“Safe from the Slutty Pumpkin” – Halloween Reflections
- Purity 1186
Purity 1186 10/31/2023 Purity 1186 Podcast
Purity 1186 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a brilliant autumn showing of color
and the double image of a white footbridge reflected in waters beneath a
pleasant blue sky comes to us from Lisa Warner who shared this “peak”
experience on social media back on October 1st after her visit to
the Cranberry Lake and the Wanakena Footbridge.
Well, It’s the Tuesday, the last day of the month,
and little holiday called “Halloween”, and I don’t know whether or not October
1st was officially the “peak” of Fall Foliage or not but I can tell
you that 30 days later the colors have faded and many of the trees are bare
skeletons compared to there full fall leaves glory. With the falling of the leaves, comes
Halloween and the terrifying prospect that “Winter is Coming” but before we
shriek in terror over the possibility of white precipitation, yes I
superstitiously will not say the S-word because although I don’t quite believe
that our words make things happen, I have seen some “prophecies” fulfilled in
my day and don’t wish to unwittingly predict something I would rather not see
until December.
But as we leave the month of October behind today,
the elephant – our huge human skeleton- what is the deal with that people?- in
the middle of the room today is “Halloween” and the controversy of whether or
not Christians should shun it or turn this macabre fall festival into a
celebration of Jesus over the powers of darkness, in some sort of “opposite day”
where what is evil is a reminder of what is good.
While I will pass the buck over to Break Point
Ministries’ John Stonestreet, to give y’all a commentary of whether we should
or shouldn’t celebrate Halloween with two of his articles “Too Boo or Not to
Boo (https://breakpoint.org/to-boo-or-not-to-boo-2/)
and “Honoring the Witness of All Saint’s Day” (https://breakpoint.org/honoring-the-witnesses-all-saints-day-2/)
where Stonestreet shares Chuck Colson’s thoughts about the meaning of “All
Hallow’s Eve” as anticipation of All Saints Day. The links are on the blog for you to check
out and ponder and to remind us all that the dead that Christians are to celebrate
this time of year are NOT GIAGANTIC HUMAN SKELETONS erected for spooky mischief
but are the departed faithful servants and martyrs from the body of
Christ.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about Halloween. As
a child and a member of “cultural Christianity” where we were mostly nominals
of a liturgical church tradition and practical atheists with a paradoxical mix
of cheap grace and a works performance theology – saying “we believe” but not really
knowing or obeying God’s word seriously and still “hoping for heaven”, I was
raised as an enthusiastic “trick or treat”-er and considered Halloween to be a
time to collect free candy, play pranks (aka perform criminal acts of theft and
or vandalism), and watch scary movies and considered those who discouraged us
from celebrating Halloween to be “religious extremists” who were just as scary
if not scarier than any ghost, ghoul, or goblin that you would run into on a
spooky October evening.
I also have had a strange fascination and attraction
to the thrills and chills of the horror genre sparked from my first “too early”
exposure to John Carpenter’s Halloween. I barely saw the first opening scenes of that
movie as a kid but that “first-person” murder scene and Carpernter’s haunting
soundtrack were enough to scare me good and cause me to seek that thrill and build
the capacity to “not be scared” for most of my childhood, adolescence, and
young adulthood.
I have a confession,
I still watch horror movies – not the slasher type stuff- that’s gross and
pointless evil that men do stuff – no I prefer tales where there are
supernatural aspects – where Satan’s dark spiritual forces are faced and
defeated, something that doesn’t happen too often these days, as the horror
genre seems to prefer unhappy endings where evil wins or promises to come back
in the next sequel.
But the truth is, that evil does not win. Jesus
defeated the forces of darkness through his death and resurrection and all the “ghosts”,
demons, and followers of Satan are on borrowed time and will face God’s wrath
on judgment day, when Christ comes back to rule and reign.
And this is the truth that sort of puts a damper on
me celebrating Halloween like I used to.
I know that the dark macabre things that surround Halloween are “anti-Christ”
– they don’t represent God’s kingdom and can be used by the spiritual forces of
darkness to lead people away from the truth about reality and lead them into
sin.
Beliefs like “There’s no such thing as ghosts” quickly
can turn into “There is no such thing as the Devil… or God.” So total disbelief in the Spiritual isn’t a
neutral position – it denies God and Jesus. You can’t abstain. A vote for any
other spiritual expression or life philosophy other than trusting in Jesus is a
vote for self-destruction.
As for the sin – fantasy is another word for lie,
and so it shouldn’t be surprising that Halloween which encourages us to wear
masks would deceive us into believing we can have some “harmless fun” that engages
the lust of the flesh. Drunkenness, drug
use, sexual promiscuity, and gluttony are all on the menu tonight – and no they
are not harmless – they are bondage to the flesh – joy substitutes that will
lock you in chains of addiction and leave you feeling ashamed, guilty, or plain
empty when the light of day comes.
So what should a Christian do tonight?
Well not that stuff, some Christians are deceived
into thinking its all harmless- it isn’t – others think Halloween is absolutely
evil – they are probably closer to the truth – but as we bear the truth of the
gospel of Jesus Christ and are called to be salt and light to the world – to be
in the world but not of the world and the go into the world to make disciples’ –
we could choose to use Halloween to reach people we wouldn’t meet
otherwise.
As Christians, we are free and so we have liberty to
choose our own way on this one. We can
isolate and shun Halloween, we could celebrate and confess and repent of it
later, or we could use it as a part of our mission to tell people about
Jesus. Faith in Christ saves us – not our
performance on a particular day of the week or our “political or theological stance”
on a mostly secularized holiday – So we should pray about it and see what the
Holy Spirit would guide us to do.
Me? I don’t get trick-or-treaters “down by the River”
and my house is not decorated for Halloween and won’t be lighted to attract any
if they should speed by on State Route 9J.
So that is not much of a concern.
I haven’t received any Halloween party invites so
you can mark me “safe from the “slutty Pumpkin” and other than some low carb-
Pro Crunch bars, I didn’t buy any sweets
this year so you can mark me safe from overindulging on candy too.
As for watching a scary movie on All Hallow’s Eve, I’m
not sure. I may watch the Peanut’s Halloween special that I have on DVD for old
times sake or I could watch any number of horror movies available in my video library
or that are online to stream. But
lately, I have discovered that the more I follow the Lord the less I have of an
appetite for that stuff and often find myself seeking Christian alternatives to
occupy my time.
For those who are serious about not celebrating
Halloween, I would recommend watching something to do with the Reformation.
Martin Luther did “set it off” on All Hallow’s Eve so it wouldn’t be a bad idea
to pay homage to our brother in Christ by watching the Luther Documentary on YouTube
(https://youtu.be/6VK0p-tuuao?si=Xr29pImglQPzlLPT)
So I’m not sure what I will do tonight. I have
school work and ministry preparation to take care of still and may just spend
my evening taking care of those things and won’t have the time for any spooky entertainment. But no matter what I do, whether I choose to
watch a horror movie or not, I will rest easy knowing that I am safe because of
my faith in Jesus and that if I follow Him, I will never go too far
astray.
So keep walking and talking with God. Be kind to those who don’t know the Lord or
those who claim to but don’t seem concerned about the things they do that may
go against what He says. God leads people to repentance through His Holy Spirit
so all we can do is speak the truth in love and encourage others to find and
follow Jesus.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Blame Shifting.
Genesis 3:12-13 (NKJV)
12 Then the man said,
"The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I ate."
13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is
this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I
ate."
Today’s
verses fall under the first point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Blame
Shifting.
1. Adam and Eve tried to shift blame.
Today’s verses point to the fact that we try to pass the buck. Adam tried to blame Eve and Eve tried to blame the serpent for their sins.
Right from the beginning, from the fall of man , we see that we try to shift the responsibility for our sins from ourselves to somebody else. “They made me do it.” Or The Devil made me do it, the serpent,
Ultimately, we are all personally responsible for the things we choose. So we can’t believe for somebody else. We have to put our faith in Jesus personally and repent of our own sin personally.
So don’t do that.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we are sharing from A. W. Pink’s – The Arthur
Pink Anthology - a collection of A.W.
Pink’s tracts brought together in one book, and dispersed here on the blog for
your encouragement.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for free as a PDF at many sites, but printed copies of collections of A.W.
Pink’s books are available for purchase wherever Christian books are sold.
The Arthur Pink Anthology – 1
1 John 2:2 - Part 1
There is one passage more
than any other which is I appealed to by those who believe in universal
redemption, and which at first sight appears to teach that Christ died for the
whole human race. We have therefore decided to give it a detailed examination
and exposition.
“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). This is the passage
which, apparently, most favors the Arminian view of the Atonement, yet if it be
considered attentively it will be seen that it does so only in appearance, and
not in reality. Below we offer a number of conclusive proofs to show that this
verse does not teach that Christ has propitiated God on behalf of all the sins
of all men.
In the first place,
the fact that this verse opens with “and” necessarily links it with what has
gone before. We, therefore, give a literal word for word translation of 1 John
2:1 from Bagster’s Interlinear: “Little children my, these things I write to you,
that ye may not sin; and if any one should sin, a Paraclete we have with the
Father, Jesus Christ (the) righteous.” It will thus be seen that the apostle
John is here writing to and about the saints of God. His immediate purpose was two-fold: first, to communicate
a message that would keep God’s children from sinning; second, to supply
comfort and assurance to those who might sin, and, in consequence, be cast down
and fearful that the issue would prove fatal. He, therefore, makes known to
them the provision which God has made for just such an emergency. This we find
at the end of verse 1 and throughout verse 2. The ground of comfort is twofold:
let the downcast and repentant believer (1 John 1:9) be assured that, first, he
has an “Advocate with the Father;”
second, that this Advocate is “the
propitiation for our sins” Now believers only may take comfort from this,
for they alone have an “Advocate,”
for them alone is Christ the propitiation, as is proven by linking the
Propitiation (“and”) with “the Advocate!”
In the second place,
if other passages in the New Testament which speak of “propitiation,” he
compared with 1 John 2:2, it will be found that it is strictly limited in its
scope. For example, in Romans 3:25 we read that God set forth Christ “a propitiation through faith in His blood.”
If Christ is a propitiation “through faith,” then He is not a “propitiation” to
those who have no faith! Again, in Hebrews 2:17 we read, “To make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:17, R.
V.)
In the third place,
who are meant when John says, “He is the
propitiation for our sins?” We answer, Jewish believers. And a part of the
proof on which we base this assertion we now submit to the careful attention of
the reader.
In Galatians 2:9 we
are told that John, together with James and Cephas, were apostles “unto the circumcision” (i.e. Israel). In keeping with this, the
Epistle of James is addressed to “the
twelve tribes, which are scattered abroad” (1:1). So, the first Epistle of
Peter is addressed to “the elect who are
sojourners of the Dispersion” (1 Pet. 1:1, R. V.). And John also is writing
to saved Israelites, but for saved Jews and saved Gentiles.
Some of the evidences
that John is writing to saved Jews are as follows. (a) In the opening verse he
says of Christ, “Which we have seen with
our eyes.… and our hands have handled.” How impossible it would have been
for the Apostle Paul to have commenced any of his epistles to Gentile saints
with such language!
(b) “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto
you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning” (1 John 2:7).
The “beginning” here referred to is
the beginning of the public manifestation of Christ—in proof compare 1:1; 2:13,
etc. Now these believers the apostle tells us, had the “old commandment” from the beginning. This was true of Jewish
believers, but it was not true of Gentile believers.
(c) “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have
known Him from the beginning” (2:13). Here, again, it is evident that it is
Jewish believers that are in view.
(d) “Little children, it is the last time: and as
ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists;
whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were
not of us” (2:18, 19).
These brethren to
whom John wrote had “heard” from
Christ Himself that Antichrist should come (see Matthew 24). The “many antichrists” whom John declares “went out from us” were all Jews, for
during the first century none but a Jew posed as the Messiah. Therefore, when
John says “He is the propitiation for our
sins” he can only mean for the sins of Jewish believers.*[1]
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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
