It’s that season again, and unless people prepare for it by putting on the armor of God, they can be dragged down emotionally and spiritually by legions of skeletons, witches, ghosts, and assorted dark images.
Halloween is rapidly garnishing the second-largest holiday response in the world—and the emphasis this time of year seems to be death, not life.
Witchcraft, tarot, paganism, and occult spirituality have moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream. Social media is filled with paranormal and new age activity. Online marketplaces sell spells and curses. Online searches for learning astrology increased almost 800% in the last year. Searches for tarot leaped to almost 600%.
The Bible rings true when it says in 2nd Timothy 3 that in the last days “evil will wax worse and worse.”
I took a short trip investigating the paranormal in my 20s. Like most, I was met with a stark wake-up call, cutting it off before it got out of hand. My entry point was seemingly innocent (naive, to be sure). It began out of curiosity, going along with the crowd, and was rooted in our inherent desire to know the future. In my world, the tool for that was a Ouija board, which I was introduced to at my Christian college. Back then, it was considered “amusing” and “innocent”… Little did we know.
“The Exorcist” depicts a young girl who gets possessed by Satan after using a Ouija board, and I am convinced this can happen to anyone if they are not careful.
Today, companies such as Chipotle, McDonald’s, and others are trying to sell products using Ouija boards, crystal balls, and more.
“This is messing with evil that wants to destroy you,” Raj Nair told CBN in response to the campaigns. “It’s dark. It’s sinister. It’s scary. It’s terrifying. It’s evil. It’s sadistic. And it’s twisted. Not that this is anything new, but there is a normalization of things that are not just dabbling, are not just innocuous, but are an outright dance party for the enemy of the King of the world. A celebration of the demonic, a celebration of things that are evil.”
Yes, this is a “celebration of things that are evil.” The name of Chipotle’s ad campaign is: “Summoning The Spirits.” Contacting the spirit world is that casual—and they have no idea what they’re asking for.
All of Hollywood and the entertainment industry are promoting this, including singer Celine Dion, who was seen in an ad campaign trying to turn newborn infants into “gender neutral babies.” The promo was laced with occultic overtones, pentagrams on the kids, and an overall anti-Christian theme. It should win an award for the most brazen and bizarre!
Deuteronomy 18 explicitly condemns divination, sorcery, consulting mediums, and seeking communication with the dead. God described these practices as detestable. They represent a forbidden pursuit of supernatural knowledge and power. Ephesians 6 describes the invisible conflict against spiritual forces of the devil, requiring believers to stand firm using the spiritual “armor of God.”
Have you seriously looked at your neighborhood this year? One of the most dangerous assumptions about occult practices is that participation is “harmless.” It’s only a game. It’s just curiosity. Nobody really believes anything will happen. Scripture never suggests that occult experimentation becomes acceptable when participants are just curious or naive or uninformed.
During my years of occult experimentation, I was convicted. I had been in church since age 15, and I knew better. My life was taking a terrible downward spiral thanks to this seemingly innocent participation and exploration. When I asked the Ouija board where it got its power to predict things, it spelled out “S-A-T-A-N” in seconds!
Satan is a liar, and he comes to kill and steal and destroy.
This is a season of destruction. Keep in mind that Halloween is a special day for witches, for Satanists, and other dark forces in the demonic realm. They say so openly. Yet the world thinks this is cute, clever, and that children should immerse themselves in these themes—and if they do, they are rewarded with candy!
“Many people have no idea the significance of Halloween and what it means to celebrate Halloween,” warned one ex-satanist. “I think it’s also largely due to it having become part of popular culture without many people really thinking about what it represents.”
“What’s even more concerning is that there are even Christians who are celebrating Halloween,” he emphasized. “Anton LaVey, who was the original founder of the Church of Satan in the United States in the late 60s, had a very well-known quote: ‘I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year.’”
“What we are doing, if we are celebrating Halloween, as Christians, is actually having a one-night stand with the devil,” he cautioned. “That’s a simple way to put it.”
The Bible is clear that the last days would be characterized by a demonic outpouring. Demons are real, and the battle we wage is real. When we see these things increasing, we are to know Jesus’ return is very near.
Satan is masquerading as an angel of light wherever he can, and the world is fooled during this season of witchcraft. Their thinking matches what is outlined in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
Every October, it is as if a spell comes over the entire globe, for it’s under the influence of the evil one.
Let’s remember the exhortation to believers: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). This is why believers are encouraged to be “salt” and “light.” We are to delay the decay, to push back against this darkness, and to shine with the bright light of Jesus amidst the darkness. This exhortation was certainly not to participate in a holiday that glorifies Satan and his kingdom that offers only despair and death.
Christians shouldn’t be casual about the world’s fascination with witchcraft and the paranormal. Scripture could hardly be clearer about divination, sorcery, and attempts to obtain spiritual power apart from God.
Let our banner verse be this from Ephesians 5:11, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
Don’t be discouraged. Look up. All of this heralds His coming. Jesus is coming very soon to disarm the powers of darkness.
