Good evening. A Puritan's Mind brings you the old-time radio program, the Wild Boar News podcast from sunny South Florida. Welcome. I'm Dr. Matthew McMahon. What is the way of the heathen? With holiday in mind or holy days, that would be Halloween. After one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are May 1st and Halloween. That's quoted by Anton LaVey, page 96, in the Satanic Bible. Around October 1st, American grocery stores stock their shelves with candy corn, chocolate bats, and miniature Snickers bars. They lace the aisles with cobwebs, hang pictures of witches on top of the shelves, set up small graveyards surrounded by ghoulish figurines and call it fun. Why do they do this? Well, they are readying themselves for the upcoming celebration of Halloween. Halloween purports to offer a time where people can have fun at the expense of all that is righteous and holy. It is a celebration of devils. At this time of the year, the Christian is faced with a dilemma. Should I have anything to do with the celebration of Halloween? I'm going to give the preclimatic and unwavering answer of absolutely and biblically not. There are a variety of reasons why this is so. Really, the question should be, should I have anything to do with the blatant nature of Satan's influence on the American mind? Halloween is like a magician's trick run by the devil. He keeps the ignorant and unthoughtful mind thinking about candy, fun, and scary movies only to ease your conscience in participating in the celebration of devils and the worship of all that is cold, dark, and dead. Take, for instance, the stupidity of three religious men in the Coconut Creek Life Magazine. This magazine has a section in it called The God Squad. pastors and one rabbi in the area give their thoughts. They were asked about Halloween and whether they participate. Well, you know they wanted to keep their column, so they folded. The rabbi Richard Pollier said, Halloween is a whole new gig for a whole different level of service to God. Reverend Randy Thomas, pastor of Winston Park Church, said, As a pastor, I encourage the families in our church to use all holidays, underscore all, as learning experiences for them and their children. As responsible parents, we can share the meaning and origin of All Saints Day, now called Halloween. Not only is he historically a nitwit, he thinks that our children should weigh the, quote, aspects of a choice to reach their own conclusions, end quote. Pastor Tullian Tervigian of New City Presbyterian Church in EPC Congregation said, Christians who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world must make contact with the world around them. I'm not condoning or ignoring the pagan origins of Halloween. I'm simply confessing that on various Halloween nights I have not been the neighbor God called me to be. This year it will be different. End quote. Note, listener, Though this community magazine would call these men the God Squad, rest assured they are not speaking for God here. God says, quote, learn not the way of the heathen, Jeremiah 10.2. He does not tell us to buddy up with them on satanic holidays to be a good witness. Jesus, when he cleansed the temple, did not set up a booth next to the money changers to win them over. He overturned the tables. When God went to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham did not tell him he should not destroy the city, but rather wanted him not to destroy the righteous, if any were in the city. God's evangelism is not seeker-friendly. Rather, he wants us to be separate from wickedness, separate from sin, such as with a blatantly satanic holy day that worships the devil. So what should the Christian do? Revelation 18.4 says, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Opening yourselves up to the spiritual warfare of the malicious devil by candidly partaking in a day which has its roots in the person and work of the devil cannot be accepted by the Christian who is reading their Bible. God exhorts us vehemently, I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." 1 Corinthians 10.20 Why would you want to? Rather, submit yourself to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4.7 Resist him. Do not make him attractive by decorating the sanctuary of God with leaves and bushels of hay and dressing up the children as clowns or cowboys to appease your conscience and theirs or to have some good standing in the community. 1 Corinthians 10, 18-22 says very plainly that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything, but I say that the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot sit, friends, in the foyer of the devil's castle, and say, you are not visiting his home. This is Dr. Matthew McMahon signing off. Good night then, until this same time next week. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email. at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart." From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known. and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.