“And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,” 2 Cor. 6:15-17).

Have you noticed how costumes and masks are getting generally more bloody, gory, devilish, fiendish, atrocious and depraved each year? Unfortunately, the gruesome and grotesque and the occult is increasingly glorified in American society, not only on Halloween, but throughout the year in horror movies and in television programs.

All Hallows’ Eve was a night when the dead stalked the countryside, offerings of food and drink were put out for the ghosts, and they passed by to the west always, the direction of the dying sun at sunset.

“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, though shalt not learn to do after the abomination of those nations,” (Deut. 18-9).

Halloween or ALL HALLOWS’ EVE, was originally a festival of fire for the dead and the powers of darkness and occured on the evening of 31 October. In addition, the night before the Christian festival of Hallows’ or ALL SAINTS DAY commemorates the saints and martyrs, and was first introduced in the 7th century. The date was changed from May 13 to November 1 in the following century, allegedly to coincide with and Christianize as a pagan festival of the dead. All Souls’ Day in the Roman Catholic calendar is November 2 and is marked by prayers for the souls of the dead.

Before the coming of Christianity, the pagan Celts in northern Europe held two great fire festivals each year. Beltane on the eve of May 1 and Samhain on the eve of November 1 which was to mark the beginning of summer and winter. These dates have no connection with the equinoxes or solstices, or with sowing and reaping, but seem to date from very early times when Celtic society depended heavily on cattle for subsistence. Samhain marked the beginning of winter and was the time when the cattle were brought in from pasture to spend the winter under cover in addition to being the beginning of a new year. Because the Celtic day started at sunset, and ran to the following sunset, the festival began on the eve of November 1.

“Wherever the marks of the Church are evident . . . that is, preaching, the Word, the sacraments, and church discipline . . . inevitably, the surrounding culture will be changed.” John Calvin.

TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE

It is at work in the toughest places in our society –– inside cold, barren prisons like Newton, Iowa. At least half of the prisoners were unbelievers when they arrived, and yet within a short time, the whole prison culture had been transformed. The staff explained that when the Christian inmates arrived, they began meeting for prayer regularly. The same thing has happened in our Texas and Kansas prisons, and is now happening in our fourth prison in Minnesota. The evidence is indisputable: The church when it is the Church, behind prison walls is transforming the surrounding culture. But there’s a lesson here for the rest of us –– we should reflect upon as celebrate the resurrection.

Evangelicals are shameful! You are casual about the Church. We hop from one church to the next; we act more like spectators than participants. Our lack of commitment to the Church is one reason 68 percent of Americans say there’s no such thing as moral truth. But when, we get serious and become the Church we’re supposed to be . . . worshiping, praying, studying the Word, celebrating the sacraments and ordinances, administering discipline . . . our culture will be transformed. If it can happen in the prisons, where people come from the most hopeless backgrounds imaginable, it can . . . by God’s grace . . . happen in your community.

The Second World War drove true Christianity underground in Poland but then made it more necessary than ever. The clergy were given special attention by Hitler’s National Socialist Party. “Priests will preach what we tell them to preach and if any priest acts differently, we will make short work of him; the task of a priest acts to keep the Poles quiet, stupid and dull-witted,” said an order from Hitler to Hans Frank, his Governor General in Poland, on October 2, 1939. The appearance of the “New Age Socialism” will again eventually demand an underground church that refuses to serve narrow political ends.

Although the above statement may seem outlandish to the typical prosperous, confident, materialistic American Christian who has the inclination to brush aside talk of crisis, the truth is that a large branch of the Body of Christ in the world is being tortured, martyred and worships underground. Christians must understand there is an attack on nationalism and religion which in combination are significant influences that are alive and viable.