"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:1-2)
"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:1-4)
Churches all over the country are rethinking their approach to Halloween. For the past dozen years many churches have held a "Harvest Festival" on the church grounds so the Christian kids would have an alternative to the ghoulish environment on the streets. Church kids were urged to "bring their friends" to get the gospel to at least some unbelievers. Now many churches are noticing it's the same people at the "festival" each year and few are unbelievers. The "escape the evil" mentality is doing little to fulfill the great commission.
A Growing Trend to Give People the Gospel
As a result, more and more churches are cancelling the Harvest Festival and challenging their church families to stay home and give trick-or-treaters candy and powerful gospel literature. Whole neighborhoods are exposed to the gospel in just one night. While some simply dropped candy and tracts in the urchin's bags, others reversed the process by going out and handing tracts to homeowners who answered the door. Still others boldly took to the streets that were thronged with trick-or-treaters, giving tracts to everyone in sight. Other churches who held "festivals" placed a table on the front lawn with an assortment of tracts and candy for all who passed by.
Make Use of the Whole Season
Another approach considered the whole Halloween season. Soul winners would tour stores that had displays of ghostly paraphernalia and secretly place gospel tracts in the plastic jack-o-lanterns, costume pockets, and other scary gear. They also found that, because of the season, people in public were much more likely to receive a tract with an obvious Halloween theme.
Don't Participate in the Evil, but Use the Opportunity
Satanists admit that Halloween is not just a make-believe fun time for the kiddies. Pagans and other Satan worshippers have several "holidays" involving truly ghoulish practices. Bible believers are right in not allowing their children to participate in this evil, but we should not overlook the magnificent opportunity to counter the devil's propaganda.
Those who have been involved in Satanism tell us that Halloween is a key tool in presenting evil as fun, to break down people's resistance to the evilness. It is much like the devil's lie that "white" witchcraft is okay; it's just the dark arts that are bad. Ex-Satanist and former vampire William Schnoebelen describes how this progression works in his book, Wicca, Satan's Little White Lie.
A Great Way to Thwart the Devil
Soul winners need to be aware of the evil roots of the holiday, but equipped to counter that evil with the power of the gospel. Dropping a tract in the sack of a small goblin at your door puts an arrow in the heart of any real demon that is maneuvering into the family where that tract will be going.
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