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On Tuesday, October 31st, a lot of people in this land will celebrate Halloween. Though begun as a day to remember many Godly people and the truth they gave to the world, it has degenerated into becoming the high day of satanism throughout the world. Hideous acts of worship to satan will be done on this night. The occult will have its greatest celebration on this night. But it was not always so in America.
Up until the mid-1800s, America celebrated a different day on October 31st. It was known as Reformation Day; and it reminded Americans of the great price that was paid for the “liberty of conscience”. It was a celebration of the liberty brought to the personal life and the life of the nation as a result of men laying down their lives to stand with the truth of the Bible.
That liberty had begun with John Wycliffe, an Englishman in the mid-1300s, who translated the Bible into the language of the common people. Being able to read the Bible caused men to question the occultic superstitions of the backslidden church of that day. It also pointed the way to civil liberty. Wycliffe actually wrote in the introduction to his translation these words, which would become the cornerstone of this American Republic, he stated:
“The Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
(John Wycliffe, General Prologue of the Wycliffe Translation of the Bible, 1384 / John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1863, 1955), p. 1021.)
The Bible is the source of our liberties!
Over 100 years later, after many would die for their faith in Christ and their commitment to His Word as the truth, a priest by the name of Martin Luther would restore the “liberty of conscience”; that is, the right to listen to only the Holy Spirit as the teacher of what truth is. His statement concerning the Bible (made before the governing authorities) was:
“My conscience is captive to the Word of God…Here I stand, I can do no other.”
(Martin Luther, in his famous speech at the Diet of Worms, April 18th, 1521 / John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 155.)
With his bold stands Martin Luther started a movement which would restore the “liberty of conscience” to many nations in the western world. When, on October 31st, 1517, he nailed 95 statements to the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany, he started a fire that would blaze into eternity. Those statements identified many errors in the beliefs common to the church of that day. Those fires would fuel afresh the revival fires started by Wycliffe’s translation in the 1300s. The Reformation, as this revival was called, would last into the 1600s, with the Pilgrims (who came to America in 1620) being those who planted its truth on this continent. The truths rediscovered in the Bible which taught how to build the structure of a family, church, and nation, would be the moral and structural foundation on which the American Republic was built.
Those truths were known to be so important to the life of liberty in this Republic, October 31st was celebrated each year as Reformation Day. This continued until the mid-1800s when we began to drift from our Biblical roots.
With many praying for revival in our day, why not celebrate Reformation Day once again in your family and church? Why not ditch Halloween in favor of Reformation Day! The Bible teaches,
“Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you; and considering the outcome of their way of living, imitate their faith.” (Hebrews 13:7)
Halloween—or Reformation Day…
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.