Have No Fellowship with the Unfruitful Works of Halloween | Ephesians 5:11

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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And I must say, I'm really looking forward to sharing this message with you all.

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I always get very just excited and eager to share all of these amazing things that I keep learning every week during my sermon prep.

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I want to reiterate the importance of this once again, because this is in light of Reformation Month that we are in,

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October, and celebrating the Protestant Reformation and what came out of that, the good that came out of that.

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And one of the mottos of the Reformation being post -Tenebrous looks, meaning after darkness, light.

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And that's a very prominent theme regarding the topic for today's message.

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And I wanted to just really strongly encourage you all to read and sign the Reformation Day Statement and Declaration that you can find from the

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Trinity Foundation website. I have the links up on the notes that you all could take a look at and review them there.

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I also hope that you had a good week and a good, challenging, beneficial fast as well.

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I had said last week that we were going to start a church fast for this week, this

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Sunday being the last day of that fast. And it's really been a blessing and a great experience for our family.

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And even kind of taking the kids along with that and helping them to deny themselves in certain aspects has been just a very tremendous blessing.

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And I really look forward to doing this again and knowing, finding your limits, you know, finding our limits and challenging them.

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That's really what it's about and helping us to suppress our flesh and all of those things, kill those bad habits.

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So I want to remind us that the goal of that is to, and the sermon series was to familiarize ourselves with the theology and practice of fasting so that we can integrate it into our own personal lives and arsenal, into our weapons of warfare that are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, including the flesh, suppressing the flesh.

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So please embrace and take hold of these powerful means, having the knowledge. So make good use of it in your lives as you need to.

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Some of us may want to keep going, may need to keep going or try it again. Even if we fell short or we overate or whatever the case was, it's a good learning experience and we can try again, can always try again.

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So take hold of that. Now, this leads me.

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That last message last week is actually a conclusion to this series on knowing your enemy, the world, the flesh and the devil.

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The extended series that I did on on those mortal enemies of ours today, however, in God's providence,

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I'm delivering a public service announcement about Halloween of all things.

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So you can say it's not really over yet. I mean, it was, but this is still pretty much about that very issue, those very things.

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So and this leads me to my next question here is what exactly comes to mind when you think about Halloween?

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OK, that's the you can see from the sermon title to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Halloween.

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So what comes to mind? What is the purpose of Halloween? Why is it there?

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What is it really about? These are all questions that as believers, we always need to be asking ourselves when we engage in or participate in something.

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We need to examine it and say, is this good or is this bad? What is the purpose behind it?

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What is the spirit behind this thing or this movement? And it should come as no surprise to any of us, for those of us who have eyes to see with, who have our eyes open that Halloween, as we know it, is the very opposite, ironically, of fasting.

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Right, because Halloween promotes the opposite. It promotes and celebrates indulgence.

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Right. It celebrates indulgence, indulgence of candy, of treats, of sensuality, perversion,

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Satanism, witchcraft, blasphemy, death, murder, evil, darkness, fear, horror, superstition, uncleanness and on and on and on.

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All of these words that I said, I bet you can tie to something about Halloween.

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An image, an experience, a haunted house, trick -or -treating, looking at the houses down the street with all these skulls and dead, you know, ugly stuff.

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And even in stores, in Costco, in, you know, anywhere, they have a bunch of ugly looking demons and ghouls and ghosts and just everywhere in the spirit of Halloween.

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Right. So, you know, so much for depriving the flesh of all of its fuel.

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Right. Which is the purpose of fasting is self -denial. And not only that, but Halloween is the very opposite of Christianity itself, of God himself and everything that God stands for.

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Right. All of those words that I used to describe Halloween are the very opposite of God, the word and Christianity.

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Halloween is a celebration of all of our mortal enemies, all of them, the world, the flesh, the devil.

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Everything that I've been preaching about for these past several weeks is what it's about.

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Sadly, however, Halloween has also become controversial in the church.

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To the point of Christians now mocking and dismissing other

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Christians who condemn Halloween like yours truly.

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Right. Like myself, like our church, which upholds the truth about Halloween.

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Now, this is often due to ignorance, to an ignorance of the devil and his devices, his schemes, to bad theology.

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And also, therefore, consequently, a lack of holiness, a lack of sanctification of holiness.

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And this is because we need to be aware of a principle, just a basic principle of human reality.

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Is that theory always precedes action.

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What we think, what we believe, theory always precedes action. Thought always precedes the action that follows thought.

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Typically, unless you're insane or you have a thinking disorder, that's how humans are designed by God to work, to operate.

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So if your theology is wrong, if your thinking is wrong, your actions will also be wrong.

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Very often, that's how things typically happen. So we need to have a good understanding, therefore.

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We cannot have any holes in our holiness, any gaps in our holiness.

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Because this inevitably leads to sin, to compromise, and even to death, ultimately.

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Like Romans tells us, and in several other places, what are the wages of sin?

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They are death. Amen? They are death. So this is important.

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Our perspective of Halloween, in some sense, is a reflection or a barometer.

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It's a spiritual barometer, a measuring stick of our discernment and our holiness.

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This is very important to recognize.

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Why do I say that? Because if you think

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Halloween is okay, as blatantly evil as it is, then what else do you think is okay?

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What else do you think you can get away with? What else are you going to try to rationalize or to explain away or to excuse?

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We need to have standards in our life and in the church.

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We are Christians. We are called to be salt and light and to be separate. We need consistent biblical standards of truth and holiness.

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For if you live according to the flesh, you must and will die.

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But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

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Romans 18, which I preached on many times before. So we need balance without compromise, without legalism, and without license to sin.

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To be in the world, but not of the world.

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That is our call to holiness as believers. We are called and commanded to reflect our

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God and Savior, who is what is the most distinctive attribute that God uses to describe himself in the

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Bible. It is holy, holy, holy, right?

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Our God is a thrice holy, consuming fire of holiness.

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So we need to understand certain things, therefore, because every religious holiday that is in our society is basically tainted with both pagan and Roman Catholic baggage.

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You have Christmas, Mass of Christ and Santa Claus, as opposed to the birth of Christ, which is what

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Christmas should really be about. You have Easter, which is pagan fertility worship, versus Resurrection Day, celebrating the resurrection of Christ.

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You have today, or soon, also Halloween, which we will see is a combination of both

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Satanism and Roman Catholic traditions as well, as opposed to what we should celebrate, which is

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Reformation Day. Now, these days and these holidays, quote unquote, they can be good to celebrate, even though they are not required.

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They are not mandatory for us as believers. But if we do celebrate them, we must do so as biblically discerning

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Christians who celebrate and observe God's true nature and works without the pagan and false

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Romanist practices. That's the goal. That is the standard that we must have as Christians.

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However, many Christians and churches, like Pastor David just said, they will refuse to deal with these issues because they're afraid of becoming irrelevant to their people or to their youth or of losing people because, well, we like to do it and it's fun and whatever.

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And it's like, well, if you're trying to cater to your church by using these means, you've already lost them.

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OK, why are you using worldliness to appeal to them? There's already something wrong with that.

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Right. We need to deal with the root cause. OK, so many

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Christians and churches, like I mentioned earlier, they celebrate alternatives to Halloween and sometimes they just celebrate it.

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Now they're just celebrating it. But they also sometimes celebrate knockoff imitation events, such as trunk or treat or harvest festivals, things like that, all of which is still basically pagan.

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It still comes from pagan traditions. But now the question arises, should we have alternatives to something that's evil or that's pagan?

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Is God an alternative? Is he an alternative?

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Is he option B? What does God say about himself?

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And what duty does God require of man? What are we to believe concerning God, right?

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Like the catechism says, the shorter catechism. Well, Jesus said,

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I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life.

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I am the original. Right. I am the originator. I am the alpha and the omega.

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Right. Amen. This is God we're talking about, not an alternative, not a substitute to something that's wicked and perverse and evil.

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And no one comes to the father but through me. So if you want to get if you want to get it right in your life, if you want to honor

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God, you better do what Jesus, what God says to do. Amen. This is

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Christianity 101. This is Bible. This is basic holiness. And the church is struggling with basic things now, sadly.

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But let this not be with us, brothers and sisters, OK? What's the translation then?

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God is obviously not an alternative. He is the alpha, the omega.

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We need to conform to him, not to the world. Be not conformed to this world.

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The Bible explicitly, repeatedly commands that we will see that we should not celebrate accordingly or give credence to or participate in pagan practices or in alternatives, quote unquote, that attempt to substitute the pagan practices or false practices.

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Now, turn with me to Exodus 23, verse 23. We will see how seriously

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God takes his holiness and how he exercises his power in upholding his standards.

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Now, in the book of Exodus, chapter 23, verse 23,

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God says, for my angel will go before you and bring you into the into the land of the pagans, right?

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The heathens, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the

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Jebusites. And I will annihilate them, utterly destroy them.

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You shall not worship their gods. You shall not serve them and you shall not do according to their deeds.

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But you shall utterly pull them down and shatter to pieces their sacred pillars.

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But you again, another but for emphasis, but you shall serve

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Yahweh, your God. Yahweh, your God.

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Amen. There are other countless, numerous scriptures just like this all throughout the

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Bible. Now, public service announcement,

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OK? What does this mean? God clearly, unequivocally, inescapably commands us not to participate in pagan practices that did not originate with him.

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Destroy them, he says. Now, this is this is one of the most fundamental biblical principles of holiness.

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OK, of separation. Which is holiness,

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OK? That's what separation means. Setting apart holiness is being set apart, being distinct.

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Being distinct. That is holiness.

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And if you think, well, this is the old covenant. You know, the New Testament, it's more gracious. It's better.

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You know, it gives you more leeway. You know, you're allowed to do more pagan stuff. It's OK. God doesn't get as angry.

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It's like, what Bible are you not reading? Have you read the

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New Testament? Because the New Testament is even more hardcore than the

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Old Testament. If that wasn't hardcore enough, what we just read. What does the

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New Testament say? Well, what did we just read for today's verse? Have no fellowship, no participation, no at all whatsoever.

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With what? The unfruitful works of darkness, of evil.

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And not only that, but instead even expose them as well.

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Call them out for the evil that they are. Right?

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Call them out. In other words, come out from among them and be ye separate.

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Amen. That's what the Bible clearly teaches throughout. Have nothing to do with the devil and our enemies.

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And in order to do this, though, we must not be ignorant, beloved.

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Right? We cannot be ignorant. But we must be intentional, discerning, and holy in our thoughts, in our words, in our actions, in all of our life and doctrine.

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Rather than simply going with the flow. Because oftentimes, you will find that the flow is wrong.

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That's what happened with Jesus a lot of time. The masses would come. They would flock because they wanted a show.

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They wanted free food. They wanted to see a show, miracles and people coming back from the dead and people being healed miraculously.

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But then when Jesus would start teaching, people would start getting offended and leave. And most would, the crowds would leave.

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Like, OK, I'm done. So the crowd is very often going to take you in the wrong because it's the world.

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That's what the world is. That's what the world does. The world is our enemy. Right? So we don't follow uncritically what society is doing.

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Now, 1 Corinthians 1420 says,

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Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Rather, in evil, be infants.

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But in your thinking, be mature. Right? There's a contrast there.

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Now, we must understand that being infants in evil, it means to not sin, to avoid sin.

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It does not mean that we should be ignorant of evil and of the devil and his devices, his schemes.

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Right? Because if you turn with me now to 2 Corinthians 2, you will see why.

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In verse 9. I've preached on this many occasions already when

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I preached about the devil. This is a good memory verse.

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All of these verses are good memory verses. These are the foundation for understanding biblical holiness.

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2 Corinthians 2, verse 9. God's word says,

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For to this end also I wrote, so that I might know your proven character, whether you are obedient in all things.

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Everything. But one whom you graciously forgive anything, I graciously forgive also.

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For indeed, what I have graciously forgiven, if I have graciously forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ.

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Listen here. So that no advantage would be taken of us.

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By who? By Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.

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Amen. Amen. So the Bible then clearly, repeatedly, emphatically teaches us, commands us, not to be ignorant, especially of our enemy and how he operates.

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That's what his devices means, his designs, his schemes. How does he operate?

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Well, would it be so far fetched to say that Halloween is one of those means?

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Remember when I preached on the devil, one of the things that the devil does is that he uses means.

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OK, he uses means. So we must.

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Yeah. And so so we are commanded not to be ignorant. Right. So ignorance is not an excuse for continuing in sin.

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Especially willful ignorance, refusing to know the truth or participating in these works of darkness, in these in these pagan practices like Halloween.

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We must equip. We must both equip ourselves with the truth and also study the lies and the falsehoods to discern what we must, what we as Christians must avoid, not participate in and what we have and what we do have the liberty to participate in as well.

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What is OK to do during these last and evil days? Because, you know, things are things are getting worse.

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They progressively tend to get worse. Some Christians, I'm sorry to say they are.

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They have a they have a skewed perspective about the about the this present evil age, which is what the

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Bible refers. Our age as the present evil age as well, things are getting better.

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They're always getting better. I'm sorry, but. In these last days, things would get very, very bad.

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And that's where we are. You can't you can't ignore what's really going on.

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That's what tends to happen with these folks is that they tend to overlook or ignore or override the evil, the reality of what's really taking place.

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So what then is Halloween? What is its purpose? What is its origin?

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Right. Origin is important, as we understand now, because God commands us to destroy, to expose anything that doesn't come from him.

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Right. Have nothing to do with them. Destroy their false religions and practices and sacred pillars and whatever they were doing.

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Destroy it. Have nothing to do with it. So there was an ancient

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Celtic, which was back in what's mostly modern day

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Ireland and Druid, which are Celtic priests. There was a pagan fire festival called

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Samhain spelled Samhain. OK, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

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OK, so right off the bat, does that sound familiar? I mean, OK, and this is coming from the

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History Channel. All right. I'm going to be a little bit more intentional. I know I preached about Halloween a few years back, but I wanted to give this the opportunity to do it again and go to a little bit more depth because some new objections are coming to the front, forefront.

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And I wanted to address them as well. And for some of us that are new here as well.

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So there you have it right off the bat.

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It's already not looking too good. Samhain, which is also the

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Irish name for the month of November. OK, that's important to note, was a liminal or threshold festival when the boundary between this world, our world, and the other world thinned.

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It thinned, meaning that the AOC, which is

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I think it might be a Gaelic word for the spirits or fairies, could more easily come into our world.

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OK, because the darkness was ushering in. It would get darker during that time of the season, that time of the year.

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Many scholars see the AOC as remnants of pagan gods.

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At Samhain, they were appeased with sacrificial offerings of food and drink to ensure the people and their livestock survived the winter.

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The souls of dead kin, dead family, were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality.

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And a place was set at the table for them during a meal. Mumming and guising or disguising, in other words, were part of the festival from at least the early modern era, whereby people went door to door in costume reciting verses in exchange for food.

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OK, there you go. The costumes may have been a way of imitating and disguising oneself from the

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AOC, the spirits. Divination was also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples.

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So they practiced a form of witchcraft. That's what divination is, witchcraft and fortune telling.

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And this is from Wikipedia, which cites several scholars, scholarly sources, books, and encyclopedias.

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So these are like well -published, well -established historical references and sources.

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Now, according to the History Channel, by AD 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory.

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In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional

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Celtic celebration of Samhain. They were syncretized, in other words. And the first was

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Pheralia, which was a day in late

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October when Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead.

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The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

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The symbol of Pomona is the apple. And the incorporation of the celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

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What is bobbing for apples? That's another pagan form of marriage divination, which was played to determine who you were going to marry.

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It's when you tie your hands behind your back, you put a bucket of water with apples on them, and you try to grab an apple with your mouth.

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And so that was a form of divination to tell who you were going to marry. Totally demonic, pagan.

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I mean, all of this stuff is condemned in the Bible, especially in Deuteronomy 18. Now, what else about Halloween do we need to look at?

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What about trick -or -treating? The phrase trick -or -treat is actually a threat.

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It's a threat. According to these ancient pagan rituals, if you didn't have a treat of food and wine to propitiate or appease the wandering evil spirits on that day, they would play a trick or a hex on you.

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They could attack you and your family or demand a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice.

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So many of these pagan practices from Halloween are to superstitiously satisfy or to ward off evil spirits.

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It's all a bunch of superstitious fear. It's fear -based.

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It's fear -mongering. That's what Halloween is all about, fear -mongering, right?

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When you think of Halloween, you think of spookiness and ooh, boo, and all this fear -based mongering.

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And that's how it's always been from its inception. What about costumes, right?

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Costumes were meant to disguise oneself as devils, witches, or et cetera in order to confuse evil spirits and ward them off.

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OK, so in Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of the legendary

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Stingy Jack's lanterns by carving. This is about the jack -o' -lanterns, right?

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Where they come from. By carving scary faces into turnips. They didn't use pumpkins.

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They were turnips back then. And placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away

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Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, so these pagan celebrations were everywhere throughout

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Europe. They were scattered everywhere through all the pagan practices in Europe. And in England, large beets were used.

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And immigrants from these countries brought their vegetable carving pagan traditions with them when they came to the

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United States, helping to change American pumpkin carving from a general autumn pastime to one uniquely associated now with Halloween.

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OK, so that's where you see the dots start connecting. So that's, again, from the

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History Channel. And similarly, so these jack -o' -lanterns are meant to ward off evil spirits and Stingy Jack because he was prevented from going to heaven and from going to hell because he tricked the devil.

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And so now he wanders around like just a lost soul just wandering around trying to seek somewhere to reside.

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And the jack -o' -lantern is trying to ward him off and ward off evil spirits. So these pumpkins are like wind chimes and dream catchers, which are also very similar to pagan objects, like talismans.

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In ancient Roman China, for example, bells were believed to ward off malevolent spirits, evil spirits, and were often combined with a phallus, which was a symbol of good fortune and a charm against the evil eye.

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So there you see, again, the sexual connection to these talismans and these things. It's an ancient pagan state.

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All of this is pagan, OK? And there's churches now saying, well, there's

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Christians saying, well, it's harmless. It's not. There's no pagan. We don't even know if it was really pagan or not.

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We know that these guys, these, what are they called? The Celtics. Yeah, they did it or whatever.

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We don't really know what it was. It's like, OK, get a reality check, right? If you're a pagan, if you're not a believer, then what are you doing?

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What did Jesus say? He who is not with me is what? Is against me.

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So everything that you practice is by nature sin and by nature against God, especially if it's a religious practice.

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So I just can't stand when you hear Christians who think they know what they're talking about, and they're like, oh, well, look, there's no evidence for this.

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What are you saying? Why don't you just back up and make a simple analysis of what's really going on, right?

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But wait, there's more. It ain't over yet.

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There's more, OK? Now enters the Church of Rome, right?

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So what about the word Halloween, OK? What does that mean?

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The word Halloween actually, ironically, comes from All Hallows' Eve or All Saints' Eve, OK?

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That's what the word means originally. Now the word

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Eve, which also comes from evening, here means the day before a

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Saints' Day or festival. So that comes from the Roman Catholic Church. So like Christmas Eve, right?

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That's the day before Christmas, the 24th and the 25th.

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The word hallow or hollow means holy.

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It's an old word for holy. And the King James Version of the Bible also uses it quite a bit.

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And you might recognize this from the Lord's Prayer in the King James Version when

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Jesus says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, right?

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So now get this, OK? There's nothing hidden about this, all right?

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Just to be very unequivocally clear, this is from New Advent, which is the

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Catholic Encyclopedia, OK? The official Catholic Encyclopedia. It says, in the

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West, Pope Boniface IV, on around 13 May, either 609 or 610, this is very early on,

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Medieval Ages, Middle Ages, in typical Roman Catholic fashion, right?

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He consecrated, quote unquote, the Pantheon in Rome. Now what is that?

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This was the temple dedicated to all of the Roman gods. That's what Pantheon means.

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Pan means all. Theos means gods, right?

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So what did he do? He put a

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Christian blanket on it and instead dedicated it to none other than the

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Blessed Virgin Mary, right? Who, as we know, is no longer a virgin because the

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Bible says she had other sons and daughters after Jesus was born. So while she was a virgin when she had

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Christ, she did not remain a virgin after Jesus was born. But the

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Roman Catholic Church denies that. So he dedicated it to the

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Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs, the saints that were, or mainly the

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Roman Catholic saints that were persecuted and killed. And he ordered an anniversary to commemorate it.

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Now Pope Gregory III, which was in the 8th century, OK, 700s, consecrated a chapel in the

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Basilica of St. Peter, which was in Rome. There's a connection to the

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Reformation here because Luther makes reference to it in his 95 Theses as well. So he consecrated a chapel to all the

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Roman Catholic saints and fixed the anniversary for November 1st, OK?

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November 1st. A Basilica of the Apostles. A basilica is like a big church.

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A Basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome. And its dedication was annually remembered on May 1st,

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OK? These dates are very important. Pay attention to them. Now Pope Gregory IV, in the 9th century, the 800s, extended the celebration on November 1st to the entire church,

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OK? Now, ask yourself this,

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OK? Is it ever a coincidence when the Roman State Church chooses these days to observe, which just so happened to coincide with major pagan festivals and practices, right?

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We just saw. We just saw that Pope Boniface dedicated the

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Pantheon in Rome, the Roman Pantheon in Rome, to the Virgin Mary, OK?

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Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. This is going to be very relevant later on, OK? So now, here's the

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History Channel again. In 81 ,000, the church made November 2nd,

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OK? November 2nd, All Souls Day. All Souls Day, OK?

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A day to honor the dead. This is similar also to, in Mexico, the

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Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the

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Celtic festival of the dead with a related church -sanctioned holiday. And that's typically what the

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Roman Catholic Church always does. They try to evangelize, quote, unquote, a pagan nation.

43:08

And they say, well, you know what? Instead of calling your false gods this, call them the saints.

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They assign a name to the saints or to Mary if it was a woman goddess, a goddess.

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And well, instead of calling her Diana, go ahead and call her Mary. That's what they do.

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They basically put a Christian veneer over the blanket religion. They don't actually evangelize and preach the gospel and say, no, come out.

43:36

Come out from among that stuff because it's demonic, right? What they sacrifice is not to God but to demons, like what

43:45

Paul says, right? That's why this is all false.

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It's all a ruse, a demonic ruse. So OK, so why did they do this?

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Well, because All Souls Day, November 2nd, was celebrated similarly to Samhain, where there was big bonfires and parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.

44:21

The All Saints Day celebration was also called, now

44:26

All Saints Day was November 1st, OK? Was also called All Hallows or All Hallowmas from the

44:33

Middle English meaning All Saints Day, right? So and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the

44:43

Celtic religion began to be called All Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween, right?

44:50

So OK, more connections there between the Roman church and the pagan festivities.

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Now back to Wikipedia here. In the 9th century, the Western Church, the Roman Catholic Church, OK, endorsed

45:06

November 1st as the day of All Saints Day, possibly due to the influence of Alcuin, who was a medieval scholar, and November 2nd later became

45:16

All Souls Day. It is believed that over time, Samhain and All Saints Day, or All Souls Day as well, influenced each other and eventually synchrotized into the modern

45:27

Halloween. OK, so that's what Halloween really is. It's an amalgamation of elements of Roman Catholic practices that were imitating pagan practices and pagan practices jumbled up together,

45:43

OK? And this is widely recognized and believed,

45:49

OK? And so most

45:58

American Halloween traditions were inherited from Irish and Scottish immigrants.

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They started to become prominent in America when Irish and Scottish immigrants...

46:17

Remember, where did Halloween come from, Samhain? It came from Ireland, right?

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And Britain as well. They had their own version of it. Is that a coincidence that they came from these immigrants?

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I think not. Now, and also, not surprisingly, the

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Protestants and the Puritans often prohibited the celebration of Halloween in colonial

46:47

America, OK? OK, I wonder why, right?

46:54

Like, this is all becoming... should be more and more blatantly clear.

47:03

Also, OK, so all of this is very important. The Roman Catholic Church also frequently appropriated, like I said, pagan practices into their own religious feast days, as they're often called, and festivals.

47:19

Now, the tradition associated with souling,

47:26

OK, which is an English Roman Catholic medieval tradition where people visit local farms and cottages and sing a traditional request for apples, ale, and soul cakes included soulers,

47:42

OK, soulers, visiting houses with hollowed -out turnip lanterns,

47:51

OK, with a candle inside, which represented a soul trapped in purgatory,

47:59

OK? So where the pagan version tended to represent a demon, a demon to ward off other demons, the

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Roman Catholic version, the turnips, the lanterns, these jack -o' -lanterns represented a soul trapped in purgatory, likely often family members or whatever.

48:23

The Roman Catholic traditions of All Hallowtide, OK, All Hallowtide is what is referred to as All Three Days, OK?

48:36

All Saints' Eve, which is Halloween, October 31st, All Saints' Day, which is

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November 1st, and All Souls' Day on November 2nd, OK?

48:50

Note this, OK? All of these days revolve around the false teaching of purgatory.

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They all revolve around the teaching of purgatory, all right?

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Very important to keep in mind. October 31st, for example, is considered a day when the spirits in purgatory got a chance to take, get a chance to take a break from purgatory and visit their earthly homes or loved ones, all right?

49:23

This is totally like, doesn't that just sound just like what

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Samhain was about? The spiritual realm thinning out and giving a chance for spirits to come in more easily.

49:40

So now get this, it was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world, in other words, to purgatory.

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In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes,

50:14

OK? So like, wow, this is all starting to sound very familiar,

50:21

OK? You can look up all of this stuff yourself. I have all the sources. I have tons of sources, like 20, more than 30 sources with all of this stuff,

50:32

OK, documented. Now, November 1st now,

50:39

All Saints' Day commemorates all of the Roman Catholic saints. Not all of them are actual biblical saints,

50:46

OK? A saint, biblically, is a believer in Jesus Christ. That's a real saint. Do you believe in Christ or you believe the gospel?

50:54

You are a saint. Roman Catholic saints is a different story because according to the

50:59

Catholic Church, their works, the works of the

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Roman Catholic canonized saints are called works of supererogation, supererogation.

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They can grant people freedom from purgatory, right?

51:18

By purchasing indulgences on their behalf, OK?

51:25

So the Roman Catholic Church has something called the Treasury of Merit, which is the stored up works of all of these saints who went above and beyond what was required of them, what

51:36

God required of them. So these works were more than enough to justify them before God.

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So it's like, OK, the church donates these good works to others who weren't as good, right?

51:52

Well, you didn't quite make the cut to heaven, so you're going to need an indulgence, or somebody's going to have to pay an indulgence to get you out of the thousands, typically thousands of years in purgatory, right?

52:04

So this is still practiced in the church today. You can still buy indulgences today from Rome, OK?

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You can even buy them digitally now. The church has evolved to the times.

52:21

You can buy a digital indulgence certificate. Boy, would Luther be, what would

52:28

Luther say? So, OK, that's all saints say.

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Now, according to the

52:39

Catholic Encyclopedia, official source, the theological basis for the

52:44

Feast of All Souls Day on November 2nd, OK, is the doctrine that the souls which on departing from the body are not perfectly cleansed or purged from venial sins, all right?

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Those are lesser sins than mortal sins, because if you commit mortal sin and you die, you basically go straight to hell, right?

53:09

There's no chance for you. But venial sins are more, they can be purged in purgatory.

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Or they have not been fully atoned for past transgressions and are therefore debarred or prevented from entering heaven,

53:27

OK? And that the faithful on earth can help them by offering up prayers, alms deeds like indulgences, and especially the sacrifice of the mass,

53:40

OK? This is straight from the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia. This is no surprise.

53:47

This is no history. This is not hidden. This is not some maybe, maybe not, OK? This is what the church taught and still teaches,

53:56

OK? Now, the Roman Catholic Church, that is. On All Saints Day now and All Souls Day during the 19th century, candles were lit in homes in Ireland, Flanders, Bavaria, and in Tyrol, where they were called soul lights, soul lights, that served to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes.

54:24

In many of these places, candles were also lit on graves on All Souls Day. This is very similar to practices also in Dia de los

54:32

Muertos, the Day of the Dead. In Brittany, libations of milk were poured on graves of kinfolk, just like, again, the

54:42

Day of the Dead and these All Souls Day celebrations. Or food would be left overnight on the dinner table for the returning souls, a custom also found in Tyrol and parts of Italy, OK?

54:53

So again, this is commonly known, understood. Several countries practiced them.

55:01

They had their own little variations, but basically the same idea, similar idea,

55:07

OK? So what does that mean for us then?

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Now again, All Souls Day, that's the day for everybody else, right? They're not so good people.

55:21

That's where a lot of this originates from. All of these pagan appropriations and false teachings from the

55:29

Church of Rome were the very context of the Protestant Reformation.

55:36

In fact, it is one of the main reasons why the Protestant Reformation happened in the first place, why it erupted to begin with, right?

55:50

Take careful, very careful note of this, OK? Very careful note of this,

55:57

OK? That was why the Reformation happened. Now, OK, so what do we make of this now?

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Now, instead of fellowshipping with darkness and the lies of Rome, let us rather expose, come out from, be separate from the evils of Halloween and of the

56:31

Church of Rome, OK? There's a multilayered aspect to this, and we need to recognize both and call them both out for what they are,

56:40

OK? Now, I get so irritated because I want to get to this now, but I don't have time.

56:49

So you'll have to stay tuned and whet your appetite for next week, all right?

56:55

Come back next week to get the part two, but listen to this from the founder of the

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Church of Satan, OK, in America, Anton LaVey, Anton Sandor LaVey, who wrote the

57:13

Satanic Bible, OK, and got most of his inspiration from Alistair Crowley, who was called the

57:22

Beast, who wrote the Satanic Book of the Law, OK? He's the guy that inspired many famous people and artists today who are in the entertainment and music industry, people like Ozzy Osbourne, who has a song called

57:37

Mr. Crowley. All of the musicians basically get their cues from this guy and his books and his teachings,

57:46

OK? The record, playing the records in reverse with hidden messages, all of that comes from this guy,

57:54

Alistair Crowley. Michael Jackson, the backwards dancing, the moonwalking, doing things backwards, all of that comes from Alistair Crowley.

58:05

The Beatles, right? Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They loved

58:12

Alistair Crowley, and they're from the same neck of the woods over there, I think, in England, Britain. And they dedicated that.

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It's, what is it called? It's recognized that they referred to Sergeant Pepper as Alistair Crowley.

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They loved the guy. All of these guys, these artists, they follow him, including some so -called

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Christian artists, OK? That's a whole other sermon right there.

58:43

But anyway, so this is what the

58:50

Satanic Bible says, OK? Let's just get it from the horse's mouth, right? Straight from the devil's mouth.

58:58

After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays, the most important ones, are

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Walpurgisnacht and guess what? Halloween, right?

59:11

Or All Hallows' Eve. Direct quote. That's a direct quote,

59:16

OK? You can find this online for yourself. Just be careful, right?

59:22

Because some of us are sensitive to these things. Be careful. But it's there. You can look it up yourself.

59:34

According to the Satanic church, the highest of all holidays in the

59:40

Satanic religion is the date of one's own birth, OK? This is in direct contradiction to the

59:46

Holy of Holy Days of other religions, which deify a particular god who has been created in an anthropomorphic form of their own image, thereby showing that the ego is not really buried.

59:57

So he's trying to make the point that, well, these people create their own gods that look like them.

01:00:03

And the Bible condemns that in Romans 1. That's not the case in Christianity. Christianity is the exception to that.

01:00:11

The Bible teaches that God is like no other.

01:00:18

Now, I'm not saying birthdays are evil to celebrate. But you just have to watch how you celebrate them, right?

01:00:24

Because they can promote selfishness and self -absorption by saying, well, it's all about me. No. Birthdays should be all about thanking

01:00:31

God and being grateful for the other year of life that he gave you, right? So we just need to celebrate them in proper context.

01:00:41

Now, what about Walpurgisnacht? St. Walpurgis, or Walpurga, or Walburga, is commemorated at various times.

01:00:52

This is a satanic Bible that I'm reading, OK? But principally on May 1st.

01:01:00

OK? Remember that date? May 1st. Her day taking the place of an earlier pagan festival.

01:01:09

Amazingly enough, all of this rigamarole was found necessary simply to condone the continuance of the most important pagan festival of the year of a lot of these ancient

01:01:21

Celts and Druids, the grand climax of the spring equinox, right?

01:01:27

It's the climax of it, the celebration of it, the conclusion of it.

01:01:38

Now, he continues. The eve of May has been memorialized as the night that all of the demons, specters, or ghosts, aphrits, which are, again, very evil demons, and banshees, or crying spirits, like in Mexican tradition, like la llorona, would come forth and hold their wild rebels, you know, sensual stuff, and wickedness, and whatever, symbolizing the fruition of the spring equinox,

01:02:10

OK? So May 1st, OK? Note that back from when

01:02:15

I read about May 1st and what the Roman Catholic Church tried to set that day apart for, where was it?

01:02:31

They actually did it. One source says that they actually did it in order to try to discourage people from celebrating

01:02:41

Samhain by dedicating it as All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Day.

01:02:49

And yet, it didn't work. So they tried to move it more formally with one of the popes to back to November 1st in order to try to discourage, or substitute, or replace the practice of Samhain when they evangelized, or when

01:03:12

Roman Catholicism started to spread to these areas, OK? So this is old stuff, very old stuff.

01:03:21

And now, as we wrap up here, what does the

01:03:31

Satanic Bible say about Halloween? OK? Halloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Day, falls on October 31st or November 1st.

01:03:45

Originally, All Hallows' Eve was one of the great fire festivals of Britain at the time of the

01:03:52

Druids, the Celts, right? In Scotland, it was associated with the time when the spirits of the dead, the demons, witches, and sorcerers were unusually active and propitious.

01:04:08

They demanded blood sacrifices. Paradoxically, All Hallows' Eve was also the night when young people performed magical rituals to determine their future marriage partners.

01:04:22

That was a divination, bobbing for apples, et cetera. The youth of the villages carried on with much merrymaking and sensual revelry.

01:04:31

But the older people took great care to safeguard their homes from the evil spirits, witches, and demons who had exceptional power that night.

01:04:41

OK? So Halloween is one of the three most important satanic holidays of the year.

01:04:53

And should that even be a surprise to us? Like, this shouldn't be a surprise, right?

01:05:02

Duh, right? It shouldn't take having to quote the satanic

01:05:09

Bible to prove this. But you still have Christians saying, no, go ahead and trick or treat.

01:05:15

It's fine. It's like, my god. God help you. These folks need to wake up.

01:05:25

So that's right there. We see, I hope, more clearly now that Halloween comes from pagan, demonic worship that is grounded in lies, false religion, ignorance, superstition, and is blatantly demonic even to this day.

01:05:45

And don't worry, there's more to come, brothers and sisters. There is more to come. It's going to get really interesting with addressing the objections especially as well.

01:05:55

Though it also has become very commercialized, domesticated, and normalized as well.

01:06:01

That's another layer that we'll have to unpack next Lord's Day. OK? So with that said, let's go ahead and bow in a word of prayer.

01:06:13

Our precious, gracious, thrice holy Lord and heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful Lord's Day.

01:06:19

We ask, Father, that you consecrate us, Lord, in our minds as you already have through the gift of your

01:06:26

Son, Jesus Christ, and your gospel. You have set us apart for your purposes and your glory.

01:06:32

And help us, therefore, to live in conformity to your word and to your will and to your holiness,

01:06:39

Lord, because you have commanded us to be holy as you are holy, Father God. Help us to be that.

01:06:46

Help us to deny ourselves and to deny the enemy from our lives, to take the enemy out of our lives, from the world, from the flesh, from the devil, and from any other false practices, including those of false religions like those of the

01:07:01

Church of Rome and anything else, Father. Help us to purge these things, to take these things out of our lives, and to have spiritual eyes to see what's really going on,

01:07:10

Father God, to really dig into what's going on, into the origins of things, because you would have us to have nothing that did not originate, that did not come from you,

01:07:21

Father, because it is not pure. Unless it comes from you, we know that it's not pure, that it's fallen.

01:07:28

It is fallen and therefore tainted and corrupted. And so, Father, help us to identify what is good and what is evil and to have balance,

01:07:37

Lord, to not go to extremes either, but also to have balance, not be legalistic and to not have, at the same time, to not be licentious and just be free to do whatever we want.

01:07:49

So help us to draw those lines carefully, Lord, for our sakes and for our children's sake, especially in light of these celebrations, and to help us to focus on what really, truly is good and just and righteous and holy, such as the work that you did through the church, the true church in Reformation Day, Father God.

01:08:15

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

01:08:27

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

01:08:37

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

01:08:42

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 Podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.