Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween? And before we get started with calls today, our hearts have just really been broken over what's been happening in Israel over the past few days. The images out of that country are just devastating. And, Adriel, I'm wondering if we could just start off by praying for that entire situation. Yeah, I think it's important that we do so and that we encourage all those listening to continue to keep this situation, this conflict in prayer, to lament before the Lord, to cry out to the Lord and ask for him to intervene and to extend mercy. And so let's pray. Father, we come before you and our hearts truly are broken, Lord, as we see the images coming out of the Middle East right now. And we look to you, Lord, as the creator of all things, as the ruler of the kings of the earth. We pray that you would give those kings, those world rulers wisdom and courage, Lord, wisdom to guide this conflict into a peaceful resolution. Courage also, Lord, to punish all evil and wrongdoing, to unite together against terrorism and acts of violence, Lord, and to crush them truly, Lord. We pray for your mercy upon the families of victims. Pray that you would comfort and minister to them in this very difficult time. God, we cry out to you and ask, Lord God, that you would bring peace in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thanks for that, Adriel.

Well, we'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life doctrine, theology, something going on in your personal Christian walk that you're struggling with. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Brandon calling in from Alberta, Canada. Brandon, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey, guys. My question was, I've always been taught growing up to capitalize words like he and him and you referring to God. But I just noticed that a couple of modern translations don't capitalize those words. So my question is, why? And also, is it actually necessary for us to do that?

Hey, Brandon, thank you for that question. You know, I haven't noticed that the newer translations that are doing this, I know, you know, some Christian editors will say, you just don't need to do that. And the reason you don't need to do that is because it's not grammatically accurate or right to do that. Obviously, you know, when Scripture or when Christians, you know, capitalize he or him for God referring to God, it's out of reverence, we might say, for the divine name. You think about what the ancient Hebrews would do, for example. They wouldn't even say the name of God. Any time that the divine name was used in Scripture, they would refer to Adonai, Lord. And so that's how they would read the divine name in the Hebrew Bible.

And so there was this great respect. They would just say, the name. But the question is, you know, do we have to do that? Is it necessary that we do that?

No, I don't think so. It's not necessary that we do that, of course. Showing reverence to the name of the Lord, not taking God's name in vain, is a lot deeper than whether or not we capitalize he and him.

Now, I don't think that there's anything wrong with doing that. And I think in all that we do, we want to exhibit a reverence for God's name. But I wouldn't say, you know, like if a newer Bible translation didn't capitalize it there, I wouldn't say, well, that's wrong, or we should reject that translation. I don't know what translations you're referring to specifically.

But it's not necessary, I would say. And so, yeah, I appreciate your question. Just to follow up with you, Brandon, so what translations are you seeing this in? Excuse me, I think I noticed it actually a couple days ago in the ESV, if I remember that correctly. Okay, well, I read the ESV, and maybe I'm just so not paying attention that I have not noticed it in my ESV.

I'm actually not using the ESV right now because I left my ESV at the church we were visiting this last Sunday, and so I have to go back and get it. But Brandon, appreciate you reaching out with that question. And hey, here's an encouragement for all of us not to take God's name in vain, and to recognize that as Christians who have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we bear the divine name in one sense, and just by our actions, how we live our lives, we are called to reflect God's goodness, His name, His revelation, in all that we do.

And so that commandment really refers to a lot more than just how we write God's name and whether or not the language that we use, oftentimes it gets people focused on that, but it has to do with so much more than that. And so, Brandon, thanks for giving us a call all the way from Canada. God bless you.

Hey, a 10-year-old found your ESV version at that other church, and now God has called him into ministry. Oh, yeah. Just to let you know.

Well, that would be awesome. I'd be glad if God— Did you have your name in the Bible? I hope you get it back.

I really do. No, I didn't. I didn't, but I called the church and said, I need that ESV. This is like my Bible I've used for the last 10 years. And so they got it, and they're shipping it to me. Good. Thank the Lord for that. Now, I'm using this big NASB, which is, if you're watching us on YouTube, it literally weighs probably 25 pounds.

I mean, this thing is just enormous. So that's what we're currently reading out of the NASB. If you hear a big thunk, that's the pages turning of J.J. Wells' Bible. Yeah, that's right. Oh, gosh.

All right. Well, our phone lines are open if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Jim calling in from Nebraska. Jim, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, there is a verse that states, I can't quote it, but that states that if a man finds a basically wife and I'm in my 70s and I'm a very picky guy, what if a guy has not found a wife like me? Thank you for taking my question.

Hey, Jim, thanks for that question. I think the verse that you're referring to is Proverbs chapter 18, verse 22. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. I mean, really highlighting here the blessing of relationship, the blessing of marriage, and the good gift that is companionship. Now, your question is, well, what about me?

I'm in my 70s and I still haven't found anyone. What does that mean? I don't know that I have an answer to that specifically for you. But what I will say is if you have the desire to be married, that that's a desire that you should bring before the Lord and that is a good desire. That's a good thing to pursue. Sadly, in our society today, in our culture, marriage is so looked down upon. Frankly, it's just not respected as an institution.

So I think there's some real problems there. But for us as the people of God, I think cherishing the gift that is relationships and marriage in particular is something God gave to mankind in the early chapters of Genesis for the good of the human race, for the raising up of godly offspring, but also for companionship, Jim. And if that's something that you long for for godly Christian companionship and marriage, even at your age, I think that that's something to bring before the Lord and to say, God, I've never been married, but I have this desire now still. And so I'm bringing this before you and trusting in the Lord and asking the Lord to guide you in this, brother, and pray that the Lord does indeed.

And so thank you for reaching out to us. And as Proverbs, you know, 1822 says, he who finds a wife finds a good thing. Amen to that. You know, Adriel, you mentioned how marriage is being devalued, has been devalued in our culture. And unfortunately, so many young people don't really see the purpose of marriage.

They're living together without getting married. And we actually have a wonderful booklet on this topic, which if you are a young person, or if you're a parent or grandparent that has a son or daughter who's a teenager, young adult, and they're asking those questions, it's wonderful. It's called Why Would Anyone Get Married? And you can find it on our Core Christianity website. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash booklets, and look for Why Would Anyone Get Married? It's pretty wild that we have to, you know, that we're even asking that question, right? It does highlight, it does highlight kind of where we are, because people do have that question, you know, well, why? Why should I get married? What's the big deal?

Well, get a hold of this resource. And even if you think that seems like it's pretty self-evident, there are people in your life who don't understand the why behind why we get married, and so get it for them. Well, without a doubt, unfortunately, so many people in our lives don't understand God's view of marriage and sexuality. This is Core Christianity, and we have a YouTube channel. You can watch Adriel on YouTube every day at 11.30 a.m. Pacific time, and send him your question through our YouTube channel.

Here's one that came in from one of our YouTube viewers. They say, how can we tell which thoughts are from the Holy Spirit, and which ones are coming from our own minds? That's a great question. Well, for one, God, the Holy Spirit, has given us a lot of his thoughts in Holy Scripture, and so as you're reading the Word of God, you can know that this comes from the Lord. You think of, you know, what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, that all scripture is God-breathed.

This is God's very word to us, and so if you want to know the mind of God, if you will, or, you know, understand his revelation, what he's given to us, you need to go to the Word. What about, you know, those times where you have a sense of the Spirit leading you in one direction or another, or maybe God, you know, lays someone on your heart to pray for them, or a particular situation, right? How do you know that's the Lord at work, and not just your own conscience or your own mind?

Well, I would just say a couple of things. One, anything that contradicts the Word of God, even if it's a strong feeling rising up from within you, that's not from the Lord. You know, tragically, I've heard people say things like, well, and I know God's Word says this, but God is really leading me in another direction, or God has sort of given me permission to do this thing, which I know, you know, I know his Word says, don't do that. And they might really feel that internally, but that's not of the Lord. You can have strong feelings that are not from God, so just because a feeling is strong doesn't mean that it's the Lord. It has to be in line with God's Word, and even there, you don't know that it's God, you know, his Spirit providentially guiding you. It can just be that you're so saturated with Scripture that it's inside of you.

I mean, it's just bleeding out of you, and I think that's how we all want to live. And so rather than, I think, you know, trying to find a still small voice to determine, you know, God's guidance and what you ought to be doing, what you need to do, what we all need to do, is grow in our understanding of the Word of God. And as we grow in our understanding of the Word of God, asking God to give us wisdom in applying his Word to our daily lives. And, again, that doesn't mean that God can't providentially guide you in certain ways and give you an impression or a sense of something on your own heart to pray for or whatnot, but I think we shouldn't focus on that or put all our stock in that. We really need to focus on where God has clearly revealed himself, and that's in the Holy Scriptures.

Good word. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have Halloween coming up, as we mentioned, and we're getting a lot of calls about spiritual warfare and demonic influence. How much power does Satan have over us on this earth? And we actually have a great resource that addresses that very issue. It's a free resource called Can the Devil Read My Mind? Just in time, I guess, like you said, Bill, for Halloween as people think about some of these things. But really, wanting to approach the topic of spiritual warfare from a biblical perspective.

And, of course, we get so many questions about this. Get a hold of this resource. Again, it's called Can the Devil Read My Mind? It's free over at corechristianity.com. Check out some of our other resources when you go to corechristianity.com, including our Bible studies, our core guides, our core questions, just a lot of rich material there. And if you feel God might be leading you to support this ministry by making a gift, you can do that on our website as well. Check it out at corechristianity.com. Well, we do get voicemails here at the core. You can call us 24 hours a day. Leave your question for Adriel at 833-THE-CORE.

Here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Mitchell. My question is, should we celebrate Halloween as Christians if the church is used to doing it because that's what they do for youth night? But you feel like we should have a harvest fest. Should you join in and celebrate it or not join in and celebrate it?

Thank you. Remember what the apostle Paul says, he says, whatever is not from faith is sin. And so I think that this is a matter, more than anything, of liberty of conscience. And so if it's something that really bothers you and you're just thinking, man, I really am having a hard time with this, well then I would say, no, don't participate in it if you feel like you'd be sinning. Is there something inherently wrong, sinful, about going around trick-or-treating? I don't think so, personally. No, I don't think so. Can people take Halloween and do all sorts of things that are dishonoring to the Lord?

Yeah. I mean, frankly, this is not just Halloween. We feel around Christmastime and the consumerism. And so all of us, I think, should examine our own hearts and think about how we approach these cultural celebrations, which aren't prescribed in scripture. So I don't think any pastor should say, you should, you need to be, certainly with Halloween, you need to be celebrating Halloween. There's nothing Christian in particular about it, we would say, according to scripture. But again, does that mean that you're sinning if you walk around the block and go trick-or-treating or something like that?

No, I don't think so. So this is an area of Christian liberty, of liberty of conscience. And we've talked about this on the broadcast before, and I know that for some people this is a real struggle to think, man, people are dressing up as ghouls and goblins and I don't see how that could be honoring to the Lord.

And so again, for some people, I think it really strikes at their conscience, and I would never tell that person you need to do this. You shouldn't do anything that you can't do in faith for the glory of God. And so that's what we have really clearly outlined for us in scripture. And I would encourage you, if you're wrestling with something that your church is doing, I always say this as a pastor, man, it's great to approach the leadership of your church, your pastor, and say, hey, this is something I'm wrestling with, one, so that they know that this is something that you're struggling with and that it'd be good to have a conversation with you and to try to work through whatever the issue is, but two, just so that there's unity and so you have a clear conscience. You don't feel like you're alone with this and your church is making these decisions and doing these things and you feel like you're being left out. No, this is something where I think you want to have a conversation with the leadership of your church as well, and at least express to them where you're at, brethren. So may God bless you. And in all that we do, as the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, let's do it to the glory of God. Amen. Good counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel.

You're listening to CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day on our system. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Also want to mention, we're going to be recording a second episode of CORE Christianity. When our live program ends here in a few minutes, you can still call in and talk to Adriel and we'll record your question. Here's the number 833-THE-CORE, 1-833-843-2673. We'll take your calls for the next 30 minutes or so.

Let's go to Travis calling in from Missouri. Travis, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel. Thanks for taking my call and thank you for your obedience.

You've helped me a lot with my walk with Jesus. My question is dealing with Revelation 20 and the Great White Throne of Judgment, the judgment for non-believers, and I was wondering why the Book of Life is there and is there some people that will be saved at the Great White Throne? Great question. So, look, there are some people who teach, and it sounds like this is maybe what you've been taught, there are some people who teach that the Great White Throne of Judgment in Revelation 20 is only for non-believers. In other words, believers don't participate in this judgment.

There's a separate judgment. That's not my view because the language that's used in Revelation 20, verses 11 and following, with reference to the Great White Throne and being judged according to works and so forth, that's also used of Christians. Paul says we're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And again, there are some people who will distinguish between the judgment seat of Christ and the Great White Throne.

I just don't think that you can do that. I think when you look at all of the passages that talk about the final judgment, it's very clear that we're talking about one judgment. There aren't two final judgments, one for believers, one for non-believers. There's one judgment, but we as believers have already passed from death to life, as Jesus said in John 5. In other words, we don't come into judgment or under condemnation. We've already been delivered through Christ. And so we're justified, we're saved. We're not going to experience the same fate as those who have rejected the Lord and rejected the Gospel. But that's why you have, in Revelation 20, the Book of Life there as well. And so I think when we understand that, that the Great White Throne judgment isn't a different final judgment that only relates to non-Christians, but this is just the same judgment that the entire Bible talks about, that the Apostle Paul says we're also going to experience, we're all going to stand before the Lord, then it makes a lot of sense. We're judged on the basis of our union with Christ and the fact that we belong to him.

And so we aren't condemned along with the rest of the world. Thanks for that. Thanks for that question. Travis, thanks so much for calling in. Appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to Vicki, who's calling in from Tennessee. Vicki, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, hi, Pastor Adriel. Thank you for taking my call. And I just wanted to call in because of the terrible things. I'm just heartbroken as a Christian concerning what's happening in Israel, particularly with the killing of innocent babies being beheaded, burned up, shot dead alive, you know, shot dead in front of their parents.

You know, that really my heart is just weeping over that. And I was just wondering, I know the Jews are God's chosen people. Israel is God's chosen people. And I was just wondering why the Lord allowed that to happen, especially to the babies. And is it because the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus Christ? Is that why the people are suffering so over there? And I was reading Jeremiah 31st chapter, 15th verse, where Rachel is weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they were not. I'm thinking that verse is really talking about a situation like what's going on now. Yeah, I think that the whole world joins you in lamenting and in mourning, at least should, because you see some of the images that are coming out of Israel and your heart does break, and we cry out to the Lord. And so you're asking kind of the why question. And I think before we ask that question, because that's a temptation when tragedy or terrorism strikes us, just to say, well, why did this happen? What was the reason for this?

Whose fault is this? I think the first thing that we need to do is lament. That's the first thing that we need to do. And the scriptures give us the language for this throughout the book of Psalms. We're crying out to God and saying, God, have mercy. Look at the terror. Look at the destruction.

Look at the death, the havoc. So I think first coming before the Lord with those broken hearts and crying out to him and realizing that there is no answer to the why question apart from the senseless wickedness of people, the evil and depravity of the human heart. If this shows us anything, it's the wickedness of mankind, the fact that we're in desperate need of a good and just king and a savior, because we see great injustice. And so we raise a lamentation and we cry out to the Lord. And there are a few ways, I think, that we need to be praying. I was thinking about this just recently.

I outlined a number of things that I shared with some friends of mine. One, we need to be praying those Psalms of lament. Two, we need to be praying for world leaders, that God would give the leaders of the world, just as I prayed at the opening of the show, wisdom and courage, wisdom to guide this conflict, but also courage to do what civil leaders are supposed to do, according to Paul in the book of Romans, and that's punish wrongdoing and evil, so that God would intervene and expose the evil and the wickedness that's out there and that people would be held accountable for that. Pray for the families of the innocent that you've brought up. I mean, grieving right now, that God would comfort them and bring healing in the midst of traumatic loss. Pray for them and pray for justice and pray for peace. This causes us truly, I think, to long for the days when swords are beaten to plowshares, as the prophet Isaiah said. And so we cling to the promise and the hope that we have in God's Word, and we pray. God bless you, Vicki. Pray for the families of the innocent that you've brought up, that you've brought up. Pray for the families of the innocent that you've brought up.