Case Against Halloween!

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 Let us discuss these verses first. What is meant by passing your son or daughter through the fire? This is human sacrifice! This was the practice of the Canaanites sacrificing their children to their gods! Modern day sacrifice would be abortion! Divination is divining a sentence on someone! A charmer casts magical spells on people. A witch is basically the same thing casting spells on people. Another word for this is a whisperer. A wizard conjures up familiar spirits. Remember King Saul asking the witch of Ender about his future? She did not tell him he was going to be beheaded? King Manesseh also inquired to witches and fortune tellers! A necromancer is one who raises spirits from the dead! They do this to make predictions about the future or in their ghostly help to make something happen. Kind of like the rabbits foot? How lucky was the rabbit? This occult practice was also called Black Magic and comes from the ancient Greek word for corpse necro or prophecy mancy. Comment: It is interesting I lived in India for 3 years and I saw these practices done in the Hindu Temples! I have a blog post on my experience inside a Hindu Temple. The Hindu Priests collect money from people to cast spells on other people. Say a husband wants to get rid of his old wife for he has found a young girl. Then he hires the Priest to cast spells on his old wife that she might die! This is a big money business in India! Funny thing is the opposing party will come to the same Priest and pay him money to cast a spell on his adversary! The Priest will ask more money from the second party! The Hindu Priest’s told me these spells do not work on Christian believers! They do work on everyone else! You might say it is Halloween everyday in India! Do I want to spoil some kids fun collecting candy? No! Did I trick or treat when I was a kid? Yes! What I want you to understand is the origin of Halloween! In Leviticus 18:3 God warned the Jews not to participate in the ordinances or statutes, decree’s, feasts and customes of the gentiles! Today here in America the orthodox Jews do not participate in Halloween but the secular Jews do! Now to the origin of Halloween. The druids were the members of the ancient Celtic culture! The words druid and Celtic mean magic! Remember the Boston Celtics? In the ancient Celtic culture they had Priests, magicians, soothsayers and fortune tellers! They were a high ranking professional class of people from Ireland, Briton, Scotland and Wales. When Rome invaded these area’s around 60 B.C., Caesar said the Celtic groups were performing human sacrifices! Not that Caesar was the Gold Standard for morality but this is what the Roman soldiers observed. Have you ever heard of the wicker man? The Celtics built large wooden idol’s in the form of a man. On top of the wooden beams they nailed wooden slats to form the image. So the center was hollow! Halloween! Then they put the human sacrifices inside and set it on fire! The hollow of your pumpkin has a fire or candle inside of it! The druid religious culture had no written communications only oral. It was a secret society! What are the rules? Criteria for sacrifice? The Romans pretty much wiped out the druids but their occult spirit lives on in culture! The immigration of the Irish to America during late 1800’s and early 1900’s brought Halloween and some of these cultural traditions even though most were Christians. In the Medieval age the remnants of druids opposed Christianity! Trick or Treat! I will hurt you unless you treat me? God says I love you even though you hate me! Let us close with Ephesians 6:12 “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the Rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” When children come to our door I put a Gospel Tract into their bags along with the candy! This is one way to wrestle against powers and spirits of darkness! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com

What is a Familiar Spirit? 1 Samuel 28:7

Common sense would say a familiar spirit is a spirit you are familiar with! It is connected with Satan and sin! Before you were born again in Christ this is the spirit that ruled you! Saul sought a woman with a familiar spirit. Why? We will answer this soon! The word familiar spirit translated from the Hebrew means a necromancer. This is the occult practice of consulting the dead! It is one who proclaims to give revelation in uncertain times. Today a fortune teller or a palm reader would be an example. The Jews were strictly forbidden from engaging in this practice of consulting mediums! There is also another meaning for this Hebrew word. It can signify a leather bottle that may burst under pressure! Remember the Jeannie in the bottle! Remember Jesus said not to put new wine in old wine skins! A necromancer will beat skin stretched drums with chants and burn incense to draw spirits. The connection between the two meanings could be that a medium was seen as a container for a conjured spirit. Samuel the Priest had died and Saul had no one to consult about God’s plans and purposes for him. The Lord was angry at Saul for his disobedience! King Saul was facing the Philistine armies in war against Israel. God had already prepared David for the next King of Israel. Saul continued to try to contact God through the Prophet’s and the Urim. The Urim is a noun meaning fire. It refers to the fire of God’s judgment and God’s destruction of the wicked. It is used to speak of a form of idol worship! That is people burning other people in fire! Saul got no answers so his servant’s advised him to contact a woman that had a familiar spirit. So he went to the medium of Endor and Saul asked her to bring up Samuel’s spirit! Samuel was really upset for Saul disturbing him from the Bliss of Heaven! Samuel gave Saul the bad news that the Philistines were going to defeat him soundly! Saul was later killed in battle. The New Testament of our Bible also talks about spirits! There are unclean, dumb, foul, infirmity, divining, evil, bondage and world spirits. John warned us not to believe every spirit! In the case of Saul and the woman with the familiar spirit an evil spirit revealed a good spirit Samuel! It is usually God’s spirit that reveals an evil spirit! We must remember that at one time we were evil in sin apart from God! So our sin revealed the goodness of God sending His son Jesus Christ to atone for our sin! It was our wickedness that revealed the goodness of God! Remember this when you think you are so Holy above everyone else! John told us to try the spirits! He went on to say that every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is from God! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com