Christmas Tree Or No?

[2bLikeJesus]

Can you believe it will be OctOBer this week?!  With the "Christmas season" only 8 weeks away, I thought I would get opinions on this issue which I have found no two churches have the same opinion on.  At the base of the issue are these verses in the Bible.  

 

Jeremiah 10:2-5 (KJV)
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.
⁵  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. 

 

Sure sounds like a Christmas tree to me.  Though, at least in American culture, no one puts up a Christmas tree as an idol to bow down and worship, and therefore I don't think having one in your home would hurt your testimony with your neighbors.  In fact it might hurt or confuse your neighbors if a Christian doesn't appear to them to be celebrating Christmas.  What are your thoughts on this?  

 

Bro. Garry

In His will.  By His power.  For His glory. 

 

 

[John81]

Those verses are speaking of idols made by men which men then have to adorn to try and make them look like something but even when they have decorated their idol to look like a "proper" false god and have it standing upright, it can still do nothing.

 

As to Christmas trees, in America today they are a generic holiday decoration. Beyond being a traditional holiday decoration, most don't think anything about them at all.

 

There are pagan traditions and Christian traditions attached to the trees and much debate upon which is most accurate, which came first, what it really means and all that. Outside of a handful who really get into searching out such things, a Christmas tree to the vast majority of folks is nothing more than a fun decoration and something to pile presents around, the more the merrier.

 

As far as I can tell, folks are at liberty to have one or not depending upon their conscious.

[Standing Firm In Christ]

Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
Your branches green delight me...

Could be seen as idol worship, imo.

ftr, i don't put them up.

[John81]

Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
Your branches green delight me...

Could be seen as idol worship, imo.

ftr, i don't put them up.

People sing and say the same thing about trees in a forest, mountain ranges and beautiful sunsets. There is much to delight in but outside those who worship nature, most people delight in such in a healthy manner, not worshipful.

[HappyChristian]

We neither hug nor worship our tree at Christmas time.  But we do enjoy decorating the house with it.  We have a 4-foot fiber optic tree.  It's the biggest we can fit in our house. 

 

In the past, we attended a church where the pastor taught against trees and so we did not have one (being on staff, we felt it was respectful of his teachings not to).  However, leaving aside a lot of things I could say about different things he taught bogusly about that time of year, I found out something that kinda made me angry...

 

As I was OBeying instructions to teach my class that trees are wrong to have (something I emphatically disagree that teachers should be doing - it's not the business of teachers or school personnel whether families have trees or not), the pastor's oldest grandson (who was in first grade at the time) spoke up and said that his aunt (the youngest of the pastor's kids who was still at home) had a tree in her bedroom...and I found out he was telling the truth.  Needless to say, we weren't happy about that.

 

If someone strongly believes that they shouldn't have a tree, then they shouldn't have one. But it's wrong to present it as absolutely totally unscriptural.  Because it isn't.

 

This is, as John said, totally a liberty of conscious area.

[Anon]

Romans 14:⁴ Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

⁵ One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

⁶ He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

 

 

This passage clearly teaches that if you think it's wrong to have a Christmas Tree/celebrate Christmas, then that's up to you.  If you do not think it is wrong, and you can still glorify God with it, then that is also up to you.

[2bLikeJesus]

Personally, I have one in my home every year, with loads of presents under it for my kids and grandkids.  Of course since I live in Douglas County , OR where "Douglas Firs" (the most common and most fragrant Christmas tree) gets it's name, we go out and chop our own tree down out of the vast "Christmas tree" forests around here.  That trip into the mountains with ax in hand, is one of the biggest highlights of the season, especially for the grandsons.  Give any boy between the ages of 6 and 16 an ax and tell him to chop down a tree...well you might as well give a girl the keys to the chocolate factory and tell her to have all she wants.  

[Jim_Alaska]

My thoughts on this subject can be found in a sermon I posted in the "sermons and devotionals" section of this message board. here's a link to it:  '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

[Ukulelemike]

I have never agreed that those verses in Jeremiah were about Christmas trees, but as John said, about taking wood and carving it into an idol. I generally don't have a tree because these days its such a large part of the false Christmas traditions-really can't separate them. And I reject all about 'Christmas" such as it is celebrated. If I was to celebrate the birth of Christ, it would be because the Bible gave a clear madate to do so, or at least, as in His death, a date to OBserve it, rather than a date borrowed from various pagan sources. Honestly, I have alwaye believed its possible that, just as Jesus died as the Passover Lamb of God, so He would have been born at the season those lambs were born, in the fall, between September-OctOBer, which would have made the yearling lambs of a good size for eating come Passover. The shepherds being with their flocks in the field at night was usually because they were lambing and kidding, else they would have been locked in the fold.

 

I believe the origins of the tree in the house came from Egypt, where they brought small palm trees and palm fronds into the house during the winter to keep a semblance of life and green during the long cold season of winter. Don't know if they decorated them at all, but they used them AS decoration.

[Genevanpreacher]

My wife and I decided a coupla years after getting married to not have anything 'christmas' in our home, and haven't since then, and will never, just because it is 'Roman' based traditions, and 'protestant' based traditions.

As for the 'christmas tree', we haven't had one for about 24 years.

And it hasn't hurt us or our children one bit. 

Now that is our conviction based upon what we feel we have learned through study of traditions of Baptists, and the scriptures.

There is a lot of whooplah about it, but I would like to say one thing, read Jeremiah 2, but read verse 2 thoroughly.

 

We aren't to 'learn the way of the heathen', and since IMO the catholic church is heathenism itself, and they started the Mass, I wouldn't do anything 'christmas' just based on that alone.

 

Years ago I read in 'The Baptist Challenge' out of Indianapolis, IN, that Baptists never celebrated Christmas, or had trees, till 1900, when the vast majority of 'churches' [all other denominations] brought pressure upon them in society as being unchristian for not.

[Ukulelemike]

The only thigs I will have to do with Christmas, is I make 'christmas card' tracts, that I will give out on the main strip in Reno, and we do enjoy singing the carols, though we try to stick with the more biblical-based ones.

[MountainChristian]

Would this be called an idol?

[John81]

Not according to Catholics! But they are so far gone on so many levels it's a real mess.

[Genevanpreacher]

I believe the origins of the tree in the house came from Egypt, where they brought small palm trees and palm fronds into the house during the winter to keep a semblance of life and green during the long cold season of winter. Don't know if they decorated them at all, but they used them AS decoration.

 

⁵ They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

[weary warrior]

After reading Jeremiah 10:2-5, Alexander Hyslip's "Two Babylons" and Woodrow's "Babylon, Mystery Religion" I pretty well walked away from Christmas, and especially the tree. I have christian family who will have a tree, as do friends of mine who are good Godly men. I go all Romans 14 on the deal and I don't fault them on it, i don't get offended or bent about it, I just don't have one myself.

 

I realize that the little girl who shows up at our door on Halloween dressed like a fairy princess looking for candy is just innocently participating in what is now a traditional family holiday, and she is sure not worshiping Satan. I still won't let my children participate because of it's origins. And I feel the same way about Christmas.