Halloween? About Death & the Devil

Halloween? About Death & the Devil

A few years ago my wife and I were fortunate to be able to take a week's vacation at Lake Chelan in Washington state, not that far over the border from where we live. As is often our custom when away on a Sunday, we visited one of the local churches. We have had many wonderful experiences doing this over the years.

This just happened to be the Sunday before Halloween. Now, as we all know, Halloween has become greatly 'überdone' as a special event in the calendar year. Indeed, most of what we see in our North American context is anything but hallowed. And if that isn't enough, many now have to include the day before Halloween to try and accomplish more wickedness. In fact, some call it 'Devil's Night', others 'Mischief Night'.

Halloween has also become a huge business, which is typical of anything in the USA especially. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's Halloween all the way, at least in Canada. In the US of course, Thanksgiving comes almost a month after Halloween, so, ironically, they may actually be spared some of the hoopla about Halloween we have here.

But I digress somewhat; I was not intending to write a feature about Halloween. We attended a Nazarene church that Sunday and the pastor spoke on the devil, which was appropriate, considering what was coming up the day after. He talked about how Halloween is about ghosts, goblins and other creatures we associate with the other world, particularly that of the world of those who have experienced death. He also spoke then of how the skeleton, gravestones, coffins etc. are such common motifs in all things to do with Halloween in the secular sense.

The points that the pastor made about all of this is that we should not be surprised. It is because of the devil that we have death. Indeed, one could say, as he basically did, that the devil is all about death. As the pastor said, that's all he can do. He can't create anything as our God does. Therefore, he can't make anything good. Indeed, from what we know of his intentions, they are just to make bad what God has created good.

So, next time Halloween rolls around, think of the devil trapped in his limitations. Not that we should feel sorry for him by any means. We do need to have certain respect for him in terms of acknowledging his existence and what he is about and, as Christians, with Jesus' power resist him. As I wrote in my other blog entry today, Jesus has defeated death and the devil. Jesus came to bring us life; the devil can only come to bring us death. So what does this really say about what Halloween in our modern society is all about?

The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil Made Me Do It

Some of you who are older will remember the 1970s television comedy show starring Flip Wilson. Frequently, when caught in some prank, he would do a defensive little dance and say, "The devil made me do it."

I think that excuse was not original with him and has certainly proliferated since. But can the devil really make us do something? Think about it for a moment. Take a look at the other side, as we often categorize it. Can God make us do something? I think we more are more used to, at least coming from Christendom, believing that God can't make us do anything because he created us good with free will. As our Bible tells us, the misuse of that gift by Adam and Eve was what led to their downfall and the spoilage of the whole human race and earth ever since.

So, who do we think is more powerful? The devil or God? Again, according to Christian teaching, the devil is simply one of God's creations, an angel gone bad. If that is all he is and even God can't or generally won't make us do something, where does that leave the devil? When have we ever thought any other angel made us do something?

There is another significant aspect to this that I really had not given thought to until it was raised in a recent discussion I was having with my pastor, Tim Kuepfer. As he so obviously pointed out, again challenging the thought expressed in our title: as a creature, the devil is finite. He is not God who can be everywhere and anywhere at once, as we believe as Christians about our Creator. He would have to be doing a lot of lightspeed scurrying around if he was responsible for all the evil in the world. Now, of course, there has always been the thought that he also has a number of subordinate angels who serve him and delight to encourage us in evil directions as well. This is no doubt true, but again, how many of these angels are there? To be sure, they are spirit and can move around differently than we do, but they are still creatures and limited in their ability. If neither the devil nor his angels can be everywhere at once, it is also then impossible that they are directly responsible for all the evil deeds done in the world. Of course, we could argue that their influence was what led to evil in the world, but man still had to make a choice when offered those possibilities.

Of course, what happened with Jesus and what the New Testament also teaches is that the devil has been beaten at his own game. Jesus’ death removed for all of us and our earth the death that is the consequence of our making wrong choices, particularly choosing not to believe in God or follow the teachings of his son Jesus. So, if Jesus has overcome the devil with his death and resurrection, which demonstrated his power, as St. Paul says, what have we to fear (first Corinthians 15, especially 54-57)?

Now, that is not to say that we do not have to be on guard to a degree. St. Peter (I Peter 5:8) cautions us about that in his description of the devil as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." On the other hand, if we are Christians, living in Christ as our Bible-based belief holds, we have access to Jesus’ power and as James says, if we "resist the devil, he will flee from us." (James 4:7).

All of this does not mean that we can take the casual attitude about the devil that much of our world nowadays seems to have. The devil and his minions are still our enemies. We still do need to be on our guard to a degree, but it is more about the choices we make when tempted, not that the devil or one of his impish angels is going to suddenly appear and make us do something evil that we cannot resist. Unless, of course, we have entirely aligned ourselves with him as others do with Christ. But that is another story. If we as Christians are confident in our salvation and our faith, we need to be ever watchful, but we do not need to be, indeed must not be, fearful. And we should not use the excuse, "the devil made me do it," as that is all it is.