After Halloween

It’s getting dark out there so we are leaving the LIGHT on!
http://www.supernaturalresponse.net/

Last night was Halloween and the sun has come up on a new day.

What now?

Some will ask, “what do you mean, what now?  It’s over.  Time to enjoy the 50% off sales on candy and on to the next holiday.”

As someone who came out of a lifelong bondage to the occult and participated in occult practices, I can tell that is not how the powers of darkness see it.

The denizens of the darkness understand the concept of contractual agreements better than most lawyers do.  They should.  They follow one of the greatest legal minds of all time, the devil.  The Adversary, sometimes known as Satan, knows God’s laws better than you do.  He knows how the things of the spirit work and will use that knowledge to his advantage.

Amos 3:3 (NKJV) ³  Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?

When Israel walked in sin and rebellion the prophet Amos gave them this word from the Lord.

If you walk with God, you are by implication in agreement with Him.

When you walk with the devil and the powers of darkness you are, by implication, in agreement with them.

It’s that simple.

There is NOTHING Godly or Christian about Halloween.  Even though the Roman Catholic Church “Christianized” it to assimilate the holiday, its practices and it’s pagan deities into the Church, the pagan fall festivals were and always will be PAGAN.  Its roots are clearly Druid and therefore unGodly.

According to many scholars, All Hallows’ Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain.

The pagan Samhain festival (pronounced “sow” “en”) celebrated the final harvest, death, and the onset of winter, for three days–October 31 to November 2. The Celts believed the curtain dividing the living and the dead lifted during Samhain to allow the spirits of the dead to walk among the living–ghosts haunting the earth.

Samhain is often said to have been the most important of the fire festivals, because (according to most Celtic scholars) it may have marked the Celtic New Year. At the least, Samhain was equal in importance to Beltane and shared many symbolic characteristics.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, – Samhain, ( Celtic: “End of Summer”) also spelled Samain, in ancient Celtic religion, one of the most important and sinister calendar festivals of the year. At Samhain, held on November 1, the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to humankind, and the gods played many tricks on their mortal worshippers; it was a time fraught with danger, charged with fear, and full of supernatural episodes. Sacrifices and appeasing the gods were thought to be vital, for without them the Celts believed they could not prevail over the perils of the season or counteract the activities of the deities. Samhain was a precursor to Halloween.

On Oct. 31st, the Celts celebrated the end of summer. This was important because it was when animal herders would move their animals into barns and pens and prepare to ride out the winter. This was also the time of the crop harvests.  That is why the colors of orange and black have come to symbolize Halloween – orange for the harvest and black for death.

Halloween originates in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. On the day corresponding to November 1 on contemporary calendars, the new year was believed to begin. That date was considered the beginning of the winter period, the date on which the herds were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. During the Samhain festival, the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes, and those who had died during the year were believed to journey to the netherworld. People set bonfires on hilltops for lighting their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in those ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associated with the day. The period was also thought to be favorable for divination on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century AD, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the goddess of the harvest.  It’s from Pomona we get the bobbing for apples and other fruit related Halloween connections.

As Christianity became popular Europe as the government sponsored religion, it conflicted with local pagan cultures and its established customs.  The Pagan holidays and festivals were too deeply ingrained in the new converts and they became stumbling blocks to their faith.

Ephesians 5:11-14 (NLT) 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. 13 But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, 14 for the light makes everything visible.

While the Apostle Paul wasn’t referring to Halloween specifically he was referring to the celebration of or practice of paganism.  Whatever these secret heathen rites were they were too shameful even to speak of. This no doubt refers to the Eleusinian and Bacchanalian mysteries, which were performed in the darkness of night, and were so immoral and abominable that the Roman senate banished them from Italy. At these religious festivals, wine and women played the most important parts. Indecent emblems were carried in procession and ceremonies of the most immoral character were performed. Plato says that he has seen the entire population of Athens drunk at these festivals.

Instead of rebuking the practices as Paul did, the Roman Catholic Church moved a distinctively Christian holiday to a spot on the calendar to replace a pagan holiday.  The intent was to counter pagan influences and provide a Christian alternative. This solved nothing as it only “Christianized” a pagan ritual–the ritual was still pagan but mixed with Christian symbolism.

In the 7th century AD Pope Boniface IV “Christianized” Feralia and established All Saints’ Day. Originally on May 13, and in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Halloween. By the end of the Middle Ages, the secular and the sacred days had merged. The Reformation essentially put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, who recognized its pagan roots. In Britain, Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. Along with other festivities, the celebration of Halloween was largely forbidden among the early American colonists, although in the 1800s there developed festivals that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When large numbers of immigrants, including the Irish, went to the United States beginning in the mid 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century, Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays, particularly among children.

Death is big business: Halloween 2016 – Halloween retail spending is projected to be $8.4 billion in 2016. That’s a new record. So is the number of people celebrating at 171 million. They will spend $82.93 each, another record.

More than 171 million Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year, spending an average $82.93, up from last year’s $74.34. Total spending is expected to reach $8.4 billion, an all-time high in the history of National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights.

More children than ever before will have celebrated Halloween dressed as their favorite superhero this year, as princess costumes fall to the No. 2 spot after an 11-year reign, according to NRF’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights. Spending on Halloween costumes is expected to reach $3.1 billion, with two-thirds of those celebrating the holiday planning to purchase costumes.

Out of 171 million Americans, I am sure a number of them are pew sitting people who claim to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and claim allegiance to Jesus of Nazareth as Lord.  And that for me is where the problem begins.

Scripture after scripture in The Bible speaks strongly against such practices.

 Deuteronomy 18:9-14 (NLT) ⁹  “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. ¹⁰  For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, ¹¹  or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. ¹²  Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the LORD your God will drive them out ahead of you. ¹³  But you must be blameless before the LORD your God. ¹⁴  The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the LORD your God forbids you to do such things.”

This type of practice is tied to the fallen, the Nephilim and the demonic as they were the ones who settled and resided in Canaan, in my opinion.  But, the children of Israel did not listen and neither does His Church.

The rise in popularity of Halloween in America coincides roughly with the national spiritist revival that began in America in 1848. Spiritualism is the belief that the living can communicate with the dead. The belief in a spirit world and the living’s ability to correspond with the spiritual realm probably dates to antiquity. Paranormal reality television and similar movies have made this practice appealing and acceptable again.  It is not and never has been.

This seduction has been something the Church has dealt with since its inception. Two of the most paranormal cities of that day, Corinth and Ephesus, were always battling the virus of darkness in their midst.

Ephesians 5:11-14 (NLT) Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.

Halloween is one of the fruitless or worthless deeds of darkness we are called not only to participate in it but also to expose it as demonic and detestable to God.  The sacrifices and idols of pagan worship were, and are, demonic.  The Spiritual power and reality behind idols is demonic and The Bible clearly says so.

1 Corinthians 10:20 (NKJV) Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

Paul was saying that those who share in the pagan religious meals were thereby uniting themselves with demons whether they believed or not.  The act of participating in the meal was an implied agreement.  How is participating in Halloween any different?  It’s not.  And the kingdom of darkness knows it.

Compromise weakens the structure of our beliefs and it weakens our defenses against the enemy.

You cannot say you are against something and walk in agreement with it at the same time.  You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God’s.  The universal principle of agreement applies in all areas.  When you do this you open a door of legal access to things that hate you and want to destroy you.  At that moment, they have a legal right to you until you break that agreement and repent.

What tragic disaster awaits society when even the church begins to “call evil good, and good evil…”?

Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV) Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

People who will not stand for something will fall for anything. Compromise is contagious.

1 Corinthians 10:21 (NKJV) You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

Whose cup were you drinking from last night?

Genesis 6:1-2, 4 (NKJV) ¹  Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, ²  that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. ⁴  There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

While most Bible translations refer to the offspring of these “sons of God” as Nephilim, other translations shed more light on who they were. For example, the Contemporary English Version translates Genesis 6:4 to read, “The children of the supernatural beings who had married these women became famous heroes and warriors. They were called Nephilim and lived on the earth at that time and even later.”

Greek and Roman myths of the gods coming down, having relations with beautiful women and producing half human/half god off spring like Hercules may have been rooted in the Genesis documentation of fallen angels mating with women and producing hybrid super humans who made others fall.

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

These hybrid humans (half angel half human) were killed in the flood of Genesis If these fallen angels lost their offspring in the Great Flood, wouldn’t they want to honor their dead around the time it happened as an insult to God?

Perhaps you feel it is all just a coincidence?

What if it isn’t?

What if Halloween is a manipulation by the fallen to get us to celebrate the death of their children in the Flood?

What are we to do?

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NKJV) ¹⁴  Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ¹⁵  And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? ¹⁶  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”¹⁷  Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”¹⁸  “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”

If you opened a door into your life or your family’s life last night, I call on you to repent.  Close it immediately or suffer the consequences.  The enemy will take full advantage of that opening while it’s there so do not hesitate.  If you don’t I promise you will learn the hard way that I’ve been telling the truth.  I know.  I spent 32 years walking in the darkness described in this blog and I’ve spent 28 years walking in the Light of His Freedom.  And, during that time I’ve helped and ministered to those victimized by this deception.  If you are one of those in need, contact me to reach out for help.  It’s never too late and no problem is too big.

Romans 13:12 (NKJV) The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

In His Service,

Richard J Grund

Supernatural Response Team: Shining the Light of Truth into the Darkness
http://thebeaconsglare.wordpress.com/