Celebrating Christmas

[Watchman]

As I was reading Jerimiah10:3 I had a vision of a Christmas tree.

Jer 10:3 For the customs of the people are vain; for one cuts a tree out of the forest with the axe, the work of the hands of the workman.
Jer 10:4 They adorn it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not wobble.

I have heard various stories that certain practices related to Christmas actually have pagan roots.
The yule log is supposed to represent some pagan god.
Is it possible that most if not all of the modern Christmas practices are actually pagan.
Also the lack of scriptural evidence that the early christians celebrated Christmas.

God bless.

[Watchman]

Celebrating Christmas

The Authority of Scripture gives me the right to question anything that I feel is un-scriptural.

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
Rom 14:5 One person decides that one day is holier than another. Another person decides that all days are the same. Every person must make his own decision.
Rom 14:5 One indeed esteems a day above another day; and another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully assured in his own mind.

The vision was in relation to the 2 scriptures I stated and not the whole passage.
The gold and silver was the tinsel and baubles.


1Jn 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This verse includes what is commonly called ''The Christmas spirit or spirit of Christmas''

Ask any un-saved person what Christmas means and most will reply ''Its about Santa, Father Christmas, materialism,presents, shopping, turkey, family, getting drunk, over-indulgence etc but very few will say its about the birth of Jesus.

While it is an opportunity to preach the Gospel then so is every day an opportuity to preach.

The angels worshipped Jesus and continously do and so should we.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (not error or myths); for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.


The Great Commision is to Go which is now replaced by bring in.

Mat 10:6 But rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Mat 10:7 And as you go, proclaim, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Mar 16:15 And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation.
Mat 9:38 Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send out laborers into His harvest.

Pro 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
70% of what a child learns comes from example. Our example of daily Godly living has more impact on our children and those around us than any seasonal outward profession of obedience.
Chidren learn more by watching than by listening. If we live by double standards then they will mimic it too.

Mat 2:11 And having come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and falling down, they worshipped Him, and opening their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They gave gifts to HIM and not each other.

Do I have to mentiom how commercial Christmas is. While claiming its about Jesus (very rarely) the reality is that its a multi million dollar business.
And sadly the Church has embraced it to some degree or other. You just have to look at the flood of Christian books, Dvd's, CD's on the market now and getting worse every year. How on earth does this represent the love of God. More like the love of mammon.

''we should bring back the pagan holiday which it replaced which is Saturnalia''. Just because we take a pagan holiday(Holy Day) which it means and dress it up and put a new meaning and name tag on it does not change its essence or core.
I can put on a dress and lipstick , I can get all my friends and family to call me Ethel for the next 30 yr's but it will never make me a woman because only the outward has changed. My essence or core is still the same.


The ancient pagans, Druids, Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews celebrated the Winter Solstice, (Dec. 21st), the day of the year that the Sun begins its ascent in the sky, thereby ushering a fertile time of planting and bountiful harvests. Hence, the evergreen tree represented eternal life and the promise of replenishment during the cold winter months. Apples and other fruit were hung upon the tree to represent the plentiful food to come. Candles were lighted to symbolize the warmth and brightness of the sun. While the Christmas tree is generally associated with Christ, it predates this religious figure by many centuries.
Later in history Germans hung wafers on the tree along with the apples to represent the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. In the Victorian era, the apples were replaced by red glass balls and candles and the representation signified both Adam and Eve along with the fire of life. Moreover, the Christmas tree was also used to scare away evil forces for the new year. (Christmas tree. (2009).[1]
After the beginning of the New Year, January 1, the Pagans would take the chopped decorated Christmas tree down and burn the "Yule" log in remembrance of the past year. They would rejoice in song and dance for the goals that have been completed and in jubilation for the coming of the Spring and life. Furthermore, New Year's resolutions were constructed at a later date from the Pagans setting of the goal. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The custom of erecting a Christmas Tree can be historically traced to 16th century Northern Germany and the Baltic region, though neither an inventor nor a single town can be identified as the sole origin for the tradition. According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Tallinn. At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced around it. It remains unclear, however, whether an evergreen tree was used. In 1584, the Estonian chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men “went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame . From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St. Boniface Story
why do we have a decorated Christmas Tree? In the 7th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the Word of God. He did many good works there, and spent much time in Thuringia, an area which was to become the cradle of the Christmas Decoration Industry.
Legend has it that he used the triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the Fir tree as God's Tree, as they had previously revered the Oak. By the 12th century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmastime in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity.

What is the origin of the Christmas tree?

The Christmas tree today is a common custom to most of us. There are many interesting connections to ancient traditions such as Egyptian and Roman customs, early Christian practices, and Victorian nostalgia. However, most scholars point to Germany as being the origin of the Christmas tree.

One of the earliest stories relating back to Germany is about Saint Boniface. In 722, he encountered some pagans who were about to sacrifice a child at the base of a huge oak tree. He cut down the tree to prevent the sacrifice and a Fir tree grew up at the base of the oak. He then told everyone that this lovely evergreen, with its branches pointing to heaven, was a holy tree - the tree of the Christ child, and a symbol of His promise of eternal life.


In the OT when the children of Israel were invovled in the heathen practice of the asherah and going to the high places, God never commanded that these practices should be asimilated or repackaged in to Jewish life but commanded their destruction.

Deu 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Jehovah thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
Jdg 6:25 And it came to pass the same night, that Jehovah said unto him, Take thy father's bullock, even the second bullock seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the Asherah that is by it;
Jdg 6:26 and build an altar unto Jehovah thy God upon the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt-offering with the wood of the Asherah which thou shalt cut down.
1Ki 15:13 And also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.
2Ki 18:4 He removed the high places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
2Ki 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.
2Ki 23:15 And also the altar which was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place; he stamped it to powder, and burned the Asherah.