…But Instead Even Expose Halloween | Ephesians 5:11

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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So now I get to say Happy Reformation Sunday!

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This is probably the closest we'll get to Reformation Day in light of the calendar and so very excited once again to preach this this message.

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I'm going to have bits and pieces about the Reformation in it even though the title of the sermon you can see is still going to be about Halloween.

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I encourage everybody to also sign the

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Reformation Day statement and declaration from the Trinity Foundation. It is an excellent they are excellent documents to basically show our resolve with the gospel and the

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Reformers and the Reformation over and against Rome and its false gospel so and against the ecumenical spirit that we live in to try to make everybody one in the same when they are different two different completely different religions.

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I also have a very very important correction that I need to clarify from last

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Sunday regarding what I said what I said about Exodus 23 23

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I'll go ahead and read that again which states for my angel

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God's angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites the

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Hittites the Perizzites the Canaanites the Hivites and the Jebusites and I will annihilate them you shall not worship their gods you shall not serve them and you shall not do according to their deeds but you shall utterly put them down and shatter their sacred pillars and pieces but you shall serve

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Yahweh your God and I it's funny because after the sermon last week our family we saw we watched the the 2003

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Luther movie and it's so funny because we always we always crack up when we when the part the part where Luther confronts

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Andreas Karlstadt Karlstadt it's it's a very funny scene because Karlstadt was one of the

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Reformers with who worked with Luther and he's actually the one who debated with Luther against the

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Catholic Johann Eck at the Leipzig disputation it's a very famous debate that they had and in this scene

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Luther is coming back from his his captivity so to speak his his sort of like witness protection status in the cat in Vortburg castle and he's coming back because he's had enough and he wants to go back and be with the people and and continue the reform but then he was also provoked by Karlstadt because in the movie he's provoking all kinds of social unrest and violence and all this kind of stuff and so he confronts

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Karlstadt and he kicks him out he completely kicks him out of Germany and he tells him you're not welcome here and Karlstadt he looks kind of like a like a crazy guy he's like oh it's the people's work it's the people's work and he starts getting in people's face and all this stuff and he just kind of looks he just looks like the real bad real bad guy and it's just a really funny scene but uh

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Karlstadt was also named in the same people bull that demanded

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Luther to recant or otherwise face excommunication which is basically eternal condemnation so Karlstadt was advocating this sort of spirit of in the movie at least of just trashing stuff trashing the idols of Rome breaking things and even getting physical and aggressive and violent with the priests and things like that and but I said that we need to shatter and destroy false religious practices

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I meant that on a strictly personal basis okay personal level in our own lives whatever lies under our own dominion

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I did not mean that we should go on a Karlstadt crusade and start trashing and destroying

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Halloween decorations from your neighbor's house or to go to Costco and start tearing the you know demonic decorations up there okay so that's not what

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I meant and I really misspoke there I wasn't I don't think I was that careful when

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I when I was trying to explain that so when it comes to false religious practices like Halloween done by others or promoted by others we should simply not take part in part in them but instead expose them rather expose them right amen from Ephesians 5 so now however if you do have false religious paraphernalia images idols whatever it may be music and objects then you should burn them down you should burn those things you should trash those things you should shatter those things to pieces if they are yours just like they did in the book of Acts chapter 19 and I'll read that in a little bit later on actually we can turn there now and we'll read that right now because it's very relevant to to the

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Reformation as well and to Halloween in Acts chapter 19 verse 18 the

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Word of the Lord says also many of those who had believed kept coming confessing and disclosing their practices what kind of practices and many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and were burning them in the sight of everyone and they counted up the price of them and found it 50 ,000 pieces of silver that's a lot of money by the way so the

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Word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing so very fascinating account in the book of Acts here where the people were basically practicing witchcraft and paganism and magic sorcery and they got saved when they heard the preaching of the gospel and so they brought all their junk all their pagan stuff their scrolls and their books and stuff and they burned it all so that same spirit is the spirit that we all should have as believers once God saves us and brings us to repentance and conversion and regeneration right this is the very important cleansing process that God does in our lives through a conviction and for leading us through it and any of these pagan or false religious practices that we were doing and I have a another very personal story to tell about this as well because we used to be

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Roman Catholic and you know my mom she used to have this gigantic like four -foot statue of Mary of you know it was an idol basically and we used to debate fiercely after I became a

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Christian we would go back and forth a lot and at one point I think she even denounced me as a heretic because I said that Mary was a sinner and so we had a quite the quite the the family dynamic there to put it mildly and but one one day so as we talked and discussed and debated and all of these things happen one day she basically wanted to meet with us in her bed in her bedroom and then she just sort of took out the statue and she said that she's kind of she was ready to just get rid of it and tear it to pieces literally tear it shatter it to pieces just like the verse says in Exodus and I didn't tell her to I didn't

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I didn't actually tell in fact my I thought it was the Catholic Church's I was like well maybe we should just take it back to them because it's their property but she was like no no it's fine like it's not it's not pertaining to them and so she wanted to just break it and that's exactly what happened that day she tore the idol shattered it to pieces and we backed it up and threw it in the trash so that was a very special a very powerful moment in our family's life because there was still that wrestling with Rome with Romanism and the idols and all of that stuff and Mary obviously

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Mary is a very important part of the Roman Catholic religion even though it's flat -out idolatry and so that was that was a pretty amazing episode in our own lives but that's what it sort of looks like that's an example of what breaking the idols because sometimes the idols are physical real idols there they are very real things whether so so that's a in this so in the spirit and power of the

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Reformation the Protestant Reformation by all means shatter the idols in your own life not the ones in Costco right but the ones that you own okay that's what we should be doing whether they be mental idols physical idols whatever they may be movies music whatever it was get rid of it get it out of your life now historical note here

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Karlstadt was not quite the radical that the movie portrays him to be because even though he did push for more rapid reforms and Luther was comfortable with in Germany Karlstadt had also he had also returned to with Wittenberg only two weeks after the papal bull was issued to excommunicate them and he got straight to work advocating for very rapid reforms in the city of Wittenberg and when he began pushing the abolition of images in Christian worship

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Luther then interrupted his exile to return to Wittenberg and Luther argued that reform should be introduced more slowly and with regard to for the consciences of the weak and after that the

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University of Wittenberg basically sort of pushed Karlstadt aside and just restricted him to teaching and by 1523 now remember the thesis wasn't

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Luther posted the thesis in 1517 so in 1523 Karlstadt left

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Wittenberg and he began preaching in several other places and during this time he took several positions opposing

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Luther including pacifism which is the view that Christians should not go to war a memorialist understanding of the

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Eucharist which is contrary to what Lutherans believe that Christ is present in with and under the bread and a and he also rejected infant baptism which we would agree with so that was very interesting as well he didn't advocate for re -baptism but he did reject infant baptism so this this whole this whole episode

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I think God used to get me thinking more carefully and meditating on how we as Christians can be salt and light and protest biblically in our society so you know when you when you do see

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Halloween decorations on someone's home pray for them right pray for them and we can also evangelize them and introduce them to the

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Reformation tell them about what what this day really should be about about the Reformation and when you do go to the store and you see the demonic creepy

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Halloween decorations talk to the store manager and protest right be a

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Protestant but respectfully of course don't you don't want to trash them because then you'll have to pay for them and then when you pay for them that's going to motivate them to do it more and more because you're paying for that stuff right so we don't we got to be wise in our last and evil day right but hey this is a very good and powerful way to voice your opinion and your perspective and they they will at least hear you out okay let them know that you're a

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Christian right let them know that you're a Christian and that you and your children are provoked and repulsed by all the

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Halloween decor and that they should take take it down because there's kids everywhere and people are so insensitive desensitized to it now but be speak up you know speak up and you know there's a lot of people not just not just us not just believers that don't want to see demons around flying you know everywhere on display especially children right so be that voice of of truth and light to them and let them know why you don't celebrate

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Halloween why why it's demonic that you celebrate Reformation Day instead and that they should if they even put consider putting up Reformation Day stuff you might even consider buying that instead right so there are ways that we can be salt and light even in our last and evil day and we should always protest rather than participate in the darkness of Halloween right amen just like our title says instead even expose the unfruitful works of darkness including of Halloween so Semper Reformanda right always reform always be reforming in your life according to the

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Word of God now I want to recall from last week that whatever we do participate we need to know the intent right the purpose the spirit behind it its origins where it comes from okay that says a lot about it what is it really about what is

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Halloween really about which this requires us to look past the surface level it requires us to study history and church history and apologetics which is a defense of the faith of the

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Christian faith in order to discern what's true and what's false right from wrong right very important to do this we cannot just haphazardly walk through life and not challenge or question what these things that are happening in our society because it's evil it's pagan it's corrupt right so we need to be aware of these things now

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Halloween like I said promotes and celebrates the world the flesh and the devil over the

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Father Son and the Holy Spirit which are God the true God it promotes excessive indulgence over self -denial of candy treats sensuality over chastity and self -control perversion over purity

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Satanism over Christianity witchcraft over the Spirit of God and his means of grace blasphemy over true worship death murder vampires and the undead my son wanted me to throw that in there zombies over life and eternal life evil over good darkness over light fear horror depression over peace love and a sound joyful mind right superstition over true piety uncleanness over purity fake substitutes like trunk or treat or harvest festivals that churches sometimes do over true pure and undefiled religion before our

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God the Father which according to James 127 is undefiled religion what is it it's to visit orphans and widows and their affliction and to keep ourselves unstained from the world that's holiness okay that's basic holiness and separation from the world and from worldliness it is pure religion to keep ourselves unstained and undefiled from the world now this brings us to our ever -present objectors who are in the church as well and you know because recently

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I've seen this presentation on the Ali Beth Stuckey show and she had interviewed these guys

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Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Sondkrantz from the cultist show and it's a show called cultist where they talk about cults and they expose cults and all these you know dark practices and everything and they're also from Apologia Church which is pastored by Jeff Durbin and even by James White you know it's a very prominent

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Reformed Baptist Church and the show is called the real history of Halloween and it was it was terrible okay it was horrendous they also did a follow -up episode later on with Michael Jones which is even worse and very condescending trying to put

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Christians down who denounce Halloween and all this stuff trying to make them look like just stupid and but I've got some one -two punch combos for them all right so that's what we're gonna deal with today a lot of this stuff that they claim these false claims that these guys guys like it's not just them it's a bunch of it's a bunch of ministries and people who should know better but don't sadly so I want you to think carefully carefully with me here as we exercise some basic logic to refute this nonsense that they teach and so the big one of the things one of the claims that they make is that the work of Jeffrey Keating who was a 17th century

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Irish historian and Roman Catholic priest it was his work on Celtic pagan origins of Halloween that had been disproven more more recently and so therefore all claims of Halloween having pagan origins are now invalid they're invalid because this guy's claims were somehow invalid and so other

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Christian sources similarly blame Sir James Fraser who at the turn of the 20th century claims to have discovered connections between an elf an ancient

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Celtic fire festival and the appeasement of the dead with you know this with with the church's celebration and also from a pseudo scholar called

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Matt Margaret Murray who had similar you know critiques about Halloween being pagan now this actually this takes me back to a

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Stanford health medicine webinar that I watched a few years ago about vaccines okay now why do

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I why do I say that because in that webinar one of the audience asked a question about you know what about vaccines and autism isn't that you know what about that issue does it cause autism and the the speaker who was a doctor had said no no no oh no no no that's that's just silly that's absurd vaccines don't cause autism that was by that was done by a doctor

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Andrew Wakefield who was discredited his study was discredited it was recalled and he was his license was revoked because he was just pushing a bunch of false claims fraudulent claims about vaccines causing autism and so case closed right well this there was just this nutjob this quack doctor who who was proposing these false claims and it's like okay okay well name see if you can name that fallacy in this type of reasoning okay now a fallacy is an error in thinking okay an error in your argument either in the form called the formal fallacy or in the substance or content of the argument called an informal fallacy okay now one of these fallacies that you will find when you study them is called a hasty or a faulty generalization it's basically jumping to an invalid or premature conclusion just because one guy says something false about whatever the case may be does not necessarily mean that now any claims any similar claims are totally false because somebody may have made a more logical argument a better grounded argument with sound evidence that actually does demonstrate the claim to be true okay so that's important to take into consideration because people do this all the time all the time including

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Christians as you can see and a similar false argument is called poisoning the well poisoning the well poisoning the well is basically when you you try to discredit the speaker or the one pushing the argument and you basically try to discredit them entirely and you know in the political season that we're in you find this everywhere with people with with who against Trump right they say oh he's a

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Nazi oh he's Hitler oh he's just like Hitler he's a fascist all this stuff to try to discredit what he's really about right oh he's a he's a you know he tried to lead an insurrection at the

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Capitol total lies right complete falsehoods anybody who sees the evidence will see what's really going on there they're a bunch of liars and spinsters and fraudsters they're the spinsters and the liars and the fraudsters right so it is the poison well is is sometimes used with the association fallacy as it's also called well it's a it's a different fallacy it is an unfavorable attribute is ascribed to any future opponents of the argument in an attempt to discourage or dismiss any more debate any debate whatsoever that's like oh we dealt with that already this has already been discredited to be out by that doctor that crazy nutjob crack doctor that said this right that's already been disproven it's like no not necessarily that's not necessarily the case and so there you go

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I also call it I have a similar name for it called the fallacy of dismissal it's just like well you know these guys they're just off their wackos it's an it's an abusive ad hominem argument as well it's also referred to as that it's just dismissing the opposition so that way there's no there's no real dialogue or discussion there's no real argument or debate being done and that's a very dangerous form of arguing because it's false and it doesn't even allow the arguments to be just presented anymore because well it's been disproven this guy disproved it already so there's nothing to nothing to talk about anymore right and like I said pay attention to these fallacies because you will find them everywhere in our media everywhere so think with me here just because one faulty study of the origins of halloween assuming it was faulty to begin with it may not have been faulty at all just because one bad study was there does not at all disprove the many other studies that are well argued and that claim that halloween has pagan origins right and they don't even use keating or margaret murray or or fraser as sources they don't even list them as sources right now um so not only that but these guys also claim boldly that most modern historians don't really believe that halloween has pagan origins anymore it's sort of just been like okay that was that was just a thing of the past nobody nobody believes it anymore and but is that like and i'm i'm like okay really is that what like is that really the case now be very careful when people make these categorical universal claims right they say oh well nobody believes that anymore that's that's absurd that's just silly um okay well if you do a little bit of research you will find okay what about recently updated and published scholarly articles in the encyclopedia britannica on the history channel on uh the official websites of scotland and ireland the official ones from the government not that the government you know i'm not saying that the government is all right you know we don't government is not always good but it's like what what are they they don't have anything to they don't have a bone to pick here why would they care if it's all if it's pagan or not they don't care they're not christians they don't care so and uh numerous other historians and scholars um here's just a few examples frederick supp okay uh frederick supp is a history professor who specialized in celtic irish welsh medieval european history and more so he lives eats and breathes this stuff okay what does he say well he says that traditions like wearing masks and costumes the name of the holiday jack -o' -lanterns trick -or -treating and bopping for apples can be traced back to celtic celebrations during pre -christian times okay so this was an article from uh 2020 right so what's going on like what did they not get the memo like what these people are literally do this for a living they do this homework this research for a living then i have another book from kevin duffy who i think was an anthropologist a very popular book on the called uh who were the celts and uh he says that the celebration of halloween on october 31st is a perpetuation of a 2000 year old annual religious festival of the celts called sawin right that's what i mentioned last week sawin dedicated to all gods and denizens of the celtic underworld other world it uh commemorated the creation of the world when chaos was transformed into order on that night various supernatural entities including the spirits of the ancestral dead were believed to wander among the living creating great danger right it was customary then to put food outside dwellings to appease related but not necessarily friendly spirits uh who were thought to have the desire to sit once again at the family uh hearth with their living descendants so this important occasion dedicated to all the celtic gods and ancestral spirits was eventually renamed none other than all saints day and all hallow's eve right in adjusting to early christian beliefs right so there there again you see another another well -known scholarly book that says what pretty much everybody has been saying and has been recognized now halloween is straight up pagan superstitious uh origins um and you know what really this kind of stuff just just really frustrates me because they also claim these guys they claim that uh halloween in america was originally just a harmless celebration for kids uh much like it's the great pumpkin charlie charlie brown that was a movie from back in the day and uh so then i'm like okay well i i went and saw this movie so they claim that halloween became darker as the years went on it became increasingly darker but they didn't it didn't even start out the way in america now so i went and saw this movie right this child this charlie brown movie and i'm like okay what what are y 'all just not paying attention like the movie is showing them dressed as witches and ghosts and ghouls going trick -or -treating like like it's nothing has changed it's the same celebration back then that it is now and they're trying to say that it was some harmless innocent thing it's like what do you what do you are which is not evil what are witches in your in your understanding your tech in your textbook is witchcraft not condemned in the bible which it is by the way in case you missed it um we are going to read it don't worry but this this stuff was like where's your discernment where is the discernment in the church and these guys are actually putting stuff out there for the church to consume and to say well no don't worry it's not pagan so it's fine if you celebrate it right and it's always been dark always now another bold claim that guys like these make is that we should reclaim we should not only celebrate but reclaim the christian quote -unquote origins of halloween and celebrate it as a holy day right we should celebrate it as a holy day i say okay so what about that now i already dealt with this last week right that that uh they claim that the christian church right the christian church originally established halloween to honor dead saints and later became later on it became more pagan okay so i have a couple of theses of my own to present to you all number one thesis number one church history no theology matters right theology matters why because it has consequences theology has consequences good or bad thesis number two church history matters okay history is important origins matter because your historical awareness and bias has consequences okay good or bad what what christian church are they talking about what are they calling christian church what is the christian church that they're referring to what christians are they talking about who what and who are they referring to now if you go back like i mentioned there what are they talking about are they talking about the popes are they talking about Pope Boniface IV, Pope Gregory III.

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How about Pope Gregory IV? All of these popes contributed to the religious institution of these days that are known as All Hallowed Tide.

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These three days, right? What are they talking about them? The Roman Catholic popes?

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What about? So what's the problem here? Why are they saying that the

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Church of Rome, which Luther and the reformers opposed as a false church because they had a false gospel of justification by faith and works, why are they all of a sudden now calling them the

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Christian church? That's another fallacy, by the way, called equivocation.

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That fallacy is called equivocation. That is where you call something, you refer to something in two different senses or definitions.

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So in this case, they are referring to the Christian church as the true church that upholds the true gospel, but now they're calling the

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Roman Catholic church the true church. And you find this a lot even in church history books, where they describe the history of the

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Christian church as the history of the Roman Catholic church, which is a false church.

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It's a false institution. It is not Christian by any means.

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Now, we should also, and again, the answer is very clear.

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The answer was in the Reformation itself, as we will see.

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They opposed the material, what's called the material and formal principles of the

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Reformation. They opposed the gospel of Rome, the sacraments of Rome.

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It was a false gospel, and therefore, a false church. Now, is it ever, this is a question that I raised last time, is it ever a coincidence that the

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Roman state church, it's not just a church. Remember, it is a state.

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It is an official political state that the pope is the head of. It is a totally corrupt institution.

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Now, these days that it chooses to observe, why do they always happen to coincide with major pagan festivities and celebrations?

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Why is that the case? Right? Even in India, they celebrate

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Hindu holidays called Diwali. And I know this because I have

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Indian co -workers from India. It's very common in the IT field and in the software technology industry.

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Now, they celebrate at work, at my job, pagan

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Hindu festivals like Diwali. Do they talk about Reformation Day?

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No, they don't talk about Reformation Day. They don't want to talk about that. They'd rather talk about these kinds of pagan holidays.

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And this holiday is an ancient harvest festival of lights that commemorates the dead, just like the pagan festivities that the

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Roman Catholic Church based All Saints Day on. Right? And the same thing in the

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Mexican Dia de los Muertos. This is an older celebration of, oh, let me see if I can get this right,

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Miclantecuti. That's Nahuatl.

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It's their language for the Lord of the Land of the Dead. That's the Aztec god of death.

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That's what the Dia de los Muertos is based on. All of this is pagan, demonic stuff, right?

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It's all pagan, all false, all pagan. Now, OK, but even if what they say is true, even if what these people say is true, that Halloween had no pagan origins, there is still no question whatsoever that all of these false teachings and celebrations around purgatory of the

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Roman church state were at the very heart of the Reformation and why these days were established,

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All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. They all revolved around the false teachings of Rome and of purgatory.

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And they lied at the very center of the conflict with Rome that the

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Protestants had with and against Rome herself and are the main reason for the

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Reformation erupting in the first place. So this, in fact, indirectly proves that Halloween does have pagan origins.

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Why? Because all throughout history, when you study Rome and her ways and her methods, it's no wonder that the

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Protestants called her the Whore of Babylon after the Book of Revelation.

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They named Rome and the Church of Rome after the Whore of Babylon because this is what they did when the

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Roman Catholic Church, they typically almost invariably, without fail, when they evangelized pagan nations and established so -called holy days, quote unquote, they would almost invariably would simply substitute whatever the pagan practices were and replace them with Christian names,

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Christian veneers. Oh, don't call her your false goddess. Just call her Sibel. Don't call her

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Sibel anymore. Call her Saint Walburga, right? Saint Walburga.

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Call her Mother Mary, Saint Mary. Call them any number of the saints that they had.

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They had any number. They had a buffet, a slew of saints to pick to replace the pagan gods and goddesses.

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That's what they did every single time, OK? So that pretty much proves that there was something going on there because they never operated in a vacuum.

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Rome never operates in a vacuum, right? So this is, and also remember, this is because this is a basic, this is just something we need to understand as Christians who are salt and light, right?

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Whatever pagan nations practice, especially in religion, is always false, demonic, and sinful, always.

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Because he who is not with me is against me.

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And he who does not gather with me scatters. Who said that? Our own

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Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, in the Gospels themselves.

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Amen? So, OK, I mean, really, really, this should be case closed.

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I get so irritated with these guys who think they know this stuff, and they just push these false narratives.

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And this is in addition to Halloween being one of the three most important satanic holidays of the entire year, which makes perfect sense, right?

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Because what does it celebrate? It glorifies the devil and his many wicked schemes. Now, do these people check the satanic

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Bible? No. You look at their videos, not one of them bothered to read the satanic

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Bible, which I quoted to you last week, right? So just careless, sloppy, and careless.

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And they usually denounce us, dismiss us as being the sloppy and the careless ones, right?

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Whatever. But I previously also mentioned that Protestants and Puritans often prohibited, they prohibited

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Halloween celebrations in colonial America. No surprise.

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I wonder why, right? However, get this. In states like Maryland, which was founded as a safe haven for Roman Catholics, it was a

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Roman Catholic stronghold originally. It is likewise no surprise that in Maryland, they actually celebrated

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Halloween and recognized All Hallows' Eve in their church calendars.

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OK? Why am I, should we surprise? Should we be surprised? And so did the

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Anglican colonists in southern states. OK, that's from the Anglican church. Now, the

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Anglican church is the Church of England. They were formed, they came out of the

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Reformation with King Henry VIII. They are essentially

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Protestant in doctrine, but they are very, they still, they are a state church. The king and queen, they are the head of the

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Church of England, which is completely unbiblical. There is only one head of the

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Christian church. And who is that? Our Lord and Savior, Christ alone.

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Amen? So they are a state church. They are a compromised church. And their church worship and liturgy retain a lot of Roman Catholic baggage and practices.

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So they're compromised. So it's no surprise that they would also have something like Halloween in their celebrations.

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But even in Britain, OK, even in Britain, Halloween customs came under attack.

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Why? Because of the Reformation, as Protestants berated purgatory as popish doctrines incompatible with the biblical doctrines of what?

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Of predestination, because God predestines all to either heaven or hell, not purgatory.

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There's no purgatory in scripture, right? Of the doctrine of sin, of God's justice, of the atonement, of the gospel, of the finished work of Christ, of the eternal state of heaven and hell.

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I mean, it's everything. It's every major doctrine of the Bible that purgatory defies and denies, right?

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That's what these days are celebrating according to the Roman church.

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And we are to have nothing to do with these practices, not the pagan ones and not the

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Roman Catholic ones, right? So this, the state, now these ceremonies were sanctioned by the state in Britain.

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They were abolished during the Elizabethan reforms from 1559 through 1563.

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That was right during the heyday of the Reformation, OK? The English Reformation. And it marked the end of it with those reforms, even though All Hallows' Day remained in the

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English liturgical calendar, but instead it was to commemorate saints as godly human beings.

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It wasn't to do all this other nonsense stuff about purgatory. They denounced it. So they changed it,

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OK? Why? Because of the Reformation. It got changed. And then others, nonconformist

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Protestants, in other words, basically Puritans, the Puritans whom we have our heritage from theologically, the theology of All Hallows' Eve was redefined because souls cannot be journeying from purgatory on their way to heaven, as Catholics frequently believe and asserted.

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Like, they're just wandering around and they roam around loose on All Souls' Day. So that's a bunch of nonsense.

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Instead, the so -called ghosts or spirits of the departed are thought to in actuality be what?

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According to them, the nonconformist Puritans, they're evil spirits, right?

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They're demons. They're devils. Amen. This is what the church that has discernment understood and denounced.

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That is why it was denounced, right? So this is nonsense. This nonsense just needs to,

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I hope it's even clearer now, right? So the more

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Protestant society became, the less Halloweenish it became, right?

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There's an inverse relationship there. Now, this is a clear example of, needless to say, of why history and church history are so important for us to know.

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Because even well -meaning Christians can twist it into making other Christians think that something as demonic and false and pagan as this holiday is perfectly acceptable to participate in, right?

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This is extremely dangerous. Dangerous what these people are doing. And I believe this is partly due as well to their theological assumptions or presuppositions,

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OK? Why? Because a lot of people like this, people like these guys, tend to be post -millennial dominionists who are trying to conquer the culture for Christ, to reclaim it, quote unquote, right?

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Back to its Christian, quote unquote, roots. And this tends to lead to the belief in Christendom, right?

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The belief in Christendom, which is basically a Roman Catholic state, much like the

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Roman Catholic Church did. And these guys, it's no surprise that these guys are calling

51:19

Christians Roman Catholics or Roman Catholic Christians and the

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Roman Catholic Church the Christian church. It's perfectly consistent with their views of theology.

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Theology has consequences. Remember that, right? They redefined the

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Christian church to now include the false

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Roman state church as part of the true church. Now, this is what's so ironic about this.

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Incredibly ironic about these guys, guys like these, is that they're part of a professing reformed

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Baptist Protestant church, right? Yet they fail to recognize that Luther, on October 31st, and historically, the entire history of Protestants practically, but starting with Luther, blasted 95 canons, otherwise known as theses, against these very practices that they claim we should celebrate and reclaim.

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What am I referring to, right? The 95 theses. What did Luther say? Here's just a sample of what he said.

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Here's thesis 27, OK? They, the Roman Catholic preachers, only preach human doctrines and vanity who say that as soon as the money clings into the money chest, the soul flies out of what?

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Out of purgatory. There was a little song that the preachers would use. A little catchy tune, right?

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As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.

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You free your friends and family from purgatory by paying up, right? Paying up in indulgence.

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Thesis 28 says, it is certain that whenever money clings into the money chest, greed and avarice increases, right?

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Not holiness, not freedom souls, not souls being freed to heaven. But when the church intercedes, the resulting is in God's hands alone.

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Ouch. If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. Thesis 32, those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, says

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Luther, together with their teachers and with those who, by extension, instituted these holidays in the first place, right?

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I mean, just talk about confusion with these guys. Talk about not connecting the dots, right?

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Why is this so hard? Why is this so hard for people to see, for Christians to see, who should know better, who are

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Protestants of all things? It's a convoluted mess, sadly. They're not getting the story straight.

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They're not even getting half the story straight. They're not getting any of the story straight because one half is that Halloween is pagan and demonic, and the other half is that it's a false religious practices and holidays centered around purgatory and the celebration of purgatory, courtesy of the

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Church of Rome, right? And that's exactly what they were protesting. So this is why

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I also said that Halloween is a, your perspective of Halloween is a barometer.

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It's a spiritual barometer. And of our discernment, it's a gauge of our discernment in our holiness.

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Because if you think Halloween is okay, what else do you think is acceptable?

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What else are you gonna think is acceptable in your life? What else are you compromising in your life, okay?

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And it's no surprise, it is no, why we should, no surprise that a lot of these guys, they have a bunch of piercings and a bunch of tattoos, right?

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Because they don't recognize the pagan origin, the demonic pagan origins of those strange practices and piercings and tattoos, which are condemned in the

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Bible, Old and New Testament, because they're pagan practices, right?

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So it's a failure to see with spiritual eyes. They deny, these guys, again, they tend to deny the reality of spells and sorcery and demons, which is a real thing, y 'all.

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It's a real thing. It's still being done. A lot of our politicians are a bunch of witches and sorcerers and child, y 'all heard of Epstein Island?

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That's a real thing. That's child sacrifice, sexual perversion.

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P. Diddy, the famous rapper, all of that is a bunch of demonic, satanic, sacrificial, perversions, that's real, that's demonic.

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And that's why you shouldn't listen to their demonic, saturated music. It's demonic, okay?

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Or participate in Halloween. They deny that demons can reside in these objects and can actually harm

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Christians, like Ouija boards, like tarot cards, like all of these things that are real.

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So now, according to them, all of these things have no real power because their offerings are to dead idols and therefore have no real effect, right?

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But this is not, like this is, again, they're confusing things. This is not the same thing as what

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Paul talks about offering, eating food that was offered to an idol because an idol is nothing.

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A dumb idol is just a dumb idol. But that's not the same thing as participating in false religious practices of Halloween or of the

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Church of Rome, okay? Because these things are real and it's growing amongst especially young people, this witchcraft and all this stuff, okay?

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Why else did Christians, Christian converts in the Book of Acts burn all their magic spells and books?

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Why else did they do that? Because that's how you invoke demons, right?

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That's what spells are. That's why they did that, that's why they were condemned.

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That's why they burned those things. That's why, what about Simon, what about Simon the sorcerer, right?

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The Bible, the apostles confronted Simon the sorcerer because he tried to purchase the

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Holy Spirit as if, just like it was his magic stuff that he was doing before he got saved.

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What about the Egyptians in the time of Moses who were literally copying the same miracles that God was doing through Moses, right?

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The serpents being turned from staffs and stuff, they did the same thing. Where was that stuff coming from, right?

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That wasn't coming from God, it came from the devil and it's real. That's why in Deuteronomy 18, verse nine, we see a clear condemnation of these practices.

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When you enter the land of Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abomination of those nations.

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There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire.

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One who uses divination, one who practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, one who is an enchanter or is a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.

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For whoever does these things is an abomination unto Yahweh. And because of these abominations,

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Yahweh your God is dispossessing them before you. That's why he's condemning them and destroying them in the first place.

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You shall be blameless before Yahweh your God for these nations which you shall dispossess.

01:00:02

Listen to those who practice soothsaying and to diviners but as for you,

01:00:10

Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so. Okay, this is so clear.

01:00:17

And witchcraft, it appears in many forms, not just in spells and witches and the hats, the pointy hats, it's not just like that.

01:00:27

For rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft or divination. And insubordination is as wickedness and idolatry, right?

01:00:35

1 Samuel 15, 23. It's such, and I find it utterly hypocritical that these guys, like they run a show dedicated to helping people come out of cults and to expose cults.

01:00:53

And yet the hypocrisy that they do that and at the same time, they think it's okay to participate in the quote unquote harmless aspects of Halloween.

01:01:04

It's like you, in either way you look at it, whether it's the pagan side of Halloween or the

01:01:11

Roman Catholic side of it, it is an abomination in the eyes of God that celebrates falsehoods, lies and demonism have nothing to do with those things like the

01:01:23

Bible says. Or even 1

01:01:29

Corinthians 10, 19, which says, what do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything or that an idol is anything?

01:01:38

No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, to real demons and not to God.

01:01:50

In other words, these demons are real threats. Even today, though they are depicted as false gods, they are still demons and evil spirits.

01:02:01

And I do not want you to become partakers in them, in demons.

01:02:06

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons, you cannot do it.

01:02:13

You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils, of demons.

01:02:20

Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Why would you do that?

01:02:26

We are not stronger than he, are we? I mean, it's so clear. Now, all of these things you see in the media, right?

01:02:38

Halloween, it's clear, it comes from pagan demonic and Roman Catholic superstition, grounded in lies and ignorance and superstition.

01:02:46

And it is blatantly demonic to this very day. It has not changed ever.

01:02:53

None of it has changed. But now it's also very commercialized and domesticated and normalized, right?

01:03:00

We see it like it's normal now in stores. It's just, well, it's just Halloween, it's that time.

01:03:07

It's that season of Halloween where it's all about demons and devils and horrors and fear and all of that stuff, right?

01:03:16

And celebrating, commemorating the dead. But the media also distorts witchcraft and all of these things.

01:03:25

It makes Satanists and witches look like normal people. Now, I mean, like we, no, it distorts them.

01:03:33

It makes them look like this one thing, right? Like they're these witches that look, that are dressed in black, pointy hats and running around in brooms.

01:03:41

It's like, that's not what witches look like, y 'all. They look like us. They look like normal people.

01:03:48

And Satan, no wonder, right? Because Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, like scripture says in 2

01:03:58

Corinthians 11. No wonder then that his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.

01:04:05

So we need to be awake to these things, even though Satan has no need to disguise himself on Halloween because it's practically his birthday, right?

01:04:14

That's his holiday. It's all about him that day. So we need to be careful with the media.

01:04:22

And I mean, every year you have the worst possible movies come out on Halloween, the worst ones.

01:04:31

There's one called Terrifier 3, came out this year. It's so violent and so gory and so disturbing that even

01:04:38

Halloween, I mean, even Hollywood turned it down. Even Hollywood turned it down.

01:04:46

But this guy went ahead and put it out on his own.

01:04:52

And it was so disgusting and violent and gory that people were coming out of the theater, throwing up and leaving, vomiting because of it.

01:05:02

That's the spirit of Halloween, okay? And it's always been that way.

01:05:11

Like there's these, even Disney, movies for kids, Hocus Pocus 2, which this movie is based on witches.

01:05:18

It's about witches harvesting children for blood sacrifices, okay? Even the harmless ones, right?

01:05:24

Like Encanto, it's about this haunted house. It's about a haunted house that makes demonic possession and divination look like a bunch of fun stuff.

01:05:36

It's all a bunch of demonic stuff. Harry Potter, the most popular franchise in history about witches and sorcery for kids, y 'all.

01:05:54

Kids ate this stuff up. And that series explicitly promotes the celebration of Halloween.

01:06:05

Explicitly witchcraft, occultism, to make it appealing for children to practice witchcraft.

01:06:12

It's all there. So let's not be deceived, beloved.

01:06:20

We have to be very careful that this is designed to entice us, especially our little ones, our children.

01:06:29

We need to guard them against ourselves and our little ones from those things, okay?

01:06:35

Do not expose your family to these things, okay? Do not expose them to that.

01:06:42

And remember, keep this in mind, okay? Here's another important thesis. Thesis number three, right?

01:06:49

It's very easy to control and to manipulate and dominate someone who is fearful, right?

01:06:58

That's why Halloween is so powerful for the devil because it invokes a spirit of fear. And when you put fear on somebody, it makes them easier to control, easier to feel like they're helpless and they can't do anything to get out of whatever the fear that they're in.

01:07:16

How convenient is that? That that's what this day is all about. And remember that as you start coming around this time of year and bad stuff starts happening to you, be careful to examine yourselves and that you're not allowing this spirit to enter your life and your family's life because it's very common.

01:07:38

It can and will happen to you if you're not careful to rebuke it out of your life and not partake in it, okay?

01:07:45

So let us not be deceived, okay? With empty words, like scripture said, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

01:07:57

Therefore, do not be partakers with them for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the world.

01:08:06

It's black and white. Walk as children of light, trying to just learn what is pleasing to the

01:08:11

Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret, okay?

01:08:24

It does not say, notice, it does not say, instead redeem them, right?

01:08:32

Well, let's redeem them. Let's do harvest festivals instead. Let's do trunk and feet feast treat festivals instead.

01:08:41

No, it says expose them very clearly. Have no part in them, okay?

01:08:49

We need to help our kids to understand the difference between good and evil, especially on situations and occasions like these, especially when you have other

01:08:59

Christians who are doing the opposite and will cause your children and you to stumble into evil and these things, even though that may not be their intention, but that's what it will cause and lead to.

01:09:13

These things are real, okay? And do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

01:09:23

What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Satan, with Belial?

01:09:31

What part has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

01:09:37

For you are the temple of the living God. And God has said, I will dwell and walk among them. I will be their

01:09:43

God and be my people. Therefore, therefore, therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the

01:09:54

Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. Do not touch what is unclean.

01:10:02

And I will receive you, amen? Black and white, black and white, black and white.

01:10:10

We cannot redeem Halloween, okay? We don't participate in these evil, satanic or purgatorial practices from Rome, okay?

01:10:21

It's just a few takeaways as we close up. Now, we need to keep in mind that we need to have no fellowship with these things, right?

01:10:41

But we have a choice, right? We don't have a choice when it comes to the days of the week.

01:10:47

The days of the week are all pagans and people will tell you, well, it's all pagan. Everything is pagan, so who cares?

01:10:52

Just, you might as well just make the most out of it. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. Halloween is a choice, right?

01:10:58

You choose what to do on that day or not do on that day, right? So make choices that honor

01:11:06

God. I will set nothing wicked or worthless before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away.

01:11:13

I will not let it cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will not know wickedness.

01:11:19

Psalm 101 .3, right? This is the attitude and the mindset that we need to have. And remember that ignorance is no excuse for sinning, okay?

01:11:28

If these things are sinful and you don't think it is, it doesn't change the fact that it still is, right?

01:11:36

Participating in these things, it's still sin and it's still gonna invite problems and demonic activity in your life if you're not careful, right?

01:11:48

So, now, we do not participate in alternatives. So is

01:11:53

Reformation Day, and does that make it an alternative? So like, should we not celebrate

01:11:59

Reformation Day because, well, isn't that just an alternative to Halloween? Well, remember, what is the spirit of Reformation Day?

01:12:07

What is the spirit behind it? What was Luther doing? Why did he protest on October 31st?

01:12:13

Because October 31st was the celebration of purgatory and indulgences, and that's what he was seeing abused in his society and in the church.

01:12:25

So he got 95 theses put together and he said no to these things.

01:12:30

He said no to the perverse and wicked practices of indulgences and purgatory, right?

01:12:41

Even though he was still a Roman Catholic, he saw as bad as it was, he saw no, these things should not be done amongst

01:12:50

God's people. And that's why he protested with the 95 theses. So that is what we are as believers.

01:12:58

The Reformation Day is a perfect way to celebrate who we are as salt and light in the world, right?

01:13:06

We don't do the wicked thing. We come out from among them, and instead we celebrate God's work of truth and reformation in society, which is exactly what happened.

01:13:20

One of the most impactful days, movements that changed the entire world was for the better, for the better, because the gospel was restored to the church and to the world.

01:13:38

And eventually the lines were drawn. And now you had Roman Catholics on one religion and Protestants on the other.

01:13:47

That's where it came from, okay? So amen to what

01:13:53

Luther did and amen to Reformation Day, right? That is what we celebrate. We celebrate the difference from that, that we are from that.

01:14:02

And my apologies to you all for running a little bit long. I did want to close out here with just an awesome confession, the

01:14:11

Second Helvetic Confession, which I referred to in the fasting series. It says this, moreover, if in Christian liberty, the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the

01:14:24

Lord's nativity, circumcision, passion, which is the suffering of Christ, resurrection and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the

01:14:32

Holy Spirit upon his disciples, we approve of it highly, right? So let's celebrate the good things out of things like Christmas and Resurrection Day, right?

01:14:41

The work of Christ, what Christ did, not the pagan stuff, right?

01:14:47

But we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints, which is exactly what all hallows, even saints, even all souls, they are.

01:14:59

Holy Days, this is a Protestant confession, okay? A Protestant confession.

01:15:05

As for Holy Days, do have to do with the first table of the law and belong to God alone, to the worship of God alone.

01:15:16

Finally, Holy Days, which have been instituted for the saints and which have been abolished, have much that is absurd and useless and false and are not to be tolerated.

01:15:28

In the meantime, we confess that the remembrance of saints at a suitable time and place is to be profitably commended to the people in sermons and the holy examples of the saints set forth to be imitated by all.

01:15:44

Amen. So that's what we do on Reformation Day. We don't participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead we celebrate the good that God has done and that he has done through his people, right?

01:15:58

Like the Reformation. That is what it's all about. And with that said, beloved, thank you for bearing with me and let's close out with a word of prayer.

01:16:10

Our dear precious heavenly father, we thank you for this beautiful day, Lord. Thank you for the spirit of truth that you have given us as a church, that you have given your people and help the church wake up,

01:16:23

Lord. Help the church to wake up, for all of us to wake up and to be sensitive to your spirit and to your word and to understand it rightly, to understand the times.

01:16:35

Father, to not be deceived by darkness and by falsehoods and by wrong, by society, by the world of flesh and the devil, father.

01:16:45

Help us to come out from among them and be separate, like your word says, to be holy people, a holy priesthood as you are holy, father.

01:16:55

And help us also, Lord, to semper reformanda, that beautiful reformation motto, to reform and always reform according to the word of God, to reform these things in our lives, to take these any and all ungodly practices out of our own lives, father.

01:17:13

Whether it's music, ungodly music, ungodly practices, ungodly celebrations, ungodly anything that is against you, that is pagan,

01:17:23

Lord, that is not of you, Lord. Help us to identify those things in our own life and to separate from them.

01:17:31

Father, we thank you, Lord, and help us to honor you and the work that you did in history, in the history of your true church, father, through your people, flawed as they were, flawed as they may have been, for the good that you did through them,

01:17:47

Lord, for the church's benefit in seeking to preserve and restore and uphold the true biblical gospel of justification by faith alone, and scripture alone being the sole, final, infallible rule of faith for God's people.

01:18:03

In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

01:18:15

Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

01:18:24

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

01:18:30

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.