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Once again Halloween is upon us. People are carving their Jack O’ Lanterns, selecting scary costumes, and buying candy for the neighborhood kids. But what, exactly, are they celebrating?

Beneath the mask of Halloween lies a dark secret and an even darker purpose.

To understand the dark secret of Halloween it is necessary to trace its origin back to the ancient Celtic peoples and their priests, the Druids. November 1 marks their high festival Samhain, named after the ancient Babylonian Sun God Samas. However, the real purpose of the celebration is death, as the Druids sacrificed humans on that day and kept the people in fear of the vengeful spirits of the dead. The Jack O‘ Lantern, representing a severed head,and the frightful costumes are echos of these murderous rituals, the dark secret of Halloween.

When Christianity came to the Celts a decision was made to incorporate their holidays into the Church calendar in order to make the pagans feel more at home in the Church. However, this attempt to put a Christian mask on a pagan holiday backfired, as the pagan celebration was brought into the Church.

So the dark purpose of Halloween, the celebration of death instead of celebrating Christ author of life, continues to this day.

We pray that people will take off the mask of Halloween and honor the Lord of Life this October 31. There are plenty of ways to have fun without celebrating the death day of the Druids.

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The “Arab Spring” has turned into another season of persecution for the long suffering Christian Church in Egypt.

Historically, the Egyptian Church is one of the most persecuted Churches in the world. During the last Roman persecution under Emperor Diocletian in 303 AD an estimated 800,000 Egyptian Christians were killed. In 451 AD the Byzantine Church forced the bishop of Alexandria out, leading to the formation of the Coptic (meaning Egyptian) Church and the first Christian martyrs killed by other Christians. Then, in 640 AD, the Moslems conquered Egypt and began a regime of discrimination against Christians, punctuated by periods of persecution.

In Modern times the persecution came in the form of isolated pogroms of burning and looting used by the Egyptian dictators to let off Islamist pressure. These pogroms, while tolerated by the authorities, were also limited by the authorities, like an Egyptian version of Fiddler on the Roof. Now, however, under the Muslim Brotherhood, the pogroms are increasing in violence and there is no effort to bring restraint from the government. Many Coptic Christians are fleeing the country as Islamist extremism escalates.

Yet, despite the centuries of persecution, Egypt is home to 10 million Christians comprising about 12 percent of the population. As Isaiah prophesied “In that day there will be an alter to the Lord in the heart of Egypt” (Is 19:19). The very existence of the Egyptian Church is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and power.

We pray that peace will return to our Christian brothers in Egypt, and that America’s national leaders will intercede with Egyptian authorities to seek peace and protection for the Coptic Christians. And we salute the Egyptian Christians who have remained faithful under trial and won an everlasting crown of glory.

May we be so faithful.

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On this day sixty three years ago Mao Tse-Tung officially established Communist rule in China. As his followers drove Christian Missionaries out of China and persecuted the 1 million Chinese Christians, no one expected Christianity to survive.

To many Chinese the Church had become associated with the Western powers which had humiliated China over the previous century. The traditional religionists who had seen their deified emperor overthrown in 1912 blamed the Church for their decline, while the Secular Communists painted the Christians as enemies of the state. Many Christians died or were sent to prison as Mao tried to crush Christianity.

Like the ancient Caesars, however, Mao did not understand that the Kingdom of God was on the inside of Believers, giving them strength to endure under persecution. The removal of the Missionaries did not end Christianity, but simply made the Church into a Chinese enterprise. When its property was confiscated it moved into the homes. And when its Chinese leaders were imprisoned, the Holy Spirit provided new leaders.

As it had done during the Roman persecution, the Church provided hope in a brutal society and continued to grow. Instead of fading away, the Chinese Church has 115 million Believers today.

We thank God that Mao is dead and that the Church is alive. We pray for continued strength in the Chinese Church as it faces intermittent persecution and a new threat of Godless materialism arising from China’s adoption of a capitalist economic system.

And may we in America learn to be as faithful as God’s Church in China.

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As we approach the eleventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against United States, it is a good time to revisit Jonathan Cahn’s important 2011 book The Harbinger.

Mr. Cahn draws a parallel between God’s warning given to the Northern Kingdom of Israel as its enemies attached and the warnings given to the United States as the terrorists attached. In both instances the response to God’s judgment was a defiant declaration to rebuild and replant independently of God. The defiance of the ancient Israelites was captured in the book of Isaiah (9:9b, 10), and the very same scripture was quoted by leading American politicians as they voiced a determination to do the same thing.

In the case of Northern Israel they had received their final warning and their kingdom was destroyed ten years later. We in the U.S. received a second warning, the economic crash of 2008. And again our politicians said they would rebuild without God. One of our political parties even went so far as to try to remove all mention of God in it platform in the 2012 Election.

Mr. Cahn points out that the way to save America is for the church to awaken and follow the instructions given to King Solomon almost three thousand years ago: “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2CH 7:14

It is not too late to save America, if only the Church will stand up and do its part

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This week we celebrate our public holiday marking the epic changes brought about by the landing of Christopher Columbus in America and his dream to create a Christian society here.

The Native American people he found were descendants of ancient Siberian immigrants, but had lived in isolation from the rest of mankind for about three thousand years. Nevertheless, their pyramids, their religions, and their culture still contained the stamp of their origins with the rest of mankind in ancient Babylon. Unfortunately, they also retained some of the worst pagan practices of Babylonian Religions, as the Aztecs demonstrated by sacrificing 50,000 human victims every year.

Our study of history shows that human sacrifice is a flash point for God’s judgment, and we believe that the Aztec and Inca civilizations were judged and destroyed by God through the technology and diseases of the Europeans. Sadly, the Conquistadors enslaved the survivors and forced them to “Convert” to Christianity, thus losing the opportunity to achieve a real Christian society. Those sins were compounded by bringing in African Slaves to replace the decimated populations working the European Plantations.

The establishment of a Christian society did finally occur when a small group of English Christians landed in New England. Over time the English settlers in Eastern North America adopted the concept of religious freedom and went on to build the greatest Christian society on earth, the United States. And, with all its failures, backsliding, and flaws, the United States, with its 250 million who claim to be Christians, remains the World’s most powerful beacon of the Christian Dream.

Christianity has also experienced a comeback in Latin America, thanks to the Catholic Charismatics and the Evangelical Christians. Today Latin America is 92.5% Christian, the highest proportion of any continent.

So, on this Columbus Day, let us join with all North, Central, and South American Christians in praying that we will continue to follow the dream of living in a Christian Society in the Americas.