all begins in medieval Britain and Ireland. And I'm going to be reading from some notes because I don't have all this memorized, quite frankly. And ultimately the last day of summer, they. They had two seasons. Summer, winter, last day.
Kind of like Minnesota.
Right, right. Although the last day of your summer is definitely not October 31st.
That's true.
Yeah. That's like mid winter that sometimes it feels like. And so the winters were harsh and they were associated with death, so. So Wayne is what it's called. It became a festival to appease spirits, thought to control weather and life and even that we've talked about it, where the idea of atheism is a new thought. Like even back then, medieval Times like BC days that there was always belief in some God. Y so the whole idea that there's just nothing. So. So they were right to know that something or somebody is in control of the weather. It's just that it's God, it's our. It's Yahweh.
Right.
Y so they would light bonfires to ward off evil spirits, keep the spirits of death away. They wore mask and and animal skins even sometimes hence the costumes that we dress up in now to disguise themselves. They believe that these evil spirits roam freely through the night. And it was considered the only night that they would intentionally invoke demonic powers for protection. Right, so you believe that there, there's these spirits and powers that control the weather and you're invoking other spirits and powers to try to protect your land from that. So all in all, not a good way to go.
Right, Right. Definitely not.
Right. And then around AD601, Pope Gregory I instructed missionaries not to destroy pagan traditions, but to repurpose them. Good idea.
Right.
You would think, hoping that Christianity would eventually replace paganism. The result was mixture, not eradication. Okay. So the pagan rituals continued just under new names. And those who practice them secretly were later branded as witches. Move on to 8834 All Saints Day move from May 13 to November 1 called All Hallows Day. And October 31 became All Hallows Eve and now we call it Halloween. In A.D. 988, the church added All Souls Day on Nov. 2 to pray for both the living and the dead. Later rejected by reformers in the Reformation. It was actually on October 31st that Martin Luther, he nailed his 95 thesis. Is it 95? Yeah, the 95 or 96 reasons that he didn't think the Catholic Church was doing it the right way.
Yep.
And it started the Protestant Reformation, which is why we have church today the way that we have it as Protestants.
Yes.
Or reformers, if you will. Just not Catholic. Any Bible believing Christian that's not Catholic, essentially. Right. But ultimately that the hot the holiday which not really a holiday, but the day, it was never biblical. It was a blend of fear, death, superstition. It was partially rebranded, but never actually redeemed.
Yes. I thought this was interesting too. The custom like of trick or treating was this actually came from ancient Druid priest and they would actually go house to house demanding food for their own consumption and for offerings for their deities. Right. So and the people that wouldn't provide them food, they would speak a demonic curse over that home, which is kind of trick or Treat. Yeah, right.
I think I spoke some demonic curses over homes that gave out some. Some crappy candy.
Back in the day, you always knew, like, witch houses gave the good candy.
Yeah.
Even a few years ago, Ash and I were like, you know, do we give out candy? Last year we just closed it up. But a few years ago, I was like, oh, no, we. We're gonna get our full candy bars. Like, we're gonna be the good house. I want to be known for that in the neighborhood.
Right.
Or the houses that would have cans of pop.
Yeah.
All this candy and you're thirsty as heck.
What about candy corn?
Disgusting.
Horrible.
Yeah. Straight from the hell.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What human being has ever had more than one of those? It's like, you have one and never again.
Right. Yeah.
Do you remember as a kid, did they do this? You're only a few years younger than me, but like always, police officers would come into grammar school and talk to the kids, and then they invite the parents to come in to inspect the candy. And they were saying, like, people would inject.
I think I heard about that.
Drugs in them and all.
Razor blades and things.
Yeah.
It never happened. I don't. We never had cops that came and talk us. That I remember.
Yeah.
I remember hearing about stuff like that.
I don't remember ever hearing, like, on the news, anything of that, like, ever really happening anywhere. I guess it has somewhere.
Yeah. We didn't have social media back then.
That's true. Yeah. I guess if it didn't happen in my town, I didn't know about it.
That's right.
Right. All right. So ultimately, what it comes down to for Christians, and we are going to abide by the. The word of God scripture. Right. This is what.
Yep.
This is our blueprint. You were more of, you know, you didn't celebrate. You weren't like, you know, raising. Trying to raise souls from the dead or proclaiming curses over anybody, but you were just kind of participating.
Yeah.
In a fun way for more. More so for Ellie, right?
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Because again, originally my thought is like, well, I don't want to be. I don't want to rob her of fun or feel left out because I didn't want to feel that way even, like, as a kid. Not that I even had the thoughts of not celebrating it, but I just kind of put myself in those. In her situation or shoes. It's like everybody's doing it. Which should be a question right there.
Right.
And so it was. Yeah, it was like, obviously we're not doing anything, you know, ghost and ghouls and goblins and things like that. But it's just, you know, there's no harm in it, is what my thought was.
Yep. Yeah. So a couple verses to keep in mind with this. And really, all things, not just Halloween. But if something's kind of in a gray area that that's not specifically mentioned in Scripture, you have to question, as Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 6:12, it's basically, I, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. I will not be mastered by anything. So it's depending on the translation. All things are lawful, but not everything is permissible or not everything is beneficial. All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.
Excuse me. Some say lawful, some say permissible.
Yeah.
But not all things are beneficial. Right.
And he repeats it in 1 Corinthians 10:23. Again, basically, I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. That's what you have to really think about. Is this actually constructive? Romans 14:19 through 21 really causes to seek what builds others up and avoid anything that causes others to stumble. That's a big one. As far as even, you know, you may be able to drink and you have a drink or two, not get drunk, and you're okay. But if you're around somebody that may stumble by seeing that drink, well, we're called to not drink that.
Yeah, Right.
We don't want to be a stumbling block for others. So our participation in Halloween, with us knowing. Knowing that the demonic spirits and forces and fear and all the witchcraft that's involved in it, if we participate in kind of a. A harmless way, we have to be careful that we're not stumbling somebody. Somebody else who's not aware of those things. And they're now on this road of being tormented by demons because they wanted to celebrate Halloween.
Yep. Yeah. That's. Which. It seems like I'm just putting myself, like, outside of what I already believe of what you're saying. And it's like. Seems like, man, that's going to the extreme.
Yeah.
It's like we're just trick or treating with little kids. And like you're. Now I'm like, opening my child up to be tormented from demons. Like, that seems extreme. Yeah, right. To a non. Certainly to a non believer, but to somebody that maybe isn't as mature in the word of God and understanding what Scripture actually says in regards to this, we have so many to dive into. My favorite in just preparing and studying for this was Ephesians 5, 11 have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Right. So it's literally have nothing to do with it.
Right.
Not. You know, it's. Okay. Not.
But what's. But what's dark about just dressing little Timmy up as Spider man and going to get some candy?
Right. Well, I would say it's fruitless deeds of darkness, I guess. I mean, we'll go into some more scriptures to back that up. That might not be the best to. To refute what you just said there, but I think this is just like understanding.
Building the foundation.
Yes, yeah, yeah. Building the foundation here of what we're talking about. So. So you said we can. We can receive it. Right. I mean, it's like, not that big of a deal as Christians. We can redeem it. Right. Saying, like, oh, no, we're going to win this back for the Lord or.
Find a way to glorify Christ in the midst of it.
Yep. Or ultimately reject it.
Right.
So. Right. Obviously, when it comes to receiving it, we're. I mean, I think you would understand if you are a believer, there's no room for that. Yeah, right. Just receiving it and, like, participating in it as normal, you know, going to haunted houses, things like that is just like, there's. We. There's no business. We have no business doing or participating in any of those things. Even if you thought it was once fun, Because I did. I thought I like to get scared and, you know, smack somebody that jumps out at me. But it's not fruitful. It's not beneficial in any way. And I feel like I'm at the point in my life. It's like, I want to. Anything that I'm doing, I want to be intentional with it. Right. Whether it's the food that I'm putting in my body, the. You know, literally anything. It's just. I want to. I want to have an intention for it. Not just to mindlessly, you know, go through the motions thinking, I'm gonna have a good time.
Right. Amen. Amen. So, yeah, ultimately, there. There's five ways to approach Halloween as a Christian. And the first one is to altogether reject it.
Right.
I'm sorry. Receive it. Yep. Receive. We'll end with rejecting because we. And we'll talk more on that. We'll talk more on that.
So there's five.
There's five. So that there's. There's one where we reject it, one where we receive it, and then three where we could redeem it. Okay.
Okay.
And I'm on the side of completely Reject, if you're one, and we'll walk you through some ways you can somewhat redeem it. That's up to your own personal conviction. But ultimately, as a Christian, by no way should you receive it as the world receives it. You're. You're celebrating darkness, celebrating fear, celebrating evil spirits, quite frankly.
Yeah.
And if you're a Christian, you know, if you're a new Christian, do some. Some research on it to see why Christians, or listen to this podcast. Perhaps if you know somebody who is a Christian and they still celebrate, share this with them. Because I. I think we're not just stating our own opinions. We've made our own opinions based on what the Bible says.
Yeah.
And if you're a Christian, I. I don't know how you could possibly just receive it as the world does, because it's.
Well, friendship with the world is enmity with God. Yeah, right.
Absolutely.
That's just something that I've just said. Like, it's. It's like a foundation scripture that I live out, try to live out every day.
Right.
It's like, I don't want any friendship with the world. That I think, even as Christians, we oftentimes go to the line of, like, how far can I go before it's sin? Or, you know, what can I do before it's, like, frowned upon? And it's like, we should have the opposite view of that. Right. It's like, it's like, how. How far can I get away from any of that junk? Because I don't want to be friends with the world. I don't want to love the world or anything in it. I. I want to serve the Lord and all that I do.
Yeah. Amen. The. There's a kingdom principle, and it's that consent is spiritual agreement. Okay. So when you participate in something, you are offering a form of consent, even if it does feel casual or harmless.
Right.
If it's just something cultural, if you're agreeing with it, if you're participating with it, you're agreeing with it. You're. You're giving consent. And when you engage in practices that are tied to darkness, fear, and death, you're not just dressing up. You're giving silent agreement to the narrative that's actually behind it. So this is why we. We can't. That. That agreement is that. You know, this past week's Bible study, we talked about that agreement.
Our.
Our alignment with heaven, our agreement with heaven. What. What is God? What is Heaven? What is the Bible calling us to do? Are we working in conjunction with that? Do we agree with that. We have to think about that with everything we do, everything we say, everything that we think that agreement is, is power. So when we just participate, we're consenting and we're really agreeing with it. So we, we can't accept what God rejects. And if we as believers, if we do celebrate Christian, it. It's a poor witness. It just sends the wrong signal to everybody who's looking.
Right.
So option two is we re. Redeem the day.
Right.
We're not celebrating it, but we're. We're using it as a unique outreach opportunity. Oh, sorry. Wow. There's no mute button over there. I don't know.
I was gonna tell Jace to mute, but I moved my mic and.
Yeah, and you cough right into that jacket. Didn't, Didn't. Didn't cover the sound at all.
Oh, sorry.
Yeah, anyhow.
Covered the spit from getting on you.
Thank you. I appreciate that. So the. Every day is a day that the Lord has created. Right. Where to rejoice, be glad in it. And we can use Halloween as a unique outreach opportunity if kids, you don't dress up your kids, but you teach them about the, the pagan traditions of Halloween and we, we guard their hearts, we make them aware of the. Of these things. And then maybe if kids knock on the door, we give them a candy bar and a track or we, we share.
You think those ever get read?
Probably not.
I don't think so. Like, stop wasting the paper.
Yeah. It'd be funny if you had a garbage can like at the end of your.
Right.
At the end of your.
Yeah.
Walkway there. Yeah. Money would end.
I don't know. Maybe somebody has had an experience with that. I would love to hear that. Um, but usually that's just. Yeah. It's like there needs to be follow up and I get it. I. I understand it from like planting a seed, but ain't nobody reading that.
Yeah, right. But it's an option.
It's an option.
It's an option. And even if you. I saw a video, I think it was last year. Do you see when the kids knocked on the door, it was like from the ring doorbell. And the woman apologized. Her husband was sick. They didn't have any candy. And the little boy, he was like, oh, can we pray for him? And they stood there and prayed for him.
Nice.
Yeah. That's phenomenal.
Amazing.
What a witness. And I guess that could be a witness as well, where maybe you don't dress up as a, A goblin or a ghoul. You dress up as whatever. Maybe you don't dress up at all. You just an opportunity. Guess what? When you knock on people's doors, unlike normal days when you evangelize rather than.
Cast, curse, cast blessings.
Right, Right. Have you heard the good news of Jesus Christ? I like to introduce you to my savior.
Just dress up like, what is it, lds?
Yeah.
Goes around.
Wear your white collar shirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's one way to redeem it. Another way to redeem it is to replace it with a Christian altogether. Alternative.
Right.
So you're using that night. Maybe it be a. A harvest festival where the church is open and even with us, we take a hard stance. We don't participate in that either.
Right.
Because if it's a harvest festival on October 31, to give the kids an opportunity, don't allow the kids to come in costumes and don't give out candy, don't follow in the. The practices of Halloween if we're doing something different.
Yeah, right.
We can have plenty of fun in other sorts of ways. You don't have to come dressed as your favorite superhero.
But so many churches do this, though. They say it's like an outreach event. Yeah, right. It's like, well, we do this as an outreach event and, you know, give them a track or something like that.
Yeah. Which you can. We. I was at a church where, you know, we thought, we're all on the same page, all leadership about Halloween, and we're going to have a harvest night. Because a lot of kids from the community came there and somebody was in charge of the theme of the harvest night. And it was masquerade. And I was like, masquerade. It's like, that's the worst of the whole. Like, even the. The beginning of masquerading, it was like you go into a party and it like the. You seduce people. They don't really know what you look like. And it was a whole sexual thing. It's like, how is this. It's like we're missing the mark on that.
Right.
And they. They wound up doing it. And we didn't go. We didn't help out. We was like, no, we can't be a part of this.
That's funny.
Yeah. So you could. Yeah. You could redeem it by staying home, giving out tracks with your candy bars. You could gather people and. And in my opinion, not mimic what the world's doing with Halloween at all. And then you could redeem it through education. Right. Where you do get people together and there's absolutely no. No dressing up, no candy, none of it. I mean, if you want people to show up. Christians know this like pastors know this. If you want people to show up, you feed them. Right. So you can feed them, but you don't have to give them candy. But let it be a night where you actually teach on this.
Right, Right.
So the alternative to actually participating in Halloween is like, oh, I'm going to go to the church or I'm going to go to Mr. And Mrs. Smith's house to actually learn why this is not such a good day and make.
It a worship night.
Right, yeah. Which is a good idea because we, we do have a video.
Right.
That former. He led the Satanic church. Right.
Ryan Swagler, I think that's his name.
Sounds right.
Yeah. Let's do it.
The reality, the truth about Halloween. Halloween is the highest day on the Sept. Calendar. It is the most probably important day on the Satanic calendar. It's considered a high day. It is also the night of the year where there is the most human sacrifice on the whole planet.
So that alone. So we should be, I mean, gosh.
Praying, pray, vigils, like, you know, stand in the gap and, And Right.
Intercede.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. And this guy, he came to Christ.
Right.
Used to be a devil worshiper, a leader of the Satanic church, and now he's a Christian. Yeah, he's. I looked him up on social media. He's got a lot of followers. But this is what he does. He speaks about things like this, hey, yeah, it's not a good idea. And this come from somebody used to celebrate this day for all the, the bad and evil that it is.
Yeah. Yeah. So what would you even say to a parent that has kiddos that is like, oh, you know, they're just having fun, they want to get some candy like all the other kids and, you know, really just don't see the harm in it. And maybe I'm just kind of prepping this as leading into going into why we would reject this as a whole. But I think. Because that was me for a long time. Right.
So we're talking about a Christian.
Yes.
Who doesn't see the harm.
Yep.
Okay.
Because you don't want your kids to feel left out. You don't want to, you know, make them be the weird kids.
Yeah.
Which I'm at the point, like, I want my kids to be weird, man. Because I don't want any. I don't want them to have anything to do with the world. Yeah, right. If that's what the world calls them, cool. But I'm going to call Them righteous, I'm going to call them, you know, honoring. I'm going to call them, you know, kings and queens. Yeah, right. And that's weird to the world.
Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. If you went to another nation and you just started walking around, even say you go to Italy, right? You start walking around, would people know you're not from that land? Would you stand out a bit based on the way you look, the way you talk, even sometimes different cultures, just the way you smell?
Yeah, right, Absolutely.
You would stand out. Well, that's what I want for me, my household here, because we're, we're called to be a peculiar people. If we're fitting in with the world, then guess what? Are we part of the kingdom of heaven or are we part of the world? Yeah, I don't want to fit in with the world by any means. So if, you know, how many times has a parent said, well, if your friends jump off a cliff or off a bridge, would you do it?
Right, right.
I, it's, yeah, we, we don't want to mimic the patterns of the world because ultimately the, the world, if you love the world, you're at enmity with God.
Yeah, right.
You can't love the world, be in the world, be a part of the world, mimic the things of the world and have a real relationship with the Lord because there'd just be too much conviction of the Holy Spirit to allow you to do that. So my son Ezra, his, he's at a little homeschool co op for kindergarten, graduated from the Ridge Preschool, which was an awesome little Christian preschool down in, down by us in Plano. And of course it's, you know, whether it's Christian in school or not, a lot of times they do things for Halloween, even as far as pumpkins and things like that. And we're clear with them that there's like no participation in Halloween. But we didn't realize it would be last week that they would start like talking about Halloween and things like that. And even some of the things that, you know, for a kindergartner would seem harmless. Oh, we're getting candy today. Right? My son actually told them that he doesn't participate in Halloween. It's against his family core values.
Love that.
And I was like, yes, yes.
So your teacher told you that or.
Yeah. Or his teacher told you that? Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, it's like, that's remarkable. It's like I sometimes I gotta think, what's my core values? You know, it's like my 5 year old knows our Family core values better than I do. But it's not because, you know, a week before Halloween we decided to just teach our son about Halloween. It's about raising him in a biblical household.
Yes.
Where every day we're reading Bible stories to him and there's some great ones out there. Some of the stuff for kids is even better than adults. Like, oh, I didn't really understand that story until I read to my five year old. Now it makes sense, right? Yeah. Right. But you, you want, listen, if anybody's relying on the church to raise their kids or school, like, don't be surprised when they completely reject God down the road, even the church, because it's not the church's responsibility to raise your child. Because the two hours they're at Sunday school is just a speck of time compared to the whole rest of the week where they're at home. And it's not a God fearing household.
Yeah, right.
The, the church isn't gonna like, you can't, you can't discipline or, or, or instill behaviors or habits in a child in two hours a week.
Right.
It's got to be a daily thing that you teach them.
Absolutely. And as, as parents, I think we need to really understand again, if you're a follower of Jesus, like you are the spiritual authority in your household, like you are the spiritual gatekeeper even in your household. And, and when it comes to making these decisions about candy, about costumes, you're not making just like decisions that, that, that don't have consequences or ramifications. Patience. Like, what you're doing is you're coming to an alignment into a spiritual alignment to an authority that you don't want your child to be a part of. Right. And so, and it's not to the extreme that that Christian was saying, Like, I mean, it certainly could be, but not to the extreme of like, oh, just because they went trick or treating, they dressed up as a power Ranger. I don't even know if these are still things like, now I'm going to, They've opened a portal of some sort for them to now be terrorized by demons. But there is in authority, spiritually, of what, when you do come into agreement with things, that does get unlocked. Right. And I think as parents, that's where we come. I mean, if you even think of Satan, like he disguises himself as an angel of light. Right. And it's like, this is stuff that we need to be sensitive to as the authoritarians in our household. Right. And as for me and my house, like, we will serve The Lord. And we're not going to come into alignment or into an agreement with anything that has anything to do with darkness. Right. And so, yes, we are to be light in a dark world, but participating in coming into agreement with those rituals and things, I think is out of alignment with what God would have for us.
Yeah. Well, back to the question you asked me. What would I say to that person? I would ask. Ask a few questions. I would say, is this beneficial to you?
Yeah.
Yeah. You're not going to be condemned to hell if you do it. But how is this actually benefiting you? Are you cool in the eyes of your. Your kids? Because, you know, they're able to do what their friends did that day? I would ask, is there a chance for you to be brought under its authority? First Corinthians 6:12.
Right.
It speaks on that. We're not to be mastered by anything. If there's an opportunity that we could come under the authority of something else, then we need to reject it. We need to refrain from it. Next one is, does it edify? Does it edify? First Corinthians 10:23. Not all things edify, right? Meaning, is this going to be productive for me, or can it be potentially harmless? If it's not productive, even if there's, like, little harm, that would be a con of it. Is it actually edifying? Is it. Is it building me up? Is it building my kids up in any sort of way? Probably. It's probably going to have a bad effect because when you allow your kids to dress up, dress up, dress up, and they, you know, they celebrate this day, they start seeing the world from a worldly perspective, right? Where it's. Because if you think it's harmless, they're going to grow up to think it's harmless. Romans 14:23. Whatever is not from faith is sin. Right? So can you do this in good faith? If you have even a speck, a trace of conviction from the Holy Spirit, don't do it.
Right.
Because if you can't proceed in faith, then it's sin that you're actually doing. That doesn't mean that you know every single person who takes their kids out trick or treating, it's. It's sinful, necessarily. But if you can't do it in good faith, if you do feel convicted, then it is sin. And then does it glorify God? 1st Corinthians 10:31. Do all to the glory of God. You're going to have a hard time convincing me that dressing little Timmy up as a Power Ranger Going to get candy that glorifies God in any sort of way.
Right.
And if the answer is, is no to any of these.
Right.
Then you have to reject it. You have to. Yeah, and we'll get into this because there's a whole, you know, we spoke on the three ways to redeem it and what. That's between you and the Lord, quite frankly. And I don't think it's necessarily bad to, you know, especially something like host a prayer night where just on that night that it's not bad by any means, I go for it.
Right.
We. We certainly aren't to just participate in it. We with full agreement with. With Halloween and fit in with the world. We are to the. The fifth option we have is to reject it altogether. And again, that's. That's the position I hold. When I met Lucy, she was already raising four beautiful kids, and that had been her position their entire lives, where it was always, even as they got older, when they got into high school, they don't go to school on Halloween. In grammar school, they do a little Halloween parade, whatever, just no participation at all. And at first, when I was a new Believer, I was like, okay, like, at all. I can't even go to school and just, like, not dress up. And it took some time for me to understand her stance, but now I fully am in agreement with it because for some of the things we're gonna outline here, so if you reject it all together, you may see Halloween as something that can't even be redeemed. It just needs to be resisted. Now, the biblical foundation for. For this stance, there's a few verses. Deuteronomy 18. Do not imitate the detestable customs of the nations.
Right.
So, yeah, that's the. That's a good one right there. The detestable customs.
Which. Which verse in 18 is that?
9. There's a whole passage.
Yeah, because that.
Verses 9 through 14.
Yeah, I was going to say, like 10 through 11, 12, 13, 14 are all really great. Yeah, Right. It's like, there shall be, there shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or daughter. Like, okay, we're not doing that. Right. But anyone who practice divination, tells fortunes, interprets omens, or a sorcerer or charmer or medium or necromancer. What is that?
Oh, that's those who have necro is dead.
Okay.
Not Negro.
Okay. I was like, I don't know what that is.
Yeah. A Negromancer is what I am able to romance my Negro wife.
Well, one who inquires of the dead.
Okay.
For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. Yeah, that's good.
Yeah. And then first Corinthians 10:21, you cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and of demons, Right? It like there's one or the other. And think about that. Like, think about it. Every time you do a thing. Am I glorifying God? Am I drinking from God's cup or a cup of a demon? And when we actually put things in that type of perspective, you start to realize that, oh yeah, I may be allowed to do this, but it may not be profitable for me. So I'm just going to refrain. Y then Ephesians 5, 10, 12 essentially says, take no part in worthless deeds of evil and darkness. You read this earlier.
Yeah.
Verse 11 in particular. Instead expose them. Yeah. Then first 1 Thessalonians 5, 5 says, you are all children of light and of the day. So we know that the symbols of Halloween, they directly oppose biblical truth. Participation may seem innocent, but it does give consent to darkness. Right. The. The whole holiday, if you will, the whole day, is based in darkness and evil. So if we participate, we give consent. And we can't Christianize a holiday that celebrates fear and death. Yep.
John 8:12 on the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Y so will not walk in darkness.
Yeah. Amen. So one thing we need to understand and why we reject it is because spiritual atmospheres are real. Right? So even though you dress well, Timmy up as that Power Ranger and you're going door to door, when you're going past all those go all those ghosts and goblins, I a guy just put up in our neighborhood. It. It's this, you know, it's got the fans blowing in it and it blows up and it's like actually like kind of a scary looking ghost. But it's as tall as the house. It's gigantic. It's huge. And then all the lights and everything. And as he saw that. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he's like that. Got some anointing oil. I gotta knock on the neighbor's door.
Well, as he's a pumpkin and he's.
Like, yeah, yeah, we just had to. Because he associated pumpkins with Halloween, we had to let him know that, you know, it's a symbol of fall. More so than, maybe not more so than Halloween, because it is a symbol of Halloween. But A pumpkin in and of itself isn't, you know, demonic.
Right. Except pumpkin pie. It's demonic.
Right, Right.
Yeah.
Who eats pumpkin pie? But everybody needs to bring it to Thanksgiving. Right?
I know, right?
You gotta. Pumpkin pie. Yeah. But nobody eats it. But when we display those symbols that. That glorify darkness, where we're not just like celebrating or fitting in or just having fun with it, we're really declaring atmospheres.
Yep.
That's what we're doing. There's power. Death and life are in the power of our tongues. But we need to understand as well when we have an. An opportunity to. To shift an atmosphere one way or another. Like our household, we always have worship music playing throughout the house. I know you do here too. Right. Because we're going to. Even if it's not us, we're still going to declare life. We're going to speak life through the worship music that's playing in the household. We're going to saturate the atmosphere with. With one that's glorifying to God and one that's peaceful.
Yeah.
Right. I mean, it will be an interesting study. If there was just like nice Christian instrumental playing in a home for like 20 years as opposed to like AC DC playing for 20 years, like, what would happen?
There are study. I mean, probably not. Not those two specifically, but with the vibration and frequency. There are studies of that which we're gonna. We're gonna talk about that in one of these future discussions. Just on the power of words and frequencies and vibrations and.
Yeah.
Which is all created by God. It's not weird new age stuff. Right. Whatever God creates. Satan counterfeits.
Yeah, Right. That's the truth.
And. And that's why I think the power of our words are so extremely important. Because you are sending out of a frequency, out of vibration that impacts. Right. Scripture tells us death and life.
Yeah. In scripture, physical objects were never spiritually neutral. And there is no neutrality in the kingdom period. But it. When you're neutral, usually that's when you're silent on something. And when you're silent, you're giving consent.
Yep.
Israel was commanded to remove every idol and Asherah pole from their land. Asherah was a pagan God. In Deuteronomy 12, they were warned not to even keep devoted things, meaning any items that were even tied to pagan worship. Right. So if something's tied to. To paganism, like a pumpkin outside, it's like. Is a pumpkin in and of itself, like, demonic? No, but if it's tied to what people see to represent Halloween, it's Like, I'm not doing a pumpkin either.
Right.
Simply because it. It defiled their homes. And then, conversely, God commanded people in Deuteronomy 69 to post Scriptures on their doorpost. Right. Which we do that today. You know, go to Hobby Lobby, something like that. Yeah. Get some nice faith, hope art. Yeah. That's the one you have in Florida. I noticed that. I noticed that. Yeah.
So it's not Live, love, laugh. It's faithful.
So across on the. The wall indicates. And you're. You're saying just through the symbolism of that signage, that this house is the Lord's, right?
Yep.
Jesus is Lord of this house. And then a ghost, a skull, a witch, it's saying, death and fear are welcome here. Which, like, we get into fear.
Fear. Yeah. This just hit me in preparing for this. It's like, man, we think of fear as, like, an emotion that we have.
Yeah, right.
It's like.
Like you said, sometimes it's fun to get scared. Like, you're on a roller coaster. You get that thrill, go into a haunted house. It's like the adrenaline starts pumping. It can be fun. Yep.
Can be fun. Yeah, absolutely. But the Bible clearly doesn't equate it to an emotion. Right, Right. The Bible calls it a spirit, which is. And I've read this scripture many times, but this just, like, really hit me in prepping for this, that God does not give us that spirit of fear. Right. But of peace, love, and a sound mind.
Right.
And so fear is a spirit.
Yep.
And if we give into those things, we are. We are aligning with it. And, you know, we're. The only fear that we should have is the fear of the Lord.
Yeah.
Right. And that should be, you know, what ultimately is kind of our North Star. Our guiding factor in how we go about making decisions and things is this. Is this honoring it to God? Is this beneficial to me?
Right.
If it's honoring to God, it's beneficial to you.
Yeah. Yeah. When you celebrate or normalize any imagery that's related to fear.
Right.
Or it's supposed to induce fear or even just, you know, I mean, that big ghost or goblin that my neighbor has, that. That's one thing. But even just little typical Halloween decorations.
Adults that do that stuff, bro, they're just weird.
Yeah.
I. I mean, obviously they're confused spiritually, but just like. Yeah, they indulge in. It's like adult Disney fans.
Right.
Sorry, Raj. Right.
But you're. You're unintentionally given that spirit room to operate.
Right.
Because it is a Spirit of fear. Yep. It's not just an emotion like you said. And what could happen, I mean, your kids could now have increased anxiety. We were with a bunch of couples last weekend and you know that that was something that came up. Kids more and more having these nightmares and anxiety even in a Christian household.
Right.
That the enemy will attack us through our kids. We are our. Our children. If you're a husband, you're your wife's covering and your children's covering.
Right.
What, what you don't take on in battle spiritually, your family is going to have to deal with it.
Right.
If you don't contend, if you don't intercede on behalf of your wife, your children, your household, they're going to have to deal with whatever that attack is that, that demonic attack that's coming after you as the head. Yep. But you could have tension, heaviness in the home. All of a sudden, even your wife start. Start just bickering and fighting more and more and then there's just either a loss of peace in the household, but ultimately what the enemy. One of the number one tactics of his is to get us simply to turn our eyes off of Jesus. Right. He doesn't even care if we participate in sinful things, quite frankly. He just wants us to be so distracted by things that we lose focus of Jesus. Yep. That's really what he wants. And there's a good chance that happens if we do participate in Halloween and we are, if we're tying ourselves, if we're celebrating these things that are trying to invoke a spirit of fear. We already talked about authority and agreement a bit. Some of the consequences if we do these things. And how do we close the doors on these things? Like anything else. Right. We do have authority. We talked about this a couple weeks ago on the podcast do demons know your name? We have authority over these demons and we should ask Christians, stay prayed up. Even if you don't think that Halloween is. Is as evil or so spirit based as it actually is. Pray over your kiddos before they go to school. Absolutely. As the school, you don't know what the teachers are doing and that's on any given day, let alone Halloween. Right? Yeah, we don't. We have another clip from that guy Ryan that actually talked about.
Oh, yeah. Specifically for children. Yeah. Yes. If you could pull that up, that'd be great, man.
The founder of the Church of Satan had a very well known quote where he said. And this was angel lavai who founded the Church of Satan and co founded Satanism. As a religion, the first person to do that in, in the world. There was a very well known quote where he said, I want to thank Christian parents for allowing their children to celebrate the devil one day after year.
Yikes. Yeah, right? That makes it even more like, yeah.
If you don't want to hear from us, hear from this former devil worshipper who's not Christian.
Right. But thankfully he's speaking out against it. Right? Exposing darkness. Yeah, yeah. I think I'm reminded a lot this got mentioned even this past weekend when we had our get together with just some, some men within the king's council. We talked about, you know, I've read this scripture many times that we are ambassadors for Christ, right? And it's like, yes. So I've dug into like an ambassadors and, and what that, what does that mean? Because I mean, as an ambassador in a different country, we have our understanding of what that is. It's like, all right, they're, they're protected, right? They have, they are on foreign soil, right? But they're in there protected. And if we should take that perspective as believers that we are, because our citizenship is in heaven, right? That's. We understand that and we're, we're living, you know, on this earth, but, you know, we should be living from a kingdom perspective. And it. This got mentioned, I think Brian mentioned this of like our households. Think of that then if we are the ambassadors, our household should be like the embassy, right? And I was like, oh my gosh, this is, that's so good.
Yeah, right?
And I just look this up, like, what does that, that mean to have like an embassy, right? Because an embassy in these other places, there's, you know, there's a, usually a gate around it, there's armed guards. It's protected territory. And it's like, it's like this is the authority of, of heaven, right? It's like this is, this is the kingdom authority. And this household that we're in right now, it's like, man, this, this is where I'm to raise my child up, right? So they can, it will go well for them. Yeah, right. And, and as the spiritual leader of my household, for my wife and for my children, like, this is, this should be a house of peace, a house of joy. Like, there's no ghosts, there's no goblins, there's none of that garbage within this household. And I would encour you guys too, to take that seriously of like, what is, what is this, this domain that we live in? Have, have we. We cleanse this place. Right. And. And anointed it. I know you've talked about maybe a couple weeks ago about just like going around and anointing the rooms. Right. Playing the worship music and things like that. But knowing that from that perspective. Right. That we are. We are operating from a. An authority that's from heaven. Right. Not. Not of this world. And so a lot of junk is happening in this world, but how we're raising our kids here, it starts it and ends, like, within this household. Like, am I. Do they understand what that means? And I think. I mean, that's this conversation I'm gonna have with Ellie literally tonight. I already text her about it. It's like, we're gonna. We're gonna have a little conversation tonight. And she was like, oh, perfect. She loves talking about that.
Yeah.
And it's.
If we.
If we guard our households in our families with that type of concept, then they understand. Right. Why we don't participate in the things of the world. Yeah, Right. And the thing that, you know, and we can participate with. With many things. Right. But I would think specifically Halloween is. Is not a. A. It's not a holiday, number one. It's not a holy day. Right. And it should be something that we should communicate with our kids. Why? Like, think of it as more of an opportunity for you to not withhold from them from being able to do things. But it's an opportunity to explain why. Because you are discipling your kiddos, right. And when they start to have a kingdom perspective and an eternal mindset, they then. It empowers them more than anything else versus you thinking you're taking away. But no, you are giving them keys to the kingdom. And that's how I want to raise my kids in this household. I know that's what you do as well with, you know, your growing kids, but even with. With Ezra. Yeah. Grandkids now and grandkids, man.
Pop.
Poppy. Grandpa Christian over here.
Pop.
Pop.
They just call me Hope Dealer Pop.
That's good.
But one thing to mention on that, I'm in agreement 100%. But all of that, it. I. I don't want anybody watching or listening to get this confused where we're just teaching them the customs of a Christian household. If. If you just teach them the practices, it becomes religion to them.
Correct? Yeah, it's good point.
They need an actual relationship with Jesus Christ themselves, period. And my little guy, who's five, right. I. I don't. You know, he's never said the sinner's prayer or anything like that, but I know he has a relationship with Jesus.
Yeah.
I remember when he was like three and a half and he was sick. I was on the road. I was probably somewhere with you, and Lucy called me in the morning. He was sick all night, throwing up. And like, after the third time he threw up. Welcome back to the bed. He dropped to his knees and just started praying. He started talking to God, saying, help me, like to. To know at three and a half years old that somebody can actually help you. And his name is Jesus.
Yes.
And he's real. And he has capabilities to not just say he's real, but you only cry out to him if you know he could actually help you. Yeah, right, absolutely. So that's the key to this all, is because we want our own kids to. To come to these conclusions based on the Bible and our own convictions on this. But it's only going to happen if they do have that personal relationship with the Lord.
Yes, yes, absolutely. That's a great, great point. That. This isn't about rule. This is about legalism. Right, right. In religion. But this is about, you know, back to Romans 12:2. Do not be conformed to this world. Right. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that only happens through true relationship with. With Jesus. And so that's a. That's a great, great point.
Yeah. You mentioned earlier, like, what do you say to your kids who just want to, you know, do what their friends are doing? And that's it. That's such an important verse.
Yeah. First off, get them new friends. Right.
But, yeah, we don't want to fit in with the world.
Right.
I. I want my son and my grandkids, and my older kids are older. They're adults now. Two of them got kids of their own. But I want my kids, my grandkids and my great grandkids that are yet to be born. I want them all to stand out so much from the world, which is not our natural inclination. We want to fit in. Right? That's what we want to do. We don't want to stand out. Especially like Ezra. He. He's more prone to being shy in new situations, new people. When he opens up, he opens up. You know that. Yeah, yeah. But I. I don't want him to just feel like I, well, I gotta do what he's doing just so I fit in. It's like, no, you're gonna start on a path of ultimately never, like, never renewing your mind to the point where, you know that, wait, I am an outcast. If I'm a child of God. I'm a citizen of heaven and I. I should be an outcast here. I should not fit in with the world. If I fit in, if Jesus is actually important to me and I'm fitting in with the world, I'm probably not pleased in Jesus.
Yep. It's good you're pleasing, man. It's Galatians 110, right?
Yep.
That's good, man. How do we put a bow on this?
Well, I don't know. We'll probably get some hate mails, hate comments, maybe some praise the Lord, Amen comments. I don't know. But ultimately, if you. Like I said, it's my own and my wife's own personal conviction, we reject Halloween altogether. Will be that house where if we're home, we'll keep the lights off.
Right.
And just not participate at all. And even sometimes with that, it's like, oh, well, I should give him a candy bar and say something about Jesus. But this is just the line that we've drawn and we're more than happy. We've done in the past where we have had an event where it's prayer, worship and that, that's great. But when you redeem it, it's not just like transforming a pagan tradition or an evil day into a more Christianized version of it. If you give somebody an option to not do that, not participate at all by doing something else, then by all means, yeah. I mean, the hockey season started, right? Jace, if there's a hockey game on Halloween, like take a bunch of kids to a hockey game. Although it's probably going to be people dressed up at the hockey game on.
Halloween and you gotta watch hockey. I'm just kidding. I'm sure it's a wonderful game. I just don't know anything about it.
Yeah. You live in Minnesota.
I know, bro. That's why I shouldn't leave here. I'm. I live in a foreign land, man. My citizenship is in heaven, where it's warm and 80 degrees.
It's not like you're from Miami beach, you're from South Dakota.
It's a slow walk. Slow dirty my sanctification process.
So, yeah.
But yeah, we'd love to hear even more from you guys on. On your thoughts on this, but this is where we stand and love it. Like it, hate it. I don't really care because these are the convictions that. That we live by. And you need to live by yours. My. My hope and. And trust. If, if this challenge you at all to just. Dude, take. Take an hour and just dive into it right just ask. Go to, you know, Google, right? And go to heck. Go to chat GPT and ask like, what are, what are some scriptures that. That are for or are against Halloween, right? And it'll pop out different scriptures, obviously. Look at the scripture. Don't take them out of context and understand, like, what was the meaning and point of those. But do your own due diligence on this, right? Don't take our word for it. Don't take any pastor's word for it. This is your walk. You're to work out your salvation and fear and trembling and definitely want to just encourage you guys to, to always, always do that first, because this isn't a relationship between Christian and I. It's a relationship between you and the Lord.
Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Yeah.
That being said, we'll see you guys next week. That's what we do in Minnesota. It's like, well, time to go. All right, we'll see you guys all next week's episode. Join us Wednesday, kingscouncilbiblestudy.com See you guys.
Peace.
