The Dark Side of Halloween and The Bewitching of America

 WARNING!
This book is NOT intended for children!  It is written to warn parents and adults of abominations and perversions of Halloween, witchcraft and the occult.

Links to Topics:

Introduction
Purpose
My Past Association With Halloween
Challenge, Research and Change

Introduction

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11

Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

The sidewalks are swarming with excited children and young people masquerading as every imaginable creature and characterwitches, animals, vampires, ghosts, mummies, cartoon characters, alien beings, clowns, devils, skeletons, hideous looking monsters, bloody mutilated beings and more. These kids go door to door shouting "Trick or Treat", hoping to collect a "ton" of candy before the night is over.

Take a look at the houses and yards the children are approaching. Many of them are decorated in a bizarre motif. Tombstones, graves with body parts exposed, ghosts, caldrons, supposed bodies hung by the neck are scattered around the yard and in the trees. Eerie grinning Jack-O-Lanterns watch as the children approach. Skeletons, scarecrows, witches, black cats, etc. decorate the doors and windows.

Oh yes, then there is an array of seasonal entertainment. The "haunted house" is easy enough to spot. You'll be able to find it by the long line and the strange sounds coming out of the old mansion. Likely you will find a group of kids talking about what they've just seen inside...the bloody body in the bathtub, the axe wielding maniac that chased them, the monster that jumped out swinging at them with a chain saw, the body hanging by the neck in the closet, and the refrigerator in the kitchen filled with bloody body parts.

Then, across town there are parties going on, perhaps at school or at a friend's house. The activities are different than the usual party though. There is a group playing with the OUIJA board trying to get it to work and tell them about their futures. Some are watching the latest horror video. Others meet at the graveyard in an effort to contact the dead. Still others are initiated into witchcraft to become "real" witches. Then there are those who go out into the night to raise havoc.

By now you have guessed what is going on. It's HALLOWEEN. To most people it seems like harmless fun. BUT, beneath Halloween's candy coating is a history of diabolical evil, evil that is directly connected to the occult, witchcraft and satanism. You need to be warned of this evil!

Purpose

The purpose of this book is to make you aware of the dark side of Halloween and show you how the demonic principles and practices are beguiling our children and our culture. I have researched this topic for nearly two decades and there is absolutely no doubt about Halloweens occult connection. Halloween has been the occultists most effective tool in bewitching America! It has been and is being used by occultists of all stripes to interject their demonic doctrines into our culture.

It was 1984 when I released the first printed edition of this book under the title, Halloween: Behind The Mask. It included only 16 pages of information exposing Halloweens occult connection. As a result of that little book, I had the opportunity to present the material in churches, at rallies, in Christian schools and on Christian radio and TV programs. Many people were skeptical at first. To my surprise, some of the most antagonistic people I encountered were pastors and heads of Christian ministries and colleges. Many insisted that I was over reacting and that Halloween was just harmless fun. I must tell you, by and large, that is not the response I am getting today. Indeed "the mask" is off of the unholy day. Witches are out of the "broom closet" and peddling their demonic wares on television, in the newspapers, in the bookstores, and in the public schools. Speaking of the public schools. What is happening in your school district? I get calls from around the nation telling me that the Christian celebrations of Christmas (the birth of Christ) and Easter (the resurrection of Christ) are snubbed, maligned and even expelled from some public schools, but, not the occult holiday of Halloween! That is the public school's biggest holiday. Children are often required to write reports on witchcraft. There are public schools that have even brought in witches to tell about their "wonderful, wholesome" religion. In the public schools, witchcraft is "IN" and Christianity is "OUT." While many Christians are waking up to the dark side of Halloween, Americans in general are increasingly being exposed to occult principles and adopting occult practices. Americans are being bewitched. Now, before I jump too far ahead, lets look at The History, The Heroes and The Harm of Halloween.

My Past Association With Halloween

Are you still celebrating Halloween? If you are, I want you to know that I took part in Halloween activities until 1981. That is when I discovered the demonic occult roots of Halloween. Previously, I had been ignorant of the truth about Halloween. But, once I realized the truth about Halloween, the Holy Spirit convicted me that I must obey Ephesians 5:11 "Have NO fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them." Let me share with you some more of the specifics of my involvement with Halloween and how the Lord lead me to renounce the celebration of Halloween.

There are three holidays that nearly every American kid loves; Christmas, Easter and Halloween! I was no different than any other American kid. I looked forward to them all. But there was one holiday that had a dark side, a side that I didn't like, a side that made me very uneasy. That holiday was Halloween. To be sure I liked the candy and I have a "ton" of silver in my teeth to prove it. As I moved into my teen years, I outgrew trick-or-treating or rather, I was told I was too old. My focus became the Halloween parties and dances that were the "in thing" for teenagers. I remember serving on the committee for our Junior Class Halloween party. My job was decorations. So I went to a long forgotten, overgrown, pre-Civil War era cemetery and took a broken tombstone and used it as a part of my Halloween decorations. I felt uneasy about what I had done and to make matters worse, when I cleaned up the old tombstone, I discovered that the person had died on my birthday, January 20th. That really made me uneasy. I looked at that as a bad omen. The party could not get over soon enough for me. I wanted to get that tombstone back to where I had found it, and I did! You might say, "You were too superstitious!" I would agree. But that is just a part of the aura of evil associated with what I call "the dark side of Halloween." Underneath that thin candy coating there was a core of evil and a focus on death and the occult which had always made me uneasy.

My association with Halloween did not stop after high school unfortunately. Even after I entered the ministry and up until 1980 I had taken church youth groups on NIGHTMARE OUTINGS sponsored by an international Christian youth organization. I sponsored Halloween parties in the churches I pastored. Halloween was the only day I associated with witches, witchcraft, the occult and the devil.

Challenge, Research and Change

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

What changed my mind about Halloween? It was an article in a 1975 issue of Moody Monthly Magazine. I was leafing through a back issue when an article by Joy A. Sterling caught my eye entitled, We Should Unmask Halloween. I had missed the article previously. I read the article carefully and reread it again. She wrote in part

We evangelicals cringe at the descriptions of Satan worship in books and shudder at occult rites. But we dress our children as witches and devils and send them out to trick or treat. Whenever the apostles met persons connected with fortune-telling, witchcraft or the occult, the Holy Spirit dealt firmly and swiftly with them. When revival came to Ephesus, the occult books were the first to go (Acts 19:18-19). Anything that conjures up the spirits of evil has to go. And I believe that the symbols of Halloween do conjure up the spirits of evil. Not deliberately, not openly perhaps. But the devil never has been noted for working openly. He tries to convince people that he doesnt exist. And what better way to deny his power and identity than to tell children and their parents that witches, ghosts, fortune-tellers and devils are just for fun?"

Her article really troubled me. I thought, if what this lady says is true, I need to rethink my involvement in Halloween activities. I decided to research Halloween on my own and see if there was anything to what she was saying. WOW! WAS I SHOCKED by what I discovered. What she wrote was indeed true! I indeed had to change my ways. I decided not to celebrate Halloween.

I need to add this note. Many years later Moody Monthly published another article on Halloween. I must tell you how saddened I was when I read Getting a Handle On Halloween, by Linda Shepherd in the October 1993 issue of Moody Monthly that justified participation in Halloween activities. She rationalized her participation in Halloween activities with these words -- "I felt good. I had loved and been loved by my neighbors." Truth is never to be sacrificed on the altars of feeling and love. The Apostle John wrote, 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.