Puffy Knowledge

Last week, I was writing about Harvest Parties, which are basically Halloween with Christian themes. After reading the article that I linked to about them, I realize I should not have mocked the entire project. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a stupid idea, but I can see that it serves a purpose for some people. Naturally, this led me to one of the most famous verses in the Bible, about permissibility (If it's not a real word, then I'm making it real. I can do whatever I want, this is my blog!). Permissibility, as Nathaniel Kwok defines it, is the ability to allow things to happen without any arguments or ridicule.

"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." (1 Co 8:9) Actually, I linked the entire chapter not the verse, because the whole chapter is important. For the sake of keeping this blog short, I only picked out one verse (Who loves ya, baby?). In the chapter, Paul is talking about food sacrificed to idols, but what he says about it can be applied to nearly everything, really. For him, it's idol food, for me, it's occult festivals. Same difference. Basically, Paul is saying that he knows that eating food sacrificed to idols is not going to harm his conscience. Which I feel is the important point. He's not arguing whether it was right to eat or not eat idol food. He's saying that he doesn't feel guilty when he eats food sacrificed to idols. However, other people who may see him eat it, may feel that he's sinning. And if that's the case, then he shouldn't force his point of view on those people.

So, for me, I don't feel guilty for celebrating Halloween. I know that dressing up as the devil doesn't make me a devil. Just like dressing up as a vampire doesn't make me want to drink blood. Do I believe evil spirits exist? Yes, I do. But do I believe that ghouls, zombies, witches (the Willow the Buffy-friend witches, not those tree-hugging wiccan witches) exist? No, I don't. To me, there is nothing occultish about Halloween. I believe that Halloween has completely lost its original meaning and now is just an excuse to dress up in scary costumes and go to parties and pretend to have fun like cakewalk and bobbing for apples. Oooh! Someone stop me from walking the cake!

But I must follow Paul, not only because he's in the Bible and therefore kinda important, but more importantly because he's right. He's always right! (Kinda annoys me.) But anyway, if I go to a Halloween party while outwardly confessing my Christianity and a fellow Christian sees me and he thinks to himself, "Hmmm... Nate is dressed up as a Transformer, then it's ok for me too!" even though he doesn't really feel right about it, then umm... I lost my train of thought. Hopefully you got my point though. Just because I feel ok about it, is no excuse for me to hold a Thanksgiving parade about that idea. Knowledge should build up, not puff up.

Maybe for you, it's something different. Maybe it's eating pig blood jelly. Maybe it's playing Mah-jongg. Maybe it's even something as harmless as drinking. Whatever it is, if it causes your brothers and sisters in Christ to sin, causes them to do something that makes them feel guilty, then you should stop doing it in front of those Christians. Satan is already pretty good at causing people to sin, he doesn't need your help.