Halloween Again

Halloween is coming, a time of parties and costumes and a time of dark thoughts and scary ideas. I was leading a Bible study in the early 2000s at the house of a coworker. Halloween was around the corner and we were discussing it. The coworker expressed how dangerous he thought Halloween was. I probed for more information. In his mind—in his words—Satan owned October 31st, so it was an intrinsically evil evening, and we shouldn’t recognize it in any way. This wasn’t 1700 or 1800. It was the 2000’s. He held this view in modern times. Is there any credence to it?

Satan is biblically a reality and any attempt to deny it takes a lot of work. But just how powerful is Satan in Scripture? He’s depicted as a serpent in the Garden of Eden and tempts Eve and Adam into sin (Gen 3:1-6). But he’s also depicted as defeated there (Gen 3:14-15). His name means “adversary” or “accuser” and he’s called “the accuser of our brethren,” but is immediately described as “thrown down” (Rev 12:10). Jesus called him “A murderer from the beginning” and said, “There is no truth in him” (John 8:44). Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17 are often understood as containing imagery associated with Satan's fall. He deceives (Gen 3:1), tempts (Matt 4:1-11), and hinders (1 Thess 2:18). But he is not all-powerful. He is contained.

In the famous story of Job, where Satan takes everything Job has—wealth, family, ultimately his health—Satan is depicted as … controlled. God calls attention to Job's faithful service and limits Satan's ability to test him (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6). Likewise, in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18, King Ahab of Israel asks King Jehoshaphat of Judah to join him in battle. When the prophet Micaiah is consulted, he reveals that "YHWH has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets." Even rebellious spiritual beings operate only within God's sovereign authority. What evil intends for evil, God remains able to direct toward His righteous purposes.

What, then? We’re warned that Satan is like a “roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), so we should be sober and alert. We must resist him (James 4:7). We need to stand firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:9). We have to “put on the whole armor of God” (Eph 6:10-18). He’s very real and very dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The bottom line is that Scripture repeatedly declares that God is sovereign over all (e.g., Psa 115:3; Isa 45:7; Job 1:21; Luke 22:31; Matt 28:18; Php 2:9-11). If Satan rules for one night, then God is not over all and Scripture can’t be trusted. But John wrote, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). He wrote, “We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18). So Satan is powerful and opposed to God, but he isn’t in charge and he isn’t out of control and he doesn’t win. Not even on Halloween.