Overcoming the Power of Halloween
1 Peter 2:9
DATE: 23 Oct, 2005 AM
PLACE: BBC Ballincollig
I. Introduction (1Pet 2:9; 2Cor 6:14; John 8:12; 12:46)
A. It is that time of year again – the time when darkness seems to just take over
B. Days get shorter and shorter
C. Dark, long nights seems to overwhelm us – statistics aren’t given, but in all my years of ministry, I can tell you, the devil works hardest coming into the darkest months of the year – no debate! Suicides; domestic fights; psychiatric admissions
D. What is it about October/November, and halloween? Is there any correlation between this time of year and spiritual attacks?
II. Message
A. Satan has a Kingdom (Mt 12:25-28)
1. He is a Prince waiting to be crowned as king
2. He is a god waiting to replace the Lord God Jehovah
3. His kingdom is the whole world
a. Men love darkness (Jn 3:19)
b. Man’s religion is a work of darkness (Lk 22:53)
c. Not many noble, not many wise, not many mighty (1Cor 1)
d. This whole world just sits in wickedness (1Jn 5:19)
4. It all was laid out in Nebuchadnezzar’s’ dream in Daniel 2:31-35
5. Thank God, a STONE is coming again!
B. Satan’s Kingdom has Great Power.
1. Don’t be fooled into thinking he is easy to handle
2. He is the second most powerful being in the universe
3. He has incredible powers:
a. To counterfeit God, and even light (2Cor 11:3,4; 13-15)
b. To control this world and its inhabitants (Eph 2:2; 2Tim 2:26)
c. To corrupt anyone (Rev 19:1-4) – including Christians
d. To condemn the entire world (Rev 12:10) if it weren’t for Jesus
C. Halloween Honours Satan’s Kingdom.
1. Halloween is Anti-God and Anti-Christ, and Anti-Light
2. Honours Darkness (Cf 1Pet 2:9)
3. Honours Fear (1Jn 4:18)
4. Honours Demonic Powers - Its history is wicked and dark
a. All histories of Halloween inevitably wind back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. . . (Skal, David J., Death Makes a Holiday: The Cultural History of Halloween, p. 20)
b. Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. (Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 "Halloween")
c. Halloween can be traced directly back to Samhain, the ancient Celtic harvest festival honoring the Lord of the Dead. (Thompson, Sue Ellen. Holiday Symbols and Customs, p. 251)
d. The rituals of the Druids reek from the deepest hell. Their most repulsive activities involve their human sacrifices of children on the night of Samhain or Halloween.
e. First-born sacrifices are mentioned in a poem in the Dindshenchas, which records that children were sacrificed each Samhain… (Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, p. 17)
f. Halloween. That was the eve of Samhain . . . firstborn children were sacrificed. . . Samhain eve was a night of dread and danger. (National Geographic. May 1977, pp. 625-626)
g. The Druids would drink their victim’s blood and eat their flesh.
h. They [Druids] sacrificed victims by shooting them with arrows, impaling them on stakes, stabbing them, slitting their throats over cauldrons (and then drinking the blood). . . (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience, p. 167)
5. The Origins Of Hallowe'en
a. "What we now know as Halloween developed from ancient New Year festivals and festivals of the dead. In pre-Christian Britain, October 31st was considered, as the eve of New Year, when the souls of the dead especially those who had died in the past year were believed to revisit their homes. After it became a "Christian" festival, the evil supernatural symbolic associations continued alongside such customs as the shaping of a demonic face out of a hollow pumpkin, in which a candle is placed. In the Halloween which people celebrate today, many of the practices have a direct association with witchcraft.
b. The origin of the present-day Halloween celebration is the Celtic festival of Samhain also known as The Lord of Death. The Celts lived more than two thousand years ago in what is now the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Northern France. Their New Year began on November 1st. A festival that began the previous evening honoured this Samhain, the Lord of Death. The celebration marked the beginning of the season of cold, darkness, and decay.
c. On the evening of the festival, the Druids, who were the Celtic priests, ordered the people to put out their hearth fires. The Druidic priests then built a huge New Year's bonfire made out of oak branches which they considered sacred and burned animals and crops (and sometimes human beings as sacrifices). These were performed in the belief that they would protect the crops and flocks from evil influence. Without them the Celts believed that they couldn't beat the perils of the season or ward off the activities of the deities who were also believed to perform various tricks at this time of the year.
d. The Celts believed that on the Feast of Samhain, the spirits of their ancestors would rise up from the cold fields and graves and come into the warm homes and cottages of the people. Thus these spirits had to be greeted with decorations and festivities, parties and acceptance, in order to get "protection" for the household from evil spirits during the coming winter months.
e. So, in its origin, the Feast of Samhain was a rite designed to protect humans from the 'evil' activities of discarnate entities. It was, in effect, a bargain with the dead so they'd stay away and cause no trouble during the coming year.
6. It is all part of promotion of The Occult today
a. From about October 1st until October 31st, witches, vampires, Satanists and other occult minions can be seen and heard on TV and radio talk shows. There will be special features on witchcraft. Newspapers and magazines with be packed with occult related articles. People become receptive to this over the years.
b. Halloween glorifies violence, death, mutilation and gore. Standard television and video viewing fare this Halloween will be slasher/horror movies like Dracula, Scream, "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Halloween", and "Friday the 13th" film series and others. Jeffery Dahmer’s favorite was the Exorsist II.
7. Just look at the “heros” of Halloween:
a. Vampires. Blood-thirsty men. Dracula was a real person! In the book DRACULA, A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476, by Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally we read that Dracula was a maniac monster, the Hitler of his day. During his six year rule Dracula massacred 100,000 men, women and children. And how did he impose death? He killed some of them by breaking them under the wheels of carts; others, stripped of their clothes, were skinned alive; others placed on stakes, or roasted on red hot coals placed under them; others punctured with stakes piercing their bodies. No one was excluded, not even babies. Dracula decapitated, cut noses, ears, privates and limbs. On one occasion he even nailed the turbans on the heads of some Turks because they refused to remove them in his presence.
b. Werewolves – man-wolves – hybrid creatures
c. Witches – channels of demonic powers
d. Ghosts - disembodied spirits of dead people
e. And worse – dead zombies, devils, and so on!
f. Where are the good things of life, the wholesome things of life? Where is blessing and goodness? Where is Jesus, and the works of the HOLY Spirit? It is all made fun of by almost everyone!
D. Christ Broke Satan’s Power (Col 1:13; Rev 11:15; Mt 28:18-20)
1. He came into this dark world and shone for a bit, and then showed us just how dark we really are by allowing mankind to kill Him. But in that death came life! And He conquered DEATH by rising from the grave!
2. He Delivered us – saved us – made us free
3. He broke the power of Satan on the cross
4. He defeated Satan’s power in my heart
5. We can help - Satan’s plans are defeated one soul at a time – the more people saved, the less darkness there will be in an area, a community, even a nation!
E. No Christian Should Ever Dabble with Darkness.
1. We have been called OUT of darkness (1Pe 2:9; 2Co 6:14; Jn 8:12; 12:46)
2. We are not to have ANY fellowship with the spiritual darkness of this world (Eph 5:11; Rom 13:12)
a. There goes Harry Potter
b. There goes a bunch of movies and murder mystery books
c. There goes demonic role-playing like Dungeons and Dragons
d. AND, there goes: Unforgiveness; Hatred; Angry; Wrath; Any dark attitude that the devil uses to get a foothold in your home and in a church!!!
3. We are to walk/live in the light (Eph 5:8; 1Thes 5:4,5-10)
4. We are supposed to Wrestle against his attacks (Eph 6:12)
5. We must Resist the devil and his influences (James 4:7; Ps 101:3)
6. We are intended to break the power of Satan over people’s lives through preaching the truth and lifting up Jesus Christ (Act 26:18)
III. Conclusion
A. Listen to Jesus Christ -- I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:9-10
B. Christians need to realize that Halloween is a pagan worship day. It is a day that honours false gods and goddesses, demons and Satan. I have neither the desire to honour, enter into the worship of false gods, nor honour the devil, do you? I hope after considering the material presented that you WILL NOT CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN.
C. Put Ephesians 5:11 into practice, "...have NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them."
D. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
Craig Ledbetter
Missionary to Ireland
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Ireland