Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [10/29]

Jesus Christ Show | Hour 1 [10/29]

Episode Transcript

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You're listening to KFI AM six fortyon demand. Halloween a big day to
some and an annoyance to others,pagan ritual to some, a time of
candy and frivolity to others. Soit pops up, you know, every

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year round this this holiday known asHalloween, I receive emails, calls,
and tweets with everybody asking me aboutthe origins of the celebration. And then
the secondary question is always and isit okay for Christians to partake in it?

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And I think, first of all, it's incredibly healthy to ask questions.
Scripture says to test all things,you should be poking at things and
wondering what your participation is, ifit's even something that's edifying you at all.
However, what I want is thatthat level of discernment that surpasses just

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I don't know or I don't thinkso, and just pushing things away for
the sake of pushing them away.The appearance of that is a group of
sometimes even inconsistent, unwavering, noteven well articulated groups of Christians that just

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spurt things out and say this iswhy this is what we do, but
not why we do it, andthat becomes confusing to non believers. Like
many things that surrounds your life inthis world and your faith. When it
comes to Halloween, there's some controversy. But is this controversy this particular day,

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is particular celebration? Is it infact necessary? Are the roots of
Halloween found in paganism? Yep,absolutely no doubt about it. Does this
automatically mean that Christian that a Christiancan't partake in any part of a Halloween

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celebration? Of course not, andI know there will continue to be disagreements.
But what is based on fear ofan ignorance versus the reality? That's
what's important, because the more youdo something just based on fear and ignorance,

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the less substantive your faith looks liketo others. And you may feel,
well, I don't care what itlooks like to them, and if
so, you should be ashamed ofyourself. It's important for those around you
that are non believers to it foryou, when they are around you,

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to give them the best idea youcan of what you believe in, why
you believe it, to give themthat hope or maybe understanding in a way
that they'll want to ask questions orinvestigate on their own. Most historians believe
Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festivalof Salin. It's also pronounced Savin or

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sam Hayne, and it means theend of summer. During this festival,
people would like these huge communal bonfires, and yeah, they wear costumes mostly
comprised of animal heads and furs,and they did this to ward off roaman
spirits and ghosts. That's kind ofthe basic element of what Halloween was in

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one sense or another. It's kindof the roots. In the eighth century
finally rolled around, Pope Gregory thethird designated November first as something called All
Saints Day. This was this wasa time to honor saints and martyrs that

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had passed on. You can't lookat that as a bad thing. Essentially
honoring those in the Christian family thathad done good and were no longer on
this earth. Well, as oftenis the case, this particular, this

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new holiday incorporated many of the traditionsof the Sun Festival. So a lot
of the things kind of that werealready being used to sell break and swing.
Did you know you were a pagan? And the reason why I wanted

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you to think this way is because, of course Halloween being tomorrow, it
always around this time, starts stirringup questions about you know, the origins
of Halloween and should Christians participate.Are there things that Christians should not participate
in in life? Yeah? Surethere are. Now Christian liberty is far

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and wide, and the individual Christianhas to use You just have to use
your discernment to know what's going tobe beneficial, what's good, what's glorifying
to God. All of those thingsshould be thought about. But to throw
something out or to say that ithas no value when if you dressed it
slightly different it would be fine.That Really you're dealing with the origin of

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something that doesn't even exist anymore.So the roots of Halloween, yes,
are found in paganism, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean because soo in was this,
this Celtic festival was celebrated at onepoint, and it morphed into All
Saints Day, and All Saints DayUh, morphed in uh to the day

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before being All Hollows Eve, andthat morphed into Halloween, and that over
the centuries and centuries and centuries,this once religious festival just became commercial and
secular. And at that point theactivities can be fun or entertaining. You

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as the parents, should control thethings that your kids are doing or what
they're they're how they're dressing, orwhat things they're partaking in. But that's
every day, in every way andeverything, so the kids aren't thinking of
it. Theologically, there are notSatanists running around everywhere because kids grew up

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participating in Halloween. And to understandfrom a child's point of view that it's
just dress up, make believe.Being out at night, you know,
holding the hand of your parents andwalking around that neighborhood at night, and
the uniqueness of the experience and notall the previous pagan rituals is important to

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being a balanced parent and to understandand a balanced Christian and understand how you
interact with this world. You arein this world for reason, and that
reason really is to glorify God,and you find ways to glorify God when
you break the leaves or do thedishes, or do your job, or

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when you celebrate the problem the Godof Christian that he has with Paganism or
any other belief system for that matter, is not with the general practices of
the belief necessarily, but the factthat they worship another god altogether. This

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is the problem. This is whereGod says I have a problem. Exodus
twenty three twenty verse three, youshall have no other gods before me.
This is where God's concern is.There isn't a commandment about you should not
dress up in fun and make believe, or you shall not receive suits from

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the hand of a neighbor, oranything like that. Oh, I'm sure
that somebody would like to twist scriptureto find something like that, but that's
not the case. It's really aboutbeing having a community and experiencing that community.

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And I'll get to your calls injust a bit. As I talk
about the pagan roots of Halloween,make no mistake, this is not an
apologetic for Halloween or pagan activities.It's a defensive reason and discernment and as

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a Christian using those tools to finda balanced approach to the things that surround
you in this life. You arein this world. You are in it
by choice of God. And thereis a lot of Christians who run from
everything because of origins. And I'mgoing to show you why that might not

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be as easy as you think.And every year I get call and tweets
and emails about Halloween, and yes, Halloween is rooted in paganism, but
that doesn't automatically mean that a Christiancan't partake in it in some way or
some fashion. So this Celtic Festivalof Sowen, later through Pope Gregory the

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Third, designated November first, it'sAll Saints Day, so it's all around
the same time. This is tohonor saints and martyrs, but a lot
of the traditions and ideas and certainof the practices from the Sowen Festival made
its way into that as well.The evening before this became known as All

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Hallows Eve that became Halloween. Nowyou've got this very commercial, secular,
non pagan, religiously anyways event.And it's important to just realize that God's
problem with paganism or other belief systemsis not necessarily their practices, but that

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they do those practices while worshiping anotherGod altogether. Exodus twenty verse three,
you shall have no other gods beforeme. Thus saith the Lord. That
is God's words. That's the concern. God wants you to celebrate and glorify
Him in everything you do, andas to understand this a little better,

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just keep in mind two thousand yearsago pagan sacrificed animals, but so did
our Jewish brothers and sisters under God'scommand. The same act with different intent
was now a pleasing aroma to God, as it says in Genesis eight to
twenty. In twenty one, andI'll read that, then Noah built an

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altar to the Lord, and takingsome of the clean animals and clean birds,
he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and
said in his heart, never againwill I curse the ground because of humans,
even though every inclination of the humanheart is evil from childhood. And

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never again will I destroy all livingcreatures as I have done. So it's
not just the act itself, itis the intent. It is the purpose
of that act that matters to God. Sacrifice to idols or a false God
not good, sacrifice to the One, true, Holy and Righteous God good

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a pleasing aroma. It's scarting somethingjust because Pagans or any other faith did
it at one time or does itnow. Really isn't balanced, and it
isn't thoughtful. It's it's like thatyou know vegetarianism is bad because Hitler adhered

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to a primarily vegetarian diet. Itjust seems like a weird way to go
about life, rather than seeing thingsfor what they are and using them to
glorify God. It's fallacious to thinkthat because something had origins here or origans
over here, that it's good orbad. Really, it's the application.

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You probably don't even know how manythings already in your life come from pagan
origins. Guess what. You canlook down at your left hand there,
if you were wearing a wedding ring, you're wearing something with origins in paganism

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and ancient magic and the concept ofthe circle, as it's seen as this
endless and timeless thing that you canwear, and it suggests a kind of
repetitive or unbroken time and space.And you can see it in many pagan

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uses, such as Stonehenge and othersthat predate Christianity, and even in Christianity
itself, there are symbols and practicesthat come from or were used by Pagans.

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The cross itself is a pagan symboland wasn't even used very very early
on in the Christian Church. Butyou don't think of things that way.

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You don't think that there is anoverlap where there's a mingling at all.
But there is, I assure you, in your everyday life and even in
your faith. In his eighteen seventyeight essay on the Development of the Christian
Doctrine, John Henry Newman, whowas originally a priest in the Church of
England and later a cardinal in theRoman Catholic Church, wrote these words the

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use of temples and these dedicated toparticular saints and ornamented on occasion with branches
of trees, incense, lamps,candles, holy days and seasons, use
of calendars, processions, blessings onthe fields, the ring, and marriage.

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All of are all of pagan originand sanctified by their adoption into the
Church. So even the cross thatadorns many churches has pagan origins. Also.
The beloved fish symbol used by manyto identify themselves as Christians, whether
it's on your clothing or on yourcar. It was used by pagan's generations

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before Christianity. The New Age movement, Hindus, Taois, Buddhists, and
others use this symbol of the fishto express their own beliefs different beliefs as
well. The symbol for Virgo,the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac,
if you look, has a paganfish in it. Because of its the

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direction of the fish, people don'talways notice that. In the Dictionary of
Symbols, it states that Virgo isbased on the Hebreic letter mem and the
Phoenician symbol meaning fish. So asyou can see, you'll have to run
very far to try and distance yourselffrom anything that has pagan roots or is

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associated with religions other than Christianity.And it's not that it's not a noble
cause to run away that says resistthe devil, and he shelfly, you
don't need to be running everywhere infear. You have Christ in you,

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and if I am for you,then we are the majority. No man
can be against you. So runningaway from these things and not understanding them
doesn't help anyone, and sometimes makesthem sexier to younger kids and more intriguing

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than it would if you allowed themto be the simple, secular thing that
they are and put your own spinon it, however you might want to.
But how much more important is itthat the things and customs in your
life are all dedicated to God ratherthan looking for the devil under every stone.

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Celebrations like Halloween can seem on thesurface like a contradiction to Christianity.
I get that, but really itis more about how it's celebrated than where
it came from. That matters.And you see this throughout the Church.
There were many things that even ourJewish brothers and sisters did, even the

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early Church did that Pagans did,but they did it to the right God.
When churches shy away from Halloween andopt for, you know, instead,
a celebration of a harvest festival orsomething like that, it gives children
more of a reason to be curiousabout why everyone else is celebrating something they

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are not, and maybe even seekout more about paganism than they would otherwise,
and not to mention celebrating the harvestin any way, shape or form
has pagan origins as well, soyou're sort of changing it. But not

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everything. Everything in life can beused for good or evil. A knife
can either kill in the hands ofa mugger or heal in the hands of
a surgeon, and you must rememberthat how you use it or partake in

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something and your intent is important,and I know that you know it's easier
just to cut things out. Andif that's where you feel led to,
then God bless you. The importantthing is to serve God and to serve
your family in a way that ishealthy and glorifying to God. And if

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you feel something in your life isnot healthy or good or glorifying to God,
then of course cut it out.But sometimes in removing these things haphazardly
without understanding where they truly come from, or or the other things around you

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in your life that comes similarly,you'll miss the bigger picture. And in
doing so, it's like those surgeriesthere where a doctor will tell you that
it's not a necessary surgery. Iwouldn't do this because you can go in
and mess something else. More,why not put restrictions on it in a

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healthy way, or be interactive withyour children in a way that Halloween can
be something dealing with fun and creativityand those types of things and not death
and dismemberment and glorify God. Becauseremember one Corinthians ten thirty one. Above

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all of this, so whatever youeat or drink, or whatever you do,
do it all for the glory ofGod. Luke, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show. How you doing? I am well, Luke? What's
your thoughts? Oh? I understandyour point of view about Halloween and what

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do you have been saying? ButI think if we're going to be serious
about this, I don't think atany level as Christians we should celebrated Okay?
Why so? Well, just knowingthe the roots of it and the
practices that went together with those paganrituals, it was really really anti Christian.

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Do you know, do you refrainfrom celebrating anything? Do you celebrate
any festivals at all? Do youcelebrate your birthday or anything like that?
Uh? Yeah, okay, alot of those have pagan roots as well.
The celebration of life and fertility allgoes back. Are you married yes?

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Do you wear a reading wedding ring? Yeah? Are you going to
get rid of that? No?Okay? But that that has its background
in both paganism pre dating Christianity andalso witchcraft. So are you going to
get rid of those symbols because ofwhere they came? Or are you going

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to bring them into your faith andsanctify them, set them apart from where
they started, just like you weresanctified by the blood on the Christ Amen.
I mean the the son who cameback to his father, the first

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thing father did put a ring onhis Yes, but these but but predating
that very story. Yes, andthat's that's my point. That you have
feasts that our Jewish and brother brothersand sisters partook in around the same times
as they were pagan feasts, andthe Jews did not want to appear to
be pagan. The levitical laws,as a matter of fact, the majority

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of them are to uh uh separatethemselves from the even the appearance of being
pagan. Yet they did things thatPagans did as well. So it wasn't
about the thing that they did,It was about how they applied them,
right, And I understand, Iunderstand. But the difference between what I'm
talking thing about and the ring orthat situation is that Jesus sanctified the latter.

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He hasn't sanctified Halloween. Oh No, there are things that are being
sanctified every day by the use ofChristianity. Do you celebrate Christmas? Okay,
yeah, but that's not sanctified byGod in any stretch, any way,
shape or form. In scripture,there's never a celebration about that,
nor is there a celebration of Easter. Those were those were Loukeluke. No,

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that's not the day of his birth. That's about two years later.
The purpose of all of this isthat those things that you're talking about have
become comfortable to you because they've beenpassed down to you, not because of
their origins. There is none.Matter of fact. The early Church didn't
celebrate it in that sense, andthose are and those land on pagan holidays

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and were usurped it both Easter andChristmas, and a lot that ties into
those things, and the things thatyou celebrate really tie into peg and beliefs.
The tree in the house, theeggs and the bunny, all of
those things. But it's what youdo with them that matters, not from
where they came from. You camefrom a dark place, and God sanctified

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you, and through the blood onthe cross, he can sanctify the things
you do as long as they're doneto the glory of God. Kfi Am
sixty on demand