It's That Time Again

Well, it's almost upon us. In two days it'll be Halloween and a lot of conservative Christians will be struggling with how to celebrate this holiday or if to celebrate it at all. Halloween raised scarcely a concern in the Church when I was a child. How things have changed! Now many Christians are being taught to have nothing go do with this scarily fun time of the year. Why?

Many Christians are just discovering Halloween's pagan roots. What they thought was just a time of innocent fun is now seen as worshipping false gods and opening the door to the occult. I agree. Halloween IS based on ancient pagan practices and I totally understand Christians who reject this holiday. The problem is that Christians aren't consistent in shunning all pagan-based festivals. The same ones who condemn Halloween enthusiastically embrace Christmas and Easter which are just as pagan in origin. I don't get it.

I've dealt with this issue in a previous post but I'm revisiting it because I haven't gotten a satisfying explanation for the inconsistentcy. Christmas and Easter are pagan, just like Halloween. Christmas is derived from ancient sun worship and Easter is based on the worship of a Middle Eastern fertility goddess. If Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween they shouldn't celebrate Christmas and Easter, either.

Some Christians might argue that Halloween is different from Easter and Christmas because of the ghoulishness and scariness of it's theme. It could lead people, especially impressionable children, more easily into the occult. Christmas and Easter, on the other hand, have nothing to do with the occult. They come from the "bright" side of paganism: the worship of life and the life-giving force. It is much easier, they might say, to Christianize pagan practices celebrating life and rebirth than those fixated on death.

But the apostle Paul taught that ALL pagan gods were fronts for demons. He made no distinction between the dark deities and the light ones. Moses also didn't make such a distinction when he commanded the Israelites not to worship Yahweh the way the heathens worshipped their idols. In the Bible there's no blurring of the line between true worship and false worship. So there shouldn't be such blurring among Christians, either.

The origins of Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are equally pagan. I don't think they can be Christianized. Just because they've become traditions doesn't make them right before God.
Christians are supposed to revere Jesus, not custom. If custom is something He disapproves of then custom has to go. Many Christians understand this with regard to Halloween. They need to understand it with regard to Christmas and Easter, too.