{"id":4327,"date":"2011-10-24T14:43:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T19:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2011-10-24T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T19:43:12","slug":"halloween-is-cheating-on-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2011\/10\/halloween-is-cheating-on-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Is Cheating On Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>Continuing <a href=\"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=4322\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Halloween theme from earlier today<\/a>, I thought we would post this quick Halloween warning as a followup to \u201call things related to Halloween are Satanic.\u201d<\/p>\nFrankly, I just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\nMaybe I\u2019ve been brainwashed by Satan and just don\u2019t realize it, but I don\u2019t understand the fear mongering and vitrol spewed out over Halloween.<\/p>\nUntil I (sadly) became too cool to go trick or treating, I dressed up every year growing up and went out around the neighborhood to replenish my candy supply from the previous year. I\u2019ve been Peter Pan, Captain Picard, and I think I was a Transformer one year as a little kid.<\/p>\nAll of my Christian friends and family dressed up for Halloween and went trick or treating too. We were and still are very involved in the church and Halloween was never anything more than a night to dress up in a costume, get free candy, and then pass judgement on all of our neighbors who thought it was a good idea to hand out peppermints and toothbrushes instead of Twix and Skittles.<\/p>\nSo what level of corrupting influence did this \u201cabhorrent\u201d tradition have on me?<\/p>\nDid I and my friends slowly, but surely become seduced by the occult and turn our lives over to the devil?<\/p>\nNope.<\/p>\nI went trick or treating for years and instead of ending up as a pagan Satan worship, I\u2019m now a youth pastor and an ordained elder in a fairly conservative evangelical denomination. (Shocking I know)<\/p>\nThat Halloween stuff sure is a slippery slope to Satanism.<\/p>\nAre the \u201corigins\u201d of Halloween pagan? Sure. But so are lots of things we do in the church: Christmas trees,\u00a0worshiping\u00a0on Sunday, the dates we choose for Christmas and Easter, and let\u2019s not forget that \u201cthe devil\u2019s music\u201d, aka rock n roll, is now the dominant styles of worship music in contemporary church.<\/p>\nThe question surrounding Halloween and other things with \u201cpagan origins\u201d is not why they started, but how they are being used now.<\/p>\nThe thing is the church has never been afraid of \u201cpagan origins\u201d because the church as always believed that the transforming nature of her gospel was powerful enough to take even the most \u201cpagan\u201d and \u201cwicked\u201d of things and use them for good.<\/p>\nNext weekend the children\u2019s department at my church, like many others across the country, will put that belief into practice when they host our annual Trunk-or-Treat event. This \u201cpagan\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d holiday is being used as a moment to share the love of Christ with our community.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s almost as if what \u00a0Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis was really true,<\/p>\n\u201cYou intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.<\/em>\u201c<\/p>\nIf anything, the mere fact that Halloween had pagan origins and is now being used by many to share the gospel is something to celebrate; for it is a moment in which we see the redemptive and transformative grace of Jesus being put into practice.<\/p>\nSo, should Christians \u201cavoid evil\u201d? Of course.<\/p>\nAre there \u201cevil things\u201d happening on Halloween? Sure. Lots of people will get drunk that night, get behind the wheel of their car, and end up causing a needless and evil\u00a0tragedy. But Satan worship and occult practice are not on that list of evil things, at least not the case of trick or treaters.<\/p>\nHalloween is not built around the occult. It\u2019s built around candy, costumes, and the money companies can make off selling those things and everything else Halloween related. It only takes a quick trip to Wal-Mart to figure that out.<\/p>\nIf we as a church were really that concerned (and I don\u2019t think we really are) about \u201cworshiping other gods\u201d as this lady and so many others seem to harp on this time of year, then why not worry about real gods that a lot of Christians \u00a0really\u00a0are\u00a0worshipping: money, career, success, security, sex, ourselves.<\/p>\nThere are lots of things to be \u201cconcerned\u201d about as a Christian. Your child dressing up like Iron Man or Snow White for Halloween isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\nIf you really need something to be worried about at Halloween, then worry about the dentist bills your child is going to\u00a0accrue\u00a0eating all that candy.<\/p>\nFrom personal experience I can testify that those cavities and the amount of money it costs to fill those cavities truely is from the devil.<\/p>\nGrace and peace,<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?s=Zack+Hunt&submit=Submit\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zack Hunt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Continuing the Halloween theme from earlier today, I thought we would post this quick Halloween warning as a followup to \u201call things related to Halloween are Satanic.\u201d Frankly, I just don\u2019t get it. Maybe I\u2019ve been brainwashed by Satan and just don\u2019t realize it, but I don\u2019t understand the fear mongering and vitrol […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Halloween Is Cheating On Jesus?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Continuing the Halloween theme from earlier today, I thought we would post this quick Halloween warning as a followup to "all things related\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2011\/10\/halloween-is-cheating-on-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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