Q: Does Jeremiah 10:2-4 Describe the First Christmas Tree?
Selected from our Questions and Answers program
A: He's not talking about a Christmas tree or decorating a tree at all! He's talking about making an idol and worshiping it, because that was the besetting sin of the nation of Israel. "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." The heathen never made a Christmas tree. They carved an idol out of the trunk or a limb and they worshiped it. The druids (which were probably some of our ancestors in England) did worship trees, as did those that were in the forests of Germany. Now if you have a Christmas tree and you fall down before it and worship it, I feel you're wrong to worship a tree. But it's fine if you use it just as a decoration as most people do and for the amusement of the children. I thoroughly agree with Jeremiah in condemning idolatry; I absolutely disagree with cults that misinterpret Scripture.
