Read Time: 3 minutes 6 seconds
The Origin
Dressing up in costumes, handing out candy and carving jack-o-lanterns may seem like an innocent tradition, but Halloween’s roots come from a dark, ancient, pagan festival. Now, ex-witch Jenny Weaver who is being used powerfully by God is warning Christians about the spiritual danger of participating in Halloween.
Originally called “Samhain,” Oct. 31 marked the summer’s end and fall’s beginning. Many believed it was a day where the veil between the living and the dead was so thin people could cross through.
“It’s all steeped in demonic rituals,” Weaver says. People in Northern Europe would dress up in costumes to disguise themselves as one of the spirits rising from the dead to protect their families from what they thought was lurking between the veil.
During the pagan festival, food and animal sacrifices were offered up to the evil spirits that were believed to be coming from the other side. History.com reports fortune-tellers would gather together in the dark, alongside the fires burning sacrifices to make predictions about the coming year.
A Message to Christians
Weaver, a wife, mother and worship leader who is best known for “Singing the Scriptures” live each week on her Facebook page opens up about her testimony with the hopes it will help others from being led astray.
“As a young girl I got into some real deep, dark things. I was in an abusive family so the spirit of rejection gripped my life and I was looking for acceptance,” Weaver says.
She found the acceptance she was looking for in all the wrong places. Weaver met a group of girls who were also gripped with the same identity problems. “They invited me to watch a movie called ‘The Craft’ which was about four witches, wiccans in high school and they had all this power and I had watched the movie and I decided I wanted to do that,” she says.
For awhile she thought the path she was going down was great, but in reality the enemy was dragging her deeper down a dark path. She lived with another witch, casting spells, having parties, doing drugs and calling on spirits to rise and come into their bodies.
For nine years she lived a life in bondage. God in His tender loving mercy came down to where she was and rescued her from the pit. “God set me a part and delivered me in a moment,” she says.
Now she disciples women through her Core Group mentorship program seeing thousands of women around the world set on fire for Jesus. Coming from darkness into the light and glory of God, she’s warning Christians about the danger of participating in Halloween.
“What parents think is a one day thing, is not a one day thing. It is only an open door that allows children, teens and even adults, say if we allow this, this one day, then you’ll find they’ll allow horoscopes, horror movies, sorcery, witchcraft and they’ve got healing crystals instead of calling on the name of Jesus,” Weaver says.
Standing in Truth
The devil is not backing off this generation, he is going after them more furiously looking to steal, kill and destroy everything he can before his time is up.
Weaver says, “Police officers and the EMS can tell you that is the day [Halloween] they have the most kidnappings, child abductions and murders. For some reason on this day people in the police industry know something is going down today, why is that?”
One university professor is also warning poisoned candy and razor-filled apples aren’t the only thing to worry about. “The evening violent crime count on Oct. 31 is about 50% higher than on any other date during the year, and twice the daily average,” Professor James Alan Fox says.
So this year, when you think about participating in Halloween, remember what the holiday represents. The costumes symbolized people masquerading themselves as spirits, candy represented the demonic sacrifices made and people carved jack-o-lanterns to scare off the evil spirits.
Weaver tells parents to stop worrying about being cool. This is one holiday you should feel good about not letting your child participate in.
To watch our full interview with Jenny Weaver click here.
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Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.
