Hallows:  Are Saints Alive Today?

© 2020 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“Halloween” is a contraction of the phrase “Hallows’ Evening.”  It was a time set aside to remember souls of the “faithful dead.”  Some of the “faithful dead,” to whom religious leaders ascribed special merit, were called “hallows” or “saints.”  Thus, what we now call “Halloween,” was, at one time, called “All Saints Evening.”

The Biblical concept of “saints” differs greatly from the concept prevailing when Halloween was called “All Saints Evening.”   It is important to understand the true Biblical meaning of “saint.”  One need not die before becoming a saint.  In fact, a person who is not a saint when he or she dies, shall never be a saint.  Such a person is unsaved and shall be lost forever.

What then is a “saint?”  Scripture uses the term “saints” to describe people who have trusted Christ to save them from their sins.  Christ breathes new life into their dead spirits.  All true Christians are saints.  In the conclusion of his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul refers to the believers there as “saints.”

“Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.” (Romans 16:15)

Notice:  These saints were living men and women gathering with the specific ones he’d already listed by name.

Many of our Halloween traditions and costumes seem to focus on things related to death and darkness.  The term “saint,” however, is associated with life and light.  Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, thanked God for this.  He said he was,

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [rendered fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:” (Colossians 1:12).

Are you a saint, basking in the light of Christ?  If not, you are still dead in your sins and without Christ as your Savior.  May this Halloween become a time for you to seek Jesus Christ as Savior, or lead others to do so.  He is God the Son who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  He died and rose again and is now in Heaven as the eternal priest, interceding for His saints!  The writer of Hebrews contrasts this risen, eternal priest with the many deceased priests of Old Testament Scriptures.

“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:  But this man [Jesus], because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:22-25)

On whom shall your thoughts focus this Halloween?

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