In less than two weeks, children will dress up as witches, ghosts, superheroes and princesses as they trick-or-treat door to door—all to celebrate Halloween. Some churches who know the Pagan history of Halloween will offer alternative celebrations, such as Trunk-or-Treat or Harvest Festivals.
But should Christians even offer these alternatives?
Prophetic deliverance minister Kathy DeGraw says no. In her e-book, Why Christians Shouldn’t Celebrate Halloween, DeGraw outlines not only the occult roots of Halloween but also how the holiday is used even now as a tool for the enemy.
I recently spoke with DeGraw about her insight into the spiritual warfare around Halloween (click here to listen to that episode) as well as how Spirit-led believers should approach “Christian alternatives.”
“The Bible says to give no place to the devil,” she says. “And I think when we look at Halloween, what we have to look at is how many doors can we close so that we give no place to the devil? The adversary goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And we need to make sure we are living a righteous, pure, clean, holy life so that we are not someone that he can come and devour or that he’s even seeking.”
DeGraw says she understands that many churches offer Halloween alternatives as an evangelism tool. But why do we need to wait until Halloween to evangelize?
“There will be people who will find different churches to go trunk-or-treating, but let’s not have our church be that place, because when we allow our church to be that place, we’re setting ourselves up—our church, our ministry—for spiritual warfare attack,” she says. “Anton LaVey, the founder of Satanism, says he loves it when Christian parents dress their kids up for Halloween, because in the spiritual realm, there’s just no differentiating between dressing them up as a spider or a goblin or dressing them up as an angel or a biblical character to the demonic realm that has made it [its] mission to curse us and wreak havoc on us.
“We are opening a door; we are opening a gateway when we allow that participation. That’s why I really believe, that if you want to do something for Halloween, the best thing we should do is spend that time in prayer, and do evangelistic outreach 10 days later.”
The specific spirits behind Halloween are hate, anger, strife, confusion, envy and rage, DeGraw says. And they come out at this time of year to prevent people from getting deliverance as well as to put them in bondage to depression and anger. (Listen to my podcast about waging spiritual warfare for our nation.)
Do you struggle with discouragement or depression more often around the end of the year? If so, DeGraw says the reason may at least be partially spiritual.
“Some of these are natural happenings—grief, depression, financial,” she says. “But this is also these demonic spirits that are coming out for the month of October and Halloween. They’re cursing us in advance. … A lot of Christians go into the spiritual warfare zone in November and December, and it’s because of the spirits that have these underlying curses that they’re throwing in October, and it puts us in turmoil for the rest of the year.”
The dangers of Halloween might be obvious, but our culture has so greatly adopted and commercialized this holiday that it can be hard for parents to explain to children why they don’t celebrate it as a family. Though parents don’t have to go into deep specifics about demons, DeGraw says it’s still important to teach children about the spiritual realm and its effect on us.
“Explaining to children is teaching them from a young age about Jesus and that Jesus is a God of love and that we want to exude love,” she says. “I think we need to relate to children and give them an instance where they were scared of something. And often when a child is scared or afraid of something, that follows them through the year, such as a snake, a spider or something like that.”
To learn more about the spiritual dangers of Halloween, listen to my interview with DeGraw. I know her insight will equip you in your prayer and spiritual warfare. You can also purchase her e-book, Why Christians Shouldn’t Celebrate Halloween, at shop.charismamag.com. {eoa}
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Stephen Strang is the founding editor of Charisma. Learn about the books he has written, including God and Cancel Culture, at stevestrangbooks.com.
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