Rejected Traditions
From the very dawn of time and the institution of divine worship by almighty God, He has demanded that His creation display their uncompromised love and faith in Him as their Creator by worshipping Him according to only His own divine dictates and directives (Jn. 4:23-24). Those who chose not to, but introduced anything according to their own unauthorized desires and man-made traditions and preferences, faced His deep displeasure, rejection, and often their own eventual destruction (Gen. 4:1-7; Lev. 10:1-2; 1 Kgs. 12:25-13:10; 2 Kgs. 17:1-23; Ezek. 23:1-49). Those who rejected and would not listen to what God wanted in worship in favor of putting in place and practicing their own desires instead, had their worship then summarily rejected by God (Matt. 15:1-9; Mk. 7:5-13).
Traditions of man associated with evil are rejected by God.
It should also not go unnoticed that the very first and top priority of God’s Ten Commandments had to do with the fact that His people were not to worship any other gods, or practice any form of idolatry (Ex. 20:1-7). Introducing any other beliefs, practices, or entities into what God had commanded, was absolutely and strictly forbidden. And when those people refused to love God enough to trust and obey only His pure, holy, righteous and unadulterated decrees and commandments, it cost several thousand of them their very lives, as well as costing many others of them much other pain and anguish (Ex. 32:1-35).
Now folks; the Lord absolutely hates and detests all forms of evil (Prov. 6:16-19; 8:13). This includes such “abominations” as “one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead” (See Dt. 18:9-14). Likewise, the Lord tells all those who truly love Him and are His that they must therefore hate, detest, abhor and abstain from all forms of evil and abomination as well (SEE: Ps. 97:10; Amos 5:14-15; Ro. 12:9; 1 Thess. 5:21-22; 1 Ptr. 1:13-19).
God’s children are commanded to test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 Jn. 4:1-6) – in other words, to examine all practices in light of the Scripture – and then to expose, denounce, and renounce all of those evil deeds of sin and darkness (Eph. 5:3-17) which run contrary to the purity, holiness, and righteousness found therein, just as they did in the first century when these same, exact, eternal truths were preached (Acts 19:18-20)! Compromise and/or corruption, no matter how small or slight, both was, is, and still should forever be, out of the question. God very clearly commands His children that they are to only practice that which they can find authority for in His word (Col. 3:17), imitating only that which is good – and never evil (3 Jn. 11). This, because those who choose to practice and/or imitate such ungodly evils as uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, heresies, drunkenness, revelries and the like, shall never inherit or enter into the kingdom of God, according to God (See: Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 22:14-15)!
God further states that His children are not to love the world or the things of the world (1 Jn. 2:15-17). Bad company still corrupts good morals (1 Cor. 15:33). Therefore, God commands and requires that if we truly want Him to be our Father, that we must come out from among those who practice the evil deeds of darkness, by separating ourselves and not touching or having anything whatsoever to do with what He has deemed to be unclean – cleansing ourselves of all filthiness in favor of His holiness (2 Cor. 6:15-7:1). In fact, He even went so far in the first epistle we have a record of to His church in Corinth, as to state that those who ‘drink of the cup of demons’ and idolatry (i.e., participate in their practices), cannot be in fellowship with Him!!! Check it out and see for yourself (1 Cor. 10:14-22)! God is a jealous God – a consuming fire, and He will not tolerate even the hint of such evil and idolatrous practices amongst His people (Ex. 20:4-6, 34:11-17; Dt. 4:23-24, 5:6-8, 6:14-18; Josh. 24:14-20; Heb. 12:28-29)!
So what is the purpose of the timing of this article you ask? Simple. Look around. Check your local department store. Watch the advertisements on T.V. It is blatantly and inarguably obvious that absolutely everything about Halloween is both rooted in, and centered upon, all of those evil things that the holy and righteous, pure and all-powerful God of heaven absolutely abhors. So the question is, knowing all of this: how on earth can any group of His children even think of seeking to enhance or improve the attractiveness of the soul-saving gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world, through utilizing, celebrating, or participating in any form of such worldly-imitating, demon-celebrating, Halloween-induced and grounded activities? God’s people are to abstain from every form and/or even the appearance of evil (1 Thess. 5:22), being totally different from the world around them (1 Ptr. 2:9-12). Has catering to peoples’ desires to embrace all such evil-steeped Halloween entities and festivities as witches, warlocks, demons, deception, thievery, trickery, and etc., instead of obeying God’s commandments to avoid all such indicators/inferences of evil, become so prevalent that God’s children are truly willing to chance His wrath by utilizing/imitating such Halloween-related events in His church? Think about it…
For further and more in-depth study and research on this subject of Halloween, please read/listen to the following:
· http://churchofchristarticles.com/blog/administrator/halloween-festivities/