For Christians looking for something other than candy and costumes to occupy their family’s activities on October 31, might I recommend Reformation Day?
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The 95 Theses (short sentences) were objections to the Roman Catholic practice of indulgences. Luther’s 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German and the recent invention of the printing press allowed his protest to reach all of Germany within two weeks and the rest of Europe within a month.
Contrary to the Bible, Roman Catholics believe in a place called purgatory where people who are not yet ready for heaven go when they die to have impurities purged from them. Of course, this belief makes a mockery of the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross because the Bible says we are redeemed the moment we trust in Christ and that salvation is only based on the righteousness of Christ (not our own). Anyway, Catholics once believed that you could buy a piece of paper (aka indulgence) that reduced the length of time one would spend in this fictitious place called purgatory. Clearly the idea that money could be used to pay off God is blasphemy, but it was also part of a heretical belief in purgatory, which has no biblical basis.
Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the church door is considered to be the official start of the Protestant Reformation. So, why not take the emphasis of October 31 off of what the culture values and choose instead to focus on honoring those who stood up for Biblical truth by shining the light of Christ in a continent darkened by apostasy.
I encourage every pastor to create a special event at their church that is free of the trappings of Halloween and instead celebrates the Protestant Reformation. Also, I encourage parents to take the opportunity to teach their children about reformers like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Menno Simons, John Knox, and Thomas Cranmer. These men were far from perfect but we have much to be grateful to them for. Christian families need to learn the heritage of their faith and understand the great battles that took place in the past, so that they can better understand why we believe as we do and what separates us from others.
An easy book to read from for this purpose is The Story of Christianity (vol 2 or the combination of 1 & 2) by Justo Gonzalez.
