October 31-- Halloween or Reformation Day?

Which (pun intended although the spelling is different) do you think of when you see this date on the calendar? Halloween? or the Reformation?

Probably you think of Halloween but are you aware that it was on Oct 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church and thus began what is now known as the Protestant Reformation?

Likely your children, grandchildren, neighbors, or whomever are ‘celebrating’ the Halloween aspect of this date by either ‘trick or treating’ or having some kind of Church event which is semi-incorporating an observance of the witches halloween, either calling it a ‘fall festival’ or some other ‘innocent’ sounding name.

Indeed, many folks today decorate their yards and houses with goblins, ghosts, pumpkins, etc. But, should they or you even celebrate Halloween at all?

There are many excellent articles and resources that explain why observance of Halloween is NOT a good thing. You can find some of them at these 4 links below:

http://www.crossroad.to/images/Halloween/Halloween-symbols.htm

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2002/yugi.htm

http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/Halloween.html

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/Halloween2000.html

So, rather than celebrating Halloween, how about thinking about the Reformation and the positive results that came from it. Your Church might even want to have a “Reformation Party” or event with videos, talks, whatever, telling about what happened and why.

One of the reasons our Churches are in the mess they are in today is because folks do NOT know about the Reformation, what it accomplished, why it is important, and what will result if we abandon what it accomplished.

So, forget celebrating Halloween and begin to think about the Reformation when you see Oct 31 roll around on your calendar.

To read the 95 Theses in Martin Luther’s own words, HERE’S THE LINK:

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm

And to read about the Reformation that resulted from the 95 Theses (in more detail than you ever imagined), check out this article at Wikipedia. HERE’S THE LINK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation