The Eudaimonia Blog

So my university friends from many years ago, Greg, Chad and I, had planned originally to leave for Israel on Monday. I wanted to leave one final piece of writing for your reflection on the conflict. Dr. Yohanna Katanacho is a part-time lecturer at Regent College here locally. He is academic dean at Nazareth Evangelical College and also a Palestinian Israeli theologian. He wrote this article recently called Sinful Violence in the Gaza War that was featured by Regent College. In the article, he tries to give some basic principles for how Christ followers should think about the war.

Well, now Greg, Chad and I turn our attention to Germany. These are two brothers I met roughly thirty-three years ago and began studying the Bible together with a campus ministry. Chad and I worked on our Doctor of Ministry programs together at Covenant Theological Seminary a few years back, and Chad is now a pastor in Littleton, Colorado. Greg and I went to seminary together from 1995-98 to study at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. While Greg was in pastoral ministry for about five years, afterwards, he pivoted to work in the world of IT. At one point, the three of us lived together during our university years. It is Greg’s company that is sponsoring our trip, originally to Israel and now Germany. As disappointed as we all were to have to cancel the trip to Israel, we are so glad we are able to spend the time together, now being the middle-aged men that we are. Also, a kind of gift to us is we will be in Germany on “Reformation Day,” October 31st. It was October 31st of 1517 when Martin Luther pinned the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg castle door and the Gospel would be recovered to the church in the following years, in such a deeply impactful way. We plan to be in Wittenberg on Nov. 2nd, what a gift!

Now, coming into the Christian faith at the age of eighteen, I recall how uncomfortable Christians could be with the day of Halloween. The man who had such a deep impact on me as a new Christian, would disciple me and would even become the best man at my wedding, would not even hand out candy to kids knocking on his door! Instead, he would explain to kids coming to the door on Halloween why he couldn’t support a holiday that glorified evil. But as I got to understand more of the historical development of the day of Halloween, I came to realize that Luther pinned the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg door on Oct. 31st for a reason! It was the eve of a very hallowed day; it was “All Hallows’ Eve.” Because the day that would follow on Nov. 1st was All Saints Day, which was a day to celebrate all who had died in the Lord and now reigned victorious with Jesus in glory. Why not celebrate the dead when death no longer has a hold on our brothers and sisters who have died in the Lord? (John 11:25). Wasn’t it the death of death that came about in the death of Christ? I remember learning some years ago, that the custom of portraying the devil in a silly red costume with pitchfork and horns, arose out of the intent to mock the devil because he lost to Jesus and has no claim over our lives any longer. You can read more here on both the notion of All Hallows’ Eve as well as the mocking of the Devil. Also here is an insightful article from James Jordan that speaks to the origins of dressing Christian children up in costumes on All Hallows’ Eve, rather than borrowing from pagan practices, was just the opposite, was a way of mocking the powerlessness of the demonic realm and death over God’s children in Christ.