Not Today, Satan!
"Hallowing" Halloween
Disclaimer: I want to be clearly understood here. If you’re a Christian with misgivings about Halloween’s links to paganism, that’s understandable and I’m not telling you to ignore your conscience and “celebrate Halloween.” Okay? What I’m suggesting is that you think about October 31 from a different angle: how you can uniquely exalt the name of Jesus Christ on that day, instead of shutting your lights off, pretending you’re not home, and ignoring Halloween festivities altogether.
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Had a conversation with a fellow Christian recently, and Halloween came up. I asked him if he and his wife were going to be handing out treats to kids that night. He said he’d be willing to, but his wife insists the occasion is “pagan” and “satanic,” and so they’re going to turn the lights off and just make like nobody’s home.
Though sympathetic to how she feels, I couldn’t help thinking: Lost opportunity.
Some Christians, though I realize they’re very well intentioned and love the Lord, have a strange viewpoint: they believe God can redeem a human being, but not the calendar. In other words, souls can be saved—but certain days belong to the Devil.
Or at least they act like they believe that.
Which is weird, because those same people will insist they believe Scripture’s accounts of the demon-possessed being liberated by Jesus himself, or by the Apostles in His name.1 Indeed, given “that the world around us is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), anyone who believes in Jesus Christ is “free[d] from the power of darkness” and “brought . . . into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13)—no less than if we'd been demon-possessed.
Nonetheless, many believers treat Halloween exactly as I’ve described; they just sort of relinquish the field to the enemy. They may not articulate it the way I just did, but that’s how they treat Halloween: as an occasion that is irredeemable.
Indeed, that’s precisely how one Amazon reviewer, “SpunkyMama,” reacted to the Christian book Redeeming Halloween:
. . . [Y]ou can't take a Pagan Night [sic], and turn it into a God Honoring one only by changing some things. . . . The book fails to “Redeem” what should be shunned. [Italics mine]
While I share and appreciate this lady’s intention to glorify the Lord, her reasoning about Halloween is flawed.
The night of October 31st isn’t inherently pagan. This is a “day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24)! It belongs to Him like anything else He’s created. Again: If Jesus can redeem a person, why can’t He redeem the calendar? If pagans are using October 31st for evil, why can’t God’s people counter that evil with specific, creative, targeted acts of righteousness?
“SpunkyMama” isn’t necessarily correct about the origins of Halloween. October 31st “originally marked the end of a Celtic year, and was called ‘Samhain,’ ” which just means “summer’s end.” Naturally, because the Celts were pagan, they attached pagan ideas to that day on the calendar—but commemorating a change of season isn’t evil. Eventually the Celts were evangelized, “and Samhain got blended with ‘All Saints Day.’ All Saints Day somehow morphed into ‘All Hallows Eve,’ ”—from which we get the word Halloween. “Both versions revolved around honoring Christian saints and martyrs.2 For a while, it was ‘one of the most solemn festivals of the Church.’ ”3 In fact,
most of the actual traditions and practices of the holiday developed out of the medieval Christian holy days of All Souls’ and All Saints’ Day. Early Christians in the 4th century began the practice of celebrating the martyrs of the early Roman persecutions. By the 9th century, these festivals were beginning to shift focus to celebrating the lives of saints instead.4
The point here is that the origins of Halloween aren’t entirely pagan; neither are its modernized traditions. Halloween involves a mix of good and evil—and it’s possible to divorce the two.
This is, again, similar to human beings themselves: we’re a mix of good and evil. “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal” (Romans 3:23), but at the same time nobody’s as evil as they could be:
[W]hen [people] naturally do what [God’s] law commands without even knowing the law, then they are their own law. . . . They show that in their hearts they know what is right and wrong, the same as the law commands, and their consciences agree. Sometimes their thoughts tell them that they have done wrong, and . . . sometimes their thoughts tell them that they have done right [Romans 2:14-15].
As Christians, do we only hang out with perfect people? No, because there aren’t any. We don’t shun others because of that. What about things pagans do that aren’t inherently evil? If unbelievers put on a sporting event, does that make it inherently “pagan” or “evil”? If a non-Christian farmer hosts a harvest party—which often coincides with Halloween or the days immediately beforehand—does that make the party itself “pagan”?
God Himself has made these kinds of distinctions among people and among human activities. Two major rituals in Old Testament Judaism—sacrifices and circumcision—were practiced by pagans themselves, directed toward their false gods. Yet the True God had no problem coopting those rituals; He simply redefined them:
The Israelite sacrificial system both represented and foreshadowed the Ultimate Sacrifice, Jesus himself.5
Circumcision became a symbol of removing sin from one’s heart.6
Doesn’t it stand to reason that if a holiday is a mixed bag of good and evil, it’s possible to separate the evil from the good, preserve the latter, and utilize it to exalt and proclaim Christ?
Isn’t that what God does with you and me on a daily basis?
To “separate” in the Bible is often conveyed by the words “sanctify” or “hallow,” both of which literally mean to set apart. The implication here is that we must hallow Halloween.
Costumes glorifying evil or Satan must be rejected—but not costuming itself.
Imagination can glorify evil or Satan—but imagination itself is from God.
Overindulgence in junk food can ruin your body—but treats aren’t evil.
People engage in all kinds of sordid, evil parties—but partying isn’t evil.
Those are the core features of Halloween. Those features can be divorced from evil; sanctified and made honorable to God. Like a person.
Another reviewer of Redeeming Halloween, “LBush,” insists we must avoid “celebrating” the occasion because it’s “a dark holiday” that “focuses on death” and “glorifies witchcraft . . . [and] the devil!” But is avoidance the only option?
The Apostle Paul wrote: “Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, avoid them.”
Oh, sorry, my bad: I used the wrong word there. What Paul actually said was: “expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11) You don’t just leave evil alone to do its thing; you oppose it by actually responding to it and shedding light on it.
Exposing evil implies several things:
Awareness: You have to know what Satan is up to.
Communication: If you’re exposing Satan’s works, you’re exposing them to someone. You’re blowing the lid off the Devil’s agenda.
Proclamation: Show people the way out of the world’s darkness. “Expose” them to “the glorious light of the Good News”; “the glory of Christ,” the Demon-Slayer.
I fully concur with LBush when s/he says that “Christ was creative in how he reached people.” So, what if we creatively used Halloween instead? What if we glorified God by specifically countering pagan activity on that day? There are ways to make godly use of some of the trappings of Halloween—costumes, make-believe, and treats—which aren’t evil in and of themselves.
Let your creative juices flow; but the #1 thing I can think of to oppose Satan on October 31st is to spread the Good News of the only One who can defeat him.
My wife is a recently retired public school teacher. Being well aware of her stress levels over the years, I figured she must be overjoyed to escape the “Children of the Corn.” So I was surprised to learn that she can't wait till Hallowe'en, so that she can greet kids at the door and hand out treats. (Hopefully, none of them come dressed as corn-children.)
Some ideas that have occurred to us are:
Carving a cross into a pumpkin to make a “holy” jack-o’-lantern. Before the now-more familiar pumpkins, it was turnips that were sometimes “carved with faces and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.”7 So why not create an alternative that symbolizes Who and what really vanquishes demons?
Handing out Gospel tracts as well as treats to the kids who come to our door. You can find various types online, or design your own.8
Creating a lawn display that combines Halloween and Bible themes. A life-sized representation of Jesus casting out demons would be just about perfect, I imagine.
All those examples involve the home front, of course, but believers could also take the Gospel to the streets on Halloween night. It doesn’t matter if it’s on your own or as part of a team, but how great would it be if your whole church got behind the outreach?
And don’t ever downplay such efforts for the Kingdom. You never know whose heart-strings might be plucked by the message of Jesus. Like this guy:
On Halloween night, 1974, I donned a homemade costume . . . and canvassed my neighborhood . . . in search of candy. I was ten and in fourth grade. . . . I remember one elderly lady throwing a little [religious] booklet into my bag in addition to the candy she gave me.
. . . [W]hen my mother went through my candy to make sure it was all safe she discovered the booklet . . . and she took the time to read it that evening. It piqued her curiosity about God and inspired her to join a Bible study, and my mother discovered through this Bible study that God loved her despite her sin and that He made a way for her to be reconciled to Him through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus. She gave her heart and life to God that day, and my mom’s transformation was noticed immediately by my father, my siblings, and me. . . .
God used this one woman’s simple act of obedience to transform four generations of Fitzpatricks! Praise God. So, yes, when the neighborhood children are out collecting their treats . . . we are committed to presenting them with the best treat of all—the good news of Jesus Christ.
Glorify evil? Trap souls in the dark?
Not today, Satan!
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For more, see: “What does the Bible say about demon possession?” (Got Questions Ministries, © 2022; accessed 25 Oct. 2022); and “Spiritual Warfare: Winning the Battle,” (Focus on the Family, © 2019; accessed 25 Oct. 2022).
Bear in mind that in the Bible the word “saint” applies to everyone, dead or alive, who belongs to Jesus Christ.
Mike Couchman, “Halloween = Christian??”, BoostRadio.com (St. Louis, MO, 19 Oct. 2020; accessed 29 Oct. 2022).
Justin Holcomb, “What Christians Should Know About Halloween,” JustinHolcomb.com (© 2022; accessed Oct. 29). See also Sarah Hamaker, “A Tricky Holiday: Should Christians Ignore or Embrace & Celebrate Halloween?”, Crosswalk.com (5 Oct. 2020; accessed 29 Oct. 2022).
See “Why did God require animal sacrifices in the Old Testament?”, Got Questions Ministries (© 2022; accessed 29 Oct. 2022).
Bettina Arnold, “Halloween Customs in the Celtic World,” U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (31 Oct. 2001; accessed 29 Oct. 2022).
Tracts could address either kids or parents.