I WANT TO BAPTIZE & REDEEM HALLOWEEN

By Akin Ojumu

Church by the Glades (CBG) is an entertainment-driven showbiz organization that calls itself a church. They are located in Coral Springs, Florida. 

Their typical service is like a rock concert with extravagant lightings and loud sounds that can blow the eardrum. A shallow pool of white smoke covering the stage creates a surreal visual experience. 

CBG worship services have featured performances of songs by Grammy Award winning secular artists such as Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Alicia Keys, Adele, Bruno Mars, etc. People go there for the thrill and entertainment and not to get their conscience pricked and soul washed by the pure undiluted Word of God. 

A few years ago, David Hughes, the leader of the organization gave a mind-blowing justification for why, as a "church", they have full-on embraced Halloween and Halloween-themed series.

In his pastoral point of view, celebrating the Halloween is not any different from celebrating the birthday of Jesus on December 25th. Both of them, the pastor said, have pagan origins. Christians simply co-opted the pagan holiday, blessed it, sanctified it, redeemed it for the name of Jesus. He claims that’s exactly what he is doing with Halloween. He’s merely redeeming and baptizing a demonic festival to make it holy.

Here is the Pastor in his own words:

“I get it, some…some Christians don’t do Halloween, and I respect that. But that is you, at least be consistent. If you don’t do Halloween because all the background is questionable, don’t you celebrate Jesus birthday, on December 25th. Because almost like no scholar think Jesus was really born on December 25th. What that was, many years ago, that was a Roman pagan holiday, that Christians…we had enough momentum in the Empire. We didn’t throw it out, we redeemed it. We took that pagan holiday and we gave it a Christian meaning. We redeemed it, we repurposed it. I think that’s brilliant. So…so, let’s be consistent. By the way, throw away your Christmas tree too. The Christmas tree originally was a pagan fertility symbol. And Christians just said, let’s baptized it. Let’s pray over it, baptized it, and use that for King Jesus. We do the same thing for Halloween.”

If this does not scare you, I’m afraid for the condition of your soul. This is a brazen attempt by David Hughes to indoctrinate his followers and initiate them into the occult. This is the blurring of the line that separates light from darkness. It is another effort at watering down Christianity and turn into another meaningless religious ritual.

On one point, though, I do agree with David Hughes. The celebration of the birth of Jesus on December 25th indeed has a pagan origin. What he, however, conveniently failed to mention was that the Christians who started the whole Christmas thing did not co-opt a pagan holiday and repurpose it to celebrate demons. What they did was turn a pagan day of worship into the celebration of the birthday of the Savior of the world.

David Hughes, on the other hand, is calling for something entirely different here. The man is trying to promote a plan where he co-opts a demonic holiday, baptize it, and turn it into a celebration of evil spirits. He wants to redeem a pagan holiday and then use it to worship demons.

Wake up, folks. These are the evil days. Stop toying with the eternal destiny of your soul. Heaven is real. Hell is real. CBG is a house of horror, it'll suck your soul dry. Flee from the error. Run for your life. Embrace the truth.