"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph.5:11, NIV).

Shabbat shalom and grace in Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ) kol beit Yisra'el!

Most people are aware that at the end of the month of October the Western world celebrates a pagan festival called 'Halloween' but few know that this is a satanic festival as well on which children are sexually abused and murdered by various cults. Christians tend to embrace it in its 'sanitised' form (regarding it as a bit of 'harmless fun'), most Messianics emphasise its pagan origin and admonish people to forsake it because of its idolatrous and anti-Torah nature, but very, very few of either understand what's going on in the invisible and what is being launched against them in the form of witchcraft. Most are aware that there is an event called 'Halloween' on the evening of 31 October that runs past midnight and throughout the night. For most of the dumbed-down world this is simply another excuse to have a party, get drunk and engage in various degrees of cavorting.

However, Halloween - or Samhain as it is known by occultists - in reality began over a week ago on 13 October. Every day since, and on every day leading to Samhain, those involved in devil-worship (whose numbers are not small any longer), have been busy abducting victims, and holding ceremonial preparations of individuals marked for humam sacrifice. The blood-letting begins on 26 October and continues over four continuous days culminating on the last day of the month with their 'All Hallows Blood Feast of the Dead' on Halloween night itself.

Most of the world does not want to know about these things in much the same way that it does not want to know about the economic meltdown. 80-90% of the population is in ignorance or denial and will remain that way until it actually happens, by which time it will be too late. The typical reaction of people I talk to about the recession is 'this will pass over like other recessions' or 'the government has it under control' and so most will just politely laugh at you when you tell them their savings are about to be wiped out. Similarly, the idea that there are satanic sects out there who do horrible things is also dismissed as just 'sensationalism' or the fruit of an 'over-active imagination', the retort being that were these things actually going on, the police would put an end to them. I'll not comment on the naïvité of such an attitude other than to say that that is typical of a spiritually drunk and desensitised civilisation. And you'll not persuade them otherwise until either the activity of these people touches their own lives personally or the cult comes out into the open as it will after it has obtained power. It has done so in communist countries which have paid with over 100 million dead. Then those accused of 'conspiracy theory' are seen to be the realists and those who denied it as the ones who were duped.

I am assuming today that the majority of the people hearing or reading me have some idea that there is some measure of emet (truth) to these things. My calling today - more so as we are in the middle of this satanic activity right now and I am already getting reports of people who are experiencing increased oppression, poltergeist activity, and the like - is to lay out the bare facts so that believers will take seriously their calling to be spiritual warriors for the Body of Messiah. Anyone who sits back passively when he is under attack should not be surprised if he is overwhelmed and subsequently learn that he is not properly walking in victory in Messiah.

What the bulk of the world sees of this festival of Halloween - or 'All Hallows Eve' as it is known in Catholicism and traditional Protestantism - are people (mostly children but also increasing numbers of adults) wearing fancy demonaical masks and outrageous costumes whose goal is to frighten others or to persuade them to give them candy/sweets or other gifts. You have all heard of the 'trick-or-treat' threat. Those who 'dare' to go beyond these pranks also desecrate buildings, smash windows or otherwise make a nuisance of themselves. Ask these people why they do these things, and most haven't a clue.

When I first arrived in Norway in 1988 this festival as virtually unknown because it had largely been confined to Britain, America, Canada, and the Josephite countries. It's only latterly that Halloween has come to Scandinavia, no doubt spurred on by the Internet awareness and commercialism. Halloween doubtless started amongst the ordinary public as innocuously as any new fashion or fad even if there were others behind the scenes wanting to promote it for other than commercial reasons.

It is one of those curious contradictions of the supposedly secular 'enlightenment' that seeks to do away with 'religion and superstition' that these things are not only accepted by atheists and humanists, including the more radical Marxists, but positively promoted by them. You'd have thought they would have invented their own festivals that totally eliminated such things.

In anti-Christian and anti-religious Stalinist Russia, the most extreme of communist régimes with the exception of Maoist China, orthodox Christian festivals like Christmas were promoted - at least, the non-Christian parts. In Moscow's Red Square a giant Christmas tree was erected with a red star on the top. Similarly in National Socialist (Nazi) Germany, Christmas trees were crowned with a Swastika. (See my sermon, Hanukkah and Christmas: A Proper Approach). The emet (truth), as I came to subsequently learm, is that communists and nazis aren't atheists, and atheists arent't non-religious people. In fact, I am absolutely convinced that there is no such thing as a non-religious person. Everybody is religious deep down and everyone is attracted to religious ritual of some kind. And communism is 100% religious, as I proved in my study, Karl Marx and the Communist Religion of Hate.

There is a fully fledged religion behind Halloween and those who are attracted to it are in reality attracted by its religious elements ultimately. However, it's not a religion based on emet (truth) but its complete antithesis.

Halloween or Samhain is not a harmless celebration. It is not mere entertainment. It's worship, and what it worships is not good. So where and when did this observance originate? And why was it established and by whom?

Halloween was part of the pagan religion of pre-Christian Druidic Britain, but it did not begin there. It was also practiced, in one form or another, by all the ancients, including the Romans, Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians. It only became introduced into the Roman Catholic 'Christian' world many hundreds of years after the passing of the original apostles. It was not practiced by the first believers.

"The earliest Hallowe'en celebrations [in Britain] were held by the Druids in honour of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1" (Ralph Linton, Halloween Through Twenty Centuries, p.4).

"It is clearly a relic of pagan times"! (Chambers, The Book of Days Vol.2, p.519).

"It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Saman, lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals" (Enclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol.12, pp.857-8).

What did the adherents of this pagan religion believe? It was their belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these spirits, it was believed, would cast spells and cause havoc towards those failing to fulfill their requests.

"It was the night for the universal walking about of all sorts of spirits, fairies, and ghosts, all of whom had liberty on that night" (Alexander Macgregor, Highland Superstitions p.44).

There was a reason why November was chosen for that particular event. The Celts and other Northern people considered the beginning of November as their New Year. This was the time when the leaves were falling and a general seasonal decay was taking place everywhere. Thus it was a fitting time, so they reasoned, for the commemoration of the dead.

Since the northern nations at that time began their day in the evening, the eve leading up to 1 November was the beginning of the festival, a pagan superstition still adhered to by Judaism and the vast bulk of Messianics (see my series, Day's Beginning: Sunset, Midnight or Sunrise?). According to the Roman calendar it was the evening of 31 October hence, 'Halloween', 'Hallowed (Sacred) Evening',the 'Evening of All Hallows'.

Halloween, or 'All Souls Eve', was kept throughout the ancient pagan world. The observance was widespread.

"There was a prevailing belief among all nations that at death the souls of good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise; but the souls of wicked men were left to wander in the space between the earth and moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of haunting the living...but there were means by which these ghosts might be exorcised" (James Napier, Folklore, p.11).

To exorcise these ghosts, that is, to free yourself from their supposed evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you.

"In Wales it was firmly believed that on All Hallows Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight on every crossroad and every stile" (Marie Trevelyan, Folklore and Folk-Stories of Wales, p.254).

In Cambodia people used to chant:

"O all you our ancestors, who are departed, deign to come and eat what we have prepared for you, and to bless your posterity and to make it happy" (E. Aymonièr, Notice sur le Cambodge, Paris, 1875, p.59).

This sort of Halloween festival was strenuously observed throughout the non-Christian world. Pagans would pray to their false gods to prevent 'demons' and 'witches' from molesting them.

In Central America

"The Miatecs of Mexico believed that the souls of the dead came back in the twelfth month of the year, which corresponded to our November. On this day of All Souls the houses were decked out to welcome the spirits. Jars of food and drink were set on a table in the principal room, and the family went out with the torches to meet the ghosts and invite them to enter. Then, returning to the house they knelt around the table, and with their eyes bent on the ground, prayed the souls to accept the offerings" (Frazer, Adonis, p.244).

But how did the professing Christian world come to accept and keep such a day? Here is what you probably haven't been told. In 607 A.D. the Roman Emperor Phocus defeated the Barbarians who were in control of Rome. The Pantheon in Rome, a pagan edifice which had been wrested from the barbarians, was given to pope Boniface IV. Originally, Emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon - around 100 A.D. He dedicated it to the pagan goddess Cybele and to the other Roman deities. This temple became the central place in Rome where the pagans honored and commemorated their gods. With this splendid edifice now falling into the hands of professing Christians, the question was, What should be done with it?

The pagans had dedicated it to the mother goddess Cybele and all their gods. But the Roman bishop now consecrated it to the Virgin Mary and to the Saints of both sexes (Grant, The Mysteries of All Nations, p.120). Thus this pagan building became 'holy' No more did the pagan Romans use this edifice to pray for their dead. It was now the professing Christians who employed the Pantheon in praying for their dead.

This re-dedication of the pagan temple to Mary and others occurred in 610 A.D. Now converted into a Christian shrine, an annual festival was instituted to commemorate the event. The day chosen was May 13.

This May 13 commemoration of the dead saints was known by the name of All Saints Day. It continued to be held in May for over two centuries -- until 834 A.D. In that year the name and the date were changed:

"The time of celebration was altered to the first of November, and it was then called All Hallow" (James Napier, Folklore, p.177).

Thus in 834 A.D. the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages began to celebrate Halloween on the 1 November for the first time. This was the very same day the Druids in Britain, the Norsemen in Scandinavia, and the pagan Germans among others were keeping their festival of All Souls Eve, in commemoration of Saman, lord of death, and his demons.

Why did the Roman Church change the date to 1 November, thus coinciding with the pagans' feast of All Souls? There is a reason!

It was a general practice of the restored Roman Empire, now professing Christianity, to 'convert' the pagans within the empire as quickly and on as large a scale as possible. Changing dates of festivals often made it easier to influence newly conquered peoples.

Ever since the time of Constantine -- who made a state religion out of Christianity -- the Roman emperors realised how essential it was to have a unified empire, in which as many as possible would be of one mind. The civil and religious leaders saw how important it was for the sake of unity to allow only one religion within the restored Roman domain. It became therefore a stringent state policy to force all non-Christians to accept the new state religion. Here is how the plan was carried out.

When the German Frankish king Charlemagne invaded and conquered parts of Eastern Germany, he compelled the conquered German king, Wittekind, to be baptised and to accept the Roman Catholic Christianity of the day. Having no choice and seeing his life was at stake, this heathen ruler, who knew little or nothing about Yah'shua (Jesus) -- was forced into this 'conversion'...and with him his entire people. This policy brought complex problems.

These pagans, who were usually baptized en masse, were still pagans at heart. Even though they became nominal Christians, they still yearned for many of their heathen practices, which they were expected to discard.

With Wittekind's baptism, for example, a vast number of barbarians were suddenly added to the roll call of the Roman Church. Wittekind's Germans, now professing Christians, and other conquered pagans, had a profound influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of the Church in the early 800's A.D. These barbaric and uncultured people brought with them many outright pagan practices and celebrations, Halloween merely being one of many. They were fervent in clinging to their past ceremonies and observed them openly -- yet supposedly converted to Christianity. What was the Church to do? Excommunicate them and thus reduce her membership? This she would not do. Was she to force them into discarding their heathen practices and adopt Italian or Roman ones? This, as she had learned in past times, was not possible.

There remained only one other way. Let the recently converted pagans keep certain of their heathen festivals, such as Halloween or All Souls Day -- but label it 'Christian'. Of course the Germans were asked not to pray to their ancient pagan gods on this day. They must now use this day to commemorate the death of the saints.

To make it easy for them, the Roman Church even changed the date of All Saints Day from 13 May to 1 November to satisfy the growing numbers of Germanic adherents. The Church understood the yearnings the Germans and others had for their old ways.

Throughout history, the Christian-professing world has resorted to this action. We have the theological explanation of this given to us by Pope Innocent. He refers to a heathen festival the pagans kept in the early part of the Roman Empire and explained how the professing Christian world should treat this day:

"The heathen dedicated this month [2 February] to the infernal gods ... In the beginning of this month the idolaters walked about the city with lighted candles, and as some of the holy fathers could not extirpate such a custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honour of the 'Virgin Mary'" (James Napier, Folklore, p.181).

If a pagan practice or festival could not be forbidden, it was reasoned, 'let it be tamed'. Thus many were persuaded to transfer devotion from their former gods to the Roman Catholic God. So it was with the festival of All Souls Eve. Notice this admission:

"Thus, at the first promulgation of Christianity to the Gentile nations ... they could not be persuaded to relinquish many of their superstitions, which, rather than forego altogether, they chose to blend and incorporate with the new faith" (John Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, p.xi).

Now come down to the 21st century. You'll be surprised to what extent we have inherited pagan rites and ceremonies from our forefathers, so obvious in the celebration of Halloween. Note this classic example.

"In many Catholic countries the belief that the dead return on this day is so strong, that food is left on the tables and people still decorate the graves of the dead [on this day]" (Funk and Wagnalls, Dictionary of Folklore, Vol.1, p.38).

What about you and your children? What comes to your mind when thinking about Halloween? The emet (truth) of the Bible? Not at all! Instead, weird and frightening masks -- persons portrayed as witches and demons. Pumpkins and turnips hollowed out in the shape of eerie-looking faces! Lighted candles are placed inside to help bring out the more frightful side of these carvings. Dough is baked into small figurines resembling witches and spiders' web cakes are baked by the dozen for this occasion. Children, dressed up in the most revolting garments, are let loose on the neighbors, trying to scare the daylights out of them.

A popular book which can be found in most libraries give this advice for the celebration of Halloween:

"Halloween decorations are quite as important as the food. When planning them, remember that if the room is to be dimly lit (preferably by candle and forelight) the decorations must be bold to be effective. Orange, black and red, the devil's colours, are the colours associated with Halloween and this scheme should be carried out as far as possible ... Have paper streamers and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, or, if you would like to have something less usual, you could make a giant spider's web with black and orange strings, or in narrow strips of crêpe paper coming from the four corners of the room, complete with a large spider -- one of the devil's favourite followers" (Good Housekeeping's Book of Entertainment, p.168).

It is important to note what is being stressed. As we read on, we begin to notice the witchcraft and occult elements:

"To decorate the walls, make large silhouettes of cats, bats, owls and witches on broomsticks ... For the supper table small witches with broomsticks can be made by using lollipops on 4-inch sticks."

One of the reasons I suspect Halloween was ignored in Scandinavia for so long was because many of these elements were incorporated into their version of pagan Easter. In Sweden, tradition has it that Easter is the time that witches come out to play. Accordingly children dress up as 'Easter witches'.

In addition to the items already mentioned, Good Housekeeping's Book of Entertainment giving advice on how to hold a Halloween celebration recommends further the inclusion and use of weird lanterns, witch-balls, and witches' cauldrons. How pagan can you get?

Nowhere does the Bible command us to observe Halloween. Rather, Hallowe'en and other common festivals which people observe in the Christian-professing world have no biblical basis whatsoever. They all originated in paganism. The testimony of history stamps Halloween as a heathen festival. It's built on a pagan foundation.

The Scriptures warn:

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ)" (1 Cor.3:11, KJV).

"Yahweh your Elohim (God) will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same'. You must not worship Yahweh your Elohim (God) in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things Yahweh hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it" (Deut 12:29-32, NIV).

Yahweh has given us very clear instructions on what observations we are to make and what we are not. He commands us to observe the weekly seventh-day sabbath, the monthly new moons, the seven annual festivals, the seven-yearly Sabbatical Year and the fifty-yearly Jubilee. That's all. And He expressly commands us not to imitate the religious ways of the heathen. We are not to add religious observances beyond what is stated by His Davar (Word).

If you read your Bible from cover to cover this is the inescapable conclusion. There is not so much as a a fraction of an inch of allowance for any pagan celebration like Halloween. The pagans claim at Halloween that the unseen spirit world is closer to our world than at any other time which presents special opportunities to contact the dead.

We are forbidden to contact the dead in Scripture. If we attempt to do so, we in any case end up contacting not the dead but demons impersonating the dead in order to deceive us. You are opening doors to demonic oppression in doing so quite apart from disobeying Yahweh.

Don't even think the 'trick-or-treat' game is harmless. Whatever you do physically is accompanied by a parallel spiritual action in the unseen world that will impact both your inner life and ultimately your outer world too whether it be your health or circumstances. The giving out of sweets or candy at Halloween is simply a disguised offering to the false gods of this festival. Whether in receiving or giving sweets or candy you are receiving or giving food offered to idols. One of the four rules issues by the Council of Jerusalem to new believers who had never before observed Torah was:

"You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols" (Acts 15:29, NIV).

What about the 'Jack O'Lantern'? According to legend, Jack was a person who made a compact with the devil and who was so evil that neither Yahweh would not allow him in heaven nor Satan in hell. Since in the story he was excluded from both, when he died he was compelled to endlessly wander the earth with only the light of his lantern to guide him. He was re-energised on Halloween night.

Should a believer who has covenanted to follow Messiah and have nothing to do with evil, keeping himself spotless from the world, be acting out a story - however mythical - of a man sold out to Satan? And what is a believer's light in his journeying through the world? The Davar (Word) which is a light to his feet (Ps.119:105)! He is not a cursed wanderer on the earth but a victorious soldier of Messiah!

We need to remember that the ancient Wiccans who observed Halloween used to burn alive their victims in wicker baskets as offering to their gods in similar ways to the ancient Moloch worshippers. Some of you may remember a 1973 horror movie called Wicker Man, made famous as the 'Citizen Kane of Horror Movies' in which a Christian is sacrificed in this manner. Though fiction, it is based on the ancient traditions of the druids put in a modern setting. It is from this word 'wicker' that we get such English words as 'wickerwork' and 'wicked', and the expression 'wicked witch'. It's what the Wiccans are named after even if most of them don't carry out such sacrifices any more but only their devil-worhipping counterparts at the top of their hierarchies.

Halloween may be 'popular' amongst unbelievers and believers alike but this is no ground for imitating the wicked. Rather, the Torah admonishes us:

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong" (Ex.23:2, NIV).

"That is highly valued among men is detestable in Elohim's (God's) sight" (Luke 16:15, NIV).

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim (God)" (Rom.12:2, NKJV).

It is significant to note that Yahweh nowhere commands us to have any festivals commemorating death or the dead. To the ancient witches, Halloween marked the death and destruction associated with winter. All of Yahweh's festivals point to Chayim or Life, and to the One who is "the Derech (Way) and the Emet (Truth) and the Chayim (Life)" (John 14:6, NIV). Halloween is about the glorification of death whereas the Besorah (Gospel) is its diametric opposite: the glorification of Chayim (Life) and the Life-Giver, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) who, though He died for us, did not remain dead. Halloween is all about unleashing the power of the underworld - of hell - whereas the Besorah (Gospel) and the festivals that explain it, is all about releasing the power of Heaven, of the Kingdom of Yahweh. Halloween is about summonsing up demons to roam the earth to get up to evil whereas the Besorah (Gospel) is about binding them and casting them back into the pit from whence they came so that mankind may hear and know the emet (truth) that sets them free. The festivals of Yahweh and Halloween could not be more diametrically opposed to one another.

Growing up as a child in a nominally Anglican home where there was no effective religion, I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with Halloween, Christmas, Easter and New Year's Day. Through my growing up years I was put under enormous pressure to take part in these but I adamantly refused - something in me knew there was something not right about them. Even when I found Yah'shua (Jesus) as a university student and joined churches that celebrated these festivals, I could not bring myself to join in. Finally, because my conscience could not bear it any more, I wrote my very first pamphlet exposing Christmas which, with other things, finally led to my leaving the church I belonged to. What I had sensed was wrong as an unbeliever came to fruition when I could finally articulate the emet (truth). Since writing that first pamphlet, I have written quite a few more!

Indeed, I nearly lost my job as a teacher over Halloween. The school head ordered all teachers to be a part of the Halloween celebrations that day and I adamantly refused, remaining in my classroom all day. Losing my job would have been tough on the family but I had to make a stand for the emet (truth) or live with a defiled conscience toward my Elohim (God). I did not know about Yahweh's moedim or appointments back then [1] but I did at least know that the pagan observances were an abomination to Him and never let my lev (heart) get drawn into them. Yahweh honoured me for standing up to this lie and I did not lose my job.

I wonder how many people observe Halloween and the other 'Christianised' pagan festivals but in their levim (hearts) know it is wrong? I was blessed inasmuch as my first wife supported my revolt against these practices in our church so I did not have any marriage tribulations over these things. Others are not so fortunate. Nevertheless we do have to make our stand, draw a line in the stand, and make a choice to do what is right, come what may. Walking away from deeply cherished and long-held traditions is not easy precisely because the demonic has strongholds in them to keep people bound, usually because of fear of what others will say if they say no.

In our day and age, when a Second Noah's Ark is being built, we too have to be prepared to weather the riddicule of the world and follow Yahweh unconditionally, fearing not the judgments and condemnations of man. Today's Ark is not, of course, a physical boat to weather a worldwide flood, but a spiritual one to weather the flood of apostacy and devilry that is exploding in the world. The other day my wife had a dream of demons pouring into the world (invited by the wicked at such times as Halloween) and of believers rising up to meet this invasion. Poltergeists (demons throwing things about) have suddenly become active and I know one lady with spiritual issues who was recently levitated onto the air by demons before being dropped.

We are called to resist and so secure our own arks. And this morning Yahweh warned me to be prepared for activity in a few days' time before the 'official' Halloween celebrations on the night of 31 October/1 November - remember, the occultic activity began on 13 October! So once you have made the decision to quit observing this obscene, satanic festival, get into battle and build your family's spiritual ark! And get on with it now! If you're a father and husband, get right with Yahweh and be a proper covering for your family! If you're a wife or a child, get under your father's spiritual covering and stay there...not just at Halloween but every day of the year! This is not a game. Then start interceeding for the victims and potential victims in your area whether you know of the existence of satanic covens or not because they are there! Get your local congregation involved in this intercession and deliverance, break the curses and witchcraft being sent against your families, congregations, friends, loved ones, and those in positions of responsibility in the local community. I guarantee that if you do this with real emunah (faith) and determination, that Yahweh will use you to intercede for many who for lack of emunah (faith) or knowledge do not know how to spiritually protect or be protected (or even know what's going on). For "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16, NIV).

Brethren and sisters, there is much you can be doing pro-actively in this season of sin and save souls. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph.5:11, KJV), and "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7, NIV). So I invite you to form a network of prayer warriors at this time and to get out on the offense against the evil works of the enemy at this time. And may Yahweh give you good hunting! Amen.

Acknowledgements

[1] Gerhard O. Marx, The Origin of Halloween (Plain Truth, October 1967)

Endnotes

[1] At that time we observed the birth, death and resurrection of Messiah in the spring which, as it turned out, would coincide with the spring festivals. This we simply called 'Holy Week'. And we observed the sabbath, though not according to the correct Hebrew calendar.