Should we celebrate Halloween, Christmas or Easter?

If I were to give you a cup of poison, and say, “Drink it!”, would you drink it? Perhaps not, right?

But what if I were to put the poison in a beautifully decorated gold cup? Would that make it more palatable? You would probably say, “Ah no, it’s still poison, and it can harm or kill me.”

But what if I add some milk to it? You can’t see the poison now, and the cup is still gold – won’t you drink it now? I’m betting that you would still not drink it.

But what if everyone else is drinking it? What if I were able to successfully convince your friends and relatives, and pretty much everyone else to drink it? Would you then drink it? In that case, I guess it would depend on how much of an independent thinker you were.

When it comes to your Christian walk, it is good to be an independent thinker, because Satan loves to give people spiritual poison (stuff that harms their walk with God) to drink. He will make it as palatable as needed.

There are guys who specialize in messing virgins up. They start by talking with the virgin. When the virgin accepts their company, they move to casual touching. The virgin might initially feel uncomfortable, but with a little insistence, she allows it. Her parents watch this in horror, and try to warn her, but she doesn’t have the good sense to listen to them. Soon, they move to hugging, and then caressing, and then kissing, and not long after, the virgin has lost her virginity. Shortly after that, the guy moves on, to the next virgin, and the poor girl, who is a virgin no more, is devastated.

That is a picture of how Satan operates. You are like the virgin, and God is like the parent.

God tells us that, on this earth, we are like sheep in the midst of wolves.

Mt 10:16 16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Just picture a sheep in the midst of wolves. That’s what you and I are in this world. Most of the time, for the sheep, this situation will result in certain death. Only outside help will save the sheep. For such a sheep to survive, it needs to be very, very careful in what help it accepts. For us, God’s word is the only acceptable help.

For spiritual things, we have to rely only on God’s word – nothing more, and nothing less. That is the only way we will be able to escape the wolves. In practice, it means that we don’t do things just because others do it. We don’t do things just because it seems okay. If God doesn’t ask us to do it, we don’t do it.

Take Halloween, for example – it has pagan origins. So does Christmas, and so does Easter. So then, why should a professing Christian have anything to do with these things?

The very first commandment tells us that we should not have any gods besides the Lord. So it is clear that God doesn’t want us to celebrate pagan festivals. Halloween, Christmas and Easter all have pagan origins. Sure, they are now put in a gold cup studded with diamonds, and mixed with milk, but the poison is still there. Sure, everyone else might be drinking it, but if God tells us not to drink it, why drink it?

Here is what God had to say about the Israelites in Moses’ time.

Ps 106:34-43 34 They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, 35 but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices, 36 and served their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, 38 and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with the blood. 39 Thus they became unclean in their practices, and played the harlot in their deeds. 40 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against His people and He abhorred His inheritance. 41 Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power. 43 Many times He would deliver them; they, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sank down in their iniquity.

Hopefully, He won’t say the same thing about you and me.

Some people justify celebrating pagan festivals disguised with a Christian theme by saying that it helps witness to unbelievers. Will God buy such an argument?

Well, King Saul tried something similar, and it didn’t fly. Instead, Saul lost his kingdom, and worse still, his anointing. You can read the story of how it went down in 1 Samuel 15.

In the spiritual realm, we need to be careful, and not gullible. Not everything is as it seems to be! Satan is devious and deceitful and will try to take advantage of you in every way he can.

In the Old Testament, when Moses built the tabernacle (the place where God resided) he built it exactly the way God commanded him to do it. God mentions that repeatedly. I don’t think that there is any other thing in the entire Bible, where God points out again and again, like how He pointed out how Moses built the tabernacle - exactly as He commanded. So it must be very, very important to God, don’t you think?

You can read about it in Ex 39 and Ex 40. Let me just focus on the point near the end of building and setting up the tabernacle. Here is what God said.

Ex 40:16 Thus Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did.

It was only when everything was done just as the Lord commanded that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Ex 40:34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Today, the church is the tabernacle (the place where God resides). If God was interested in all the details of how the tabernacle was built, surely He is also interested in how things are done in His church today. When it concerns the church, we too need to do things exactly as God commanded, nothing more, and nothing less. Only then will the glory of God be present in the church.

If God wanted us to celebrate the birth or resurrection of His Son, Jesus, He would have mentioned it in His word. If He didn’t, let’s leave it alone.

We are told to remember the death of Christ when we eat the bread and drink the cup (commonly referred to as communion) and that we should do. But Halloween, Christmas, Easter?

Here is what I’ve learned over the years: if you want to walk with God, don’t do things that are bound to upset Him. When you do that, He distances Himself from you, and that is a loss to you.

Don’t drink the poison that Satan dishes out. Be shrewd as a serpent, for you are like a sheep amongst wolves.