Posted on 12/28/2013 5:31:51 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The best part of this jaw-dropping display of ignorance from MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Christianity? It comes in a segment called — wait for it — “Pretenders”! Reid argues that Sarah Palin, whose latest book celebrates Christmas, was a hypocrite and a bad Christian because … she put up a Christmas tree! Why, the noted Biblical scholar Reid smirked, that’s a violation of Scripture:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
JOY REID, SUBSTITUTE HOST: In “Pretenders” tonight, a merry Palin Christmas. Sarah Palin dropped by Fox & Friends to promote her manifesto on Christmas purity. She brought a treat better than Christmas cookies – family photos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN: In Skagway, Alaska, a little gold mining town where my dad was teaching school and coaching basketball, and that’s my older brother and older sister. And then that was on a college break. We were all in college at the same time my siblings and I home for an alumni basketball game in Alaska.
STEVE DOOCY, HOST: That’s really the key, isn’t it, as we look at another picture of the family. There they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Not so fast, Palin. We learned some important lessons on Monday about all the arbor activity in those pictures. I even had to break out the good book, not hers of course.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Certain parts of the Bible also appear to preach against let’s say, I don’t know, Christmas trees. Here’s Jeremiah 10-10, it reads:
“For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scare crow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: Now, a Christmas purist wouldn’t want to stray from the Bible on Christmas, would she? Everyone celebrates Christmas in their own special way. That could mean being tree-side with the family or even profiting off your [cause?] and commercialism. But if Sarah Palin wants us to believe there’s only one true meaning of Christmas, she can keep on pretending. Unlike the segment with Michael Eric Dyson, which was an extemporaneous discussion where the guest said something utterly ignorant, this segment was written and produced ahead of time. It apparently escaped everyone at MSNBC, including Reid, that no one buys a Christmas tree and “shapes it with a chisel” into “idols that cannot speak.” No one is worshiping the tree. And unlike the segment with Dyson, Reid and MSNBC produce the Scripture reading where that distinction is actually explicit and clear, and utterly refutes the argument as Reid is making it in an attempt to cheap-shot Palin … and a lot of other Christians over a Christian holy day.
Did anyone at MSNBC bother to research this particular reference from Jeremiah before calling hundreds of millions of Christians idolaters? Did they even bother to read it for comprehension, or did they just do a search at Bible Gateway for “tree” to fit their preconceived argument? And did no editor at MSNBC have even enough of a passing familiarity with Christianity, the Bible, and Christmas trees to think, “Hey, maybe we’ve got this argument wrong?”
Layers of fact-checkers and editors, indeed.
Quite obviously, Reid and her cohorts at MSNBC like to think of themselves as the smartest people in the room. Unfortunately, as Reid has demonstrated all week, they’re just pretenders.
Note: I linked Noel Sheppard and Newsbusters on this, and be sure to read all of Noel’s post, which is well researched. Maybe MSNBC could learn a lesson from him.
They also said it was Jeremiah 10:10 and it isn’t. Liberals get everything wrong.
Yes but verses 3 & 4 clearly describes the Pagan tradition of putting up a tree and decorating it. This tradition was “Christianized” by the Roman Catholics and the history goes all the way back to Semiramis in Babylon.
After Nimrod’s death Semiramis promoted the belief that he was a god. She claimed that she saw a full-grown evergreen tree spring out of the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new life for Nimrod. On the anniversary of his birth, she said, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts under it. His birthday fell on the winter solstice at the end of December.
A few years later, Semiramis bore a son, Horus or Gilgamesh. She declared that she had been visited by the spirit of Nimrod, who left her pregnant with the boy. Horus, she maintained, was Nimrod reincarnated. With a father, mother, and son deified, a deceptive, perverted trinity was formed.
Semiramis and Horus were worshipped as “Madonna and child.” As the generations passed, they were worshipped under other names in different countries and languages. Many of these are recognizable: Fortuna and Jupiter in Rome; Aphrodite and Adonis in Greece; and Ashtoreth/Astarte and Molech/Baal in Canaan.
During the time between Babel and Christ, pagans developed the belief that the days grew shorter in early winter because their sun-god was leaving them. When they saw the length of the day increasing, they celebrated by riotous, unrestrained feasting and orgies. This celebration, known as Saturnalia, was named after Saturn, another name for Nimrod.
Jeremiah 10
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.
No Steve Doocy is the Fox Doocy. Peter Doocy (also Fox is his son) They were just playing a Fox interview on MSNBC and commenting on it.
No. It doesn't. It speaks of idol worship, not decorations. Nobody carts around a Christmas tree to be worshipped.
Jeremiah 10: 1-5
Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel.
2 This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good.”
We’ll just have to disagree, but I encourage you to do more research.
Have a good evening.
Like I said I only use the King James Version which doesn’t state that. You are using the MSNBC version that does. I think I’ll stick with the King James thank you.
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.
Bye now.
Yes and the Idol is a tree (not a chiseled statue idol of a god) that is decorated with silver and gold and nailed to stay straight.
Again, research on your own what the tree spoken of in this verse represented to the Pagans of Babylon at the time of Jeremiah. I would suggest you start with a Strong’s Concordance to go along with a KJV of the Bible and most of all pray for the Holy Spirit to give you understanding.
Bye
Koiné is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint (the 3rd-century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koiné Greek is also known as "Biblical", "New Testament" or "patristic Greek".[source]
Do you suppose there is any parallel to being able to read God's Word in a form of English that we really do speak now? I do have to wonder whether these "King Jimmy is the only real Bible " characters converse in Elizabethan English to their family, friend, and business associates... That would be the modern day equivalent of speaking Homerian Classical Greek in the market place in 30 AD...
I'm sure Christmas is a joyous time in some of these homes.. But then again, most of the Millerite offshoots (that would be the JW's, and the Armstrongites as examples) don't celebrate Christ's birth anyway. Matter of fact, you will find them knocking on your door and digging up the same Jeremiah proof text as they try to sell you their bill of goods about Christmas. I find that contra-Biblical because the 'wise men' came, acknowledged the new born King, worshiped Him (not the house or manger or anything else)and brought gifts. Those who say that celebrating the birth of the Savior is pagan are... quick I need a good word here... just Biblically dumb..
I would think that they would rejoice that God became flesh and dwelt among us. That surely is a time to celebrate... (or maybe for them, God didn't become flesh - then I can see acting like they were baptized in really bad vinegar.) (That should bring something out of the woodwork. That crowd also tends to mess up the rendering of John 1:1... In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ;-)
Well I agree. However all the Christians I know that have families have a Christmas tree. I can’t see where it is a problem. My problem is that a tv commentator uses the Christmas tree as a silly trumped up excuse to smear Sarah Palin and also denigrates Christians, which of course is an MSNBC silly habit.
According to Billy Graham:
“ We understand your concerns about the use of the Christmas tree. Some have indicated that this practice is wrong because of the words in Jeremiah 10:1-5. These verses, however, do not apply to Christmas trees, but they do condemn the idolatry practiced in Jeremiah’s day. “
http://billygraham.org/answer/does-the-bible-say-that-it-is-wrong-to-have-a-christmas-tree/
Are without joy. They behave like the Pharisees believing that long faces make them "Holy". The Word says "Shout to the Lord!" David danced and sang to God. Celebrating God's gift is a blessing to God. A Christmas tree is nothing more than a decoration. Trying to make it more than that is self-satisfying and rooted in a smug, self-righteous heart.
Again all I can say is the Spirit led me to an understanding of the verse and the pagan practice its referring to; and since then I don’t personally participate in those practices.
I’m not condemning others that do, nor am I defending MSNBC.
Here's a news flash: Alexander Hislop isn't inspired, his writings aren't Scriptural, he wasn't an archaeologist, and he did make stuff up -- like the above -- out of whole cloth. And he didn't have the foggiest clue about who and what the real Semiramis was, did, or "promoted".
Hislop belongs to the category of "cleverly devised myths" that Paul condemns in Scripture.
“Again all I can say is the Spirit led me to an understanding of the verse and the pagan practice its referring to; and since then I don’t personally participate in those practices.””I’m not condemning others that do, nor am I defending MSNBC.”
That’s fine, I appreciate that.
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