Today is Halloween. All Hallows Eve. The day before All Saints’ Day. A lot of Christians get uptight this time of year. For them, the holiday has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with the culture they are in. It’s a day of a pagan ritual called Trick or Treat, where people pretend to be something they’re not and, knowingly or not, pretend to be druids collecting their seasonal sacrifice with the promise of a hex (the trick) if they’re not satisfied. It’s a day when fear and death are celebrated. Macabre and morbid are actively encouraged. If Jesus came for us to have life, and have it to the fullest, isn’t Halloween an anti-holy day?
I used to cringe as I passed stacked displays of trick-or-treat pumpkins with their fluorescent orange gap-toothed grins in the stores. I sidestepped the bats near the bananas and the spiders on the spaghetti aisle. I got irritated at orange lights strung up like Christmas displays. At times, I felt like belting out, "What’s wrong with you people?! Don’t you know you’re celebrating fear and death?"
I still feel irked sometimes, but I don’t get all stirred up about it anymore. I guess it’s because I feel like I understand why people celebrate it. Historically, people fear death. Death has always been something pagans fear and fail to understand. Culturally, Halloween provides a safe way of exploring those fears. Because I no longer fear death, I have no need for this holiday. I don’t feel like I’m superior to others who celebrate it. I just don’t need it, just like I don’t need yesterday’s garbage. People can celebrate whatever they want to, but I don’t feel the need to participate or to protest the holiday. It’s a big waste of time and money for me.
I still dislike goblins, vampires and witches, but only because they depict power without godly authority. They bring the same revulsion that a photograph of Stalin or Hitler would. I despise all power that isn’t under a godly authority. It is symbolic of the destruction that Satan desires for the whole human race. Why does he want it so badly? Because God loves us and lavishes us with it. He is consumed with destroying the object of God’s affection. The human being is made in God’s image, and Satan has six billion copies of his enemy walking around, so it’s no wonder he uses his ungodly power to destroy them all if he could. Short of killing them, twisting them morally, spiritually and physically seems just as well in his eyes. Getting them to believe in and use his power is just one way of doing that.
But just like the masks used on Halloween, Satan, the leader of the fallen angels, is a pretender. He does have power, but that power is temporary. On the real All Saints’ Day, he will be unmasked, stripped of his power and discarded into a lake of fire that burns him and his followers forever. He’s a fake, so why follow him? I follow the One Whose power infinitely exceeds this imposter. I know the Way, the Truth and the Life. His name is Jesus. By His power, I can face death without fear. My life is bought with Jesus’ blood. He died the most painful death a person could face. Three days later, He proved that His power could not be stopped even by death. If He raised Lazarus from the dead after 4 days, there’s nothing to keep us from believing He raised Himself after 3 days, or that he can resurrect us as well. When that resurrection day comes, it won’t be night of the living dead, it will be judgment day, a day when things are finally set right. I know I am truly at peace with my Creator. I have nothing to fear in death or the grave. The question is, do you?
By the way, I've written about Halloween before.
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