And further…..were Christmas trees mentioned in the Bible? Does it come up somewhere in the writings of Paul where he expounds on the makeup of a New Testament church? How about an even more basic question - are Christians even commanded to celebrate Christ's birth? Go check.... the answer to those questions is no, no and no – and with regards to the last question in particular, we ARE commanded to 'remember his death' but there is no reference to celebrating his birth at all…. and a good definition of a Christian is that he/she is a ‘follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ’ – no more and no less. Therefore if the people who call themselves Christians get all up and excited about Christmas trees ……and Christmas trees have nothing to do with Christianity, are those people really Christians? Or are they off on a tangent – perhaps worshiping a God and religion of their own creation, something perverted and totally outside of what the Bible teaches, perhaps even a cult – one that they even have the nerve to call Christianity? If you think that this is somewhat inflammatory or at least an exaggeration, understand that there is a great deal of evangelical Christianity that feels exactly this way - perhaps not so much today but this was the prevailing view amongst this group not so many decades ago. For these people, the Christmas tree used to be regarded as a symbol of the rather worldly and commercial influence of a group who were intent on perverting the true faith – by introducing elements into it that had nothing to do with Christianity or why Christ came into the world…….Christmas trees are the symbol of something evil! I don’t think that it can be argued that the focus has shifted – attention at this time of year is on the holiday associated with the birth of Christ, shopping, Christmas trees, Santa Clause and gifts………instead of the New Testament focus that Jesus Christ is the son of God, born of a virgin, brought into the world for the sole purpose that he could die and be the perfect sacrifice without blemish for sinful mankind …… and all that recognize their sinful nature, repent and believe on him will be saved from the eternal punishment which is the lake of fire called hell. If you think that the view concerning Christmas trees has not shifted over the years, do a little bit of basic research and talk to some old-timers in some of the more fundamentalist evangelical churches – ask them if their churches would even consider putting up a Christmas tree inside their church walls back in the 1940s, the 1950s and so on……..and why the view was held. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to see a Christmas tree put up even inside an evangelical church – but for these churches, I bet you will find that this is a relatively recent thing…….and so what you have today is the acceptance of something that only a scant few years ago was regarded as absolutely wrong and in the creeping nature of such things, it is now being defended when someone tries to take it away……because it has become a symbol of Christianity.
So what we have in this article is the story of a Christmas tree (sort of a recently accepted symbol of Christianity but having nothing to do with scripture or true Christianity) being taken down by a person of unknown faith who has based the decision on nothing more than a political correctness view of the culture, criticized by Christians (who have who knows what level of grasp of the truth of their faith) …… but out of it all, the strongest argument that it should not have been taken down is coming from a non-Christian......and all the 'Christians' are happy that a non-Christian has taken this initiative. Isn't that about it?
I've been thinking about this issue and have come to the conclusion ....
Christmas trees are the symbol of something evil!