Are demons real? Did ancient peoples dream them up? Are they genuine or just imaginary? Much of the world today has a celebration that seems to be dedicated to the demonic world. Its Halloween. Is that a problem for Christians? What could be wrong with Halloween?
Theres a lot of joyfulness in costuming - and then, as a little kid, separating candy by size and color, paper-wrapped and not, you know. Yeah, adults love it.
Its cool because we never celebrate this kind of festival in China. And yeah, during the Halloween, I actually have sent candies to little children, and I think they are like pretty cool because they like dress up, and get makeup, and yeah.
One guy, being a butcher, he'd decorate his house with animal carcasses. Well, a couple times. Usually instead of a jack-o-lantern, he'd have a pig's head on the front porch, oibvious mixed views on that. Probably scare the pants off the little kids, huh?
>> "Halloweens great. I mean, its fun, I don't see anything evil or wrong about it", some do say.
Lets think about that for a moment. Is there anything wrong about it? And what does that have to do with whether or not demons are real?
Well you may know that Halloween came to us through the Roman Catholic Church. They assigned each day of the year to honor one of their saints. When it reached the point that they had more saints than days, they combined them all together on November 1st and called it "All Saints Day" or "All Hallows Day."
The night before became "All Hallows Eve" or "Hallow Even" - holy evening - which contracted to the name Halloween. Now theres not too much scary about that, right? But lets look at a few of the details.
Why did they choose November 1st? Because it was the same date as the Celtic and Druid festival of the dead called "Samhain." The church tried to redirect those new converts to their Christian holiday by having it on the same day - but, the problem was they brought all their heathen practices right into the church. Check out your history books. I think its fair to say, they Christianized evil.
Heres why: Do you know what the ancient pagan Celtics did on that day? They actually had their own version of trick or treating. They visited supposed haunted houses. They built huge bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Thats because they believed the physical and the spirit world intermingled that night like no other time of the year. They actually thought the dead came back to visit the living, so witches, and goblins, and ghosts would appear. So a pagan celebration was repackaged and relabeled as Christian - ultimately becoming Halloween.
Now you may be thinking, okay, so what? What difference does it make if Halloween is based on a godless heathen celebration? After all, demons and devils, aren't they just a figment of imagination? You may celebrate just the fun, the family aspects. But really, can that be done?
It seems like our world is kind of obsessed with, not just Halloween, but the whole spirit thing. Youve got these programs with the Ghost Hunters, and the Paranormal Witness nd walking with the zombies…
Should you be scared? Or is Halloweens connections to an unchristian past a problem?
Well we still have to deal with the question:
Are demons real? And in a moment, we'll do just that and discuss what God thinks about it. But what do you think?
A recent survey found that 45% of Americans believe in ghosts, or that the spirits of the dead people can come back.
And Americans arent alone. 50% of Australians believe in ghosts and spirits.
About 20% of Australians not only believe in them, but say they've had a brush with a ghost or a spiritual entity. About the same number of American adults, almost 1 in 5, say they've seen a ghost or been in the presence of a ghost. Almost 30% say they have felt in touch with someone who's already died.
Have you ever had an experience like that, where you felt there was something strange or different or some type of interaction with a ghost?
To be cont'd
God bless you all.
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