Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? | Reaction to @Ruslan @Mike Signorelli

What is up everybody, Nate Sala here with Wise Disciple. If this is your first time watching, welcome to the channel. I'm glad you're here. Here at Wise Disciple, we're helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.

Now, every single year without fail, I get the same question. And the question is, Nate, should Christians celebrate Halloween? And there are animated opinions on this issue coming from lots of different directions, like within the Christian community.

And I've spent time on this channel in previous videos and in one-on-one conversations, like I don't know how many times now, talking about things like watching horror movies, demon possession, and even the Christian origins of All Saints Day and what Christians did historically to remember brothers and sisters who lived exemplary lives for Jesus Christ.

So I'm not going to rehash any of those things today. What I'm going to do this year is I'm going to look at a video from a Christian YouTuber named Ruslan. Now, if you don't know about Ruslan, he's doing some great work over on his channel.

I just recently found out about him, and I think that you should definitely check him out. It looks like he and I have a little bit of similar backgrounds. We're both transplants from other parts of the world, not born in the United States.

Both of us, I think, have served on local churches as pastors. I don't know Ruslan at all. I've never met him. I think he's in California. I'm over here in Las Vegas. I don't know his stance on all doctrine, but I like what he's up to.

Definitely check him out. Well, Ruslan had an interesting discussion with a pastor where they disagree on whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. Should Christians do it? Is there no problem here, or shouldn't they?

Is this an invitation to spiritual danger? So I'm going to look at this discussion and give my own thoughts about this because I definitely agree with, well, let's wait.

And find out. The line for me would be intentionally opening and messing with witchcraft, with Ouija boards, with that sort of thing, the dressing up as a demon, the dressing up as a hot, sexy nurse. I think the line is, in my opinion, clearly cut.

I don't think it's, hey, we're dressing up as a cartoon character or dressing up as Space Jam or dressing up as this. I don't think that's the line. I think the line is, hey, you are intentionally stepping into things that you shouldn't step into.

To me, it's not just Halloween. To me, it's Christians going and getting tarot cards. To me, it's horoscopes. To me, it's all those things where you're willfully and intentionally opening yourself up to things that are outside of what we know to be Orthodox.

Christian. Right. So right here, Ruslan, this is the guy who's speaking, is talking about where he draws the line in terms of celebrating Halloween. Now, for Ruslan, he participates in the cultural tradition that surrounds October the 31st.

His family gets dressed up, his church does a harvest festival where Christians go and they get dressed up and they get candy, and so that's what he does. But, he says, there are boundaries, and Ruslan is talking right now about where those boundaries are.

Let me ask you a question, and this is more rhetorical, but it's like, if you wear that costume the day before Halloween, do you get a demon? If you wear it after, you know what I mean? Is it like, do we just have to wait 24 hours to put that costume on because you can get a demon during Halloween but not after?

But at the same time, these are those kinds of conversations that have happened within like pharisaical realms. And so, a lot of times when you're quoting a scripture, they're quoting a scripture. And so, it's scripture versus scripture.

When Satan was tempting Jesus, that's essentially what it was, scripture versus scripture. And so, when you're just strictly reliant on the scripture versus scripture argument, it doesn't account for the.

Heart of God. And so, the pushback…. So, the other guy is Mike, I think his name is Signorelli, who's a pastor, and he's coming from the other side of the issue. And I think he's going to differ with Ruslan on celebrating Halloween, but he's drawing an important distinction here.

He's sort of setting the table for this kind of discussion, because the way that we disagree with each other needs to be effective. Hello, that's what we're focused on here at this channel. Watch our First State of Angelism series.

The way that we communicate needs to be better. It needs to be more wise, more effective, because the way that we largely talk to each other right now is a dumpster fire. And that goes for Christian to Christian just as much as Christian to non-believer.

That I would give you, and this is something I've been thinking about, is when you look at Acts chapter 13, you see that there's this guy who is open, he's a sorcerer. And Paul literally calls him, you're a son of the devil.

So it's like you're practicing sorcery, you're a son of the devil. Then three chapters later in Acts chapter 16, you have the fortune teller, the slave girl, and then obviously she's demonizing these deliverance.

And so if you were to pretend like you were a sorcerer, how would Paul treat you? You know what I mean? Probably the same way. Yeah. So it's like, really we saw in the early church, this is new covenant, I intentionally didn't go to Leviticus, I didn't go to Exodus, any of the prohibitions against sorcery in the old covenant.

But new covenant, you have Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 16. If Paul's looking at a guy saying, because you practice sorcery, you are a son of the devil. And then you got a kid who's like, but I'm just a Harry Potter fan.

How do you think Paul's gonna look at that? So if Paul was transported in time, because I get the question all the time on my channel, is Harry Potter demonic? But this is my mindset, okay? If Paul in Acts chapter 13 is telling a sorcerer, you're the son of the devil, and then you got a little kid running around saying, I'm that sorcerer for Halloween, how's Paul feel about it?

You get what I'm saying? He's not gonna say this is just for entertainment. He's gonna be like, no, the thing that you're doing for entertainment is connected to the demonic. And if it starts off like pretending, and I know right now everybody's like, oh, I get it, he's a conservative Christian, I'm just gonna turn this off.

But it's not about a political value, it's about a biblical value. So I totally get this.

Argument. This probably connects to a passage that is often cited in discussions like this, which is Ephesians 5 .11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, right? So in other words, have no part, do not participate, do not get dressed up, do not go get candy, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

The question that everyone should be asking at this point is, okay, but wait a second. If we agree that the issue is dressing up like a sorcerer, right, that's bad. Okay, Paul would condemn it, and I think that's probably right.

Well, then here's the question. Is the issue getting dressed up, or is the issue getting dressed up as people and things that are connected to the occult, right? What if a child wants to get dressed up like the Apostle Paul on October the 31st?

Would Paul condemn that?

So that's the line. But this is where I wanna go even further, or more fanatical, depending on how you're perceiving me. I would say, and this is where I'm at right now, okay? I used to be in the category of redeemed, okay?

I have now moved out of the category of redeemed into reject. But the reason why, especially as a multi-site pastor, is because we now have went from post-Christian to post-post-Christian, and we live in the conditions and the climate where it's inseparable.

I feel like there's such a big difference between 90s-era America and 2020s. And so it's like, I have vivid memories of, mom, I'm gonna be Superman. Mom, I'm gonna be Batman. Mom, I'm gonna be this. Now, it's like you had mentioned, you go into the grocery store.

You can't find a Bible, but you can find magazines about the new age. So it's like, we live in that world, and in those conditions, I would rather keep my kids away from it entirely.

So I love this pastor's heart in this. I think his concern is genuine, it's valid, and I think more Christians should have his heart, right? We are surrounded by new age garbage. We are surrounded by materialist nonsense.

And it creeps into the church in subtle and unconscious ways that, if we're not careful, the church reflects the culture instead of Christ. So it seems like the easiest and most straightforward thing to do is just remove ourselves from these kinds of traditions, the expression of cultural tradition.

But I wonder if a Christian can hold two things in tension together, right? The concern that Pastor Mike has for Christians steeped in a secular environment would be the first concern, okay? But also, maybe we could be concerned at the same time with finding a way to carefully navigate that world that perhaps includes participating in some of its cultural expressions, right?

Because we do already. I mean, Halloween is not the only cultural tradition, the expression of cultural tradition that Christians have an opportunity to participate in 12 calendar months. And the reason I say all of this is because here's the other side of the coin.

And I'm a product of this, ladies and gentlemen. If you completely remove your children from the world around them, and your heart's in the right place, you want to do this. You want to remove children from all wickedness, all evil, all idolatry.

But you do not inoculate them to that world. You do not, in some way, shape, or form, try to expose them to the ideologies and the worldviews that inform the secular culture around you. And then, when your child reaches a certain age, you just send them out there.

What do you think is going to happen? Oftentimes, your children are going to grow up and they're going to see Christianity as a fence instead of a faith, right? As a restriction instead of a religion.

And I'm not saying that Pastor Mike is doing this at all, okay? But I have seen this so many times from my vantage point. Children, including pastor's kids, they grow up and they reject Christianity because all they were was restricted from so many things instead of trained up to face the world and see reality as it really is.

Does that mean that Christians must celebrate Halloween? No, I'm not saying that. I'm just warning of potential dangers if these well-meaning family decisions are not executed effectively. So you guys don't do anything?

Now we don't.

Okay. How old are your kids? I have a 15-year-old and I have an 8-year-old. Okay. So I've been through the 8-year-old nothing. No. No harvest festival. But here's my thing. No, not even that. But again, it's like, okay, I'm going to make a point.

I know I'm pushing back hard. No, no, no, go ahead. But I'm going there today, okay? Because you brought me here. We're going to try to divide this thing. Jesus, in the early phases with the disciples, he's saying they're actually getting a reputation for being drunkards and gluttons, right?

Because they're going around and they're obviously eating, they're drinking, and they're making a lot of noise. So people are like, look at Jesus and those disciples, they're drunkards and gluttons. But in Gethsemane, the time before the cross, there's a transition.

And Jesus is actually saying, be sober and vigilant. Can't you stay up? Can't you watch another hour? Forget about Christian liberties. I think there's a change in season sometimes where it's like what we used to do maybe was justifiable, but the temperature has changed.

The climate's changed. We got to get serious. And I feel like in culture, I felt like we transitioned from a reputation of gluttons and drunkards to a reputation of sobriety and watching and praying. And that's my perspective on it.

And I only say this because I've traveled all across America in the last four months. And it's like, how can you actually separate it anymore? And so I think I moved from the category of redeem and to reject because I think it's like you can't get that close without getting.

Burned anymore. That's interesting. So let me... In a minute, I'm going to talk about where I fall on this issue. But again, I love Pastor Mike's heart in this. And I think he's starting to touch on something that every Christian needs to be considering, especially on October the 31st, and arguably not even just on that one night.

And the reality is we don't. We don't consider this. You know, those of us who are in church who get our kids dressed up, and we get dressed up, and we go somewhere, and we participate in that kind of cultural expression every October the 31st, we don't think this way.

And we absolutely need to. And I'm going to talk about this point in a minute when I share my stance on this issue.

Let me ask you this then. So just say you have that position. I have the position of redeem. And by the way, this isn't even something we think a whole lot about. Would then it would be... I would say, praise God, Pastor Mike.

Respect, man. Eight-year-old, no Halloween. Maybe you feel the same way about Christmas later or whatever. And there's folks like that that feel the way about Christmas. Do you think though it's wise to take that position of reject and generalize it as the prescription for all of Christendom?

That's a good question.

Every Christian under the sun. Yeah, that's a great question. And then I got a video that I want to play for you from Matt Chandler that kind of summarizes this pretty well. Yeah, absolutely. Here's what it comes down to for me.

It's a wisdom issue. Because as somebody who does deliverance, like you said, you showed me a picture of you and your son. I don't think at that moment that you put the jersey on, the devil was like, man, I've been waiting for this moment.

As soon as that Space Jam jersey came over his head, he gave me permission. But I also think that it's a wisdom issue. And so you've got to understand...

So this is my position on whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. That's what I've said for years. It's a wisdom issue. And I'll unpack that in a minute. I'll share my thoughts more on that. But the question is, what does Pastor Mike mean by that?

It's a wisdom issue, right? Let's find out.

Here's, let me put it another way. If my daughter is so deprived of the lifestyle of actually imagination and creativity, and if I don't have a world where my daughter never gets, or ever gets candy, or ever gets to dress up like, you know, like maybe, I don't know, whatever, you know, girls dress up all the time.

It's like, but then I'm going to fix that with one day? Then it's like, are we emphasizing the 364 other days where I'm creating an environment where she has all those things? And so for me, it's about helping give the wisdom of saying, man, if you think you're going to fix 364 days of bad parenting with one day of like, look at this time we spent together.

There's a wisdom element of saying, let's stay away from it. Let me play this video, and then we'll wrap up. I think this is a good video.

So I don't know if I'm going to get hit with copyright issues. Ruslan is going to play a clip from Matt Chandler here, and I've just been getting hit left and right lately with copyright stuff because of the nature of what I do here at Wise Disciples.

So I'm going to skip the Matt Chandler thing. But just know, Matt Chandler says, it's up to the Christian to decide whether or not they should celebrate Halloween, and there is liberty in this decision.

He references Paul talking about the liberty that Christians have to eat meat, sacrifice to idols, and applies it to this, again, this cultural expression that is very popular in the 21st century every October the 31st.

So I'm going to pick it up right here,.

And then I'll give you my thoughts. This is where I'm at, and this is how I feel. Hey, praise God. You have a conviction, and you have a very good argument. And I would say, yeah, and I'm kind of like where Matt is, me and my family are kind of where Matt is.

Is it unreasonable for me to just be like, hey, folks, with your conviction, just leave me alone. Just leave me alone. Stop trying to cancel me. Yeah. It's not like I'm making documentaries about our costume party.

Just go away. Is that an unreasonable position for me to have? No. I mean, and listen, I am the recipient of thousands of comments that to the point where it's hard for my wife to even scroll through my own post because I get hate in every direction.

And to me, that makes life, it makes a lot harder to try to preach the scriptures when people have already made up their mind. But I will say the problem with Matt Chandler, like the beginning of that video is like, it's not, he said one line, and I think that line kind of revealed his context, right?

It was, well, it's not so much about goblins and ghouls and demons, but it is about community and all that. That's what I think changed. I think that what we're experiencing culture is the normalization of the new age.

And I don't think it's Satanism. You know what I mean? It's very hard to find somebody who's like, I'm doing a blood sacrifice to Satan tonight. As a matter of fact, I recently did a video with CBN News and we were talking about that.

But when you look at Hocus Pocus 2, the new movie that just dropped, it's now the people involved in new age, those are the heroes of the story. So going back to the, can you eat meat sacrificed by idols?

Here's the old covenant perspective on that. Because we're, okay, I'm talking about Israel, because we're a bordering nation. When you actually go to buy that meat that's also being sacrificed by idols, you are coming into relationship with that merchant.

And that's great, which is actually the new covenant version of what Chandler just said. But the problem is when you told them that your marriage is struggling, or you told them that you were dying of cancer, instead of going to Jehovah, you actually went to his God.

That's what's happening right now. That's why I said this is becoming a wisdom issue. And I might be early.

To this, but when it rejects. So I wanted him to finish his thought here, because right here, I think Pastor Mike revealed the issue for all of us to wrestle with. As a matter of fact, let me play this one little line again, real super quick, just so you can hear it.

But I will say the problem with Matt Chandler, like the beginning of that video is like, it's not, he said one line. And I think that line kind of revealed his context, right? It was, well, it's not so much about goblins and ghouls and demons, but it is about community and all that.

And that's it. And that's what I've been saying all video really set aside for a moment, the issue of, you know, the origins of Halloween, because it is contestable and extremely simplistic. And I would add misleading to say that Halloween originated as a pagan festival.

That does not explain the history of Christians interest in setting aside a day to remember brothers and sisters in Christ who lived exemplary lives and are now in heaven. They called it all saints day.

The night before that was called all hallows Eve. Hallow means holy. Okay. It's in the title. So set aside those things for a moment. The issue now is Pastor Mike and Matt Chandler have correctly identified this issue.

What is the culture doing on October the 31st? So that's the question. That's how you should be thinking about this. Is the culture expressing a tradition where community members, you know, they come together or is it a celebration of this of Satan and the demonic?

And I would say for some people, it's the first answer. And for others, it's the second answer. And what I mean for others, it's the second answer is I don't think that there are too many folks out there who are openly worshiping.

They're intending to worship Satan on October the 31st. But there are a lot of people who are way too cavalier with Satan, way too cavalier with death and with the spiritual realm. And they think it's a joke and they think it's not real.

And they get dressed up and they laugh at these things. And that's the problem. I think that's an example of what Paul said in second Corinthians. You know, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel.

So the answer is it's both. So then what do we do here with the question? Should Christians celebrate Halloween? Well, if Halloween is a cultural expression of community where many folks get dressed up like movie characters, they get dressed up like cartoon characters, even biblical characters, and they all get together and they give each other candy.

That's the tradition. And they smile and they wave to each other. They are neighborly to each other. Well, then, yes, Christians can participate in that cultural tradition. But I think what's missing from these kinds of discussions, and I think Pastor Mike and Ruslan have pointed this out, so good for them, is cultural traditions come with a responsibility.

As a Christian who is in the world but not of the world, we have a responsibility on our shoulders. And this responsibility needs to inform everything we do every single day. It's to fulfill the Great Commission.

Go and make disciples of all the nations, right? So is it possible to do both? To participate in cultural traditions and continue to give God glory and walk the path of making more disciples? And I think that the answer is yes.

But it requires way more intentionality, way more forethought than most Christians have on October the 31st. And then I think the other problem is we zoom in on one night, which I think is what Pastor Mike and Ruslan were talking about.

We zoom in on one night. That's a mistake. Because we don't see the opportunity that the whole month leading up to Halloween gives us. The fact is, for Christians, the history of Halloween is about something different than what we're seeing right now.

Every time we go into Target, every time we go into Walmart, or wherever we're going, it was about honoring brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not about worshiping Satan. Now think for a minute. How many people actually know that?

Not even very many Christians know what I just told you. So what a wonderful opportunity to talk about the history of Christians' interest in this area, in this particular time of year, around this particular evening.

Why we have historically honored brothers and sisters that have come before us, not on the night of October the 31st, but like right now, we can talk about these things. In the weeks leading up to October the 31st, we can talk about these things.

Because let's face it, Halloween is in everyone's face for like two or three months before it ever really happens, right? So right now, you can go up to your friends and neighbors, and you can have conversations with them.

What are you doing for Halloween this year, neighbor? You know, have you ever thought about where Halloween comes from? Did you know that Christians celebrated around this time, but for a completely different reason?

Can I tell you about that? You know what, neighbor? I've noticed that every single year during Halloween, that people make jokes about really serious things, dying, death, and stuff like that. Have you ever thought about what happens when we die?

You want to know what I think as a Christian? Now, obviously, you can't walk up to a stranger and do these kinds of things. Again, you need to go look at our First Aid Evangelism series. The whole point is developing a rapport and a relationship with someone so that you can have important conversations like these.

But see, the whole thing is, I just don't think hardly any of us in the Christian community are doing this. Many of us have just split this discussion into a binary, okay? Reject Halloween or participate in it 100%.

And that's not the case. We can use Halloween to inform the people around us about the way reality really is. Halloween gives us a number of opportunities, a number of subject matter to talk about things that really are biblical, things that really matter into eternity, things that we know to be true based on our convictions.

And we can talk about exemplary brothers and sisters who have lived before us and glorified God. You know, they've run their race well. This is something that I try to do every year with my boys. Every October, I've put the spotlight on a particular brother or sister.

We've talked about the Apostle Paul. We talked about C .S. Lewis. We talked about Corey Tenboom and others. We've discussed their life. We've gotten inspired from their efforts to glorify God, especially during times of difficulty.

And you can do that, too. So, in my opinion, Halloween is not an obstacle to the Christian. It's an opportunity. And some Christians will totally feel convicted about it and want to completely abstain from that cultural tradition, and I think that they should absolutely follow their own convictions.

But others will not. They'll go to their church's harvest festival. They'll get their kids dressed up like biblical characters or maybe more benign characters like Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog or whatever, and they'll go to their neighbors and they'll smile and they'll wave and talk to them and receive candy.

But I think the takeaway for all of us is, and this is what we need to be thinking about as this video closes, we need to be way more intentional about days like October the 31st. We can't let these things creep up on us on our calendars.

We need to be living on mission for Jesus Christ 365, 24 -7. So, that requires forethought and planning and reflection on the things that we do as Christians in today's culture. Because let's face it, it's getting more and more difficult to be a Christian in today's culture.

Amen? Huge thank you to Ruslan and Pastor Mike for this wonderful discussion. Make sure to give them a like and a subscribe. Also, what do you think? You can sound off now. Do you think Christians should celebrate Halloween?

Let me know in the comments below. I will return soon with more videos, but in the meantime, we'll say bye for now.