Halloween and the Days of the Dead
Halloween (“Holy Eve”), All Soul’s Day, All Saint’s Day and the Day of the Dead will be here shortly. But what are the roots of these special Days of the Dead? When we trace them all the way back to their origin, we find they came from ancient Egypt when the people were caused to worship and make sacrifices to their dead Pharaoh, their “Commander-in-chief”. The name translated ‘Egypt’ in the Bible is actually ‘Mitzraim’ which was one of the sons of Noah’s son, Ham. His other sons were Canaan, Cush and Phut. All these are the root of oppression, false religions upon the earth. Starting from their departure from the Ark of Noah, they all united under Nimrod, Cush’a son.
Israel in Slavery
When Israel went down to Egypt to escape the famine in their land, they stayed there in Egypt with their brother Joseph, who had become Pharaoh’s right-hand man. After Joseph and all his generation died, the new Pharaoh, who hadn’t known Joseph, put the House of Israel into bondage and heavy labor to build up the defenses of Egypt (Exo 1) and to kill Israel because of his fear of them. When they cried to God for their distress, He sent Moses to deliver them out of Egypt and out from under the hand of the oppressor.
Don’t go in their ways
In Leviticus 18:2-4 God said this to Moses: “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, you shall not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan (Chaldeans), where I bring you, you shall not do: neither shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do My judgments, and keep My ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.”
Again He says to Israel by way of Moses, (Deut 18:9-15) “When you come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one …that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch/sorcerer, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard/conjuror, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you. …as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.”
Now, what exactly is a ‘necromancer’? According to the Biblical Hebrew, it means one who: 1) seeks to, inquires of, asks (prays) to or for, follows, 2) the dead
The Webster’s Dictionary defines necromancy as the: conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of revealing the future or influencing the course of events. 2) magic or sorcery.
Roman paganism
When the Roman Caesars went to Egypt they became enamored with their ways and adopted them, i.e. mummification of the dead, veneration of the dead, etc. They have been carried through into Roman Catholicism which is now erroneously known as ‘Christianity.’
The Line Between Life and Death
Christ said this to the priests, “And as touching the dead, that they rise: have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: you therefore do greatly err.” Mark 12:26-27
Don’t be in err when it comes to God’s Word! It is a matter of life and death!
“See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His Commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply: and the LORD your God will bless you in the land where you go to possess it. But if your heart turns away, so that you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish… I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live:
That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey His voice, and cleave to Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” Deut 30:15-20
There is none like unto the LORD God of Israel!
“And the LORD said to Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, ‘Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For I will at this time send all My plagues upon your heart, and upon your servants, and upon your people; that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.’” Ex 9:13-14
