Halloween

The Halloween feast started out long before the birth of Christ in Eastern Europe and ancient China when people would go out dressed in gory and horrifying costumes made of animal skins believing to cast away the spirits of the dead who returned as wandering witches. Halloween officially began in early 7th century A.D. It was inspired by the ancient Celtic rituals of the Druids held in honor of Sambain, the god of the dead, whose feast falls on the first day of November.

The Druids believed that on October 31, Sambain summoned all the evil spirits that had inhabited the bodies of animals. Candles were lit to guide the evil spirits to the home of their kinsmen. The Druids believed that the souls of the good where taken into paradise while those of the wicked were left wandering between the space of moon and earth.

To appease those evil spirits who were believed to haunt the living and cast misfortunes on them, they offered food and shelter. Luxurious tombs in the cemetery are adaptation of this belief. The Druids believed that on this night ghosts and witches were most likely to wander about.

The lighting of bonfires and feasting on Halloween also date back to Druid activities. Pagan peoples of Western Europe also believed that their god (called the Devil by Christian observers) became incarnate in human or animal form (in Britain the bull, the dog, and the cat). Gradually, Druid practices were merged with the Roman fall festival in honor of the goddess Pomona and the Catholic feast day of the dead. The organized religion carried the pagan rituals and practices into pseudo-Christianity.

The term Halloween comes from Medieval England meaning All hallow eve or the eve of the saints. The practice of trick or treat originated from Ireland, the pumpkins from America and the flying witches on sticks from England. The Catholic adapted the feast of All Hallow and All Souls day in 7th Century A.D. and attached several heretical doctrines that imposed upon the people. Here are several examples:

They claimed that the soul of a dead person can travel back to earth. The soul of a dead person whether in heaven or hell cannot leave their final state to visit the living [Luke 16:26, 31]. At the moment of physical death, the soul separates from the deceased body and immediately go to heaven or to hell [Luke 16:22-23].

They claimed that purgatory cleanses the souls. There is no purgatory otherwise, Jesus Christ need not come and die for the sin of the human race. [Romans 3:21-28, 8:1].If a person rejects the plan of grace and His salvation, then nothing and nobody can change the divine decision [Matthew 12:32b].

They claimed that the living can change the status of the dead. The destiny of every individual is the result of his decision to accept or reject the grace of God. A person is going to heaven because he accepted the free gift of salvation in Christ. A person is going to hell because he rejected Christ and nothing can change your destiny after you die.

There is nothing spiritual about the feast of Halloween. It is not spiritual to celebrate the Halloween. There is nothing logical about the feast of Halloween since the departed dead does not have a slight knowledge about it.. Halloween is a satanic scheming that diverts people from the truth of God's Word. Some nominal Christian churches observe Halloween parties.

. It is slavery in the form of religious tradition. It is quite ridiculous to visit the cemetery to pray for the souls of the deceased since God cannot accept such prayer. The final destination of the dead person (either heaven or hell) is absolute, a no return no exchange status. The dead has no change to change, alter or modify their situation. Nobody has power to change their situation, not even God will alter His perfect decision.

Honoring the dead, praying for their souls, offering candles or food, honoring them with praises and flowers is entirely ridiculous when while alive they were insulted and mocked by the same people.

All Saints Day which actually do not in anyway relate to genuine saints is used by the cults to scare and trick people. All Souls Day supposedly a day to remember the departed ones becomes a commercial feast that becomes a slavery and a financial burden. It is ridiculous to celebrate the feasts of souls when in reality they are in severe pains in hell.

The term ghost did not appear in the Greek New Testament, because there is no word for ghost in the Greek language. The Greek word Pneuma (Spirit? is translated "ghost" twice by King James Version (Matthew 27:50 & John 19:30) and as spirit 268 times.The Hebrew word Nephesh (spirit) is translated ghost twice by KJV [Job 11:20, Jeremiah 15:9], and as spirit 230 times, and as wind 90 times. The title Holy ghost occurs 86 times by KJV and ghost twice in Matthew 14:26 and Mark 6:49.

Ghost (Phantasma) is a thing seen only in one's imagination, a supposed appearance of an absent person in a shadowy form. Ghost as defined by the dictionary is the spirit of one who is dead, who is supposed to live in another world and appear to living people as pale, dim, shadowy form. Unbelievers are dichotomous (soul and body) without human spirit. Only the believers have human spirit.. Therefore, unbelievers cannot have ghost. The Holy Spirit is not a ghost, because He is not a dead person, He is not a Phantasma. The Holy Spirit is not a ghost because he is not a human spirit. He is coequal, coinfinite, and coeternal with God the Father, and God the Son.

Ghost stories were created by pagan religious fanatics who capitalized on such superstition to support their false and heretical doctrines as a tool or machinery for manipulating the ignorant. The human body (soma), is the material organism animated by soul and by human spirit (if believers). The spirit may be separated from the body while the soul can only be distinguished.

When a person died, his soul directly goes to heaven or hell it has no capacity to stay on earth. The Greek verb "to breathe out, and to breathe out the soul, to expire (Mark 15:37, 39, Acts 5:5, 12:23) denotes the fact that the soul of a dead person has no part in the world of the living; it must leave the body to decompose. The soul without a human body is not capable of wandering on earth since it has no home. The traditional religion teaches that the souls stay for 40 days on earth before departing to purgatory or heaven. Such teaching is fictional and heretical.

At the point of physical death, the soul and human spirit [if believer] separate from the body and go directly to heaven (Luke 16:22) and go directly to hell if unbeliever. The demons are playing on people who believed in ghost, and they are using the features, voices and characteristics of the dead people to deceive the living. Ghost stories are designed to create terror and fear in the hearts and minds of the ignorant. The demons are good impersonators; they take the physical form of the dead. They pretend as the ghosts of the dead. Ghosts are no fiction but genuine demons disguising as spirits of the dead roaming the world of the living.

The KJV had committed serious error by translating Spirit to ghost. Some religious teachers exploited the concept of ghosts and dead people visiting and terrorizing the living. They are using such fictional idea to threaten the living people to sponsor mass, offerings, candles and flowers, monetary gifts to their religious institutions in the names of the deceased.

The deviating teachings about purgatory, ghost, and Halloween are traditionally accepted heresy. They are not biblical and obviously a distortion of the bible. Majority accepted it without cautious evaluation. They are blind followers who are willing to do and follow everything mandated by their leaders.

Satan is flooding the Church with human viewpoint and knowledge of the world so that people will find it very difficult to know the difference between the plan of God and the plan of men. In the past, they kept the Bible away from the people. But now, since they can no longer restrain the people from reading the Bible, they are distorting the truth with heretical lies. Many are going to hell with an open Bible in their hands but without Bible doctrine in their souls.

JR Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries