I would like you to think through the question in the title of this message because I think it will lead us to a place of agreement.
My first question is really, Are you authentic? Do you value authenticity in other people? Honesty, integrity, consistency? I think we’d all agree that we value those characteristics in others, and I think we probably generally think of ourselves as that sort of person. Truth matters even in popular culture such as the phrase “keep it real”. The idea of authenticity is very important in any culture.
What about the things you keep around you, your stuff? Does your stuff somehow communicate a little bit about who you are? The posters that you hang on the wall. The décor that you choose in your home. The souvenirs, perhaps. from your travels. Even the ornaments are somewhat of a commentary on who we are, are they not? They describe a part of our identity.
Do symbols have meaning? Symbols can carry from their historical context, a meaning that we might not necessarily want to ascribe to them. When I was a young boy, one of my favorite TV shows was The Dukes of Hazard. But I don’t drive around with a Confederate flag on the top of my car. Although I grew up in a context where that Confederate flag had no meaning to me as a young man, it’s not something I can attach my own meaning to. To me, it was exploding arrows and fast cars. But it means something completely different to other people. So that symbol has its own context and it has its own history. The objects that we keep around ourselves describe a little bit about us and the symbols of culture can’t be divorced from their history. With that context, let’s talk about Christmas trees.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the Christmas tree was introduced into France and England in the 1840s. Around 1846, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were sketched in The Illustrated London News standing with their children in a very domestic scene with a Christmas tree. It was immediately a fashionable thing to do, putting a Christmas tree in one’s home. Not only in Britain, but also in the eastern parts of America.
That event really birthed the Christmas tree into the modern tradition of hearth and home; the domestic scene that we attach to that Christmas tree. Americans, particularly advertising and media, going into the 20th century really expanded the Christmas tree until it became an institution. It’s an important symbol of that season.
But the Christmas tree goes back much further.
The Catholic Encyclopedia also says the Christmas tree was first definitely mentioned in 1605 at Strasburg. So its root are traced in modern history through Germany. It really arrived in America among German immigrants well before 1846. Probably in the 1600’s and perhaps before.
But when it first arrived, it was rejected by Puritans as being pagan. There was actually a law passed in 1659 in Massachusetts that outlawed any observance of Christmas, except perhaps a church service, and specifically forbade any decorations. The hanging of decorations could actually be fined.
So why would the Pilgrims have been against Christmas decorations? Christmas in England and the colonies was known to be a drunken revel. It was a bawdy party. Actually, New York City’s first professional police force was organized in response to riots surrounding the Christmas holidays. Well into the 1800s almost every American Protestant church discouraged the observance of Christmas.
I think this history is probably well known to most people. There are a lot of newspaper articles that draw that forward. But we would probably find people who would not accept the concept of debauchery as really attached to Christmas. It’s not really what Christmas is about. Any time that sort of thing gets out of hand, it’s an irregularity! Even today, Christmas celebrations could get out of hand, but it’s not fundamentally what Christmas is really about.
But actually it’s exactly what Christmas is all about. Because December 25th is really the ancient solstice festival and it was given the relatively modern Greek and Roman label Saturnalia. It’s an ancient tradition and it’s centrally about sun worship, steeped in fertility rites. It’s a time traditionally to run wild and to turn the social tables.
Evergreen trees have always been a featured symbol of this pagan occult practice. In the winter, the pagans took fear in the idea that the sun god was weakening. You could see the diminishing heat and the diminishing light that surrounded them. So, when they reached the winter solstice, the sun turned that corner and began to strengthen once again, it was a time to celebrate. And evergreen trees were a symbol of this sun god’s magic, his power. So you can go way back and find these evergreen trees as being part of festivals around the December 25th solstice.
Germanic tribes would put fruit and candles on an evergreen tree in honor of their god Woden. The Vikings considered evergreens sacred to their sun God, Balder. Celtic Druids decorated temples with evergreens as a symbol of eternal life. The Romans, who celebrated Saturnalia in late December, decorated trees with shiny metal and idols of Bacchus. They placed candles on the tree in honor of their sun god. The Greeks decorated trees in worship of Adonia. The Egyptians worshipped the sun god Ra. They considered evergreen trees in their climate to be the palm, to symbolize resurrection. They filled their homes with palm branches during the winter solstice.
So again, this is all old news that is well known. It may not be too thoughtfully considered, but it’s certainly known. Everybody knows that Christmas has pagan origins. Who cares?
Well, symbols have meaning and the ornaments that we keep around us describe a little bit about who we are. If we value authenticity, the consistency of behavior and belief should be important to us. So unless we intend to reject the Creator God and worship the sun instead, then we should care. Certainly Jesus Christ does. In John 4, Christ is talking with a Samaritan woman.
The Samaritans were foreigners that moved into Israel after the people of Israel had been taken captive by Assyria in the 8th century B.C. These foreigners that came into the land intermarried with the Israelite remnant. They were a mixed race and they had a mixed religion. They adopted many of the religious customs of the Israelite nation, but they brought with them their prior history, their pagan practices. They worshipped the God of Israel, but blended in pagan practices. On the surface. looking at the Samaritan religion, it can look like Judaism. It appears Jewish to the casual observer, but it’s not the same.
Note what 2 Kings 17 says about the Samaritans: “They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods… “ (2 Kings 17:33). And it is interesting to note the dialogue between the Samaritan woman and Christ: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (John 4:20). it was the Samaritan tradition to worship in mountain temples, not in Jerusalem as the Bible commanded. These temples were referred to as high places in other sections of scripture and they were decorated with idols.
They believed that as long as they recognize the God Yahweh that it should not make any difference where they were. They were sincere in their practice and they observed, in name, the correct God. They believed they were following the example of Abraham and Moses by worshipping on the mountain and they were acknowledging the name of the Creator God.
But they didn’t know what the Word of God instructed. Christ admonished her saying: “You worship what you do not know…” 24 …those who worship [God] must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:22,24). Christ said that the correct worship of God must be authentic. It must be true. Not to be performed according to human devising. So when they mingled in their own ideas and their own concepts in with the correct traditions, they were blinded and they were separated from God.
Traditions are important as Paul said to the Thessalonians. And He also reminded the Colossians that they were to beware lest anyone should cheat them according to the traditions of men and not according to Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:15; Colossians 2:8). So, we are responsible to discern.
Jesus even went so far as to condemn the Pharisees for their mixing of different beliefs. He told them that they leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men (Mark 7:8). He referred to blended religious practices as “vain”. Clearly, from Christ’s perspective, the commandments of God override the customs of human beings.
God summarized His attitude in this regard when He instructed the nation of Israel just before they were to enter the promised land:
“When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way… 32 Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).
So are Christmas trees a problem? They are just pine trees. They have no magical power, as was ascribed to them in ancient pagan times. And like all the other trappings of Christmas, they are appealing, they are attractive, beautiful, and warming. It’s a lovely bunch of decorations.
But we can’t ignore what they stand for if we intend to worship God in spirit and in truth. Christmas trees are tributes to pagan magic and idols that were instituted in ancient times in rebellion against the Creator. That history carries weight. It does matter. If we festoon our homes with the trappings of pagan worship, that is telegraphing who we are and what we value. Even if we do it carelessly without consideration, it demonstrates to God what is in our hearts.
So we are to be authentic followers of Jesus Christ. We need to pick up the Bible, read it, and worship God in spirit and in truth.
Staff