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Should Christians Participate in Halloween?
History may be able to help
October 31, 1517
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, at the time a Roman Catholic monk and theology professor, nailed a protest letter to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, where he taught at the local university.
The letter is known as his 95 Theses, a protest against the sale of indulgences, among other things. Essentially, indulgences could be bought from the church as spiritual credits that would go toward helping a loved one get from a place called Purgatory to heaven. To buy an indulgence was like paying off their remaining sin-debt.
NOTE: Protestants believe the concept of Purgatory to be an unbiblical doctrine. No offense intended to my Roman Catholic friends. Just don’t want to confuse our Protestant brothers and sisters.
The Purpose of Indulgences
One of the driving purposes behind the sale of indulgences was to generate funds with which to build St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the Pope. Luther, who had recently come alive to the wonder of the gospel through a personal re-discovery of grace, saw indulgences not only as a direct assault on the grace message of the gospel, but also as evidence of spiritual corruption in the leadership of the church…
