Happy Halloween: The Meaning of the Season

In a day filled with surprises, junk food, and many secular traditions, it is very easy to forget the meaning of the season. If you didn’t know any better, you would think I was referring to Christmas. But believe it or not, I am referring to Halloween. That’s right y’all, I am making the case that “The Devil’s Holiday” itself is actually a day filled with unique Christian tradition.

The origins of Halloween has secular and pagan roots. In the Celtic world of some 2,000 years ago, the New Year began on November 1. This day was the end of summer and the beginning of the dark and cold season. This time of year became associated with death, and it was soon believed that the night before November 1 the worlds of the living and dead became blurred. Such traditions of wearing costumes became prevalent. Thus, we have an early form of the Halloween tradition, and obviously,
this is very pagan.

But some few hundred years into the Middle Ages, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as “All Saints’ Day.” This was a day set aside by the Christians to honor all Christian Saints, especially martyrs. This does not mean that the Christians worship the Saints themselves any more than Mother’s Day means we worship Mothers, or President’s Day means we worship the Presidents. This was a Christian holiday that was set aside to thank God for raising up men and women in the Church who would be willing to live and even die for the cause of Christ. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

Another term for Saints is “Hallowed ones.” Thus, another name for All Saints’ Day would be “All Hallows’ Day.” Hence, October 31 became known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” and eventually, “Halloween.”

So how did the Christian holiday of Halloween blur with the Celtic traditions of November 1 and the night before? Many people believe that the Pope had intentionally made November 1 All Hallows’ Day to replace the Celtic holiday. Christians have been known for doing this sort of activity over the years to mock pagan rituals that deny the Truth of the Gospel. Even such traditions of dressing up could have been used by the Christians to symbolically scare off demons from hampering the spread of the Gospel. It was a day in church history where the Christian could be proud of who he or she was, could mock the enemies of God, and be thankful for the rich Christian history he or she was apart of.

This does not mean that the Christian’s relied on pagan ritual for the support of their worldview. Rather it means that even prevalent pagan traditions fall short of the Gospel when the Gospel is spread. “Mocking” the enemies of God did not mean that we wage war on everyone who is not Christian; rather it means we show the non-believers just how sharp of a Sword the Gospel is, that it can pierce through anything that attempts to hinder the spread of the Gospel.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed (or perhaps mailed as some believe), his 95theses. The timing could have been intentional by Luther to make his 95 theses public on the eve of All Hallows’ Day. Thus right in the midst of All Hallows’ Day, we celebrate the Reformation and the brave Saints who gave their lives for the preservation and reforming of the Church.

So tonight as you go trick-or-treating, or walk around at your church’s Fall Festival, or whatever it is you do, I encourage you to think about God’s Church, the Bride of Christ. Think about the brave men and women who have pledge their lives for the Gospel. May we do the same. May we rise again as the lion hearted Saints of early Christendom. May we seek the unity of the Body of Christ, by tearing down denomination’s walls that keep us from piercing through our enemies with the Gospel, and worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth. May we remember the Saints of early Christianity who faced persecution in Rome, the Reformers Martin Luther, John Knox, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and Martin Brucer, the brilliant Christian thinkers and writers who pledged their lives to studying God’s Word, i.e. C.S. Lewis, Peter Leithart, etc, and the Christian’s today who are facing persecution for spreading God’s Word, i.e. Roy Moore. May we stand together now as Saints and stand up for God. If it means giving up our lives, then may our blood become part of the seed of the Church.

Halloween may have origins in paganism. But when the Gospel took hold, the Pagan rituals did not stand scrutiny to the Sword of God. As Christian’s, we cannot let the Pagan’s take back the Holiday that we have won. This has unique Christian tradition. If you are an enemy to God, then you may enjoy Halloween tonight as you celebrate it with pagan intentions – that is, until the Gospel comes knocking on your door saying “Trick or Treat?!”

What do you think?

Trick or Treat?

God bless America

God bless His Church

Happy Halloween

October 31, 2008

Ryan Hampton

Liberty Vs. Security

Nearly two-hundred and fifty years ago, Patrick Henry made the claim that he would rather have death than a life of no liberty. Patrick Henry and many more of our Founding Fathers understood and cherished the idea of liberty. Today, we have seemingly forgotten the value of liberty, and make excuses for not holding to it so dearly.

A life with no liberty, to many of our Founding Fathers, is not worth living. They understood that the government is here to protect and secure life, liberty, and property, or more broadly, the pursuit of happiness. True, they understood the idea that freedom doesn’t come free. Sometimes in order to obtain liberty, we must give up our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor as they did. Obviously in order to have our property protected, we must give a small portion of our profit to a common defense, in the form of taxes. To secure our lives, it is sometimes required that brave men and women give up their lives. To secure our liberty, we must enslave ourselves to the cause of liberty itself.

But never did our Founding Fathers embrace the notion that liberty and security are opposing forces. They believe as I do, that when we sacrifice liberty for security, we lose both. After all, the purpose of the government is to secure liberty. Why then would we sacrifice the very thing we want secure in the name of security itself? Why do we believe we must submit everything to the government to direct our time, money, education, etc., in the name of security?

Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of this. In the Bush administration, we have seen the idea that we need a “Patriot Act” to better secure us. We give up our privacy to what should probably be considered an unconstitutional establishment. We have the notion that a one-hundred years war is justified in the name of securing the peace. The government even forced nearly a trillion dollars of our money into corrupt banks in the name of securing the economy.

Democrats may claim to support personal liberties, but they often sacrifice our liberties in the name of securing comfort. Democrat and socialist Barack Obama wants to take away our liberty of choosing our healthcare in the name of the comfort of having affordable healthcare for everybody. Many Democrats suggest we must give up the liberty of owning a gun, a personal security, so that we have the comfort of knowing there are no guns around us (which is not very comforting to me if the criminals own guns). We must give up the freedom of educating ourselves so that the government can provide a level of comfort of teaching every child (again, not very comforting that the government controls education).

When will we stop sacrificing liberty for security, or comfort? When will we stop relying on the government and do things better ourselves? Liberty does not necessarily mean we are never enslaved to anything. In a sense as mentioned above, our Founders were enslaved to the cause of liberty. The major world religions teach that their followers be enslaved to the core principles of their faith. But our enslavement should not come from the rule or force of any other man. We cannot sacrifice liberty, and in the long-run have more security. In order to be more secure, our liberties must be secure. As Patrick Henry seemed to understand, what is the purpose of this life, if all of our liberties are taken away? Why live if we are not allowed to spend our money how we want to, worship how we want to, educate our children the way we want to, or even take care of our bodies the way we want to? I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/henry-liberty.html

What do you think?

God bless America

Pray for our Troops

October 27, 2008

Ryan Hampton

Why I Believe in God

Why do you believe in God? It is probably something that you have been asked, or at some time will be asked. It’s not always the easiest question to answer. The idea of there being a governing all-powerful force behind everything that happens is certainly no simple idea, and there is no perfect syllogism that would convince the most staunch of skeptics. Still for us Christians, it is an important question. It’s not important in that we question God or doubt our faith until we receive a sufficient physical or philosophical proof, but it is important because we as Christians are told to “always be ready to give an account for the hope that is in us” (1 Peter 3:15).

Reading 1 Peter 3 tells us to separate Christ in our hearts, living in accord to His ways, abstaining from anything sinful, etc. And in a sense, this should be our ultimate apologetic for the faith. Our works should be carried out in such a beautiful way that would make people think, “If man really is made in the Image of God, then I want to know this God.” However verse 15 tells us to give an account of our faith. The wording seems to indicate that we should be prepared to verbally defend the Hope in us. And so with this mindset, I have asked myself, “Why do I believe in God.”

Obviously there are many different angles to come into this. I could give the scientific argument that it would be frankly impossible for the world to come together the way it is all by chance. That would be a good and valid argument, but I would probably lose a debate with an unbelieving scientist. I could give historical evidence for Christ being the Son of God, and that too, but would be valid. But again, someone could simply dismiss it as something strange going on with “that man Jesus.” I could give a philosophical defense, by asking how we can have any sort of absolute Truth without an absolute God of Truth, and that is by all means a very valid way to defend the Faith, and in some ways ties into the argument that I will present in a moment. But again, the skeptic will always rebuttal by attributing the same questions you pose to the universe to God. “If God can be infinite, why not the universe?,” if God can have truth, why not the universe?,” if God is eternal, why not the universe?,” and the list goes on. Or perhaps they would argue that there was an outside force that was not God that caused the universe into existence, e.g. a multiverse system. No matter how persuasive you see these arguments as being, there is something radically missing.

Certainly the goal should not be that you in one hour convince the most raving of skeptics to pick up the Cross and follow Christ all his life. It is certainly a great thing if that happens. However the goal of apologetics is simply to keep those who reject God from using their schemes to pull those struggling in the faith or searching for faith away from Christianity. We should be able to come across as if the Christian worldview is not under-minded by the “rational” atheistic worldview (or any other worldview). The struggling Christian should have his faith reinforced when he sees Christianity offer a solution to all of the arguments posed against it. The person in search for some identity and faith should see that the Christian worldview holds scrutiny to anything posed against it.

With this in mind, the most basic and sometimes the most beneficial argument to use, is to say that we as Christians, and each one of us on a personal level, have been given the knowledge of the Grace of God. We know God because He revealed Himself to us, and that no matter what argument is used against Christianity, nothing can shake the foundation of someone’s faith. Obviously this does not go far in convincing many skeptics, but if we show integrity and our lives reflect that, then perhaps the truth of our arguments will be made known. However, there is still nothing wrong with going a little bit further.

So why do I believe in God, without just saying God has revealed Himself to me? I believe that the beauty of this universe reflects God. I believe that the questions we pose to the universe at large are only answered through a Christian worldview. Again we could use the example of truth. What is truth, and from where do we obtain it? Pilot asked Jesus this question during Jesus’ trial. Jesus answers it in John 14:6 by saying “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” This in a sense is Jesus saying that any philosophical question to the universe is answered in Him. We all long for a direction or purpose, and Jesus calls Himself the way. Perhaps we wonder where life originated. Jesus calls Himself the Life. It comes from the Word made flesh, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of the Father God.

Perhaps we wonder what love is. To an atheist, love is simply a human emotion, where if consistent with their thinking, only happens through random predestined chemical processes. The God of Christianity calls Himself love (1 John 4:8). Therefore, the God we know and love, is from whom we obtain any of our earthly love among one another.

What about the problem of evil. This has been used against Christianity, but I believe can be used in favor of Christianity. Christianity shows us what evil is (Satan, abominations to God). It shows us how it originated (Satan rebelling, and the Fall of Man in the Garden). It shows us a solution to evil (Jesus Christ). Atheists cannot answer any of those three questions, yet still believe in the existence of evil. Any other religions can makes stabs at the problem of evil, but there is always something missing. Christianity offers us the reason for morality at large. Where is there any form of absolute morality under a worldview that teaches we are all here by random chance? Yet even the most staunch atheist believes in some form of moral standard, often similar to that of the Christian’s.
People search for faith search for a community. They search for true love and grace among each other. They search for a personal community with God. Christianity offers both, and both only through Jesus Christ. It offers it so much through Christ, that He is God who came to us even when we were too sinful and fallen to come to Him.

The idea of death and resurrection that even Hollywood adores is given a radical example in Christianity. It is seen through Jesus, and from Him in each believer individually. You could argue that it is seen in God’s People universally by falling in the Garden, and ultimately being resurrected in Christ on the last day.
Imagine even the idea of marriage. Christianity shows us what marriage is. In fact, Christianity is the greatest love story of all. The Bible begins with a marriage (Adam and Eve) and ends with a marriage (Christ and the Church). The story of the Gospel is about a Man dying to save His Bride. Again, we long for this story, and it is offered in the Gospel (keep in mind we are made in the Image of God).

I could go on all day about how each of our questions about the universe are answered in Jesus Christ. He becomes all we need. I have not even gone into detail about the beauty of such things as music, art, creation, etc., that we know could not have become so beautiful on their own. I hardly mentioned how the sciences show us that a Creator is the only way to view existence, or the history that shows that Christ really did rise from the dead. All I did was show that the Christian worldview holds more than scrutiny to any other worldview or any question we pose to the world. The skeptic may still say that this is made up because it is what we need. But this is too great to be made up. Beyond this, what else is there that would answer all the questions I had just mentioned? They are not just answered, but are only answered through Jesus Christ. May our lives and actions as Christians become even a greater defense than the words I have mentioned here.

What do you think?

God bless America

Pray for our Troops

Pray for our church

October 11, 2008

Ryan Hampton