The unfruitful works of darkness are: covetousness, perversity, fornication, idolatry, rioting, drunkenness, lewdness, lust, jealousy, arguing, fighting. The unfruitful works of darkness are inward (heart) conditions. It's walking in the flesh and not in the spirit of Christ Jesus.
The unfruitful works of darkness can apply to anything done not of God and in ways displeasing to God, not just that list. Walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit of the Lord as well as inward heart conditions are indeed unfruitful works of darkness as well.
If we want to get technical, every single holiday we celebrate in modern society originated from pagan roots. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving & Halloween. Even the way people celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and funerals generated from pagan rituals.
Also, there's numerous insects, animals, and aspects of nature (owls, cats, locusts, frogs, cows, trees, the sun, the moon, etc) that have been either worshipped and/or believed to be accursed. People will idolize movie stars, popular singers & musicians, billionaires, sports icons, legendary authors, distinguished scientists, famous politicians, etc.
Paul even pointed out that many people were beguiled by religious leaders who spoke with “excellent speech and persuasive words” of so-called wisdom. Many people flatter these religious leaders and exalt them over others because they’re convinced they’re more deserving of praise by their flowery speech and popularity.
In other words, there isn't much under the sun that's not been corrupted and defiled by carnal man. You'd be hard pressed to find a holiday celebration that doesn't have roots in carnality.
Yes, most mainstream holidays celebrated by the secular world are based on pagan practices. Someone else mentioned that holiday stands for holy day, which is indeed the origin of the term. So if you want to call Halloween a “holy day” then how exactly is this day holy?
I would argue biblically that the exhortation to remain separate and do the things of God that are pleasing to Him would be focused specifically on our worship of the Lord and how our actions can be perceived to those who are outside the body. We know scripturally that God tells us to be separate, without spot and blemish spiritually. That’s the basis of the term ekklesia. The important thing to understand is that once we know the truth, the real question is what we do with it? As a Christian, once I discovered about the pagan roots of Halloween and even Christmas and Easter, He pushed me to begin a deeper study about the truth of these “holidays” and make a stance for Him and His truth.
Nevertheless, Jesus attended a wedding celebration in Cana and not only turned water into wine, but drank it. So what does that tell us? "To the pure, everything is pure."
We are in this world, not of it. We can't reach the lost if all we do is point our finger at everything and proclaim it’s demonic like anxiety-ridden fanatics. That is insane. Romans 14:14 tells us, “I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.”
We can perceive anything evil when we take our eyes off the light of God and focus on darkness. This is our Father's world and everything that's in it.
Jesus going to a wedding celebration was not wrong. The Jewish people had the ketubah in which they celebrated the covenant between a man and woman before God. Wine was also part of this celebration, so I’m not sure how the wine aspect has any bearing to our discussion.
We are in this world and not of it. We can’t reach the lost if we are doing the very same things which we know God disproves of and try to give them the truth. We become hypocrites. We aren’t saying to become fanatics about this, but as many people have done, we give the truth and help our brothers and sisters to remember that we are to remain separate. When the Lord shows us what is of light, we will know what is of darkness by default. When we look at what is evil, we look at what is evil in the eyes of the Lord. It has nothing to do with focusing on the darkness, the Holy Spirit will let us know. All we need to do is ask the Lord if what we want to do is pleasing to Him. He will not answer contrary to Himself and scripture, or who we hear is not the Lord, but another spirit/the flesh.
We can celebrate any holiday so long as we do everything as unto the Lord. That is, do all with a joyful heart in Christ Jesus and treat others the way we want to be treated: with love and acceptance, as Jesus treats us.
Of course, there are boundaries and we shouldn't give ourselves over to lack of self-control. But instead of freaking out in anxiety and condemning everything because it might have roots is paganism, ask God for wisdom and trust him to guide you in all things.
If someone doesn’t want to celebrate Halloween, they shouldn’t celebrate it. If someone else has peace about it, then they should celebrate it. It's that simple.
I would argue that giving love and acceptance does not preclude giving the truth as giving the truth is love. To allow someone to remain in darkness or error for the sake of tolerance or worldly love is not love.
Understanding what is of paganism is not necessarily a bad thing. Understanding what we should do in the Lord versus what we should not do is not focusing on darkness, but seeking what is pleasing to the Lord and walking in that. We can do whatever we want to do in this life. God gives us the free will to do so. The biggest question is whether or not our actions are pleasing to Him and if what we do helps to build us up in the Lord. Does the Lord want us to do these actions? We have the free will to obey or disobey.
Do our actions as ambassadors of Christ further the ways of God or the ways of self/world? No one has freaked out in anxiety in this thread so far. Have we identified correctly that Halloween in of itself is displeasing to the Lord? Yes. Can we use this day to evangelize? Yes. However, in our methods of evangelizing, we need to make sure that while we are in this world, we are not found doing the same things which we are called to be separate from in order to reach the world.
If someone doesn’t want to celebrate Halloween because they understand that God is displeased with it, then they shouldn’t celebrate it. If someone has peace about it, then we do need to show them the truth. What they do with that truth is up to them. As it has been said before, we all have free will.