On the eve of what many celebrate as Halloween or All Saints Eve (Catholics Online, n.d.), some of my students engaged in a robust conversation about the rituals observed on that day. Some shared what their families did, including turning all the lights off, closing the blinds, and retreating to the lower floors of their homes to evade any candy seekers.
When they asked if I participated in the trick or treat time my answer was no. However I did share that of all other days, Halloween is, in my opinion, one of the most crucial dates on the calendar for Protestant faiths.
This day is over ripe with opportunities to meet and engage with neighbors we normally we would not. They may be in the dark, not just when they knock on your door. They may be in the dark about why they partake in the rituals and festivities of the day.
Does it make sense to add more darkness to an already dark day?
We cocoon His light, hiding behind our closed blinds, locked doors, and purposeful escape from Halloween. Where is the light of knowledge? Where is the light of care and concern? Where is the guiding light of freedom lifting up the New Age veil of darkness? The light is Jesus and HIs Father commissioned us to let shine in the darkness with the promise that the darkness would not win? Do we give credence to the Apostle John’s designation of who the light is in John 1:5? “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Real and Ritualistic
History teaches that Halloween was born from an ancient Celtic religion called Samhain (pronounced “sow-win”). Ancient Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles, in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France celebrated from October 31 through November 1. This was the beginning of the new Celts’ year (History.com Editors, 2024).
Those who celebrated Samhain held the belief that during this time the barriers between the physical world and the spirit world broke down, thus granting permission for more interaction between humans between the two. Samhain, a part of the Wicca religion, is still observed today in the pagan and Wiccan communities. It calls for mandatory observance with the celebration lasting three days and three nights (History.com Editors, 2024). At the end of the three days, “The community is required to show themselves to local kings or chieftains. Failure to participate was believed to result in punishment from the gods, usually illness or death (History.com Editors, 2024). A more concise understanding can be found in this excerpt from the article, “The thousand-year-old history of Halloween.”
“Priests held rituals, and people lit bonfires to brighten the dark to scare away supernatural beings. People donned masks to disguise themselves from the ghosts, faeries, and demons that were thought to roam this night. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day in May. The date of this celebration was later moved to November 1st, possibly to overshadow any pagan traditions of Samhain, possibly because coinciding with the harvest meant there were more resources available at that time of year. Either way, this made the night before, October 31st, All Saints’ Eve or All Hallows’ Eve, hence Halloween. Later, All Souls’ Day was proclaimed on November 2nd, introducing another Christian religious holiday to the period. Together, beginning with Halloween on October 31st, these three days are sometimes called Allhallowtide.” (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2023).
Commercial Dominance
Halloween has also migrated from just a religious observance to occupying space with commercialism first in the United States and spreading into other countries. I won’t dwell on the pumpkin carving, costume wearing, or delve into the history of the candy phenomenon. These stats should give us a pretty amazing picture of the cost of this holiday, largely observed by non-religious groups. Arielle Feger’s article in eMarketer shows us a “key stat” which quite frankly made my jaw drop.
Discount stores (37%) remain the primary destination to buy Halloween items, followed by specialty Halloween/costume stores (33%), and online (33%), per the National Retail Federation (NRF).
- Consumers will spend on candy ($3.5 billion), decorations ($3.8 billion), followed by costumes ($3.8 billion), and greeting cards ($500 million).
- Total spending on adult costumes is expected to reach $1.8 billion, while spending on children’s costumes is anticipated to hit $1.3 billion. Spending on pet costumes remains steady, reaching $700 million this year (Feger, 2024).
Religion’s Deep Shadows Dispelled
As those shadows flee, allow me to shift your attention to another historical event, just as hallowed by Protestants worldwide. It falls on this
same day. October 31, 2024 marks the 507th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
This movement released many true believers from the shadows of purgatory, penance, and the income machine of indulgences. The man God used as a catalyst and agitator to the seat of the Pope and Roman Catholicism was Martin Luther, a German Theologian, referred to as “Wild Boar In the Vineyard.”
Luther was born into Catholicism on November 10, 1483 enslaved by the idea of sudden death and denial of salvation and brutally abused to his body as penance for his sins. Luther, who in 1505 became a Catholic Monk, was accustomed to hard punishment, according to James Kittleson, in his article “The Accidental Revolutionary.”
“Both his mother and father beat him in frightening ways” (Kittleson, 2015). Luther’s theological journey continued to lead him in Biblical discovery. He discovered the freedom, and the one way street to salvation, through Jesus–not the work of rituals, and self punishment. He campaigned to shed this new light within Catholicism. It was at the Heidelberg Disputation in May 1518, as he was put on trial before the Augustinian General Council, that he called the theology of the Roman Church “Theology of Glory.” But there he introduced the “Theology of the Cross” (Wicks, 1983), that encompassed:
- the centrality of cross
- that belief that only Jesus can forgive sins
- the willingness to be nothing for God’s glory
Faith as Wildfire
Martin Luther was truly a “Wild Boar” in the Germany vineyard, trampling over everything done to dissuade him from preaching the freedom of a life only through Jesus the Christ. He refuted every other false avenue to salvation. In his view, the Reformation happened because the pope tried to hinder him from fulfilling his vocation of expounding the Scriptures” (George, n.d.).
October 31, 1517 held in its hands, the convergence of the darkness cloaked in a Catholic ritual called All Saints Eve (Halloween) with the emergence of a light to remove the blocking threat of indulgences. planted a seed of justification by faith which grew wilder and faster than the pagan ritual.
That day the Archbishop of Mainz commissioned Johann Tetzel, a German Dominican friar and preacher, to sell indulgences, with the funds raised going to the building of more elaborate Cathedrals and the expansion of the Papacy (Gritsch, n.d.).
With the clarity gained about salvation, and observing Tetzel’s sales, Luther rose in protest. He nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle
Church in Wittenberg, Germany (Gritsch, n.d.). But God wasn’t done showing His might and control over His Word. A group of youth took the 95 Theses and with the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press, just like that the baton was passed to the information highway. They were translated into the common language of the people and within two weeks of the first printing, it spread like wildfire across Germany (Kittleson, 2015).
Free and Clear
Luther died an excommunicated monk but a free Christian. His freedom was in his conscience through faith in Jesus. He said of this conscience, “Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds of reasoning . . . then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience” (George, n.d.). Luther, speaking about the clarified understanding of the
- The work of Salvation
- The Righteousness of Jesus in relationship with justice
- Justice does not refer to punishment of sinners; righteousness is given to those who live by faith.
- Justification is the free gift of God
to sinners
“What I began as a Doctor,” Luther said, “I must truly confess to the end of my life. I cannot keep silent or cease to teach” (George, n.d.).
Luther’s legacy as a conscientious theologian serve as stepping stones in the renewing of the mind from self gratification to full trust in the blood of Jesus. October 31, 1517 was a dark day for Christians and yet the light of the Word was not overcome by the darkness. I wonder if that light still shines through the Protestant churches or has darkness enveloped our face into a false security, but dying? Dying while assimilating back into indulgences therefore the world cannot decipher if we are on the side of the enemy or truly a child of God?
Back Under the Shadows?
Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive’s author Thom Rainer wrote;
“Rarely does a church move from the category of “symptoms of sickness ‘to’ very sick” overnight. It’s more of a continuum….from one day to the next, nothing seems to change. But there is an underlying deterioration taking place. Without intervention, the situation only gets worse. There is no clearly defining moment when we can declare the church has moved into the “very sick” category…conditions worsen gradually but progressively over time (Rainer, 2014).
Is the Protestant church is becoming unrecognizable because the great commision has become mundane? Do we trust in our works like the world or by grace through faith in Jesus the Christ? Is our light blocked by the weapons of the enemy, and cares and indulgences of the world, or are we shining uninhibited by the power of God? I wonder if we are operating with a form of religion or worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth? 507 years later we must renew the lifeline of the church, standing firm on the Kingdom principles of Reformation which are:
- Sola Scriptura
- Sola Fide
- Sola Gratia
- Solus Christos
- Soli Deo Gloria
Michael W Campbell and Nikolaus Satelmajer in the book Here We Stand: Luther, the Reformation, and Seventh-day Adventism, Why Luther Matters Today:
The Seventh-Day Adventist perspective, The Great Controversy highlights that understanding repeatedly and carries it from Luther right through to the end of earthly history. “In our time,” we read, “there is a wide departure from their [the Scriptures’] doctrines and precepts, and there is a need of a return to the great Protestant principle – the Bible and the Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty…. The same unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of the Reformation is the only hope of reform today” (Campbell & Satelmajer, Eds, 2017).
“There is no escaping the reality that history will remember where you stood in this moment. Be on the right side of history,” Pastor C.J. Cousins, Stone Mountain Church. May we keep standing in the light and not the dark. May we let our light shine to dispel the darkness in all the world 365 days a year. Happy Protestant Reformation Day!
References
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2024, June 18). All Saints’ Day | Definition, History, & Facts. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/All-Saints-Day
Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW (THAN THE DEVIL YOU DON’T) definition | Cambridge English Dictionary. Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/better-the-devil-you-know-than-the-devil-you-don-t
Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). HALLOW | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/hallow
Campbell, M. W., & Satelmajer, N. (Eds.). (2017). Here We Stand: Luther, the Reformation, and Seventh-day Adventism. Pacific Press Publishing Association.
Catholics Online. (n.d.). All Saints’ Day – Saints & Angels. Catholic Online. https://www.catholic.org/saints/allsaints/
Dictionary.com. (n.d.). HALLOWEEN Definition & Meaning. Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/halloween
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2023, September 13). The Haunting History of Halloween. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/video/origins-of-Halloween-explained/-287163
Eve – Definition, Meaning & Synonyms. (n.d.). Vocabulary.com. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/eve
Feger, A. (2024, September 30). 4 key stats on Halloween: Shopping starts earlier but consumers spend less. eMarketer. https://www.emarketer.com/content/4-key-stats-on-halloween–shopping-starts-earlier-consumers-spend-less
George, T. (n.d.). Dr. Luther’s Theology | Christian History Magazine. Christian History Institute. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/dr-luthers-theology
Gritsch, E. W. (n.d.). The straw that broke the camel’s back. Twenty-Five Writings that Changed the Church and the World, (116). https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/the-straw-that-broke-the-camels-back
Kittleson, J. M. (2015). The accidental revolutionary. Martin Luther and the Reformation, (Issue #115). https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/the-accidental-revolutionary-115
Rainer, T. S. (2014). Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. B&H Publishing Group.
The Science of Light and Shadows | Science in Pre-K. (n.d.). Science in Pre-K. https://scienceinprek.si.edu/science-light-and-shadows
Wicks, J. (1983, October). Roman Reactions to Luther: The First Year (1518). The Catholic Historical Review, 69(4), 521-562.
Wilde, O. 1. (2003). The picture of Dorian Gray. London ; New York, N.Y., Penguin.
