{"id":697,"date":"2008-10-31T05:28:22","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T13:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=697"},"modified":"2008-10-31T05:32:29","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T13:32:29","slug":"ucg-halloween-harmless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/doctrine\/ucg-halloween-harmless\/","title":{"rendered":"UCG: Halloween Harmless?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/Halloween-Dublin.jpg\" alt=\"Halloween in Ireland\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">A Halloween scene in Dublin, Ireland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, many millions around the world will be celebrating Halloween.\u00a0 In a related email last night, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/ucg.htm\">UCG <\/a>reported the following:<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Can people make Halloween harmless?<\/h2>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"justify\">When it comes to Halloween\u2014or any other holiday for that  matter\u2014you should ask yourself, &#8220;Did God make man in His image, or did God  intend man to remake God in man&#8217;s image?&#8221; Now that&#8217;s a sobering thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"justify\">The religious excuse for perpetuating Halloween might be that,  as we&#8217;ve seen, church leaders long ago called it a &#8220;holy evening&#8221; for all the  Catholic saints who had no day assigned to them. But face it: People who  celebrate this evening today couldn&#8217;t care less about such religious notions.  All they think about is instant gratification, to follow the pack with everyone  else and to have some fun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"justify\">The Encyclopedia of Religion goes on to say: &#8220;Modern Halloween  activities have centered on mischief making and masquerading in costumes, often  resembling otherworldly characters. Folk customs, now treated as games [such as  bobbing for apples], have continued from the various divination practices of the  ancient celebrants of this occasion. Supernatural figures [such as the ghost,  the witch, the vampire, the devil] play a key role in supplying an aura of the  mysterious to the evening, whether or not they originally had an association  with the festival.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"justify\">&#8220;Children are particularly susceptible to the imagery of  Halloween, as can be seen in their fascination with the demonic likeness of a  carved and illuminated pumpkin, known as the jack-o&#8217;-lantern. In recent times,  children have taken up the practice of dressing in Halloween costumes and  visiting homes in search of edible and monetary treats, lightly threatening to  play a trick on the owner if a treat is not produced&#8221; (p. 177).<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"justify\">Halloween is one of many human traditions that cloud biblical  teachings and keep people in the dark from God&#8217;s truth that can set us free  (John 8:32). It is not a harmless holiday for you or for your children. God  warns us to avoid it and to follow His ways, because He hates for us to dabble  in the spirit world of Satan and his demons! Instead, as God tells us in Isaiah  66:2, &#8220;On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and  who trembles at My word.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The fact is that Halloween is NOT harmless.\u00a0 It leads people away from God&#8217;s plan as revealed in the Holy Days and blends paganism with a semblance of religion.\u00a0 It obscures the real hope of salvation.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus did not keep it or endorse anything like it.<\/p>\n<p>It should not be kept by real Christians.<\/p>\n<p><em>Three articles of possibly related interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/hallo.htm\">Is Halloween Holy Time for Christians? <\/a>This article provides some historical and biblical insight on this question.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/worship.htm\">Is There \u201cAn Annual Worship Calendar\u201d In the Bible?<\/a> This paper provides a biblical and historical critique of several articles, including one by WCG which states that this should be a local decision. What do the Holy Days mean? Also you can click here for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/holyday.htm\">calendar of Holy Days<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/salvation.htm\">Hope of Salvation: How the Living Church of God differ from most Protestants<\/a> How the Living Church of God differs from mainstream\/traditional Protestants, is perhaps the question I am asked most by those without a Church of God background.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/earlychristianity.htm\">The History of Early Christianity<\/a> Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? <strong>Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Halloween scene in Dublin, Ireland. COGwriter Today, many millions around the world will be celebrating Halloween.\u00a0 In a related email last night, UCG reported the following: Can people make Halloween harmless? When it comes to Halloween\u2014or any other holiday for that matter\u2014you should ask yourself, &#8220;Did God make man in His image, or did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cog-news","category-doctrine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}