Team Hoyt

Nasty, Evil, Disgusting, Pagan Halloween

Double click to enlarge for a great wallpaper in honor of Living Church of God

Dr. Bob is all in a snit today about Halloween. Christianity Today has some articles up about Halloween. He is not a fan of Christianity Today magazine because they ridiculed him a while back, so he gets in a little jab right off the bat:

The improperly named Christianity Today (CT) continues to try to get its share of the Halloween spending by selling items such as Jack-o-Lantern car magnets, as I noticed again today.

CT itself seems to try to pretend that it is “balanced” on the subject by having some articles that question whether or not Christians should celebrate the pagan holiday as well as having others that clearly promote it.

He was particularly upset of this little snippet from CT, Trick-or-Treat and some of the comments:

Notice a CT article titled Trick-or-Treat? which contains various admissions and Halloween promotions as follows:

On the calendar of events for the Christian college where I teach, October 31 sits in a dark square with no acknowledgment that there is anything special about the date.
“It’s Satan’s Holiday, Dr. Rearick,” affirmed one of my students. “Didn’t you know?”

Well, no, I didn’t know…I have always considered Halloween a day to celebrate the imagination, to become for a short time something wonderful and strange, smelling of grease paint, to taste sweets that are permissible only once a year…”But look at the roots of Halloween,” some may say. “Don’t you see how evil it once was?” I do, but the operative word in that sentence is was. Samhain was once a time of fear and dread, but at one time so was Yule or Midvinterblot, as it was called in Sweden…

Christians should instead celebrate Halloween with gusto. If we follow the traditional formula of having a good time at his expense, Satan flees.

Armstrongism has always given "satan" more power than he has. They fear "him" with a passion and thinks he rules everything in the world around them.  If the LCGers actually ever cracked open their Bible and read any of the New Covenant they would see that "satan" has been vanquished and has no power over Christians.  Why be afraid of something that either isn't there or is impotent?

Any hoo, on with the show:

The Dr. writes:

Satan does not flee because people celebrate pagan holidays and God is not pleased with His people observing them either.
Let’s again let’s look at the Bible and not the opinions of men in the context of adopting pagan practices:

2 Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,
3 For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile (Jeremiah 10:2-3).

At the absolute best, Halloween customs are futile and detract from the emphasis to worship the true God.

24 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars (Exodus 23:24).

Since LCG does not worship, honor, listen to or even read what Jesus said and did, I think they need to take a quick look at their own futile beliefs.

Thiel ends by getting another dig in at Christianity Today.  Perhaps Thiel need to reexamine the false titles of LCG publicans also since there is nothing Christan about what they produce.  Just saying.......

No true Christian would want to encourage their children to participate in pagan customs associated with Halloween.
Halloween is clearly pagan.  Thus, it is not “balanced” to have articles that promote it nor is it balanced to sell pro-Halloween-related items.  Both of which CT does–that is part of why I wish it did not have the word “Christianity” in its title.  A better title would be Protestantism Today (though sometimes CT also endorses aspects of Catholicism, but in general it has a Protestant focus).

Thank goodness I don't need to believe this drivel any more!

When I Wish Upon A Star...

Did you ever make a wish when you saw a falling star?  Seems innocent enough, right?  Well.........leave it to an Armstrongite to find something pagan or demonic about it.

We all heard a gazillion times over how those nasty angels of light rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven and down to earth. Yada, yada, yada.  So the logical conclusion for those trained in Armstrongism is to equate the falling stars streaking across the sky at night as fallen angels.  So when you make a wish on a falling star you are wishing on a fallen angel/demon to make it come true.  I kid you not!

Yahoo comment:

I was thinking of something not too long ago, and wondered if anyone else had thought of this.... you know how stars are sometimes used to represent angels in the Bible?  Then there are "fallen" stars...and I wondered about the phrase we used to recite about wishing on a falling star... does that have some pagan origin...or am I just tired and reading too much into it?!!

 I can just hear Dr. Bob Thiel right now:

"We in the TRUE Church of God KNOW that a third of the angels fell from heaven when  they rebelled against God.  We in the Living Church of God know that these fallen angels are now demons.  No true Christian would be allowing their children to make wishes  on stars, nor would adult true Christians do such a thing.  Regular readers here would know that we in the true Church of God know that wishes should actually be prayers and we are to direct our prayers to God alone.  We in the True Church of God do not pray to demons or ask them to influence God."

A "falling star" or a "shooting star" has nothing at all to do with a star! These amazing streaks of light you can sometimes see in the night sky are caused by tiny bits of dust and rock called meteoroids falling into the Earth's atmosphere and burning up. The short-lived trail of light the burning meteoroid produces is called a meteor. Meteors are commonly called falling stars or shooting stars. If any part of the meteoroid survives burning up and actually hits the Earth, that remaining bit is then called a meteorite.