If someone tells you he knows for a fact that Christmas trees came from some pagan religion, he's lying.
If someone tells you he knows for a fact that Christmas trees were started by Christians with no pagan connections, he's lying too.
Personally, I find it extremely unlikely that the Christmas tree tradition was invented in the 16th century out of whole cloth, but the unfortunate fact is that nobody knows who started it nor why. There is no solid historical evidence on the matter.
Of course, if just a fraction of the resources that go into Christmas were applied to keeping the holidays that we know beyond any doubt that God gave to mankind, the question would become purely academic.
(If someone does manage to find a primary source on the origin of Christmas trees, I'd love to see it! I will happily retract this statement.)
In response to someone on Facebook quoting Michael Heiser as saying that God encouraged the Hebrews to adopt pagan practices, e.g. in using pagan objects like cherubim and rectangular box in the construction of the ark of the covenant:
ReplyDelete"I haven't read the article, so it's possible I'm missing something, but from the bits you pasted here, it seems that Heiser is either making some elementary logical errors or he does not believe in the literal truth of the Scriptures (as in the plain sense of the text, not the hyper-literalism that throws out all common sense and the normal use of human language). Or both.
"God never encouraged the Hebrews to emulate pagan religious practices. Correlation does not equal causation. God commanded them to do some things and create some items in a fashion similar to what pagans did, but not because pagans did it that way. Since God showed (not told) Moses exactly how he wanted the ark to be made, and since he explicitly told the Hebrews *not* to copy pagan religious practices, it seems far more likely that there are other reasons for the similarity.
"Certainly God probably used forms and concepts that the Hebrews were familiar with for practical reasons, especially if there was no inherent religious meaning. He didn't invent whole new ways to make fences and shoes, for example. Likewise with standing stones (covenant pillars, landmarks, etc.). The form was dictated in large part by the function, and there was nothing about them that was specific to any pagan religious ritual.
"Same thing with the Tabernacle, to an extent. Since the Cherubim were images of real, live beings, we shouldn't be surprised that Egyptians and Hebrews depicted them in similar ways. (Of course, we don't actually know how the Hebrews made the Cherubim on the ark, because no contemporary, reliable images of the ark survive.) Likewise, the form of the ark wasn't dictated by Moses, but by a pattern that God showed him in heaven. Maybe Bezalel and Uri exercised some artistic license in the details, IDK, but it was primarily made as God instructed, not as they had learned from Egypt.
"As to intent of the heart... that too is wrong. Our motives certainly matter, but having the right motives is no excuse for disobedience. Remember Nadab and Abihu. They were zealous to worship God, but because they did it in a way that God didn't authorize (he didn't even forbid it!), God killed them. They were priests at the Tabernacle serving in the very presence of God, and we're not, so I don't think we need to worry very much about being struck dead for a misstep in worship, but it does show that God cares about both actions and motives.
"I'm not going to tell anyone they're sinning for putting up a Christmas tree. Since I don't know their origin, that too would be wrong. I don't celebrate Christmas, and I don't encourage anyone else too either, but very few people are consciously adopting any pagan practice with any of their Christmas traditions. They've just inherited some lies like the rest of us."