The customs of the people truly are vain; at least, that’s what God tells us. Jeremiah 10 gives us some fascinating instructions from God concerning believers taking part in heathen practices.
And what practice does God have Jeremiah focus in upon? Everyone’s favorite… Christmas tree? Well, it may not have been a Christmas tree back then. It could have been a phallic or fertility symbol. It could have been in honor of an idol or false god. Today it is a monument to materialism and an altar to the antichrist known as Santa Claus.
Jeremiah tells of the practice of heathens to bring a tree in, decorating it with gold and silver, fastening it so that it moves not. I picture three reactions from God on this one: laughing at the foolishness people come up with, weeping over their souls, and wrath over (again) the foolishness people come up with in their religion.
Decorate your Christmas trees if you want. Stand them tall and be proud over their beauty (which is vanity). Show them off to your friends. I won’t fall out with you if you do.
But keep this in your mind: you are practicing the ways of the heathen. You have learned an idolatrous practice and have chosen it over obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rick,
I assume that this is the section of Jeremiah you are referring to (shown below). I am some what mystified as to how to can take these verses and equate them to Christians celebrating Christmas by bringing a Christmas tree into their home. This scripture is clearly taking about a group of idolatrous non-believers who where going out and getting a tree for the purpose of taking a piece of it and making it into a false god. Shaping it into an idol and worshiping the piece of wood as if it was God. Exactly how do you make the leap of logic that you make from what these verses are really saying, into Christians who bring a tree into their home at Christmas as heathens?
Our family brings a Christmas tree into our home every Christmas. We decorate with pictures of our four children that the Lord has blessed up with. We put a star on top of the tree, and other decorative ornaments that speak of the Christmas story, many with verses about the Christmas story found in the Gospels. We incorporate a manger scene nearby and through out the time the tree is up we discuss the “true meaning of Christmasâ€?, with our kids and through our gift giving. There clearly is nothing heathen in our celebration of the Christmas Season, and for you to state so by twisting scripture to fit your rant of the day is really ridiculous.
{{{Candleman}}}
Jeremiah 10
God and Idols
1 Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. 2 This is what the LORD says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
5 Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good.”
It is interesting to note that God says the “customs of the people are worthless.” He doesn’t condemn the bringing in and decking of a tree because it is idolatrous; His reason, as stated, was that “the customs of the people are worthless.”
The “Christmas tree,” a nearly identical practice as described in Jeremiah, is a “custom of the people” (unless you can prove it is Christian from the Bible) and is, thus, worthless.
As for there being “nothing heathen in our celebration of the Christmas Season,” do you even know the history of the holiday? It certainly wasn’t began by Christ or His apostles, and it was in no respects “Christian” until the Catholic Church declared the day a holy festival to help ease the pagans into the fold (of the Catholic Church, not Christianity–they are mutually exclusive). Protestants, naturally, took the festival among themselves, and now it is so widespread and accepted you’d think it was actually found in the Bible.
Rick I respond to this
here
{{{Candleman}}}
Always nice to hear from you, Candle. :)
December 25th was the day celebrated as the “sun god’s” birthday……not Jesus’s birthday.There is no date in the Bible as to when Jesus was born but some have pinned it down some where in spring not winter.Christmas , the christmas tree, miseltoe , the yule time log & decorating the tree all have their origin in pagan worship & you are right Rick……it was through Constitean (bad spelling) who was a new Christian & also a Roman ruler who instituted December 25th as Jesus birthday He wanted to “please” the pagans & unite them with the Christians & so that is where Christmas originally came from.Bad choice?Maybe to some they would call it paganism…….but to others Christmas is all about our Jesus the messiah being born …not the sun god but The Son of God…….born of a virgin. King of kings & Lord of lords.To each Christmas means different things.The main thing is that Jesus WAS born …he lived a sinless life & he gave his life for us.So Merry Christmas