Halloween has become big business. What was once a relatively minor date on the calendar has grown into a major cultural event, filling shops, schools, neighbourhoods and social media with pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts, witches and increasingly elaborate costumes.
For retailers, Halloween is a commercial opportunity. For many adults, it is harmless fun. For children, it means dressing up and collecting sweets or candy. Yet behind the masks lie some surprisingly serious questions.
Christians have long expressed concerns that Halloween can encourage an unhealthy fascination with the occult and turn darkness, evil and death into entertainment. Those concerns remain. But there is another issue we should consider.
Halloween raises some of life’s biggest questions and then gives us some very poor answers. That matters, particularly when so much of Halloween is aimed at children. The stories we repeatedly tell can subtly shape the way we see the world. What entertains us can eventually educate us.
So let’s look behind the masks.
1. Evil Is Closer Than We Think
Halloween gives evil a costume. It has scars, fangs, claws, blood and a frightening face. Evil is portrayed as something out there: the monster at the window, the stranger at the door, the creature lurking in the darkness.
Certainly, evil exists around us. There are dangerous people, destructive influences and genuine spiritual realities of which we should be aware.
But Jesus taught something far more uncomfortable: evil is not merely out there; it is also in here. He said, ‘For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander’ (Matthew 15:19 NIV).
The human problem cannot simply be blamed on monsters, villains or other people. Every one of us has the capacity for selfishness, dishonesty, cruelty and wrongdoing. The most frightening place evil can hide is not behind a mask but within the human heart. It is easy to point a finger at the darkness around us but Jesus asks us to examine the darkness within us.
And that is why Christianity offers far more than improved behaviour. Jesus offers forgiveness, transformation and a new heart.
2. Evil Rarely Looks Evil
At Halloween, the more gruesome the costume, the more successful it is. Evil is presented as hideous, grotesque and instantly recognisable.
If only it were that easy.
Some of the greatest evils in history have arrived looking respectable, attractive and persuasive. Deception rarely introduces itself by saying, ‘Hello, I’m deception.’ The Bible warns us that ‘Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14 NIV). Evil does not always come carrying a pitchfork. Sometimes it comes carrying a promise. Fraudsters appear trustworthy. Manipulators can be charming. Temptation rarely looks like disaster at the beginning; if it did, nobody would be tempted.
And physical appearance has absolutely nothing to do with moral character. A scarred face may conceal a beautiful heart, while an attractive face may conceal destructive intentions.
We need discernment. The important question is not simply, ‘Does it look good?’ but ‘Is it good?’
3. Evil Is No Joke
Halloween turns darkness into entertainment. Death becomes decoration: skeletons hang from houses; gravestones appear on lawns; horror becomes humour.
Of course, most people taking part are simply having fun. Yet there is a danger in repeatedly treating serious realities as trivial ones. Evil is not imaginary. Its consequences fill our news reports, courtrooms, hospitals, broken homes and wounded lives.
And death is not a plastic skeleton hanging from a doorway. Death is the painful reality of losing someone we love.
Some things are too serious to be made small.
The Bible takes evil seriously because God takes people seriously. Evil wounds its victims, damages those who practise it and separates human beings from the God who made them.
Sin is not simply breaking God’s rules; it is breaking God’s heart, damaging God’s world and ultimately breaking ourselves.
Yet Christianity does not leave us frightened by evil. It tells us that evil is real and then announces that evil does not have the final word.
4. Evil Does Not Win
This is where the Christian message becomes gloriously different.
Halloween is full of darkness, but where is the dawn?
The ghosts remain ghosts. The dead remain dead. The demons remain threatening. Darkness gets the costumes, the decorations and the final scene.
But Christianity tells a better story.
The Bible does not tell us to entertain evil, negotiate with it or surrender to it. It says, ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7 NIV).
At the heart of Christianity stands the cross of Jesus Christ. There, what looked like evil’s greatest victory became its decisive defeat.
Paul writes that Christ, ‘having disarmed the powers and authorities . . . made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’ (Colossians 2:15 NIV).
At the cross, evil did its worst and God demonstrated his victory.
And the story did not end at the cross. There was an empty tomb. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Christianity does not deny the darkness; it declares that the Light has overcome it.
Death is real but Jesus is risen. Evil is powerful but Jesus is greater. Darkness exists but darkness does not win.
The cross tells us evil has been defeated. The empty tomb tells us death has been defeated. That is not frightening news. That is fantastic news.
The Better Story
My deepest concern about Halloween, then, is not simply that it raises dark subjects. In fact, it raises questions that every human being eventually has to face.
What happens when we die?
Why is there evil in the world?
Is there a spiritual realm?
Can evil be defeated?
Who – or what – ultimately has the last word?
These are not merely Halloween questions. They are human questions. And here lies the real tragedy . . .
The tragedy of Halloween is not that it asks the wrong questions, but that it gives us the wrong answers. Our children deserve better. Indeed, we all deserve better than fear without hope, darkness without dawn and death without resurrection.
Christianity offers a better story:
Light over darkness.
Truth over deception.
Hope over fear.
Life over death.
Christ over everything.
The Christian faith does not pretend evil is unreal. It proclaims something infinitely better: evil is real, but evil is not ultimate.
Jesus is.
And this is where the issue becomes personal. Christianity is not merely about recognising darkness; it is about choosing the light.
The apostle Paul gives Christians a wonderfully concise instruction: ‘Reject every kind of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:22 NIV). Older translations famously put it, ‘Abstain from all appearance of evil’ (KJV). That is good advice in every generation.
We do not need to become fascinated by darkness in order to understand it. We do not need to play with evil in order to prove that we are not afraid of it. You don’t have to explore the darkness when you already know where the Light is.
Perhaps, then, amid all the pumpkins, masks and costumes, Halloween gives Christians an unexpected opportunity. It opens the door to conversations our culture often prefers to keep closed. So let’s have those conversations. Let’s ask the big questions. Let’s speak honestly about evil, death and eternity – but let’s speak even more confidently about forgiveness, hope, resurrection and Jesus.
And let us continue to pray as Jesus taught us: ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:13 KJV).
Halloween may celebrate the darkness but we have something far better to celebrate: the Light has come, the tomb is empty, and Jesus has won.
J.John
