Why do some Christian Churches Celebrate Halloween???

Just in the interest of accuracy, I didn't hear a "snap"

 

There. :thumbsup:

 

That child may not be promoting the sins that the Biblical character commited, but that child is guilty of one thing for sure...

Hypocrisy!

What is a Hypocrite? A pretender; a false professor; insincerity. The Greek word hypokrites referred to a play actor who wore a mask to represent an identity other than his own.

A parent who allows his or her child to wear masks depicting them of being or representing anyone other than who that child actually is, is condoning hypocrisy in that child.

 

wearing a costume is hypocrisy?

Now that's absolutely silly.

 

Please, if you are going to decry something as a sin at least try to be accurate, the crystals in superman are not a divination tool but a memory storage device much like your harddrive.

Gee, I sure hope you have never been in a church skit, christmas pagent, or any reinactment of the Biblical narrative.

That is also true, but at least on this board we are more likely to find those who are searching out things to be against.

I do have to wonder do all the people who are against Halloween and we might as well throw in Fantasy since Gandalf has been brought up, how much do they honestly know about real magick? I say this because what is presented in popular lore is nothing like real magick which involves the invocation of spirits and demons.

 

some churches and people celebrate Hallowe'en the same as they celebrate Christmas and Easter..........the days don't have the same connotation they had many years ago.

I can't get real excited about it one way or the other.

Happy Hallowe'en,

Jim

 

Don't believe one is a hypocrite when one wears a mask? Look up the word in the Greek. Never mind, I will post it:

[SIZE=+1]5273. hupokrites[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Search for G5273 in KJVSL[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]upokrithV[/SIZE] hupokrites hoop-ok-ree-tace'
an actor under an assumed character (stage-player)

And in the American Tract Society Dictionary:
HYPOCRITE
One who, like a stage-player, feigns to be what he is not. The epithet is generally applied to those who assume the appearance of virtue or piety, without possessing the reality. Our Savior accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy, Lu 12:1.

 

We didn't "celebrate" Halloween, we siezed an opportunity!

Our church held a "Fall Festival" where we opend our doors, on a busy city street, to about 500 kids and adults, not in the "best" neighborhood in town. The kids could sign up for a drawing to win a bike (which was donated to us). They played carnival type games like ring toss and knocking over bottles where anyone who tried got candy and a ticket. The more tickets you got, the better prize you could "buy" with them. Prizes all donated to us. We served donated hot dogs, sausages and meatballs. After the games a rally was held with a band and the Gospel preached. People stayed around because the bike drawing was of course at the end.

Why did we do it?

To preach the Gospel
To show the community we care and God cares
To keep the kids off the dangerous streets
To keep the teens out of trouble
To let people know that our church is a welcoming place

Does anyone have a problem with that?

 

Good for you Debby..............and you did it because that is what the kids on the streets of Philly understand best, and hence the best way to present the Lord.

Cheers,

Jim

 

What drew the kids in the church? Was it the Holy Spirit? or the thought that one would leave that night with a bicycle?

If you bring 'em in with worldly means, you are destroying the meaning of the Gospel. What draws them in, will keep them.

 

Well, Ann, some are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly value...It is a false sense of what is spiritual and what is not in the face of modernity.

They still wear wellingtons and carry brollies after the rain has stopped.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Ron, I like you, and I know we don't always agree. But you are making judgements that aren't yours to make, and you are also limiting God. Many of us started going to church for less than pure motives...but thanks be to God, His love reached us, even when we weren't doing the right things for the right reasons.

I have to go back to your "hypocrite" assertion. I am completely aware of the etymology of the word. But don't you see...the usage is metaphorical! Just like calling someone "hardheaded"--you're not referring to the solidity of their cranium. They're stubborn.

If you really mean that dressing in a costume is a sin, then...

• all drama is sin.
• children "playing dress-up" is sinful.
• kids pretending--playing house, army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians--is a sin.

You are imposing a meaning upon a word it was not designed to have. You are imparting a theological emphasis on a word that scripture does not impart.

 

Can't deny the Word. The Word hypocrite means actor, one who pretends to be someone he or she isn't. You can say I am imposing a meaning that it was not designed to have, but that is what the Greek is translated to be. So, it is not me.

 

Nope. You just were abit further with Rufus' logic and REALLYprovedhis point. folks ought not be playing 'dress up'. Be they 6 or 60!

It is (as someone already mentioned) hypocritical to pretend to be someone you are not.

Forget about Saw wein and the history of it all. Look at it as it is today. Folks PRETEND to be something or someone they are not and then make a party out of it, mocking God's holiness.

This is flat out evil for a 'christian' to be a party to.

 

Dressing up or acting for a Christian is evil? I see some of the oddest things here on the BB. No wonder the world thinks Christians are wacky...

 

Gracious me...all this time...and those Christmas musicals we worked on...they were of (gasp) Satan!

So, when kids pretend to be action heroes, policemen, etc., they are sinning? Your logic would say yes...because they are "mocking God's holiness" by being something they are not! Wow...kids' pretend time is now an abomination. And all this time I thought a child's imagination was a gift from God...just to find out it is a tool of Lucifer.

This assertion is absolutely hilarious. I can't believe ya'll are serious. We're not talking about Playboy bunnies (which everyone agreed was a terrible thing for anyone, particularly a child, to be dressed as)...we're now talking about a child using his imagination somehow being a sin against God. We're talking about any and all drama/acting being a sin.

Wow. If someone were to tell me anyone actually believed this, I'd claim they were kidding.