Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, said: “I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.”
We are quick on our feet to rush and honor the devil in so many ways. We see no harm in Halloween, because we think it is fun. We paint our faces, we wear our innocent costumes, we dress up our doorways—even churches dress up their entryways for Halloween with pumpkins. These actions are like giving the devil license, saying, “Here’s my church. You can have it.”
We think because we are not performing any demonic rituals or human sacrifices that we are on safe ground, but did you know that as soon as you dress up, whether you color yourself or put on a costume, the enemy owns you? Because by doing so, you have turned over your legal rights, and you have dedicated yourself and your kids to celebrating the devil’s holiday. You have just made a pact with the enemy, and you are already sacrificing your children spiritually by dressing them up and changing their identity.
Losing Our Identity
My mind goes back to the night of Oct. 31, 1987, when I had the most diabolical wedding on the planet. My fiancé and I decided to get married on Halloween, in a demonic ritual that lasted all night, and the wedding bells were heard all the way down to the gates of hell.
As devil worshippers, Halloween was very special to us, and we looked forward to celebrating it because we knew the implications and the dark power behind the night. It is very different from every other night in the witchcraft world. It would be like me saying to believers today, “How important to you are Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday?” Halloween has that much weight and importance to those who dwell on the dark side.
I remember the days leading up to Halloween, we devil worshippers had our instructions from the demon world about what had to be done, and we knew it was going to be a long night. I would sleep all day to be rested up and ready for midnight so I could unleash hell on the world into the wee hours of the morning.
Some churches remove the word “Halloween” and call it “harvest” instead, with members dressing up in costumes, giving out candy and bobbing for apples. It saddens my heart. Turning away from this “holiday” is not missing out on anything, so let us get that off our minds.
If they are trying to use certain secular holidays for evangelistic purposes, to win souls, this is the way I would do it as a minister: I would make it a biblical movie night with popcorn and soft drinks for the kids and grownups, and invite unsaved friends and family. My intention for the event would be to expose the origin and dangers of Halloween, then turn it into a great movie night, with a small teaching afterward from God’s Word about His love and the finished work of the cross. Finally, I would have an altar call and make it a special night for all to remember.
The only harvest we should celebrate is the harvest of souls.
For many who celebrate Halloween, that celebration carries over to Nov. 1, which is also known to some as the Day of the Dead, or All Saints’ Day, but there is nothing holy about it—it is demonic.
I am surprised at how the world embraces this holiday, because the title of All Saints’ Day is a deceiving one. We have a picture in our minds that it seems holy, but there is nothing innocent about it. This holiday is practiced all throughout South and Central America and distant parts of the world, and even in the United States. To the Spanish culture, it is called Día de Muertos, and they celebrate the dead through rituals and ceremonies and even cemetery visits. YouTube would be a good place to go and see for yourself what this is about. This holiday has nothing holy about it nor anything to do with saints.
How Might We Counter This Darkness?
In the Bible, when the Lord calls the believers “saints,” the term means we have been sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ and the finished work of the cross. We are set apart for good works to glorify God.
As a minister, I would use All Saints’ Day to turn the tables on the devil and to celebrate my salvation and the salvation of my family and loved ones. I would use it as an evangelistic opportunity at my church to bring in unsaved people to hear testimonies of God’s goodness and how He can transform their lives, too. And that night, I would give the devil a black eye in Jesus’ name, because many souls would be saved. {eoa}
John Ramirez is an internationally known evangelist, author and highly sought-out speaker who for more than 16 years has been teaching believers around the globe how to defeat the enemy. He has shared his powerful testimony—of being miraculously saved as a high-ranking satanic priest—on It’s Supernatural!, The 700 Club, TBN, Daystar and more.
John Ramirez, Armed and Dangerous: The Ultimate Battle Plan for Targeting and Defeating the Enemy, Chosen, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2017. Used by permission.
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