The Attraction of Darkness

Halloween marks a day of the year we seek the supernatural, thinking its power is one-sided. We usually find the weaker version. Here's why.

The inexplainable fascinates us.

We long for light, safety, and perfection. We also have this feeling we are running from something worse than a clown. And sometimes it feels exhilarating to chase the thing we fear most.

We think we like darkness. We think of the dark side as the one to celebrate and fear. You have your first exposure to witchcraft—why am I drawn to this? You hear screams from a yard speaker—why do I laugh? You and your friends dress like vampires and feel playful and silly—isn't it all just a game?

Ask the possessed man hitting himself in the street if darkness is funny.

The spiritual world is beyond our control. It's a fire that sucks you in. At first it's pretty and warming. Then it lights your hair, eyes, arms, and kills you. People deep into the occult don't know how to put it out—or are too afraid to try.

And here we are on another Halloween personally seeking out our own horror story, missing the greater power—the separately enthralling side of the supernatural that scares darkness itself.

In a dark room, the glow of a light is where eyes dart.

Light pierces. Light scares. Light burns.

It can feel like darkness is more powerful because followers of light have diluted their faith to a hobby, not something with the power to save spirits from eternity in darkness. That's the hell we fear.

Darkness has mystery and we like that. We are drawn to its immediate shriek of something so real we don’t know how to describe it. But those who follow light are also drawn to the same feeling of its mysterious power, completely engulfing and literally indescribable. By simple neurological repetition people crave horror. But inwardly we do not like darkness. It is our greatest fear. There is this sense we have recognized since childhood that the world has darkness. We rationalize it by joining darkness to show we can control it, or perhaps we avoid it altogether for fear it will rule over us. It can.

And yet light makes people in darkness scream.

Belief in the God of Light isn’t a rope to pull us back into the visible world of things we can see; it's a call to seek the thing we fear—and love—most. It's where our greatest hopes meet: being controlled by something that we cannot control, but will protect and fascinate us for eternity.

Stop taking the cheap thrill route.

Of course darkness seems attractive. Run from the smell of smoke and investigate light. Demons are scared of the name of Christ—the ultimate Light—sent to bring us out of those dark places we feel at night or in certain buildings or hallways (Psalms 107:14). All cults associated under Satanic dominion, target people and places of intense light. But the God of light is over everything, even darkness. Those who live in the light don't have to worry about darkness. They scare it.

This Halloween, get unchained.

Ask for the spirit of Christ. God will soon destroy everything evil so that there will be no more despair or darkness or death (see Job 10:20-22).

You cannot celebrate darkness and say you are living in the light (“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20).

Do you really think you just die? “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44). That is why we fear dying and we fear what comes after we die. Free will means God does not make everyone serve Him. Those who choose to live their lives without God will get their wish for all of eternity. For those who choose to follow darkness, it is hell forever and ever. For those who choose light, it is life forever and ever.

Choose today whom you will serve.

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“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” – Ephesians 6:12

“Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9)

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John `1:5

"He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.” – Job 12:22

‘Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”' – Job 10:20-22