Why Do Believers Celebrate Pagan Holidays?

Our family used to say that Halloween was our favorite holiday. We worked for a month to decorate our yard with homemade tombstones and even a homemade coffin. We had spooky sounds, lights, skulls and blood everywhere. We won the neighborhood award for the best decorations. People would come from other neighborhoods to see our yard every night. We dressed up and gave out loads of candy.

Then something happened. We accepted Yeshua/Jesus as our Savior and over some time He convicted us that we should not have anything to do with Halloween any more.

Halloween, all hallows eve, ghosts, goblins, witches, werewolves, blood, skulls, skeletons, death, evil, fear and more. Just looking at these things in the light of Yeshua Messiah’s Holy Light, and comparing these things to Him, made us realize that there is nothing in this so called celebration that we should have anything to do with.

I have written several posts about how the Church in general has adopted so many pagan celebrations. I’ve heard it said by other believers that we’ve turned them into something good so they are OK now. Halloween is fun, the children dress up and get candy and it’s just a good time. Even churches have gotten in on it with fall celebrations and selling pumpkins to be made into jack-o-lanterns as a fundraiser. Some even say that with candy they give out tracts and so they are using it to witness to others.

We used to do the same – doing our own version of turning something evil into something Holy. Problem is only He can make something Holy – we can’t. We were not being a good witness by keeping the same holiday that unbelievers were keeping. We were doing exactly what the world was doing. Exactly what He tells us not to do. We are to be in the world but not of the world. If we are doing what everyone else does then how are we His set-apart people?

As I’ve said so many times before, this is exactly what the Israelites used to do before Messiah came. They used to take pagan Ba’al celebrations and put a godly spin on them and still worship Yehoveh through these celebrations. He did not accept that and when they didn’t stop He judged them and sent them into captivity. It is not that they stopped worshiping Him it is that they were using pagan celebrations to do so. It was unacceptable to Him.

We are doing the same thing when we take on pagan holidays and attempt to turn them into something fun and good and we call them all sorts of things to make us feel better about doing it.

Take a moment and Google the origin of Halloween. It dates back over 2000 years to the Celts bringing back ghosts and spirits of the dead. They would contact them to get predictions on what the next year would be like. November 1st was their new year and they believed that the night before the boundary between the worlds of the living and dead were blurred so that the Druids, the Celtic priests, could more easily be in contact with these sprirts.

The Word of Yehoveh tells us that to try and contact the dead is against His Word. Ghosts and spirits are Satan’s evil demons. He is constantly working to pull us his way and away from Yehoveh God. He does it through seemingly innocent ways. He doesn’t stand there and say, hey I’m Satan and I want you to come and follow me and leave God. He says, oh isn’t that a cute little princess costume. Let’s do Halloween and go trick or treating. One more step in his direction. A slippery slope.

To even try to mix what is Holy and Righteous with this evil and call it fun and harmless is just plain deceptive. Whatever name is put on it, however it is described, its roots are evil and that evil cannot be changed into good. There is no place in His Word where His people have been able to do that. Holy is Holy and evil is evil and they cannot mix.

In these end of days just before He returns to earth to claim His own it is critical that believers live their day to day lives in a Holy manner in all things. He was very clear that many who think they are His will be told “I don’t know you” when He comes back. When we constantly do what is right in our own sight instead of following what is in His Word then why would He choose us to be with Him for all eternity? He wants true followers, not just those who mouth the right words. As His Word says, we shall know them by their fruit.

He is coming back. He is coming back soon. We are in the end of the end of days. The world as it has been is crumbling apart. Are you ready? Are you living your life as if He is soon to be here? Are you showing others around you that you are just the same as they are or are you different? Are you different enough to be noticed? Perhaps different enough to be persecuted for how you are living your life? If you aren’t, then perhaps now is the time to make some changes. Repent of the pagan ways you have adopted into your life and ask Him to forgive you. Start living your life Holy for Him. It will mean a difference for all eternity.