Friday, December 19, 2008

And before you put up that Christmas tree... (more insight from the "Christian nation")

You might want to give this a little thought:

2 This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations 
or be terrified by signs in the sky, 
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the customs 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.
Jeremiah 10:2-4 (New International Version) [emphasis added]

As recently as 150 years ago, Christmas trees were considered a heathen, pagan practice. In 1851, Pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland, OH was threatened with harm by his own congregation for having set up a Christmas tree in their sanctuary. Of course, you can't sell ugly socks and unneeded plastic toys without a tree to put them under, so commercialism soon pushed aside sanctity and the trees that the Lord forbade snuck into the homes of capitalist "Christians."

The ways of nations indeed.

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