NEWNAN, Ga. - Across the Bible Belt this Halloween, some little ghosts and goblins might get shooed away by the neighbors - and some youngsters will not be allowed to go trick-or-treating at all - because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year.

" It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.

Some towns around the country are decreeing that Halloween be celebrated on Saturday to avoid complaints from those who might be offended by the sight of demons and witches ringing their doorbell on the Sabbath. Others insist the holiday should be celebrated on Oct. 31 no matter what.

"Moving it, that's like celebrating Christmas a week early," said Veronica Wright, who bought a Power Rangers costume for her son in Newnan. "It's just a kid thing. It's not for real."

It is an especially sensitive issue for authorities in the Bible Belt across the South.

"You just don't do it on Sunday," said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga. "That's Christ's day. You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child."

In Newnan, a suburb south of Atlanta, the City Council decided to go ahead with trick-or-treating on Sunday. In 1999, the last time Oct. 31 fell on a Sunday, the city moved up trick-or-treating to Saturday, which brought howls of protest.

"We don't need to confuse people with this," Councilman George Alexander said.

In Vestavia Hills, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham, a furor erupts every time Halloween falls on Sunday. Local officials decided not to take a stand this time.

"About 15 years ago, we decided to have Halloween on Saturday instead. People went crazy. We said, 'Never again,"' recalled Starr Burbic, longtime secretary to the mayor. "It messed everybody up to move Halloween."

The patchwork of trick-or-treat zones could work to children's advantage: Some might go out on both nights to get all the treats they can.

With so many towns split over when Halloween should be celebrated, many are going with a porch-light compromise: If people do not want trick-or-treaters, they simply turn off their lights, and parents are asked not to have kids knock there.

Dear SDA/NAD members, I am truly confused as to how perfectly this Halloween issue can so easily pour contempt upon the true Sabbath of the Lord thy God, which is the true Lord's Day. Allow me to reply to some points made in the article, which I will send to the local newspaper editor, who allowed this article to be presented in our Ohio community. This could be looked at as an opportunity to respond and share the truth about God's Law, in spite of the negativity cast upon what our Great God and Savior calls, "My Holy Day." Isaiah 58:13, 14)

First off, allow me to say that the term Sabbath means rest, therefore it must needs be that a rest follows work. The work of the devil is never ending, as said Martin Luther in his great hymn, " For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe."

He takes no rest, and has attacked the true Sabbath, the heart of God's Law of Ten Commandments, substituting it instead with the child of the Papacy of Rome, which is their Sunday.

Roman Catholics and many of the former "protestant" denominations follow her example in exalting Sunday, which has no foundation or authority in Holy Scripture. I therefore find it offensive that the term Sabbath, which has to do with the ordinance of God laid down after Jesus Christ, the Word finished creating the world and all that is therein, is being attached to an unholy spirit and an unholy day of paganism, both of which are of the Devil and Satan.

In truth, Sunday should remain the day in which Halloween is celebrated, since both have their origins in the pagan religions of antiguity. Sunday, the Day of Solaris exalts the cheif god of all pagan religions dating back to Babylon and Egypt forward, following the flood and the tower of Babel.

Secondly, This issue shows how that hypocrisy is the rule for many in the so called, "Bible belt", not the Scriptures.

On the one hand, parents are unhappy that Halloween is on Sunday, and they say, "You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child."

On the other hand, they will still observe the pagan holiday??? "It's a day for the good Lord, not for the devil," said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead."

The fact is, that keeping the traditions of man, which Sunday-keeping is, teaches a person to incorporate other worldly customs, not making any difference between holy and profane. That is confusion. I must admit that I too, for a few monts in my early twenties went to Sunday churches seeking for God and His truth, then according to the custom of most Sunday-keepers, I went to a restaurant and had a big meal consisting of eggs, pork, pancakes, and coffee, then went home to lay next to the football or baseball game on the television.

That all changed when I was direted by the Lord, Jesus Christ to a Sabbath-keeping Church, which taught me from the Scriptures that the Sabbath is God's holy and blessed day, which commemorates the fact that He is the Creator of heaven and earth.

I also learned that this same God who created the earth and mankind in six days, rested from His own works (kept Sabbath) on the Seventh Day (Saturday), that He redeemed man by His own blood, condescending to our low estate and became himself, like unto His brethren. Since the Lord, Jesus Christ became us, and took upon Himself our sins, which is transgression of the Ten Commandments, we know that He who knew no sin, would never substitute and change one jot or tittle in His Father's Ten Commandments. If God's Law would have, or could have ever been changed by Almighty God, then would He have suffered His Son to have suffered and died upon the cross, the wages of sin?

The answer from the Cross of Jesus Christ is a clear, No! The Cross of Jesus Christ proves that God's Law wasn't and couldn't ever be changed. The Ten Commandments are still the same, as He, Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

I challenge us all to go back to our Bible, and make a decided stand to know the truth and walk in it. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. As we behold Him, we see Him walking into the synagogue on the Sabbath, which was His custom. Jesus gave us a pattern to follow, not as a Jew, but as the Son of Man, the Lord of the Sabbath Day. Jesus Christ is the Head and representative of His Church, and of humanity, in that He partook of human flesh in order that He might redeem us to God by His blood. We need not be confused about so important an issue as to what is and what isn't God's Holy and Blessed Day.

Submitted by Brother Blue (Elder Timothy Lee Arnett)