Halloween, Hallowed is Thy Name

Halloween: Hallowed Is Thy Name dares to proclaim that Halloween is the gospel story that comes between the two bookends of our faith, Christmas and Easter. Of course, I am not talking about the calendar that starts on January 1 and goes to December 31 but the gospel of redemption. Christmas is celebrated at the end of December, and Easter is always celebrated in spring, sometime during either March or April, so we know that Halloween, which is always on October 31, cannot chronologically lie between these two dates of our Christian faith. Halloween has become the orphaned holiday. It was disowned by the church and put up for adoption. Lying exposed and unwanted, the world has taken in our unwanted holiday, abused it, and profited by it!

The gospel story—written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—begins with the birth of Jesus and rightly concludes with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But everything in between the two events of Christmas and Easter—His birth and death—deals with Halloween! Between the birth of Jesus and His passion is the bulk of the gospel proclamation—Jesus’ life and ministry, which, in summation, is the story of His spiritual warfare and victory over Satan and his minions from the kingdom of darkness.

Thus Halloween should be celebrated by the church on an equal footing with Christmas and Easter. But instead it is cast away, abandoned, and rejected, just like the Jewish nation rejected its Messiah. The central message of the gospel is that the kingdom of heaven is presently invading the kingdom of darkness, but the victory will not be made complete until the second coming, when Christ will come to rule and put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be defeated will be death, the grimmest reaper of all.

Halloween’s message is the ministry of Jesus Christ—how He came to earth and claimed a beachhead by binding the rich man and ruler of this world, Satan (the prince of the power of the air), and is presently dispossessing him. Christ healed the sick whom Satan had diseased. He visited the prisoners whom Satan had imprisoned. He set at liberty those whom Satan had enslaved. He fed the hungry whom Satan had starved. He exorcised demons from those whom Satan had bodily possessed. He resurrected those whom Satan had marked for death. He gave hope to the hopeless. He brought light into the world that Satan had darkened. He brought forgiveness to those who were condemned and paralyzed by guilt and sin. Christ blessed the poor and befriended the friendless. Everything Christ did and said added another nail to Satan’s coffin. Jesus came to destroy the great destroyer and plunder his kingdom.

This is the message of Halloween, and it is time for the church to understand the value of the holiday (holy day) we have forfeited to our great enemy and reclaim it in the name of Christ, our Savior. May we as Christians understand our great error and repent.

I challenge churches to become zealous ambassadors of the Halloween message. I ask believers to decorate evergreen trees—even gnarly, dead trees—with Halloween ornaments that will remind us of Jesus’ great victory. May we sing Halloween carols and proclaim the message of Jesus’ miracles and His power over the natural world as well as the supernatural. May we light up the night with decorated light from above, mail Christian Halloween cards, and ready special dishes to eat and savor with our families. Just like Christmas and Easter, let us put on Halloween plays that remind us of the miracle-working power that is available in the name of Jesus. Let us greet our neighbors with the joyous refrain, “Happy Halloween.”