CTT | Abominable Practices Still…

CTTSo, last Friday’s post was a departure from my usual anti-halloween posting. With most of what I post here on Faithful Stewardship, there is a battle of sorts, a grappling with the text and with my opinions and biases that rarely makes it into a post. The episode of IssuesETC shared last Friday was good for those seeking to refute the notion that October 31st somehow belonged to pagans and that the Church tried to baptize the date to make it holy. The post points out that the Church already had a holiday on that date (well, the eve of OCT 31 and the day of NOV 01). So, if the goal is to rightly understand the history of the observances of men, then I recommend treating the Church’s observances as separate from whatever pagan/occult customs happen to be at play. However, once we step out of our academic bubble, we have to deal with a real and fallen world that HATES Christ.

Halloween in American Culture

The historicity of All Saint’s Day (or Feast of the Martyrs) is completely foreign to the majority of American Evangelicals. I was clueless, and by evangelical standards, I grew up in the church. We don’t go to Church on Halloween, we go to haunted houses, costume parties, or door-to-door asking for treats (for our kids, naturally). Sadly, our culture is one that doesn’t go door-to-door for anything other than halloween and/or fundraisers. Despite the sizable representation of American adherents to the Roman Catholic Church, very few venerate the saints of old, much less of recent times past. Airborne troops may wear a medallion of the patron saint of Paratroopers, but for the most part we in the US are completely removed from a Christian observance of Oct 31/Nov 1. I think there is plenty of room to discuss the merits of observing All Saint’s Day or Reformation Day as a holiday, that is a conversation that must take place completely separate from Halloween as it is observed in American Culture.

Things that don’t matter. Seriously.

The day. Whatever day is showing on the calendar is irrelevant in the big picture. God is still in charge, Christ still died for our sins, the Holy Spirit still draws us to Him, and Enemy is still defeated. There is no point on any calendar that is any more or less holy than the next. Demons and unclean spirits are no more or less troublesome on any day of any calendar. What matters is whether or not we walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit by Faith.

Romans 14:5-9 (ESV)


The Food. Again, from the same chapter in Romans, whatever we eat on whichever day is irrelevant in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether candy, pumpkin-spice whatever, or cookies, apples, bacon… chocolate, or bacon (worth mentioning twice), what we eat or abstain from isn’t nearly as important as how we eat or abstain from it.

Romans 14:17 (ESV)


The Party. As Christians, we don’t mourn like the world does, nor do we “party” like the world does. That doesn’t mean we do nothing. We observe funerals and memorial services and we enjoy a wedding reception and feasts. I know it must seem odd that I include funerals in this, but I wanted to cover the whole experience… having a party is fine. NOT having a party is fine. In this sense, the issue of having a party or not having a party is irrelevant as far as the Faith is concerned. Bridal showers, baby showers, bachelor parties, funerals, wakes, birthday’s, harvest, planting, mortgage burning,… if there is a cause for celebration, then have the party… or don’t… totally up to you. Now, having said that, how the party is conducted is still a matter of Law and Gospel. A bachelor party done in celebration of lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, sexual immorality, and debauchery is an abomination.

Costumes. I love a good costume party. I love seeing my kids play “make believe” around the house… but there’s something really cool that happens when you give them a costume that sparks their imagination. That’s why we give them toy weapons, tea party kits, play kitchens, and jungle gyms. Watch and listen to them play… you think that’s a slide? No, it’s a mountain. Costumes are also a great way for adults to set aside the anxieties and frustrations of “everyday life” and just enjoy some good fun. We  wear uniforms when we engage in team sports, some fans go a bit crazy with costumes to cheer on their favorite teams. Even at home sometimes we have set “work clothes” for disconnecting and just doing some gardening/lawn care to forget the weekly 9-to-5. Or maybe it’s our favorite bath robe and fuzzy bunny slippers to let everyone else know “I’m chillin’ for a bit today”. It can be good fun, it can be great for breaking the ice between professionals so they can just be themselves for a bit. But, these can be abused, and generally are abused during Mardi Gras and Halloween. It should come as no surprise that the spirit of Halloween (and Mardi Gras) in America is Lust of the flesh. Recently there was a story on a mom who was upset by the sexualized costumes at Party City… for her 3 year old (NBC’s Today Show). We’ll address this more in a bit. As a fan of costumes and costume parties, I’d like to see more costume parties throughout the year so that it can be further divorced from halloween. My kids don’t need halloween to look forward to a costume party.

What Really Matters… Seriously.

The god of Halloween in America is Self-Gratification. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Our culture seeks to pleasure itself in whichever way it wills in the moment, and demands that everyone not only allow it, but celebrate it with them. Everything is about sex and pleasure. Halloween (and Mardi Gras) are the pinnacle of the self-indulgence when it comes to the spirit of Lust. Gluttony has largely been normalized in our culture, so the diabetic nightmare that is Halloween is generally limited to children and their parents. Once the kids are tweens, they are encouraged to explore every imaginable sexual immorality and blood lust imaginable in the name of “harmless fun”. I’ve known many who look to Halloween to play out their cross-dressing fantasies long before “coming out” as homosexual, or suffering from gender dysphoria. Vampires and even zombies have become sexualized in our culture. Mysticism has taken on a very sensual and even sexual nature in stuff we sell year-round in so-called Christian book stores (Theological Erotica).

Even if we manage to strip away the eroticism and sexual immorality, there is the issue of practices that were Abominable to God in the Old Testament… and remain so today (yes, even in 2015).

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (ESV) | Abominable Practices




I decided to include the reference to the Sons of Sceva to indicate that the practice of magic arts is something to be repented from and gotten rid of. What these believers turned in and burned was valued at 50,000 pieces of silver. If the reference to “piece of silver” is a denarius, we know from the New Testament that a denarius was a day’s wage for laborers. That should help approximate the monetary value of what was collected, repented of, and burned. My point here is that whatever Scripture declares to be an abomination, doesn’t stop being an abomination simply because we are under a New Covenant. Throughout the Scriptures sexual immorality and idolatry are tied together. So, when we have modern-day evangelicals participating in a unholiday that is rife with both idolatry (witchcraft, spiritism, sorcery, divination, etc.) and sexual immorality intertwined there is much cause for concern and a need for repentance. I don’t care about what day any of this activity falls on a calendar (whether Halloween, Mardi Gras, or April 25th), where there is sin it must be rebuked and the sinner called to repentance.


If you choose to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve, or Reformation Day, or even American Halloween, be very careful about what it is you are honoring and for what reasons. The concern isn’t a day on the calendar, nor is it some over-realized sense of “spiritual warfare”; rather, it is about how we are living out our lives as Christians. We are encouraged to walk according to the Spirit, no matter the day, or the hour, or the social environment.

Galatians 5:13-26 (ESV) | Keep in Step with the Spirit


I highlighted those works of the flesh that reign over American observances of Halloween. In the Spiritual, these things are no more or less destructive on Halloween or Mardi Gras , but in the natural, they tend to take more Christian casualties because the worldly society actively seeks out the pure and innocent to engage in these activities on these days.

Therefore, let us encourage one another in Christ to walk in a manner worthy of Him and His Gospel. Let us build each other up in the faith and inspire one another to keep step with the Spirit.

Jude 24-25 (ESV) | Doxology


In Christ Jesus,

CTT | Christmas Pitfalls

The “Christmas Season” is a great way to liven up an otherwise dreary time of the year. Since so much time will be spent indoors, it serves as a good time to gather together friends and family for feasts and merriment. Since it comes at the end of the year, it’s a good time to reflect on the year in much the same way as we in the U.S. do for Thanksgiving. Not everyone has the means for festivities and merriment, especially during this harsh time of the year, so Charity is often promoted heavily during this time of year with food drives and gift-giving. All of these things are “good” things. I enjoy Thanksgiving-style festivals. As Christians, we know that for Thanksgiving, all praise and glory and honor and thanks go to God the Father. Unbelievers talk about “being thankful” but to whom and for what remains undefined… because they lack faith. They are lost and have rejected God by suppressing the Truth in their unrighteousness, knowing God but refusing to worship Him as God (Romans 1)… but they still observe the feast of Thanksgiving without acknowledging the Creator. Essentially, we observe the same festival in two distinctly different ways… Christians thank God the Father for all He has done, while unbelievers focus on mankind and “being thankful” in a general sense.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are Man-made Feasts

In fact, when we look at these two modern-day holidays as feasts or festivals, we see that they are not all that different from feasts and festivals around the world. Sure the trappings and the details change, but all of the “good things” in these festivals are the food, family, and fellowship. These are man-made feasts. Neither of these feasts is intrinsically Holy, for neither of them were instituted by God in Scripture. That doesn’t make them evil, it only means they are man-made customs. That they are both nationally recognized means that they are extremely popular, but that doesn’t mean everyone is celebrating the same thing. Just as we discussed the difference between how unbelievers and believers honor Thanksgiving, there are major differences in what the world celebrates and what Christians celebrate for Christmas. At least, there should be. The problem is that we’ve allowed the world to set up some rather perilous pitfalls with the season.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

In truth, it isn’t. This time of year is hard, difficult, cold, and depressive. The world turns to a lot of legends, folklore, romance, and alcohol to pass the time and look out for each other to make the most of this time of year. Jack Frost, Old Man Winter, Santa Clause, elves, fairies, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, ghosts of Christmas past/present/future,… these are all folklore and pagan legends.  None of them are Christ-affirming, and that is to be expected from a world that Hates Jesus.



So then, the first pitfall I want to make clear is that the world that Hates Jesus, is NOT celebrating Him. When the world gathers together for Thanksgiving, it isn’t to thank God… they find their own things to thank: themselves, humanity, or nature in general. They tend to celebrate the food, the Football, the Parade, the time away from work… anything but God. Similarly, when the world celebrates Christmas, they celebrate Santa, Gifts, Romance, Time off from work, the food. If there is a spiritual element to their celebration, it’s usually a spirit of humanism, or some sort of pantheism. The world has constructed a malleable idol of “the christmas spirit” which compels them to do good works in hopes of a reward from Santa. If you listen to the songs that play in the stores and on the radio, you’ll quickly recognize that they are honoring the feast, the parties, the traditions of the season, not the birth of the Savior. That’s what the world celebrates. And as the world celebrates their thing, they demonstrate their benevolence toward Christians by allowing us our nativity scenes. The world isn’t intimidated by “Baby Jesus”, or “Christmas Jesus” as was demonstrated so horribly in the Thanksgiving Dinner scene of Talladega Nights (ref scene here). The world doesn’t bow the knee to a Lord and Savior Jesus Christ… yet. When Christ returns, every knee will bow… and tongue confess… but for many it will be too late to escape judgement.

When the Church Conforms to the World’s Version

A common refrain within the visible church is, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. If that is the case, why are so many Christians offended by those who reject the Santa lie? Why do we bring Santa into churches? Why do Christians take part in “Elf on the Shelf” nonsense? Probably for the same reason that so many popular pastors have deemed it appropriate to preach sermons based on blockbuster movies rather than the Word of God. They’ll preach their own experiences or a recent Christian self-help book from a best-selling author (who may have bought that title) rather than the Word of God. Here is the second pitfall I’d like to point out, that simply including some mention of Jesus or insisting on “keeping the ‘Christ’ in Christmas”, doesn’t somehow make everything associated with Christmas sacred. If the Christmas tree in the foyer is just a decoration, fine… it’s a decoration no more/less holy than a welcome mat. Just don’t fall into the trap that somehow it needs to be there or the holiday is ruined.

Christmas Songs

Few Christmas songs actually point to Christ. Of those, not many convey the full Gospel. Of those, few are played on the airwaves and in the stores. What does get played a lot are the songs glorifying “the Christmas season” or various cultural traditions “at this time of year”. We actually have songs singing to the Christmas Tree, to Santa Clause, and songs about other fantasy creatures such as Rudolph or Frosty. My blood flash-boils whenever I hear one of these songs sung in a Church during Praise and Worship. Who are these songs praising and worshiping? Let that sink in a moment…

Christmas Movies

To date, the only decent one is A Charlie Brown Christmas, because of the scene where Linus recites the Luke 2:8-14 Narrative.

[youtube http://youtu.be/pn10FF-FQfs]

There are a lot of entertaining movies that are released at this time of year, but none of them convey the Gospel message. And that leads me to the next pitfall, there is no way of ‘Saving Christmas’ so that it becomes an institutional Gospel message. Do not expect the world, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the Great Commission for Believers. Don’t expect the world to keep this holiday sacred, that’s patently absurd.

So is Christmas okay or wrong?

Neither. There is nothing intrinsically Holy about Christmas. The Gospel isn’t Christmas, it’s Jesus Christ. I pray you understand the distinction I’m making. The Christmas Holiday is a great festival, but completely disposable… the Biblical account of the Virgin Birth is indispensable and is part of our faith and Gospel year-round. Avoid the pitfalls of making more of the wrong things than we ought. Don’t lie to your kids about Santa… he’s no more necessary for their upbringing than my-little-pony and he’s potentially far more dangerous for their faith. This culture pushes kids to believe in what they KNOW to be a lie, harder than they push for them to know their Savior Jesus Christ. God forgive us. But more importantly, don’t conflate what is essentially a Thanksgiving festival with the Gospel Message of the virgin birth of the Messiah, Son of the Living God. In all things, even in this rebuke/warning, we are to walk in love and in thanksgiving to God. For our final pitfall, let us open our Bibles to Romans 14.

Romans 14 (ESV)

Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another




    and every tongue shall confess to God.”


Do Not Cause Another to Stumble



The biggest pitfall of this season, is in casting judgment upon our brother/sister over how they choose to celebrate (or abstain) this man-made festival. We will continue studying God’s Word and what is Written our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and how the Word became flesh and walked among us. It is always a good thing to everything you do to the honor and Glory of God, and Christmas can be such an occasion, just like Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, the 4th of July… that’s why we are called to walk in Him. We walk everywhere we go, thus wherever and whenever we are walking we are to do so in Him. Now there is one holy occasion in Scripture that we are told to observe in Christ’s honor. In fact, He instituted it Himself. Let’s look at that before we close.

Luke 22:14-20 (ESV)


The Apostle Paul also received these instructions and relayed them to the Corinthians who were making a mockery of Communion (some were getting drunk and eating for their fill).

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (ESV)


May the Lord Bless you and keep you until the Great Day of His Return.
In Christ Jesus,