As we approach Reformation Day, we also need to give a biblical response to Halloween because it's kind of like a battle between the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit here. And you would notice there's a phenomenal battle going on on ACF Facebook, as there always is at this time of year, over people between pro-Halloween, anti-Halloween, pro-Reformation, anti-Reformation, and so on. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 21 to 22 says, test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. Halloween is a celebration of evil. Halloween is a religious day, but it's not a Christian day. Tom Sanguette, a former high priest and wicker, has said, the modern holiday that we call Halloween has its origins in the full moon closest to November the first, the witch's new year. It is a time when the spirits are supposed to be at their peak power, revisiting planet Earth. Halloween is purely and absolutely evil. And there's nothing we ever have or will do that would make it acceptable to the Lord Jesus, and that's from someone who's been converted from an occultic background. Halloween has strong roots in paganism and witchcraft, and it began as the Druid festival of Chamhain. The Celts considered November the 1st the day of death, because in the northern hemisphere, it's the beginning of winter, the leaves are falling, It's getting darker earlier, temperatures are dropping. They believed their sun god was losing power and strength, and Shamhain, the lord of death, was overpowering the sun god. The Druids also taught that on 31 October, on the eve of the feast, Shamhain assembled the spirits of all who had died during the previous year to return to their former home to visit the living. On Halloween, for thousands of years, Druid priests have conducted diabolical worship ceremonies in which cats and horses and sheep and oxen and human beings and other offerings were rounded up, stuffed into wicker cages and burned to death. These human and animal sacrifices were apparently required to appease Shamhain and keep the spirits from harming them. To obtain these sacrifices, Druid priests would go from house to house asking for fatted calves, black sheep, and human offerings. Those who gave were promised prosperity, and those who refused to give were threatened and cursed. This is the origin of trick or treat. The jack-o'-lantern, which has its origins in the candle-lit pumpkin or skull, which served as a signal to mark those farms and homes that supported the Druid religion, and thus were seeking the treat, when the terror of Halloween began. The World Book Encyclopedia says the apparently harmless lighted pumpkin face of a jack-o'-lantern is an ancient symbol of a damned soul. Basically a skull with a fire within it. Definitely a picture of a damned soul in hell. While people and animals were screaming in agony, being burnt to death, the druids and their followers would dress in costumes made of animal skins and animal heads. They would dance and chant and dance through the flames in the hope of warding off evil spirits. One of the popular heroes of Halloween, Count Dracula, was also a real person. Dracula lived from 1431 to 1476 in Romania. During his six-year reign, Count Dracula massacred over 100,000 men, women and children in the most hideous ways. He devised a plan to rid his country of the burden of beggars and the handicapped and the sick and the aged by inviting them to a feast in one of his palaces. He fed them well, got them drunk, and then he said, do you want to be without cares, lacking nothing in the world? And when he received a resounding yes, he ordered the palace boarded up, set on fire, and no one escaped this original house of horrors, which now is something you can go to in MGM studios as some kind of entertainment. Halloween loves death and evil, and that's why we hate it. And you think of a lot of these occultic gods like Kali in Hinduism, which are the inspiration for many of the types of demons that are glorified at Halloween. Satan's greatest weapon is man's ignorance of God's word. So what does the word of God say? When you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abomination of those nations. There shall be not found among you anyone who makes a son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you will dispossess. Listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. So Deuteronomy 18 makes it crystal clear. Every single category of occult is condemned. Teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Now that part of Hosea 4 verse 6 is well quoted, well known. But the second part of Hosea 4 verse 6 is less known. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priests for me. Because you've forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. That's a terrifying threat that our children could suffer because of our wickedness. Train up a child in the way he should go, then when he is old he will not depart from it. That whosoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone was tied around his neck and he was drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to the man through whom those offenses come. Matthew 18, 67. How much clearer can it be? Romans 12 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. This is what's at stake. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What part has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." Now, sometimes people misquote only part of this, and they say, you shouldn't be talking about these things, you shouldn't have anything to do with these things, but we are told to expose them, so we've got to have at least enough to understand what's evil, to warn people against it, and to speak out against it. So, I prefer never to talk about Halloween and communism and false religions and occult, but there's a certain amount we've got to say just to warn people, because we're living in a world that is now teaching tolerance and acceptance of all these things. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Now by Philippians 4 verse 8, I don't think you can find any of these requirements in Halloween or the Occult or most of the Hollywood films that fall in the category of horror films. I don't know why anyone would ever want to see a horror film. Absolutely bizarre. I visited a home in Sophie Bulgaria once on a mission and the homie stayed and had something like a dozen locks, bolts, chains, the whole, we put this whole bar across with padlocks over it. I said, do you have that much crime in Sophie? And she said, no, I guess not, but I read Stephen King novels. Well, yes, I suppose if you're going to read Stephen King novels and watch those kind of films, you would have a paranoid imagination and We're meant to concentrate on what is good and pure and lovely, and Halloween just doesn't qualify. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If the devil is not fleeing from us, we're either not submitting to God or we're not resisting the devil. or both. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Now, the team going to minister to pensioners in Zimbabwe, that's one part of the verse. But keeping ourselves unpolluted from the world, that's the other part of this verse. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Instead of participating in paganism and walking with Weka and being in harmony with Halloween and celebrating cruelty and dabbling in the day of death, we should focus on Reformation Day, this 31 October. This is basically the conflict, Reformation Day or Halloween. I've been to Christian schools, Christian schools, and asked, what's 31 October? And you get all the kids, Halloween in a Christian school. A whole bunch. 31 October is Halloween. Well, it was on 31 October that Dr. Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirche, the parcel church in Wittenberg, Germany. His bold challenge against the unbiblical practices of the medieval Roman papacy inspired the Protestant Reformation. All Bible-believing evangelical churches should celebrate the greatest revival of faith and freedom ever. Scriptura, script alone is the ultimate authority. Sola fide, salvation is by faith alone. Sola gratia, salvation is by the grace of God alone. Solus Christus, Christ alone is the head of the church. Christ is the only mediator between God and man. Soli deo gloria, which is still written on, engraved on our one-ran coins. Everything should be done for the glory of God alone. These are the five solas, the doctrines that shattered the darkness. The Reformation was one of the most important turning points in world history. The energies that were released by the rediscovery of the Bible in the common tongue led to the most extraordinary spiritual revival in history. The Reformation freed the Christians of Northern Europe from the decadence of Renaissance paganism and led to the greatest freedoms and scientific discoveries in history. Every Bible-believing Christian should celebrate the Reformation. Martin Luther was not fixing the door, he was fixing the church's theology. No Christian should have a part in celebrating the occultic Halloween. We're in a spiritual world war. Cruelty to animals and vandalism and murders occur with far greater frequency during Halloween. Vandalism. all over the world. 31 October, there's greater numbers of vandalism. The police in Cape Town have told me they received thousands of vandalism reports over Halloween. Thousands. And it's not just vandalism of public property. There's also people's cats, especially black cats, are kidnapped at this time for sacrifices by these occultic covens on 31 October. Every Halloween, many thousands of animals, even people, are sacrificed in satanic rituals worldwide. People, homeless people, backpackers, hitchhikers, are particularly being selected by covens, picking them up off the road, drugging them, and next thing they know, they're on an altar and drugged and being sacrificed. That happens in South Africa too. While millions of other people, including well-meaning Christians, are participating in Halloween celebrations, Like here, a few years ago we had a church in Cape Town advertising Nightmare. The door is the key. I picked up this leaflet at the traffic light. There were a hand-me-mouth news group to advertise their live interactive show, spooky sounds, atmospheric lighting, hair-raising effects at GHCC, Good Hope Christian Center, I think. probably. At any rate, they call this nightmare. It's PG. It's a youth group they were organizing for that 31st, for the, it was meant to be close to Halloween, such as the Friday the 3rd of November in 2013. That's just one example. I've come across churches organizing Halloween nights for their youth. Can you believe it? It's not cute. It's not sweet to dress up your kids as demons, witches, vampires, monsters. It's a pagan abomination. Okay kids, don't ever talk to strangers or take candy from strangers or go to strange houses except on the day we worship the devil. I mean we're kind of countering the whole principle of what good parenthood is. Halloween is a prime recruiting time for witches and Satanists. Many people have testified they were introduced to the occult at a Halloween party, which might have even been a joke. It might not have been a serious Halloween party, but there's serious people who might be there trying to recruit. Halloween is very religious, but it's just not Christian. We're told in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 20, abstain from all appearance of evil. If Halloween doesn't seem evil to people, then maybe it's because they lost. Halloween is a satanic pagan holiday. What else can you say? People walking through streets wearing the heads of animals. No less an authority than Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, Wales, Los Angeles, said, I'm glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night of the year. You know, when your enemies are praising you, you're doing something wrong. 2 Corinthians 6, 14-17, what communion has light with darkness? This is the very passage that Lutheran pastor Richard Wilburn quoted in Bucharest, Romania, when he is expected to follow all the other ministers standing up saying communism is Christianity, this is what the book of Acts, Christianity is all about, this is what Jesus taught, we should all be communists, the original Christians were all communists and so on and so forth. And so he went up and he quoted this whole passage. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Come out from among them and be as separates as the Lord. And he went straight to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect chartered land of interest. straight to jail, but as he said, he ended up in the same prison that all the false ministers who had stood up and compromised and cowardly applauded communism. They ended up in the same prison he did, just a bit later. The difference was, he said, I was there with a clear conscience. They were not. Do not have fellowship with demons, we're told in 1 Corinthians 10, 20. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. If you believe in something, you should fight for it, because every time we witness an injustice and we do not act, we train our character to be passive in the presence of evil, and thereby we eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves against and defend those we love. We need the courage and the honor to stand up against what's evil, even if people misunderstand, speak badly of us, and so on. 25 years ago, Frontline Fellowship Mission Team was heading into Angola, smuggling bibles and medicines through the back doors, we call it, going through Caprivi, up across the Zambezi River, into Coanda-Cobango province. And as the team approached this remote village in this area that the Portuguese called the uttermost parts of the earth, they could hear the sound of singing. And they immediately recognized the sound. They were singing Ein Fest der Berg ist unser Gott in Urwunde. They were singing Martin Luther's great battle hymn of the Reformation, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, in the Urwunde language. And there was a banner across the street, 31 October 1517. And there were posters out. Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Deo Gloria. They had, the children were doing posters and artwork on William Tyndale and Martin Luther and on John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, extraordinary. And our team recognized it's 31 October. They were celebrating Reformation Day. Now they didn't have a building. This is actually the same congregation, although on another occasion. get pictures of that particular event, I'm sorry to say, but there's the same congregation where they went and they had no building, the building had been burned down by the communists and so they did not allow the inconvenience of not having a building keep them from their priority of worshipping the Lord. But they had next to no Bibles and our team had the privilege of bringing them Bibles and books and hearing from these people who'd been celebrating the Reformation They heard from them, this is the greatest gift anyone could have asked for, the word of God in my own language. And when this was reported back, we felt great shame and disgrace on our side that we had never celebrated Reformation Day. Before 1994, we had not. and this is 1993, and we felt so convicted, we determined from 1994 to next year, we will make a point of celebrating Reformation Day every 31 October, because if the Ovumbundu people in Kuanda-Kubanga province, at the outermost parts of the earth, if they can remember Reformation Day, what excuse do we have in Cape Town? Indeed, we are not that far, barely an hour's drive from the Reformation Monument and Museum at front trip. And so at the Huguenot Monument and the Huguenot Museum, we've had guided tours and services every 31 October since then. And in 2005, I was invited to minister throughout 11 countries in Europe, which included Wittenberg, and getting there with Bill Bathman, got around, this is the Slosskirche, where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses, where he launched the Protestant Reformation, his pulpit, his Bible, The Stadtkirche, where Martin Luther conducted multiple services during the week as well. Of course, the castle church was the university chapel, whereas this is the Wittenberg community church, so he has passed at both at the time. And up to the Martin Luther room. This is one room that's been left exactly the same as it was in the days of Martin Luther. The same glass, same everything. The different manuscripts. An incredible place to go where they've got the largest collection of Reformation writings and manuscripts. The printing press, the reformer's friend, the tyrant's foe. Many great things there. Well, this is 2005. April and May 2005. I came back after visiting also Wilt House, where Ulrich Zwingli was born, up in the Alps, a thousand meters up. Grossmunster, where the first expository preaching was launched 500 years ago, 1st of January 1519. Ulrich Zwingli dispensed with the Latin Mass and brought in reading and preaching expository through every verse of the Bible, starting with Matthew 1 verse 1, worked his way through the New Testament. from this pulpit in Grossmünster, Zwingli's helmet and swords. As you can see, this reformer is no pacifist. Got to Geneva as well in that same 2005 mission, where one of Bill Batten's good friends, Mike Evans, who is the principal of Geneva Bible Institute, took me to Saint-Pierre, which is the great cathedral where John Calvin launched the Swiss Reformation in a French-speaking world. and we had the Calvin 500 celebrations there in 2009. As I was standing at the Reformation wall, I couldn't help but notice with the dates. 1509 when John Calvin was born. We're not that far, we're only four years away from 2009 when we could have the Calvin 500. And 1517, we're coming up to 2017, 12 years time. So isn't too early for us to start planning for Reformation 500. And examining those monuments in 2005, I was led to launch the Reformation Society and to come back. This is the Geneva Bible Institute where we had Reformation prayer meetings. So I came back and launched in 2005 the Reformation Society in this boardroom. The five solas of the Reformation. We determined to start having regular meetings on Thursday nights, and to start planning for Reformation events leading up also to the Calvin 500 and the Reformation 500. Our ReformationSA.org website was launched, and starting in the boardroom here, yes, we used to have curtains and all that. Things have disappeared in time. And at the Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek, launching our new books, debate with a local Catholic church, At Christians for Truth conferences, at Kwasi Bantu ministers' conferences, we've promoted Reformation 500 concepts in the City Hall in Cape Town, called for prayer. Inspired by Martin Luther and John Knox, we took an imprecatory prayer proclamation to President Becci's office and posted it on the door of Parliament, calling him to repent for all their paganism, legalized child killing, and all the rest. and have made a stand outside Mbeki's office. Of course we march Parliament each year to protest the legalisation of abortion. On National Days of Pray we've also mobilised people outside union buildings up in Pretoria to pray below union buildings on the lawn. for national repentance and revival. In Zambia, we've been better received. This is General Ronnie Shikapasha, who was the head of the Air Force in Zambia. He was crippled in a car accident and told he'd never walk again. His wife was converted, he was converted, he was healed. He became Minister of Information, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and we've met him multiple times, and he's organized lots of meetings, including in teacher training colleges and on radio. President of Zambia at the time, Levi Mwanawasa. We had a good hour discussing with him our needs. And on Zambian radio, we've had many openings in the Bible colleges. Many people in Zambia interested in working for reformation today. Teacher training colleges, libraries for pastors. In Congo, in fact, our biggest biblical worldview seminar ever was in the Congo at Lubumbashi. 3,000 people attended, including local judge and generals. Late in 2006 we managed to produce the first edition of The Greatest Century of Reformation based on presentations given here, honed and put into chapters. I had the opportunity to launch this at the Crestavantu Ministers' Conference held in Kalprin, Switzerland. At the Crestavantu Ministers' Conference, about 400 people from all over Europe, as far afield as Romania even, gathering together. And that was where the Greater Central Reformation book was first launched. Then we produced the Power of Prayer Handbook. It's one thing to speak about the Reformation, but how do we reform our own lives? Well, taking Martin Luther's How to Revive Your Prayer Life book as a basis, praying the way through the Psalms, praying the way through scriptures, the Power of Prayer Handbook came out as another building block to Reformation. Lenora worked on reforming our families. She got seven other people to contribute, so there's eight contributors to reforming our families. The next building block, we start with our own devotional life, next thing we reform our families. And then we launched in 2013 Reformation 500 FIRE, Fellowship for International Reformation and Evangelism. We need FIRE. Our Christian Action magazines often have dealt with Reformation issues. In 2013, we also produced the Reformation Today, 95 Theses for Reformation Day, basically taking Martin Luther's works, but adding from Zwingli, Tyndale, Calvin, and others, and key scriptures that they emphasized to apply to our principles today. Translated into French, Afrikaans, and German, and Nederlands. We then put together Coalition Revival's documents relating to reformation on a whole range of issues in the Fire Manual, and then that was revised, expanded last year into the Coalition Revival Reformation Fire Manual in this format, which has been important to us throughout Africa. We've continued to organize Reformation Days at Huguenot Monument and Museum, but then, two years ago, we invite the Eurochoir to Cape Town. And this was just such a wonderful privilege and opportunity to get these people from seven nations in Europe, about a hundred choir members. And it was a tremendous privilege to get the amphitheater. And Tosha succeeded in getting the waterfront to give it to us for an hour. without charge. And you can see the people turned out in good amounts. There was great response, enthusiasm. When they were singing Amazing Grace, which we've got recorded, you can actually hear the people in the crowd joining in. And Uncle Erlo addressed the people, in fact at that point I think Securi was trying to get Tosha to get them to shut down, right? And we were having spiritual warfare off-site because of the battle. But fortunately we managed to keep them distracted until Uncle Erlo had finished. Somebody complained that he was mentioning the name of Jesus. Interesting, you can have rap groups, you can have hip-hop, you can have all kinds of nonsense there, you can have blasphemy, nobody seems to complain. The moment you get people honouring Christ, spiritual warfare begins. Evangelism, opportunities, discussing with people, literature distribution, being right in the centre of the waterfront, a wonderful opportunity for ministry. On Sunday, the oldest Protestant church still operational in the Southern Hemisphere. This is the Lutheran Church in Strand Street. built like a barn, because it was illegal to have anything but a Dutch-formed church back in the 1700s according to the Dutch East India Company, so Lutherans actually had this barn which they used as a church. You notice the goose, the swan. The swan here is an important symbol because in Reformation history the pre-reformer Jan Huys, professor of Prague University, he stood up when he was about to be burned at the stake, and he made a joke. He said, my goose is cooked. Now, his name, Hus, means goose. He's about to be burned. He says, my goose is cooked, which is where the term comes from. But 100 years from now, a swan will arise whose voice you will not be able to silence. Now, you'll see in Lutheran churches, the swan is often an architecture because people recognize that Martin Luther was that swan. Interestingly enough, Martin Luther when he was ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church in Erfurt, he was as part of the ordination ceremony made to lie face down in a cruciform format on the cold stone at the front, showing his complete submission to Catholic Church and so on. And he just happened to be lying directly over the grave of the very bishop who had condemned Hus to death and had given Hus the chance at the end, will you recant your position? Then he could be spared from being burned at the stake. Hus said, I would not for a chapel full of gold recede from the truths I have taught in my life. I will gladly confirm with my blood the truths I've taught in my life. Now, when Hus said that a hundred years from now a reformer will, another will rise whose voice you'll not be able to silence. A swan will rise. You could imagine that that bishop might have thought over my dead body. And there a hundred years later Martin Luther is ordained over the dead body of the very bishop who had condemned Hus to death at Constance. It's things like that that just show you God has a sense of humor. Ein festerberg ist unter Gott. King David, the psalmist, right by the organ, just reminding you, the psalms are the gold standard of worship. and what a wonderful opportunity it was to bring in the Eurochoir and they managed to fill the front seats for the choir loft and so on in the front and you can see how the church was built like a barn to disguise it so it looked like a barn from the outside whereas it actually was a church and we filmed in fact a lot of these materials of the Eurochoir in Cape Town are available on our website we've got the incredible presentations in many languages. They sang in German, they sang in French, they sang in English and Afrikaans. It was a tremendous, wonderful opportunity. And all of our film ministry comms was fully mobilized to make the most of this whole week of the Eurochoir in Cape Town. The event, the Eurochoir in Franschhoek, was heavily posted and advertised and we took over the Huguenot Monument and on Reformation Day 2016 we had the most glorious sunshine. What a lovely venue. We had a backup. It was raining. We were going to be in a Dutch-form church but it was so good. Our biggest concern was these poor Euros were going to get scorched by the sun and seriously sunburned. And we kept warning, please put on lots of sun cream, you're going to get seriously burned. Out in the sun, there was no shade to be had. Although our friends from Aquila did bring in some tents to provide some shade for those people who wanted. A few people brought umbrellas. And then in this magnificent Dutch-formed church in Franschhoek, we were able to have a concert in the afternoon. And this again, lovely venue. When you look at the Huguenot monument and at the church in Franschhoek, we're reminded of the great revivals of the past because you can see this building, like all the Dutch-form churches, was a rectangle. But then with the revival, they had to build the wings out to the side and turn it into a cruciform. And then they had to put galleries above as well to accommodate all the people converted in the 1860 revival. Now that's a whole other story. Anyway, these are good friends. These are people we know. I've seen them in Europe and here. And it was wonderful to have them coming to Cape Town to make our Reformation, launching the 500th anniversary of the Reformation here. So special. They went, of course, to Crescent onto mission as well. So 2017 was the big year. We'd been promoting this for a long time, 12 years actually, and one of the people I asked to help in preparing for this was R.C. Sproul. I went to him shortly after my 2005 admission and said, Dr. Sproul, we need a Reformation Study Bible. And well, he's produced Reformation Study Bibles and he's donated over 2,000 to us, which we've distributed over the years. But 2017 was also, we realized, the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Now, nobody in Russia was celebrating it, although in this country, the EFF organized 100th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. Well, at least somewhere in the world, somebody thought that was a good thing to celebrate, but nobody in Eastern Europe thought it was a good idea. And we pointed out the middle verse in the Bible, the absolute middle verse, Psalm 118, verse eight says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in man. That's smack in the middle. I didn't work it out, someone else worked it out. This is the middle verse of the Bible. So 2017 we had 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, 5th anniversary of the Reformation. Reformation or revolution? That's your choice. Put your trust in the Lord and his word, or put your trust in man. And you can see the fruit of each. And this became the theme of not just the Frontline newsletter, but many a sermon and presentation too. And we produced an updated, expanded version of the Greatest Century Reformation in time for the Reformation 500 events last year, and the audio MP3s with CDs, audios, including a whole disc on the Euroquan Cape Town. In America, I'd been in Pennsylvania and in Idaho and in California, Reformation 500 conferences. And then I had a six-nation mission to Europe and America, going everywhere from Belgium, France, England, Netherlands, Germany. And this is one of the adverts in the Netherlands, for example, nine steps for a new reformation. Well, I was invited to this conference on Reformation Revival and I was in Holland and I wondered how many people can come to a Reformation Revival conference in Netherlands. We had 960 people there. It was extraordinary. They were, and these were young people, many of them with three, four, five children, which I thought Netherlands only had 1.2 children each, but apparently not the Christians. They had the principals up on the door at the front. Over there, that's the door at the front. And this is the kind of scene at the worship times at this Reformation and Revival Conference in the Netherlands. Had a very good translator, was outstanding. People coming forward at the end. And then it was off to Wittenberg, to the epicenter of the Reformation. They've got over the very church from Martin Luther's Laundry Reformation and Festerbrook has also got. And this is the doorway where the Ninety-Five Thieves were first nailed. Of course, that door has been long since burned in the Seven Years War, I think it was. And at this point, though, it's got the Ninety-Five Theses in Latin, in the door, in metal, and that was paid for by Kaiser Wilhelm II. He paid for the restoration of the church. It had been very seriously vandalized in the various wars leading up to that time. And this is the castle church, the Schlosskirche. absolutely extraordinary. You'll notice that at the center they've got a statue of Christ and Peter and Paul. Now everywhere around there's memorials of all sorts, but the grave of Martin Luther is directly under his pulpit on orders of Prince of Saxony, written in Latin, which is typical for professors. Melanchthon's tomb is also there. Now you see these different statues. Each statue's eyes are fixed on Christ, the figure representative there. Of course Martin Luther, the primary reformer, Melanchthon, Johannes Bergenhagen, he was actually the pastor of Wittenberg and therefore he was the confessor to whom Martin Luther would go. Johannes Brentz, Reformer of Southern Germany, Bavaria. Justus Jonas, the Lutheran theologian and jurist. Nicholas von Amsdorff, the first Lutheran bishop. Urbanus Regius, Reformer of Northern and Southern Germany. I'm sure many of these names we don't know as well. And there's a whole lot of others. So the altar of the church, quite extraordinary. Then they've got medallions around the church walls. For example, Peter Waldo, founder of the Waldensians, the oldest Reformation movement, going back 800 years. Professor John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, the English reformer. Martin Buser, former Strasbourg, who is the mentor of John Calvin. Ulrich Zwingli, the great reformer of Switzerland. Albrecht Dürer, anyone remember what he's famous for? He's the artist of the Reformation. He did the praying hands amongst many other things, but a famous reformer. They called him the fifth evangelist. He put the gospel in art. Lucas Cranach, the elder, what's he famous for? Luther's printer. This is the man who ran the printing press in Wittenberg and therefore put the 95 Theses and all the books and so on of Luther. 400 titles, 60,000 pages of printed books. At one point, 80% of all the printed works in the world were Martin Luther's writings. And Lucas Cranus was just the main print in town. Soon there were many other prints because they couldn't keep up with all that was coming out of Wittenberg. Hans Sachs, the alms of the city of Wittenberg in Northern Window. So they've got the different, they've got many of the cities' emblems in the stained glass windows that became Protestant. And then the prints who kept them safe and protected the Reformation. Baptismal font, interior of the church, very impressive. The organ, and notice Martin Luther designed this, the black cross in a red heart. Christ needs to regenerate our dark hearts. in the white lily symbolizing the fruits of the Spirit, the blue for heaven, and then there's a gold ring around it. So we've made this adaption so you can see a conversion of the regenerate heart by God's grace alone, the fruits of faith, and heaven, our eternal home, and the gold ring symbolizing God's covenant and his love without end, eternal. Now last year, going there, October 2017, we got to the Luther Oak. Now you might have heard what Martin Luther said. He went outside the city and he burned the actual papal edict that was excommunicating him. He says, the Pope has no right to excommunicate us. He's not even part of the church at all. So he burned Luther's materials right there. The oak, which was there, obviously that's 500 years ago, no longer there. So they put up a memorial at the Luther Oak and give it a story. These are all parts of remembering the 10th of December, 1520, when he publicly burned the papal bull from Pope Leo X. and there were people in the time used to come and see the oak which was fenced off but sadly it later died and so they've planted other oak trees nearby but they would be from the oak nuts. A big oak is just a little nut who stood as ground basically. So now they've got a well there, a fountain of life that comes from making a stand. My conscience is captive to the word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other." Well, we were walking down the road, Christopher and I, and what did we come across? A big event. A whole lot of people gathered. We wondered, what's going on here? We got close and we saw, if I knew that the world was coming to an end tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today. And so because of Martin Luther's stand about planting a tree, the people of Wittenberg determined to plant 500 trees in Wittenberg to commemorate 500 years of the Reformation. Here are some of the trees. Pretty decent size and the people were carrying them off and planting them according to a specific plan. They had a good plan there. And 500 years of reformation, 500 trees in Bittenberg. I mean, what a brilliant idea, what a lovely idea, where they were putting them and how they're placing it. And this is one of the streets where we saw a whole busloads of people coming in, and here are these people carrying their tree. Not very easy to carry on your own, you needed two people to easily carry each tree, and they're going to the planting ceremony. Just nice to have been there at an occasion like that. What a positive thing to do. And here's one of the Luther gardens set up with the Luther rose in the center. Luther statue, Melanchthon statue, the Rottstile or the Town Hall and that's the Stuttkirche. Now, you get to the Ratsau, which is the town hall, and they showed me they've got the cat gate. The cat door would be open. The cat could get in and out directly because they wanted the cats to be able to chase and destroy the mice. They kept, of course, the grain of the city was kept in the cellars only, and so they had a little cat door in the town hall, and that's still maintained. And that dates back 500 years. Got to have your cat door. Luther House. This is the place where the Wittenberg University was started. Later as the university expanded and the Reformation developed, the prince handed over to Martin Luther this building as his own building. So Martin Luther then turned it into his home and hostel. He had a lot of students staying there and his wife Katie made it a very hospitable place for many. So this is what a wide-angle lens does to that but it's actually straight. That's just the distortion of the camera. The Luther room. This is the living room and you can see here Notice the Hackelofen with this tiled oven which heats the room very nicely right behind. And Catherine with their children, six children, Melanchthon as the guest of the table. Martin Luther is quite a musician. And this is the great lecture hall where they would have had a lot of their lectures when it was the Wittenberg University. Now it is a museum. It's the greatest Reformation museum in the world. They have got ancient manuscripts and books not just from the 16th century but going even before. These are special air-conditioned protected vaults behind armoured windows, you can imagine they take it very seriously, and beautiful artwork. Notice, for example, symbolic of Martin Luther nailing 95 theses, and you've got the monks arrogantly having the people kissing their hands and so on. You've got the monk who's all angry at Luther. You've got somebody helping him out here. You've got the soldiers and the prince's people wanting to know what the symbolism is. people arguing, all kinds of symbolism, the burning of the papal bull. So these are just some of the artworks. You can see Lucas Cruyff depicted behind this printer. And different people, it's all, everything is modelled on different individuals. This is a picture of Martin Luther throwing the inkwell at the devil, who appeared to Tim Marley during his Bible translation in Blackbird Castle. See the inkwell in his hand? You know, when people say we don't believe in the devil, well, the reformers sure believed in the devil. And this depicts the great debate between Johann Eck and Martin Luther in the Leipzig University, the Leipzig Disputation, 1519. And 1521, my conscience is kept to the word of God. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, so help me God. And the support of the princes in the background, the anger of the bishops and the cardinals, Charles V, who at age 21 was ruler of the biggest empire the world had seen at that stage, because at that stage he controlled the Americas as well, not just Spain, controlling most of Europe, and Martin Luther challenging them all. So we had our team, let's see for example, Colonel John Eidsmer, and this would be Adrian Clarke, Some of the people giving guided tours around the town. These are some of our Coalition Revival people coming together. Al Baker, you'll recognize right in the front. Joseph Tson, Great Reformer of Romania. And Jay Grimsteed. People from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Russia. Netherlands all over and of course guided tours singing A Mighty Fortress Our God in the Sloshkirche, in the Stadtkirche and in the marketplace by Luther's statue, Adrian Clarke doing open-air preaching outside in the marketplace by Luther's statue, calling the people of Wittenberg back to the Reformation principles and our own services of remembrance in the Sloshkirche itself. Then we'd organize for the Eurochoir to have a concert in Wittenberg, which are held in the local Baptist Church and then back to Cape Town for our Reformation 500 conference and Reformation celebration service, including screening of the classic 1953 Martin Luther film. And this was a tremendous, wonderful, historic milestone. So this October, we are taking a stand against Halloween by mobilizing to celebrate Reformation. We've got a Reformation Day celebration, as always, planned for 31 October. This year it falls on a Wednesday. And we need to engage in spiritual warfare, earnest prayer, praying the Psalms, sharing the gospel with our friends and neighbors, particularly those who may unthinkingly be participating in this occultic celebration of divination, necromancy, human sacrifice, and cruelty to animals. We are told in Ephesians 6, verse 10 to 18, to put on the whole armor of God. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take up the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Praying always, with all prayer and all supplication of spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. So any questions or comments on Reformation Day versus Halloween? We've got people in our family that are practicing paganism. Would you suggest sending something to them on that day? Well, it depends where they stand. Obviously the first problem is unregenerate heart. So it's not always possible to change people's minds when they're committed already in an unregenerate way to pagan worldview. So getting them converted is the first step. So probably the first step is to challenge their whole idea that they think they're good people. Way of the Master, Ten Commands, The Law of the Lord is Perfect, Converting Soul, The Law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ, that we can be justified by faith. So to probably start challenging them by the law, Would you consider yourself to be a good person? Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen, taken God's name in vain, hated someone? Jesus says to hate someone is like committing murder in your heart. And taking a person through classic evangelism, whether using evangelism explosion or Ten Commandments style evangelism, such as Way of the Master, I think all of that could help, sir. getting him to watch some interesting films, maybe on evolution versus God or the atheist delusion, there's some good materials that could get a person challenged. But if he just went and attacked his paganism, why would he resist, reject it? He's unregenerate. So I think the first thing to do is go for the heart first. I'd say, you could argue some points, but I'm not convinced that you can reach people like that through the head normally. So maybe straight evangelism. I think so. I mean, that's one way. Or if they've said, well, the reason why they don't believe in God is because they're an atheist or they believe in evolution, well then, if they're open to watching a film, I think the atheist delusion is probably the best place to start. I mean, that's one good DVD or evolution versus God is great fun. Maybe after we have this background before Why do you practice or participate in that movement? Because most people don't know the background of it, so just to inform them, you know, and give some statistics about the background. And then also, I know one of the best guys who's had comfort and said it's the best after-hours opportunity on the 31st of October to reach out. It's true. It's a great evangelistic time. Yes, so we've got some leaflets here on Halloween and what the Bible says, but we want to have a lot of evangelistic material as well. There's quite a lot in the hallway too, but yes, just go ask, as far as videos go, ask Nick and Trax, ask Aubrey, he'll load you up with some good materials. Any other questions or comments? Yes. Well, that's interesting. For years, many people have thought, you Christians, you've gone and hijacked our pagan holiday and you've now turned to this Reformation thing. But there are researchers, such as one that Taryn just sent out, that is saying that actually, All Saints' Day, or the 1st of November, predates Halloween being an occultic day, and that in the Middle Ages, as a counterattack to Christianity, they started to do a revival of paganism, building around Halloween. I've heard both sides. I'm interested to see which is correct. It's possible. that it was a Christian holiday first, all saints that is, and that the pagans have hijacked it. But it might have been that this occultic practice predates them. I'm not totally sure yet, so I'd like to do a bit more research on that. Yes, now, Ken Ham and the Ancient Genesis people have another very interesting angle. There's a booklet in CLB on Halloween from Ancient Genesis which gives this perspective that they believe that the origin of this Day of the Dead, because I've seen every culture has something like this, from China to Mexico, all over the place, and it's a Day of the Dead. Now some places it's awfully occultic, other places it's a bit more Christianized, But what they believe is that as all nations and cultures and tribes and religions have in common the flood, and all have some version of flood narrative, that what had probably happened is, you could imagine after the flood, there's all these dead bodies around, and the water subsided, and it's got to have been awfully depressing for Noah and his family. Everyone they knew outside the ark is now dead. And there was this mourning. and remembering, and they believe that the original, original, original, going back days of the dead, such as you get in Mexico, China, and so on, Japan, everywhere, would have been commemorating those who died in the flood. And later, the church adapted it to be remembering the martyrs who died. So what the connection is with Reformation Day is that the Sloskos, the castle church Duke Frederick or Prince Frederick. It was built specifically to house 5,000 plus relics that include everything from a piece of wood from the real cross and some of the crown of thorns and milk from the Virgin Mary and egg laid by the Holy Spirit when he is a dove. and a toenail of St. Crispin's and a bone of St. Thomas and all these sort of things. And people came there thinking this would add to their salvation. And somebody worked out that if you reverenced every item individually there, you'd knock more than a million years of purgatory. Some people worked this out because each one, this was actually true. I mean you'd think it's a joke but seriously they actually believed this. So people were coming on the 1st of November, All Saints Day, in streams. They'd be queuing up and paying to enter to go in to be able to reverence these, what they called relics, but which were superstitious items and actually idols when you think about it. And so Martin Luther was writing his 31-95 thesis and nailing it up on the 31st of October so that when the people came in the morning on the 1st of November they would see these arguments against him doing this very foolish, idolatrous, wicked idea of thinking they could buy salvation and so on. So that's the connection between Reformation Day and All Saints Day. But the connection between All Saints' Day and the Halloween as it's practiced by the witchcraft people, it could be that in fact the pagans have hijacked All Saints' Day and turned it into an occultic day. And that in fact it first wasn't All Saints' Day remembering the martyrs, but Creation Museum in Arnst and Genesis says actually even predating that was the Day of Remembrance for those who died in the flood. Any other comments, questions? Yes, Avril. If it is like that, it's actually their blasphemous to celebrate it because God killed them. There's nothing to celebrate, right? It's a day to mourn, actually. To mourn and to repent of our own sins. I mean, to think of the fact that millions of people in the world were killed in a flood, in judgment, in a 40-day flood. It's just, it should sober anyone up. And then today, what do you get? You get a whole bunch of perverts out there taking a rainbow, which is meant to symbolize God's covenants after he destroyed all the wicked, and waving around this rainbow as a symbol of their rebellion to God's laws. Not very intelligent. It's because of the rainbow that they're not even being destroyed right now, actually, so it's actually kind of appropriate. Yes, and as you've noticed, Ken Ham of Creation Museum says we've taken back the rainbow. It doesn't belong to the perverts, it belongs to God. belongs to Christians, we should not be ashamed of the rainbow. And that's why they light up the ark at night in the rainbow colors. It's a good idea. Why let them have anything? The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Why let the pagans hijack and push Christians into the corner in the back of the bus? It's time for the Christians to come forward and stand up. And there should be nothing wrong with us waving a rainbow, reminding people of the rainbow, of its meanings, with all seven colors. As Ant and Genesis are doing, it's a great way. I mean, imagine if they've got a gay pride march and you walk in there with your own rainbow and start talking about God's covenant with Noah. I mean, how would they respond? They think they own the rainbow, but it's not their rainbow. Good. Any other questions or comments? Even if Halloween whatever it was called before, Halloween, sort of pre-dates any Christian festivals. Is it really even such a big deal if the church saw the pagans are getting together and doing their thing on the 31st until the 1st? Let's get together and do something else commemorating saints who have gone before us and honoring their memory, so to speak. I mean, I think The church that I used to go to, they used to celebrate, they used to have hallelujah parties. On Halloween they would have a hallelujah party where they would get together and for like three or four hours, for like three hours, they would have a short message and the rest of the time it would be just singing, you know, worship songs and that kind of thing and a bit of time of fellowship afterwards. I mean, there was no, There was no, like, jack-o'-lanterns. They weren't trying to copy anything. They were actually quite bold-faced, and then saying, you know, this is a high day for the pagans, and so it's going to be a day that we worship God even more, to counter, you know, what they're trying to accomplish in our neighborhood, in our suburb. And it was very loud, and the doors would be open. They'd make sure everybody knows we're worshiping God on this day. And that's kind of, I mean, that's a... Somebody might turn around and say, well, you're stealing that from the pagans, but it's actually not. It's redeeming. It is redeeming, and it's actually countering what they're doing. Indeed, it's like if you think of the Kendrick brothers and Ted Bear, they're trying to redeem the media, clean the screen, produce good God-winning films. They're not trying to copy Hollywood. They're trying to counter Hollywood. Hollywood's bringing up blasphemous, pornographic, perverse, wicked horror films and all this. And here we have some good Christians using media in order to present gospel messages to teach disciples. It's good. So I think a hellujah party sounds like a a good, constructive, positive counter to Halloween. Better than ignoring it, and better than giving in to it. Maybe to advertise multiple movies for Halloween, to say Final Frontier and Meow. That would also be appropriate. In fact, we must organize that to be shown up at UCT. I mean, the Final Frontier would be excellent, I think. And the Atheist Illusion, that really needs to be shown up at UCT, along with Evolution vs. God. Well actually he did, and to be fair, while Dracula was obviously a vicious man, he spent most of his time fighting the Turks, the Muslims, keeping the Muslims out of Romania. So Vlad the Impaler, Dracula is considered something of a national hero in Romania because he fought against the Muslims but that's not why most people are celebrating what they celebrate is the fact that he's quite a cruel vicious person but he's cruel and vicious mostly to protect his country from invaders but then he obviously you know went to his head and he became quite an evil man too so there was a real Count Dracula and he did kill a lot of people most of them Turks who were invading But why do they glamorize people like that? Well, it's just so extraordinary if you think how our entire Hollywood entertainment industry is focused on perversity and ugliness. And there's so many noble characters that they could focus on, but they don't seem to want to now. There was a time in the golden age of Hollywood they did. these days that's for the counter culture but yes there's nothing wrong with taking what the pagans are using and and redeeming it just like the cross was used to execute enemies of the roman empire now the cross to us the symbol of christ's victory over death So, we've taken something that the Romans would have used a cross to intimidate people. We've taken their symbol and we've put a totally new meaning on it. So, I see no problem with that. We can take what the pagans do and it doesn't belong to them anyway. But would that not create an association? Like, that person would not feel like he's associated with peace on the world? We do need to be careful. For example, if we go to a gay pride march and we're carrying a rainbow flag, Even though it's got seven colors, most people aren't going to pick that up, we'd have to draw their attention to it. We'd have to be very careful that we dressed in such a way that they couldn't associate that we are part of this perversity or paganism or this rebellion to God. So if you're doing it for an outreach, you've got to be careful that you don't cross the bounds, that it looks like you have joined their side. Yes. But nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with, obviously you go to Anson Genesis and there's the ark lit up in rainbow colors. You can't miss what they're saying. They're not saying we should all join the gay rights movement. But obviously somebody could misunderstand if you're not careful. Communication, very hard. Yes? In what way is that not almost slipping in the same sort of ideology? Oh, I have no doubt that Luther would be unhappy and furious over all of that. He wouldn't want a statue of himself up there or anything like that. Yes, just like you can imagine John Calvin would not be impressed. When we were doing the Calvin 500, I said, somebody said, what would John Calvin say if he was here? And I said, well, he'd probably rebuke us for doing this. He wouldn't be happy, let alone the big statue of him at the Reformation Wall. So yes. It is different from what's going on in the Catholic churches, but obviously I don't like the idea that they've got a statue of Jesus, Paul. All those statues were added though in the 19th century, and in fact it was, they decided to make a national monument out of this, and much like if you go into Westminster Abbey, you go into Westminster Abbey and they've got David Livingstone's tomb, they've got all sorts of great people of the past. They've also got a bunch of pagans. There's Charles Darwin, for goodness sakes, is there, along with Shakespeare and others. So you go into Westminster Abbey, it's like a national museum for great people of the past, of Britain. It is a functioning church still, and they've got no end of statues there too. Now, what happened is, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Queen Victoria's first grandson and favourite grandson. In fact Queen Victoria died in the arms of Kaiser Wilhelm II. And Kaiser Wilhelm was her first grandson but the other grandsons were King George V and of course Czar Nicholas. So they were the grandsons of Queen Victoria amongst others. Kaiser Wilhelm II went to Westminster Abbey, and he was so impressed by this, and he determined, he went back to Germany, and he first thought about doing something in a big church in Berlin like this, and then he thought, no, we Lutherans, we should go to Wittenberg. He went to Wittenberg, was horrified at the state of the Schlosskirche, and so he put personal millions into refurbishing church and got people in, I think these artists went berserk. and they went into, you know, it's nice to have all the different stained glass window things of the different cities that became Lutheran, but then the statues I think were a bad idea. But still, they were inspired by, I remember Kaiser Wilhelm was actually anglophile, I mean he was He is so British in his mindset in many ways that he is trying to copy Britain in a sense, like he did with his Kriegsmarine, he wanted a navy to match Britain's and so on. So Queen Victoria's grandson gave, I think, some artists a brief, and unfortunately money is no object, and they went wild. And you walk in, it's great as a museum and as a monument, but as a church, It's disturbing that you've got so much imagery around there. Compare that with Grossmünster, where in Zurich, all extremely ordered everything taken out, every single thing, even the organ. They stripped the church of every single cross, crucifix, statue, there was nothing in it except the Bible. and the pews, they really, really stripped Grussmans. And you go into Grussmans today, okay, the organ's back, but nothing else. There's not a picture on the walls, there's not an image of any sort. Now that shows the difference between the Zwinglian Reformation and the Lutheran Reformation. Martin Luther said if it's not condemned in scripture, it's permitted. Where Zwingli said if it's not commanded in scripture, it's forbidden, as far as worship goes. So you can see that that's the difference between the Lutheran and the Reformed. In one sense you could say, well, Lutherans are reformed, but in a more specific way we can see there's a very different flavor of the Zwinglian and Calvin Reformation churches, which Knox followed, versus the Lutheran. So I personally am not comfortable with having any statues or images of any sort in any church, but as someone who appreciates history, it's great going in there, seeing all these things, learning the symbolism, what they meant, but no, we wouldn't want to do that in our church. So where would you put the charismatic churches? Well the charismatic churches obviously flow out of the Reformation movement. Even the Methodists to Arminian flow out of the Protestant Reformation. So every single Protestant, Bible-believing, evangelical church can look at the Reformation as the birth date, whether you're Lutheran or not. So charismatic churches wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the Reformation. And I'm sure that they also celebrate Reformation Day, many of them, don't they? I've never been in one that does, but I'm sure they exist. I mean, there's so many flavours of charismatic church. I'm sure they're there. Well, the way it is these days, I'm sure that we've now got probably more charismatic churches observing Reformation Day than there were formerly Confessed Patera churches.