All Bets Are On God!
December 22, 2016
My Top 10 Favorite Holiday TV Lessons!
December 22, 2016
Halloween and Biblical Faith
Is there a Monster under your bed?
By Vinnie MacIsaac
It is interesting to me that the word holiday comes from the linguistic heritage of “Holy Day.” Originally all western “holidays,” were early church holy days. As Western Civilization evolved and multiple stages of development took place this concept for better or worse got lost among us.
This brings me to an idea I’d like to discuss in brief; Often at this time of year, Christians get all worked up about Halloween. Just check your social media and you will find the endless post, debates, and clever images about the Christian debate of this “holiday.” In fact, Halloween, if you like it or hate it, has a very religious background. According to The American Desk Encyclopedia, the etymology of the word means hallowed evening or holy evening. It was originally the evening before the day that the church dedicated to remembering the dead in particular the martyrs who gave their lives to keep the faith alive. By the middle-ages, it had evolved to include the concepts of saints and purgatory and then as with most church holidays as they spread out they picked up an arraignment of pagan influences. Soon saints became spirits and it was not long before witches and Jack-o’-lanterns and such were added to the mix.
Clearly, as a Protestant Christian, I can’t and don’t believe in purgatory or praying to dead saints anymore then I can believe in ghosts or witches and Jack-o’-lanterns. But I will tell you what I do very much believe in; I do think we all need to be incredibly thankful and filled with holy gratitude for the millions of martyrs who gave their lives to keep this faith alive.
Speaking of martyrs here is an interesting Halloween fact that most of us lose sight of; October 31st is not only Halloween but is it Reformation Day. It is the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Schlosskirche church in Wittenberg. While Luther’s objections had been provoked by the practice of Indulgences (the idea that you could pay a fee to the church to be excused of a sin) he set off the firestorm that became the Protestant Reformation. The founding principles of the Protestant Reformation were Sola scriptura (by the Bible alone), Sola fide (justification by faith alone), and Sola gratia (salvation by grace alone). In essence, Protestants wanted to follow their own convictions in matters of faith and be true to what they came to understand to be Biblical faith. And what was the cost of such a noble desire? Estimates of the death toll of the Protestant Reformation greatly vary depending on the faith background of the historian, but it is believed to be somewhere between 50-150 million people died because they were declared heretics for following their own beliefs rather than the Roman Catholic dogma. So again I say, let us remember the martyrs who died to keep this Biblical faith alive!
Oh, how ironic it is that on the very day the world should be celebrating Martin Luther, Religious Liberty, and the free of conviction for all, they are instead fixated on paying honor to evil in its various forms. This Halloween I tell you there is a monster under your bed. Evil has not gone away, religious oppression has not been lifted out of this world, nor has the idea of killing people because of their religious beliefs suddenly disappeared. This Halloween I call you to join in Reformation day and join my protest.
Sola scriptura (By Scripture Alone)
Sola Fide (By Faith Alone)
Sola gratia (By Grace Alone)
I am a Protestant, and I still protest!
-
I protest all who seek to force their convictions unwillingly upon others.
-
I protest all who would try to take the liberty of choice in religious matters away from the masses.
-
I protest all who label others with terms like heretic so that they can simply dismiss their views and attack their character rather than their ideas.
I protest all who think it would be better for someone to be dead than to believe wrong (differently) or even not at all.
And lastly, I protest all who use religion as an excuse to hate, discriminate, and use physical violence or murder as a means to an end.
Join me, if only for this day, and become a Protestant this Halloween, rather then a demon in disguise hiding under the bed of religion.
Related Articles:
4 Comments
As usual, Vinnie keeps it simple, but deep. He gives us a glimpse into our own psyche then coaxes us to hold it up to the light of Scripture to see how we check out.
Thank you Vickie! You are my biggest fan. Sometimes I write just sone you have something good to read. 😉
Very timely, thank you. Last year I brought out a fictionalised biography of Katharina von Bora (Katharina: Deliverance) – minus the rather silly legends such as escaping from Nimbschen in herring barrels – and it was scheduled to be launched to meet the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The bookshop asked did i really want to launch it on Halloween and I decided not to, that it might be a distraction – reading this article I now realise I made a mistake – I should have emphasised Reformation Day. (PS Katharina: Deiverance has just placed 2nd in the (international) Historical Novel Society new Novel Award 2018 – which ic pleasing considering this is a secular competition and yet a book with an overtly Christian subject matter did well in it.
Yep, it is time to take back this Holiday!