Election Day: Submit to Governing Authorities

practices such as witchcraft. The most important celebration for witchcraft practitioners was known as the “Black Sabbath,” which occurred on October 31st. It was that feast that gave us witches on broomsticks, black cats, skulls, and pumpkins.

Early in the life of the church, there was a movement to honor the lives of certain church leaders and martyrs of the faith. Over time, they came to be called “saints.” Eventually, there were more saints than there were individual days to honor them. The solution seemed to be to consolidate the remembrance of all of them into one special day called “All Saints’ Day” on November 1st. This was an apparent attempt to coincide with the ancient festival of Samhain. A day that started out as simply a remembrance of the saints progressed to a reverence for the saints and finally ended in a worship of the saints. The night before evolved into “All Hallows’ Eve” and eventually to “Halloween.”

So, what is a concerned Christian parent to do in the face of this history and such strong cultural pressures from friends to observe Halloween today? This requires an annual call for godly creativity to come up with positive alternatives for children. Here are some suggestions.

First, do some Bible study with your children on what God says about dabbling in any occult practices. Next, try a fall festival with games, costumes, refreshments, and a good movie. If your children still like to dress up, substitute costumes that honor the demonic realm for ones with no negative connotations. Decorate your home with colorful, seasonal fall decorations. If you carve a pumpkin, give it a smile or a happy face. Tape a positive Gospel tract to the candy you give out.

As Christians, let’s be done with ghosts, witches, vampires, and monsters! Let’s leave that to the prince of darkness. And as Christians, we must focus on Jesus Christ, “the light of the world” (John 8:12).

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Election Day—First Tuesday after First Monday in November

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Romans 13:1

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority. 1 Peter 2:13

In light of any election I think it is timely for us to reread the above biblical admonitions by the Apostles Paul and Peter. Obviously, they are just as relevant in the twenty-first century as they were in the first century.

When Paul wrote his exhortation to Christians to be “subject to the governing authorities,” Nero was on the throne in Rome. He was the fifth Roman emperor and reigned over the Empire from AD 54 to 68. The captured Paul appealed to Caesar—who was Nero at the time—as a Roman citizen (Acts 25:1–12).

Many Bible scholars also believe that Peter wrote his admonition around the time that Nero began his persecution of the church in AD 64. While the first years of Nero’s reign were promising, the latter parts were a disaster. He became increasingly erratic, paranoid, and psychotic. As a result, the Roman Senate ultimately decreed his death and replacement as the last in the line of Julius Caesar. And while historians still debate the true facts about the burning of Rome, Nero definitely made the Christians his political scapegoats for this inferno to deflect the attention and suspicion away from him.

In all probability, both Paul and Peter suffered martyrdom under the reign of Nero. How ironic, then, that they penned these words of political submission and respect when this madman of Rome was on the throne, the one who fiddled while Rome burned, and the very one who would have them executed!

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