At the end of October many shops sell pumpkins. People carve lanterns from them for Hallowe’en. Apparently this is a tradition that started with an old Irish myth combined with ancient Celtic customs.

According to folklore, ‘Stingy Jack’ fooled the devil several times. When Jack died, God refused him entry to heaven, the devil refused him entry into hell, and he had to roam the earth carrying a carved turnip with a single burning coal inside. People in Ireland and Scotland started carving scary faces into vegetables, and put them near windows and doors to ward off Stingy Jack.

This myth was merged with the ancient Celtic festival, Samhain. It was believed that the souls of the dead returned to their homes, so people dressed up and lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits away.

A bit of harmless fun, maybe.

Unfortunately, the folklore uses biblical words: God, heaven, devil, hell; but completely non-biblical ideas. Even more seriously, a lot of established church doctrine has, in a similar way, combined biblical ideas with pagan ideas and so corrupted the message of the Bible. The Bible clearly tells us that:

• God is in heaven, and so is the risen Jesus, but no other human being has gone there;
• God is in control, not a creature called the devil;
• Hell is the grave, and is the destiny of all dead people, including (temporarily in his case) Jesus himself;
• Dead people know nothing and certainly cannot roam the earth.

Too many people believe false things that are not at all biblical.

The dead can come back. The fundamental teaching of Christianity is that Jesus died, but came alive again. And he was changed so that now he lives for ever.

But Jesus was not like a ghost. After his resurrection he said:

See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have (Luke 24:39).

Moreover, faithful believers will also be raised to everlasting life when Jesus comes back (but not before).

…in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
(1 Corinthians 15:22-23)

We can have that wonderful hope if we follow Jesus now: if we ‘belong’ to him. But to do this we need to find out what the Bible really says and follow its instruction.

Tabby Stoecker was ecstatic at winning an Olympic gold medal with Matt Weston in their skeleton competition: UK athletes given deserved fame and glory.

Afterwards, Tabby’s mother’s comment was, “I’ve always taught her that if you have fear, you replace it with faith. Faith and fear don’t co-exist.”

Fear is a survival instinct that puts the brain in high alert to keep us safe. Small children can be unsafe if they are fearless. But inappropriate fear is inhibiting.

In the Bible, faith and fear are definitely linked. Jesus’ disciples were afraid during a storm on the lake. He said,

“Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26).

There is such a thing as godly fear. Throughout the Bible people are told to ‘fear God’, and to obey Him. For example,

Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Noah is a classic example of this.

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith (Hebrews 11:7).

Noah believed God about the imminent flood. In faith he obeyed God and was saved.

This fear of God is more than just respect or reverence, because the flood was a fearsome punishment. An apostle wrote:

For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:30-311).

And Christian believers at Rome were urged to let fear motivate them to be faithful.

They [Jews] were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear (Romans 11:20).

Faith can be misplaced. Disasters like Chernobyl and the Titanic are famous examples. But faith in God is never misplaced. And those who truly and willingly obey Him do, indeed, have nothing to fear. The prize from God – eternal life – is incomparably more precious than any Olympic accolade.

‘Traitors’ is a British BBC reality television series broadcast, which has attracted millions of viewers. It is a ‘fun game’ of trust and treachery, portraying back-stabbing, scheming and deceit as life skills. Players designated as ‘faithful’ have to identify the players who are ‘traitors’.

The BBC news is full of reports about Lord Peter Mandelson who is accused of real treachery. He is being investigated for selfish financial crimes involving betraying his position of trust; of sharing market-sensitive information with a criminal. Many people are now ashamed of their friendship with and trust in this disgraced man.

There have been many traitors in history. The most famous in the Bible was the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus into the hands of the religious rulers. He seemed to be a true follower of Jesus, and fooled the other disciples, though not Jesus. In fact, even before this he had been a selfish and cunning thief.

He [Judas] said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it (John 12:6).

And he actually initiated the agreement to betray Jesus to the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). He was a fake disciple: a traitor.

In total contrast, Jesus was completely honest and free from any trace of deceit. He asks his followers to trust him, not be ashamed of him, be his friend and try to be like him. He said:

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels (Luke 9:26).

Just as in the BBC game, there are only two groups of people; sheep or goats, faithful or ‘traitors’. Jesus also said:

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Luke 11:23);

and

You are my friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14).

There is no middle ground. We are either faithful to Jesus or we are not. Surely we want to be faithful, not traitors. We do not want to let Jesus down. And we need to be genuine: we cannot fool God or Jesus. Let us therefore find out what they ask of us and try to the best of our ability to do it. If we do this then God will not be ‘ashamed’ of us, but pleased to give us a place in His wonderful kingdom with Jesus as king.