"I always say there are three ways the word legalism is used. The first and most deadly is when we add works to the ground of our salvation, as the Judaizers did. The second, and merely petty, is when we add rules to God's rules. The third, and by far the most common, is this- you are guilty of  legalism when you call on me to submit to the Word of God. May we all never fall into the first. May we be quick to repent of the second. And may we all be boldly guilty of the third."

R.C. Sproul Jr.

Q. How did you get involved in Wicca or witchcraft? What was the attraction to it in the first place?

 

A. After my family left the Mormon Church when I was around ten years old, I continued attending with a friend until I was twelve or so. After stopping, I quickly adopted my parents burgeoning New-Age worldview. My father was heavily involved in rune magic at the time, and it didn’t take long before I was happily dawdling down the road to paganism behind him. **Jennifer**

 

I was raised in a very nominally Catholic family (though part of the extended family was Jewish)...we went to church periodically, and I went to both Catholic school in early elementary and later Catechism when I started attending public school. Unlike my family, I have always had a strong desire and hunger for spiritual things. My parents and brother found this to be quite a joke, and they teased me over it mercilessly as I grew up. I started to also be disappointed in my faith. I didn't really understand why Jesus died at this point; I was just saying I was a Christian because I thought I was from going to church. Around this same time (mid 80s I think?) the whole televangelist scandals happened, with preachers found to have mistresses and million dollar homes, and that made me cynical. Added to this was the drive by groups to ban or censor music, and it seemed like Christians were always protesting something...and it made me think, "If Christianity is always about being uptight and grouchy about other people having fun, I want nothing to do with it". This was my 15 year old, unsaved mind's reasoning. To this day I guard my involvement in political activities carefully, as I don't want to be a stumbling block to someone else.

At this same time, I had an assignment in an English class. We were reading "The Crucible", which was about the Salem Witch Trials. We were each told to pick one part of the trials, such as "Puritanism" or "Salem" or "Massachusetts colony". I drew my card out of the hat and drew out "Witchcraft". Being a thorough, studious sort of kid, I did some research. I actually went to a Wiccan bookstore that had just opened, and bought a used book on Witchcraft. I had been curious about the bookstore, especially since all of the Christians were protesting it, so this gave me an "excuse" to go there. I became friends with people there, and started to embrace Wicca.

The book I bought and the people I met compared and contrasted the stuffy, boring, uptight, judgmental Christians with the loving, sweet, nature-loving, and tolerant Wiccans, and used that to really suck me in. I need to repeat that though I grew up in a church, I had never heard, understood, or received for myself the saving power of God through the Blood of Christ, and so I was still a "natural man". I was only looking on the outside. After I asked someone at our Parish why Witchcraft is wrong and all she could say was "It's Satan worship and you'll go to hell for it!" or something to that effect...and I knew that the wiccans did not (directly) worship Satan, I thought, "Ok, so Christians really are ignorant, knee jerk reactionists! Sign me up for Wicca!" **Kimberly**

 

Q. How long did you practice Wicca or witchcraft?

 

A. I was involved in pagan/magic-working practices from the time I was a young teen until I was saved.  I didn’t self-identify as a witch until three to four years before my conversion.  So In total I’d been involved with the occult for approximately 13 years. **Jennifer**

 

From about 1985 until I got saved in August 1990. **Kimberly**

 

Q.When you were practicing pagan religions, what did you do on Halloween? What was significant or important about Halloween?

 

A. As a young child it did seem just innocent fun until I started investigating the roots of modern witchcraft for myself as an adult.  Even as an occult-involved teen I never gave much thought to the underlying meaning of Halloween and just enjoyed myself. After becoming a practicing Witch as an adult, I recognized Halloween as the high-holy day of the Witches Year. It is referred to as Samhain – Soween – within the Celtic pagan community. It is identified as the time period where the veil between the worlds is thinnest, this time of year is revered as ideal for communication with the dead, heightened ‘spiritual’ awareness, and so forth.  Pagans often chortle about the secularization, and even Christianization of pagan holy-days, and Halloween is amongst the most obvious. The fascination with death and spirits that continues to surround Halloween is evidence of this connection (think of the traditional costumes: ghosts, skeletons, witches, demons, murderers, etc.) Here’s an interesting wiki-listing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain that points out how Halloween is directly linked to the practices of Celtic-polytheism (workshop of many gods). **Jennifer**

 

The only thing that I loved about Halloween is the costumes, because I love costumes. I worked in a theater as a costumes seamstress, so this was my "thing". Before I became a Wiccan, it was just about dressing up and getting candy.

This may be hard to understand, but the way society celebrates Halloween and the way the Wiccans celebrate Halloween are two different things. You could say that it's like the way our materialistic culture has morphed Christmas into a selfish spend-fest where everyone is stressed out and excessively busy, and we as Christians bemoan the fact that the real observance --- the remembrance of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us --- has been lost to society, Wiccans feel the same way about "their" holiday, and frankly, who can blame them.

Wiccans see Halloween as one of the most sacred holidays on their calendar, as it is associated with the rise of the "god", and the going down of the "goddess" (signified by it becoming colder, darker, leaves falling off the trees, shorter days, etc.). Society (originating in England) celebrates it as dressing up in ghoulish (or worse) costumes and begging for candy, with some emphasis on the evil side of it, characteristic of witches riding broomsticks with pointy hats and green skin and other "spooky stuff".

Initially as a Wiccan, I practiced as a solitary Wiccan, as there was not covens open for new members at the time in my area. I did meet with a more experienced Wiccan woman often. I once went to a Halloween celebration as an observer only (they need a specific number for the magical practices inside of the circle). Later I was in a coven, but still only observed the circles.

 

[On Halloween] I mostly prayed incantations regarding the "rising of the god" and coming of winter, and later was an observer of coven circles. The things that went on there are not printable on a family blog. **Kimberly**

 

Q. When and how did you come to know the Lord?

 

A. I have such a hard time sharing my testimony in a short form!  Briefly, God began drawing my heart towards His son through nearly every circumstance in my life.  He combined my burden of sin with external promptings that pointed me towards Jesus continually.  This was a slow process, and after two years of this torturous drawing I told Jesus to take my life, that I didn’t want it anymore, and he could do with it whatever he wished.  If you’d like the long version, you can read it here: http://quiverfullfamily.com/2008/05/03/my-testimony/ **Jennifer**

 

The primarily tenet of Wicca is "As is none harm done, do it". In other words, everything is permissible if you are not hurting anyone else. Of course, no man is an island, and we may think we don't hurt those around us but we can and do hurt them by our sin. In obeying this tenet, I started down a path that eventually lead to a cynical hedonism while in my later years of college, some of this related to a roommate I had who introduced me to some things that I took a liking too. I basically went off the rails with anything and everything. By the time I finished college, I was not even invited to the coven (and didn't care), though I still self-identified with Wicca. I was drunk and high and everything else imaginable.

I will have my testimony actually published on www.Boundless.org on November 9th, but essentially, I took off for Eastern Europe, hitchhiked and traveled, chipped off pieces of the Berlin wall, and partied everywhere I went. I met a girl who was singing in a park, and though we didn't speak a common language well, she drew me pictures and witnessed to me in broken English. I left her, and later found myself stumbling into a Campus Crusade for Christ open air revival in Jan Huss square in downtown Prague, where somehow the Gospel penetrated my heart, and I got saved. **Kimberly**

 

Q. Why don't you participate in Halloween any longer?

 

 

A. So many of our Western ‘holidays’ are secularized/Christianized pagan holy-days.  As a one-time pagan who mocked Christians who took part in these adulterated holidays, I can in no way celebrate them with my family.  Halloween is only one on a list of holidays that have been co-opted from pagan belief systems: Christmas, Easter, Halloween – they may all be widely accepted, and the former two have had Jesus thrown into the mix, but their origins and symbolism remain largely pagan in nature.

 

 

I believe that reading these scriptures and applying them to any area of occult influence, whether it is a pagan holiday, or reading fiction that portrays witches and wizards in a positive light – these passages are broadly applicable for Christian living and remaining separate from pagan practices.

 

 

Ephesians 5:8-14 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

 

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^[a]? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’
‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing,
and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’" **Jennifer**

 

 

There are several reasons. The first one, I don't see the point as to why we should. To me, it originates with a very directly pagan observance.

 

I find the emphasis on being "afraid" and promoting fear, scary stuff, etc. to be contrary to the fact that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1). Why emphasize death? Christ conquered death and the grave! I also feel that this "fun" exposure to the scary, terror stuff can inoculate young children to violence and evil. It's like how violent films desensitize us to violence.

 

Safety. It's hard enough to keep an eye on active young children, but put a costume on them, go for a walk in the dark with hundreds of other young kids in similar costumes on the street, in neighborhoods that are more often than not full of sex offenders (check your communities listing).

 

 

Is it a good precedent to teach children to essentially "beg" door to door? The Bible says that God's children don't "beg" (Psalm 37:25)...we have a society that is always looking for a handout and while I don't think that this is because of Halloween and trick or treating, I don't like encouraging kids to be beggars.

 

 

Essentially, I found trick or treating to be like a washed out version of what the real holiday was about for a Wiccan, so I didn't participate in that any more, and I was older anyway by that point. I've not gone trick or treating at all since that time. **Kimberly**

 

 

Q. Are there specific experiences that you had as a Wiccan who celebrated Halloween that led to your decisions as why you don't celebrate it any longer?

 

 

 

A. I can’t say that there is any specific experience I can point to, but rather the general understanding of Christianity and the holidays Christians celebrate that I held as a pagan.

Brothers and sisters, know that there are pagans watching you and laughing.  That may seem harsh, but it is true – the adopt of pagan holidays into the life of a Christian has in no way strengthened the faith or made it more palatable in the eyes of unbelievers, it has only weakened it, and made it seem derivative.  I can so clearly remember explaining to others that Jesus is just another manifestation of the sacrificial Summer-King who dies to ensure the well-being of his people – that this is evident through his portrayal in being born at Winter Solstice (as the sun-god is), dying and rising again at Easter (Eostre) as the green-god, the consort of the goddess does in the Spring as he is planted into the ground and dies only to be born again as the grain crop.

 

As a believer I know that nothing can be further than the truth – I always knew that the gods I worshipped were the creations of man, false gods, and now that I belong to Him I know the deep, everlasting reality of His life, His truth, His love.  It breaks my heart to know that pagans misunderstand Jesus because of tacking him onto pagan celebrations – but that is a post for another day!  Even holidays that are still primarily pagan are in no ways appropriate for Christians to celebrate, as it mars their witness to partake in a pagan celebration.

 

 

 

I have to make something clear – I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with candy, or wearing princess dress-up clothes, we do both of those things in our home.  However, when we do these things within the context of a pagan celebration, we are in essence behaving like the un-Godly culture that surrounds us.  Both in the Old and New Testaments God carefully shepherds His people, asking them to abstain from pagan expressions of faith and celebration.  Unfortunately, Christians who partake in Halloween are partaking in a pagan celebration.  

I realize that there are many sincere brothers and sisters in the faith that celebrate Halloween out of a sense of family tradition, or culturally normative – I’d like to encourage you to examine the scriptures in light of this celebration, to seek God’s face, and to pray His will be done in your life. I hope you’ll read these words in the spirit they are intended – I have no desire to condemn you and yours as you continue to grow in your walk with the Lord.

 

 

 

Do our actions really matter in relation to Halloween or is it just innocent fun? Yes, unreservedly yes.  As parents we are responsible for planting seeds in the lives of our children.  Halloween and its emphasis upon the dark spiritual world may unknowingly plant a seed that later blooms into a fascination with the occult.

 

As previously mentioned, our Christian witness before pagans is marred due to our involvement with their ‘holy days’

Most importantly, as the above scriptures make clear, God wants us to walk in the light. As His children we should not seek to partake of the works of darkness or to commune with them.  All children seek to emulate their father – having been adopted into God’s family, we are no longer children of Satan, and we should no longer walk as such.**Jennifer**

 

 

 

Not really, other than knowing where it originated. What I mean is...not directly. Because of my involvement in [things of the] occult in the past, I avoid things that just "feel" demonic to me. It's hard to say, but my spirit just cringes this time of year. It's like putting a smiling, happy face on the demonic.

 

I think you'll find this to be true in most of us who were once Wiccans...it goes beyond Halloween, to a greater sensitivity in this realm in general. It's the whole Romans 14 argument about the weaker brother. I am a weaker brother when it comes to anything that has occult overtones because I know the draw that once had on me, and in a moment of weakness it could possibly be a stumbling block again. **Kimberly**

• Article: Halloween in Light of the Scriptures
• Article: What Does the Bible Say About. . .?
• Article: When Good People Disagree - uses Halloween as a case study in conflict
    

• Article: Pumpkin Evangelism
• Book: The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs (for children)
• Leaflet: Halloween Leaflet - Light-Up-the-Night
• Tracts: Halloween Tracts
• Tracts: Chick Tracts: Turn Halloween Into a Night of Evangelism (ideas could be used with their tracts or other tracts)
   

• Article: A Christian Perspective on the Holiday: History Page
• Article: Christians and Halloween: The Pagan Origin of Halloween
• Article: The History of Halloween -- It's Probably Not What You Think 
    

• Article: The Dark Side of Halloween
• Article: The Occult Connection
• Cassette: Halloween: Invitation to the Occult? - Audiobook on Cassette by Chuck Missler

• Article: Christians and Halloween
• Article: Halloween for Christians?
• Article: Should Christians participate in the Halloween holiday?
• Article: Happy Halloween? Is there any good reason for a Christian to celebrate it?
• Article: A Look at Halloween
• Article: Can Halloween Be an Entirely Innocent Practice?
• Article: Saints, Symbols and Celebrations: A New Perspective on Halloween
• Book: Halloween, Is It for Real? by Harold Myra 

"A whole generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to 'accept' Christ without forsaking the world."- A.W. Tozer

"You cannot destroy a wasp's nest without being attacked in return. Yet this is better than stagnation. In a slumbering church it is the adversary's chief business to rock the cradle, hush all the noise, and drive away even a fly which might light upon the sleeper's face; Satan's great dread is lest the church should be aroused from her dreamy slumbers." - CH Spurgeon

"I find no such sin as legality in the Bible. The very use of the term speaks of Antinomianism*. I defy all liberty, but liberty to love and serve God; and fear no bondage, but bondage to sin."

John Wesley

*Antinomianism: The doctrine or belief that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral.

From At The Well....

When you live on a farm you take the seasons seriously. When you live on a farm where the weather can get dangerous, you take the seasons very very seriously. It is not uncommon to have ice storms here. It is not uncommon to lose power for days and it is not uncommon to not be able to get in and out of your own property for days. Ice is much worse than snow.

Since we live way out in the country we have to be prepared. There is no such thing as walking across the street to buy milk. Fall, to us, means that winter is just around the corner. It means we need the pantries and freezers stocked. It means we need hay in the barn. It means we need firewood. It means work.

Around here for the last two hundred years, children and families have been raised knowing what hard work is. And they are all the better for it. It has only been since an auto plant moved in 15 years ago that there has been much crime. Before that, things were typical of small town bible-belt living. And for most folks who live in the country it still is.

Big families are the norm, and hard work is something everyone does together. But that is not just something for farm living country folks. Teaching our children the benefits of hard work and doing it together is almost a lost art, it is a skill that is desperately needed. That is why way too many children these days are obese, lazy and killing their peers at school. If those young people who have killed had a purpose in their days instead of so much idle time they would probably not entertain the thoughts of the enemy so easily.

He who works his land will have abundant food,
but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment

Proverbs 12:11

So, assuming not everyone lives on a farm and has hay to bring in, how can we teach our children the benefits of work? The rest HERE...

This is such a good video. Soooo sad, but it's so beautiful that they decided to give their son life, even if he only lived a few days. SUCH a precious story! 

God's Plan for Families

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."  ~ Proverbs 25:2

How do we know what is right and wrong? How do we know what is truth?

We are "kings and priests" of God.... and God will speak to us through His Word. Yes, many things are concealed in the Bible, but the answers are there! The fact of the matter is that God wants us to SEARCH out His answers to life's seemingly gray areas! Seek and you WILL find!

~ Mark and Lisa Metzger

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