As far as halloween goes, it is far from a celebration of the changing of seasons. What about the holiday celebrates the changing of seasons. And to remember the loved ones lost is fine, but if you are sure where they are, then we should rejoice, not set a place at a table for them and mourn as the world does. I don’t mourn as the world does because I know where my loved ones who are SAVED are. The ones who do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, those are the ones I mourn for, God only knows whether they are with Him or not.

Please people, don’t let this world’s traditions mold you and form your opinions and your beliefs. Participating in this holiday only allows the devil a foothold into your life. There is no benefit to this holiday, nor does it glorify God in any way.

But back to the issue at hand. What about this holiday glorifies God? NOTHING! The demonic Celtic background itself makes it pretty clear. We are to be salt and light to this dark world that we live in. Even dressing up as “good” characters shows that you are participating and does not separate you from the world. Again, “we are to be in the world, but not of it.” Believe me, I realize this is hard, I have to explain my beliefs every year about Halloween, Christmas, Easter and every once in a while I get scorned or shunned, even from family, but God requires that we love Him more than these. Not that we can’t love our family, but we love God more.

My fellow Christians, lets not let the world determine what we believe. The bible is very clear that we should have no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. If there were ever a “holiday” that exemplifies the unfruitful works of darkness, halloween is it.

Aiming to serve the Lord in everything I do,
Rich

I am now a practicing Wiccan but I believe very much in Jesus Christ as do a lot of Wiccan’s that I know. I have been told before that I have no right to believe in Christ if Im not a Christian, but the fact that I do believe in Christ, does that make me a Christian, even though I say I am Wiccan. I grew up in the Christian faith and I spent most of my life feeling very uncomfortable, because just about every Christian that I knew felt that it was their right to belittle and demean others, I found that quite astonishing because I knew that Jesus never taught us that, he was gentle and kind, he taught with love and conviction, not fear and power. For a long time before I found my Wiccan path, if people asked me what religion I was, I had trouble answering them, I felt ‘my religion is with God’. I was too ashamed to call myself a Christian. In my experience most Christians are the most hypocritical people I have ever known, and I was not prepared to be like them. So I took my love for Jesus and I walked away from the Church. The Church is not Christ. It is manmade and man run.

For one thing, Wiccan’s don’t believe in the devil, the devil himself was actually created by the Christians of long ago. Satanist are opposing God by honoring his opposite. Wiccan’s do not do that, they believe in God in every aspect, which is why we honor all that God/Goddess created, we celebrate life by living with the Earth and celebrating the Wheel of the Year. These celebrations are called Sabbats, of which Samhain is one. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. Wiccans also see this cycle as echoing the life, death and rebirth of God and the Goddess.

As an Australian we have to celebrate the Christian holidays at the same time as the Northern Hemisphere, which goes against nature in this part of the world, when it is spring over there is Autumn here, so most Australian Wiccans celebrate opposite to everyone else. We are coming up to our Samhain Celebration on the 30 of April, so that is where my thoughts are now, it is a time to honor my loved ones who have passed on and it is a time to reflect within, and to reassess my life, what I have accomplished in the last year, what changes I want to bring about within the next year, It is a beautiful time where we do celebrate the dead as the Earth herself does, everything dies and everything will be reborn again in Spring, the earth is going to sleep, everything around us is dying but it is not a time for fear, because we know that this is the way of life, everything and everyone has a cycle and come next spring (Ostara) (Easter), the flowers will be blossoming, the birds will be singing and we ourselves will feel energized and refreshed. Im sure if you research all 8 of the Pagan festivals you will find that, as a Christian you also celebrate them. The Christian forefathers just changed a few details to encourage people to follow their faith. In knowing that, it proves that they were not at all concerned that God would not be happy with them.

Some comments I have read astound me, as far as the term dark side, it refers to more than death, why is it that people think death is evil, and is all about their devil, it is a natural part of life, what do you think of Winter, that is when the Earth goes to sleep, it is called the dark half of the year, does that make Winter evil. As human beings none of us are completely positive or completely negative, you cannot have one without the other. I am overwhelmed with the vehemence coming from people who call themselves Christians, I have read the bible many times and if you really follow Jesus’ teaching, you would not be so judgmental. Judge as you wish to be judged. Most comments that I have read are coming from a place of pure fear and ignorance of the real facts, you find a couple of myths and expand it to the point of silliness. No real witch dresses or behaves as you portray them, this merely reflects your own ignorance.

I truly believe that each human being is on their own individual journey and we all have different needs, I believe that all religions have a place on this planet and each person should be able to honor God/Goddess in whatever way he/she feels comfortable, because you are right Ty, when you say that some things don’t sit right with you, we don’t like the idea of insulting God by believing something that we shouldn’t, unfortunately we have spent to long listening to what someone else wants us to believe of Christ, instead of sitting back and reflecting within and listening to what Jesus really has to tell you as an individual and that is, God/Goddess loves us completely, and our biggest concern should be to work together as fellow souls for the greater good of all. My Uncle Gary, who was a Christian, used to tell me to go and sit under a tree and talk to God, he made the tree, a man made the Church. How right he was.

As a Wiccan I find the Ritual and worship actually more profound than that of Church, you live your worship in love and harmony with the planet and everyone on it, we believe that we are completely 100% responsible for our own actions, which makes you very careful about how you treat others, because we are aware that we will be held accountable. So don’t be so hard on yourself, God knows your heart, as Jesus taught treat others as you would treat me. Really look at Jesus’ teachings, not those that came after him. ‘They’ as ‘we’ are merely human.

The real question boils down to who dwells within. If the Spirit of Christ dwells within any individual, that Spirit will certainly not endorse any of those celebrations… halloween, christmas etc.

The fact is that the salt is losing it’s savour!! no wonder Jesus wondered whether he would find ‘faith ‘ on his return to earth.

Your observations I believe were well-researched and your submissions brilliant and spiritual. God bless you!!

This is a prime example of how we have allowed the worlds traditions (which is what this is) to become the norm. Easter and Christmas are also examples of this, but I don’t have time to go into those at this time. Halloween, is such a blatantly satanistic holiday, why would any Christian want to be associated with it in any way? Where is the benefit? How does it glorify God? God is not it AT ALL?

And yes, you can look at pornography without looking at sex, because nude men or women do not have to be engaging in sex for it to be pornagraphy. .

This all goes back to allowing the world’s views and traditions mold people’s mind instead of being grounded in the Word of God.

Halloween seems to fall squarely in that arena. If can participate in dress-up and have my kids collect free candy,and know full well we are not mentally participating in a heathen activity, then all is well.

On the other hand, those that do feel strongly about it absolutely should not participate.

When you say you are not participating mentally, what does that mean? The demonic spirits that are associated with halloween do not need you mental participation in order to have an open door into your mind.

If what you say is true, that you aren’t mentally participating and that makes it ok, then literally any action could be considered as ok like pornography, cheating, stealing. It’s ok if I am just not “mentally” participating.