Featured Its the Devils Holiday / the Devils Night. How will you celebrate it?

I may be the most hard right Calvinist on this board. I am supralapsarian. I am a hard determinist.

And even I believe that results are extremely important.

Mark 16:15 is paralleled by Matthew 28:19-20 where RESULTS are in view. He doesn't JUST say preach it. He says that we ought to preach it with the expectation that there will be NATIONS baptized by the preaching of it.

If you are not baptizing the nations by what you are doing- you need to adjust your strategy.

William Carey preached in India for 7 years without a convert, right? People often cite that as justification to continue doing what they are doing even when they are having no results. But the fact is that Carey adjusted his strategy before the converts started pouring in. He brought along side himself Joshua Marshman and William Ward and they three together became known as the Serampore Trio.

Carey gave himself to his gifts of translation while the other two gave themselves to printing and preaching. Then Indians began being converted by the droves and the Modern Missions Movement was born.

Street preaching is not the only way to fulfill Mark 16:15.

Now, if you are as good at it as Ray Comfort- GREAT. Keep it up.

But most street preachers do significantly more harm to the goal of Mark 16:15 than good.

They come off as weird and ignorant and give the world an excuse to stereotype us all by them.

 

Ray Comfort wants you to do it well. Ray Comfort does not say that it is the only way to fulfill Mark 16:15 and he does not say that every Christian ought to be a street preacher- just a soul winner.

I've followed Ray Comfort for 15 years. How long have you followed him? I have sitting right here beside me in my office the Way of the Master Basic Training course that I took my church through.

I have also done street preaching.

What I am saying to you is that it is not the only way to do Mark 16:15 and it is not what God has called everybody to do.

And I said a bunch of other stuff that you ignored which I wish you would address so I can help you. I like you. I think you have a good heart. But you need a little direction. I wish you would let somebody help you get your thinking right.

You need to respond to this:

Mark 16:15 is paralleled by Matthew 28:19-20 where RESULTS are in view. He doesn't JUST say preach it. He says that we ought to preach it with the expectation that there will be NATIONS baptized by the preaching of it.

If you are not baptizing the nations by what you are doing- you need to adjust your strategy.

 

Are you Keong Lai on FB?

 

What Comfort is condemning is watering down the Gospel message, removing the terror of the law so that you can have more people, money, etc...

What he is NOT saying is that we should not be doing all we can to baptize the nations while maintaining unmitigated faithfulness to the Gospel.

If you are not careful, you will swing the pendulum too far the other way.

"Since There are so many Joel Osteen's out there who care only for results and the wrong results at that, let's just not care at all for results."

No, a thousand times no!

That's being as influenced by Osteen as much as the people who EMBRACE his ministry. Either way it has Osteen type preachers pushing people in the wrong direction.

No. The commission from our Lord says that we are not JUST to preach but to MAKE DISCIPLES of the NATIONS.

If what you are doing is not making disciples, its time to back up and punt.

 

Some people need to take up a hobby.

 

We to will give out candy to kids in the neighborhood. And I say Happy Reformation Day to people. But in no way do I celebrate the devil. We must remember we all have been called by God to serve Him but not always in the same way. We aren't all open air preachers.

 

Well everyone this young wipper snapper has come along and set us all straight. Obviously our own study and considerations of this issue have been derailed by Satan and we are all blinded. We are all so very thankful you have come along and helped us see the light. Because we are all incapable of understand the real factor behind this holiday. May you be blessed.

 

Provide quotes from the books if you want to make a point. Don't just tell us to read them.

Let me tell you what I suspect. I suspect that nothing in these books really says that there is anything inherently evil about Halloween.

Not that I would care what Jeremiah has to say about it, anyway.

But telling us to just read the books is like me saying "Calvinism is right- I suggest you read the Institutes."

Just quote from the books. Don't suggest we read them as if we are supposed to just take you as an authority on good books.

 

Psalm 118:24

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

24 This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.


I refuse to acknowledge any day that the LORD has made (which is all of them) as satan's day. I treated this day the same as I treat every day I get up and have breath.

 

My church has a fall festival every year. Since I started attending there this year, I did my part and helped out with it.


We would pass out candy and gosepl tracts at our house, but...no one ever comes to our house! =(
Guess it's because we're set a good ways back from the road, and there's a dirt road leading up to our house with trees on both sides. It's short, but kinda creepy to walk down in the dark.


I already had all the fun of wearing a costume (because I'm a cosplayer! don't judge me xD) and carving a pumpkin about a week ago.
I don't celebrate halloween myself, per se, but I do do some of the fun things there are to do around this time of year that are related to halloween. This year I even went to a haunted house and a haunted hayride. In doing these things, I "celebrate" Satan about as much as the rest of the population does--which is not at all. (Well, excepting actual Satanists, obviously.)
As far as whether Christians should celebrate it or not, I'm neutral and view it as up to the individual's conscience. I know those who are vehemently against the idea--and I totally understand, especially because I used to be that way too. It's cool, we're allowed to disagree on things like this, ya know?



Oh! Speaking of various ways to use halloween to evangelize, want to hear something super cool?? I know of a church in Jacksonville that used to do a "Tribulation House" every year. I went once, and it was like being in the middle of a movie about the end times.
At the end they'd explain the plan of salvation.

 

My deceased son [suicide] once asked...

...."Daddy, if Christmas is the birthday of Jesus, is Halloween the birthday of Satan?"

This came from a five-year olds mouth! Quite insightful on his behalf!!!

Tragically, he took his life in 1999, after years of paranoia, schizophrenia, and drug and alcohol abuse! I only wish I could have done more for him; 32 years is way to young to die, even at your own hands! :tear:

 

It is not insightful. Halloween is not the birthday of Satan. It, like all other days is a day that the Lord has made and we should rejoice and be glad in it.

No day belongs to Satan or anybody else but God.

The origins of the word "Halloween" have to do with "All HALLOWS EVE" which signified the upcoming day when particularly sacred saints were celebrated.

Regardless of whether or not we should celebrate saints (we certainly have no trouble with Washington's birthday or MLK day) the point is that this is our Father's world and we own it as his ambassadors and sons. We do not retreat from Halloween. We TAKE it.

That's not to be irreverent in the face of the tragedy that overtook the poor young man. I hate it. God help the loved ones who survive him. I am simply saying that the statement that Halloween could be the devil's birthday is not accurate and that would not change if it was Billy Graham's dying words.

 

Brother Paul...first, I grieve with you the loss of your son.:tear:
Gods people have always had to sort out apostate ceremony from God glorifying ones. Personally I don't see Hollow wean as God Glorifying but perhaps that's me. My family is really into Christmas because we keep Christ in the center. I hope in some way that answers this debate. Everything must glorify God.