Daily Manna October 31st

Hollowed Eve

[Read MK 6:26-29; ACTS 6:8-10; 7:54-60; 12:1]

Halloween [hallowed, holy eve], the Eve of All Saints Day, was intended to be a time to prepare to remember the saints of the Catholic church on November 1, All Saints Day. The emphasis began to be on evil spirits, ghosts, and otherdark creatures. Well, you know the evil one. He seized that opportunity to gather as much attention and worship as possible.

Paul says in 1COR 10:20, No, but I say that what they [pagan, idol-worshipers] sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to G-d. I do not want you to be partners with demons. According to what he says, Corinth’s and Athens’ idols and places of idol worship all had demons present, on location, receiving the worship. The evil one doesnot waste ANY glory or worship! He can’t be everywhere, so his spirit-servants are.]

The evil one’s purpose was and is to thus deter mankind from any recognition of those who were known as saints, from the time of Christ on. My purpose in writing this is to re-focus on the real meaning of these two days. Some churches have chosen to do that by having kids and adults dress up like believers from the Bible and from past church history–Heroes Of The Faith. The Heroes Of The Faith in Hebrews all walked conquered by faith, as we discussed in the 9/24 Daily Manna. But as we said that day, ALL of them were from Tenach. Now, let’s look at three Heroes of the Faith from B’rit:

1. John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin–In my 9/29 Daily Manna we looked at this first recorded martyr for the faith,chronicled in MK 6. What an awesome man of Truth he was! Trained in the Judean wilderness at the Essene Yeshiva, he was the prophet crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the L-rd. He was known for calling the Pharisees and other religious leaders, You brood of vipers [who birth and eat their own young], who has warned you to flee from the judgment to come?
2. Stephen the deacon was martyred soon after the ascension. Luke calls him a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit…full of grace and power. His opponents were unable to stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke. His message in ACTS 7 covers basically the entire Tenach, and is second only to the Sermon On The Mount for total length and time. For telling the Truth from Tenach, they stoned him to death–a totally illegal murderoous act. Shaul of Tarsus participated. Stephen’s words during the stoning were mostly the same as Jesus’–L-rd Jesus, receive my spirit. L-rd, do not charge them with this sin.
3. James the disciple and brother of John, son of Zebedee was the first of the original disciples to be martyred. [Of course Judas died first, but it was NOT martyrdom!] Ironically, he was the first disciple to die, and his brother John was the LAST of the disciples to die [99CE]. But it’s unclear if John’s death was martyrdom or not.

Third, note these amazing statements from HEB 11 that apply to these men also:

• G-d is not ashamed to be called their G-d.
• The world was not worthy of them.
•  All of these were approved [giving clear evidence, being the evidence, witnessing, testifying, martyring] through faith..

These three, as well as others who died later, can all be described in this way as well. Oh, that these things and the descriptions of their lives might be said of us!

Selah…Shalom…