Halloween Imagery

With Halloween arriving today, there is almost certainly going to be and already has been another vocal, persistent wave of claims made by evangelical legalists about how Biblically "evil" Halloween is and how "demonic" everything from costumes to household decorations are at this time of year.  Christmas and Halloween are the two favorite holiday targets of such legalists alongside Easter, after all!  Assuming that other people who partake in Halloween have pagan motivations when that is not necessarily true--and the nature of Halloween's reported origins or associations is not even likely on many participating people's minds anyway, one way or another--is one major part of why many legalistic Christians pretend like the evening festivities are somehow condemned by the Bible, no matter how a person celebrates the holiday.  Another potential part of their ideology here is the false assumption that Halloween imagery has a demonic affiliation.

These ideas also confuse the general concepts of demonic images and macabre imagery, which are not at all necessarily the same thing.  Skeletons, pumpkins, zombies, and other common Halloween objects or styles are not the same as Christian demons.  In fact, how would a person know what Christian demons are even supposed to look like?  The remains of dead humans, carved fruit, and hypothetical reanimated corpses, among other things, are not fallen angelic beings with the ability to possess human bodies, but it is not as if the Bible describes demons as having any specific appearance one could knowingly imitate with statues or costumes.  Practically every popular imagining of demons is just a visualization of what a random individual person would perceive to be a malevolent spirit as opposed to a Biblically valid aesthetic.

What does macabre imagery have to do with Christian demons by default?  Absolutely nothing!  A costume, prop, or image could be strange or oriented towards horror and still not have anything to do with demons.  As aforementioned, would the typical person have any idea what a demon would look like, if it even ever appeared visually or could manifest a physical form in the first place, even if Christianity is true?  No!  Moreover, if all Halloween imagery did pertain to the demonic, would that mean everyone using them as decorations actually either be literally trying to form an alliance with demons?  Again, no.  The intentions of secular or Christian participants in Halloween activities would not suddenly be to conspire with or promote actual demonic entities even if this was the case.

Then, since Christian demons are supposed to specifically be fallen angelic beings and not just general monstrous spirits, it is not as if a hypothetical spiritual being that seeks to harm others is by default demonic.  On a linguistic level, the word demon itself has been used far more broadly outside of references to the demons of Biblical theology in a way that encompasses far more than just angels who revolted against Yahweh.  Do most evangelicals even consider this distinction?  Probably not, though they are quick to assume that things which can easily be demonstrated by reason to have no necessary connection with evil or cruel spirits, much less the more specific demons of Christian teachings, really do.  A legalist is not concerned with Biblical accuracy or philosophical certainty about the nature of everything from profanity to sexuality to Halloween imagery, though.  He or she is hell-bent on building their worldview around tradition or the meaningless, subjective whims of conscience.