Taking every Hallow's Eve Captive for Christ
One Reformed perspective on Halloween, one BBC Radio4 public-interest story, one mother (mine) who adores the silly-ness of Halloween, and one delightfully stimulating dinner conversation all add up to a question: is it good for our souls to celebrate all Hallow's Eve as a preparation for All Saints' by mocking the devil and showing the his powerlessness after the victory of Christ? Here's a snippet of the Reformed perspective mentioned above by James B. Jordan:
The concept, as dramatized in Christian custom, is quite simple: On October 31, the demonic realm tries one last time to achieve victory, but is banished by the joy of the Kingdom.
What is the means by which the demonic realm is vanquished? In a word: mockery. Satan’s great sin (and our great sin) is pride. Thus, to drive Satan from us we ridicule him. This is why the custom arose of portraying Satan in a ridiculous red suit with horns and a tail. Nobody thinks the devil really looks like this; the Bible teaches that he is the fallen Arch-Cherub. Rather, the idea is to ridicule him because he has lost the battle with Jesus and he no longer has power over us....Similarly, on All Hallows’ Eve (Hallow-Even – Hallow-E’en – Halloween), the custom arose of mocking the demonic realm by dressing children in costumes. Because the power of Satan has been broken once and for all, our children can mock him by dressing up like ghosts, goblins, and witches. The fact that we can dress our children this way shows our supreme confidence in the utter defeat of Satan by Jesus Christ – we have NO FEAR!
When I first read this I thought that it would be a challenge to get this message across to small children, but the Radio4 story had little girls rattling off without any hesitation that the meaning of Halloween was "the victory of light over dark, which means we don't have to be afraid any more"!
Rather than a Frank-Peretti-style thriller pitching capable archangels against the swarthy powers of darkness, we have here holy laughter and the joy of the Spirit as the answer of Christ's people to the threats and scare-tactics of the devil. We spend many of the days of our year giving the devil more than his due; perhaps it is fitting to spend an evening remembering the joy of the kingdom, the powerless of evil to snatch us from Christ, and Christ's humiliation of Satan by the cross, resurrection, and ascension. Drawn up into the life and victory of Christ, is it not fitting that we too should scorn and deride the pride of the evil one?This is a truth that can be taught to very young children, and perhaps is a better solution to the "Halloween problem" than harvest parties. I'm still thinking about it...but I have to say, I would love any little girl of mine to have the confidence in God's victory that I heard over the radio.
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Jude 8 'In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand.'
To quote Bob Dylan: 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. In the passage above Jude is quoting from an Apocryphal source but from the context it is clear that he is arguing against speaking abusively about angels, even fallen angels. Here is a biblical command that directly contradicts the above argument. It is utter folly to argue in favor of celebrating Halloween on the basis that we are mocking the devil.
While it is undoubtedly correct that Jesus has the ultimate victory over Satan, the devil is not yet powerless and teaching our children to have such a flippant attitude to him can only do them harm. It is probably the case that today most Christian adults have a poor understanding of the reality of the devil's influence both in the lives of believers and in the world at large. The devil is a defeated enemy, but it is only as we submit to God that he will flee from our resistance (James 4:7). The devil has influence and power over our lives through areas that are not submitted to God and it is foolish to teach young children who are unlikely to be spiritually mature to 'mock him'. Attacking the devil's pride is a reasonable means to cause him to flee from us when we are under attack. However this should be done by a mature christian by means of the scriptures. It is unlikely that having children dress up in ghoulish outfits has much effect on the enemy of our souls.
Halloween is derived from a Celtic festival known as Samhain. It was believed that the boundary between the living and the dead was dissolved for one night and that the dead became dangerous for causing sicknesses or destroying crops. Costumes and masks were worn at the festival in an attempt to copy or placate the evil spirits that were believed to be responsible for these problems. (Source: Wikipedia - best I have right now - and that's not to say I'm not grateful my wife has given away her entire Brittanica). Doreen Irvine's eye opening book 'From Witchcraft to Christ' describes how the festival of Halloween is still celebrated by modern occultists and Satanists. I am unsure where James Jordan's alternative history of Halloween derives its origins from but I think it is likely to be a distortion of the truth.Having our children participate in a festival with these pagan origins is not sensible.
The notion of mocking the forces of evil by trick or treating is flawed in itself. It is certainly the case that Christ has the victory over the forces of evil. However dressing up as witches and other individuals involved in the occult is hardly sensible. Christ has shown in many lives that he has victory over addiction, another type of bondage to the devil. However, we would surely not encourage our children to pretend to be alcoholics or drug addicts to celebrate Jesus' victory would we? There are real people today who are witches. These are people in deep bondage to the devil. In some cases they fall into this lifestyle because of physical and emotional abuse they themselves have suffered. From the church these people need a powerful effort to save them from their bondage. Surely we would be dishonouring our God if we instead offer them mockery.
Should our children understand that Jesus has the victory over Satan? Of course they should. Surely a better way to teach them is by sharing with them our weaknesses and demonstrating how we can overcome them as we submit to God. It is the example of humility, not the humiliation of mockery, that will ultimately overcome pride. This is the nature of Jesus' victory (Phillipians 2).
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