Halloween Tracts

[munari]

Lee,

Perhaps you should first discuss this issue with Paul and then discuss it with TJ:

Acts 17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols.

17 So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there.

18 Even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers engaged him in discussion. Some asked, "What is this scavenger trying to say?" Others said, "He sounds like a promoter of foreign deities," because he was preaching about 'Jesus' and 'Resurrection.'

19 They took him and led him to the Areopagus and said, "May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of?

20 For you bring some strange notions to our ears; we should like to know what these things mean."

21 Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

22 Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: "You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.

23 For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.

24 The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,

25 nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.

26 He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,

27 so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.

As all can see, Paul used pagan belief and practice to preach the Gospel!!!!

[TrustingJesus]

TJ,

I think its a wonderful idea. Halloween is not a pagan holiday... it may have been at one time, but not anymore. Most Christian belief, even the idea of a god-man, has some counterpart in pagan religions.

As an aside though TJ, what kind of tracts will you be passing out?

http://www.fellowshiptractleague.org/TractList.htm#ENGLISH

120.

[Guest leejosepho]

"God"-man (and you really should change that name):

Yes, and no matter what I might happen to believe, handing out candy on Halloween is participation in a pagan, actually an occultic holiday.

[whatsitmean]

Phillipians 1:14-18 might give some insight to Paul's thoughts on this.

[Guest leejosepho]

Whatsit:

Nope.  It does not.  That passage does not say anything like, "Celebrate and/or participate in pagan/occultic holidays in order to propagate the truth of the Messiah."

Rather, it addresses propagation of the truth of the Messiah regardless of reason or circumstance ... but the writer does not there suggest, "... and by any convenient of the ol' Un's ways and/or means."

No matter what thousands of churchmen might say, believe and/or practice, the profane simply cannot be made holy.

Blessings!

Lee

[whatsitmean]

If I go into a bar or a casino to evangelize am I a 'participant'?

If the circumstance is that a child comes to my door, is that not a reason to share the gosple regardless of what brought him there?

[TrustingJesus]

"TJ does not seem interested in discussing any of this with me, but I am certainly willing to do that.

[munari]

Passing out tracts is good... but please, not Chick...  

[TrustingJesus]

Passing out tracts is good... but please, not Chick...

[munari]

Good TJ  

I looked at that page before... I didn't THINK those were Chick... but I didn't realize until you reemphasized the page that the "Fellowship Tract League" was not just a distributor, but the publisher too