We are living in a culture that is preoccupeid with death. Halloween is the devil’s high holy day that celebrates and promotes death and destruction. This culture of death is out to destroy marriages, childhood innocence, our economy, our churches, our biblical and our historical heritage, our preborn babies, our youth, God and anything else that is good and righteous. This video is not only about standing firm but also combating this culture of death with the light and hope of biblical truth.
From http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-reasons-why-i-dont-celebrate-halloween
By Michael Snyder, on October 28th, 2015
This year, 64 percent of all Americans will celebrate Halloween, but I will not be one of them. For me, it is a wretched, horrible holiday that celebrates the darkest side of humanity, and it is deeply rooted in ancient pagan traditions that would get people thrown in prison if they attempted to duplicate them today. With each passing year, the sexually suggestive costumes being marketed to our young girls become even skankier, the horror movies become darker and even more demonic, and the number of Americans that participate in occult ceremonies just continues to grow. In fact, it has been estimated that the number of self-identified witches in the United States is doubling every 30 months. Those that are deeply into the occult take this holiday very seriously, and the dark forces that they are dealing with are very real. So no, I don’t want anything to do with this festival of death. In no particular order, the following are 18 reasons why I don’t celebrate Halloween…
#1 I don’t want anyone in my family to observe a holiday that celebrates death, witchcraft and the occult. This year, millions of Americans will participate in activities that could potentially open up a door for demonic activity.
#2 The average American spends $74.34 on the holiday. I would rather save the money.
#3 Millions of women use Halloween as an excuse to dress like street walkers, and millions of men use Halloween as an excuse to act like sexual predators.
#4 Even little girls as young as three years old are being dressed up in sexually provocative costumes. What kind of message does this send to them?
#5 Dressing up little children as ghosts, demons and vampires is not healthy for them. In recent years, there has been a trend to make costumes for children as hellish as possible.
#6 Originally, costumes were worn on October 31st “to change the personality of the wearer to allow for communication with the spirit world“. For 11 years in a row, dressing up as a witch has been the number one costume choice for adults in the United States.
#7 In ancient Britain, the festival known as Samhain was celebrated on October 31st. It was supposedly a day when dead souls would revisit their old homes. Personally, I don’t want anything to do with contacting the souls of the dead.
#8 According to the History Channel, Samhain was also the day when the Druids “gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities”.
#9 As I have written about previously, the fastest growing religion in America still practices a holiday known as “Samhain” to this very day.
#10 According to Wiccans, Halloween is the time when the veil between the living and the dead is considered to be the thinnest. They believe that on this day their god “dies” and is reborn every year on the Winter Solstice. This year the winter solstice falls on December 22nd.
#11 In ancient times, the resurrection of the sun god required human and animal sacrifice. The following is what occult expert Bill Schnoebelen says that the Druids would do at this time of the year…
Druids worshiped the sun god, called by names like Bel (Ba’al?) or Chrom. On October 31, they believed that he died and went into the kingdom of the dead, Anwynn. The purpose of Samhain was to insure his return. Even witches admit this involved human sacrifice.
Both animal and human blood were believed to be needed to resurrect Bel on Samhain. Human blood was believed to open the gates of Anwynn and released the spirits for a night. Thus, October 31 came to be associated with ghosts. This is not just history. Samhain is still celebrated by Pagans and is the most solemn ceremony on their “religious calendar”.
#12 To this day, animal torture and sacrifice is still practiced on Halloween by occultists. Many animal shelters will not adopt out black cats during the month of October for this very reason.
#13 In the early seventh century, a Catholic Pope known as Gregory the First decided that the best approach to ensure the continued spread of Catholicism was to “christianize” existing pagan holidays and practices…
As a result of their efforts to wipe out “pagan” holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory the First issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert. Rather than try to obliterate native peoples’ customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.
#14 The tradition of “trick-or-treating” was one of the existing pagan traditions that was later “Christianized”…
The idea of trick-or-treating is further related to the ghosts of the dead in pagan, and even Catholic, history. For example, among the ancient Druids, “The ghosts that were thought to throng about the houses of the living were greeted with a banquet-laden table. At the end of the feast, masked and costumed villagers representing the souls of the dead paraded to the outskirts of town leading the ghosts away.”
As already noted, Halloween was thought to be a night when mischievous and evil spirits roamed freely. As in modern poltergeist lore, mischievous spirits could play tricks on the living—so it was advantageous to “hide” from them by wearing costumes. Masks and costumes were worn to either scare away the ghosts or to keep from being recognized by them
#15 The tradition of carving out a “Jack-O-Lantern” also comes from paganism. The following comes from wicca.com…
Turnips were hollowed out and carved to look like protective spirits, for this was a night of magic and chaos. The Wee Folke became very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting humans. Traveling after dark was not advised.
And as Bill Schnoebelen has noted, pumpkins eventually replaced turnips, but the meaning remained the same…
Here it’s a pumpkin, but in Europe it was often a turnip, or a skull with a candle in it. This serves two symbols, 1) the lord of the Dead, a “god” just like a Buddha – in short, an idol. 2) The fearsome face represented the god, Samhain, who would drive off less powerful demons that night. The lights in the Jack-o-Lantern symbolize the “faery fires” or “Will’o the Wisps” which were believed to be the lost souls flitting through the night. They also hearken back to the huge Samhain “balefires” which were lit to help conjure back the god from the darkness.
#16 On all Satanic holy days, there are children that get ritually abused. This has been documented repeatedly, and yet most people (including most Christians) don’t want to hear about it.
#17 For Satanists, Halloween is one of the most important celebrations of the year. On page 96 of the Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey wrote the following…
“After one’s own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht (May 1st) and Halloween.”
#18 The Scriptures are very clear about this sort of thing. Deuteronomy 18:9-13 says the following: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults with the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord”.
So what about you?
Will you and your family celebrate Halloween this year?
Matthew 17:21, This kind [of demon]. There are different kinds of demons that influence humans. The Testimony of Yeshua speaks of being “possessed with a demon” or “demons,” “vexed with a demon,” or “severely possessed with a demon” (Matt 4:24; 8:16, 28, 33; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22; Mark 1:32; 5:15, 16, 18; Luke 8:36; John 10:21).
All these ideas are expressed by the Greek word daimonizomai meaning “to be under the power of or possessed by a demon, or demonized.”
There are levels of demonization. The Bible reveals that demons can influence humans (e.g. from fiery darts of Satan shot at the saints by which he attempts to influence them [Eph 6:16], by lying to humans [1 Kgs 22:22–23], through unclean spirits [e.g. Matt 12:43; Mark 1:23, 26; 3:30] and by literally living in or possessing a person. The latter is the most extreme form of demonization.
In this passage, a demon lived inside of a child (v. 18), and when Yeshua rebuked the demon, it came out of the child. When a person is possessed with a demon, prayer and fasting may be necessary on the part of the deliverer to cast out the demon. This is because the deliverer has, to one degree or another, himself been weakened spiritually by faithlessness and perverseness and therefore lacks the spiritual power and faith to cast out the demon (vv. 17, 22), or because he has been negatively influenced by those around him who are this way (v. 17), and thus has been weakened by his spiritual environment. This is why Yeshua, at times, had to put the spiritually weak and faithless people out of the room before healing a sick person (Mark 5:40).
Prayer and fasting energizes a person spiritually by afflicting the soul (the mind, will and emotions) and forcing it into conformity with the word, will and Spirit of Elohim through which one gains the spiritual power to accomplish supernatural feats such as casting out demons.
When Yeshua speaks of “this kind” of demon (v. 18). What did he mean? What kind of demon? The Bible reveals that there are various levels and types of evil, satanic spirits (e.g. Eph 6:12). The Book of 1 Enoch teaches and second temple Jewish sages based on this that demons were the disembodied spirits of the nephilim (see Gen 6:2–4), who after their human bodies died continued to live (as ghost-like figures) roaming in search of a body (human or animal) or object to possess (1 Enoch 15:8–10). This may be what Yeshua is referring to here.
With regard to the origin of demons, the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia under the articles entitles “Demonology” states,
The speculation regarding the nature and origin of these demons and their leaders led as early as the second pre-Christian century, in those fragments preserved under the name of the Book of Enoch, to the story of the fall of the angels (Enoch, vii.-viii.; lxix.). Like Beelzebub, or Lucifer (Isa. xiv. 12; compare Slavonic Enoch, xxix. 4), two hundred ‘Irin or “watchers” fell, attracted by the beauty of the daughters of men (Gen. vi. 4); only tradition obviously differed as to the leader of the rebellious host, whether it was Azazel or Shamazai. At any rate, they acknowledged the supremacy of Satan (liii. 3, liv. 6), though occasionally many satans are mentioned (xl. 7 et al.), and these fallen angels became “the evil spirits” (xv. 8, xix. 19) who taught mankind all the arts of deception, witchcraft, and sin (vii.-viii., lxix.). But their children, the offspring of this mixture of an earthly and a celestial race, became, when slain, the hybrid race of disembodiedspirits or demons doing the work of destruction until the Day of Judgment (xvi. 1).
Matthew 16:13, 18, Caesarea Philippi…gates of hell. This Roman city (also known as Caesarea Paneas) was located at the southwest base of Mount Hermon. After the death of Herod, and during the rule of the Roman procurators and up to the time of the Jewish revolt, Caesera became the capital and residence of the rulers (Golden Jerusalem, by Menashe Har-El, p. 52). It was here that the ancients built temples to various deities. The heathens typically built altars and temples on high places, which they considered to be gateways or portals to heaven, and Mount Hermon was the highest high place in the entire region with an elevation of 9,232 feet above sea level. At this place, the Greeks worshipped their god Pan. In the same area at the base of Hermon, the Canaanites worshipped Baalgad (Josh 13:5; cp. Josh 11:17).
It is interesting to note that according to the modern Book of Enoch touting to be the one referred to in the Bible, purportedly 200 fallen angels descended upon Mount Hermon and there made a pact to seduce the beautiful daughters of men the result of which, allegedly, were the nephilim or giants (Enoch 7:1–11), thus corrupting the genetics of the human race. These hybrids were destroyed in the flood. These demons apparently taught their offspring sorcery and incantations (v. 10).
It is at Caesarea Philippi that Yeshua proclaimed his messiahship, as a prophetic declaration of war or a form of spiritual warfare against Satan and his demons at the very spot the heathen demon worshippers venerated as their highest high place.
Moreover, some biblical scholars believe that Yeshua’s transfiguration occurred on Mount Hermon, since the account of this event occurs immediately afterwards in Matt 17. At that event, the three disciples with Yeshua received a vision of his glorious appearance, which was another finger in the eye of the devil. HIs second coming is when Yeshua will destroy the devil’s kingdom and and capture him and confine him in chains to the abyss.
The tribe of Dan settled at the foot of Mount Hermon in the area of Tel Dan where they erected a pagan temple dedicated to golden calf worship. Jacob in his final prophecy to his sons connects Dan to a serpent (a biblical metaphor for Satan). Additionally, Moses prophesies that Dan would be a lions whelp or offspring who would inhabit Bashan, which is an area to Mount Hermon in the north (Deut 33:22; see notes on this verse). Some Bible researchers speculate that when these two prophecies are combined, it is revealed that Dan will be the serpents seed and from him will come the false, demon-inspired antichrist who claims to be the lion of Judah. Perhaps this is why the tribe of Dan isn’t mentioned in Rev 7, since this tribe has defected to Satan.
It is also interesting to note that at this spot Yeshua proclaimed that the gates of hell would not prevail against his saints (v. 18). If Caesarea Philippi was or is a portal to the demonic underworld, as some believe, then this could be a portal through which the end time demons will emerge from the bottomless pit in the last days to torment men as part of YHVH’s end time judgments as John writes about in Rev 9:1–11. Whatever the case may be, it is encouraging to have Yeshua’s assurance that the end times saints will have nothing to fear from the hellish demonic spirits that will be roaming the earth seeking to kill, steel and destroy just before his second coming. Moreover, YHVH promises in Rev 9:4 that his saints who have his seal on their foreheads will be protected from the unleased demonic hordes that will torment the earth in the end times.
The raised Antichrist, secular humanist fist of rebellion and defiance against YHVH Elohim
Way back on March 18, 2003 when I had a weekly Hebrew roots teaching program on Christian radio station KKPZ, I put out what I called “A Wake Up Call to the Body of Messiah in America.” That small radio station in Portland, Oregon wasn’t much of a platform to put out such a message, but I used the meager resources YHVH had put at my disposal at that time.
In that message I said,
A righteous remnant of end time spiritual warriors has been fighting an uphill battle against immorality, abortion, rebellion against YHVH’s biblical laws, humanism, Marxism/socialism, Eastern “spirituality”/New Age, and the global takeover by a consortium of political and corporate fascists commonly called the New World Order or biblically known as Babylon the Great. The latest addition to this list is the Antichrist religion of Islam and antisemitism. Both are presently raising their demonic heads in the traditional Judeo-Christian nations of Europe and America. Islam began knocking on the spiritual door of America a few decades ago, and now because of the large numbers of Moslems in this country, Islam has become a threat worth noting. The goal of Islam is definite, for the Koran states it clearly: to take over the world and to dispossess both Christians and Jews of their lands, property and, if necessary, their lives.
As a nation, we find ourselves in this situation because we turned our back on Elohim, and have failed to repent of the sins. Now the judgment of Islam and along with the illegal alien invasion is coming against us (as allowed by Elohim) to hopefully wake us up and drive us to our knees before our Father in heaven. These curses are coming against America because of its moral and spiritual weakness. Like biological pathogens, these threats to America are feeding on the physical and spiritual body politic of this nation because its spiritual immune system has been seriously compromised due to moral and spiritual declension due to its weak, hireling and apostate spiritual leaders.
I then went on to issue a wake up call to America’s Christian leaders and laity, and I identified the specific sins that would bring Elohim’s judgment on America.
Then in September 2007 at our annual Feast of Tabernacles gathering on the southern Oregon coast before about 120 people, I gave out my teaching entitled, “Is America in End-Time Bible Prophecy? What Scripture Prophesies Will Happen to America Economically, Politically, Militarily and Spiritually Just Prior to the Second Coming.” In that teaching, the written form of which I published and has been on the front page of our ministry website ever since (https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/america.pdf), I warned and predicted that Edom (the Moslems) and its Marxists, leftist sympathizers and allies would attempt to take over America because of apostasy and lukewarmness in the Christian church. I predicted, based on my understanding of the Scriptures, that Elohim would use Edom/Islam et al as a giant paddle to spank America (and other western formerly Christian nations as well) for turning away from him. These would be judgments unto repentance. Most, I predicted would remain asleep, but some would wake up spiritually and that there would be a small, remnant spiritual revival, to one degree or another. I even predicted, again based on my understanding of the Scriptures, that, on a limited scale, there might even be some nuclear bombs that would be lobbed into the U.S. by its Edomite enemies or their allies. This was well before nations like Iran and North Korea had the atomic bomb! At this time, Hillary Clinton was running for president against the relatively unknown Barak Hussein Obama. It looked as if Clinton would definitely win the Democratic Party nomination and go on to become the president of the U.S. In my teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles, I predicted that if Obama won (a long shot), it would fulfill Bible prophecy, since Edom would now be in the White House as a judgment against backslid “Christian America.” Well, Obama did win, and the rest, as they say, is history. Now the predominant daily headlines in the news either pertains to LGBTQ or Moslem Continue reading
I recently received a comment on this blog from a noted rabbinic Jewish apologist who doesn’t believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. He very politely took exception with my viewpoint (and that of the New Testament writers and Yeshua himself) that Satan is a major player in the affairs of men and that he is Elohim’s major end-times antagonist. This is, apparently, the viewpoint of modern rabbinic Judaism, which the commenter promotes.
Without trying to be offensive to this esteemed commenter, I must say that if the devil can get us largely to ignore him and his role in the promotion of evil in the end times, then he has gained a great victory over humanity.
Now here is my response. Natan
On this blog, we’re neither partial to nor attempt to promote either mainstream Christian or Rabbinic Jewish viewpoints; we endeavor, rather, to promote the truth as divinely revealed in the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.
Rabbinic Judaism is as divergent from second temple Judaism as modern era Christianity is from the religion of the disciples of Yeshua the Messiah as chronicled in the New Testament apostolic writings.
The same is true with regard to the more modern concept of rabbinic Jewish thought on the nature and work of haSatan as being more a force (the Yetzar Ra) than a personage. Indeed, the Tanakh has a broad view on the concept of “the adversary” or haSatan. On this we agree. But this view in no way precludes a literal personage by that name (which you admit), who is a major antagonist to Elohim (which you don’t admit). According to my research, this latter aspect of Satan’s role was widely accepted among second temple Jewish authors (for example, see Wikipedia’s article on “Satan”) as evidenced by many Jewish Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal writers, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the LXX Jewish translators. Even the Gospels record that the Pharisees (the antecedents and spiritual forefathers of the modern rabbinic Jews), as did Yeshua, acknowledged the personality of Satan (Matthew 12:24–26 cp. Luke 11:14–18).
Furthermore, numerous New Testament passages acknowledge not only the personality of Satan, but his major opposition to Elohim. In fact, Yeshua even calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (John 16:11; 12:31). Elsewhere, Paul calls him “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), whom we learn that Yeshua the Messiah will destroy him at his second coming (1 John 3:8; cp. Revelation 12:7-10; 20:2-10). We could go on.
The main point here is that the Christian view (obviously minus its fantastical “devil” caricaturizations) of the personage and work of haSatan seems to be closer to normative Jewish second temple thought than is modern Talmudic rabbinic Judaism. Again, many examples could be given from second temple era Jewish literature, which viewed Satan not only as the instigator of sin at the tree of knowledge, but, even more importantly, was behind the demonic incursion (i.e. the nephilim led by Azazel at Mount Hermon) into the affairs of men in the antediluvian world thus precipitating Elohim’s flood judgment. The pre-rabbinic second temple era writers and New Testament apostolic writers make numerous references to Satan and his minions’ incursion at Mount Hermon as recorded in Genesis 6:2–6 as the source of the major evil that has fallen on this world and allude to the idea that divine judgments will be meted out against Satan, his fallen angels, demons and those humans that have sided with him in the last days (a major theme of the Book of Revelation) as precursor events leading up to the final redemption of Israel and the Messianic Era. May this day come soon! Amein!!
So we will have to agree to disagree on the point that the person of Satan is not a major player in the world of evil who Elohim will defeat. Divine scriptural revelation and ancient Jewish second temple documents just don’t seem to validate this viewpoint according to my research.
Matthew 17:21, This kind. There are different kinds of demons that influence humans. The Testimony of Yeshua speaks of being “possessed with a demon” or “demons,” “vexed with a demon,” or “severely possessed with a demon” (Matt 4:24; 8:16, 28, 33; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22; Mark 1:32; 5:15, 16, 18; Luke 8:36; John 10:21).
All these ideas are expressed by the Greek word daimonizomai meaning “to be under the power of or possessed by a demon, or demonized.”
There are levels of demonization. The Bible reveals that demons can influence humans (e.g. from fiery darts of Satan shot at the saints by which he attempts to influence them [Eph 6:16], by lying to humans [1 Kgs 22:22–23], through unclean spirits [e.g. Matt 12:43; Mark 1:23, 26; 3:30] and by literally living in or possessing a person. The latter is the most extreme form of demonization.
In this passage, a demon lived inside of a child (v. 18), and when Yeshua rebuked the demon, it came out of the child. When a person is possessed with a demon, prayer and fasting may be necessary on the part of the deliverer to cast out the demon. This is because the deliverer has, to one degree or another, himself been weakened spiritually by faithlessness and perverseness and therefore lacks the spiritual power and faith to cast out the demon (vv. 17, 22), or because he has been negatively influenced by those around him who are this way (v. 17), and thus has been weakened by his spiritual environment. This is why Yeshua, at times, had to put the spiritually weak and faithless people out of the room before healing a sick person (Mark 5:40).
Prayer and fasting energizes a person spiritually by afflicting the soul (the mind, will and emotions) and forcing it into conformity with the word, will and Spirit of Elohim through which one gains the spiritual power to accomplish supernatural feats such as casting out demons.