An Invitation To The Occult? Halloween
by David J. Stewart
Updated October 2025
I saw this ridiculous meme today. I added the cancellation circle...
This meme is such wacky religious bullcrap! When families go out 'Trick-or-treating,' they're just having innocent fun, regardless of what paranoid religious retards say. Although it is true that the origins of Halloween are unquestionably Satanic (just like half of everything else in society), people do not celebrate the holiday as such in the United States. I know some people will strongly disagree with me on this topic, but it wouldn't be the first time I am sure. I loved Trick-or-treating as a kid, and I didn't throw tomatoes at anyone's house who didn't answer the door (i.e., there was no mean trick returned if I didn't get a treat).
Neither do Americans worship Babylonian decorated trees at Christmas time (Jeremiah 10:1). It's just a tree, unless you bow down to worship it, which I don't recommend.
Nor do Americans worship Ēostre, the fertility goddess on Easter. It's just fun for the children; coloring and hunting for Easter Eggs.
I am sick and tired of legalists badgering and demonizing everyone for partaking of our traditional American culture during the holidays. In fact, no one is inviting demons into their home by carving pumpkins, coloring Easter eggs or decorating a Christmas tree. So, unless you are a pagan who has a problem with worshipping idols, I say go ahead and enjoy the holidays!
My religious nutcase boss many years ago, freaked out over these crazy things, while strutting around listening to his so-called “Christian rock music,” which is far more spiritually harmful than having fun on Halloween! He told me one day at work that if his church ever gives out pumpkins for Halloween to draw kids to church, he'd quit immediately. What a religious hypocrite! If a local church can give away pumpkins to kids, to encourage them to come learn about Jesus, then I see no harm in that. I am all for using church promotions.
That being said, I think Christian people need to be informed about the dark origin of certain American holidays, but as long as we don't celebrate them in their original sinful design, it's not a sin. As an illustration, I take prescription pain drugs for relentless chronic neck pain, which are potentially lethal if misused. But I have always taken the drugs responsibly, as directed by my doctor. Sadly, many people in the United States are abusive with substances (primarily drugs and alcohol), which is why suffering patients like me cannot obtain an adequate amount of pain medications. It's not fair, but there's nothing I can do about it, except complain. I digress.
I humbly think it's perfectly okay for families to have fun with Santa Claus, just so long as you don't mislead children to think he is real. Kids need to know the truth that Jesus is real, but Santa is not. It is disturbing how upset religious people become over these trifle matters, while neer sharing the Gospel with a single soul. How about paying your bills on time? How about keeping your word? How about returning something that you borrowed but never returned?
I feel sorry for people who've been so brainwashed by religion, that they think it is evil to display pumpkins on Halloween. I love pumpkins, and pumpkin pie! Amen! To eat his own, these are my thoughts.
Churches everywhere are letting the Gospel (the truth) slip away. Today's corrupt Bible colleges like Pensacola Christian College and Bob Jones University are primarily to blame, for sending out theologically incompetent graduates to ruin the churches. They're letting the inspired Word of God slip away, and instead adopting corrupt perversions of God's Word. The consequential results have been devastating.
The free grace Gospel has few friends today. Satan is so clever and subtle that he has billions of heathen hellbound churchgoers convinced that faith must include and/or produce works to be valid. Satan is a beautiful liar! God's curse is upon evil institutions like Pensacola Christian College and their ungodly FOUR DIFFERENT PLANS OF SALAVTION! These people are as unloving and hateful toward outsiders as they are theologically incompetent. As Morgan Freeman says in the 2014 blockbuster movie, 'Transcendence'... “RUN FROM THIS PLACE!”
There are far worse things for us to be concerned about nowadays than people just having fun on the holidays. To each his own. Granted, I wouldn't allow my child to dress up like a witch or a demon, but there are plenty of fun costumes that they can innocently wear. If you don't believe in celebrating certain holidays, then good for you, don't do it. But I don't think anyone should condemn others who do. Some of the biggest religious nutcases I've ever met, made a big fuss over celebrating the traditional holidays of our American culture. I humbly see no harm in it as a Christian.That all being said, the following information below was written by Tracy at Jesus-is-Lord.com. I sincerely appreciate her opinion and want my web visitors to understand the Satanic origin of our American holidays. But with that in mind, I also do not think it is sinful for parents and their kids to have fun on these holidays. Like everything else, we must exercise discretion.
As a related issue, I love some of the music of The Beach Boys (i.e., Wouldn't It Be Nice), and some by The Beatles (i.e., 'Til There Was You), and The Eagles (i.e., New Kid In Town). Are those bands Christian? No. Are they pleasing to God? No. But I also don't think all of their songs are sinful to listen to. Some of them are, because some songs glorify immoral sex, like “Let's Do It In The Street” by The Beatles (a song clearly intended to upset religious people).
Make your own decisions. When our children were kids we took them out Trick-or-treating every year and we all had a fun time. We'd still do it again. To each their own.
The following warning about celebrating Halloween was written by Pastor Chuck Missler. That being said, I humbly disagree with him that families who enjoy the holidays (in this case Halloween) are drawing near to witches and demons, and are displeasing the Lord. It sounds good in a sermon, but it's simply not fair to accuse normal families of such evil things just for going out Trick-or-treating. So read this article and take it with a grain of common sense folks. To each his own. END
An Invitation To The Occult? Halloween
Chuck Missler | October 31 2006
Click for music in a new window
This is always a difficult time for Christians, especially those with children. It has been suggested that for a Christian to be asked to celebrate Halloween is like asking a Holocaust survivor to celebrate Hitler's birthday!
It is also a dangerous time for some, since many of the seemingly "harmless" involvements associated with Halloween can also be "entries" for the occult, and can prove very tragic for the unwary.
Pagan Background
In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic festival of Samhain was observed on October 31, the end of summer. November 1 was the new year for both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon calendars and was one of the most important and yet sinister calendar festivals of the Celtic Year.
Settling in northern France and the British Isles, the Celtic people engaged in occultic arts and worshiped nature, giving it supernatural, animistic qualities. (Much like our Federal government is attempting to enforce today.)
The ancient Druids were the learned priestly class of the Celtic religion. Many of their beliefs and practices were similar to those of Hinduism, such as reincarnation and the transmigration of the soul, which teaches that people may be reborn as animals. The Druids believed that on October 31, the night before their New Year and the last day of the old year, Samhain, the Lord of Death, gathered the souls of the evil dead who had been condemned to enter the bodies of animals.
The Druids also believed that the punishment of the evil dead would be lightened by sacrifices, prayers and gifts to the Lord of Death. (This begins to reveal the strange link between this holiday and the non-Biblical concept of purgatory.)
The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the autumnal festival acquired a sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature.
And, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther drove a stake into the heart of many of the prevailing non-Biblical concepts by nailing his famous 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, which started the movement known today as the Reformation-the single most important event in modern history.1 Appropriately, he did this on Halloween.
Modern Halloween Traditions
In early American history, Halloween was not widely practiced until the 20th century, when it was introduced by the Irish Catholic settlements. Gradually, Halloween became a secular observance, and many customs and practices developed. The carved pumpkin may have originated with the witches' use of a skull with a candle inside to light the way to coven meetings.
Since 1965 UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations, has attempted to incorporate into the Halloween observance the collection of money for the United Nations Children's Fund. This exploitation by the ungodly United Nations of this pagan holiday seems strangely appropriate.
The Occult is Increasingly Popular
Halloween is, for many, a "crossover" involvement in which innocent games can lead to serious entanglement with real witches, neo-pagans, New Agers, and other occultists.2 A common pastime is the use of a Ouija board to attempt to contact ghosts or spirits that are believed to be roaming about. This can lead to serious consequences including demon possession.3 Demons have a vested interest in Halloween because it supports the occult, and it also offers novel and unexpected opportunities to control and influence people.
Forms of the occult can include mediums, channelers, clairvoyants, psychics, spiritists, diviners, mystics, gurus, shamans, psychical researchers, Yogis, psychic and holistic healers, astral travel, astrology, mysticism, Ouija boards, Tarot cards, contact with the dead, UFOs, and thousands of other practices which almost defy cataloging.
Occultism includes Satanism, astrology, Kabbalah, Gnosticism, theosophy, witchcraft and many forms of serious magic. It includes activities seeking the acquisition of "hidden" things-which are expressly forbidden by God in the Bible.
The Biblical View
Halloween practices can open the door to the occult and can introduce forces into people's lives that they are not equipped to combat.4 There is genuine power in the occult, but it is demonic power.5
Any serious study of Biblical demonology will reveal Satan as the power behind false religion, witchcraft, idolatry and the occult.6 The Word of God makes it clear that these are all to be shunned as dangerous. There were many superstitions and false concepts in ancient Israel about which the Bible is silent. However, occultism, in any form, was punishable by death! Why?
The spiritual power and reality behind idols involves demons.7 The Bible commands us to shun occult practices. Mediums and spiritists are expressly prohibited.8 Nowhere are such practices acceptable.
A Halloween Project?
Every year, many people are perplexed as to how to deal with the children's celebrations surrounding Halloween. On the one hand, participating in the perpetuation of the usual pagan (and occultic) rituals are hardly the enterprise of a Biblical Christian. On the other hand, creating constructive alternatives can be challenging.
Many churches and families organize a "Harvest" festival with games, prizes, etc., as an alternative party opportunity. These are gaining widespread interest and are to be encouraged.
Organizing a drama event to involve the older children is an alternative candidate; such an effort could include Saul and the Witch of Endor, from 1 Samuel 28, as a play.
[The winning scripts resulting from a play-writing contest held a few years ago are available through K-House.]
Your Protection
Intellect alone is insufficient. "If it were possible, it would deceive the very elect." This is another example of the necessity to truly understand the Armor of God as outlined in Ephesians 6. This brief review was excerpted from our featured briefing package, Halloween: Invitation to the Occult?
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Sources:Missler, Chuck, Signs in the Heavens, The Mysteries of the Planet Mars Halloween: Invitation to the Occult? (briefing packages), Koinonia House, 1991-6.
Ankerberg, John, and Weldon, John, The Facts on Halloween, Harvest House, Eugene OR, 1996. A key reference for this article.
Sykes, Egerton, Who's Who in Non-Classical Mythology, J.M. Dent, London, 1993.
Patten, Donald Wesley, Catastrophism and the Old Testament, Pacific Meridian Publishing Co., Seattle WA, 1995.
Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House, Eugene OR, 1996.
Also the video, Halloween: Trick or Treat, Jeremiah Films, Hemet CA
END
The following are actual pumpkin carvings...
Doesn't this clearly show evidence of the nature of Halloween? It is a celebration of cruelty, witchcraft and evil—all in praise of Satan! END
CLOSING COMMENT FROM WEB SERVANT OF JESUS-IS-SAVIOR.COM
Now, as I kindly said earlier, I do not fully agree with Pastor Missler that born again Christians who celebrate the fun stuff on Halloween are somehow praising the Devil. I have only shared this important information, so that you can be informed about the true origins of Halloween and decide for yourself how to approach the matter. I fully understand that this is a highly controversial issue for some Christians, and that's okay. But I personally don't have a problem with carving pumpkins, eating Taffy Apples and taking the kids out Trick-or-treating just to have family fun. —David J. Stewart
