History behind Halloween

 All Hallows Eve

Once again, America gears up for the modern celebration of All Hallows Eve or as we commonly know it as Halloween. I remember when we went out with our friends, going from door to door amassing as much candy and fruit as we could get. And we ate about half of it on the way home.

We wore costumes intended to put fear in the hearts of those we met. The costumes were skeletons, devils, fairies, bats, werewolves, and other various animals. We would knock on the doors of the prospective victims of our terror and say, “Trick or Treat” and be rewarded with a fake scream and some candy. As we got older the candy bags faded away and the practical jokes begun. TPing trees and cars were one of the favorite pranks. We egged the cars and houses (not one of my prouder moments). Eventually, I wearied of the pranks and quit going altogether.

Today, the holiday has gone from going house to attending Fall Festivals and Trunk ‘N Treat events. This transformation of the celebration is due in part to psychotic individuals who would lace fruit and candy with drugs and razor blades and other unhealthy things. The change was necessary to maintain safety for all participants.

I attended a church that set up Trunk ‘N Treat events for two years and was successful. The members of the church would decorate their cars with various non-scary themes and pass out candy to the kids who came by. Food was provided and there were games they could play.

Origins of Halloween. We know that the holiday has its origins in Samhain or the Druid celebration of the Harvest and the end of summer. They also characterize it as a time when the spirit world would crossover into the living world. They believed these spirits were mischievous, causing trouble and sometimes crop damage. They also believed that these spirits would make it easier for the Druids to make predictions about the future. This was important to a person living in a volatile world. The people would start bonfires, comprising crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The people also wore animal skins to help fool the spirits.

The Druids, Celtic priests, ruled through occult terror and human sacrifices for centuries. They were deemed kings of occult practitioners and were known for worshipping evil spirits and offering human sacrifices to their demon gods.

The Celtic peoples lived in what we now know as Britain, Ireland, France, and Spain. The Romans completed their conquest of the Celtic peoples circa 43 A.D. The Romans gained a considerable amount of their culture from the peoples they conquered. During their four-century occupation of the Celtic lands, the Romans combined two of their festivals with Samhain. The first of these was Feralia, which is a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The other was a day the Romans honored Pomona, a Roman goddess of fruits and trees.

In 609 A.D... Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to honor the Christian Martyrs and thus establishing All Martyrs Day in the Western church. Later, Pope Gregory III included all deceased saints and moved the celebration from 13 May to 1 November.

By the 9th century, Christianity had spread to Celtic lands and eventually blended with and undermined their older rites. In 1000 A.D. the church made 2 November All Souls Day to honor the dead. They celebrated all Souls Day in the fashion of Samhain with bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. All Saints’ Day was called All-hallows and Samhain, which was celebrated the night before All-hallows was called All Hallows Eve, which soon became Halloween.

Halloween Comes to America. There was very scattered celebration of Halloween in the northern colonies due to the strong Protestant belief regimen. The southern colonies were more relaxed; therefore, Halloween celebrations were more commonplace.

In the southern colonies the European Halloween traditions assimilated Native American traditions and a distinctly American Halloween celebration emerged. The first events included “play parties” which were public events to celebrate the harvest. People would gather and tell stories of the dead, read each other’s fortunes, sing, and dance. The celebrations included the telling of ghost stories and general mischief making. By the middle of the 19th century, autumn festivals were common, but Halloween was not celebrated everywhere.

Between 1845-1852 some two million Irish immigrants arrived in America, to escape the Irish Potato Famine. They brought with them their Halloween traditions, and Halloween became a more celebrated event.

Some European Halloween traditions include Dooking (Scottish bobbing for apples), fireworks, games, mischief, and Pulchi, an Irish fortune telling game. Naughty children and not evil spirits, as believed in the past, caused most shenanigans folks encountered.

Trick or Treat in America. Borrowing from the European traditions, Americans began dressing up in costumes and to go from door to door asking for money or food. This practice eventually developed into our modern-day trick or treat praxis.

In the late 19th century, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a more community-oriented event. The purpose was to remove the more devilish elements from the celebration, such as ghost stories, pranks, and witchcraft. By the turn of the century, Halloween parties for adults and children were commonplace. These parties comprised games, food of the season, and festive costumes.

Modern Celebrations. By the 1920’s and 1930’s Halloween had become a more secular and community celebration. The activities included parades and town wide parties.

By the 1950’s Halloween had evolved into holiday with the focus on young people. With the baby boomers the traditional town celebrations moved into the classroom and homes. Between the 1920’s and 1950’s came the revival of traditional “trick or treating.”

Is Halloween a Christian Holiday? Clearly, Halloween is rooted in the pagan rituals of the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Little is known about how the Satanists celebrate Halloween but Anton LeVay, founder of the Church of Satan, stated that Halloween was one the important holidays of the year for Satanists.

Margista Blanche Barton, a former high priestess of the Church of Satan, said of this holiday; “Halloween is traditionally a time when the obscure portal into the realms of darkness, death and the supernatural is thrown open.”

Wiccans, whose members are practitioners of witchcraft and nature worship, also celebrate Halloween as a major holiday.

Therefore, the answer to this question is no, it is not a Christian holiday.

Conclusion. You cannot be a Christian and celebrate Halloween, you cannot play on both sides of the street:

1 Corinthians 10:21 (KJV) Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.

The devil is come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). He does not have your best interests at heart:

1 Peter 5:8 (KJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

As innocent as it may seem Halloween celebrations are snares created by the devil to lure you from God. The costumes of skeletons, black cats, monsters, pentagrams, etc. are satanic symbols.

2 Corinthians 11:14 (KJV) And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan is a liar (John 8:44), a master of deceit. He can make things appear good when they are in fact bad (Genesis 3:4-6) and lead you down a path of misery. The bible warns about getting involved with the works of darkness:

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

While Satan got Anton LeVay and Aleister Crowley he does not have to get you. The bible says:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (KJV) For there isnot a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

Romans 3:23 (KJV) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23 (KJV) For the wages of sin isdeath; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Revelation 21:8 (KJV) But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The aforementioned verses present a grim end for us all. However, God is not willing that any should perish so he gave us a solution to our sin problem:

John 3:16 (KJV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 10:9 (KJV) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Romans 10:10 (KJV) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 (KJV) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And he promised you eternal life:

John 6:37 (KJV) All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

1 John 5:13 (KJV) These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

It is my sincere hope that you will seriously consider your eternal destiny and choose Jesus Christ as your saviour and have eternal life in heaven.

Believer's Heritage- Bibles To Middle East and Asia

Nico Verhoef (Missionary to Switzerland), Kiran Kumar (Bible Believing India TV and India KJV Bible Institute), Tim Carpenter (Bearing Precious Seed) and Final Fight Bible Radio are teaming up to get

•    5,000 Bibles,
•    8,000 NTs and
•    8,000 John & Romans 

…printed for the KJV Bible Institute students in India to distribute across India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in the languages of Hindi, Telegu, Nepali, Farsi, Pashtu and Urdu.

Until now, the people in these countries have only had Alexandrian-based Bibles, but after many years of labour, Nico Verhoef  has tracked down Philadelphia-era, Textus Receptus-based Bibles in the various languages of these regions,  is having them reprinted with doctrinal corrections from the KJV  and is making them available to the people in these countries!

From September 15 - November 1st, Final Fight Bible Radio will try and help cover production costs for these Bibles and we need your help! 

If you would like to participate in getting Bibles to the people in these countries, you can help by contributing in any of the following:

• $3.00 donation = Whole Bible
• $1.00 donation = New Testament
• $0.25 donation = John & Romans

Click the link below to take you to the donation page and as always, 100% of what you donate to this project, goes to this project! 

India Bible Project

It Is Well With My Soul (poem)

 When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live;
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

-Horatio G Spafford

This hymn was written after the death of his four-year-old son and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and the loss of his four daughters when the ship they were sailing on sank after a collision at sea. His wife sent him a telegram "Saved alone". As he was traveling to meet his wife, he wrote these words on the ship as he sailed over the place where the wrecked vessel that was his daughters tomb lay below the waters of the sea.

On The Rapture: PART 2

On The Rapture: PART 1

The Missing Man

Ezekiel 22:30-  And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. 

We are reading of a hopeless situation with no remedy. The nation was being judged for its wickedness.

Proverbs 14:34- Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

Psalms 9:17- The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Isaiah 40:17- All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

God states in this passage that he sought for a man to make a difference. Just one man. It is obvious that in such desperate times, He made allowance for just one.

Genesis 18:32- And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

There were at times in the history of the nation of Israel where a man did stand up in righteousness and ward off the impending judgment.

Exodus 32:7-14- And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Psalms 106:21-23- They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.

1 Kings 19:14- And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And yet, there was still a silent remnant that was reserved.

1 Kings 19:18- Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Where is the missing man today? Or woman like Queen Esther, or Deborah the prophetess, who hazarded their lives to stand for what was right?

Psalms 12:1- Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

Isaiah 59:4,14-16- None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

Isaiah 63:5- And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 

Jeremiah 5:1- Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

Psalms 94:16- Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

Ezekiel 13:3-6- Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.

Even in the throes of the Babylonian captivity, Israel still had Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 18:20- Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

Jeremiah 30:12-13- For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

Hosea 7:7- They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

What is needed is a mediator who can intercede to God on our behalf.

Job 9:30-35- If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

Thank God for our Savior!

1 Timothy 2:5- For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Isaiah 53:12- Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Romans 8:34- Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Hebrews 7:25- Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Neither the Virgin Mary, nor the saints are interceding on your behalf. 

Job 5:1- Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?

Job 15:15- Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

Now, will YOU be the man or woman that God can count on or are you missing in action? When this country goes down the drain, will it have had anyone trying to stand in the gap praying for God's mercy?

Ezekiel 9:4- And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

1 Timothy 2:1-8- I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

If you don't hold the line for your family, who will?

Romans 9:1-5- I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 7:16- For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? 

1 Peter 3:1-2- Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.

Job 1:5- And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

Phil Kidd had an Uncle and Aunt that prayed for him before his conversion. If you don't intercede for your brethren, who will?

1 Corinthians 5:1-2- It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

1 John 5:16- If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

Will you make a difference? Will you be the man or woman that God finds standing in the gap and making the hedge? Or will there be none.

Psalms 142:4- I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. 

-Adam Trosclair

King James Bible Baptist Church