Something Spooky | Kyle McMurray Coaching, LLC

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I was born on Halloween. That’s right. Halloween.

In our family, I was the eldest grandchild, the only grandson. My Granddad nicknamed me “Spookum”, I loved that nickname. I don’t ever remember hearing him call me Kyle and strangely, I took pride in that.

I wasn’t raised in an overtly christian home, but I always felt an uneasiness about celebrating scary stuff and death.

Having that background, when I came to know The Lord, it took on a different challenge. It began to speak to who I am and confirmed what kind of person I was.Out of seeking truth, I began to believe a lie. Well, several of them. I began to ask deep seated questions about “Why was I born on this day?” So as I began to discover more about God, me, and the origin of Halloween, I began to see there is a pattern in my discoveries. This is where things were distorted.

You see, we’ve talked about this before, Satan cannot create, he only distorts what is already there, he distorts the truth, he is the father of all lies.

Halloween was birthed out of the love for Fall and the Gospel. Whaaaat?!?!?! Stay with me.

So let’s talk about the history lesson on the origin of Halloween.

So, Halloween was never a Christian holiday, obviously. But as I just mentioned, watch the pattern of distortion.

In the early days, Catholics would call it “All Hallows Eve”, you may have heard about this before. But it first occurred the day before All Saints Day. Where did THAT come from?

Well, that’s a great question, let’s look for a moment at All Saint’s Day to get a better understanding of “All Hallow’s Eve”. You’ll see that they will come out of the same principal. One will be distorted so much that it is unrecognizable to its original intent.

The first account of All Saints Day was actually from the early Greek Christians. They kept a festival on the first Sunday after Pentecost, (pay attention) honoring the martyrs that died to keep that bible on your phone, intact. They were martyrs for the faith and people were honoring them and their life. People died so we can have a bible today. So it’s a little more than a “Pastors appreciation day”.

You may think that none of this has anything to do with Halloween, but it actually does.

People wanted to “honor” those people so badly that they started dressing up like their favorite Martyr. Truth is stranger than fiction, right? That’s where we started dressing up for this day.

I can just see, at one point some witty teenager somewhere thought it would be funny to dress up like his favorite martyr, John the Baptist and put a fake severed head on a platter, and that’s what started it all. Seems innocent enough, right? No? Well, let’s move on.

In 609AD All Saints Day was made official by the Catholic Church.

Pope Gregory III in the 8th century, changed it, he moved it from the 1st Sunday after Pentecost (Spring) to November 1st. Why? Simply put, it was in the middle of crop planting season and they wanted to celebrate after the harvest, when everything was plentiful and it was more likely people had some extra money.

Moving to Halloween, Early American settlers, The Pilgrims, they banned the celebration of Halloween in America because of its pagan roots, or “anti-Christian” roots. As a matter of fact, Halloween wasn’t celebrated in America until 1845.

Get this, in Ireland The Great Potato Famine (WHAT???) Yes, the Great Potato Famine of 1845-46 drove a flood of immigrants to America. They brought with them their version of Halloween. Gradually, celebrating Halloween spread throughout the rest of the country because of what….yes, The Great Potato Famine in Ireland.

The Celtic call this Samhain (Saw win, or Saw ween). They celebrated this time after the harvest because they believed Spirits crossed through the veil of death, and gave their wisdom to the priests. In turn, the priests would pronounce the year ahead and it was a time of (I guess) Prophecy, and announcing the clearing and cleansing of the land, and a time of transformation so that the cycle of death and rebirth may continue to run. If you look into this, it gets weird quickly. All of this is based on ancient witchcraft. There is no doubt in this, it’s very “in your face”.

Yeah, in Biblical times there were accounts of Jacob, Issac, and Moses, they would show up in the Bible, but not like this!

Now, I just used some biblical terms but let me go on the record and say I do not believe any of this about Samhain (Saw ween) or Halloween, or however you want to pronounce it. It’s evil, it celebrates evil, it celebrates witchcraft, and it feeds on fear and horror, and I will have nothing to do with it.

Now do I believe that little Timmy is going to go to hell because he wants to dress up for Halloween as Captain America or Thor? No. Do I believe that everyone who decorates their yard is practicing witchcraft and promoting evil? I don’t know, there are some who just want to provide some innocent (to them, innocent) entertainment for the community. If that is their motive, then they may not be aware of the spiritual aspect of what they are doing, what they are inviting in, so, have some grace. Don’t go do more damage to the cause of Christ by spewing religion at people. Give them grace and wait for the appropriate time where it would actually do some good. It may promote some healing. I plan to talk about this next week.

What I am saying is that we need to take our religious hats off and instead of pounding our fist on the table and saying “no I will not participate in Halloween”, do your own research and apply some love for a change. See how this lines up with what you know is true.

Do you see how people in history have gotten it wrong? The enemy has distorted something that was once special and sacred.

The same motives of why we celebrate our veterans on Veterans Day and Memorial Day to honor those that sacrificed their lives for our freedom in America, the same motive is why we also need to honor the ones that have come face-to-face with evil and have given their lives just so we can have a Bible that some people don’t take the time to read. THAT is how Halloween got started!

I’ve jabbered long enough on this episode. Here is the undertone of what I want to say here,

When I really started to find out what my theology was, what I really believed about God, it wasn’t pretty. I thought that because I was born on a celebrated unholy day, that I was somehow evil. There were some things in my life that gave evidence and proof to that. There, my belief system was established.

There is evil out there and it is so subtle we don’t see it, and that is the enemy’s plan. He wants us to think that “this isn’t hurting anything”. We’ll talk about that in a later episode. It creeps in so easily that we don’t notice that it’s there. All I’m asking is pay attention to what influences you, even at the most basic level.

If you had a Maserati, would you put used, burnt motor oil in it? Would you put the cheapest gas in the tank? Of course not.

You are made the same way. Pay attention to the things that go into you. What you see, what you listen to, how you think.

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, that exchange has already happened. You are pure. Jesus gave you life, He didn’t just give you life, He gave you HIS life. That means you are pure. You are Holy. See, Jesus didn’t just come to just clean us up and get into Heaven, to give us a boarding pass. He came so that we can live. You are made to have an amazing life. A truly amazing life! Living the Freedom Life is not something that is elusive.