Are you afraid of Christmas trees?
Michael S Kent argues the case for our favourite seasonal decoration
So much ado has been made of the symbols of Christmas that many have lost the meaning and purpose behind the celebration of Christmas itself. No symbol is more maligned than the traditional Christmas tree. Are Christians turning themselves into nothing but heathen idol worshippers by erecting Christmas trees? Does the Bible in fact condemn the practice? Many people both Christian and non-Christian would answer a resounding “Yes” to both these questions, but why? Let us explore their reasoning for this and the origins of the Christmas tree custom and tradition.
The first question we need to ask ourselves is where does the present day Christmas tree originate? Many teachers use symbolism or — as indicated in the Bible — parables to help understand lessons in a simpler way. Although the Christmas tree tradition has evolved and changed, the tradition seems to date back to the eighth century and a monk named Boniface whose charge it was to convert the pagans living in the area that today is Germany. The pagans in that day worshipped and sacrificed to an oak tree known as the Oak of Donar or the Oak of Thor. Through tradition it is said that Boniface cut down the Oak of Thor with one chop and when it landed it shattered into four pieces. The pagans took this as a sign to convert to Christianity. Boniface tried to relate to pagans in a manner that they could understand. He used the fir tree as a symbol because of its triangular shape to indicate the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whether this story is factual or only a tradition, this is the apparent beginning of our current-day use of the Christmas tree.
Does the Bible have any reference restricting the use of Christmas trees? Many people seem to believe so, especially those from non-denominational Christian backgrounds. Most, when making an argument against Christmas trees, point out to what is written in Jeremiah:
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. 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. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jeremiah 10:2–4, Authorised KJV
Reading this on the surface would seem to make a strong argument against the observance and use of Christmas trees. Is Jeremiah telling us that putting up a Christmas tree equates to heathen idol worshippers who fly in the face of the one and only God our Lord? This is the argument that is made, and these are the verses used to argue the point. But as often happens when people use the Bible to try to justify their own tenets, they take verses out of context. Jeremiah completes the point with the following verse which places the others in a different light:
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.
Jeremiah 10:5
Jeremiah is quite clear. The decorated tree is not something to worry about: “Be not afraid of them.” They are inanimate objects: “They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.” They do no harm nor any good, “for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”
What we really need to understand is more about Jeremiah and what he was doing. Jeremiah was a prophet of the southern kingdom of Judah. His prophecies concerned the coming captivity by the kingdom of Babylon. Judah was a nation which had turned away from its God. Babylon was a nation at the peak of its strength and had a great influence over the surrounding nations. Jeremiah was trying to turn a crumbling nation from the creeping influences of an idolatrous nation back to the ways of the one and true God of us all. Although Judah’s problems were many, their primary problem was not what they were doing, but why they were doing it. The Babylonians worshipped many gods in the form of inanimate objects. Jeremiah was trying to turn the people of Judah from this practice; he had a much higher purpose than denouncing the decoration or display of trees. He was telling the people of Judah not to be like the Babylonians who worshipped things, but to come back to the true and only God and worship him. It was not the decorating of trees that was evil, but the reason behind doing so, the worshipping of them as idols.
Are you now thinking, “Should I be putting up a Christmas tree?” That question can only be answered by yourself. The point is not, whether you erect a tree or not. One of the points Jeremiah makes which is lost in all this, is that it’s not what you are doing, but why you are doing it. Jeremiah was telling us not to follow the ways of the Babylonian heathen and give place to an inanimate object, such as a tree, that is deserved by the one true God of us all. I submit to you that if you are telling someone else they should not erect Christmas trees, you are falling into the same trap as the Babylonians: you are saying that the tree has some power over people. You are giving some power to a tree that is deserved by God. Try listening to Jeremiah: “Be not afraid of them.”