Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Deuteronomy 18, 1 Corinthians 8, 1 Corinthians 10, Romans 14

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--should-christians-celebrate-halloween
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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yes this can be quite a heated issue and and I want to use this question to answer broader questions because this is a simple example but there are a lot of situations that Christians face in our modern society so let's see if we can find common ground where people on all sides of this issue should agree or could agree uh so let's let's talk about two extremes so on the one hand the Bible strongly teaches against witchcraft uh against necromancy which is an attempt to contact the dead for example if you read Deuteronomy chapter 18 you have some very strong condemnations so I think all Christians should agree anything that promotes the devil Satanism genuine rich craft magic and by Magic I don't mean sleight of hand like card tricks and you know children's games that we often are Illusions um that's not what I'm talking about but magic in the sense of trying to alter nature or control nature using spiritual forces that are not out of God then then anything like that should be off limits to Christians so we talk about horoscopes astrology Ouija boards seances we should 100 avoid that kind of stuff all Christians should agree on the other hand there are things that originated with Pagan Customs or have some Pagan connotations but nobody realistically thinks of them as Pagan worship today and so we participate in them just as part of modern culture I would say everybody who's listening or watching has some things in their life they may not know but for example if you use the days of the week in English Sunday was to honor the sun god Monday the moon God Wednesday the Norse god woden Thursday the the Norse god or Germanic God Thor so everybody is doing Saturday the God Saturn or uh January the Greek or the Roman God Janus so nobody that I'm aware of there may be somebody out there would would say refuse to say Monday and insist on saying second day of the week why because we don't think of that as honoring the moon God and the people we talk to don't think it was on the moon God now if we're really honoring the moon God that would be a sin or that the people we're talking to honestly go away thinking wow that Christian worships the moon well that would be wrong so I've given you two extremes one where we clearly should avoid Pagan or satanic involvement the other where we have divorced whatever the original context or connotation was we've eliminated that and we've appropriated for our own culture and nobody realistically thinks that it is promoting paganism so those are the two extremes so where do you meet in the middle now it's interesting I was raised in Korea there was no Halloween that is an American or Western culture now in very rare occasions we were allowed to go into the U.S army base and and there was also a Baptist missionary compound that had um American style living and so there were occasions where my parents would let us dress up in costumes and go door to door in these limited cases get candy now my mom was pretty strict nothing to do with death or witches or demons or anything like that but just you know what there's nothing wrong in principle there's nothing wrong with the costume party in principle there's nothing wrong with giving candy in principle there's nothing wrong with a fall festival and bobbing for apples or whatever traditional games you want to do so that was what my parents said if you can find a way to do something that's wholesome that's not demonic that's not satanic has nothing to do with that okay now if we were doing this on you know uh July 31st or August 31st then probably nobody would mind if we said let's have a costume party and and uh let's bring some hay have a hay ride and let's have some pumpkins and uh let's Bob for apples on August the 31st then I don't think anybody could justly condemn that those are wholesome activities uh so the question becomes what if you do an October 31st so somebody says oh you're caving into the culture and others say no you're taking that day away from Evil and you're promoting Godly values now I personally as a pastor thought that's a good strategy so typically what we did I I would teach and say look uh there's an area of Christian Liberty and I'll talk about that in a moment I'm going to let each family decide what you want to participate in but nothing demonic nothing satanic and nothing uh with genuine witchcraft or evil magic Etc et cetera Etc nothing that promotes death but here's what we're going to do as a church we're going to have a fall festival a harvest fest uh we're gonna go out in the parking lot and we're going to have games and we're going to have little booths and we're going to have car trunks dedic open with a little games like uh like you might see at uh maybe some fair or some special event like like you're throwing it uh throwing it a goal or um you know at a Target and we're gonna have candy we're gonna have ice cream we're gonna have cotton candy various things and so you can bring your family in a safe Christian wholesome environment because today you know as some neighborhoods are perfectly fine but other neighborhoods it has become more secular and more demonic it's not like years ago when I'm talking about my childhood even in America the average person might have seen it just it's just a neighborhood walk and it's just a neighborhood event where today it has many people do use Halloween as a time for evil and for uh wild parties and uh even it's not always so safe so this provides a Christian alternative also it provides an opportunity to invite unsafe family friends neighbors to be exposed to the church in a wholesome way to see look what the church can do so personally I thought we're not compromising actually if anything we're being counter-cultural uh we're saying these are Christian values if you want to know what Christian values are if you want to know what Christian fun is if you want to know what wholesome family is here's where you go so you got a choice of going to something evil or a choice to go into something wholesome I really see nothing wrong with a church or a family providing a wholesome alternative for these key times now somebody might even disagree with that well you shouldn't do anything you shouldn't even recognize there is such a day well we live in the real world everybody knows about it so I don't really see what the problem is by by the church promoting Christian values we would do that 365 days a year but I do think so so I've tried to give give you a spectrum where two extremes we can all agree in the middle we might differ on how do we choose to to operate as a family or as a church and I think there's room for Christian Liberty if you read First Corinthians 8 and First Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul dealt with a very real issue in his culture and again I come from a different perspective because that very issue exists in Korea where I grew up and that is people would go to a pagan temple in the case of Korea Buddhist temple but in ancient times they would go to the Temple of a Greek and Roman gods and goddesses they would offer food to the idols it was a form of worship of course the idol couldn't actually eat the food so the priest would take it and eat it and then if there was extra food the priests would sometimes go sell it on the market and this typically happened with meat which was was rare and costly and extravagant luxurious so the question Rose in Christian circles if you buy some meat in the marketplace it could have actually been offered to an idol or if you go to a feast at your neighbor's house your neighbor might well have either dedicated that meat to an idol or he might have purchased that meat from a temple and and so you're eating meat offered to Idols what should you do so Paul explained now wait just a minute we're we're we're Christians um evil doesn't have any power over us Idols are no Gods at all although demonic forces can be connected but he said in principle eating meat that had been offered to an aisle isn't going to hurt you because Idol has no power and Jesus does however if you knowingly eat that so if your neighbor says I dedicate this meat to this God and then you eat well then for that neighbor it would appear that you are condoning idolatrous worship or maybe there's a new Christian that's just been converted from idolatry and he watches you eating this food he's going to think oh it's okay for Christians to worship idols and so Paul says don't do it uh not because that meat can hurt you but you don't want to leave the impression that you're participating in idolatry and for the sake of a weaker Christian that might look at you and not understand that eating meat can't hurt you and he thinks wow and it will cause him to stumble and go back to idolatry so even if you aren't worshiping idols and you know it if you can leave a wrong impression on the unbeliever you're trying to win or a fellow believer that's new in the faith and weak in the faith then don't do it he said I'd rather not eat meat again my whole life if it would cause another brother to stumble uh the King James says offend but it doesn't mean make a mad so we're not talking about someone says I'm mad at you you shouldn't be doing this you're a compromiser no it's talking about someone that says well I'm gonna I'm gonna comprom you're compromising the faith I'm going to lose my faith in God I'm going to go back to idolatry in other words it's the weaker brother the person's weak in faith that would have this problem not someone who's supposed to be strong and Faith someone's strong in faith should say you know what I'm not going to worry about what that guy does it's not going to bother me I'm gonna do what I feel is right so if you go around protesting your brother you're kind of saying well I'm the weaker brother that can't can't stand this example I'm going to backslide over this so you better stop but anyway uh then so Paul goes on to explain so if you go to your neighbor's house and he says I'm offering this to an idol don't do it but what if you go to your neighbor's house and you don't know what he might have done last week or what if you go the market and you buy some food and you don't know where it came from don't worry about it just eat your conscious is clear you are not worshiping Idol nobody looks at you thinks you're worshiping Idols so you don't have to worry about it idle is nothing the meat is nothing just glorify God your conscience is clear but if someone tells you it's offered to idols and thereby they would think you're worshiping Idols then don't do it for conscience sake not your conscience but the conscience of the person that is observing so I took a long time there but I think we can apply this to things here today so if we know we're not promoting paganism or idolatry or Satanism and we feel a good conscience about doing something that's one thing but if there's an observer who's weak in the faith or an unbeliever who would be confused then we shouldn't participate so even though we have the Liberty to participate we shouldn't do anything that will be a stumbling block now that's for us but when we look at another family in the church or maybe another church so we might make a decision for our family or our pastor might make a decision for our church and by the way nothing I'm saying is trying to undermine what a pastor decides is appropriate for their Church their culture their City the families that they've won and their background of those families you know the pastor will be the best one to know what's appropriate and so I think you should follow him but what if a different Church does something different well it's not up to us to condemn them it's up to us to say we're going to make the right choice for our family and we're going to follow our pastor in what he has guided our church and if you're a pastor you know as a pastor I will make what I think is the best decision for our church I don't want anybody attacking me for that on the other hand I'm not go out and attack somebody else so Romans 14 and I'm not just strictly talking about your original question but I'm I'm giving you a a broad answer that would help in a variety of cultural issues so Romans 14 I've got the new King James here um receive one who is weak in the faith but not to disputes over doubtful things for One Believes he may eat all things but he was weak eats only vegetables let not him who eats despise him who does not eat and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats for God has received him who are you to judge another servant to his own Master he stands or Falls indeed he will be made able to stand for God is able to make him stand one person esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike Let each be fully convinced in his own mind he who observes the day observes it to the Lord and He who does not observe the day to the Lord he does not observe it he who eats east of the Lord for he gives God thanks and he who does not eat to the Lord he does not he and gives God thanks so you can read the whole chapter but that just kind of sets the tone and so I would make an application that if you feel like doing nothing at all on October 31st is different from what you normally do that's fine if you choose to have a wholesome opportunity to gather with family and friends and church and you do it unto the Lord I don't think that's wrong I think we have Liberty to choose what we think is appropriate and we shouldn't ridicule people for their choice and we shouldn't condemn people for their choice now nothing I say means you should promote Satanism witchcraft magic Etc et cetera et cetera but I am talking in the context of worshiping God and walking in Holiness and I do believe there is an area of Christian Liberty that each local Pastor guides the church and each