As the end of the year approaches, and our thoughts turn towards Christmas, decorations, parties and gifts, Christmas trees usually play an important role especially in terms of getting people in the mood for Christmas. Trees used to be a common attraction in shopping malls and hotels, but now we see them creeping into churches and of course homes.
Are Christmas trees Christian…and does the Bible have anything to say about it?
Jer 10:1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of
Jer 10:2 Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,
Jer 10:3 for the customs of the peoples are false. A tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
Jer 10:4 Men deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.
Jer 10:5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
Although the passage above doesn’t refer specifically to Christmas trees as Jesus was not even born at the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, and Christmas wasn’t celebrated till much later. Yet the Prophet condemned these pagan practices which seem so similar to the present use of Christmas tress.
Being a prophet, was he also judging a practice that will be carried out centuries later? Food for thought in planning for Christmas 2010.