Are demons stronger at Halloween? It certainly seems so. If you’ve looked around the past couple of months you’ve seen death, darkness, murder, and mayhem depicted everywhere—in store displays, your neighbor’s front yard, and even hospitals and doctor’s offices, locations which are supposed to be places of hope and healing. Why is it that people go nuts over witches and ghosts to the tune of billions of dollars? Is it because demons are stronger this time of year? Emphatically NO, even if it appears otherwise. Here are three important spiritual facts which are clear from Holy Scripture:
1) When Satan and those angels who rebelled with him were cast from heaven, their eternal state was fixed. No demon can repent of sin. No demon can ever be saved and escape the judgment of hellfire and eternal damnation. These are the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:41: “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
2) The eternal number of demons has not grown larger since the divine expulsion from heaven occurred. We are told that one-third of heaven’s angels went along with the devil’s rebellion. Revelation 12:4 speaks of this by describing the devil as an evil dragon who “with his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.” (ESV) However many millions or billions of angels there were in heaven, that number was fixed at some point in eternity past. Consequently, however many demons fell with Lucifer, the number hasn’t increased. So, at Halloween or any time of year dedicated to the devil, the amount of demons can’t be multiplied.
3) The devil has a finite, limited amount of power. But what makes Halloween seems so bad is the concentration of that power and its focus on creating a culture of fascination with all things demonic. It isn’t Satan who has more ability to do evil at certain times and places, but it is the human condition that allows such shenanigans and even encourages a fascination with darkness instead of light. John 3:19 puts it this way: “Light [the light of Christ] has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” Satan seems more prominent at Halloween because the hearts of humans are more receptive to things which represent Satan’s domain.
There is your answer. Demons aren’t stronger on Halloween. What increases is the power of darkness in the hearts of those who reject Christ and are drawn to demonic depictions at Halloween. That’s why at this time of the year we need to heed the words of 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
