So today we are talking about a very relevant topic. One that will probably offend both sides at one point or another, but just remember that our heart is to be biblical and share what we have learned over the years.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

1. Our Early Years

2. The Reality

3. Realizations

This is a very difficult topic to discuss and makes us tremble a little bit because we truly desire for you guys to hear our heart on this topic.

We are going to take you guys on our journey with this topic and share our convictions, scripture and the things that God has taught us over the years regarding Halloween and whether or not we should celebrate it.

Back when we were kids 30 years ago we never saw anyone rebel against celebrating Halloween.

Our rebellion started about seventeen years ago when Kelsey was very young.

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Let’s dive into today’s topic!

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

1. Our Early Years

• First of all, we are not to parent in fear! This is not fear-based parenting content at all! We do not subscribe to that. This is courageous parenting which means to be wise about the world so that we can equip our children to influence the world and bring glory to God! 
• Matthew 10:16 says to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. This means we should not be naive! We need to be aware of what is going on in the world!
• When we first got married we thought that we would celebrate Halloween just like we did when we were kids. 
• We tried doing the trick or treating and the harvest parties and every church we know of puts on some sort of harvest party or Halloween event. They use it as an outreach opportunity and try to make it a safe alternative to the other Halloween events out there. The problem with that is that they are passing on a message that is not necessarily biblical or God-glorifying.
•  We have shared more on our story with this topic but the short version of it is that as our kids got older we tried some different things. One year we hosted a reformation party at our house, another year we hosted a prayer and worship get together, one year we put candy and with bible verses out for kids on our front porch.

2. The Reality

• The united states spend an average of nine billion dollars on Halloween every year! Just take a second and think about that, it’s insane! The worst part is that all of that money is going to support Halloween and everything that it stands for.
• We do not want to be the parents that ruin the fun in everything. At the same time, we want to be parents that are biblical and not hypocrites. So we are raising our kids to know biblical truth and we do not make exceptions.
• Halloween is a holiday for the pagans and it is satanic. There is a church of satan, and on Halloween, that church makes sacrifices to the devil. All sorts of horrible things happen everywhere on Halloween!
• Children are abducted and it really is a portal that is opened into demonic activity and you either believe in spiritual warfare or you don’t, and if you are a Christian that doesn’t believe or doesn’t really understand spiritual warfare then odds are you are going to think that Halloween is fine and that trick or treating is okay and it’s okay for the kids to dress up as whatever they want and all these things. 
• But that is just the surface level but the reality is that there is spiritual havoc taking place on Halloween and purposes being driven to attract our kids to the darkness. 
• Angie shares a story about an interview with a lady who was a part of a satanic church and all of the horrible things that take place on Halloween day. Tune in to this weeks episode to hear the story.
• If you think Halloween is okay because it is fun and makes your kids happy then you need to understand that that is the whole point. Of course, it is going to be “fun” it is satans way of getting a foothold on kids while they are young. It’s training them at a young age when they are most impressionable to be okay with the evil and darkness of the world!
• If our kids learn to have a tolerance of evil then what do you think will happen later on when they have access to the internet or social media? 
• When we allow a little evil in our lives it grows and keeps growing.
• You are either becoming more shunning of evil or are becoming more approving of it, there is no in-between. 
• We always teach our kids that God created the days and satan has no power to create a day or have power over a day. The truth is that every day God has made and created to bring glory to him, and I cannot imagine someone in their right mind to say that celebrating Halloween brings glory to God. Halloween is celebrated by the satanic church and meant to bring spiritual havoc into the world. 
• We share a story about how we were pressured into going trick or treating and after the event, all of our kids unanimously said that they never wanted to do it again! Tu me into this week’s podcast to hear the story!
• 1 Peter 5:8 says “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
• The bible talks about the devil and spiritual warfare are happening in the world. 
• It is important to remember that October 31st is not just Halloween, it is Gods day, it is also the day of the reformation the day that Martin Luther nailed the ninety-five theses.
• So if you want to celebrate something on October 31st it ode snot have to be Halloween. Have a reformation party, or a worship and prayer party! Of course, these are only ideas and something we have done in the past but do not religiously do every year.

3. Realizations

• Regarding spiritual warfare, are you praying on October 31st? As Christians, if we know that on a certain day people will be celebrating the devil and horrible things are going to happen it would probably be a good idea to be praying. Like we know that the devil is always working and scheming but it is kind of obvious from a logical perspective that the devil would be working overtime on October 31st.  
• And we are not praying in fear. We are praying in the power of God that his protection would be over other people!
• We must communicate to our kids why we don’t do Halloween like your kids are going to have to make the same decision about Halloween someday!
• Now let’s talk about being a light!
• You can turn all the lights off in your house, you can lock the doors and not put any candy out in front of your house but is that being a light? 
• We have decided to do it a little differently.
• Do we do pumpkins? Yes, we do, but we do it in a way that teaches our kids something powerful and projects the light of Christ. We call it the pumpkin gospel. 
• Our kids get to decide how they carve their pumpkins but it is always something positive. instead of a scary face it can be a cross, a bible verse, or a positive sentence. We place them outside and that is how we participate in pumpkin carving but do it in a way that is glorifying to God! 
• Genesis 1:11-12 talks about pumpkins and how God says that they are good!
• Carving pumpkins is not wrong by any means as long as you are not projecting evil or darkness. 
• Pumpkins are Gods creation. Satan does not have the power to create pumpkins and if you teach your kids that you dong do pumpkins because it represents something evil that the devil created then you are telling your kids that the devil has more power than he does. Our kids need to understand the devil is limited and that God can do absolutely anything!
• Let’s talk about candy!
• Yes, we put candy out for the trick or treaters but, we do it differently.
• The first thing we do is we buy the best candy! The stuff that the kids will love! This is how we show our generosity. And then, we place short bible verses on slips of paper and tape them to the candy bars and pray for everyone who comes to our door! We call these candy scripture and we have placed a link down below for you to read our blog post about how and why we do it!
• Isaiah 5:20 says “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
• Ephesians 6:12 says “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
• We are equipping our kids for an uncertain world and that means telling them the truth. Sure, you need to act in wisdom and maybe wait to tell your kids certain things until they are older. But we as parents need to make sure that our kids understand that we are living in a fallen world and it is our job to equip them for it. 
• As far as dressing up goes, it is okay to let your kids dress up! Our young kids dress up all the time, even today Solomon was Captain America. It is important to let our kids use their imagination as long as it is within boundaries. We will never allow any of our children to dress up as an evil character. We don’t do skulls, zombies, blood or any of the sort. But don’t become legalistic to the point where you won’t let your kids dress up as a favorite superhero who is portraying good morals and hero characteristics!
• Trick or treat means give me a treat or I am going to do a trick on you. This is a threat and what you don’t realize I’m sure of is that when you teach this to your children you are teaching them a very negative thing. 
• When you go trick or treating you are teaching your kids the opposite of stranger danger. You are going to strangers homes and asking for candy. 

We mustn’t just throw things under the carpet and participate in whatever the rest of the world is participating in. we are to be in the world but not of it. 

You cannot expect different outcomes if you are not doing different things. 

It takes courage to be a courageous parent.

What do you want your kids doing when they are older?

What do you want your grandkids to be doing?

We will be praying for you and we will be praying on October 31st.

Thank you so much for joining us! We will see you next time!

Scriptures In This Episode: 

Matthew 10:16 – “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

1 Peter 5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Genesis 1:11-12 – “Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it wasgood.”

Isaiah 5:20 – “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Ephesians 6:12 – “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Matthew 7:7 – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

1 Peter 2:11-12 – “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

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