Halloween: A Matter of Life and Death

The popular Halloween holiday celebrated in America today is a patchwork of religious and cultural traditions spanning two thousand years. Some early folklore endures in symbols like witches, skeletons, ghosts, and the devil, as well as in activities like carving jack-o-lanterns, dressing up in costumes, and trick or treating.

Some believed that on the eve of the new year, October 31st, when summer turned to winter, the barrier of the spiritual realm became so thin that spirits of those who died could cross over into the world of the living. During this time, many people practiced divination, religious rituals, and dressed in demonic costumes or left treats on doorsteps to keep the spirits from harming them.

Much of these practices were conducted out of fear and uncertainty and focused on spiritual darkness and death.

While our Halloween celebrations today, as a general rule, do not involve these dark beliefs or practices, it is still a good time to consider how a season typically focused on fear and dark magic, and the world of the dead, can urge us to set our hearts on something much greater – of supernatural victory, light, and life filled with the assurance of hope.

Spiritual Realms

Halloween is a time of year that we are clearly reminded of the reality of unseen, dark spiritual forces at work.

In fact, the Bible says that we should be aware that these forces are present and seeking to harm our souls, and we should be ready to fight these spiritual battles (see Ephesians 6:12). The Bible also warns that there would come a time when some would devote themselves to “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). We are urged to be alert and to resist the devil (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8), who desires to keep our souls in the darkness of sin and death for all of eternity.

Supernatural Salvation

But we do not need to live in fear, for the greatest supernatural act that our world has ever seen is when God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, from Heaven to the earth to make a way for us to overcome that darkness.

“He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Jesus showed He had this power by commanding these demonic spirits to come out of men and women that they had been harming (see Mark 9:25, Matthew 8:16, etc.).

But in an even greater show of His authority and power, Jesus took all the sin of the world on His shoulders and willingly suffered and died on a Roman cross. Through His sacrifice, the power of sin was destroyed, and He made it possible for us to be made right with God through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). And not only that, Jesus rose from the grave three days later, showing that He had the power and authority to bring complete forgiveness and everlasting life to all who put their faith and trust in Him.

Light Overpowers the Darkness

Jesus Christ broke through that spiritual darkness to show us the way to true light and eternal life. In fact, He called Himself the “Light of the World” (John 8:12), and the Bible says that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

We have a choice to remain in the darkness or to live in this light. To live in darkness means to continue living in the sin that leads to death, and to be unwilling to let God forgive you and make you new.

The Bible says that some have rejected Jesus Christ, the light that came into the world, because they “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”, and they did not want to be convicted and change (see John 3:19-20).

But those who trust in Jesus Christ are drawn to the light to experience the salvation and life that only God can bring through His love and grace.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Then, we can walk forever in the light of God, because in Him “is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Death to Life

This Halloween, we can celebrate Jesus Christ, the only One who crossed into this worldly realm and had the power and will to save us.

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).