God Rejects Christmas Trees
December 12th, 2009
1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
With all this holiday cheer going around, The Devil’s Highlighter decided to spread a little bit of humbug. Nothing could be better for spreading humbug than letting all those practicing Christians know that the tree they just put up is actually a pagan practice that was specifically forbidden in Jeremiah 10. What you see here is God specifically saying that we should not cut down trees to cover them with silver and gold. This was essentially considered to be idolatry. Why, we even lay gifts down before these idols every year to pay homage, not to God but consumerism!
The Christmas tree was originally adopted from pagan practices that were very similar. The King James Bible clearly says that we should not do this and that it is a worthless practice. We couldn’t agree more. Nothing says stress and hypocrisy like Merry Christmas!
In all fairness, this passage is specifically prohibiting the creation of wooden idols. This was not intended to specifically prohibit Christmas trees. However, it does resemble this practice very closely, and it could be easily argued that this passage also prohibits the decoration of the Christmas tree. While the tree is not specifically worshiped, it has been adopted as a symbol for the season. I can also guarantee that the children think more about what’s under that tree than who was supposedly born two millennia years ago. The Christmas tree is indeed idolatry, but don’t take my word for it. Read Jeremiah 10 to see for yourself.