Sermons and Studies

BINDING THE STRONG MAN Matthew 12:22-29

Did anybody happen to see the wonderful science fiction comedy “Men in Black” on TV this week? The Men in Black are a fictional organisation responsible for defending the earth from aliens from outer space. At one point in the middle of pursuing a particularly nasty space insect, Agent K from the Men in Black says this to his new partner Agent J:
There’s always an Alien Battle Cruiser…or a Korlian Death Ray, or…an intergalactic plague about to wipe out life on this planet, and the only thing that lets people get on with their hopeful little lives is that they don’t know about it.
Agent K is right. If we knew that there really was some alien force threatening to destroy all human life then everything would change. Things which seem so important to us would become trivial: money, possessions, success – even things like films and science fiction. So many things just wouldn’t matter any more in the face of the prospect of destruction.

Well I have some good news and some bad news this morning. There is a force in the world which threatens all human life. It is a force more dangerous than and Alien Battle Cruiser or a Korlian Death Ray or global warming or the risk of nuclear war. It is more lethal than an intergalactic plague, or HIV Aids. And I am not talking science fiction here but Biblical fact. That threat to human life is what the Bible calls the devil, or satan, or Beelzebub. “and the only thing that lets people get on with their hopeful little lives is that they don’t know about it.”

The BAD NEWS this morning is that everything the Bible says about the devil is true – and the devil is real. The devil isn’t a little comic character with horns and a forked tail and a trident. The devil is the prince of demons. Here are some of the things the Bible says about the devil.
The devil appeared to Adam and Eve disguised as a serpent and tempted them to disobey God.
The devil was originally an angel but he rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven.
The devil tempted even people like David and afflicted Job and even tried to tempt Jesus to sin.
The devil tempted Judas to betray Jesus and he continues to tempt people today.
The devil is also known as Satan, The Adversary, the enemy and the evil one and the deceiver.
The devil blinds people spiritually. Jesus calls him a liar and the “father of lies”.

The Bible makes clear that the devil exists – the devil is real. In our reading this morning it is clear that Jesus recognised and taught that the devil is a real enemy – a real threat to human beings.

And there is more BAD NEWS. The devil is not alone. He has his allies – more fallen angels which the Bible refers to as evil spirits, or unclean spirits, or demons. The Bible speaks about demons or evil spirits more than 100 times. In different places it refers to demons as rulers, authorities, powers, dominions, thrones, leaders and “kosmokrats” world rulers.

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

“The powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.” The devil and all his minions controlling the world and keeping people away from God.
Ephesians 2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts
Here is the bad news. The devil and the demons exist but most people don’t know it. I say most people don’t realise the devil exists, but that is only true in the scientific west. Talk to Christians in Africa or India or South America, where witchdoctors or shamens practise and voodoo and magic are common, and they know that demons exist and have power to harm people! They know demons or evil spirits are everywhere. There is only one devil, and he can only be in one place at one time. But there are so many demons who serve the devil and they spread his power everywhere. practically universal. They can influence people to do evil, and in extreme cases demons can so invade a person’s life that they can speak and act through their human victim.

Here in the West we don’t have witchdoctors or voodoo so much. So the main ways in which people come into contact with demons is through dabbling in the Occult. They may play with magic, casting spells, or witchcraft. Some might call it “The Craft”, or “Wicca”, ancient British magic. Others dabble in fortune telling – tarot, astrology, crystal balls. Others try to contact the dead, in spiritualism or spiritism, through clairvoyance, mediums or séances. All of these practices are very dangerous because they can bring people into contact with the demonic.

Deuteronomy 18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.

This may sound weird and science fiction to you – but it is all terribly real. I heard of a school recently hosting an evening of clairvoyance. Psychic fayres are still popular. Many people on the stalls of the Body Mind and Soul exhibition at the Brentwood Centre at the end of this month will be trapped in different aspects of the Occult. Only last week I was talking to a man whose life has been ruined by his parents’ deep involvement in witchcraft.

There’s the bad news. The devil is real. Demons are real. They are dangerous and powerful enemies whose only aim is to lead people into sin and keep them away from God. There’s the bad news.
But here is the GOOD NEWS. Jesus has overcome the devil! And the proof of that is in his miracles of deliverance!

22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

One third of Jesus’s miracles were healings. But another third were specifically miracles of deliverance, of driving out demons. And Jesus’s disciples were also given His authority to cast out demons. To set people free from evil which had a grip on their lives. This ministry of deliverance continued into the early church and continues in the church today.

Jesus’s opponents the Pharisees accused Him of driving demons out by the power of Beelzebub, another name for the devil. But Jesus rejected their arguments and said two separate things which are very important for us to understand. The first was this.
28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
In other words Jesus was saying that his power to drive out demons was in some way the work of God the Holy Spirit inside Him. And all the miracles of deliverance were expressions of the Kingdom of God, God’s Kingly Rule, God acting as King to bring salvation to his people. Casting out demons was not something which only Jesus could do because He was the Son of God. His followers would cast out demons too because the Holy Spirit is at work in them and because that is part of the work of God’s Kingdom.

Then Jesus went on to tell a little parable, the parable of binding the strong man.
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.

The strong man in the parable is the devil. His possessions are the people held in the grip of evil by demons. How was is that Jesus could drive out demons, take the strong man’s possessions away from him? Because Jesus had already tied up the strong man. Jesus has already bound the devil. So he can easily cast out the demons and rescue people from the devil’s clutches.

Miracles of deliverance are relatively rare in churches in England today. We need to realise that in Jesus’s time one of the most important reasons people followed Him was his visible power over the demonic.
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus drove out demons. One of the major reasons for the growth of the early church was their miracles of deliverance. And outside of the scientific west, even today, one of the chief reasons people turn to Christ is that they see His power defeating the devil and setting people free from demons. I know all these things are true because I have seen people delivered from demons!

29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
Here is the GOOD NEWS – Jesus has bound the strong man. But how did that happen. Remember what happened immediately after Jesus’s baptism and before He began His public ministry.
Luke 4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
12 Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
In the wilderness Jesus was tempted. But He did not give in to temptation. Jesus was the first human being ever who did not give in to the devil’s temptations. He proved there that He was stronger than the devil. Many believe that it was there in the wilderness that Jesus “bound the strong man”. Demons would have to obey Jesus!
The Bible tells us that Jesus had bound the strong man before he began his ministry. But it also tells us that Jesus had an even greater victory over the devil in his death on the cross.
JOHN 12:31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross more than bound the devil – it was God’s supreme victory over the devil and his demons.
HEBREWS 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Christ’s death on the cross defeated the devil and sets everybody free who puts their trust in Christ.
So Jesus “bound the strong man” in his time of temptation. And Jesus defeated the devil on the cross. So here’s the good news. Christians don’t need to be afraid of the devil or his demons. Christ’s victory is our victory!
And Jesus sends his church out to continue his ministry of deliverance. To confront the devil and drive out demons. To plunder hell and populate heaven. To set the captives free!
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.

Halloween – New Age, Old Deception

Yesterday we went for a family day out. …….

I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised really. Steve Wright ended his Show on Radio 2 on Friday afternoon with these words: “Have a great “Halloween Weekend””
It used to be just a day. Now it’s a whole weekend. In fact Halloween has become bigger than that. HALLOWEEN IS NOW A MAJOR MONEY-MAKING EVENT. It’s a whole month of themed shopping! In some shops, HALLOWEEN is almost as big as as Christmas & Easter. All kinds of sweets everywhere. Costumes of all sorts - Dracula, Frankenstien’s monster, Werewolf, etc. Probably a quarter of the kids at Colchester Zoo yesterday were dressed up in Halloween costumes. Decorations everywhere (Pumpkins, & Witches Flying on Brooms) Not to mention Horror videos and DVDs and films on television. Some primary schools even choose Halloween as a topic for weeks of study. Before half term I visited almost 20 schools taking assemblies for Harvest for the Hungry. In one school I listened over coffee as teachers were complaining that their school did not let them “do Halloween” because it is a church school! Well done that school!

But what should be our Christian response to Halloween? Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Absolutely not! Should Christians even participate in Halloween activities? Absolutely not!! Let me give you three reasons this morning why not!
Christians should have nothing to do with Halloween,

1. BECAUSE OF WHAT HALLOWEEN REPRESENTS

Let’s look at the history. Long before Christ was born Ireland, Wales, Scotland and France were inhabited by the Celts. The Celtic people had an elite intellectual class known as the Druids, who served as religious priests, judges, lawmakers, and scientists. They were the first to celebrate the traditions we associate with Halloween and most of the today’s traditions and symbols came from their practices.

The ancient Druids were nature worshippers and held elaborate pagan religious festivals. The most important Druid celebration was the Fire Festival held in honour of their lord of the dead, called Samhain (pronounced summa-heen). It was observed at harvest time to mark the Celtic New Year. Samhain (summa-heen) was the most solemn and important night in the Celtic year. The Celts believed that on this night the barrier between the natural world and the supernatural was removed, and the souls of the dead were able to move freely among human beings. The Celts believed that, as the sun god grew pale and Samhain “the lord of the dead” grew stronger, these lurking evil souls also became more powerful. On this festival of Samhain (summa-heen), they hoped to scare away the evil souls by lighting great bonfires on the hillsides. In order to please Samhain (summa-heen) the lord of the dead, some Druids offered human sacrifices. Some people think that the Druids built ’Stonehenge’ as a temple for sun worship and that they offered human sacrifices there on October 31st.

After the Roman Catholic Church brought Christianity to the Celtic peoples in the seventh century, some of their traditional folk customs were Christianized. In 835 A.D. Pope Gregory IV moved the church’s “Feast of All Saints” from the spring to November 1st to replace the observance of Samhain (summa-heen). Many Christians still celebrate All Saint’s Day to honour all believers who have died. The night before, which used to be a sacred vigil in church, became known as “All Hallow’s Eve,” or Halloween. But by the tenth century, witchcraft was more popular than Christianity in England and its followers became known as witches. While All Hallows’ Eve originally had been a strictly Christian holiday, the pagan influence from earlier traditions gradually crept back in while the Catholic Church’s influence faded. Halloween became a secular feast. The 14th Century saw the rise of all kinds of occult practices. Witchcraft grew and witches held weekly meetings as well as their annual Sabbaths especially at Halloween and Mayday. Magic became more widespread as people searched for knowledge to control the forces of nature.

So Halloween is definitely not a Christian festival. For centuries it has been a pagan festival dating back to the Druids.
Trick or Treating had its origins in Druidic practices. The Druids believed that on the night of Halloween, wicked souls that had died in the past year returned to their original homes. To exorcise these ghosts or to free yourself from their evil influence, you had to set out food and provide them with shelter for the night. If they were satisfied, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If they were not satisfied – if food and shelter were not provided – the ghosts would cast a spell on you and reek havoc in your home. So if you set food out on your door step for the night-the spirits would pass you by, not cause your milk to spoil or your cattle to have birth defects, or damage your family. It is said that the Druids would then go around collect the food and burn it as a sacrifice to their gods. It is also said that they tended to burn your house down if they arrived and the treat was not at the door!
That tradition was revived in Ireland a few hundred years ago when groups of farmers went from house to house begging for food. Good luck was promised to generous donors and threats were made against those who could not give. And those ancient pagan traditions continue today as children dress up as ghosts, skeletons and demons and go ’trick or treating’ – begging for food “or else!”

The carved pumpkin, the Jack O Lantern, is an ancient symbol of condemned souls. The story goes that Jack tricked the devil into chasing him up a tree. Jack then jumped down and held up a crucifix so the devil could not get to him. He then put an ember that the devil threw at him from Hell inside a pumpkin or gourd and used it as a lantern. But even earlier, the pumpkin lantern was also a symbol used by the Druids and pagans to determine who was in agreement with them and deserved mercy from their tricks. People used to light a jack o lantern to show the Druids “we are one of you.”

So the traditions and customs of Halloween today have their roots in pagan religion. They may seem harmless – but just because something may appear harmless doesn’t necessarily mean it will be.
ADAM & EVE THOUGHT TAKING OF THE FRUIT WAS HARMLESS
LOTS WIFE THOUGHT LOOKING BACK WAS HARMLESS
SAMSON THOUGHT LYING HIS HEAD IN DELIALAHS LAP WAS HARMLESS
Halloween customs may seem like harmless fun – but when we see the beliefs behind them Christians will want to avoid them like the plague!

Let’s be clear, Halloween is actually a celebration of the belief that on this day the souls of the dead rise from the grave to haunt the living. Last year Lin and I were invited to a flat on Clements Park because the occupants were convinced it was occupied by an evil presence. I don’t believe in ghosts. The Bible tells us that once a person is dead they are dead and there can be no contact between this world and “the other side”. But the Bible tells us that demons exist and I know that is true because of the number of situations in which we have encountered the demonic. And demons can and do sometimes appear as “ghosts” or even imitate real people who have died for their own evil purposes.

Ephesians 5:11 warns us very clearly Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

As Christians we totally reject false and evil beliefs about the souls of the dead walking the earth. So there is no reason on earth why we would want to join in pagan celebrations of such beliefs on Halloween.

But secondly we will want to avoid Halloween
2. BECAUSE OF THE DANGERS OF WITCHCRAFT

The words “witch” and “witchcraft” have a whole range of meanings. Witchcraft in the Bible does not mean the same thing as witchcraft in today’s films and novels and television programmes. Witches in Dennis Wheatley horror books are very different to witches in Narnia or Harry Potter books. Witchcraft as it is practised by “Wiccans” today means something very different to witchcraft as it was in the middle ages. And witchcraft is not the same as Satanism or devil worship, although some witches are Satanists. But anything which encourages anybody (and especially children) to dabble in witchcraft and magic is a bad thing. Because witchcraft and magic are not harmless fun and games. Witchcraft and magic are dangerous things!

In USA Witchcraft now has more than a million practitioners. That makes it the FIFTH LARGEST organised religion in USA. It is usually known as Wicca, “the Craft”, or “white witchcraft” or sometimes as Neopaganism, “New Paganism”. Wicca has grown up over the last 50 years especially in USA and Europe based on some books by Gerald Gardner. The number of followers of Wicca is estimated to be doubling roughly every two years. There are more than 1000 books about Wicca or NeoPaganism listed on Amazon.com – 2/3 of those were written in the 1990s. There are also 371,000 web sites on the subject of Wicca!!! Its influence is spreading. For some years now some hospitals have been obliged to give so-called white witches the same access to patients who request it as hospital chaplains have. For witches Halloween is a pagan celebration the witches’ high Sabbath.
Wicca is not Satanism. But some witches do worship the devil. You may have read the appalling news last week that a sailor in the Navy has had official recognition that his religion is “Satanism”, guaranteeing him freedom to practise satanic rituals on board ship and the promise that his funeral will be carried out according to the traditions of Satanists, whatever those traditions may be. Satanists believe that Halloween is a night when demons and the Devil are given special powers. In some places animals are sacrificed. There is also some evidence that ritual human sacrifices are made even today.

Some people think Wicca is harmless fun. Wiccans claim it is harmless. Its most important principle, the wiccan rede says “An it harm none do what you will”. That could mean, “don’t do any harm.” Or it could mean, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, you can do whatever you like.” Doesn’t sound too bad. But any wiccan who casts a spell, or casts a circle to create their own sacred space, or attends a wiccan gathering, is worshipping false gods. They are rejecting God their creator and worshipping created things. Their eyes are blinded and their minds are closed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft;…. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Bible condemns witchcraft and magic, and Christians should have nothing to do with witchcraft or magic in any form! But the dangers of Halloween are broader than simply witchcraft. Christians should have nothing to do with Halloween

3. BECAUSE OF THE WIDER DANGERS OF THE OCCULT

Not just wicca but all kinds of occult practices are now spreading like wildfire. It is curious really, since the word “occult” means “hidden” and for centuries these things were kept hidden for the inner circle of practitioners. Nowadays the occult is getting more much more free publicity than ever before. Films like the Exorcist, TV programmes like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the X-files and Charmed, books like Harry Potter, all making evil seem “cool”. Ordinary people and especially children are being introduced to all kinds of occult practices. Psychic fayres and New Age shops will sell you anything you need to do all kinds of things from casting spells to contacting the dead. And the world wide web is luring curious people deeper and deeper into evil.

In Britain today only 26% of us now believe in a personal God. Less than a quarter believe that the Bible is the unique Word of God. 44% believe in some kind of spirit or life force – so nearly twice as many believe in the kind of Force described in ‘Star Wars’, rather than in the personal God described in the Bible. The popularity of that New Age understanding of an impersonal “Force” controlling destiny and events has come primarily from those films! 69% of people think we have a soul, and 25% of people believe in reincarnation. But only 48% of people say that we belong to a particular religion – and that is a decrease of 10% in the last ten years Only about 8% of people call themselves atheists, and this figure has stayed consistent. But in 1990, 54% of people considered themselves “religious’. Today, that figure has halved to LESS than a quarter! 31% of people now prefer to call themselves ‘spiritual’ but NOT religious. 38% of have some kind of awareness of God and 29% claim to have experienced a ‘sacred presence’ in nature. 33% believe in a way to God outside of organised religion. 16% have tried astrology. 17% have tried fortune telling or Tarot.

This change in spiritual climate is not due to people converting to other religions at the expense of Christianity. This is a move away from established religions and towards the private spirituality of the “New Age movement.” “New Age” is an umbrella term which includes all kind of spiritual activities, Many New Age ideas come from far eastern mysticism, or ancient Celtic pagan beliefs and practices. For very many people following aspects of “New Age” teachings, Halloween is the New Age equivalent of Christmas and Easter all rolled into one.

But these New Age ideas which are spreading like wildfire today are not just harmless fun. To borrow my friend Ben Alexander’s slogan, NEW AGE – OLD DECEPTION. Many of the practices of the New Age movement are just the old lies of paganism and eastern mysticism neatly repackaged and remarketed for today’s consumer society.

Listen carefully to God’s warnings in the Bible about the dangers of the occult.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
So nobody can be led astray, let me just list for you now some of the more obvious “New Age” practices which the Bible completely condemns and which Christians must both avoid and oppose.

MAGIC - Manipulating the spirit world to gain power over enemies (black magic) or to help friends (white magic).
wicca, witchcraft, White Witchcraft
spells, curses,
charms, fetishes, occult books and objects, magic healing, crystal healing
levitation, astral projection, ‘‘out of the body experiences’’
blood pacts, Satan worship and praying to the devil
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY FORM OF MAGIC

FORTUNE TELLING - The aim is power through knowledge.
tarot cards, runes, crystal gazing and palm reading, reading tea leaves (etc),
astrology and horoscopes, dowsing, psychometry,
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of fortune telling

SPIRITISM/SPIRITUALISM
Attempting to communicate with spirits of the dead for various purposes.
ouija boards, table turning, automatic writing, séances, mediums, trances,
spiritualist ‘‘churches’’ and spiritual healers.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO with any form of spiritualism
Remember that the Old Testament commanded the death penalty for mediums and any form of spiritualism.
Leviticus 20:26 You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. “`A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.’”

Then there are other things which can be very dangerous

PSYCHIC AND PARANORMAL EVENTS
ghosts and poltergeists,
telepathy and ESP,

SATAN’S COUNTERFEITS
Transcendental Meditation and some other forms of Yoga
Reincarnation
Scientology,
Eastern Mysticism - especially ancestor worship and idol worship.
Tribal pagan and animistic religions including witch-doctors.
Voodoo
Freemasonry
Fantasy games and literature, e.g. Dungeons and Dragons etc
Aspects of Alternative Medicine and some Martial Arts
Ancient Celtic religions and traditional British mysticism
The many faces of the ‘‘New Age’’ movement.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ANY OF THESE THINGS

The problem with all these aspects of the occult is that each and every one can be a doorway to danger! Each one can lead a person away from Jesus Christ and each one can expose a person to the demonic. Demons are very real! What begins with the appearance of harmless fun, ends up for some people in all kinds of evil, grief and pain.

1 Peter 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? Absolutely not! Should Christians even participate in Halloween activities? Absolutely not!!
1. Because of what Halloween represents
2. Because of the dangers of witchcraft in particular
3. Because of the dangers of all the other forms of the occult
All these are doorways to danger. They draw people away from God and can ultimately open their lives to demonic attack and even demonic control.

Lord lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.