Evil Battles
Is Halloween evil? Is Halloween a day that should be celebrated by Christians? What are Christians supposed to do with what some call the 2nd most popular holiday in the US (coming in behind Christmas, of course!)?
I will admit it, I was taken aback when I first encountered another believer who was passionately against Halloween. As a child of the 80s, I loved October 31st! My parents would take me to Roses, and help me go through all the plastic Halloween outfits with the corresponding mask that fit around your head with a razor thin rubber band. One year, I found the perfect Yoda outfit and couldn’t have been more excited for Halloween to get here. We would all gather at our elementary school, and, class by class, parade through the cafeteria/auditorium, showing off our costumes … and then we would hit the streets, trying to get as much candy as we possibly could. I loved that night!
So, when another believer challenged me on it much later on in my life, the argument was based on the evil of the night. Historically, Halloween corresponds with the Celtic holiday of Samhain, when the end of the harvest season was celebrated … and when the dead could supposedly walk the land. The next day, November 1st, All Saints Day is celebrated - marking a kind of good vs. evil with those two days. The idea is that Halloween is rooted enough in paganism and evil that Christians should avoid celebrating it.
Providentially, October 31st is also the day when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church doors in Wittenberg, sparking the Protestant Reformation. This gives Christians, especially those of us in the Reformed Presbyterian ilk, something else to celebrate … Reformation Day! Reformation Celebration! Even a Fall Festival sounds better to some Christians than Halloween.
My point with this post is to not to argue for or against Halloween, but, rather, to take a moment to think about the evil that is pervasive around us. Going back to when I first the argument against Halloween based upon evil, I thought it was silly … who could believe in such an idea of evil? Yet, the more I have grown in sanctification and understanding of Scripture, I am more and more convinced that evil is far more pervasive than what some Christians may realize or want to admit.
We can think of Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 6:12, “12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” That is rather clear teaching on the pervasiveness of evil, isn’t it? Very clear marching orders - as Christians, we ARE fighting against evil around us, even if we don’t clearly see the battle taking place.
We can think of the number of possessions we find in Scripture. Jesus found evil to be real - He cast out demons. The disciples saw possessions first hand. The New Testament is filled with teaching about the evil, the spiritual forces of evil, that are around us.
Yet, it seems, we live in such a modern age that evil like that no longer exists. Evil is now political party based … views of vaccine mandates … those who don’t share the same economic view as you do. Evil seems to be more human based than spiritually based. And, I think we make a grave mistake when we only think of evil that way.
Recently, I had a couple of pastor friends who were called to a house because the people living there thought it was haunted. Not Disney haunted - rather, something that was upsetting and disturbing the people there. So, my friends went, ready to deal with this evil. It turns out it was more psychological than spiritual … yet, for a couple of days, that chance of reality was there. They were preparing to go and confront evil. To their credit, they didn’t take their cues from “The Exorcist” and went with all the accruements of a Hollywood exorcist. Rather, they went as Christians - armed with the word of God and prayer.
Their situation, and this time of year, has turned my thoughts more and more to the reality of evil and our approach to it. Do we sometimes avoid talking about it because we don’t always have a category to fit it into? Is spiritual evil sometimes too “mystical” for us Reformed types to deal with? Can it be too “out there” for us to know what to do with it?
Paul’s teaching still stands true - it is Scripture, after all. And, yes, I believe it is applicable to battling with sin. But, I also believe it applies to demons, possessions, and the like. I believe that people can be possessed. I believe demons are active, because they are following the lead of their master, who is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour God’s people. I believe that spiritual evil is real …. is around us … is prevalent in the world we live in.
Thankfully, we are fighting in a spiritual battle in which our King has already won. We are fighting in a spiritual battle with armor and weapons provided by the Spirit Himself. We are fighting in a battle which we cannot win on our own, but, in Christ, we can fight - and we can win. This battle is not cause for despair that we may lose. Rather, this battle’s outcome is already known - and we are called to fight on the winning side. So, in Christ, we face evil - sin, sinfulness, demons, possession - and we fight with His strength and His weapons and His surety. Is the Devil after us? Absolutely. He hates you and me. Will the Devil win? Absolutely not, because Jesus has already won. So, we stand on His side, fight as He has called us to, and trust in the victory that is always His and for His people. May God bless each of us confidence in this and the ability to always stand strong as we fight against the spiritual evil that is around us and against us. SDG