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Halloween overview, a biblical perspective

By Pastor Stephen W. Pyle

Elkins Church of God of Prophecy

Greetings in the precious name Jehovah God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, their mighty Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost KJV), and unto him (Jesus) be glory in the Church.

Please remember our daughter, Stephanie Leigh Pyle/Rhodes, as she is recovering from recent gall bladder surgery.

While considering the colorful fall foliage, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, autumn is my favorite time of the year.

Our subject today is Halloween overview, biblical perspective. We’ll give a brief history with biblical passages concerning the dangers of celebrating the powers of darkness and the occult.

This pastor has previously spent 10 years in secular and religious broadcasting formats. Occasionally, we were called upon to produce freaky paid commercials for airplay.

As a youngster of about 5, I was introduced to Halloween while being uniformly dressed as the young Rusty (Lee Aaker) from the 1954-1959 TV series “Rin Tin Tin.” In metropolitan Baltimore, Maryland, in an evangelical Wesley Holiness Pentecostal home, we were guarded from trick or treating until our teen years. We enjoyed dumping our loot of collected sweet treats onto the table. Adolescently, on many occasions, after watching late night horror movies,

I would experience fearful nightmares. Leaving radio and going into full-time ministry in the fall of 1993, and, upon accepting my pastoral tenure at Short Gap, this pastor discovered the increasing depth of public and private Halloween decorating. We have carefully removed ourselves from this dark ideology. My question to all in retrospect of this annual celebration of Oct. 31, would be: “Who hath bewitched you?” In the famous best-selling book by John Bunyan, “Pilgrims Progress,” “Vanity Fare” is portrayed, representing the evils of this world that attract and allure a child of God into sin. The Apostle Paul’s words are sharp and poignant (or upsetting and emotional) to the church at Galatia over two thousand years ago and holds true for this millennia! Chapter three, verse one KJV reads: “O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath evidently set forth, crucified among you?” Galatian Christianity was subverted to carnality because of gross underworld darkness and spiritual wickedness.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” Ephesians 6:12. Paul later writes about his Christian comrade, Demas, who forsook the apostle, loving the carnal pleasures of this present world.

Halloween has its origin in the British Isles some 1,300 years ago. In those days, there were many men and women who practiced a so-called nature religion known as Wicca. In our region, historically, this practice has long been exercised. The word Wicca means wise ones. The word witch is also derived from this term.

Many practice their spells and magic as individuals or sometimes in groups of 13 known as covens.

The Wiccans worship Earth Mother, the sun, moon and stars. Full moons are sacred, especially if on Friday the 13th. Many of these groups honor Satan as their source, while others ignorantly believe that they receive their energy from the forces of nature itself. Jesus “beheld Satan falling from heaven.” Satan is a deceiver, and the “Prince and power of the air.”

Former warlock, occultist and astrologer the late Dr. David Meyer, who became a born-again, sanctified and Holy Ghost-filled preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has written about these satanic practices.

You can follow monthly publications via internet: The Last Trumpet newsletter.com. David’s son, Samuel Meyer, is now editor.

David Meyer explained the following information: “On Friday nights, these bewitching groups meet to celebrate esbats.

Eight times a year, the witches celebrate a sabat. These are: Imbole on Feb. 2 (also celebrated as groundhog day); the spring equinox on March 22; Beltaine on May 1; the summer solstice on June 22; Lugnahsaid on July 31; the fall equinox on Sept. 22nd; Samhaim on Oct. 31; and the winter solstice on Dec. 22, also known as Yule.”

Halloween is the most important day of the eight sabots and is known to the witches by the Scotch Gaelic word Samhain, pronounced Sow-een (a.k.a. Halloween). It is believed that on that night, the barrier between this world and the next, known as the the astral plane, becomes very thin.

The witches believe that this allows spirits of departed ones to travel freely back and forth between the earth and the spirit realm. On that night for many centuries, witches would work their magic and then have wild parties all through the darkness of that night. The would play games such as bobbing for apples, because witches regard the apples as sacred, and they also would tell stories from their personal diaries of spells known as their book of shadows.

These ghost stories would start when the hosting high priest or priestess would say “A witches tale and a cup of ale for the hosts of our guests unseen.” Pastor Meyer tells in the early days of England of another kind of witchcraft known as Druidism (remember Stonehenge?).

The Druids were called men of the oaks and were a strange clan of men who dressed in white robes.

The Druids worshipped Cernnunos, or the horned hunter of the night. Halloween was sacred to the Druids because their sun-god receded to the underworld on Oct. 31, which is why darkness increased and light decreased, according to their reckoning.

Upon darkness on Oct. 31, the clan of Druids would don white robes and hoods, carry sickles and Celtic crosses in a torchlight procession, which began with the murder of a male slave, who was dragged by a rope fastened to his left ankle. When coming to a village where they shouted the equivalent of trick or treat, the treat would be a slave girl or any female given to the Druids.

If residents refused to give a girl as a treat, someone could die, or usually, blood was taken from the dead male slave and used to draw a hexagram or six-pointed star on the door or wall of the village.

If a slave girl was given as a treat, the Druids would respond with a carved face on a pumpkin containing hardened human fat tissue to keep evil spirits away. This is one origin of the jack-a-lantern. It would mean that you cooperated with Satan.

Other origins, including black cats, skeletons and freakish, creepy, ghostly, ghastly, spooky things, have evolved into the Halloween culture through the years. Reportedly, in A.D. 834, Pope Gregory IV extended the celebration tied to the feast of Halloween for all the Roman Catholic Church, and it became known as All Saints Day.

Divining, enchantments, sorceries, familiar spirits and witchcrafts are all forbidden in scriptures in the Holy Bible, which is written from Almighty Jehovah God, his Son Jesus Christ under the anointing of their Holy Spirit.

In Galatians five: Idolatry, witchcraft and all works of the flesh will keep us from inheriting the Kingdom of God. OT Exodus 22:18 records: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Leviticus 19:31: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” 20:6: “And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits (demonic spirits who take on the faces of family or familiar persons) and after wizards, to go a whoring after them (chasing or celebrating them), I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut them off from among his people.” 20:27: “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit or that is a wizard shall surely be put to death. “They shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.”

Deuteronomy 18: 10-11 describes it this way: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter pass through the fire (god of Molech, compared to today’s practice of abortions); Or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch; Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer (a ‘medium who interrogates, or summons the dead’).”

King Saul, fearfully, disguised himself and counseled with the witch of Endor who summoned up a familiar spirit posing as Samuel the prophet. The Apostle Paul cast out a divining demon from a woman, and was subsequently imprisoned with Silas and miraculously set free!

Paul writes to Corinth: “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” 1st Thessalonians 5:22: “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

National retail proceeds from this holiday have exceeded $7 billion recently. Public schools allow witches and ghosts, but forbid us to put up a cross on Easter! On Calvary’s bloody cross, Jesus destroyed the power of Satan!

The Elkins Church of God of Prophecy is located at 43 Gilmore St., which intersects with Irvin Lane and Lower Pleasant Street. Please come and join us. Our service times are Sundays at 2 p.m. for Sunday School, 3 p.m. for worship service and on Wednesdays at 6:45 p.m. for Bible study with the second Wednesday of every month designated for women’s ministry, led by sister Sallie J. Pyle.   You can find us on Facebook at Stephen Pyle, Elkins WV (public) or Elkins Church of God of Prophecy. Just click on to join this closed group page. The telephone number is 304-637-0073, or email at pylestephen@yahoo.com.

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