E Nomine
Puritan Board Freshman
That's an excellent piece. I pray more Christians read it and feel conviction regarding this holiday.
Halloween
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That's an excellent piece. I pray more Christians read it and feel conviction regarding this holiday.
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
You have not yet addressed my last post or answered any of the questions that I have asked regarding your position.
E Nomine
Puritan Board Freshman
And you haven't convinced me that Halloween is an innocent fun-fest
I've made my position clear. I've acknowledged that this is a matter of conscience.
Dr. McMahan's article stands on its own; he is more knowledgable and articulate than I thus it would be vain for me to attempt to defend his position.
Andres
Puritan Board Doctor
The very first quote in Dr. McMahan's article is from satanist Anton Levey who states, “After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween.”
So how many people on this board no longer celebrate birthdays? just curious.
And for the record I celebrate Halloween and birthdays. No walpurgisnacht though.
Have you actually read their works? As someone who has read much of both, I would say that neither was promoting occultism in any form. In fact, both Tolkien's Middle-Earth and Lewis's Narnia portray the occult negatively (Melkor-worship causes downfall of Numenor, the attempted resurrection of the White Witch in Prince Caspian).
All that said, I have not celebrated Halloween in the past, just Reformation/All Saints Day. I'm dearly hoping that For All the Saints will be on the agenda on Sunday November 1.
PastorTim
Puritan Board Freshman
Although the historical roots of halloween can be traced in pagan roots, I believe that the way we hold this holiday is not actually a celebraton of wicca or the like, but a time for fun for kids before the onset of winter. The name Halloween as a derivation of All Hallow's Eve and Sawhain (pronounced Sa ween) which is the Celtic New Year and not connotating evil in itself.
The simple fun that children have is just that, fun. It carries no "religious" overtones and no child will apply any. It is only over-zealous fundamentalists who do so. This attack only turns people away from Christianity and is a display of legalism devoid of grace.
I am disturbed more by proclaiming the celebration of Christ's birth a Holy day and the church setting it aside as if it were the Lord's Day. To use Christmas as a special mid-winter family day where we exchange gifts with loved ones and leave church out of it is acceptable.
I have often said that the only thing I fear more than legalist over-zealous fundamentalist Moslems are legalist over-zealous fundamentalist Christians.
The simple fun that children have is just that, fun. It carries no "religious" overtones and no child will apply any. It is only over-zealous fundamentalists who do so. This attack only turns people away from Christianity and is a display of legalism devoid of grace.
I am disturbed more by proclaiming the celebration of Christ's birth a Holy day and the church setting it aside as if it were the Lord's Day. To use Christmas as a special mid-winter family day where we exchange gifts with loved ones and leave church out of it is acceptable.
I have often said that the only thing I fear more than legalist over-zealous fundamentalist Moslems are legalist over-zealous fundamentalist Christians.
I loathe Halloween and devoutly ignore it. October is without question the most lovely month of the year and Halloween is a blight on it.
Why any rational person would decorate his/her dwelling with giant spiders, webs, bats, witches, goblins, and assorted demons is totally beyond me.
I believe Phillipians 4:8 is a very good reason to ignore Halloween - there is nothing "pure or lovely or of good report" connected with it.
Here on Bald Mountain our closest neighbor is a quarter of a mile away and in the ten years we've lived here we've only had one trick-or-treater show up at our door - we gently told his mother that we didn't celebrate Halloween. Living in the woods certainly has its advantages!
Why any rational person would decorate his/her dwelling with giant spiders, webs, bats, witches, goblins, and assorted demons is totally beyond me.
I believe Phillipians 4:8 is a very good reason to ignore Halloween - there is nothing "pure or lovely or of good report" connected with it.
Here on Bald Mountain our closest neighbor is a quarter of a mile away and in the ten years we've lived here we've only had one trick-or-treater show up at our door - we gently told his mother that we didn't celebrate Halloween. Living in the woods certainly has its advantages!
I never celebrated halloween, partly because my parents both loathe the death symbolism that has become a part of it. Instead, our church (before we moved) used to host an All Saints' Eve party for children where there would be a theme like Pilgrims' Progress or Bible Translators. The idea was that kids could dress up and have fun without complaints from parents over any of this.
And yes, of course All Hallows Eve happens to coincide with Reformation Day.
And yes, of course All Hallows Eve happens to coincide with Reformation Day.
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
A Bunyan-themed Halloween? What a wonderful idea!
AThornquist
Puritan Board Doctor
Why not expand that to a Bunyan/bunyon-themed Halloween? That way Grandma with crazy feet can join in on the fun?
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
All of this is obviously going to have to go on my list of holiday ideas for the future; along with my retelling of "The Christmas Carol" with a modern televangelist visited in the night by the three ghosts of Hugh Peters, Richard Baxter, and Solomon Stoddard...though I don't think that even that would reform most popular "preachers" these days.
raekwon
Puritan Board Junior
Megan Mozart
Puritan Board Junior
There was an Irish family on my block that would give out potatoes.
No joke. This is actually true.
Iakobos_1071
Puritan Board Freshman
we are talking about giving out info on the reformation with candy... I know that could go horribly wrong, but I look at it as an educational opportunity, let the kids know about the reformation and the 95 thesis. with a little scripture to go with it... Any ideas?
ubermadchen
Puritanboard <strong>Outlaw</strong>
That and the old man who gives out walnuts. I hated that guy when I was a kid.
Andres
Puritan Board Doctor
yeah, don't do it. Kids will in no way care about Luther's 95 thesis', especially when it replaces their candy.
Montanablue
Puritan Board Doctor
I agree. An alternative though might be to dress up as Luther. Kids are bound to ask what your costume is and you can tell them a little bit (yes a LITTLE bit) about the Reformation. Just don't go overboard.
Clarification: I mean that you could dress up as Luther in order to hand out the candy from your house. Not that you should be roving through your town dressed as Luther and informing the populace of the importance of the Reformation.
he beholds
Puritan Board Doctor
Kathleen, your clarification cracked me up. What a picture.
I think the Reformation is a great thing, obviously, but if I were handing out info, it would be simply the Gospel, rather than the 95 thesis (not that the Gospel is not contained therein).
Augusta
Puritan Board Doctor
No wonder their isn't much persecution for American Christians. They conform to the world so that there is no difference between them and their heathen neighbor.
Psalm 106:
34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
Psalm 106:
34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
Somehow I don't think that we would be too heavily persecuted here in America if we stopped celebrating Halloween.
Augusta
Puritan Board Doctor
Your house will be egged or rolled sometimes for not handing out candy. That there is persecution. 
No, actually, you are handled differently in your neighborhood when you do not conform to holy days. It is noticed. Thankfully in our country this may only mean being treated differently and having people hiss at you behind your back but even on OT times that was scorn and persecution of a sort.
No, actually, you are handled differently in your neighborhood when you do not conform to holy days. It is noticed. Thankfully in our country this may only mean being treated differently and having people hiss at you behind your back but even on OT times that was scorn and persecution of a sort.
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
Your house will be egged or rolled sometimes for not handing out candy. That there is persecution.
Ah, so there is persecution of Christians in America after all, eh?
Augusta
Puritan Board Doctor
Your house will be egged or rolled sometimes for not handing out candy. That there is persecution.
Ah, so there is persecution of Christians in America after all, eh?
Only if they don't conform.
apaleífo̱
Puritan Board Freshman
Your house will be egged or rolled sometimes for not handing out candy. That there is persecution.
Ah, so there is persecution of Christians in America after all, eh?
Only if they don't conform.
I respect you all the more, then, for holding to your beliefs in spite of such opposition. My conscience does not convict me in regard to celebrating Halloween because I do not "celebrate" it in a pagan sense and I would warrant that the vast majority of people in America who "celebrate" it think of it in much the same way that I do: as a day to pass around ghost stories and consume more candy than usual. There is nothing in the Scriptures that categorically denounces ghost stories as being evil or promoting evil and so it will take more evidence to convince me that celebrating Halloween is necessarily taking part in a Satanic feast day.
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